No Smoking
July 1, 2007
Nadia and I went to the Northgate, on the corner Northchurch road and Southgate road, to celebrate the smoking ban finally kicking in across England. It is not a moment too soon, and we’ve been looking forward to it for ages.
Nadia had roast whole plaice with baby vegetables and champagne sauce, while I went for halibut with lentils and green beans. Nadia found the plaice a bit bland and undercooked, while I really enjoyed the halibut. It was dry in places and juicy in others, but very tasty all the way through.
For dessert Nadia had chocolate grand marnier truffles with vanilla cream, while I had vanilla panacotta with a berry compote. We ended up eating about half of each other’s, and we found that the dishes were a fantastic mix.
One downside was that they’ve stopped doing Peetermans, but this was compensated a bit by me finding out that they had both Früli and Kriek—albeit bottled.
The Orient Express
June 21, 2007
Today Nadia and I took her parents on a day-trip to Folkstone on the Orient Express. We left Victoria at about 11:30 and had a delicious three course lunch on the way down. The main course, in particular, was fantastic.
The train in itself was an experience. It consisted exclusively of British Pullman carriages; ours was the Ibis, built in 1925. We had our own compartment, and people in white uniforms falling over themselves to make sure we had a comfortable journey.
Even the toilet was spacious, and came complete with a huge marble sink and naked lady mosaic flooring. I also liked that it had honest-to-god coat-hangers so you could hang your coat up properly whilst riding the porcelain bus. None of those pert knobs on the wall that leaves your jacket a funny shape afterwards. Oh, no.
As we arrived at Folkstone Harbour Band a four-piece band started playing 1920’s music. Well, it sounded like 1920’s music to me, at least. They were jolly, and pretty good, and added a great atmosphere.
We were taken by bus up to Grand and Metropole hotels, where we spent a good 80 minutes stretching our legs trotting around the grounds and lounging in the bar. Nadia and I also had a good laugh at a Japanese woman with one of the weirdest head-garments I’ve ever seen. It looked like she’d super-glued half a surf-board to her forehead. It was hilarious. I wish I managed to get a picture of it, but I was laughing too hard.
We left an hour late from Folkstone, but the driver managed to rein in about three quarters of that, making our homeward trip a little bouncier than I’d liked. It meant that if we filled our tea-cups more than one third up, they would spill if we didn’t hold on to them all the time. Other than that, the sandwiches, scones, clotted cream, jam, and cakes were all wonderful.
Rice instruction craziness
January 2, 2007
I’m visiting parents over Christmas. They’ve started working already so I’m heating dinner and cooking rice. I’m used to having a rice cooker do that last job for me, so I glanced at the instructions at the back. Despite Norwegian, Danish and Swedish being mutually intelligible, particularly so in the written form, there are instructions in all three languages.
I do not mind that, particularly, except that they are all different. The Swedish instructions lists a different amount of water than the other two, and the Danish lists different cooking times. I’m confident that all three recipes produce edible rice, but is a bit of consistency too much to ask?
Late night baking
April 11, 2006
Just arrived home and realised I have no bread for breakfast tomorrow. “Not to worry!” I thought, I’ll just bake one. So now I’ve filled my breadbaker with ingredients and am looking forward to fresh bread tomorrow. I improvised a bit; the recipe was for a simple wholewheat loaf but I ended up with a black olives & sundried tomato wholewheat & oats loaf. I’m sure it’ll be great.
Update: (7:25) It seemed a good idea at the time; I wasn’t quite so enthusiastic about the idea this morning. It turned out OK though, if a bit heavy and slightly salty. I must mix a bit of white flour in with the wholewheat next time, and skip some of the salt if I’m adding salty olives to the mix.
Perpetual mid-season
April 2, 2006
Sainsbury’s were out of their nice orange juice so we had to buy Tropicana instead. Eating breakfast and reading the back of the carton I found this:
So every day a mile long Tropicana train travels over a thousand miles from lush, green groves to New York laden with just-squeezed juice. Naturally pure, and squeezed from only the choicest oranges, each one handpicked at its mid-season best.
How curious. That is either a very liberal use of the word “just” or those green groves have remarkably short pre and post seasons.
Fresh bread
March 30, 2006
I bought a breadbaker on Saturday and am now reaping the rewards: warm, freshly baked bread (with almost no effort on my part!) for breakfast. I baked a plain white bread after a recipe that came with the breadbaker. The crumb is nice and soft and the crust is golden and deliciously crispy. It tastes lovely with strawberry conserve.
Excellent Cheese
March 4, 2006
I’ve recently tried two varieties of Chaumes from Marks & Spencer. It’s a very nice and creamy soft cheese with an orange, edible rind. Absolutely gorgeous.
Blogged so I don’t forget.
Ham gratin
February 25, 2006
This was one of my favourite dishes growing up. Still is. Thanks mom. Feeds 4-5 people according to memory (I just found the recipe written down on a piece of paper).
- 4-5 diningspoons margarine
- 4-5 diningspoons wheat flour
- 1 litre milk
- 4 portions of cooked macaroni
- 1-2 tin ham, chopped
- 4 eggs
- breadcrumbs
Make a thick sauce using the margarine, wheat flour and milk. Mix in the cooked macaroni and chopped ham. Add the egg yolks. Whisk the eggwhites until stiff, then carefully fold them into the mix. Butter a large fireproof dish and pour everything in. Finish off with a layer of breadcrumbs. Cook at the bottom of the oven at 200 degrees C for about 45 minutes. Enjoy.
Maryland cookies
February 25, 2006
I just found this recipe in a letter from my mom and put it online so I can find it again. Mom makes these for Christmas. The recipe makes 100-110 cookies.
- 200g margarine/butter
- 150g sugar
- 150g brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 275g wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 50g chopped almonds
- 100g chopped cooking chocolate
Stir butter and sugar well. Add eggs, sift in flour and baking powder, then stir in the almonds and chocolate. Use a teaspoon to portion onto baking paper. Oven cook until light brown (10-12 minutes) at 200 degrees C.
Halibut dish
February 21, 2006
I had some Halibut that I needed to use, so I thought I’d try mom’s fish dish again, but trade the cod for halibut. Unfortunately I had none of the other ingredients, so I had to improvise again. This time I used:
- 1 medium-sized onion
- 2 small courgettes
- 1/2 red pepper
- 6 pieces of frozen spinnach
- 220g halibut fillets
- 3 dollops of extra thick double cream
I put a little olive oil at the bottom of a clay pot, added the chopped onion, then added a layer of diced halibut fillet. A layer of sliced courgettes and pepper followed before another layer of fish. Then came yet a layer of courgettes and the frozen spinnach, followed lastly by a generous helping of cream.
Put the lid on, then cook on low heat for about 40 minutes. Done. This one was even better than the last; I think the onion and the courgettes really lifted it.
