Open doors

This is where I meet old schoolmates (not sure that's really true), 15 years later. Maybe townmates or citymates is a more appropriated term. In any case amazing how time can change memories, perception and more. I witnessed a kind of happiness only palpable because they were doing what they loved to do or enjoyed to do. If you are in the area, be sure to check out their business: Tuscan wine and olive oil.

I spent a rainy afternoon in the painter's atelier turned kitchen/dining area, warmed up by fragrant pasta sauce and green tea, while wine connoisseurs were visiting and making orders for boxes of bottled Tuscan wine. It felt like a flashback voyage, but with a hint of awkwardness. It has been 15 years...Yet it was still comfortable and heartwarming.
Their warm welcome made you want to try the wine they offer, and their increasing business proves they have a fine collection of the liquor. I have only sipped a white wine, but due to my ignorance I am sure I failed to appreciate its quality. However the variety offered made me want to know more about wine.

Be sure to check out Vini Toscani website and their open doors every 2 months.

Landmarks

Friday night we ventured into some pop culture and culinary landmarks of Geneva. First, we had a drink at Central Perks, where tattooed muscular black leather wearing gents are mingling with miss goody shoes, in an atmosphere of wholesome cafe: the menu offers anything from pistachio milkshakes to cuban milkshakes (vanilla, rhum milkshake, yum), as well as overpriced burgers.

Then we tumbled across the road, and had food at the popular and speedy Feuille de Banane. The menu is extensive and the service super fast. And the food really hit the spot and absorbed the rhum...It is a rare venue to eat plenty of good food for under CHF 18 a main dish.

Birthday menu

-Coquilles Saint-Jacques salad (mash, nut, tomato, scallops)
-cheese polenta, brocoli and salmon filet
-raspberry tart, chocolate moelleux, vanilla ice cream
A bottle of white Swiss wine (Chasselas)

Thanks for A. and S. for eating my cooking today.And for the gardening kit !!!

Friday pizza

My first homemade pizza: mozarella, calamar, green beans...

Tartiflettes and Génépi

About 1h30 by bus from Geneva, we got to Annecy, a pretty small clean old city with a pleasant paved old town area and canals that lead to the purestand cleanest lake in Europe: lake Annecy.

The idea of the trip was to window shop and eat. So we wandered about the Sunday market, making a mental note of the different cheese stands and the million types of saucissons. It was quite painful to walk past all the food and not being able to make a decision on what to buy. We were quite reasonable though and didn't even taste a single sample!!

Getting lost along the small streets, we were really looking for a place to sample the local fare: tartiflette. To those unaccustomed to the dish, it is not something you would eat if you were on a diet. Made of potatoes, and usually bacon and cheese (Reblochon) it is quite easy to make. I have made it a few times myself, because trust me, my pants size didn't increase by itself.

1-cook the potatoes and bacon a bit
2-put in a baking pan
3-put the cheese on top
4-cook in the oven until its melted and all gooyey
5-serve hot

We eventually found one restaurant calle the 'Munich' that served tomatoe tartiflette and goat cheese tartiflette. As you may guess, those were just additional ingredients....Imagine eating potaoes and bacon and 500g of melted cheese....feels good and heavy. We had to sit for an additional 30min chatting to digest and be able to move.

About 15minutes alter though, we stumbled on an ice cream shop that had yummy sorbet: I had a scoop of grapefruit and another one of passion fruit. We kept on walking in order to discover more shops, and so I discovered Génépi in one of those tourist trap shop. It was the perfect digestif after 800g of good food.

By 4pm we were by the lake and embarked on a 30min cruise. The weather was nice (about 16C) and no wind, so we sat outside, which was a mistake because once the boat picked up speed, the wind froze my face and the sight of the beautiful autumn leaves became secondary to protecting my eyes and nose from icy winds.

After that less than warm experience, nature blessed us with a beautiful sunset reflected on the white rocks and cliffs surrounding the lake. The setting sun reminded us of the time and so we hurried back in the shopping area for a crepe and cider before heading back to Geneva. We weren't really hungry, but it would have been a crime not to have one.

Annecy will definetely see a bit of me in the future.

Happy birthday dear Daddy

I will eat thinking of you.

Highlights and favourites of my trip to Indonesia

Of course, there are so many things I learned and enjoyed during those 2 weeks. But mainly I am glad I shared those emotions with these fantastic people.



These are the times worth living for.

There were of course a whole adventure for the palate, and I am happy my stomach held everything, thanks for all the good bacterias I have accumulated all my life eating junk food on the streets.


And island hopping is definetely an exciting activity, especially when I get to see so much sun days in a row! But there were more than just beaches in Bali. Temples, crafts, so many luxurious (ahem) plants, the smell of fresh air, sensual tastes,...



I felt I was both at home and lost in the infinite universe. Time didn't stop, time didn't exist. I woke up at peace, and went to sleep content. I tried to take some actions to help the ones around me, trying not to be too much of a spectator, but really, it was also very rewarding just to watch, and feel so much emotions. I am so grateful words, a smile and warm tears are not enough to convey how I feel.




Terima kasih

How to stop biting nails

So the week started slowly, with work giving me more headaches than usual because I am getting sicker and sicker with the flu and can't seem to have any more medication at home. I was very happy to see Mr and Mrs Denmark though , who enjoyed a bit of typical rainy weather in Chinatown.

Hopefully they got home alright and managed to get some rest in their Paddington hotel last weekend.
During their visit, we managed to eat Bengladeshi (of course!), delicious burger and milkshakes at Ed's Diner at Leicester Sq, the good old sandwich at Subway (they're crazy about this), chinese food in Chinatown, and sushi in Little Tokyo (aka Brewer St).

In all that frenzy, I started biting my nails again...after it gre the whole summer..sniff. And no, putting on acrylic fake nails does not help as they are too long and I am unable to use a keyboard with them, or pick my nose, ears and scratch my eyballs. So really...please, show me the will to stoooop...

The alternative so far has been to wear gloves..but I believe I am weird enough at work without it so no need to stand out even more...

Confessions

Saturday lunch: 1 stale croissant from the BBC restaurant, 1 White chocolate bar, plenty of water.

Saturday dinner: 1 grilled chicken salad, 1 huge vanilla milkshake, 1 mojito, 1 non identified brew (just can't remember the name but it had passion fruit and pineaple juice), plenty of water.
Saturday after midnight snack: 1 salmon and cheddar bagel


Sunday breakfast: 1 detox mix (some juice really), 1 pear, plenty of water.

Sunday mid-afternoon brunch: 1 fish and chips, 1 coke, 1 cider, plenty of water.
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Calorie count: LOADS, probably 2 035 078Kcals at least!
Company: top quality
Fun level: high
Sobriety: minimum
Wish list: R rated

A crappy rainy day in good company

This is one of those sundays when time stretches to its limitand gives you a taste of eternity, then suddenly shrinks like an elastic band and reminds you of reality.

A relatively soggy morning, lifted up by the musical percussions from the Bengali tiger parade, followed by an afternoon of lazy strolling in the Spitalfield covered market. We managed to only buy an item, after eating indonesian food (nasi goreng and nasi rendang), and a bit of italian tart with orange blossom flavoured cheese...I am still trying to digest. We finally dragged our wet feet (I had my Wellington rainboots) to the up sunday market, where we had fresh fruit juice (rasberry, apple and pear for some, and pineaple, apple, ginger for me). We also had shrimp tempura, and walked some more to finally end up on Brick Lane for the Bengali food sampling. Except obviously we were not hungry anymore. We shared one fresh coconut though and feasted with our eyes, admiring the booths, the window shops, and even getting into the saree shops. I now have an appointment to learn how to wear a saree, after buying a very bright orange shawalkamize. It so orange it glows in the dark...But it is nice and bright and lifts my spirits:)


The stage set up in the park nearby had a live band playing modern bengali songs, which the stand owners seemed to know by heart. There was a booth for henna, ice cream, more food, loads of Spongebobs and Spiderman and Dora the explorer balloons, and a fun fair as well. The rain and the crowd transformed the once green grassy park into Woodstock grounds.


That star fish friend of Spongebob was definetely spying on us!

I was happy to go home and sit down and have some tea. And while chatting away on comfy sofa, time gently nugdged us into a common time-space universe, and the sun emerged from behind the rainclouds.

Who needs eternity when we can still have both on loan for a short time?

My tasting of Kathmandu

It's been a while since I last was so full I cannot finish a sentence without burping. Now is one of those moments when I cannot go into a supermarket to shop for food because I cannot bear the sight of a single food item. I am so full the sight of food makes me nauseous. ..a rare moment to be fully appreciated:)
The cause of this strange illness? I pigged out on some Nepalese cuisine at the Great Nepalese Restaurant next to Euston station. With Chihiro-san, we had the Nepalese set meal at £13.95 each, and sampled 5 specialties (yes, five!). Nepalese cuisine has a touch of Indian and Chinese food. The Aloo Bodi Tama (Potato, Bamboo Shoot & Bean Curry) was very particular as it is a sour dish as the bamboo shoots are fermented and gives a kick to the curry. It is not very spicy in general , except the saag dish, so all the spices could be tasted beautifully. I like that, because I can enjoy the individual tastes of the cardamom, cloves etc...the dessert and tea at the end just killed us with happiness and sheer near explosion fullness!

It was quite impressive. And I got to hear Chihiro-san speak Nepalese witht he waiters, and learn a bit more on Nepal. Apaarently it is quite a narrow place, North to South, about 250km, but there is a 8000m difference in altitude within that thin strip so you get very different climate from south to north. She mentioned taking a week to go up 2000m from the south, but taking only 2 days walking down! Must be quite a fascinating place with breathtaking sights (and air). Just thinking of all that altitude makes me crash...

I am going to hibernate...

Fish or brain?

Hail the chef

Maybe not.
This evening I decided to get rid of some 2 packets of fish bought from the local market. Those are small entire fish that you usually like to eat deep fried, but I have no deep frying machine and was not about to spend a bottle of oil for some fish that will probably burn, knowing my culinary skills.
I do have some skils but i cannot follow a recipe, no matter how simple it is. I always change it somehow. So Elektra suggested earlier in the week that I do fishcakes. Those are good. But first I had to thaw the fishes...a very weird sight...so many fishes in the pot, staring at me with their dead eye..traumatizing.
So for revenge, I cut all their little heads...and only keep the body, that I mixed with potatoes, an egg, and some tempura mix (I am sure this is not the way to use tempura mix). After all that though, and some seasoning to try to get rid of the fishy taste, it wasn't dry enough to make fishballs or fishcakes, so I put them in a litle ramquin. But because I don't kow how to make the oven work (it's a gaz thing and I don't want to explode in my own kitchen), I decided to microwave them for 4min, then put them in a pot for a bain marie..now it has been boiling in there, steam cooking for about an hour,and it doesn't seem to be cooked yet..

I tasted it a bit and to be honest I won't be able to offer some to my flatmates. It is way too shameful..ahem. Next time i will buy fishfingers like everyone. Mind you, my other flatmate was not used to see real fish...kids these days!She's the one who never cooks as well.....

Ouhhhh Candles!!!

It's been a while since I blew out candles. or maybe I keep forgetting so I forget my age as well. Its a little trick of the mind when I don't want to admit how time flies. I had 6 candles, one for each person around the table, and 4 litle chocolate stars...
You missed all the waitresses and waiters who are singing for the nth time of the night (apparently on a football song's tune). And my corset was holdig fine despite all the food


A woman with a mission!

I hope everyone enjoyed themselves and truly sincerely heartfelt thank you to all of you who were there...and for organizing this memorable day.

For reason of privacy I cannot show the members of the party...but all of them are very special to me.

Thank you thank you!

Happy...happy Christmas and New Year

There are people who cry of joy and happiness, and those who blush and loose their tongue. And everyone should experience both at least once in their life. I did, after my belly filled up with Ikan Bumbu Bali and red wine, and with the warm confort and company of 2 great friends: Hobbes - aka Moo Moo- and Bambi. The light was right, the air got thick, and it was one of those moments that seem so bright in memory.

And so I go on facing the terrible grey fog around me, wrapped in that fuzzy warm feeling that will keep me cheered up for a long time again.

I have no words to convey my contentment. I do hope to spread the feeling around me.

Thank You.

Food diary

This week, I really used my days off to do some culinary travel...to try out the things that people advised me to try..and more.
So here is the verdict.

For lunch I managed to walk to Queensway and try this Shawarma place:
Taza, between Queensway and Bayswater station: excellent shawarma. I had a lamb shawarma take away, as the shop is pretty small and Hyde park was just nearby. I ran to the park, sat on the bench and just ate it all in less than 5 minutes! It's so good, for 3£ only...

Then I took the bus for Oxford Circus to look for dessert...ended up in Piccadily Circus instead and found this Donughts and Sandwiches shop right off the place..oh my goodness, I was eager to get one warm donought...Alas, it turned out to be a disaster. All I wanted was an apple custard filled donut..and it cost me...£1.25....And it was the worst ever donut: hard like cardbox, cold, and so small..I almost cried in the cold.

Food and emotions

On this chilly wednesday morning, I started my daily routine: oatmeal, shower, bus, email checking. But today a slight variation. I was itching from going to the mall...a girl has got to do what she feels like right? So to wait for the bus I hop into Cofee Haven, the nearest coffee shop, because my stomach was asking for food. Hum, that diet is definetely not working. Asked for a small chai and a cookie....
Got back to the bus stop and started sipping on the Chai...maybe because it was chilly and I was not full awake yet, and the prospect of spending money...but oh boy, that Chai hit a spot! The best sweet chai eve in my life...

So on the bus, while savouring the delicious brew(I could get addicted to this), I wondered...Those food tasters, do they taste your food with an empty stomach or after a Mac Donald splurge? heheheh I guess if you own a reputable restaurant, you better hope the critics are not coming with a full stomach...actually u better hope they're coming after a break up or a major setback, or going to shop...

And so today I'm poorer than 4 hours ago, but I had a great Chai and 3 new Cds...