Sunday, October 23, 2011

A Saturday on Portobello Road

This Saturday, I went to the incredibly famous,and ridiculously crowded Portobello Road market in Notting Hill. Luckily, I chose to go on a warm sunny day, yes those happen here. As soon as I got off the tube at Notting Hill Gate, I knew I was nearby by the crowds of people slowly meandering in a general direction. We followed the masses towards Portobello road where I spent the day exploring  the market and area. The first block of the market is on a part of the road filled with colorful houses and street vendors selling a variety of antiques and obscure "collectibles" (an incredibly random assortment of just as random items). The next few blocks had antiques, obscurities, tourist gear stalls, and a store-lined street. I was surprised to see many of the permanent store were actually upscale clothing vendors, which seemed a little contrasting to the market and the street flooded by tourists. The next section was obviously my favorite though: food. There were many fruit and veggie stands on both sides of street and several stands selling street food. Among the food stalls, there were cheese vendors offering samples of sharp local cheese and other stands with 15 different types of oils to try. By time I reached the food stalls I was insanely hungry but luckily, that didn't cloud my judgment on where to get a snack from. I chose to stop at a stand selling fresh homemade bruschetta. The line was tedious but the worst part was the final preparations. I felt like I was living the scene from Love Actually where Alan Rickman is trying to buy a gift surreptitiously and fast, while the sales clerk is bent on the painstakingly slow and perfect presentation. As my stomach growled and rumbled, the vendor carefully sliced the bread from a fresh baguette, hand grated the cheese, toasted it, covered it with the tomato and goodness mixture the other man was stirring, and then with the precision of someone performing surgery, topped it was a few pieces of fresh basil. Despite taking FOREVER and my extreme hunger, the bruschetta was definitely worth the wait! The bread was crunchy, the cheese gooey and melted, the tomato mixture was fresh and flavorful, without overpowering the taste of the tomatoes. The basil on top was a nice touch as well.

After satisfying my urgent hunger, I meandered the market some more before settling on a lunch locale. By this point, the market was a mix of veggies and stuff, while the street itself was home to lots of restaurants. After stopping by the travel bookshop, from the movie Notting Hill, we decided to eat at a small Italian restaurant down a side street. Made in Italy is decorated like a neighborhood eatery in Italy, and we were shocked to learn it's part of a group of restaurants with several locations around the city. Italian music is streaming from the speakers and the windows all around face the backs of old brick buildings and window plants complete the ambiance. The pizzas were served on a long wooden board, further adding to the atmosphere, and they were delicious! The crust was crunchy around the edges and soft under the pizza. The red sauce tasted homemade and the spicy sausage had a great kick and flavor. The mushrooms and cheese were a nice complement for the garlic of the sauce and spice of the sausage, all in all making a truly successful pizza. My table was very into sharing so I also got to try the spaghetti alla carbonara napolenta. The pasta was really good and the smoked pancetta was a nice touch. The sauce was not overly creamy or oily, but oily enough it was delicious to dip my bread into after!

After a delicious meal, I wandered back along the stalls when a churro and chocolate stand caught my eye, hear, and stomach all at the same time! I received a cup full of delicious homemade churros they were molding and frying right there, sprinkled (doused) with sugar and served with a smaller cup of rich chocolate for dipping. I was in heaven. They were perfectly cooked and the chocolate was warm and runny. It was the perfect end to a great day!
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Lake District

This past weekend, I went to the Lake District in Northern England with all of my study abroad program. Before going, I was excited but also curious as to how I would tie an adventure weekend into a food blog, luckily for me, I was placed in the accommodations with an "award-winning kitchen." Students were split among three hostels and an adventure center, and by some stroke of luck I was assigned to stay at Glaramara in Borrowdale. It was gorgeous! The building was humble and rustic in its appearance with a brick building that housed the rooms and an old siding building with sloped roof that held the kitchen and dining room. The location was picturesque, to say the least, with sheep on both sides of the center, mountains all around, and luscious green grass in every direction. As soon as I disembarked the bus, the air smelled fresh and crisp. For dinner the first night, we had a choice of several appetizers, mains and desserts. The appetizers included the options of tomato basil soup, shrimp cocktail with a sort-of remoulade sauce, a salad, or a pasta. I opted for the pasta composed of penne noodles, olive oil, garlic, and artichoke hearts. The pasta was really good (I love artichokes) as was the soup, which I tried as well. For the main course, we had four choices including a lamb pie, salmon, chicken, and a vegetarian dish. I choose the salmon with mussels and a saffron cream sauce and it was to die for! The serving size was very reasonable and was topped with four or five mussels, all of which were perfectly cooked, and the sauce struck an ideal balance between too creamy and too runny. For dessert, we choose from homemade vanilla ice cream, fresh fruit or a sticky toffee pudding. Knowing I'm not a big ice cream person and wanting to be healthy, I opted for the ice cream. It was definitely homemade: certain bites were very good, creamy, and sugary, while the next bite contained chunks of sugar and others almost entirely cream. It's flavor reminded me of the ice cream we used to make at science fairs as a kid, although I'd ordered it with the intent of not eating much so I guess it was successful in that regard...


For breakfast the second day, there was a self-service buffet of toast, several jams, cereal, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, British bacon (which is basically ham), and sausage. It was fine and for mass-made eggs, they actually still tasted like real eggs. For lunch, we went through an assembly line to pack our lunches to take with us to the day's activities. We had a choice of sandwich halves, options of crisps (potato chips), a homemade brownie or some type of lemon berry cake, a choice of fruit, juice, and a mini Kit-Kat bar. The tuna sandwich was actually very good while the cheese was very bland and the cake was also very delectable. I opted out of the Kit-Kat though after consuming mass amounts of chocolate, Cadbury yummmm, on the bus ride to the Lake District. For the day's activity, I chose to climb England's tallest mountain, Scafell Pike. The hike was not too strenuous and the hardest part was the areas where the trail was comprised of giant rocks you had to just sort of jump between. From 3,209 feet above England though, the views were incredible! We were incredibly lucky with the weather that day but it was still a little too cloudy to make out Ireland, we could however see to part of Scotland. And who knew, sheep even climb up that high! Yes, there were sheep right near the summit! After such a great accomplishment, I was very excited for Saturday's dinner. To start with, we had a choice of a rocket (arugula) salad, mussels with a white wine cream sauce or potato leek soup. I ordered the potato leek soup after a long day on the windy side of the mountain. The soup was really good and had the envisioned warming effect. For the main course, we choose between a pork loin with whole-grain mustard sauce, a fisherman pie of shrimp and fish, beef with red wine and mushrooms, or a goat cheese phyllo roll. I decided for the vegetarian phyllo roll, out of nostalgia for my vegetarian days I guess, and it was delicious! The phyllo was flaky and not overly greased or cooked, the goat cheese was just melted to be softer and the veggies inside brought it all together perfectly. After climbing the mountain, I reckoned I deserved a good dessert so I chose the apple crumble toffee pudding. Other choices included homemade strawberry ice cream, cheesecake, and fruit. The crumble toffee Saturday night was very disappointing. It tasted like escalloped apples, mixed with soggy breading, and a sauce reminiscent of Play-Doh.

Yes, it was this pretty the entire hike up

One of the views from the summit of Scafell Pike
Sunday, we woke to the same breakfast and lunch options, but we all opted to eat lunch in the quaint town of Keswick instead. For our Sunday activity, we ventured into Keswick which definitely filled the image in my head of a quintessential English village with cobblestone streets, old buildings, and a constant light mist. The town is geared towards outdoor activities so many of the shops were outdoor stores but there were also a number of cute sandwich shops and cafés. I ordered arguably the best hot chocolate of my life from a small café in town while wandering the village. Keswick is famous for a pencil museum, but due to time constraints and a three pound entry fee, I didn't make it there.


I had a wonderful time in the gorgeous Lake District and was incredibly lucky and satisfied with the wonderful and rich food at Glaramara. Although the desserts were disappointing both nights, I will rise above and acknowledge the work of award-winning chef Gareth Speight, who was trained in a Michelin-stared restaurant and has cooked lunch for the Queen. Because after all, who am I to stick up my nose at a meal deserving of the Queen?

And did you know, the sheep in the Lake District, Herdwick sheep, were original inhabitants of the land but now the government subsidizes farmers who breed this variety of sheep for the historical feel they give to the land? Also, the sheep are purely aesthetic and bred for this purpose, the coat of this variety of sheep cannot be used to make wool and they do not really eat mutton. Also, the sheep prevent trees from growing on the land and mountains because they like eating grass and other plants, such as shrubs. It was really cool seeing so many sheep up close but it's a little weird the government is paying farmers to breed sheep for aesthetic purposes especially since the sheep are actually detrimental to the land, in terms of foliage.  

Thursday, October 13, 2011

The Trifecta

This is a week of tri-fold culinary goodness: London restaurant festival, national cocktail week, and London chocolate week. The overlapping timings are just planning coincidences but the combination is excellent for a London foodie on a budget. Restaurant festival is basically like restaurant week in the states but better! The festival lasts for two weeks and is sponsored through a website, bookatable.com, which is similar to Open Table. The website organizes the hundreds of participating restaurants by price point, ranging from 10 pounds to 30 and also my neighborhoods and types of food. The large number of choices and price points made the decision more challenging for me, being as indecisive as I am, but the option to sort by neighborhood and food allowed me to narrow down my choices more easily. We decided to eat at Piccolino in Exchange Square which is near trendy East London and the City, the financial center. The outside bar area was filled with young professionals grabbing a drink after work when we arrived around seven. The inside of the restaurant was very modern  with dark ambiance lighting and a large glass wine cellar functioning as a main wall. The restaurant was featuring a two-course 15 pound menu so we either got to choose a starter and main, or main and dessert. Before we even had the chance to order, our waiter brought over focaccia bread and olive oil, something you usually need to pay for in English restaurants. After ordering a bottle of Pinot Grigio, which was great for the price, I ordered a primavera risotto to begin. The risotto consisted of asparagus and fresh goat cheese, which melted into the risotto as I ate. It was a perfect balance of flavors with the tartness of the cheese, richness of the risotto, and crisp crunch of the asparagus. The portion was huge and big enough for a main! One of my friends ordered the mushroom risotto which was also very good. For my main, two of us ordered the steak and one ordered an “Italian burger.” The steak was very thin and unfortunately, rather dry and overcooked. Despite the steak’s disappointing flavor and consistency, it was served with a juicy and flavorful portobello mushroom and stewed and seasoned tomato, which were both very good. It also came with chips (fries), which were thin, crispy, and delicious. The burger however, was very good, well cooked and full of flavor. For dessert, we ordered a tiramisu to share which was delicious! Although the steak was disappointing, the risotto was satisfying and delectable enough to make it a good meal. The restaurant festival is truly a great deal and especially when you work as a group, for example two of us ordered starters to share and one ordered dessert, it is a really good way to try several of a restaurant’s signature items. I want to dine out at another restaurant festival venue before it ends next week and because they offer so many price points, I think I will!  

For cocktail week this week, I meandered through the food halls of Selfridges where they were sampling a variety of cocktails. Most samples featured Beefeaters, which meant a lot were not to my liking, but a few were good and it was still a fun atmosphere and environment. Chocolate week includes many events this week including tours of several chocolate factories and a lot of gourmet chocolate stores offering samples. I hope to stop by Harrod’s tomorrow and sample some mouthwatering chocolates but in case I don’t make it there, I already stopped into a small shop and enjoyed the benefits of chocolate week. 

Even though I am not participating in any larger events of chocolate or cocktail week, I really like the way the entire city is just as into food as me! But on a more serious note, it says a lot about the business and community values of London for a city of this size to be teaming together for such a range of community events: all types of restaurants from local chains to incredibly expensive locales, neighborhoods, liquor stores, food halls, and shops are participating the culinary festivals this week. The city’s ability to team together for events uniting people all across London is really unique.  

Saturday, October 8, 2011

The McDonald's Effect

As a liberal arts student, I'd come across the McDonald's Effect, often called McDonaldization, several times in my studies, but never was it more apparent to me than during my trip to Paris. For those that don't know, the McDonald's Effect does not refer to an obesity epidemic but instead references McDonald's widespread international success. McDonald's is often studied and referenced as an example of globalization because it adjusts its restaurant establishments according to the customs of the country in which they're operating. These adjustments are in large part, the reason McDonald's has done so well internationally. Most commonly in classes, I'd read about the example of McDonald's in Asia, where it styled its restaurants as more sit-down institutions to accommodate the dining culture in those countries, namely China and Japan. The McDonald's locations in these countries also include several local items, such as a teriyaki burger in Japan, a rice cake burger in Singapore, McAloo tikaa burger in India. The use of local menu items and culturally adjusted service methods results in McDonald's global success.

When I was in Israel, I noticed that McDonald's used a barbeque grill instead of a frier to cook their burger, used only Kosher beef, and operated several Kosher locations. The Israeli locations also sold several unique items such as McShwarma and an Israeli Salad, in addition to a more traditional menu. In Paris however, the McDonald's were incomparable to anything I'd seen before. Every location was fashioned with a sleek glass decor, which is becoming increasingly common among newer US locations, but the inside was remarkably different! Towards the front of each store was a café and patisserie! Each was filled with cases of surprisingly delicious looking macrons, croissants, chocolate croissants, and other pastries. The café menu also consisted of gourmet coffees. Once you walked past the café, one is faced with several machines resembling ATM machines. These machines are actually ordering computers, on which you can make your menu choices, pay, and receive a number to collect your food by. Several of the locations I went inside were two stories and all were filled with modern, clean, trendy furnishings and lots of French people enjoying their food. In fact, the only people I overheard speaking English in the whole restaurant, were those waiting in line for the free restrooms! After mentioning my shock over the classiness of Parisian McDonald's my Australian friend told me that all McDonald's in Australia rely on local and fresh ingredients. She said that when you order an Egg McMuffin for example, signs at the location will declare what farm and where the eggs in that dish are from.

In London, similar to the city's culture itself, the McDonald's locations aren't really sure what type of identity they're trying to convey. They offer more or less the same menu as American locations and about half the locations I've seen have the appearance and atmosphere of a traditional, American fast-food restaurant. The other half, offer an ambiance more similar to the European locations. It is interesting to observe how McDonald's differs country to country, and also what these culinary and atmospheric differences say about the respective cultures. I will definitely make a point to stop by a McDonald's in all of my future travels to observe these differences and use these visits as a framework to help understand the local cultures.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

The City of Lights

My weekend in Paris was a sprint to squeeze in all of the main tourist sights and lots and lots of different kinds of food, and I'm happy to say I completed the sprint rather successfully. We took a night bus Thursday night from London and arrived in Paris early Friday morning. After dropping the bags at the hostel, we were dying of hunger and decided to stop into a small cafe right near our hostel. I ordered a miel crêpe (honey). The crêpe was delicious and the honey inside was warm and runny. The plate was decorated with coco powder, which I proceeded to put on top of my crêpe. After eating our crêpes we decided to explore the famous Montmarte area where our hostel was located. We climbed up the Montmarte hill, walked around Sacre Coeur, wandered down streets in the general direction of the Seine, and decided to stop for a snack. The first shop we went in for macrons was a small boulangerie and patisserie off the beaten tourist-path. We split a large coconut macron which was pretty good with a sticky coconuty middle and a light and crumbly top. The next place we stopped for a macron though was to die for! It was from a gourmet chocolate shop, that even gave us small pieces of dark chocolate to nibble on while we made our decision, which as you know, takes me a long time. I decided on the chocolate ganache macaroon and it was one of the most incredible things I've ever had. It basically tasted like my family's brownies, if you're lucky enough to have tried those (rich chocolate fudge), with a top and bottom so light they almost tasted like meringues. I did not want that to end! After walking around the Jardin des Tuileries, we went to the Marais and the old Jewish Quarter to try a falafel place that several people had recommended. Unfortunately, in all my years of Jewish education, I never learned that more observant Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah for two days, and L'as du Falafel was closed! As were all the other shops and restaurants! Famished, we popped in a small bistro where I had a delicious Chevre sandwich. The bread was hard, soft, and chewy all at the same time in that perfect combination that only true French bread can be and the cheese was fresh and flavorful. My friend had the tomato mozzarella sandwich which had a delicious basil olive oil on the bread! After walking around Notre Dame, Île de Saint Louis, Île de la Cite, and the crypt beneath Notre Dame, we were exhausted! With a quick detour to the Longchamp store (OMG so many choices!) we went back to Montmarte where we grabbed dinner, just in time for happy hour specials, at a Brasserie full of locals. On our walk back to the hostel, we stopped in a small café where the whole family was working or there sitting and it was really cool to see a part of Paris untouched by tourism.

Escargot Saturday night


A very Parisian picnic at Versailles
The next day, we were re-energized and ready for another crazy day. We got breakfast at the hostel, and somehow even the hostel croissants were better and flakier than any I've had in the states. We went to a fromagerie, boulangerie, and fruit stand by our hostel and got fresh Brie, a baguette, and grapes. We then went out to Versailles where we toured the humble abode of the Sun King, gardens, Le Petit Trianon (Marie Antoinette's chateau on  the grounds of Versailles). It was beautiful and I really enjoyed learning the history behind it since I know less about French history than many other countries. After all of the gawking and elbow jabbing other tourists, we plopped down on the lawn at the gardens and ate our delicious picnic. The bread was perfect, the cheese fresh and sharp, and the grapes sweetness a perfect complement to the cheese. After the picnic, we went to the Eiffel Tower, where we observed three weddings occurring. (?) The weather was incredibly hot and we were longing a frozen drink but had too much pride in our 'not being gross/typical American/Australian tourists' to go into one of the many Starbucks we passed and order a frappucino. It took real willpower. Just as I was pulling out the map and stopping to decide our next destination, I rested my hand on a table, which happened to have a menu of milkshakes and frozen blended coffees, at a boulangerie! Elated with this apparent divine manifestation we went inside and enjoyed our milkshakes. I ordered the chocolate, big surprise, and it was the perfect quencher and pick me up. From there, we wandered to the old Latin Quarter, the Sorbonne, and the Pantheon. We decided to eat at a small bistro near the Pantheon. In the spirit of French immersion, we ordered an appetizer of snails. My friend had never had snails before and we were both very excited. They were served the traditional way, in their shells with special tongs and a fork. I'd never seen them served this way before and after sending one flying to the next table, luckily no one was sitting there, I managed to figure out how to get the meat our of the shell. The snails themselves didn't really have much flavor but they were prepared with a garlic and pesto oil, which was delicious when spread on bread. For dinner, the no longer vegetarian me decided to be really adventurous and order a salad with beef carpaccio. The salad was really good with golden raisins, almonds, a light vinaigrette and several small pieces of toast with seasoned goat cheese. The carpaccio didn't have much flavor but was good when made into a little sandwich with the goat cheese toasts. For dessert, I ordered a crème brûlée. Although it was delicious, I wouldn't say it was necessarily better than any I've had in the states.

Pastries at Gosselin on Sunday
Sunday, we began our day again with breakfast at the hostel before venturing to the Musée d'Orsay. The museum was probably my favorite thing we did in Paris, besides eat, and although a large part of the Impressionist collection, my favorite, was temporarily closed for remodeling, I still loved the museum and walked through nearly all of the rooms. After crossing back over the Seine, we got crêpes from a street vendor. My banana nutella crêpe was delectable in all of its chocolatey melted goodness. The bananas were so fresh, halfway through taking customers' orders, the man ran down to the produce stand on the corner and bought more bananas! We then waited in line for an hour, considered reasonably short, for the Louvre. Inside, the crowds and the enormity of the space was overwhelming so we followed the guide and just saw the biggest pieces: the Mona Lisa, the statue of Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, several other key pieces, the archaeological exhibit with artifacts of the old castle, and of course we entered through the pyramid. After the museum, we wandered back into the Marais and went to this incredible boulangerie and patisserie for lunch. Gosselin was a cute little shop tucked away on a side street and we each ordered a quiche and a dessert. I ordered a spinach and cheese quiche. The bitter flavor of the spinach paired perfectly with the sharpness of the cheese and the crust's flaky and crunchy texture. Then came dessert! I ordered a mille feuilles pistache framboises. It was basically a layer of flaky crunchy pastry covered in powdered sugar, a pistachio mousse that was the perfect balance of airy and rich, fresh raspberries, another layer of pastry, a layer of some type of raspberry preserves, and another layer of pastry. It was incredible! I may or may not have licked the plate at the end.... Then we walked up the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe before heading back to Montmarte for dinner. We walked around trying to find the least touristy place although the one we chose was a little touristy, it was delicious! Le Petit Parisien was located on a small side street about halfway between the Sacre Couer and Moulin Rouge. I ordered fish with tomatoes and was alarmed when I received a plate with a whole fish on it. Once I got over my shock and lost to the fish in a staring contest, I decided to begin to try to figure out how to eat it. Once I sort of did a little dissection work, it was actually easy and when I tried my first bite, it was definitely worth all of the work. It was a simple white fish but when paired with the lemon, oil, butter sauce and the large roasted tomatoes which were mixed with basil and fennel, among other things, it was awesome! The flavors in the sauce and tomato truly brought out the subtle flavors of the fish and made it a great dish! I ate it all! My friend ordered a duck breast with ratatouille, which was the best meal she's had in her life. The duck was served already sliced into small squares and the fat was easily trimmable. It was covered in this sauce that can only be described as incredible! I couldn't figure out what was in the sweet sauce but when paired with the duck, it was delectable. The ratatouille was more of an onion compote but helped add an acidic flavor to the otherwise sweet duck. After dinner, my friend lamented the end of her meal and claimed she was going back to the same restaurant the following night.

The next morning, I left Paris exhausted and stuffed to return back to London. It was a great weekend and a culinary adventure to be sure.