Out/About

Some things I've seen and eaten in the last couple of weeks. 

Ron Mueck show at Hauser and Wirth

Slow-cooked miso marinated pork belly at Akasiro in Chinatown. Lovely, especially when paired with hot steamed rice.

Insanely detailed chocolate creations at Choccywoccydoodah in Fouberts Place. 

 

Be warned - enter with your sweet tooth in tow. My friend Sheree and I shared the peanut butter milkshake and chocolate sundae between us - a dastardly concoction of chocolate ice-cream, whipped cream, brownie, fudge, some kind of berry jam-like thing, as well as plenty of chocolate buttons and who knew what else. We had to admit defeat about three-quarters of the way through. The milkshake tasted like a cold, soft Snickers bar (if you like that sort of thing, which I do), and went down slightly easier, but we still left without finishing the whole thing.

St. Paul's looked lovely in the last light of day. 

Green

Stalowa Wola, Poland, July 2011

Homemade Gravlax

If you've had it before, you'll probably agree that the taste of grav lax is easily leaps and bounds above the often one-note saltiness of most smoked salmon. It's usually subtly salty, with hints of sugar and dill. Unlike it's smoked brethen, this lovely cured item is can be hard to find in supermarkets or on the menus most eateries. However, with a few simple ingredients and some patience, these delicious salmon slices can be easily created at home. 

You'll need to get a hefty hunk of salmon fillet - we had about 1 kg of fillet, sliced in two. Go ask the Google Gods for a tasty recipe - there are many out there. Manbacon cleverly combined a few recipes to come up with our own very tasty version. Most will include plenty of dill, salt and sugar, as well as two days or more of curing time. It really takes hardly any effort at all. 

Be patient, because once the salmon is cured,  you'll be rewarded with your very own, immensely tasty slices of grav lax. Enjoy them with plenty of crusty sourdough and creamy butter, or just be indulgent and pop whole slices into your mouth. 

Sugardaddy Cakes

Something tasty will be happening at the Tea Rooms this weekend. The Bake Club boys and I are teaming up to start a new cake stall, serving plenty of homemade goodies. If you're around Brick Lane this weekend, why not come over to say hello, and have some tea and biscuits? 

Lights in Glasgow

From the Ibis Hotel, from the Christmas carnival, from Ingram Street, from the Hunterian Museum. 

From December 2011. 

Village Food (Part 2)

Click here to see Part 1 of what I ate while in Chainat, Thailand.

After a couple of hours to digest our earlier (and massive!) meal, we were taken to another little riverside restaurant, where our group turned out to be the only customers. The staff had set up our table on a little platform right on the water - very pleasant since the slight breeze helped cool us down after the stifling heat of the day. 

Lots of fish dishes again, as expected from a riverside restaurant. The picture above is of a dish of whole fish, each about 5 inches long, deepfried until crunchy. It's very addictive, I tell you! 

We also had a plate of chicken, some papaya salad, a bowl of jungle curry, and some frogs, served sizzling on an iron plate under a spicy sauce. The frogs were far from my favourite dish, not because of any sort of squeamishness associated with eating frogs, but because of the strange gristly texture. 

The jungle curry, though spicy, was nothing compared to the raw, numbing heat of the papaya salad. Big chunks of chilli and chilli seeds will do that to your tongue. Maybe I'm a masochist, but looking through those pictures makes me want a papaya salad now!