Eat and Tweat

Ponderings on My Final Day

2010-11-13T13:57:00.000-08:00

Well it's almost over.

My bags are packed and tomorrow morning I board my plane for Sydney (it was going to be an A380...not anymore!!!).

WOW. Eight months and three days of travelling. Finished. WOW again.

My head has been reeling for the past month about heading home, I'm soooooooo busting to see my Man, my kids and all my family and friends, I'm busting to have my kitchen and even to get a bit of a routine going - imagine that!

I'm scared about reality biting - how do you go back to a normal life after all this excitement, learning, fun, connection, new people and places, daily challenges!!!??? Fortunately, I've had a bit of experience at it - having lived in Brazil for a year, twice - and I'm hoping that will help me out as I settle back into normality again.

Of course one never comes back the same person. This is one of the many beauties of travelling - you can't help but learn and change when you're out there in the big exciting world. And I've been thinking about exactly this over the last month, and indeed this evening, as I sit here on my sister's couch in London blogging one of my final posts.

Am I different from when I left Oz 8 months ago? My biggest fear is that I'm not, that I will go back home and just continue as I was. I want to have changed...but have I? Am I still the same, or am I different? And if I'm different, how am I different? (Yep, some people say I think too much)!

This is what I've come up with so far.

Fundamentally, I'm still the same - same old Supergal.

But.

But, there's a little more depth. I feel grown up for the first time ever, which is sorta odd, but that's the feeling I have. I'm not so scared any more, I mean, I've managed on my own travelling around the world for 8 months, with no plan, two weeks accommodation booked, and virtually no travel research - and look at the AMAZING trip I've had. OMG, AMAZING TRIP. If I can do that, well I think I can pretty much do anything. And these are great things to have as you get older...experience and confidence.

I have also gained perspective. I've not spent this much time travelling around so many different places in one trip, it's been an amazing opportunity to observe different countries and cultures on the three continents I've explored, from Easter Island, Chile and Brazil, the Bahamas, Alaska and the Lower 48, through to Europe, the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia and a few of the Baltic countries - that's a lot of diversity, a lot of interesting people and places, and a lot of connections. And I've found it fascinating to fit my life in Australia into the big puzzle that is this world - to see where my place is in the big scheme of things. I'm still pondering that one, and suspect I will be for quite some time ahead. But I do realise that I'm not the centre of the universe (as previously thought), I'm just one very small, but important, part of it, as we all are. And I really like that.

Another important finding in this great journey of mine is that the world is a great place. An exciting, thrilling, wonderful, challenging, quirky, funny place. And even better than that, that most human beings are just bloody marvellous. The interest, kindness, warmth, generosity and love I've been shown as I've travelled has just blown me away - and virtually all of it from complete strangers (to start with!). My belief that people are fundamentally good has been absolutely confirmed over and over and over again. This is probably the finding that makes me most happy.

Now I think I'm raving...I'll leave it at that for the time being.

I suspect there will be a few more posts with similar philosophical ravings, just to complete my journey. Feel free to read, or not, as it suits.

If you decide not to read any more, let me just say thank you. Thank you to you if you are reading, or have read any of my posts. I can't believe how much I've enjoyed writing this blog, it's my first ever blog, or even travel journal really - and now I have the most incredible memento forever. So, thank you Sportfans, it's been a pleasure.

I'll leave you with an explanation of the pics above. Of course there's me pondering what lies ahead, then bags packed and ready to go for tomorrow - the big one I bought a couple of days ago to hold pressies to take home, and the smaller grey one is my trusty wheely duffel who has been with me all over the world - what a bloody ripper of a bag. The rest of the pics show how I spent my final day, on Girls Day with my beautiful sis, Chanel, and of course my gorgeous niece Tickly Pickly - shopping and cake. What a perfect ending.

Sweden Again - Farewell Dinner

2010-11-12T12:55:00.000-08:00

After Latvia, it was back for a few days with my wonderfully fantastic, amazingly brilliant new Swedish buddies, and fellow foodies, Tuna Man (TM) and Tuna Man's Wife (TMW) (the first pic there was my welcome home dinner...Wild Mushroom Pie - DEAR LORD!).

What can I say about this couple? These are the people that introduced me to amazing things like Havrebollar, Langos, Thursday Pea Soup Night, and who could ever forget The Flying Jacob (see Swedish posts for all these wonderful and wacky dishes)!?! These are the crazy crazy critters who started my love of creme fraiche/sour cream with fish roe and diced red onion served with pretty much anything! These are the wackadoodles who took me on my first ever mushroom hunt and taught me to cook Chanterelles on toast (with loads of butter and white pepper)....mmmmmmm.

So, what does this couple do for me on my final night in Stockholm, a Friday night by the way...they make me another special Friday night dinner...Stuffed Sausage. Oh yeah baby. I watched every step of the way, and documented it for you.

TMW started with a big big sausage - it's cheap and sorta like a giant frankfurt without the skin. She makes professional incisions on the top, then fills each cut, alternatively, with a piece of sliced onion, tomato, and apple. Yes apple. Then she delicately pours on mild mustard, spicy mustard, and ketchup, then tops it off with chopped gherkin! After this mess of sauces, she then gently places thin slices of cheese and sprinkles parmesan on the top. WOW. Who could have ever thought up such a dish! This all then gets wacked in the oven for a good roasting. Et voila!

You can see it above in all its glory. What a thing of beauty. And the taste????

UNREAL BANANA PEEL!!!! The best food any aussie gal could want on her farewell Sweden dinner. It was soooooooooooooooo yum...I bloody loved it. I think I went for 3 servings (all with some of that velvety perfect mash)...it really was that good! All those crazy flavours came together in a chorus of intense harmony (too much?????). Sigh. Magnificent.

So, to my very special friends, TMW and TM (and to Tuna Baby, who is baking away there inside TMW) I say the humblest of thank yous. Thank you for your warmth, generosity, laughter, Swedish Idol commentary, and of course the most wonderful food.

I miss you already.

Latvia 2 - The Good Stuff

2010-11-11T06:10:00.000-08:00

This one's for you Lilymagnolia - so you can look at something prettier than pigs in trolleys, and to say thank you for being such a big supporter. Thank you.

Now we get to the good stuff!!!

Oh yes, yummmmmm Latvian food.

I was inducted into Latvian culture on my first evening - of course I had to get out and about after my 4 hour busdrive - so after a light dinner of sushi (yes, I'm embarrassed to say I had Japanese in Latvia, but I was just so desperate for something light), I ran into this place called Black Magic.

Black Magic is on the main drag of the Old Town and sells the famous Latvian elixir, Balzam. Balzam is a locally made bitters brew made with 24 herbs and results in an incredibly potent drink of 45% alcohol! Black Magic is a Balzam bar, selling straight shots, cocktails (you can see mine there in pic 1), and even chocolates and patisserie made from this lethal brew. My cocktail was made with espresso, Balzam, Coffee Liqueur and a whole heap of fresh whipped cream on top...I was a little frightened.

I am proud to report I drank two thirds of it, and I kinda liked it. It was kooky. The Balzam actually leaves a woody, earthy, herby after taste which I found I quite liked. Interesting stuff this Balzam, and only made here in Latvia.

Next on the list was, of course, the Central Market. Now, it has been said to me that Riga actually has the largest undercover food market in Europe. I went to check it out. Oh my goodness - it's HUGE. And not only inside, but outside as well. The market centres around 5 ex-Airship (Zeppelin) hangars from the war - they were moved here specifically to house the market - which are HUGE!!!! You can buy fruit, lollies, cheese, pastries, any type of fish or meat product, many of which I'd never seen before - one involving lots and lots of little fish packed tightly together in an a pickled aspic jelly type thing...hmmmmm. Outside at the other stalls you can get everything from more fruit, to fur collars, garden rakes, very thick and ugly nylon pantyhose and a myriad of gloves, beanies, and scarves, and of course the beautiful little flower posies of the flower stalls. It is a must see (just be careful there, I was warned by more than one person of the problem with petty theft here).

And of course during my 5 days in Riga, I ate at a couple of local restaurants to get the lay of the land on the local stuff.

I found a great place in the Old Town called Province. It's tucked away near the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia (of course I spent 4 hours at the museum), and is well worth a visit. I had been told to try the traditional Latvian dinner of Latvian Black Peas and Ham (pic above) and Bread Soup for dessert (pic also above).

I'd never eaten Black Peas before. They smelt fantastic as my waiter put them down in front of me...soooooooo smokey and delicious. And the taste? Well they sorta tasted how they look - very al dente (read: a bit hard), a bit chic pea-like with that wonderful smokey bacon flavour. I felt very wholesome and virtuous as I tucked into my bowl of food...but the stuff is filling, and after about half way through I had eaten my fill of Latvian Black Beans and Ham.

Now it was dessert time...the guy puts down my Bread Soup in front of me...doesn't look that great, right? Well. IT WAS AMAZING. Oh my goodness, what a wonderful wonderful surprise. It's a chilled soup made from ground black bread, but has dried fruit and a fair wack of alcohol added - it tasted like a fine grained soup of mince pies but fresher - there were fresh nuts and whipped cream, and a lovely berry coulis on top...oh my goodness, I could have swum in it. REALLY REALLY REALLY GOOD.

I went back to this same restaurant the next day for breakfast. I had seen Curd Fritters on the menu and had to have a go. That's the pic under the Bread Soup, above. These were also something very special. Sort of like a dense ricotta pancake, again with marinated dried fruit in the batter, and served with creme fraiche (or a light sour cream, I couldn't work out which exactly). SOOOOOO delicious.

My last local tip for you has a more modern bent. It's called Lido. I believe there are a few of these around town, but this one was almost right next to my hotel. Every time I passed it was packed. When I asked about local restaurants at Reception, they immediately sent me to Lido. I ate there on my second night, and every night until I left. It was fantastic. It's set up like a cafeteria, but with local food (ok, and a lot of Russian food too), and you pay for every little thing you choose. See the sour cream and dill on my Meat Pancakes? The sour cream costs, and the dill costs...every little thing costs! And still, for me it was a bloody cheap meal. I think I paid about AUS$6 for the whole tray of food - that's the yum soup, called Solyanka (a wonderful salty soup made from veges, tomatoes, and salty bacon), the salad (the most expensive thing on the plate), the Meat Pancake with dill and sour cream, and of course the Cranberry Juice (btw fresh cranberries are everywhere around this neck of the world). And it tasted FANTASTIC.

See those French Fry thingies next to the Meat Pancake in the pic??? OH MY GOD. Readers will know what a fetish I have for hand cut chips...well these are the BEST, yes THE BEST, in the whole wide world. I had them the following night with my Stuffed Cabbage Roll, and the night after that with my divine Beef and Gravy (the chips were smothered in the gravy)...oh my goodness, I even dreamt about them that night (now that's just sick)!!!

So, sportsfans, there you have it. It must be mentioned I found the staff at all these places (except Black Magic) quite surly and unresponsive on the surface, yet the guy at Lido cracked a small smile and said "you were here last night" on my third evening. And I even got a smile from the Province guy on my second visit - YAY!

Five days in Latvia wasn't enough. I need more time to get into the place, eat more of its good food, and try and connect with the people.

I will be back.

Latvia 1 - Riga

2010-11-11T04:22:00.000-08:00

I'm not quite sure what to say about Riga.

You can see my pics above, from the bus I took from Tallinn to Latvia's capital, Riga, to the beautiful Art Nouveau architecture of Latvia and the pretty parks, all the way through to the imposing cathedrals and quaintness of the Old Town.

Yet, I didn't connect with the city or the people. I don't know if it was the space I was in (only a couple of weeks before heading back to Oz), or if the freezing cold days were finally getting to me...I'm just not sure.

I don't like to say it, but I found Riga to be grey. The light seemed grey, my pics even seem a bit grey, and the funny thing was that I saw more sun here than I did in Tallinn.

I suppose you can't help compare the two cities. They are both Baltic countries, with almost identical histories, they both have their beautiful Old Towns, and they both are intensely proud of their language and culture. Yet, Riga didn't seem to have the life or joy I found in Tallinn. After some discussions with a few locals, it's a tough life in Latvia at the moment, and I suspect that was some of what I was feeling.

Riga is a pretty place, and the locals helped whenever I asked for it, yet I had that sense of grey with me from the moment I arrived to the moment I left. I'm really glad I went, and honestly, I'd like to visit again in their Summer and see some of their country, which is supposed to be just beautiful. I feel like I need to come back and give it another go.

And that's what I have to say about Riga. Oh, but of course there's a whole other discussion about food....

Estonia 2 - Pigs in Trolleys & Lust!

2010-11-03T02:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, that first pic is what I saw as I was trawling through the market in Tallinn. It totally cracked me up. I had to be careful, though, I realised after about my third photo, that the locals weren't so happy about having their and their stalls' picture taken. They looked very suspiciously at me.

This market wasn't on any of the tourist info, I stumbled on it by accident during my hour wait for my train to Nomme. You'll find this place, which actually has no official name, right next to the Tallinn train station, just across the tracks...I simply followed old, old women with their shopping bags, and found it. It's a market of all sorts, from fruit and veg, meat, pickles, old Soviet paraphernalia, and you can even get your headstone here! It is definitely worth a look, and hardly any tourists are found (which is always a bonus!).

As for the rest of Estonian food, well, it's a bit wacky. My experience is that they do wonderful pastry, which you can see from the pics above, there's the local specialty, Plaadikook, which I ate at a cute place called Chocolats de Pierre tucked away in a side alley in the Old City (pics 8 & 9). This cake is divine...it's essentially made from curd cheese and jam (whichever jam is in season) and has nuts sprinkled on top...it is HEAVENLY stuff, especially on a cold afternoon with hot chocolate!

Other pastries you see there are a simple cake and of course the Tallinn "berliner" (German word for donut) which I had at the beautiful cafe at Kardriorg Park (pic 12 & 13). Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. The old cafes are quaint and romantic, and the coffee's not bad either.

I was also fortunate to have a little social gathering in the Tallinn version of the medieval restaurant, Olde Hansa, which is in the Old City, and like the one I ate at in Stockholm, only serves food from ingredients, recipes, and techniques of medieval times. I went with some of the people on our city tour. After a warming Hot Welcome Drink, that pretty much had me plastered in a few minutes, it was a hearty serving of sublime Wild Mushroom Soup...oh myyyyyyyy...followed by the even more amazing Rose Pudding (second last pic). That pudding was heaven. It was like a thick creamy cheesy yoghurt with an intense rose flavour...it's like nothing I've ever had before. I was intoxicated by it all...so romantic and gutsy and well...lusty is the word!

I'm not sure they have a great grip on modern dining just yet though. I saw some taste-bud turning dishes on menus, and my experience at a very smart restaurant in the Rotermann Quarter felt almost schizophrenic - the restaurant didn't seem to know if it was French, Italian, Swedish, or even Estonian, the menu was all over the place, and the food was well...confusing! I had the most wonderful Carpaccio, that was so perfect in the silkiness of the thinly sliced raw beef and the beautiful Grana Padano shaved on top... unfortunately, it was the crunchy chunks of rock salt thrown all over it that didn't really work for me! This confusion seemed to be reflected in other menus I looked at. Having said that, my biggest surprise was the Pickled Beetroot Salad I had for dinner late one night at my hotel - oh my goodness...I couldn't believe they pulled that out of the hat - wonderfully thin slices of pickled beetroot with creamy goats cheese, wild mushrooms and crispy lettuce...a thing of beauty! I honestly didn't expect it to be good, so I didn't even have my camera on me - that'll teach me to make assumptions!

But, when it's all said and done, sportsfans, I only scratched the surface with the food...when I go back, I think Tallinn deserves a lot more time spent exploring the wacky and lusty gourmet wonders of this beautiful city.

Estonia 1 - The Brave & The Beautiful

2010-11-02T09:36:00.000-07:00

I knew nothing about Estonia when I left from Helsinki for the hour and a half catamaran ride to Tallinn, Capital of Estonia. All I knew was that it must have been unimaginable hell during the Soviet years knowing that freedom was only a few hours away by boat.

Five days in Estonia taught me more than just the tragic history of this small and beautiful Balkan country, it taught me just how incredibly tough, resilient and unthinkably brave people can be. I was enchanted by Tallinn after just a few hours, and by the time I left I had cried my heart out for a people and a country that was abused over and over, and still survived.

Estonia, after being invaded by pretty much everybody over centuries, finally gained their independence from Soviet Russia in 1991. I won't delve into history now...check it out for yourself, suffice it to say their story is so dark, yet so inspiring, I was moved beyond words during my short stay here.

I was also moved by the beauty of Tallinn. The Old City is as quaint as you can imagine, most of it remained intact from the wars, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Sight. You can see above, just how romantic it is.

One of the other great things I discovered about Tallinn, though, is that it's more than just the Old City. Tallinn is a modern city, having gone through an incredible construction boom post-Independence. I decided to stay in the modern part of the city, in the Rotermann Quarter (pic 3) which is also just by the Old City Gates (pic 9 & 10), in a wacky modern hotel, The Nordic Hotel Forum (view from my room window pic 2), which I think was the perfect location for me. I had access to the whole city, either by foot, train, tram or bus. And the wonderfully quirky Rotermann shopping area was just behind - don't miss the fabulous Loovala, which is a series of art studios and workshops all joined together on one big floor, where local artist work and sell their wares. I had a wonderful chat with a local spinner and knitter. Fabulous.

Tallinn is a city to explore, so I got out and about. I visited the rock of Estonian culture, The Song Festival Grounds (pic 11), which has been holding Estonian folk song festivals as well as concerts and cultural events since 1928. It has a very special place in the heart of Estonians, this was the only place, during their many occupations, that they could express their nationalism as Estonians. It was also the vehicle for Estonians to "gather" (read: protest) moving into the late 80s when the hint of freedom was in the air. It is a very special place.

I also trekked out to Nomme on the train to see the beautiful old wooden houses of times gone by. These houses are hundreds of years old, and Nomme is a suburb with some of the best preserved houses. I wandered the romantic streets for a couple of hours, in the drizzle, imagining times gone by. Oh and by the way, if you decide to take the train, just a note, some of the doors don't open, so check out which ones do before your stop arrives - otherwise it's an embarrassing sprint to the other end of the carriage!

I also spent a whole day in Kadriorg Park. It's only a 20 minute walk from town. This beautiful park was built by Tsar Peter I in the 18th Century for his empress, Catherine. He built her a small cottage first (pic 15 & 16), then a huge Palace, Kadriorg Palace, which now houses the foreign art branch of the Art Museum of Estonia. The Park also houses the current Presidential Palace (pic 14), and another branch of the Art Museum of Estonia, Kumu.

Kumu Art Museum (pic 17, 18,19) was quite something. I have already confessed that I am a total cultural ignoramus, yet I managed to spend 4 hours wandering around this museum. It houses work from the last two centuries, including both the German and Soviet occupations. I found the whole place fascinating - they have pamphlets in English to explain how artists worked under Communism and Nazi rule. It was fascinating and sad at the same time. They also had an excellent exhibition on the DP Camps (Displaced Persons), which again, was both incredibly fascinating, sad, and ultimately inspiring.

I may have overdone the whole Soviet thing - I had visited the Occupation Museum the day before, where I spent over 2 hours (I was finally thrown out after closing time) watching the excellent documentaries on the 20th Century history of Estonia. Don't miss this. I learnt more than I ever imagined I would, and now feel incredibly embarrassed I knew nothing of the history of the Baltic States. INCREDIBLY INTERESTING.

Yet, with all this heavy talk of Occupation, tragedy and darkness, I found Estonia to be so beautiful, friendly, touching, and very very inspiring. I would go back to Tallinn in a second, in fact I would love to have a couple of months to explore Estonia better. What a truly amazing story of survival, courage, and intense national pride - I'd like to find out more.

Finland 4 - Blini for Bleenie

2010-10-30T01:07:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to my 4 magnificent kids, who, for some reason I can't even remember, call me Bleenie. Friday night dinners will never be the same again!

Blini.

I saw them in the markets in Helsinki and was a bit, well, nonchalant about the whole thing. I mean in Oz, you see Blini often (which are Russian pancakes by the way, usually served with sour cream and caviar) but they have been bastardised the world over, turning into rubbery small pikelets served with whatever you want as an hors d'oeuvres. It's a food crime of the worst sort.

I was having a chat with a woman in the old foodhall down by the harbour who didn't want to sell me her Blini to eat there (it was really for take home), she said I should go to a restaurant and eat the real stuff - straight from the kitchen.

Well, as you can imagine, I didn't need to be old twice after my previous Russian experience. I was going back to Troikka to eat Blini (see previous post).

Troikka is closed on a Monday. Bugger.

Never fear, the lads at Reception pointed me in the direction of Saslik, THE most famous Russian restaurant in Helsinki, and only a 5 minute walk down the back streets of my hotel. Oh yeah baby. Off I went.

Well, it was Bear Feast week at Saslik! Can you imagine??!!! But I wasn't seduced, I was there for Blini...and well perhaps a little bear as well!

Blini is served as an entree - you could choose from Blini with Wild Mushroom Salad, or Blini with a range of different fish roe and caviar. I went for my waitress's recommendation of the Blini with Whitefish Roe. And I sat back, in major anticipation, enjoying the dark green and gold interior, feeling transported back to pre-Revolutionary Russia. Beautiful.

She arrived. With the Blini. Piping pot and smelling divine. Clarified butter is poured over the thick crispy pancake, then the topping plate is carefully set down - you can see there above, red onion, chopped egg, wonderful sour cream, and a huge spoonful of Whitefish Roe. Oh my!!! The ceremony of it all was magnificent, the smells fantastic, and the simplicity pure art.

Bleenie was about to do the Blini! At first, I was tentative with my toppings...a lit bit of everything all on top. Cutting in...and tasting....OH ME OH MY. I closed my eyes, and tears welled up. Seriously. It was so good I couldn't quite believe it. Another mouthful, then another. The tanginess of the crispy on the outside fluffy on the inside pancake, with the creamy, tangy, crunchy, salty, fishy flavour of all those toppings...it was a euphoric experience. The perfect mouthful.

I am proud to say I ate my Blini with the reverence and passion it deserved. That's all a food can ask for.

Sigh. This sort of bliss is almost too much. Sigh again.

I had my Bear Pelmenis (see previous post on these succulent Russian dumplings) to follow, which were beautiful - done in a wonderful mushroom cream, and then a Cranberry Iced Souffle with Hot Caramel Sauce for dessert. But, dear readers, this day was all about the Blini.

Blini forever. Bleenie and Blini forever.

Finland 3 - From Russia With Love

2010-10-29T11:20:00.000-07:00

Playing the theme to Doctor Zhivago (and if you don't know that it's beautiful balalaika music, you get Ra Ra Rasuptin by Boney M instead)...

Yet another romantic story from haunting Helsinki...this time a Russian love story.

I met Helga (not her real name!) in the sauna at the Yrjonkatu Swimming Bath (nothing suss - see Finland 1 post!) and we had dined together the night before at one of her favourite places, a Turkish restaurant.

Enjoying her food almost as much as me, the two of us got on rather well, so a date was set for the following evening - we were to meet under the clock at Stockman (the very elegant Finnish department store) - and we were going Russian.

Cue: sounds of the balalaika playing

We met at 5pm. Under the clock. Ready for our Russian adventure.

We strolled to our first stop, the beautiful, and by Finnish standards, rather small, Russian Orthodox Church, which is behind the very grand Lutheran Cathedral on Senate Square. There it is, the first pic above.

We were there for the 6pm service, my first ever Russian Orthodox Service.

It was breathtaking. Sigh. Magical, even. The whole service was chanted by a beautiful 4 person choir, the priests helped out now and then as they swung their incense and walked the room. We stood in the middle with the other worshipers, there are no pews, you stand for the hour and a half. It was so beautiful, it had me teary in only a few minutes. The beauty of the gold and icons, the voices, the warmth, and the ceremony of it all...well, it had me at hello!

My date and I slipped out after an hour (who on earth can stand for that long?!) for the second part of the evening. We hopped a tram (the bonus of knowing a local) and headed for our final destination, a Russian restaurant called Troikka.

Now this was even more magical than the Orthodox service.

Turn up balalaika music

I discover that Troikka has been around for a long long time and is a famous Helsinki Russian restaurant. Helga has been passing it for years and always wanted to try it, she said she used to see the owner and waiter sit out the front cleaning mushrooms as she passed. Now, that's always a good sign.

Another good sign was the arrival of an amuse bouche, completely unexpected in such a small local restaurant, and it was my favourite thing ever these days...Wild Mushroom Soup. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. So delicate, so tasty, so foresty, so wild. DIVINE.

And the date only got better from there. My next course was my first ever Pelmeni, it was Siberian Pelmeni. I didn't even know these things existed, but now I'm so glad I do. Pelmeni are Russian dumplings - little spoonfuls of meat wrapped in very thin unleavened dough, they're sort of like small tortellini really. Mine were served in the tastiest, heartiest, saltiest, darkest broth, and served with a bowl of wild mushroom cream, which I started to spoon on by the ladleful!

OH MY GOODNESS. There was silence at the table as I tasted, then prayed (part 1 of the date had left an impression, clearly), then tasted some more. Absolutely unbelievably good. No words. Not one. Sigh. Whatever the Russian word is for heaven, I needed it!

As I floated on my cloud of bliss, the plate was cleared away and space was made for my next course. Wild Boar. With Wild Boar Sausage, sauteed caraway seeded Cabbage and a mysteriously deep gravy. OH MY GOODNESS again.

I had no idea Russian food was this good (Just as an aside, my experience in Russia with HOS in 1995 left me thinking there actually wasn't any food in Russia except bananas, paprika chips and cold and very dodgy hamburgers - but that's a whole other story).

Troikka had me putting Russia on the map, in gourmet terms. I wanted more more more. I was so wonderfully surprised at the guts, grit, and simple elegance of the food...I was hooked.

Thank you to the special Helga for introducing me to the romance of Russian food, I think you've lit a fire that may burn out of control...

Crescendo of balalaika music...then fades out...

Troikka
Caloniuksenkatu 3, 00100 Helsinki
PH: +358 9 445 229
(they speak English)

Finland 2 - Attack of the Killer Seagull & Other Foodie Things

2010-10-29T00:36:00.000-07:00

Yes, I was attacked by a killer seagull.

That's it there above in the first pic, bloody bugger.

You see, each morning in Helsinki (except for one), I would skip the hotel breakfast and take the 3 minute walk down to the Harbour to the old foodhall, Vanha Kauppahalli (or Gamla Saluhallen in Swedish - Finland has two official languages, Finnish and Swedish). I would buy my breaky there, and just hang with the locals.

Well on the second day of my coolish attempt at not being a tourist, I made the biggest tourist blunder imaginable. I ordered my fabulously quirky Whitefish Bread (pic 2) - which was heavenly by the way...wonderfully silky raw whitefish with delicious pink peppercorns and fresh dill on top, all on top of a piece of leaden black bread - and my coffee, and wandered outside to sit in the sun and watch the world go by on the beautiful Harbour.

Yes, well. BIG MISTAKE. All I can say is that I was lucky I took a couple of bites before I left the foodhall...in less than two steps towards the harbour I heard the flapping of giant wings...saw a flash, then screamed as one giant seagull took the whole piece of fish from the bread I had 2 inches from my mouth, and another bloody giant seagull then came for the bread - STRAIGHT OUT OF MY HAND. I was stunned - as were all the Russian tourists who had arrived to enjoy their Saturday on the Helsinki Harbour and heard my screams followed by my rather uncouth swearing at said killer seagulls who seemed to have no shame in waiting around for more! Bloody Nora.

Oh well, after my swearing had turned to laughter, I sat on one of the tie-up ship metal things and enjoyed the sun, the view...and my coffee!

So, sportsfans, the moral of the story is make sure you go and explore the wonderful old foodhall down on the harbour - but DON'T take it outside!

And while you're at the foodhall, check out the local specialties...there's the very wacky Finnish tradition of Pirakka, which is like a pastry - and you can see there (pic 5) the traditional Riisipirakka, which is pastry with a rice porridge filling. These are just too wacky for words...they are savory, and well a bit wrong in my view...but hey, we eat Vegemite! You can get different types of these traditional Pirakka, like pumpkin, or potato, but they are always savoury. Having said that, you can see up there a Blueberry danish type thing, this is a Mustikka-Pirakka, which is a blueberry danish, but with a twist. The Finns, and Swedes for that matter, seem to love putting cardamon in their pastries and bread - both sweet and savoury, and it sooooooooooooo works.

You can also see one of my favourite little morsels up there (pic7), Munkkipossy, or "Little Pig". This is soooooooooo yum. It's essentially a donut in the shape of a pig but with an apple jam inside. I um had more than one of these during my stay here in Helsinki...BUT I NEVER ATE THEM OUTSIDE!

There's more food there from the foodhall. You can see the focus on seafood, both dried, cured, raw, and ready for the Russian delicacy of Blini. I ate fried whitebait for breakfast one morning which was so good, and reminded me of my previous trip to Helsinki about 12 years ago with a van full of kids! I'll never forget HOS and I looking on stunned as the kids (aged 9-14 at the time, I think) devoured fried whitebait, fried salmon and copious amounts of the sweetest forest berries imaginable at the Harbour Market Square, which is just next to the foodhall. Go figure. Unfortunately, all the Harbour Market Square had to offer at this time of year was Cranberries, vegies, and fur...it's not really the same, is it?!

The food really was excellent in Helsinki, from the ravings above, to a simple cafe lunch along the water's edge at Cafe Ursula (pic 10), to the famous Finnish chocolate company, Fazer's outlet off the Esplanade and next to the cinema, and even extending to yum gourmet chocolates, and tacky but wonderful Ben & Jerry's (perfect for after the Swimming Bath, pure hedonism!). If you're there in the cold, like me, then a Hot Chocolate in the elegant Kappeli on the Esplanade (final pic), is a must - it's not the most amazing hot chockie in the world...but god, it's the most romantic!

Now, Helsinki also has some incredible restaurants. People recommended The Fish Market on the Esplanade and Sea Horse in the beautiful old streets behind my hotel. I didn't eat at either...I seemed to have a Russian bent, and went looking for some Ruski food! And found it. MMMMMMMMMMMMM...read on...

Finland 1 - Head Over Heels for Helsinki

2010-10-28T12:11:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to my real life boyfriend, HOS, the absolute love of my life. Don't get jealous baby, you'll always be number 1 (and let's face it, Helsinki can't do what you can!)!

I have a new boyfriend. He's oh-so-handsome, I would go so far as to say beautiful. He is elegant, charming, good fun, down to earth, incredibly cultured and breathtakingly romantic.

My new boyfriend is Helsinki.

It was love at first sight, actually, from the moment I checked into my wonderful hotel, Hotel Fabian (just off the famous Esplanade), and I never left his side for 6 glorious days.

You can see in all those pictures above, just how handsome he is. We strolled hand-in-hand exploring together...the beautiful white Senate Square and Lutheran Cathedral, and the magnificent red brick Orthodox Uspensky Cathedral, the pathways along the waterfront, the beautiful back streets to uncover wonderful architecture and the cutest shops...sigh.

We wandered through the main shopping district admiring the beautiful old shops, and stopping now and then to purchase something irresistible or just to look in the windows or admire the pretty food counters and cafes...sigh again.

We got physical, too, hitting the pavement a little faster through parks and magical old suburbs discovering more and more each time...laughing as the rain drizzled down on us one day, and basking in the freezing sunshine the next.

There was one exception to this joined-at-the-hip romance. The Yrjonkatu Swimming Bath. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh...the Yrjonkatu Swimming Bath...what a really really wonderful place. This is a beautifully romantic place to be, and you can't be there with your new boyfriend because there are days for girls and days for boys. You see, these roman style baths, built in the 1920s and more recently renovated, are for swimming in the nude. Yep, in the nude. It's the ultimate skinny dip. You can swim laps and have a sauna, a cup of tea, and a sandwich...all sans clothes. It's absolutely wonderful. I went twice and enjoyed every single second of it. The women were wonderful, all very chatty in the saunas, no embarrassment, just pure enjoyment and relaxation. WONDERFUL.

The baths have a 25m pool and a sauna plus the original 1920s changing cabins on the lower floor, then there's a wonderfully romantic first floor balcony overlooking the pool that has private "rooms" with little tables and chairs to have a refreshment and watch the swimmers. Magnificent. You pay almost double to have access to the second floor, but it's worth every single Euro, you get a little bed in your room (pic above), but you also get to use the wood sauna, electric sauna, and the steam room, as well as all the ground floor facilities. So beautifully romantic...sigh...it was like being in another era, another world. It's one of the top five experiences of my trip. You must go. Make the effort to find the place, it's sorta hidden right in the centre of town, you can see the doorway there above (second last pic). Go on, be brave.

So...my sweet new boyfriend waited patiently while I indulged myself in the wonders of the water...then we just picked up where we left off...wandering, gooey-eyed, through the cobblestone streets in the freezing cold...snuggling up to each other, enjoying what could be, my new favourite city in the whole of Europe. Sigh. Wonderful Helsinki, you are very very special to me.

Sweden 12 - Big Brother is Watching the Booze

2010-10-25T13:10:00.000-07:00

Aussies would spew.

Imagine buying your alcohol from the government!

That's what they do here in Sweden (and in Finland).

I couldn't leave Sweden without touching on this unexpected situation.

Here's the explanation straight from my Lonely Planet Stockholm Encounter little book:

Systembolaget

Sweden's tough stance on lowering alcohol consumption and alcohol-related illnesses sees the state-owned bottle-shop chain Systembolaget solely responsible for selling to the masses alcoholic beverages with an alchohol volume above 3.5%.

According to the bureaucrats, curbing private profit from alchohol sales means a less competitive market and lower alcohol abuse. Even in the state-owned stores, discounts, two-for-one deals and preferential treatment of products is strictly prohibited.

Nanny state or not, it seems to do the trick - Sweden has one of the lowest death rates from chirrhosis of the liver in Europe. Not that Systembolaget isn't "with it" - in recent years, slick supermarket-style outlets have replaced the former queue-by-number shops and the stock is thirst-quenchingly impressive.

Can you imagine!?! These places, which you can see above, are never open on a Sunday, and some are open till 8pm at the latest - which means, if you're desperate for an alcohol fix on a Sunday, or want to keep on drinking on Saturday night after you went through your stash...well you're up the creek.

At first I couldn't believe it. TM spent an evening at a Whiskey Fair, and when I asked what he bought, he said "Nothing. You can't buy there, remember!". Bloody hell!

But after the initial shock, well it sorta started making sense. I can see what they're doing - and it seems to be getting the results.

Oh, and the other thing I noticed is that even with the Big Brother approach, I still saw some very um...under the weather Swedes at a Saturday night party!!! Apparently, it's all about planning!

Sweden 11 - Herring Cart to SMAK in a Day!

2010-10-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

I'm no food snob. I'm just as happy to eat from a crappy hole in the wall joint as a posh restaurant (actually, a lot of the time I prefere the hole in the wall!) - just as long as the food is GOOD.

And the food was great on this magic day. It was Monday.

I set out alone to check out an actual museum - only my second one in Stockholm (not a big muesuem gal) - it was the a weaving museum, Almgrens Sidenvaver Museum. And take it from an expert, one never goes to a museum on an empty stomach. So luckily, in the same area as the weaving museum, that's the cool and hop Sodermalm area, is a little food cart that TMW pointed out to me a few days before.

You can see it up there above, Nystekt Stomming. Apparently this is a southern Swedish thing. They serve fried herring on soft or hard bread (like a boring chrispbready Ryvita thing), with sweet mustard, red onion and fresh dill. These guys are famous for it. Sooooooooooo...I had to get me some of that. And I did. OH MYYYYYYYYYY....absolutely delicious, I chose the soft bread (of course), it's a yum sweet brown bread and the herring is butterflied, crumbed and fried...oh my it was AMAZING. I ate everything on my plate. It was the perfect snack pre-museum, and pre-SMAK.

SMAK.

No, it's not a naughty slap, nor were we doing illicit drugs.

Smak is swedish for "taste" and that's the name of one of Stockholm's top restaurants. We dined there Monday night (after the museum, which was fascinting btw). Now this is a very special place to go. It's sorta the perfect restaurant for people like TM, TMW and myself. Why???? Well, it's obvious isn't it?? You get to "taste" like a billion things!!!!

Well, ok, perhaps not a billion. The premise is that you select a range of "tastes" from the menu, 3, 5 or 7, both savoury and sweet, and you can choose "tastes" of wine or beer to complement as well if you wish. It was UNREAL.

Of course, us foodies (read pigs) went for 7. I should have known better. Let me just save all the raving...IT WAS BLOODY GREAT FOOD. Beautifully presented, incredibly good staff, great ambience, well priced, and the food was AMAZING. My favourite was definitely the Wild Pepper taste, closely followed by the Cinnamon taste - but I couldn't do all 7. I hate to admit, but I couldn't eat Juniper. I tried. But it was just too much. So, sportsfans, if you go, I'd recommend you go for 5 tastes, 3 savory and 2 desserts. That's what I'll do next time.

Now, to keep things quick and simple...I've told you it was amazing...I'll give you the list of my meal in the order it was eaten (and as it's explained directly from the menu), which follows the order of the pics above:

Cocktail: Melon - "Martini" Pisco, melon, grape, bitters (mmmmmmmmm)
Bread: check out that bread...it looks like bloody dessert and tasted AMAZING!

1. Horseradish - "Caviar" trout roe, blini, sour cream (I'm totally getting into caviar)
2. Lemongrass - "Hot pot" duck dumpling, shitake (OMG, SOOOOOO GOOD)
3. Coriander - "Crab cake" avocado, lime, chili (FRESH AND SO TASTY)
4. Wild Pepper - "Dolmades" mushrooms, lingonberry (MY TOTAL FAVE)
5. Juniper - "Pate de Campagne" pheasant, foie gras, cranberry (couldn't get this one down...too heavy when I was soooooooo full, though the foie gras foam was a thing of beauty)

Dessert
6. Roquefort - "Cheeseburger" brioche, fig (OH MY, this was just insane...a lump of roquefort between sexy brioche with figjam that I dunked it in!)
7. Cinnamon - "Beignet" (that's the french word for donut)apple, lingonberry icecream (I'D KILL FOR THIS DESSERT, really.)

God it was a good meal. One of the best.

TM, TMW and I spent hours mmmmm-ing and ahhhhhh-ing as we demolished our 7 courses - it was a "taste" orgy, soooooooooo good and oh-so-bad!!!!

SMAK is a must do - it's right in the centre of town, fellow foodies, so THERE ARE NO EXCUSES!!!! GO AND SMAK.

Sweden 10 - Weekend of the ChokladFestival

2010-10-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

I was delighted to discover, last week out on my wanderings, there was to be a Choklad Festival to be held in Stockholm on the weekend. For us English speakers, that means a Chocolate Festival!

What a weekend!!

The venue was the Nordiska Museet (Nordic Museum), and the topic was chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! Luckily, as you all know (if you've been reading), I'm staying with the two biggest foodies in the whole of Sweden...so it was a no-brainer. We were there.

We rocked up just after lunch on Saturday...all pumped and excited, ready to devour copious amounts of disgusting sugary stuff. Bugger. We were there, along with every other Swedish person in the world - the queue was enormous!!! Hmmmmmmmm.

A Plan B was in order. Luckily, I had one.

TM and TMW had shown me a place in Gamla Stan (the beautiful Old Town) that served the most outrageous White Hot Chocolate. We let out a cheer, and took off in search of sugary stuff.

We arrived at Chokladkoppen, which is a cute Hot Chocolate Cafe in Mynttorget, and is a sister cafe to the coffee place next door - you can see the two buildings, above, the orange one is the coffee cafe, and the yellow the one we were headed for! (Apparently, just as an aside, both these cafes have seating out the front in the summer to sit and eat, drink, and watch the world pass by - so put it on your list)

Of course both places were packed, so we ordered ours take-away - and enjoyed our Cinnamon Roll and White Hot Chocolate as we strolled...and dear me, it was GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD. It really was like melted white chocolate, and I'm no white chockie fan, but this stuff was INSANE!!!! Sugary stuff mission accomplished.

So, how to get into the Choklad Festival??? We rocked up earlier the next day - we're quick learners - to the beautiful museum (which used to be a Castle) for chocolate. Only in Europe can you go to a chocolate festival in a castle...sigh. And, well, the pictures pretty much speak for themselves. We tasted some great stuff, saw the world's biggest chocolate fountain, and bought heaps of yum chocolate including the most divine Passionfruit Creams, and a heap from one stall that made chocolates like Goats Cheese & Honey (which was FANTASTIC), Thyme and Lemon (AMAZING), and my favourite, Lime and Mint which blew me away. So much to enjoy...you can see a sample of our stash of goodies above. Oh my, it was good.

We basked in the gloriousness of chocolate for a couple of hours, and finally decided to leave when we realised there were too many people to allow us to reach in for the samples! So, out we went to enjoy the beautiful cold sunshine, and do what all self-respecting chocolate gorgers would do after a Choklad Festival... find a local vendor and eat Swedish hotdogs!!!!

BLOODY GREAT WEEKEND.

Sweden 9 - Envy Shots: Stockholm

2010-10-19T04:58:00.000-07:00

Well here's some more pics to show you where I am, or to be honest, to remind me where I've been!

Here you have a couple of days rolled into one.

The first few pics are from my stroll around my favourite area in Stockholm, Djurgarden, including a stop at the most wonderful cafe for Sugar Pea Soup, Flickorna Helin Voltaire, in a wonderful old building that forms part of Skansen. I was drawn to it by the prams out the front...you know there's good cake if it's a place where mums meet! It didn't let me down. Amazing.

I also spent a day exploring the historic foodhall, Ostermalms Saluhall, which was WONDERFUL, and a must see - and it's in the posh area of Stockholm, so lots of pretty shops around! Then it was a couple of hours out on a boat going under lots and lots of bridges! That's me above, a little um...cold! Never fear, though, when I got home after my rather cold adventure, I was whisked off to Tuna Man's mum's place for a traditional Swedish dish of Veal and Dill Casserole with Potatoes. MMMMMMMMM.

I'm falling in love with Stockholm.

Sweden 8 - Picasso & The Flying Jacob

2010-10-19T02:16:00.000-07:00

Modern Art, that's what I experienced last Friday.

First, a trip to the famous Moderna Museet, which is found on the very small, yet cultured, island of Skeppsholmen. And what a place. Now, I'm not much of an art afficianado, in actual fact I only went because I'd read it had a really cool restaurant, but the place was pretty cool.

I started with a yummmmmmmmmm lunch in the famous Museum Restaurant - fabulous Cod with Marinated Chanterelles was served up looking out over Stockholm through the floor to ceiling windows...watching everyone else freeze outside as I sucked up that glorious fish!

Then it was art time...a bit of Picasso, a touch of Matisse, and a dabble in Dali...it's sorta the perfect museum really, enough to keep you interested and not too much to make you wish you could find the bloody exit! Of course all that art makes one a little peckish...so a visit to the little cafe for a coffee and a Chokladboll (a chocolatey coconut ball thing) was a must!

So, after an afternoon of culture (and Chokladboll), it was time for my own modern art at home.

When I got home I was greeted by TMW with dinner on the bench, ready to go into the oven and a warning "I'm not going to tell you what's in it, you might not eat it". Hmmmmm...challenging!

I waited patiently for my challenging dinner. And finally, Tuna Man got home and we could eat!!! OH YEAH BABY!

Let me introduce you to the Swedish dinner masterpiece...The Flying Jacob. This happened to be my dinner this evening, after such an experimental afternoon at the modern museum...how coincidental!

The Flying Jacob was a dish created in the 70s by a Swedish flight cargo worker, Ove Jacobsson...hence the name, Fylying Jacob, or Flygande Jacob in Swedish. This guy sent the recipe into a magazine and it was published in 1976, and like Picasso, took the world (well, at least the Swedish world) by storm! It became an overnight sensation - this oh-so-wacky Friday night dinner. There it is above. Looks innocent enough.

Let me walk you through it. Layers of cooked rice, stripped bbq chicken, sliced banana (yes, you read right, sliced banana), salted peanuts, fried bacon (which um...our esteemed TMW forgot to add in, but don't tell her I told you that), then a layer of WHIPPED CREAM MIXED WITH CHILLI SAUCE!!!! It's wacked in the oven till that crazy combo of whipped cream and chilli sauce is golden brown...then served.

And how was it? BLOODY GREAT!!! Creamy, banana-y, you can't really taste the chilli, just the tang, and the peanuts give a great crunch, all a bit wacky really, but extraordinary, sorta like a Picasso. Like I said...culinary modern art!!

Sweden 7 - The Gold of the Forest

2010-10-12T00:28:00.001-07:00

We found it! The Gold of the Forest.

We were in search of the Chanterelle mushroom - which is in season here in Sweden at the moment. And what a great day we had.

We set out in a local forest with a plastic bag and only our eyes to help us (and a compass to make sure we could find our way back).

I had been warned they were hard to spot, so I had my eyes peeled, all rugged up and ready to pick pick pick.

At first it was slow going...the Autumn leaves are magically falling, so the ground was covered in yellows and oranges, making it just that bit tricky to spot!

But a yell was heard, Tuna Man's Wife (TMW) found the first one. But it wasn't gold. It was a light brown with a beautiful yellow stem - so Tuna Man got out his trusty iPhone and checked it out on the net (ah technology)...and discovered it was the Autumn Chanterelle. Paydirt baby! The picking began.

As the three of us moved around the forest, all excited and anticipatory, looking for these sexy, earthy, sweet little suckers, TMW (again) let out a little scream...well ok, a big scream, she'd found one of the beautiful gold ones. Over we went, as fast as the soft mossy ground would allow, and watched her extract the little beauty, ah...a piece of art. So the searching really heated up as we looked high and low for these incredibly beautiful mushrooms.

These golden ones are so hard to spot, and are hidden in tricky places. We found two hidden under rocks! Tricky little so-and-sos!! You have to really get down, mess the ground around a bit, and keep eyes wide open for that wonderful woody gold. Um...I didn't actually find one myself, but I help harvest the patches that TM and TMW found - ever the willing helper!

So, there you have our score above. The brown ones are the Autumn Chanterelles and the golden ones are simply Chanterelles. We were out for 2 hours and that's our stash. We were feeling oh so proud, then TM gets a message from his aunty saying they had been in a different area and had picked 13kg of the things!!!! OMG!!!

Now it was time to eat. You have to clean the gorgeous little things first. So all three of us sat with little brushes, brushing away dirt, leaves, pine needles and spiders...you can see our proud stash of beautifully clean gold above.

Then it was cooking time. TMW was keeping it simple. Mushrooms on toast! Now, I won't bore you with all the superlatives...I suspect you're all a bit over my oooohing and aaaahing over food. Let me just say, I will never ever go back to our bloody boring ol' brown mushrooms back in Oz. I took my first bite of these wonderous things sauteed in butter, white pepper and salt, and honestly couldn't think about anything except how wonderful it was to be alive. Yep, it was an epiphany. I now love mushrooms, and there is a possibility I could become obsessed - I mean who knew they could taste this good??? Apart from the out of this world fresh porcinis I had in Italy, well mushrooms in my experience have been a big fat YAWN. No longer.

Now I have a mushroom dance!!! And I plan to do it regularly!!

PS. Last night after a hard day out sightseeing, I arrived home to the most amazing smells. It was a big pot of Chanterelle and Pork Casserole with Pressed Potatoes...um...there are no words, let's just say all I wanted to do was jump in the pot and bathe in it.

Sweden 6 - Magic Mushrooms

2010-10-10T12:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a little quiz for you.

Which of the mushrooms above did we gather over 1kg of today when we went mushroom picking?????

These aren't even all the mushies I saw today on our 2 hour expedition into the local forest.

Oh, and you'll also see the last of the season's wild blueberries and lingonberries (the little red berries that taste really sour, they need lots and lots of sugar to make the famous Lingonberry Jam that they eat with EVERYTHING!).

So, which mushies were the ones we were after?? Here's a hint...we were searching for The Gold of the Forest.

Sweden 5 - Envy Shots: Skansen

2010-10-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

What a weekend!

Saturday was Skansen, Stockholm's zoo. But it's more than a zoo, it's an open air museum. This place was incredible. Skansen has collected original buildings from all over the country, dating from hundreds of years ago and representing all three traditional regions of Stockholm, to form a large historical Swedish "village".

You can go to the bakery, or the glass blowing workshop, even the hardware store. You can see the allotment huts from allotment vegetable plots from the countryside, the tallest belfry in Sweden, a huge Maypole, and a 15th Century farm house.

All of it's original, which is just amazing. And as you wander through the "streets", you will come across the zoo which shows the wonderful Swedish wildlife such as moose, bears, owls, there's a Lynx there on display and even a family of Wolverines!

We spent a couple of hours there on Saturday afternoon, and it just wasn't enough for me, I'm going back tomorrow...I missed out on the General Store, which I believe sells traditional Swedish lollies! Bugger.

Sweden 4 - Thursday is Pea Soup Night

2010-10-08T06:06:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to my warm and wonderful new friends and foodie soul-mates, Tuna Man and Tuna Man's Wife. Thank you for bringing me into your Swedish fold, and sharing your friends and family, and food with me. I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship!

And yet another Swedish food adventure.

Thursday night in Sweden is Pea Soup Night. Yep, every single Thursday! And the cool thing is that after Pea Soup comes Pancakes with Jam for dessert. These Swedes do it in style!

I was lucky enough to be invited to a very special Pea Soup Night last night at Tuna Man's aunty's house. Once a year there is a fair held in his aunty's town, this fair has been held on the first Thursday of October for the last 300 years. So, combine Pea Soup Night with Fair and we have a great great night!!

We rocked up to TM's aunty's place to eat the smokey, salty, mustardy, divine Pea Soup, or in Swedish, Artsoppa. Lots of family rocked up too, four generations in fact, and we all sat and ate together, yummmmmmmm soup and bread with cheese.

This soup is made from dried yellow peas, ham hock, onions, carrots and a bit of seasoning and is left to cook for hours and hours. Before you tuck in, though, you need to wack a huge glob of mustard in it and sprinkle on some thyme and marjoram flakes and mix it all in to make a creamy soup. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...it was so good. It was perfect for the cold rainy night, and to steel us for wandering the fair.

All souped-up, we headed off to the fair. Of course TMW and I were inseparable at all the food stalls, where I tasted a heap of sausage, including moose, bear, and reindeer! I also tasted the sweetest of treats, "havrebollar", which is coconut balls, a sweet fudgy oaty coconut round that went down so well I had to have another!

Now, you can also see above something that looks incredibly delicious...because it was! TMW had told me all about Langos, which I believe was originally a Hungarian thing, but now is all over Sweden. It's got a fried bread base with whatever you want on top - we had the traditional one which is cheese, sour cream, red onion and some fish roe on top...OH YUMMMMMM. It was just so good I couldn't help but laugh while I ate it!

What a night. Pea Soup, Havrebollar and Langos. Loving Sweden. Oh yeah, baby.

Sweden 3 - Medieval Mead and Moose Meatballs

2010-10-08T03:10:00.000-07:00

Oh the wonders of travelling.

Two nights ago, after our Ikea lunch feast, I donned my wench gear and headed off for not just a tour of the Old Town in Stockholm (pics above), but for the most interesting restaurant I've dined in, probably ever. I mean, they had Beaver Stew on the menu!!!

The Sixth Barrel offers "an evening out in Medieval Stockholm", with all the food being based on authentic medieval Swedish recipes dating from 1435. The whole thing was AMAZING. From the cave-like restaurant, lit only by candles (making it a bit tricky to read menus, and causing an OH&S risk to the waiter's sleeve!), to the historically dressed waiters, and then of course there's the food. OH MY GOODNESS. The food.

One would expect this to be a tourist restaurant - it's got TACKY TOURIST TRAP written all over it. It sooooooooooooooooooooo wasn't!!!! We were the only table speaking English, all the others were Swedish, and the food was....well, it was....UNBELIEVABLE.

How lucky I was to share a banquet with Tuna Man - we went for the menu that started with Sage Soup - this was a cold, gritty soup, bitter, salty and soooooo full of flavour...intense sage pounded with bread I think, tangy, and alive, with the added treat of a marinated boiled egg. I loved it.

While we were eating our soup, we were helping out Tuna Man's Wife with her amazingly tasty Swedish Plate, oh my goodness, the Moose Pate...ohhhhhhhhhhh divine, and the creamy cream cheese and horseradish, not to mention my first ever pickled herring...all breaths were held as I tasted the herring pickled with red onion...DIVINEEEEEEEEEEE. Oh my god, perhaps I was a Viking in a previous life - I am bloody loving this Swedish food!!!

Our main platters arrived. Ummmmm...can you see them there above??? Well let me walk you through it! The first platter there is Wild Boar with Fresh Berries on top and Sausage with Sauerkraut and the little dishes in the middle have a magical Pea Puree, divine Home-made Mustard, and the most sublime clovey, cinnamony Cooked Apple stuff, OH MYYYYYYYYYYY...the whole thing just blew me away. We dived in with great gusto.

Then the next platter arrived. There are no words. I mean the Trout with Herbs was fantastic, but the Moose Meatballs...the Moose Meatballs. Sigh. The Moose Meatballs. I'm still dreaming about them, with the most delicious sauce I've ever eaten, a Chanterelle cream sauce. Chanterelles are found all over the forest at the moment, and this sauce, made with local fresh Chanterelles...well...let's just say I actually put my finger in the bowl to wipe it clean and would have licked it clean if I could have got my tongue in there! I'm not kidding.

Amongst this medieval gourmet orgy, I actually learnt a few things. Forks weren't used at this time...the forks were deemed the "devil's tools" and you would never put that in your mouth, so you ate with a spoon, knife and your fingers! And there were no serviettes (or napkins for you yanks) during this time, they didn't come till much later, so one would wipe their hands on the piece of fabric down the middle of the table! NICE! And that's what we did at the Sixth Barrel. Niceeeeeee!! The other cool thing I learnt was that before pasta was eaten up in Scandanavia, they had this food called Loisyn, which is like lasagna sheets with a tasty creamy sauce...yummy!

Ok ok, I know I'm starting to rave. Let me just get through dessert. Our pear and cheese was yum, but the highlight was TMW's dessert. She had the traditional Saffron Cake from Gotland. It's like a rice pudding saffrony thick pancake that's served with the most delicious Almond Cream and warm Cloudberry Jam. We all tucked in, and I absolutely loved it. It was gluggy, but gritty with the sweetness of the almond cream and the bang of the Cloudberry Jam. Really good.

Now all of this fine food was washed down with something I have read a lot about, but had never tasted before. Mead. It's THE medieval drink, so of course these guys have quite an extensive Mead menu! I tried the Meed Beer, which was so earthy, with a strong scent of honey, but tasted too yeasty for me. I liked the Sweet Mead (surprise surprise), it was like an earthy light Port, I really got into it. Now, Mead is a brewed alcoholic drink made from just yeast, honey, water and seasoning. Cool stuff.

So, sportsfans. There you have it. Before I came to Sweden I was warned that the food here was pretty awful. Well, I have to say, I'm finding the food here quirky, full of incredible flavour, and almost magical. Yep, I must have been a viking!

Sweden 2 - The Ultimate Swedish Cliche

2010-10-07T04:56:00.001-07:00

Well I had to do it!

TM and TMW live only 20 mins from the largest Ikea in the world in Uppsala, and I know that TMW loves a trip to Ikea, not just for the fab usual stuff, but for the Swedish Meatballs!!

What a hoot!

We had lunch in the HUGE cafeteria after a stroll around the first floor. You can see TMW there with our special tray trolley - you can put 3 trays on there and get it back to your table without spilling one drop of Brown Sauce. GOLD!

So, I tucked into my Kotbulletallrick, which are Swedish Meatballs served with Brown Sauce (yep, that's the translated name) and mashed potato and of course the compulsory Lingonberry Jam. And it was GREAT. I bloody loved it - it's wacky that the Lingonberry Jam really works.

You can see too, in the pics above, a sausage. Now this is a special Swedish sausage called Isterbund, or Lard Sausage. No, it's not made from pure lard, it's a tangy porky, meaty sausage that is served with beetroot. I had been warned that it was pretty gross...but I have to say IT WAS AWESOME!! I loved it even more than the Swedish Meatballs!!! Even TMW, who had actually never tasted it thought it was pretty damn fine!

So, a good time was had by both of us there at Ikea, then it was off to explore Uppsala, which is a beautiful old town, and a university town, so full of people, bikes, and they were actually filming a Daniel Craig movie in one of the main streets while we were there! COOL!!!

Now after such a great day...it was off to Stockholm for a bit of touristing and to a very very special restaurant...stay tuned...

Sweden 1 - Blood Pudding???

2010-10-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

Who knew???

Blood Pudding is a staple of Sweden.

I never put ABBA, Ikea, Volvo and Blood Pudding in the same picture before. Now, after only 12 hours in Sweden, and a trip to the local supermarket with my Swedish mate TMW (Tuna Man's Wife, wife of course, of Tuna Man - a couple I met back in March on Easter Island), I know better.

As was explained to me by TMW, Blood Pudding is a great cheap meal - full of blood, so nice and healthy, and is an old old traditional meal here. I bought almost 1kg of Blood Pudding for 5SOK (Swedish Krona) which is about 90cents in our money!!! Now, that's a BARGAIN!

We took it home (along with a basket full of other Swedish goodies, which no doubt will appear later on this blog) for my first Swedish lunch, and what better than the oh-so-traditional Blood Pudding with Cabbage and Lingonberry Jam! Wowsers!!

TMW did her Swedish magic - sliced the black pudding into thin slices, fried them up in butter - they need to be well cooked, all the way through, I sliced up the cabbage and wacked it in a bowl, then we had our already prepared Lingonberry Jam on hand.

And up above, you can see it all happening, just as it did only an hour ago right here in TMW's kitchen in Marsta, just 30 mins out of Stockholm. OH YEAH BABY!!!!

And how did it taste???? Well I'm a big fan of blood pudding/blood sausage, always have been, my Mum used to fry it up when I was a kid. And this stuff was pretty damn YUM - I wasn't so sure about the whole raw cabbage and lingonbery jam thing - but it sorta worked, the crunchy freshness of the cabbage with the sweetness of the jam mixed with the silkiness of the blood pudding (which sorta reminded me of the texture of foie gras)...it was GREATTTTTTTTTTTTTT.

Sigh...I love hanging with the locals, especially foodie locals!

PS. The last picture there wasn't dessert...oh no no no...that was what greeted me when I arrived here at the Tuna Palace last night - TMW had been baking sweet buns and cinnamon rolls. Yep, tough gig!

PPS. We're off now to a famous Swedish chocolate shop. Double tough gig!

PPPS(written 4 hours later). We just got back from aforementioned Swedish chocolate shop in the cutest town of Sigtuna where the last pic there, the Chocolate Eclair was devoured with Swedish gusto! Quadruple tough gig!!

Portugal 2 - The Great Portuguese Tart Debate

2010-10-04T07:28:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to my wonderful Brazilian sister, who not only has the same loud laugh and love of food that I do, she is the one who introduced me to Pasteis de Belem four years ago. I am eternally grateful for your friendship (and the Pasteis!).

I hinted in the previous post that this was controversial. Eyebrows were raised amongst the land, including mine. HOS almost had a fit when I told him.

You see, there are some things in this world that just are. And the Pasteis de Nata (Portuguese Tarts) at Pasteis de Belem, in the suburb of Belem, Lisbon (right next to the Monasterio dos Geronimos), just are the most perfect tarts in the entire world. End of story. I was introduced to these divine morsels of heaven four years ago - and have been back on an annual pilgrimage ever since. No kidding.

These gifts from above were originally made by the monks at the monastery next door - they sold them out the front of their enormous monastery to make money. One day, as legend has it (according to my source, a local taxi driver 3 years ago), the monks sold the recipe to one man who set up shop next to the monastery, and well...the rest is history, they've been there ever since. According to my source (aforementioned taxi driver) an American company offered millions to buy the recipe from the owners (still the same original family) so they could expand and build a chain. NO GO! Pasteis de Belem has one location and one location only - and only the family knows the recipe of these famous treasures.

So, they have extended and extended as word got out, and now Pasteis de Belem is literally a labyrinth of rooms, tiled with beautiful blue and white traditional Portuguese tiles, where hundreds of people can sit down and eat these pastries. And that's what you go there for. You sit, order a plate full of pastries (I recommend 2 each to start), a drink (you can get the fab Brazilian soft drink, Guarana, there) or espresso, wait for them to arrive. When they do, sprinkle some icing sugar or cinnamon (or both - though I prefer just the cinnamon) and enjoy. Just writing is making my mouth water. Oh these wonderful crispy buttery layers of paper thin pastry, holding warm gooey sweet vanilla custard with a little bit of burn on top...nothing is finer in this world.

And one of the best parts, other than the actual eating, is watching the world around you. This is a haunt for locals and tourists. Go there on a Sunday morning and you can see all the Portuguese matrons there in their black after Mass devouring a plate full as they natter away. Whole families swarm in looking for a table, then platefuls of tarts arrive and are devoured over much laughing and shouting! It's a total treat for the senses.

Anyway, I'm getting carried away. Back to the controversy.

Ms Carmen informs me when I arrive that she believes she has found a Pastelaria (cake shop, snack bar type thing) that makes better Portuguese Tarts than Pasteis de Belem.

I kid you not.

That's what she said.

Heresy.

Hmmmmmm. She said that a local place, Pastelaria Lusa, which is just literally down the road from where she lives in Amadora (a 20 min drive out of Lisbon) - she declares they are sweeter and better. Now, such words are not to be taken lightly, as Ms Carmen has a very fine palate - we are very similar in our gourmet likes and dislikes - so I had no choice but to take her seriously.

Off we went. To taste.

You can see above, all the pics from the front of the shop, Pastelaria Lusa, the window, inside, and of course the tarts. Now these guys are smart - they call their tarts Folhadinhos de Nata Caseiro, which roughly translated means "Home-Made Little Leaves of Cream", a pretty apt description actually.

I liked the place. All locals, no tourists ever venture out here, and the place was humming. They got a laugh out of me taking photos even! And the taste? Well. I had to agree with Carmen that they were pretty spectacular, and would do me any day of the week - especially as they are so close to her place! BUT...in my hear of hearts, deep deep down, Pasteis de Belem will always be the one for me, it was love at first sight 4 years ago, and well...as some people say, true love lasts a lifetime!

Portugal 1 - Diary of 2 Days/3 Nights of Heaven!

2010-10-03T16:01:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhhhhhhhh sun!!! Sunny, warm, light, big blue skied Portugal. Sighhhhhhhh. Ah the sun. I love you sun. I missed you sun.

I missed you too, Portugal - a land where heavenly creamy dreamy tarts (the sweet kind) are interlaced with simple and sensational seafood...all under the bluest sky you could ever imagine.

This was my fourth trip to Portugal in as many years - I am lucky enough to have a very dear friend, my Brazilian sister who I lived with as an exchange student 22 years ago, now living in Lisbon. OH YEAH BABY!!! Now this sis of mine, let's call her Carmen (as in Miranda), happens to be just as much of a foodie as I am - and the two of us together...well, all I can say is, don't ever get between either of us and a Portuguese Tart - it's ugly! When I visit we eat, talk, laugh and start back at the eating again.

So, when I rang her from Ireland to tell her I was on my way in for a short but sweet visit, she prepared the agenda - all revolving around food. We had just 2 full days and 3 nights to make it count. And make it count we did!

Day 1 - Evening
Whisked away from the airport by Carmen's hubby, I was told that unfortunately due to Carmen feeling a little under the weather, planned Stroganoff (my all time fave Brazilian meal) for dinner was to be postponed to the following evening. Bugger. But no worries, hubby was going to nick down to the local takeaway chicken place for us...and he did. OH MY GOD - this was real Portuguese Chicken!!!!!! Look up there at pic 1, glistening roasted chicken, salty, a little spicy, smokey...oh my word...the thing was divine, how on earth can one go back to Nando's after that????????? I sucked the bones dry. Chicken does not get better than this (and I should know!). I was in for a GREAT few days.

Day 2
Sun. Mmmmmmmm. Off to Cascais we went. I'd driven through here before, on my way to Sintra, but we'd never stopped. Carmen knew I'd never checked it out, so off we went. You can see how pretty the place is in pics 2, 3 and 8 - it's about 15 mins out of Lisbon, and is "the" place for the rich, famous, and cool to hang out. That's why we were there (we're cool). We were there to eat seafood, outside in the shade of a tree, and eat it we did. You can see my Sea Bass up there...it was incredible. The Portuguese cook very very simply, a bit of oil and salt, and that slightly smokey charred flavour...sigh, it's like a tropical island party in your mouth.

After fish, we headed to the most famous ice-cream place in all of Portugal. Santini's. It had just been given a facelift - check out the cool red and white renovation - it's been her for like centuries, run by an Italian family for eons. They make and serve their own true gelato and it was muito gostoso!! I had Acai & Banana with Pineapple....mmmmmm...fantastic.

So, of course after fish and icecream, one needs a light snack to get you through to dinner. It was time. Time to go to one of my favourite places in the whole wide world. The place where heaven is made. Yes, ladies and gents, it was time for Pasteis de Belem to eat those sacred of all tarts...Pasteis de Nata, or Portuguese Tarts to you and me. I won't carry on any further here, that's for the next post! Suffice it to say we indulged, as you can see above, plus we had the pleasure of a blind man from the hospital across the road sharing our table...what a wonderful afternoon.

And our culinary day was not yet over. Oh no no no.

Dinner. Carmen had the eye fillet of beef in the fridge for my Stroganoff. Now this Stroganoff isn't that boring, creamy, needs-more-flavour Stroganoff, no sireeee. This is the packed full of punch, tangy, mustardy, served with rice and french fries for texture Stroganoff. MMMMMMMMMM. So, Carmen and I spent our evening dicing and chopping and mixing and stirring, and producing that wonderful brown stew thing you see above. When I took my first mouthful, I literally just closed my eyes and savoured the moment...the flavour, the memories, and the flavour again. Thank you Carmen, it was one of your finest.

Day 3
Ater a taxing morning of getting our nails done, we opted for leftover Stroganoff for lunch - and let me tell you Sportfans, that some things taste even better the day after - this is one of those things. So more obscene mmmmming and ahhhhing occured at lunch as we devoured the last of that heavenly dish. Then it was off in search of dessert.

Well it wasn't really a search. Carmen knew exactly where she was taking me. Now I have to warn you that this part is controversial and has raised more than one set of eyebrows. Carmen took me to a local Pasteleria where she swears the Pasteis de Nata (Portuguese Tarts) are better than Pasteis de Belem. GASPPPPPP. I know. Sacrilegious. Unheard of. Heresy. Off we went to check it out. You can see their Tarts up there above (pic 12) - and you'll have to wait till the next post to find out if Carmen was right!

After our little afternoon snacky, we took a turn around the local food market which you can see above, lots of fab cheeses and cured meats...mmmmmm.

Then it was dinner time.

Hubby took Carmen and I to a very traditional and famous Portuguese restaurant found in one of the oldest suburbs in Lisbon, the Alcantara district. The restaurant, Solar do Nunes has been operating for a billion years, with the same wait staff I believe, and is the perfect example of a traditional Portuguese restaurant. We arrived to a table already set with appetizers, which is the Portuguese way, they are there waiting or put down in front of you and you pay for what you eat. It's bizarre, but it works. Of course we ate all ours!!!

You can see there we had olives, cured Portuguese ham (like jamon), pickled liver, cheese from the Serra de Estrela (a mountain region of the North), fried beans, and peixinho mini - which are those gross looking fish, which in fact were delectable to eat, they were like a fried and pickled fish, in Portuguese these ones are Carapau de Escabeche. Mmmmm.

For mains, I had wild boar (pictured), Carmen had venison, and hubby had a fish and bread stew. It was all fantastic. And the atmosphere was great - all locals, and not a word of English being spoken. It's the place to go.

And then there's dessert. I had something I've never had before. Sericaia com Ameixas de Elvas - which means this light as light eggy whipped and baked cake type thing, with wonderfully glaceed plums...it was magical. I'm going to look for a recipe for this cake when I get home, because it was so light, not too sweet, and would be perfect with poached or fresh fruit with a drizzle of honey over the top. It was a magnificent meal with magnificent people. Sigh. Wonderful.

So, there you have it. Three days after flying in, I waddled to my departure gate (after having bought 8 Pasteis de Nata and being given one to try from the Duty Free gourmet shop at the airport) to hop my plane back to the land of Primrose Bakery, London. What a gastronomically amazing 3 days.

Ireland 11 - Roadtrip Days 11, 12 & 13: Top 5 Dublin Picks

2010-10-03T11:30:00.000-07:00

The last stop on my roadtrip around Ireland, before heading back to Cork, was Dublin.

After such an intense and fabulous time in Belfast, I didn't really want to leave, and was very happy not to like Dublin at all. But I did. I really liked it.

Dublin is a quaint city with real personality, beauty, and my favourite thing of all, quirkiness. It didn't have the intensity of Belfast, and it's much much bigger, yet it still has such a lovely charm, and Dublin is clearly the coolest city of Ireland! It's got a Melbourne meets Paris sort of thing going on.

I would give you one hint, though, for your first visit to Dublin, stay right in the centre of town. I didn't and I regret it. Find a nice hotel and stay for 4-5 days exploring the city and its surrounds. I'm already planning my visit back!

So...what to do? Well, after 3 nights in Dublin, here's my pick of the top 5 things to do...

1. Queen of Tarts
DO NOT GO TO DUBLIN AND MISS THIS. Mmmmmmmmm....divineeeeee...the top 4 pics show the delights of this famous Dublin cake shop which you'll find in the Temple Bar district. It's been open for 15 years, and is so popular they have opened one just around the corner in Cow Lane that's bigger and better - but you know me, I like the original! All these pics are of the smaller, original Queen of Tarts. I tracked this place down for my first Dublin breakfast - triple decker Victoria Sponge with cream and strawberries, and a Madeleine dipped in jelly and coconut! OH MY GOODNESS - what a way to start a new city!!! Everything in here looked good, and they make it all on the premises...and the staff were sooooooo friendly. GO AT LEAST ONCE.

2. Trinity College Library
Book of Kells Schmells! I know that's sacrilegious, but really, why on earth is the Book of Kells so famous in Trinity College Library, when in fact the real show stopper is the library itself???? Saw the exhibition, read the blurbs, looked at the Book, then followed the signs to the Exit, upstairs, turned towards the library section and gasped so loudly everyone looked at me!!! OMG, pay your 9 Euro just to see this breathtaking library. DO NOT MISS IT.

3. The Streets and Alleys off Grafton Street
Dublin has two main shopping areas, I avoided one and spent most of my time in the other - and that's Grafton Street - but much better than Grafton Street are all the side streets and alleys that run off it heading East. I literally spent hours just wandering from one alley to another, one cute street to another, finding hidden treasures of other quirky little shopping centres...it's a labyrinth of shoe, clothes and little food shops. Avoca is worth a look, it's an Irish shop with cafe and bistro, but I like the one in Belfast much better, you'll stumble on a Butlers Chocolate shop, also an Irish institution, where you can go in and order your coffee with a free chockie of choice! My favourite "stumble upon" was Fallon & Byrne.

4. Fallon & Byrne
Mmmmmmmmmm...food shop. Think David Jones foodhall, but smaller, quainter, and cosier. I literally stumbled on this one on Exchequer Street - walked in and was in heaven. Mini gourmet supermarket, butcher, fromagerie, deli, cafe, and a bistro downstairs. I had a coffee on day 1 in the little cafe area, then on Day 2 bought a take-away cup of their homemade Leek and Potato Soup and sat out the front of the cafe (pic above) sipping and watching the world go by for about an hour. Heaven. Oh, and I also bought a little bag of the most divine lollies, sorta like our Milkshakes, they're called Ritchie's Moo....mmmmmmmm, I'll be trying to find more of these Irish numbers!

5. The Temple Bar
This is one of the hippest places to hang out in Dublin, well it's a little over the top touristy too I have to add. It's a mix of bars, pubs, cafes, cool little shops, all in a cobblestoned area off the River Liffey in town. It's the place to be, and definitely to check out. There's a great vibe here, funky and cool. I got my hair cut here, and visited the best tattoo parlour in Ireland (so they say) just to check it out (no, no tattoos for me!). They have a market spread all around the area on a Saturday, but it's small, so don't have high expectations - there's some great food stalls (pic above), but not much else. I wish I had spent more time here - apparently there are some great restaurants and a few good theatres, but alas, I was unable to partake. Bummer. Next time.

And that, my friends, was Dublin. I was there long enough to really like it, but not long enough to fully experience it. I'm definitely going back for a second go.

Ireland 10 - Molly's Yard Lavender Posset

2010-09-20T06:49:00.000-07:00

I'm quite taken with Possets. I mentioned one in my Aran Island post - Enda's Lemon Posset - and gave a brief explanation.

A posset is a very very old English dessert, that was originally liked a curdled cream using lemon juice. In Belfast I ate the most sublime Lavender Posset with Shortbread - pictured above. And the Chef at Molly's Yard was happy to part with the recipe.

Molly's Yard Lavender Posset

500g Cream
150g sugar

Mix together, then add lavender flowers and lemon juice - bring to the boil, then strain into ramekins (little dishes) and chill.

Now, I was informed that instead of lavender you can use any flavouring you like - I'm going to test it out and see how it goes....imagine honey and lavender...MMMMMMMMM.

Ireland 9 - Day 7B, 8, 9 & 10: Three Nights in Belfast

2010-09-19T04:36:00.000-07:00

Deep heavy sigh. I don't know where to start.

Belfast has bewitched me. I had no expectations, none at all, just an intense curiosity.

I have vivid recollections of confusion and fear as I watched the news on telly as a kid. The IRA, bombings, Catholics, Protestants...I never really understood it. Out of all the war horror of my early years, this is the one that really effected me the most.

I think the sight of a country that spoke the same language as me, wore similar clothes to me, lived a similar lifestyle to me made it realer. I'm embarrassed to say that - but there it is. It really scared me. It seemed closer to home than anything else. And being raised a Catholic...well, the big question for me was...how can they do it to each other? I never quite got it.

Now I'm starting to.

Coming from a country where my ancestral history is only just over 200 years old, a history of relative peace - no civil war, no invasions, no nasty centuries old baggage - I appreciate not just my good fortune, but also my innocence and idealism of my world view.

I was lucky enough in Belfast to meet some special people who lived through The Troubles, and they shared their stories with me. "The Troubles" is the name given to the period 1968-2008 - the deepest darkest times of the Northern Ireland "war".

I visited the Ulster Museum exhibition (first pic) which was emotional. I took a Black Cab Tour of "The Troubles" - including the Peace Wall, which I signed, and of course the famous murals which dot Belfast. One of the murals, above, has the UFF (Protestant side) lining you up in sight wherever you stand before it. The other big mural above is the portrait of hunger striker, Bobby Sands, which is painted on the side of the Sinn Fein headquarters.

I saw the gates that still, today, are closed at around 5pm every day to keep the two sides separate and safe at night around The Shankill Road. And the police station in town is there (pic 9), still with wire fencing to keep them safe inside.

All of this in a thriving, lively, fun, quirky city! In fact, I'd say probably the friendliest city I found in the whole of Ireland. I ate fantastically well, namely at Molly's Yard (pic 10) and the famous Mourne Seafood Bar (pic 11 is the divine Crab Mayo, and pic 12 one of the best Apple and Berry Crumbles ever!). I listened to hilarious comedy at The Empire. I saw where they built Titanic. I wandered the beautiful Queens University area (pic 13) where I was lucky enough to find my hotel, Dukes at Queens (one of the best hotels I've ever stayed in). I bought two pairs of sexy shoes on the trendy Lisburn Road, and I drank at the oldest pub in Belfast (and the most beautiful I've ever seen), The Crown (pic 14, 15, 16), where I chatted with an ex-English Military man who was stationed here for 4 years during The Troubles. I even lunched with an ex-IRA guy - now that blew my mind!

And I celebrated my birthday. I took myself off to my fave Belfast shop, Avoca, in the middle of town - they have a very cool cafe where I partook of a wacky, but yum monkfish, followed my birthday Meringue Roulade (last pic)! Happy Birthday to me.

So. What an intense 3 days. Such contrast. No wonder I've been in such a reflective place. Belfast cracked my mind way open. I learnt that good and bad are such arbitrary concepts...that all sides were right, from their perspective. I learnt that very good people do "bad things" ("bad" by world definitions) for their good reasons. And I learnt that sometimes there just isn't an answer, that sometimes things really are too messy.

Now, I've known all that stuff on some level for quite some time - but for the first time, I felt it. I felt deep down that the terms "right" and "wrong" were difficult to apply.

I left Belfast a couple of days ago now, and even as I wander the streets of Dublin, I can't get Belfast out of my head, like I said, it has bewitched me...sort of like an exciting, illicit, dangerous affair - I'm thrilled and mesmerised, but still trying to work it all out.

Ireland 8 - Roadtrip Day 7A: Giant's Causeway

2010-09-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

All right. Enough of the mushy stuff (previous post)...on with the show...

Ok Ok, I finally arrived at the Giant's Causeway. In the rain. Bugger.

Now, just to set the scene. Almost everyone I ran into on the Irish trip asked "Have you seen the Giant's Causeway yet?"! Even HOS asked. Everyone asked.

So, let's just say I rocked up with a sense of major anticipation. I had no idea what was there, all I knew was there were "rocks". And sportsfans, that's what there is. Rocks. In pentagon and hexagon shapes, all joined together like a traditional patchwork quilt or an Escher drawing!!

I have to say I found the whole thing fairly underwhelming. No offence to the Irish, but really, if we're talking rocks...well, I don't like to brag, but Australia has some bloody good ones.

Sooooooooooo anyway...I walked over them, around them, up them and down them, walked along the long path to see The Giant's Boot (pic 8), then The Organ (pics 9 & 10), and all around to the Amphitheatre (no pics of that). The order of the pics above is the order of what you see as you tread the Giant's Causeway.

Now, there is a whole story to why it's called the Giant's Causeway, a whole fable fairytale thing. Yes well. I don't know what it is! Instead, all I know is that the rocks were formed in this shape due to volcanic rock cracking blah blah blah.

Anyway, enjoy the pics. They look good.

Oh, and the last pic there is my lunch after the walk...oh myyyyyy, now that was spectacular...toasted soda bread sausage and bacon sanger!! YUM.

Birthday Musings in Belfast

2010-09-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

My Love gave me a present one year ago. The best present I could ever imagine. A present to feed my soul.

And today, I'm still in my present. As one of my dear friends wrote to me this morning, "it's the gift that keeps on giving"! Indeed it is.

Surprisingly, since arriving in Belfast a few days ago, I've been finding myself in a very reflective space. I think you can't but be reflective in this city of intense emotion and passion. And that, with the birthday on top...well...let's just say I've soaked in the tub for hours for the last two nights...just thinking. Reflecting.

Reflecting on the voyage so far. Reflecting on the amazing people I've met and the incredible experiences I've had along the way - taking me through a cycle of bursting out laughing, tearing up, then sighing, and back to the laughter, to start all over again.

I shake my head at my unbelievable good fortune to have found these people who have added so much texture and life to my voyage, and given even more depth and colour to an already beautiful artwork that was my life before I walked onto that plane.

I wonder if people ever really know the impact they have on others, from the smallest interaction, like a few jokes in a cafe queue at an Atlanta bakery, to the bigger ones, like a chance Vegas bar meeting resulting in a taken-up invitation to stay sometime, and the random foodie connection in Easter Island that will no doubt turn into a lifelong friendship, not to mention the RV door being generously flung open!

Thank you to you generous, warm, interesting, crazy people! You know who you are, and I say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Of course birthday reflections aren't complete without thinking about my beautiful family and wacky and wonderful friends back home. I miss you. I love you. I can do what I'm doing because you're all there. Waiting for me. I love that. More than you can know.

And to My Man, who started this whole thing...well my love, I didn't know it would be this good. I didn't know we could be this good. I didn't know it would be possible to love you more than I did when we waved goodbye on 11 March 2010. But now I do. This amazing life we have together is risky. The risks we take leave me breathless at times, breathless with both fear and excitement, yet it's these risks that have made, and still make me, feel so much intense joy and such profound love for you, for me, and for us.

What a lucky woman I am to have all that.

And the thing that gets me every time I've thought about this over the last few days, is that there's still so much ahead. Crikey!

So. There ends the birthday ravings of a happy 41 year old in a Belfast cafe.

Happy Birthday to me!

Ireland 7: Roadtrip Day 4, 5 & 6: The Burren to Ballycastle

2010-09-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

Right. I hate to say it, but these days were sorta tedious. I think I did a bit too much driving, and put myself onto too much of a mission - so I kinda flew through these days to tick boxes. Hmmmmmmmm. Just think lots of green countryside, rain, seafood, brown bread, and dodgy small town hotels (but one lovely B&B).

Here's the basic summary, which is more for me than you. So I don't forget. I kinda already have and had to go back to my map!

Day 4
Left the beautiful Inisheer (Aran Island), drove through the desolate limestone landscape that is The Burren (pic 1 and 2), which is home to over 700 flowering plants! And also home to the wonderful Tea & Garden Rooms in the little village of Ballyvaughan (just before you hit Galway). Maria from Inisheer had recommended the place, so I stopped for a snack - check out the snack table (pic 3)!!!! OH MY! You won't believe it, but I actually had a toasted sambo! But boy it looked good. I think I'm just into food perving now. Is that sick???

Anyway, I'm rambling. So, after the cake table, it was on to Galway (pic 4) in the pouring rain. Hmmmmm. I booked a cute little B&B, Devondell, which was fantastic. I made friends with the other Yanky guests, and headed out to dinner with a couple of them - there's my Local Ocean Salmon with Samphire (posh seaweed) and Salsa Verde - very very good. A few drinks at a pub, then sleepy bo bos.

Day 5
Woke up to a FAB breaky made by Berna, the B&B owner, then hit the road heading through the Connemarra region into Westport. I had been told not to miss Westport House, a still functioning restored grand manor (pics 7 & 8). Well worth it. I then drove a few more hours into County Donegal and Donegal Town. I stayed at the dodgy Abbey Hotel (pic 9), but it was great because there was a wedding on, it was Saturday night after all, so after my 6th month anniversary dinner of Lobster (pic 11), I sat and watched a bit of the wedding fuss in the lobby - a total hoot! Then off to the local pub for traditional Irish music (pic 12) where I ran into the magnificent aussies, Trev and Anne - we spent a great few hours listening to the music and watching the locals! GOLD MATE!! Back to the hotel, then, for a bit more lobby watching!

Day 6
I was up early. My room was a cell. Off to Northern Island today. I hit the road and headed to Malin Head, the Northern most point of Ireland. I met some sheep on the way (pic 13), then arrived at the windiest place ever, Malin Head (pic 14). Now, here was the highlight of the day...at Malin Head there was a mobile coffee van from a local bakery. In that mobile coffee van was not just coffee, but home-made cake. Mmmmmmmmm. He'd run out of the Lemon Drizzle, so I went for the Gingerbread. OH MY GOSH. He even gave me an extra slice for free - so for the grand price of 1 Euro, I sucked down two slices of the best gingerbread I've ever eaten. I was driving along and put some in my mouth...and just went "oh my god", I had to pull over so I could eat the rest. It was an almost religious experience.

So, post-gingerbread, it was onto the car ferry from Greencastle and on to my um...well dodgier hotel, The Marine Hotel in Ballycastle! Surprisingly, the food here in Ballycastle was quite something. There's a great little cafe/restaurant there, I had pork for dinner, but forgot to take my camera, hmmmmmmmm and I can't bloody remember the name and didn't write it down. Bugger. Sorry folks. Can't find it on google either! So, dinner was "class"!

But the best food experience of Ballycastle came from the guy behind the counter at the local Spar (Europe's answer to 7/11). They didn't have the Trolli hotdogs I like, so he recommended the Drumstick (pic 16), so I bought two. I ate both. In about 5 mins. YUMMMMMM. I also bought from the same guy a bag of Dulse, which is dried local seaweed - they sell it in those bags (last pic) for about 2 Euro, and is sort of like eating a bag of chips for the locals. BIZARRE. Of course I grabbed a bag and tested it out. Well, this wasn't so YUM. It was like salty plastic paper, if that makes any sense at all. And on further discussion with the hotel reception, it seems that most people don't eat it, and is in fact, a very acquired taste. No acquiring here.

So, that was the march into Northern Island. Tomorrow is the famous Giant's Causeway and Belfast. COOL.

Ireland 6 - Roadtrip Day 3: The Aran Islands

2010-09-11T13:20:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to Enda from Fisherman's Cottage Restaurant. His cynicism and chocolate oat slice made my trip to the Aran Islands unforgettable.

I had to use that cow pic as the first pic. I was walking all over the island, came across this most beautiful cow, I asked her to smile as I had the camera poised, and she turned her head and looked straight at me giving me this magnificent picture. You can see the amazing drystone walls in the background - these walls wander all over the island. Some are new, and some are centuries old.

Anyway, I get ahead of myself. Sorry.

Doolin is a jumping off point for the Aran Islands, and when I arrived in Doolin I knew I had to spend a night in the islands - I had romantic visions of cream Aran Sweaters and lacemaking. I booked a night on the smallest of the three Aran Islands, Inisheer (the biggest island is called Inishmoor, and the other one is Inishmaan).

So, the following morning I rocked up to the Doolin pier, was ushered onto one of those little boats (pic 2) to get out to the bigger boat (pic 3), then a 40 minute roly poly boat ride followed, landing us finally at Inisheer. I hopped off the boat (through another boat and up a very steep wacky ladder) and found my B&B for the night, South Aran House. WONDERFUL WONDERFUL room in a cute little cottage (pic 4) run by the magnificent Enda and Maria, who also run the Fisherman's Cottage Restaurant next door.

This place is amazing. It's a small island, I criss-crossed it twice, saw all the ruins, and grabbed some supplies, all in an hour and a half!!

You can see the ruins above - a couple of churches, cemetery, and a wonderful fort to keep an eye out for Napoleon! All this amongst real farms and houses still active in their livlihood.

And food. Yummy food. Enda is a magician in the kitchen. You can see his handiwork there in the local crab linguine with lemon and chilli, and in the Lemon Posset with Lemon Biscuit. What's a Posset? I hear you ask. Glad you did. A posset is a very old English dessert - it's a mixture of cream and sugar gently boiled till thick, then mixed with some lemon juice making it set like a very heavy mousse or panacotta even, only much much better. DELICIOUS!!!!!!

And while we're on delicious...the afternoon before I had grabbed a slice of Enda's choc oatmeal slice to give me energy on my walk...OH MYYYYYYY...SOOOOOOOOOO YUM. I begged for the recipe, which I have for you readers...oh yeah baby! Now, it makes a huge slab, so halve the ingredients for a normal lamington tin, and heads up, it's in the old fashioned measurements...oh, and I've changed the name...

Enda's Aran Slice
1 lb oats
12 oz butter
8 oz sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence (or extract if you have it)

Melt butter, add the syrup and vanilla, stir in the sugar and oats and bake for 30 mins in 350F oven. Cut when warm (it sets really hard), and ice with chocolate icing or a ganache.

Give that one a bash!! I will when I get home...mmmm they gave me another slice before I left yesterday, and I can still taste it!!!

Thanks Maria and Enda, it was "class"!

Ireland 5 - Roadtrip Days 1 & 2: Kinsale to Doolin

2010-09-11T02:33:00.000-07:00

Well it's roadtrip time!!! OH YEAH!

I picked up my rental car from Cork airport and was ready to go go go. I had 13 days to circumnavigate Ireland based on a map of MUST SEES from the Irish Girl and her mate, BJ. I had my map, the sat nav, and some Fruit Pastilles - I was all set!

My first stop was the YUMMMMM town of Kinsale. Kinsale is the supposed gourmet capital of Ireland, so for any decent foodie, a visit was a must. So off I trotted, to track down the famed Fishy Fishy Cafe that I head heard so much about.

Kinsale is only about 20 minutes from Cork, and is soooooo cute, it sits on its own little harbour and was a passing spot for the Spanish Armada. The place is packed full of cute colourful shops (pics 1 & 2), cafes and restaurants, including the aforementioned Fishy Fishy Cafe.

The Fishy Fishy Cafe has both a new posh restaurant close to the water (pick 3), and their original take away spot further back. I ate at the posh one. And oh my...it was fantastic. After delicious home-made brown and white bread with home-made houmos (pic 4), came my higgeldy piggeldy meal. I couldn't decide on one dish, so I had a tasting of 3 (pic 5)!! You can see the best oysters I've ever eaten (I originally just ordered one, but after eating it had to have another to finish the meal), so salty and pure taste of the sea, then the local Stonecrab Claws in this gutsy chilli and lemon cream sauce. I just closed my eyes and let it overtake me - the sauce was amazing. And then there was the local Seafood Chowder, which though good, probably could have done with a bit more guts. This was all topped off with a fresh decadent Autumn Fruit Trifle...omg...sooooooooo good - creamy, fruity, tangy and sweet all combining together (pic 6). Sigh. Wonderful food.

I waddled back to the car to head off to the Ring of Kerry. This is a famous drive of a loop of a big peninsula in County Kerry. It has the most hauntingly beautiful scenery and even a really good French Chocolaterie complete with donkeys on the route (pic 7)!!! But the scenery...it took my breath away (pics 8-10). Ireland really is a stunning country.

Now the Ring of Kerry is about 160km long in a loop - I stopped for my first night at Waterville, which is a wild and woolly place right on the sea (pic 11, 12). I loved it. I stayed in a wonderful old manor hotel called The Butler Arms, and it was superb. I walked along the waterfront in the rain (it's now always raining!), ate my first Fish Pie (local seafood in a white sauce with mashed potato on top) for dinner there that night, and slept like a bloody log.

I woke to lashing rain, so cancelled my trip to Skaelig Island (dufus that I am, it cleared up within the hour), and headed to Doolin. En route to Doolin, I took the car ferry (pics 13, 14) and picked up a couple of Swiss girls who accompanied me to the Cliffs of Moher (pics 15, 16) which were stunningly beautiful. Then we all arrived safe and sound in Doolin (pic 17).

Doolin is a tiny little place consisting of a few pubs, a couple of hotels, some cute shops, and is a jumping spot to the Aran Islands. Doolin is mostly famous, though, for its traditional Irish music, so of course after a pub dinner it was time to settle down and listen to that eerily magical Irish music. Then to bed at the Hotel Doolin . And another night where the words slept and log are put together!

Ireland 4 - Corkers of Cork

2010-09-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

Cork, or Corcaigh in Irish, is the principal city of County Cork, and The Republic of Ireland's second largest city after Dublin. Cork is also where Irish Girl comes from, well from a little village just out of Cork to be completely accurate. I spent a good week and a half exploring the place and have come up with my list of Corkers!!

1. The Blarney Stone (pic 1 & 2)
Of course I had to go and kiss the Blarney Stone - it's probably the tourist pic of the whole trip so far!! It was quite a climb up the spiral staircase of the Blarney Castle ruins, then down on your back, with a very kind man helping you, lean all the way back. There are two rails to hold as you lean as far back as possible, then kiss the stone. I couldn't stop laughing, it just seemed so silly! It's all good though, job done, and now I have the gift of 7 years of eloquence!

2. Sally's Spiced Beef (pic 3)
OMG - this was wonderful. Irish Girl's mum, Sally, ordered this local specialty from her butcher for me to try. It's usually served at Christmas, but now and then comes out during the year for special occasions. It's a roll of beef that's submerged in a big bucket of mixed spices for a few days, then gently cooked like a pot roast in a bit of barely bubbling water for about 3 hours. It's sort of like Corned Beef but with the yumminess of cloves, cinnamon and a whole heap of dark spices! Mmmmmmmm.

3. Annie's (pic 4, 5 & 6)
Definitely the best restaurant in Cork. It's a "gastropub" and is to be found on Sundays Well road. I was told about this place when I first arrived, but didn't get there until the second last night there, so of course I ate there again on my last night. You can see above my first dinner there, oh myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, wonderful sexy pork belly with tangy sweet apple sauce and a big wack of crackling, followed by stuffed baked apple with caramel sauce. Dear me! DIVINEEEEEE.

4. The Butter Museum (pic 7)
Now this is a little gem. Cork was actually the hub of the world butter market at one time, and this museum is a quirky little place, next to the original butter market. It goes through the history of butter in the country, Irish butter's importance in the world, and has some cool old butter making machines and churns. Did you know that the reason butter was originally salted was for preservation?? Well I didn't! Go and check it out.

5. Brown Bread (pic 8)
Speaking of butter...well here's the bread part! I was introduced to Brown Bread on my second day in Ireland (with my Irish breaky) and have been eating it pretty much every day since. It's served with breakfast, lunch, and even dinner!! It's a heavy dark bread, full of grainy bits. It's really really heavy! Fills you up, and keeps that digestion system going!!! The taste is pretty much as it looks, though I've had some that has been quite sweet and moister than the usual dry brown bread. It's funny, because now, after two weeks, I sort of look forward to it!

6. The English Market (pic 9, 10)
The English Market is hidden in the middle of Cork, in alleyways, so go in search. It's a very very old market, and is still used today. There's also a famous cafe upstairs in the market that's well worth a visit. The FarmGate Cafe and Restaurant is a must. Unfortunately I just had one of the local brown scones, but the bangers and mash of the woman sitting next to me had me swooning with desire...it smelt soooooooo good!

7. Other Cork Stuff
Cork isn't too big or too small, and bloody great to walk around. It's on the River Lee, and they have some wonderful parks and walkways along the river banks to stroll or ride up and down. Cork is home to both the tallest and longest buildings in Ireland. You can see the longest building above (pic 11), the Mental Hospital, built in Victorian times, it's eerie sitting up there on the hill, and I was given a drive by at 1am and it was really really spooky! Of course, now, it's half restored to apartments, with not a mental patient in sight!

The last pic up there is the Bourbon Street bar. This bar is where I've been hanging out with Irish Girl - they sort of have a group of them who own it! Oh yeah baby!!! They have live Irish music every night - and many a night was spent here listening to wonderful haunting Irish music and um...well...drinking!!

Ireland 3 - Girls' Getaway to Kilkenny

2010-09-07T14:27:00.000-07:00

Another Girls' Getaway.

This time there were 3 of us. Irish Girl invited her bestie, Bestie, to come with. So, she came with. And what a hoot of a weekend.

Again, they gals took Friday off so we had ourselves a big one on both Friday and Saturday nights - sampling the delights of Kilkenny bars and discos! Dear me! I actually danced until 3am on Saturday morning - I was the oldest in the room by 450 years!

Now, Kilkenny itself is a pretty little place. With a huge castle. And of course it was the All Ireland Hurling Finals on Sunday with Kilkenny playing Tipperary. Yep, I kid you not.

Hurling is the Irish national sport - it's sort of a cross between rugby, hockey and soccer (but don't say that too loud, it doesn't go down too well). So, Kilkenny was totally decked out in their colours of black and yellow, ready to win their 5th grand final in a row. They lost.

Oh well. We had a grand time anyway.

We managed to pull ourselves out of bed on Sunday to visit the restored Kilkenny Castle, which was actually really cool, and to be honest, that's pretty much all we did on our roadtrip - eat, drink, sleep, and look at a castle. I think that's the Irish way!

Ireland 2 - Dingle

2010-09-07T13:48:00.001-07:00

Dingle. Yep, it's a funny name. It's the name of the biggest town on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry.

I took a day trip from Cork.

I discovered the most beautiful scenery, the cute town of Dingle, AMAZING ice-cream and stained glass windows that made me cry.

The scenery pics above pretty much speak for themselves.

The ice-cream ones, though, well that's another matter. Here I found something quite extraordinary, and so unexpected. Murphy's is a home grown Dingle gourmet surprise. Their ice-cream is made "with fresh milk from the rare Kerry cow, thick, fresh Kerry cream, and local free range eggs". Mmmmmmmmmmmm. You can find them in the main drag of Dingle and in nearby Killarney, and also in Dublin and Graig. GO AND VISIT THEM.

I ate the most wonderfully daring and out-there Sea Salt ice-cream...it was AMAZING. I bloody loved it...nice and sweet ice-cream with a real punch of salt. They actually evaporate local Dingle seawater and use the salt that's left...really really good stuff. I ate mine with their dark chocolate ice-cream, the perfect combo really.

They also had the bizarre flavour of Brown Bread. Brown Bread is a big deal here in Ireland, it's thick, grainy, and sometimes very dry! Well, Murphy's caramelise it in sugar then mix it into their vanilla ice-cream...of course I had a little taste, and YUMMMMMMM!! Definitely the best way to eat brown bread!

And now to those stained glass windows. Up above Dingle, there's a church, and next to the church is an old convent. I hiked up the hill to check it out, as I'd heard there were quite beautiful stained glass windows there, and I'm a bloody sucker for a stained glass window. So up I went.

In the old convent is a chapel. In the chapel there are the most achingly beautiful stained glass windows I've ever seen. They were made by the Irish artist, Harry Clark. They were made during in early 1920s, so incredibly romantic and dripping in texture and sensuality, something you don't usually see in a religious stained glass window.

It was the most bizarre thing, it has to be said, as soon as I walked into the chapel and looked at the first window I just started crying. I can't explain it. The tears just fell. Either I was one of those nuns in a previous life, or the windows were just that beautiful. Hmmmmmm...I'm going for the windows!

Ireland 1 - Girls' Getaway to Sherkin Island

2010-09-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

Yes well. Ireland. Um...Land of well...drink.

I've not drunk so much alcohol in one week in my life. Hmmmmm. And it's not all my fault. Honestly. It's all Irish Girl's fault. That's her above, with me, on my second night in Ireland (the first night we got sloshed at her place, I'd arrived in Cork at 8pm and was fried by 10pm!), having my first Guinness. Yes well. I took two mouthfuls of Guinness and that was that. YUK.

Never fear though, the first night of our Girls' Getaway Irish Girl had me tasting Murphy's in the bar at Clonikilty. It's a stout too, like Guinness, but it's the local Cork stout. Yes well. Yuk. I stuck with my yanky Captain Morgan and Coke (here it's sorta exotic!), it served me well over the weekend, and the subsequent week!

So, Girls' Getaway. Yep, Irish Girl (who I met back in March on Easter Island) and I packed our overnight bags and headed off for a long weekend in West Cork. We headed to aforementioned Clonikilty (famous for its black pudding), then on to the beautiful Sherkin Island, where much hijinx was had, alcohol consumed, new friends made and scenery oohed and aaahed over.

There's some of the evidence above.

Baltimore is pic 3. You take the ferry boat over and back to the tiny little Sherkin Island that has one hotel and two bars (one being the infamous Jolly Roger), and a beach! And gosh, it's sooooooo beautiful. Sigh.

Heads up though sportsfans, I have a feeling that there will be more travel blogging going on in Ireland than food blogging - it's an incredibly beautiful country altogether.

UK 7 - The Magical Place

2010-08-26T07:07:00.000-07:00

This pretty post is dedicated to my magical niece, Tickly Pickly. We shared way too much sugar and giggles at this, The Magical Place.

Once upon a now, in a land far far away, there is a place. A very special place.

A place so special it's known across the land.

A place where the air is full of sugar, giggles and wonderful sighs. Where pale pinks, yellows, and mauves come to dream.

Whispers...it's a place where the yummiest of cupcakes in the whole wide world are made.

Primrose Bakery.

It's the prettiest of shops in a pretty little street in the prettily named suburb, Primrose Hill.

Afternoons are whiled away sipping tea and tasting treats - Strawberry & White Chocolate Cupcakes (my favourite), Lime & Coconut Cupcakes, Melting Moments, crumpets with dripping butter, Earl Grey Cupcakes, Vanilla Cupcakes (both big and small), all with delicate not-too-sweet pale icing and wonderful melt-in-your-mouth-ness.

Very good little girls (and boys) are taken by their mummies (and daddies) and Aunty Supergals to delight in the splendid pleasures of an afternoon of cupcake goodness (I also saw more than 1 construction worker partaking!).

Primrose Bakery is the only place to indulge in cupcakes in a city overgrown with cupcake shops...it's a slice of heaven sprinkled with icing sugar, just like its Victoria Sponge (another personal favourite).

Even the naughty elixir, coffee, is good in this whimsical cupcake palace.

And for sharing with other good boys and girls, or for your own mouthwatering pleasure, you can exchange money for a pretty box of your chosen jewels to take home with you.

Giggle. I tasted almost everything in the shop...and it was all...MAGICAL.

Sigh.

Primrose Bakery
69 Gloucester Avenue
Primrose Hill

UK 6 - It's a Macaroon-Off!!!

2010-08-26T04:36:00.000-07:00

The controversy began as soon as I opened my mouth about Laduree.

I was recounting my London Princess Week (see UK 1 post) to sis, Chanel, who, as soon as I hit the Harrods Laduree Cafe, almost exploded with excitement..."There's a new macaroon in town. Better than Laduree."

Hmmmmmm....I thought. Better than Laduree??? Doubtful.

I mean, how on earth can anything be better than those delicate morsels of crunchy-on-the-outside-gooey-on-the-inside macaroons sandwiched together with voluptuous ganaches?? After all, Laduree is the founder of this very special "double-decker" type of macaroon.

Now, Chanel is a woman of fine taste - she really does know her stuff - so an investigation of this "newbie", Pierre Herme was in order. Pierre Herme has only one location in the UK, in the foodhall at Selfridges. Selfridges is a very very fine department store in the UK - modern and oh-so-chic! I know the foodhalls well...so off I went, hunting.

OH MY.

OH DOUBLE MY.

I'll stop us here sportsfans to explain the pics above. Pic 1 and 2 are the famous Laduree macaroons. Pics 3 & 4 are the new-kids-on-the-block, Pierre Herme macarons (yep, these guys use the french word, macarons - only one "o" - very posh!).

Both brands look beautiful, both packagings are beautiful, but right off the bat I detected a difference. Looking at packaging, shop layout and flavour offerings, it was clear that Laduree takes a very traditional approach, while the Pierre Herme is a more modern, almost sexier version of the macaron!

I taste-tested the Pierre Herme (PH for short) back at Chanel's pad, and they were utterly divine. Nothing says it better than their own little "menu", "A thin, crisp shell, circular in shape, lightly rounded, with tempting colours and a tender interior...That will leave your senses quivering with pleasure".

QUIVERING WITH PLEASURE!

I quivered.

With flavours like Fragola (macaron biscuit, balsamic vinegar cream, strawberry compote), Huile d'Olive & Vanille (macaron biscuit, olive oil cream and vanilla), and Jasmin (macaron biscuit, jasmine flower and jasmine tea cream)...the Mmmmmms in the house were getting a little out of hand. The olive oil and vanilla one just blew me away, you could actually sense the rustic olive oil flavour rather than taste it...it was like nothing I've had before.

So. Chanel was right. Pierre Herme were good. Very good. But, were they better than Laduree????

I decided the only way to really answer that question was a blind taste-test. A Macaroon-Off was planned.

Meanwhile, while all this macaroon action was going on, Chanel and I had actually booked in for a macaroon cooking class at L'atelier des Chefs (my third class there!). What a coincidence! The pictures above show you our journey from having no idea how these mighty morsels were made...to Chanel producing the best ones of the day!

Chef James, ex Head Pastry Chef at the Mandarin Oriental in London, taught us how to make 4 different types of macaroons. I attempted the Lime macaroon with Ginger and Lime Cream, and Chanel went for the very very pretty, and highly sought after Macaroon with Raspberry and Pistachio Cream. There was also Chocolate and Coconut Macaroons produced, and the rather wacky Apricot and Lavender Macaroon.

One of my fave pics there above is the table with all the raw macaroons "drying" - (just like nail polish) you have to "set" the raw macaroons to reduce cracking in the oven - cool hey! The other favourite is Chanel and I showing our very mature approach to the oh-so-serious art of macaroon making! And you can't go past Chanel, there, proudly displaying her "Teacher's Pet" macaroon ability!! A+ Chanel.

So, we were now well informed on the art of baking the macaroon. With the cooking class under our belt, and our tastebuds ready to go, we were all set for our Macaroon-Off.

The Macaroon-Off process was simple. I went to both Laduree and Pierre Herme within 30 mins of each other. I purchased a Rose, Chocolate, and Lemon macaroon from each (it had to be a like-for-like taste test). After dinner, Geeko (Chanel's hubby) was brought in to administer the test - he had to cut each macaroon in half, and feed them to us flavour by flavour (we were blindfolded - final pic above) and keep score. Our scoring process was simple, we just had to decide which we liked the best for each flavour.

We took our jobs very seriously, but even so, it was a total hoot. Being blindfolded had it's usual comic relief, but it also allowed you to fully concentrate on the flavour.

And the results? Well they were interesting.

It was a closer race than either of us expected. It was clear that the textures of each was a point of difference - the Laduree have a thinner biscuit with more "crunch" on the outside, while PH still had a crunch, but the biscuit was thicker and a bit gooeyer (is that a word?). The cream or ganache was thicker in the PH. But what about the flavour? Well we were torn on that, Chanel clearly liked the PH for flavour, whereas I, according to Geeko, "was all over the place"!

After great discussion, both Chanel and I came to the same conclusion. If we were having guests and were going to serve the best macaroons available, we would go for.......

DRUM ROLL PLEASE....

Pierre Herme.

Yes, Pierre Herme wins the inaugural Macaroon-Off, or should I now say Macaron-Off!!

Chanel, of course, was right!

UK 5 - NEWSFLASH...Masterchef Supergal Nails It!!

2010-08-23T15:33:00.000-07:00

I bloody did it!

I nailed the hollandaise (read previous post before this one).

I didn't think I was going to.

But I did. Tonight. For dinner.

It was a team effort.

Without the butter clarifying expertise of Geeko (bro-in-law) we would never have made it.

Without Chanel's suggestion of buying a better mixing bowl and to reduce the bain marie heat to less than a simmer (so I didn't bloody scramble those egg yolks again), we would never have made it.

And make it we did!

In fact, we made more than a hollandaise, we made a bearnaise sauce for our dry-aged steak. Apparently, a bearnaise is just hollandaise with the addition of fresh tarragon and parsley (Btw, I'm falling in love with magnificent anise flavoured tarragon)!

We did the bearnaise in my first cooking class at L'Atelier des Chefs a couple of weeks ago, it was a day class on sauces.

Soooooooooooooo...take a good look at the pics above, the first pic is the one taken in our cooking class, and the second one there is of my dinner tonight, Steak with Bearnaise Sauce, roasted new potatoes and rocket salad.

And how did it taste??? One word.

Perfecto!

Bring on the Eggs Benedict baby!!! (For non-foodies, Eggs Benedict is poached eggs on English Muffins smothered in hollandaise sauce!)

UK 4 - Masterchef Supergal Fails on Hollandaise

2010-08-23T00:44:00.000-07:00

Bloody Nora.

I scrambled the hollandaise.

Twice.

Not once.

Twice.

Chanel, my fashionista sister (she's there above about to cook salmon -and no, it's not her real name!) and I choofed off last week for a spot of bonding at a cooking class right in the centre of London. We did a dinner class at L'atelier des Chefs on Wigmore Street (just behind John Lewis).

Sis and I rocked up for our hour and a half class at 6.30pm (which turned into a two and half hour class!), met our trusty Italian couple table mates, Filippo and Kiara (pic 1), then proceeded to cook our three course dinner:

Entree - Goats cheese crostini with endive salad
Main - Salmon with vanilla hollandaise and sauteed potatoes
Dessert - Chocolate pot with mint chiffonade (posh term for whipped cream)

We had a bloody ripper of a time!! There was no doubt that we were the star table of the evening, oh yes, we were the only table not to have earnt the wrath of our chef - we didn't split the hollandaise!!! And guess who was making the hollandaise??? Me!

So, floating on our grand success at the cooking school I decided to impress bro-in-law, Geeko, and sis, by presenting a replica of my learning for dinner last Wednesday evening. I was so ready to show off my obvious talent for making hollandaise, so ready to bask in the glory of those around me as they tasted my divine creation...oh-so-ready!

Yes. Well.

I've um posted the pics of my food here at home under the pics of the food we made at the cooking class - pic 6 is my Crostini, and pic 8 is my salmon. The goats cheese crostini turned out pretty ok, though I did forget about the swirly balsamic arty thing on top which would have made mine much prettier.

As for the salmon...well...you may have noticed something missing. Hmmmmm. The hollandaise. Similar to an embarrassing risotto incident last year, it seems I stuffed it up...not once, as I've mentioned, but twice.

I always like to cut myself some slack when trying something new, so always have spare for the "just in case I stuff the first one up". Which I did. I scrambled the bloody egg yolk and vinegar over the bain marie. Damn. Then I did the bloody same thing again! The excessive use of "bloody", which will no doubt get me in trouble with Chanel (sis doesn't like it, but I see it as culturally enriching for the kids, who, let's be frank, need to understand their aussie roots), shows just how um unimpressed I was about the whole thing!!

I am happy to report that dinner was still yum, even without that bugger hollandaise! But never fear sportsfans, this supergal doesn't give up that easily...I'm giving it another go tonight, this time with steak...will keep you posted!!

UK 3 - Tally Ho...Michelin Stars and Punting in Cambridge!!

2010-08-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to my almost 8 year old, blue-blooded nephew, Astro Boy, who is in training for a career as a food critic (and maths genius, and trumpet player, and electrician, and banker, and...).

Meet my posh English family. They're in the top pic above. What a good looking bunch they are! My sis, Chanel, married Geeko (a very nice English boy with a posh accent), and they produced the very clever Astro Boy, and way-too-cute Tickly Pickly and have lived happily ever after in London.

And I get the guestroom - OH YEAH BABY!!!

Last weekend it was time to pack our straw boaters (they're those funny hats the Grammar School kids wear to school), our blazers and our taste buds for a weekend on the Cam River in Cambridge punting and eating.

Now readers, I've never punted before, and I suspect others out there haven't either, so let me explain. Punting is just like what the gondoliers do in Venice, they stand at the back of a shallow wooden boat and use a pole, either wooden or aluminium, to push down into the bottom of the water to both steer and propel you forward. It's pretty cool stuff. And incredibly romantic - especially with the whole fam in the boat!!!

You can see in the second pic all the boats on the Cam River ready to be rented either to be pushed by your boyfriend/hubby/dad/girlfriend/or whoever, or you could pay someone to punt you. Luckily for us, ol' Geeko was an expert, you see, Geeko (and don't worry, he chose his own name) studied at Cambridge so knows his way around a bit of punting! So, he was our man. Chief Punter, as it were.

We actually spent Saturday arvo, post lunch, going up and down the scenic Cam River watching the beautiful old buildings of Cambridge go by...hand dipped lazily in the water as we were professionally manoeuvred between the other 4,218 boats on the River that afternoon - it was a surprisingly soothing experience, you can see there in the last few pics just how beautiful it was, and what a tough gig it is to be punted around on a river! Ah, such bliss.

We enjoyed ourselves so much we spent Sunday afternoon on a different part of the river, just swishing along the water, snacking on jelly beans, lazing back on the cushions...just a typical Sunday afternoon in Cambridge really. Sigh. In the words of 5 year old Tickly Pickly... "it was splendid".

Before I leave the punting, though, a special mention to my wonderful sis, Chanel, who unlike me (I was enjoying the decadence of sprawling out on the cushions too much), decided to give the punting a go. There she is in the final pic above, looking very cool I might add, getting stuck into it...well done Chanel!!

Now of course punting wasn't the only thing on the Cambridge agenda, no siree, there was other more serious work to be attacked. We were going to a 2 Michelin star restaurant.

After a morning of visiting some of the amazing Cambridge buildings such as Queens' Collegee (pic 4), and Geeko's own alma mater, Trinity College (pic 5 & 6), we headed off for a walk through Jesus Green (yep, you read right) to Midsummer House and the wonderful workings of Daniel Clifford.

Now, I'd like to reintroduce Astro Boy here. Astro Boy and I are going to give a brief critique of our own experience at this darling of a restaurant that sits right on the Cam in a gorgeous old house with the most amazing staff. I'll give you my menu and thoughts, then I'll type out his, we've tried to keep it succinct so as not to bore the non-foodies!!

My Menu

Amuse Bouche - Pea veloute with king prawns, and langoustine jelly cubes (pic 7)
Wonderful creamy pea veloute with wacky intense cubes of langoustine jelly which exploded in the mouth, then the light frothiness hides the perfectly cooked king prawns. The sprig of pea sprout added an intense-flavoured crunch of raw pea! Beautiful pearls of pea popped in the bottom. What a good start.

Entree - Pork terrine with black pudding and apple sorbet (pic 8)
Amazing artwork of terrine - chunks of beautifully cooked pork with earthy bloody sausage and sweet gluggy figs. AMAZING apple puree and a fresh tangy green apple sorbet - I love a sorbet served with savoury food.

Main - Pot roast guinea fowl, with peas, shallot and bacon, cep gnocchi and mushroom cream (pic 9)
The guinea fowl was tender, though not as tasty as I'd hoped. It was my first time for guinea fowl and it leans way more towards chicken than duck and I was hoping it would be more gamey. The veges so fresh and yum...the English know how to do their peas! The cep gnocchi was light but a bit wacky and the fresh mushrooms were delightfully tasty. The mushroom cream was more like a foam than a cream which kept the whole dish light and summery.

Dessert - Lemon flavours with meringue and redcurrant sorbet (pic 10)
The meringue, divine, the best meringue ever eaten, so light and crispy, but melted as soon as it hit the tongue. The lemon cream was good, but could have had more guts. The raspberry cubes were just AMAZING, concentrated flavour that matched perfectly with the lemon.

Astro Boy's Menu
Astro Boy has some allergies, so his menu was similar to mine but with a few changes.

Amuse Bouche - King prawns with peas
The prawns were very good - lots of flavour and very juicy. But I didn't like the smell.

Entree - Seared Scallops with julienne apples and apple sauce
The starter was good, the apple sauce was really good. First time I've had scallops and it's a sort of weird taste, then you have it again and it's YUM.

Main - Guinea Fowl with peas, beans and bacon
I liked the part of the guinea fowl where it was nice and juicy, but I was expecting much more flavour.

Dessert - Tarragon Dust with blueberries and redcurrant sorbet (pic 12)
The Tarragon Dust is absolutely... NO WAY! The blueberries were nice, but you couldn't taste much of them.
I would like to add that the Tarragon Dust for me is one of the most amazing things I've tasted this trip. It was so incredibly wacky. The chef used that new chemical gastronomy to produce incredibly light fluffy tarragon (tarragon has an aniseed flavour) flakes that were a cross between powder and snowflakes, but at room temperature, you can see it in the pic there above, it's that pale green mass. I'm so glad I was able to experience it.

So, there you have it. A wonderful meal. But it didn't stop there. Oh no, readers. The meal was followed by something I'd never seen before...a chocolate chest. Yep, after dessert the table was presented with a big wooden chest that opened to reveal hand made chocolates...NOW THIS IS MY KIND OF RESTAURANT! The Licorice Ganache in dark chocolate (the purpley shiny one) was divine, and I have it on good authority that the Cherry Liqueurs were out-of-this-world!

And just to ensure that we went away extra happy, coffee was served not only with the chocolates, but also a plate of Butreaux, which is a light french pastry, deep fried and smothered in sugar!

All of us loved our lunch, so much so Chanel asked if a few of us would be able to pop into the kitchen. I have to admit that I was dubious. I know chefs don't like tourists in their space, plus they have serious work to do. Chef Daniel Clifford is a man with serious style. Not only were Astro Boy, Tickly Pickly and I welcomed into his kitchen for a chat and a photo (pic 14), he also presented the upcoming food critic, Astro Boy, with a signed menu. I have to say, I've never felt more welcome in a posh restaurant before. Ever.

So, as you can see, a "splendid" weekend was had by all. Punting and good food are a great combination, and if you're lucky enough to share them both with family, then your life is a splendid one indeed.

UK 2 - The Borough Market

2010-08-18T02:22:00.000-07:00

If I ever hear anyone say that you can't get good food in England, I just know they're a complete dufus! If the previous Princess Food post didn't convince you, then perhaps this one will.

Borough Market is the most famous, and oldest, food market in London. I try to get here every time I visit, and I had to take The Princess for a look-see! Now, readers, Borough Market is so easy to get to, it's just a 2 minute walk from the London Bridge tube station - so there's no excuse! It's open to the public on Thursday, Friday and Saturday - I recommend you get your butts there on any day but Saturday if you can...SATURDAY IS MANIACAL!!!

I won't bore you with superlatives of greatness, freshness and passionate food people...doing all this blog catch-up has left me almost without words (must buy a thesaurus).

I'll let the pics speak for themselves...they'll say things like wow, cool Creme Caramel Pots, and oh-my goodness rocking Raqulette, and magnificent meringues...that sort of thing!

One special mention, however, goes to Maria's Market Cafe, first pic above, where there was a queue of people lining up for "Baps" (which is really a wacky name for a roll). The Princess and I let it die down a little and went in for the kill. I ordered a good ol' fashioned Egg & Bacon Bap with both tommie sauce and Brown Sauce (aka BBQ sauce to us aussies). The Princess went with something posher (well, she is The Princess), a Lamb and Spinach Bap! We devoured them at the plastic tableclothed tables and watched the world come and go eating their Full English Breakfast, or just the odd Bap or two, or three, or four! And how did it taste??? BLOODY MARVELLOUS!!! Sigh.

One tip though, sportsfans, make sure you DO NOT go to the Borough Market on an empty stomach...you will go crazy, and if you're there on a Saturday the queues for hot food could send you over the edge with all that orgiastic gourmet pleasure going on around you!!!

(Hey HOS, did you see that Comte??? INSAAAAAAANE!!!!)

UK 1 - London, Land of Princess Food

2010-08-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

"A Princess always knows she's a Princess"
Elizabeth Taylor as Amy in Little Women

What better place for a princess than London - Land of Princesses!

In fact, there's The Princess above in her natural surroundings, firstly at her home, Buckingham Palace, then playing with the guard at The Tower of London where her most precious treasures, The Crown Jewels, are kept.

This little Princess, though, is somewhat different to most princesses I suspect - SHE LOVES TO EAT. And eat she did. Fortunately for our Princess, she had a wonderful guide, Queen Supergal, who took her to the most wonderful Princess places in the city to taste and test the best Princess delights on offer!

Harrods
The obvious Princess foodie haunt! So full of wondrous Princess food opportunities...the Harrods foodhalls are the most amazing retail food experience on this earth. It brings tears to my eyes every time I visit. It's like how I imagined being in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory must be.

You can see The Princess in raptures by just one of the many cake counters (pic 3), we spent quite some time drooling (yes, even Princesses drool, I discovered) over the chocolate halls and the bakery halls...then moved on to one of the biggest Princess places on the face of this earth. Laduree.

Laduree is actually a French institution - famous for those insanely delicate french macaroons - the Laduree shop and cafe at the back of Harrods is the prettiest one I've ever seen, in fact it's the prettiest cake shop I've ever seen. The Princess was equally enthralled - we sat down for lunch followed by a few of those magnificent delicacies with our posh French tea (all served on Limoges porcelain)...oh-so-Princessy (and oh-so-yum - we took some home with us for "afters"!)

Harrods has a number of special Princessy places to eat, and one of them caught The Princess' eye. Morelli's has an old fashioned ice cream parlour feel - you sit at the counter and order the most ridiculous ice cream sundaes imaginable. The Princess certainly enjoyed her super dooper sundae, while Queen Supergal here went for something more traditional...a Champagne Cream Tea! I handed the champers over to The Princess - she is a princess after all, and does love her bubbles - and dove into my scone! Mmmmmmmmm

When you're finished at Harrods, make sure you pop across the road, a bit further up, and duck into Harvey Nichols - it's a place for cool princesses! The foodhalls on the top floor are hip, quirky and faulousssssss.

Liberty
This is a Princess' paradise. This 135 year old emporium on Regent Street is a veritable treasure trove for Princesses. On the ground floor is a wonderful little cafe called TEA, it's like a little bohemian cave that serves a delicious English High Tea...the perfect snack for a Princess! You can see her above there amongst the finger sandwiches (smoked salmon with cream cheese, cucumber, ham and egg), with the crusts cut off, cakes, scones and posh tea. Tally ho!

Fortnum & Mason
This is the ultimate in Princessness (is that a word?). As the website says..."Fortnum & Mason, since 1707 (that's before Australia was discovered by Captain Cook), has been the quintessential English store"...there you have it...and it's sooooooooooo perdy! Have a look at the picture above, under the high tea pic, it's all as beautiful as that. It's smaller than the other stores, but has such an elegance, and such a special air, it must be visited by all Princesses. The chocolate and lolly departments are definitely for the Princess in all of us!

Wilton & Noble
Wilton & Noble is just around the corner from our London castle...which so convenient for this royal family because they sell my favourite English chocolates, Ackermans (pictured above). I trained the Princess in which ones to select (all my favourites of course); rose creams, violet creams, kirsch cherries, and marzipan - all in dark chocolate of course. These chocolates are this Queen's naughty little secret!

Prix Fixe
Now this one was new for Queen Supergal. Her and The Princess were taken to this fab Soho restaurant by a very very old university friend, Mr Armani, for dinner after the royal London Eye experience (see pic above). So, after an AMAZING meal, where I ate the fattest, biggest oysters ever, and the most DIVINE foie gras, the best I've ever eaten in fact, I declared that this restaurant is perfect for those sophisticated Princess moments. The Princess agreed wholeheartedly.

Gail's
Gail's is for the everyday Princess moments, and let's face it, we all have those! Even the most princessy Princess has to ride the Tube (London underground) sometimes (pic above), even with their new Valentino handbag, and so do they need to sometimes frequent a regular cafe! Gail's is the one. It's my belief that the scones here are the best scones in London (and I've tried a lot of scones) - the original Gail's, and still my favourite, is the one at Hampstead, but luckily for the everyday Princess, you can now find a Gail's in St John's Wood, Notting Hill, Queen's Park and a few other locations that Princesses probably wouldn't visit! Go and eat scones there - they're wonderfully short and crumbly and are like heaven in your mouth. But here's a tip Princesses, anything at Gail's is breathtakingly good.

So, Princesses, there you have it. The Princess Foodie Tour of London! But don't worry if you're not a Princess, now, at least, you can eat like one!

Italy 3/France 4 - Prada in Milan, the Beach in Nice!

2010-08-16T14:54:00.000-07:00

This is just a quickie. The Princess is loving reliving her trip through this blog - so duty calls and these few days must be recorded!!

Our time with HOS was drawing to a close. Dinner at Matteo's was our last dinner together, the next evening HOS was heading back to Sydney, flying out of Milan, and The Princess and I were driving the car to Nice, France, to drop the car off - and to spend a couple of nights on the French Riviera!!

Sooooooooooooo...what to do with our last day in Italy...Milan of course! We drove into to the fashion capital of Italy to show The Princess the amazing Duomo di Milano, the Milan Cathedral (first pic), it is a truly impressive Cathedral, it takes your breath away.

Of course the magical Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which is a huge glass-topped shopping arcade linking the squares of Duomo and La Scala, can take away your breath even more if you are a Prada or Gucci devotee! The Prada store here, which you can see in the second pic, is the original Prada store, the first Prada store ever! It has an incredible basement area that's like a fashionista's Aladdin's cave! Truly beautiful marble checkerboard floor covered by tourists buying Prada, Prada, Prada!!

The Galleria is also home to a Gucci store, and their Gucci Cafe, which is really a totally overpriced tosser's cafe....but when in Milan....!!! Of course we did! There's The Princess there in pic 3 enjoying life in the food world of Gucci - and guess what? The portions were tiny, and extremely expensive! Hmmmmm!!!

But we had a great time and The Princess was in awe of the place - it really is spectacular.

There was a sad part to the day, where I had to bid farewell to my man. I won't bore you with the details...we said goodbye and he watched me drive away in our little Golf, with our maps, The Princess at the ready as co-pilot, and within 3 hours we were in Nice. Nice.

Nice was perhaps not so nice after all! Our first impressions, that night when we went out to "cruise", we decided it was feral and we were going to have to lock ourselves in our hotel room till our plan left! It was just awful...drunk French, Italian, and English yobs everywhere, grossssss. We were in bed by midnight I think.

The next day dawned beautifully and lo and behold, the world outside seemed nicer, pretty even. We went down to check out the beach and discovered all these private little club type things - they had sun lounges, umbrellas, towels, and even jacuzzis to rent! They all had bars and restaurants...it was like the Italian Lido, but on the Mediterannean. COOL. It took us a while, but we finally found one that had a spot for us (it was the weekend) - so we settled in for the afternnon - we rented lounges, towels and sun umbrellas, and drank cocktails and ate fries! I swam a lot, but I've got to tell you those French pebble beaches are just killers on the feet - even in the water! But a magic afternoon was had by both The Princess and I, we felt truly fabulous and oh-so-cool!!! There are some pics there of the views from our lounges, the water, the view from the Promenade des Anglais overlooking our "Plage Miami" private resort!

We dined that night at another of these little mini-resorts! A few "resorts" up is Hi Beach, which was way cooler than "Plage Florida" and has a super organicy Japanese type restaurant. I was a bit dubious at first, I must admit, but the food was FAB!!! OH MY GOSH - the best Nicoise Salad I've ever eaten (pictured above) - you can also see the evening view of this little place and The Princess getting ready to dine. I have to mention that for dessert we chose to try a tub each of the local gourmet icecream, a brand called Alparel. Bloody hell, it was AWESOME! I had the Poire William (William Pear), and it was pure pear fruit in a sorbet, such intensity of flavour, The Princess chose the more decadent Salted Caramel, which she found a bit too wacky...though I thought it was close to perfection!

So, a wonderful couple of days were had by the bathing beauties...now heading to London with their golden tans and appetite for scones...lots and lots of scones!!!

Italy 2 - Magical Matteo and "that" Gnocchi

2010-08-16T06:44:00.000-07:00

"Never a more perfect mouthful of food has been eaten".

That's what I wrote in my little black book the day we went to Matteo's restaurant, Fattorie Priore, for dinner.

Matteo, is one of those friends you like to brag about. He is the best chef I know. I would prefer to eat his food before anyone else's. The man is a bloody god and genius in the kitchen. Last year he came to give the cycling team wives, "the Clusterettes", cooking lessons at our accommodation on Lake Como, and we were all blown away - even the guys themselves sat in on the risotto lesson (and eating!). HOS and I (and my Sis, who was with us) then had the pleasure of lunch at his restaurant in the Franciacorta region - it was AMAZING - HOS and Sis declared it the best meal of their lives.

Now, on our return, HOS and The Princess declared this meal, the best meal of their lives. For me, it's the second best meal of my life (ousting Elizabeth's in Savannah - see Savannah post - leaving Quay in Sydney still as number 1), but I will say that the first mouthful (and subsequent ones) of his Gnocchi with Fresh Porcini is the best thing I have ever eaten. Ever.

By the way, Matteo's Restaurant is an "Agriturismo" business - which means that they produce what they sell - in fact, 80% of all that is presented to you during the meal is produced on the property. This means they raise their own cows and pigs (they actually send their pork legs off to Parma for curing!), they have their own fruit orchards and vegetable garden, and even grow their own grapes for the wine. It's quite something to see.

Now, back to dinner...

We rocked up to Fattoria Priore to be greeted by our mate, Matteo (pic 1). We'd had drinks and gelato (and major catch-up chitchat) with him that afternoon on Lake Iseo, so now it was time to get down to the serious business of eating!

We offered ourselves up to him - "give us whatever you want, we trust you" we all said, HOS and I already salivating, having an idea of what we were in for.

And so the delightful feast began.

Of course we started our meal with Prosecco, the Italian version of Champagne, you can see HOS and I up there enjoying ours with a twinkle in our eyes, all ready to devour anything that was put in front of us! Then along came the amuse bouche....mmmmmmm. We had a Cream of Pea Pot (pic 3)- so velvety and smooth and all you could hear around the table was mmmmmmmmm! The Princess was starting to get excited!

Next. The antipasto. Oh my goodness. Feast your eyes on pic 3 - that was all for the 3 of us! Wonderful salty cured meats with sweet crunchy marinated fresh garden vegetables. Please just breath in that picture. I've written in my little book "the cooked ham melts in the mouth like savoury fairyfloss"...it really did, it would just disintegrate on your tongue. The prosciutto and salami were equally good, in fact "to-die-for" is the term that comes to mind. The Princess was beaming!

Next. Tartare of Beef with Truffle and Lemon Juice. I think The Princess was a little dubious about trying the raw minced beef...but being the foodie she is, of course gave it a go. She bloody loved it. We all did. It was so fresh and light, and you could really taste the flavour of the meat, which seemed incongruously delicate...it's a bit of a wacky concept for us aussies, who traditionally bbq the crap out of anything, to eat raw meat, but ladies and gents...this was a triumph!

Next. Pasta 1. Risotto with Zucchini Flower, Robiola Cheese and Italian Rose Sparkling wine. Well, what does one say? I have written in my little book here, "NO WORDS", for this course. Matteo makes the best risotto I've ever had, and this one just adds testimony to that. And let's face it, a good risotto is the foodification of sex - perfectly al dente, the right ooze, with delicate subtlety and robust flavour - it's a sexy paradox - intense yet so gentle, messy yet so refined. You just want to dive in there and go for it!

Next. Pasta 2. The one. The best thing I've ever eaten in my life. Heaven. Gnocchi with Fresh Porcini. The Princess' comment on the gnocchi, "That's not even real food. This is what angels eat". And she was spot on. The perfect gnocchi pillows of heaven, so tender, so light, yet so gutsy, lavishly wrapped in the most delicious woodsy Porcini mushroom sauce...it was foodie Nirvana. Readers, I am not exaggerating when I say that when I took my first mouthful, and the flavour hit my tastebuds, I just couldn't believe it. I could not believe that food could taste like that. I just closed my eyes and listened to that magical earthy flavour infuse into me...it was a spiritual experience. I opened my eyes to find HOS and The Princess in a similar state of bliss...we were just silent, looking at each other. I then looked around the restaurant, and opened my mouth "Can you believe people have access to this food every f___king day????!!!!" It is absolutely astounding to me that the locals can eat this whenever the poricni are in season. In fact, ol' Masterchef Matteo picked the mushrooms with his own hands, he goes out weekly to the local forests to forage for his mushrooms to use in the restaurant...WHO ON EARTH DOES THAT???!!!! Sigh. All three of us were in a gourmet stupor.

Next. Meat Dish 1. BBQ Beef and Vegetables. Well, for me, anything after the gnocchi, just wasn't going to be...gnocchi!! The beef was great, tasty, thinly sliced with roast potatoes and stuff...but really...all I wanted was another plateful of gnocchi, I wanted to marry it, live in sin with it, whatever I had to do to be permanently joined to that magical mushroomy dish. But the beef was great!

Next. Meat Dish 2. "Tuna Meat". This was a wacky wacky dish. Yes, you read right, tuna meat! This dish is served in a glass jar (pic above)and is a Tuscan specialty. The beef is cooked in a way that it takes on the texture of tuna and the taste of tuna, it's an amazing concept, but I just didn't love eating it. Apparently, it's a really popular dish, and I saw plenty of it around the restaurant, for me though, it was quirky, but not amazing. HOS, though, loved it, saying "I'm really really enjoying this cowfish". Hmmmmmm.

Next. Dessert. Trio of Pistachio Semi-Freddo, Chocolate Mousse, and Strawberry Creme Brulee. HOS, The Princess and I all agree that the one course of a meal that lets down the Italians is dessert. We've never ever had a really amazing Italian dessert, excluding of course Tiramisu and gelato, and we were curious to see how Masterchef Matteo would do on this course. We were presented with the trio (pic above), and first off, I'm not a fan of semi-freddo, I just can't see the point in it, never have, it's just like extra creamy ice-cream. The others loved it, but I was no great fan. Now, the Creme Brulee was something very special, fresh strawberry was infused in the whole brulee giving amazing fresh strawberry flavour to a perfectly cooked brulee with a wonderful "crack" from the toffee on top. Superb. The mousse, too, was very very good. At first it seemed a bit gritty, then the grittiness melted on the tongue and gave a light, yet incredibly intense chocolate flavour...mmmmmmmm...that was the noise around the table. Pure appreciation. The perfect ending to a perfect meal.

By this time, most of the restaurant was empty and our buddy and magician, Matteo, came out to join us. We sat and had our espressos and biscotti praising the Master and asking a myriad of questions. I wanted to know all about the gnocchi, of course, and how people could have access to such great cooking. Mateo explained that Italians, in general, eat so well at home that if they go out to a restaurant, they must eat better than they do at home, or else why go out?! That made good sense to me. He also reminded us of the Italian religions - soccer, family, and cooking!

So, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. An incredible meal, made by an incredible chef. Matteo is actually a lawyer who abandoned his law work after 6 months to go to culinary school...THANK GOD!

Thank you dear friend, you outdid yourself, and I will never ever forget the divinity of that Porcini Gnocchi, it truly is the best thing I've ever eaten. Thank you.

And you, readers, if you're in or around Milan or Lake Como, make the effort to get to Fattorie Priore, it's a bit tricky to find, it's patronised my locals, no English is spoken (though Matteo is fluent), it sits amongst vineyards, and is absolutely worth the effort...I promise you.

Fattorie Priore
Via Sala, 43
Calino (near Brescia)

Italy 1 - 10 Things I Love About Lake Como!

2010-08-13T07:53:00.000-07:00

Last year I fell in love with Lake Como. So we went back.

Lake Como sits in the North of Italy, very very close to the Swiss Border. It has some famous food places very close by including the Valtellina Valley which produces very famous reds (from the Nebbiolo grape) and the wonderful cured beef product, Bresola. And in the next valley over from the town of Verrena, which sits on the Lake, is the Taleggio Valley, which of course produces the famous cheese of the same name. MMMMMM. Foodie paradise once more!

But, readers, Lake Como is not just all about food, oh no, there's so much more... so here are the top 10 things I love about Lake Como...

1. It's bloody beautiful (pic 1,2,3 above)
That pretty much sums it up - Lake Como is an extraordinarily beautiful place, a huge lake in the shape of an inverted Y, with the most magnificent old villas and town sitting right on the lake's edge. Lake Como is home to villages such as Menaggio, Bellagio, and beautiful Varenna (see further down). Indeed the lake is a breathtaking vision from whichever town you're in, and is so hopelessly romantic, you can't but fall in love with it.

2. Rockmelon Gelato (pic 4)
The gelato in Italy is to-die-for. One eats it up to 3 times a day in summer...and on Lake Como it's soooooooooo hot, that you really need to partake that often. We did! Last year, I fell head-over-heels in love with Liquirizia (licorice) gelato from one place in Como, and returned there on our first night to indulge, but alas, they had changed it from its sorbet texture to a true gelato, and was much creamier...NOT HAPPY JAN. But, not one to hold a grudge (yeah, right), I decided to use the opportunity to try new flavours and stumbled on the divinity of ROCKMELON GELATO....oh myyyyyyyyyyyyy....so yum, refreshing, sweet, light, rockmelony...the perfect foil for the summer heat of Lake Como...mmmmm. You see, when a door closes a window is opened!

3. The Lido (pic 5)
Now this is a wacky concept. If you ever see the sign Lido near water in Italy, it's a private swimming area/pool/sunbaking place! You pay your money to enter, you can rent a towel, sun lounge, umbrella, change room, whatever you want really, and there are bars and restaurants...and you just sort of hang for an hour or a whole day. We spent an afternoon there. We had a deal with our hotel, and were given choice spots right on the lakefront. We lounged away the afternoon reading, drinking, eating, and sunbaking...it was odd though, because you had to use the pool to swim and not the Lake (it was too close to Como, the major city, and so too polluted!). But let me tell you, it is a VERY civilised way to enjoy the "beach" (The Princess was in heaven - she didn't have to get her hair wet!)!

4. Bresola (pic 6)
This is that air dried beef product I mentioned earlier - it is so thinly sliced and silky, it just melts in your mouth...it's very lean, so you get intense beef flavour. You can see it there above served with some local goat's cheese. We had this dish as a shared entree (it was absolutely spectacular) at a Como restaurant, but it's not getting a plug from me because the dessert was AWFUL, really really AWFUL (a cardinal sin, made worse by the arrogance of the Front of House)!

5. Foxtown (pic 7)
Well the Princess was in heaven! Foxtown sits about an hour from Milan and 20 minutes from Como, just over the Swiss border. It's a "superbrand" outlet centre. Picture an outlet centre for Prada, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Gucci, Bally, Valentino, Ferragamo...got it?? Well it exists here, and it is INSANE. The Princess had been saving her pennies for 9 months to go wild...and as you can see from the pic above, she went a little um...CRAZY!!! Definitely worth a visit. If you get there in August, though, the bargains are even better as almost everything is further slashed - we were here in July this year, but in August last year, and August was FULL of barrrrrrrrrrrrgains!!!!

6. Pesto Gnocchi (pic 8)
There's a little restaurant right on the water in Menaggio, just next to the Menaggio Lido (which has an amazing bar btw), called Red Bay (it even has a putt putt golf thingy joined to it). The Pesto Gnocchi is just such a treat, really special little round surprises that make you go all gooey all over. Their Tiramisu is also the best Tiramisu I've ever eaten, it does that same all over body gooey thing! If you don't like either of those things, well the pizza looked fab, and honestly, the view is something else.

7. The old town of Como
Como is "the" city of Lake Como. Historically it's where the region's industry was established, and the old town is just gorgeous. Loads and loads of atmospheric cobbled alleys and squares to explore, with surprisingly great shopping, wonderful gelato bars, restaurants, and GREAT SHOE SHOPS! There is the beautiful Cathedral in the middle of the town, and also a fernicular, which is a must. Make sure you give yourself a couple of days to explore this little gem (gosh, I sound like a reporter on Getaway!)

8. Il Gato Nero - "The Black Cat" (pic 9,10,11)
This is a famous local restaurant. The woman in my favourite linen frock shop in Como insisted we go. You have to book. Apparently it's very cool, and it's quite common to see Mr Clooney there (he lives close by). The restaurant sits high on the hills just out of Cernobbio, which is only about 20 minutes out of Como. You actually have to wind your way up the hill, park at the top, then the Parking Manager brings you back down to the restaurant in his little car! I'd never seen that before, ever! Now, the food is wonderful, make sure you get a table outside, though, it's far too hot in summer to eat good food in an unairconditioned restaurant. And take your time, enjoy it all. A special mention here was the Mint Gnocchi (subtle flavour, and deliciously wacky) and of course the jars of licorice and biscotti that were placed on the table just before dessert! We didn't know whether we could dig in or not - so we watched the locals around us, and just went for it! A great night was had by all of us. You can see the three pics above - the view, The Princess and HOS, and of course the yum licorice and biscotti jars...with someone's princessy looking hand dipping in!

9. Varenna (pic 12,13,14,15)
Sigh. Just the word makes me wistful. HOS and I spent a week here last year after the cycling was all finished. It's just magical. A small village, right on the Lake, a few divine restaurants...sigh...wonderful gelato...sigh again. We took The Princess for an afternoon of swimming and gelato. We drove to Menaggio then took the ferry across for a couple of blissful hours, mellowing in the cool lake water and the wonderful gelato. This place was made for romantic souls.

10. Close to Matteo (pic 16)
One of the best things ever about Lake Como, is that it's just over an hour and a half's drive to the best chef on the planet, Matteo, and his gobsmackingly wonderous restaurant...see next post!!!!