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So this is what we brought from London : FOOD !
We bought all sorts of chocolates and biscuits in Marks&Spencer. We brought back some chocolate from the Paul A Young shop and also some Fortnum&Mason cookies and pudding. It’s not on the picture but we bought some cornish clotted cream too, of course !
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Thank god there is a Ladurée shop in Geneva for all our macaroons emergencies !
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I love french fries so when I first heard of poutine, I was intrigued. I can really understand the idea. After all, when you eat belgian moules frites, you dip your fries in the mussel’s broth and it’s delicious. So why not serve your fries already swimming in a tasty gravy ? Then add slices of cheese so that it would melt in the hot sauce. Everything tastes better with cheese !
Well, turns out it doesn’t really work that way. It’s not that poutine isn’t good. It’s very comforting. But why isn’t the gravy served on the side ? Wouldn’t the fries be less soggy ? Because i don’t see the point of deep frying things if it’s not to make them crispy…
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I had quail eggs and thought about how we had them soft boiled and smoked with hay at Noma.
Soft boiling quail eggs is really a pain. The hard part is to peel them without breaking them. It was the hardest part. Then I put the eggs in out barbecue in a bowl, set some hay on fire beneath and closed the lid. Hay makes a lot of smoke. I wouldn’t know because I had never done it ! Everything reeked of smoke after that.
I bought tiny asparagus to eat with the eggs, put everything in tiny plates and took a pic. Turns out, as everything is tiny on the picture, there’s no way to tell that these are quail eggs and not chicken ones. :)
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Nem Thadua is a typical lao dish that is very accessible to people who are not used to asian flavours. It’s a crispy rice salad with som moo raw sour pork sausages. It’s not very difficult to make but a bit tedious. You have to deep fry rice and coconut croquettes before pulling them apart and mixing with the som moo.
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Funny how we always come upon fine chocolate shops when we’re travelling. Here we were visiting Camden Passage in London when I noticed this Paul A Young shop. We didn’t know about them but my chéri definitely recognized the Mast Brothers bars he wanted to try but had never been able to find anywhere. He didn’t know but until recently you could only find it in Brooklyn. We went to a shopping spree of course and I can’t wait to taste everything we bought !
I love scones with clotted cream but of course it’s difficult to find in Geneva. When I brought a pot of fresh Crème de Gruyère I thought that it would be awesome on scones. I was right !
For scones I tried a lot of recipes. The best recipe I’ve found so far is Trish Deseine’s but I put a lot less baking powder.
The usual problem with scones is to find the right amount of baking powder that doesn’t feel funny on your teeth. In France we use a chemical baking powder that must be stronger than UK baking soda. I buy a special baking powder in specialized shops. I think it’s better but I still lessen the amount of baking powder in every recipe.
I made several attempts at omurice and only the fourth turned out good. In mangas, the say that it’s a very simple recipe (for example in Meru Puri, one of my favorite shojo mangas). I can’t imagine what’s a complicated japanese recipe ! The dish itself isn’t so difficult. It’s a chicken tomato rice with an omelet on top. The tricky part is when you flip the omelet with the rice on top to make it look like a wrap. The japanese omelet seems to be very soft so it’s really a pain to flip.
I also had troubles to make a bright yellow omelet because in France, we like them golden brown and crispy. At first I was like “it’s ok I know how to make an omelet”. The thing is, you really have to mix it in the pan and to cook it in low heat until it’s barely firm on top. Otherwise, you’ll have a big mess like on the last pic.
This recipe is very well explained in Cooking Wih Dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTf5EgVY5uU
I made Okonomiyaki for the second time. I still had troubles flipping those but it went ok at the end. I tried adding some mozzarella cheese, like we had in Osaka, but the pancake turned brown really quickly.
Okonomiyaki is a kind of crêpe or omelette garnished with cabbage, seafood, noodles (in Hiroshima fashion) and bacon, with a topping of seaweed and/or spring onion, dry bonito flakes (katsuo boshi), a kind of barbecue sauce and mayonnaise. From what I understand, it’s not a really old recipe so I guess it was inspired by occidental cuisine. When I make it, I like to think of how this recipe traveled from Occident to japan, then to Europe again with my French/Asian touch.
I tried following Cooking with dog’s recipe. It is my new favorite youtube channel. I love everything : the traditional feel, the chef’s skill, the recipes, the dog’s voice.
I found strawberry Pocky at my japanese grocery store. I was so happy ! These taste absolutely artificial but I still love them. And they are so cute !
