London trip: taste of Christmas

When people go on holiday, some like to engage in cultural activities, some like to visit famous landmarks, but for me, holiday is all about the food. I like to visit museums and historical sites, but with all that sightseeing and walking, I do get hungry and I need to eat.

I always have a great time in London. There are many excitements to see and loads of places to eat. I went with some friends the past weekend and it’s no exception this time, we had a great time. The first night was celebrated at Maze for some cocktails. I had the espresso martini, orange daiquiri and my favourite, mojito. The last time I was in London, the whole place was booked by the casts of Sister Act – the musical, so I was thrilled to be able to go in this time.

Saturday was the day: ‘taste of Christmas’ – food festival. But before we went there, we had breakfast at the Hummingbird Bakery. My friends and I, we all love Hummingbird Bakery. The cupcakes, cakes and pies are all beautiful and scrumptious. I had a cup of cappuccino and a slice of apple pie. Yum!

We arrived at ExCel London for the festival at around lunchtime. There were hundreds of food stands and restaurants in the arena and I imagine this is what heaven would look like. We went from one stand to another, getting all the free samples, beers, champagnes, cheeses, chutneys, chocolates, liquors, spirits, etc. After wandering around, we had to eat, and this is what we had among the four of us (name of dish – name of restaurant):
Dines ham hock with colcannon and parsley sauce – St Pancras Grand

Free-range duck egg with A. Romani Italian truffle – Dolada

Seafood biriyani, white fish, scallops, tiger prawns, squid, cucumber & black pepper raita – Thrishna

Roast Duke of Berkshire pork belly, sweet potato & fenugreek mash with green pepper relish – Modern Pantry

Spiced Hungarian beef goulash with potato dumplings – Baltic

Bentley’s fish pie – Bentley’s Oyster Bar and Grill

Maldon rock oysters - Bentley’s Oyster Bar and Grill

Japanese beef roll with yakitori sauce – Sumosan

Christmas pudding ‘cigar’ with cinnamon sugar and mince pie ice cream – Menu

Beef rendang with rice – Awana

Out all of the dishes I had there, the best was probably wild mushroom fettuccine with black truffle, from L’Anima. I’d happily have that anytime.

The highlight for the day was probably meeting Anthony Worrall Thompson. I like him on TV, but he’s more entertaining in person. I arrived just in time for his book signing session and I also had a photograph taken with him. I attended the ‘taste of France’ workshop with him and he was awesome. He made chicken liver pate brulee, monkfish bourguinon and chocolate rosemary custard. Too bad we weren’t allowed to taste the food because he only made a portion for two, and there were about thirty people in the audience.

Before we left, we had some gelato the famous Italian ice-cream for dessert. I had a scoop of tiramisu and a scoop of hazelnut gelato. The perfect way to end the day.

Oh and, like other holidays, you have to get some souvenirs and I did. I bought a jar of chilli jam that will be great with leftover turkey; a jar of almond pesto; and onion marmalade, perfect for snacking with sharp cheeses or I sometimes like to put it on home-made burgers, just like caramelised onions.

We went around for a little walk at Oxford Street to see the Christmas lights and to burn some of the calories we had throughout the day. We got back to the hotel early with a bucket of KFC (to replace the calories that’s been burned) and we watched the X-Factor semi final (Yes, a little sad but true and I don’t care because I love the show).

The next day, we had Sunday roast at Bumpkin at South Kensington. It’s one of my favourite places to eat in London. The restaurant has this countryside feel and it’s just nice, even though I’m a city boy at heart. I had the Leg of Elwy Valley Welsh lamb, studded with rosemary and garlic, mint sauce, served with red wine gravy, roast potatoes, cauliflower and cheddar cheese sauce, seasonal root vegetables and greens. It was good, as always.

And no London trip is complete without a second stop at Hummingbird Bakery. My friend is a hummingbird bakery addict and she needed to get her supply of cupcakes.

I have had a great weekend away, but I'm glad to be back home. :)

leftovers

I just don’t understand people who throw away leftovers. I love leftovers! Especially at this time of the year. Whenever I invite friends over for supper, I make sure I plan enough to have some leftovers. Let’s say if I have four friends coming, I normally plan the menu for six. I can create a whole different menu just from leftovers. And this new menu will take half of the effort because most of the ingredients are already done. Leftover roast turkey dinner can be transformed into so many delicious treats. I can make my Christmas Panini that is my version of classic Italian grilled sandwich with turkey, stuffing, melting cheese and cranberry sauce. Yum!

Adding sliced smoked salmon, spring onion, egg and flour to some extra mashed potatoes is the ingredients for my potato pancakes; perfect for a light supper with side salad.

And my favourite, leftovers roast beef, which I rarely have; can be made into one of my favourite food, Philly cheese steak sandwich. Slice a soft roll length way, spread with a little butter on both sides, and then lay the sliced steak on one side of the bread. Generously sprinkle some cheddar cheese on the steak and top with the other bread. Wrap the sandwich with foil and put in the hot oven for few minutes until all the cheese has melted. Serve with chips and mustard. Ah... Just writing about it makes me hungry.

I’m going down to London tomorrow for a long weekend to go to a food festival. It’s probably the equivalent of Glastonbury for foodie. Instead of having rock stars on the stage, you have celebrity chefs talking to you. I know, I know, how geeky. I just can’t help it. I’ve planned my day for cooking class, chocolate, wine and champagne workshops. I can’t wait. I’ll tell you all about it later.

And I’ve been informed that I have new readers to the blog for which I’m very grateful. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing about my passion for food, cooking and eating.

Day 94, recipe 42

Season's Eatings

It is a shame that Thanksgiving Day is not celebrated in Britain. I think any celebrations that involve stuffing your mouth with delicious food should be celebrated everywhere. I heard about Thanksgiving Day from TV shows and films but I didn’t experience the whole rituals until when I lived in America. I still remember my first Thanksgiving with my host family. Well, I didn’t remember much what we did on the day, but I remember all the food we had; traditional bread stuffing with onion, celery, sage, sourdough bread, sausage meat and lots of butter; creamy mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and of course, it is not thanksgiving unless you have a beautiful and golden roast turkey on the table. And for dessert, a generous slice of warm pumpkin pie and a big dollop of whipped cream. You just eat and eat and get ready for the Black Friday sale the next day.

This year is the fourth year I host Thanksgiving dinner since I moved to the UK. I invited some friends over yesterday (normal Thanksgiving dinner falls on the last Thursday in November, but due to some scheduling reasons, I had mine on the Sunday). I made Jamie’s the best whole roast turkey, Christmas or any time which was delicious. One of the biggest challenges when cooking a turkey is the legs and thighs take longer than the breasts. The breasts tend to dry out in the oven while you’re waiting for the legs to cook. Jamie’s solution to this is by pushing an amount of stuffing between the turkey’s skin and breasts to increase the thickness of the breasts so they take the same time to cook as the legs. The result? Juicy turkey all round!

The stuffing is made with sausage meat, lemon zest, sage, red onions and celery. Yum! I had some extra and I made them into stuffed mushrooms which again, Yum!

I also made my traditional bread stuffing because it is my favourite dish at Thanksgiving dinner. Side dish wise, I made some boiled new potatoes with lemon, butter and parsley and maple glazed carrots. The cranberry sauce is store bought, and there is nothing wrong with that. I know making cranberry sauce takes hardly any work, but if I can save some time, I don’t mind it being the cranberry sauce. For dessert, I didn’t make the traditional pumpkin pie this year. Instead I made Nigella Lawson’s quadruple chocolate loaf cake. It is quadruple because there are four different elements of chocolate in the cake in the forms of coco powder, dark chocolate chips, chocolate syrup that glazed the cake and chocolate shaving on top.

An evening with great food and great company, what more can you ask.

I never celebrated Thanksgiving the way it was intended to be, a symbol of co-operation and interaction between the English colonists and Native Americans. To be honest, I don’t know anybody who does today, even in America. For me, Thanksgiving Day is kind of like a declaration and opening ceremony that Season's Eatings starts here. It is now the time for indulgence, for sharing wonderful food with family and friends.

food for thought

I constantly think about food and I cannot wait until my next meal.
It's Thursday evening and I cannot wait for Sunday's Thanksgiving dinner (I know Thanksgiving Day is today, but I didn't get off from work until 8 pm on Thursday; I'm still working on Friday; my friends can't make Saturday; so I'm gonna have it on Sunday instead). I cannot wait!

I cooked my first duck last week and oh I love duck... The duck was roasted for 2 hours until crispy and then shredded and made into gorgeous slow-cooked duck pasta. Man, it was so good.

For lunch today, I made roasted chicken breast with creamy butternut squash and chilli. It was delicious. I added a little parmesan cheese to the squash. It wasn't part of the recipe, but I couldn't helped it.

My friends asked me with all of these food, why aren't you fat? Well, I was once 'bigger' but I now believe in balance. I know that I love to eat and therefore I need to exercise. I go to the gym, two or three times a week and do my time. Plus, since I started this project few weeks ago, I have used four, 2L bottles of olive oil, and exercise is definitely needed for this project to continue. I know Jamie loves his olive oil and the occasional butter (and I do too) and he drizzles olive oil on everything; and I seem to picked up the habit. Olive oil, especially the extra virgin kind suppose to be the greatest exponent of monounsaturated fat with higher levels of antioxidants and vitamin E. In other words, it's good for us. But at the end of the day, oil = fat and fat = flavours = YUM! I am conscious about health but I'm not prepared to skimp on anything, because I want to enjoy my food.

I heard about this 'good' food and 'bad' food thing: are pasties good or bad? what about salt? is whole wheat better? is margarine better than butter? I'm not a nutritionist, but what I do know, every thing is good in moderation.

Anyway, I'm gonna stop here and go to bed. I don't wanna be late for breakfast.

day 87, recipe 38

Weekend feast

Today I made ultimate rib of beef with rosemary and garlic roast potatoes. I love it. love it. love it. This is my kind of meal: meat and potatoes. The meat was marinated with lemon zest, rosemary, garlic and olive oil and then cooked to medium-rare which is my favourite and it was beautiful. To accompany the meal, I also made the best whole baked carrots. At first I wasn't sure about this whole baked carrots thing because I normally like my carrots crunchy, but you've got to try it and it is now officially my favourite way to eat carrots.

For desserts, I made the best shortbread in the world. I was feeling a little adventurous and I added some orange zest to the dough. It was fairly easy to make and I love the crumbly and buttery textures of the shortbread. When a recipe calls for a whole block of butter, you just know that it's got to be good.

Today is day 68, recipe 29 and... I'm feeling good.