Cream Tea at English Meadows

New England does the Devonshire cream tea! Recently, we stayed at the English Meadows Inn in Kennebunkport, Maine. This small town is a coastal resort perhaps most famous as the location of the Bush's summer holiday home. The owner had spent some time in UK and therefore, was quite partial to the English habit of taking tea. He made his own lemon curd and although clotted cream was not an option, he made a good approximation of the Devonshire cream himself. Certainly not as rich or dense but it did at least have the flavour. The homemade scones were delicious and we ordered what turned out to be a great tea - Avalanche Rooibos which only seems to be available on the internet. Check out the heavily chintzy floral tea salon too - all the teaware was fine bone china.

Birthday Dinner at Salts

Beautifully presented food - check out the edible flowers in my mixed green salad! One of the stars was the yellowtail sashimi with tempura! The tuna dish had gorgeous vegetables but the fish was overcooked. Excellent very friendly service at the restaurant - as they knew it was my birthday, they had decorated our table with silver sparkly things. But I think best of all was the dessert - hazelnut parfait on bed of chocolate cake with hazelnut candy, cherries, creamy foam, special biscuit...

Expand Your Waist Weekend

With a friend visiting from out-of-town that appreciates the gastronomic delights Boston has to offer, the scene is set for a wondrous "expand your waist" weekend. Activities include:

1) A drink at "Top of the Hub" (complete with 360 views of Boston from the 52nd floor)

2) Dinner at Myers & Chang (cool surroundings but it's basically Asian bistro food)

3) Dessert at Sibling Rivalry (coz bread&butter pudding at 11pm is not a sin)

4) Brunch at Aquitaine

5) Dinner at Harvest (good but not monumental unlike last year's monkfish: see a previous post)

Drop by and see me in Boston - I'll take you out to EAT!

*Thanks to Susanna who was the official photographer for this post*

Graduation Party

Thanks to all the friends that descended upon our small abode! Armed with balloons, decorations, cake and cookery skills - this was the result ! Another big Chinese dinner including 3 luscious cold crabs. As I couldn't stop mentioning, a bargain at $1.99 a lb. Yes, that meant that whole dish of crab cost us less than $7 - read and weep you England peeps. The strawberry chocolate cake was delicious - if you think this cake looks slightly familiar, you are right. One of the earlier blog entries featured the very same cake but with white frosting. The cakes are from Konditor Meister - http://www.konditormeister.com/. Birthdays just got a whole lot more fattening....

Gastro adventures in France and Switzerland

I'm going to be unshamefully unlike Yee and instead of posting yummy foods which i crafted myself (haha that'll be the day) im just going to post photos of foods which I encountered in France and Switzerland. Whilst I view french food as quite snobbish, swiss food is pretty meaty/salty in general and also influenced by neighbours Germany, France and Italy depending on what region it is.

Not much to look at but a simple home made dinner in the Italian-speaking region of Ticino in Switzerland - Pasta with a slab of butter and Ticino sausages. And at 9 swiss francs (around £5) its the cheapest dinner you'll eeever have here.
Pork knuckle on a bed of sauerkraut and mustard sauce in Lausanne, near Geneva. A big muvva of a meal and not for everyone - especially the pickley sauerkraut, but i do love my pickle. Snails in Paris, at Le Colimacon. Unfortunately not as good as I've had before in Bath - garlic good, but otherwise it was a bit chewy and squid like. The meal was alright in general (I had Steak entrecote, below, for main with what suspiciously looked like marrow for sauce) but too expensive for what it was. And french being french, they dont believe in condiments (not my kind of country then) and so just salted the steak, which was fine, if there was only a helping of Bernaise sauce.. And finally.. THIS thing. Named as L'Andouillete Gastronomique, this is apparently Lyon's pride and joy. I like to think of it as a joke played on foreigners from all french. We did think it looked like mushed up hamster but even that would taste better. I found a description on the net...

Traditional Andouillette is made from the colon and the stomach of pigs. A modern version may also contain cattle offal. The French andouillette is an acquired taste and can be off-putting to diners due to its extremely pungent odor, often compared to the smell of faeces.

I am so glad i tried this dish BEFORE i read this description. I had heard it was made of colon and intestines but did not think about the faeces - luckily mine didn't smell. Nonetheless, i picked at it, gave up (and i hardly ever give up on food) and instead took a photo so you can share in my wonderful experience.

Easter Eggs

This is not strictly a food item - purely decorative but so proud of this home-made Easter basket, had to post it on the blog! Hard boiled the eggs and then dyed them pastel colors with food dye. Used watercolors to paint the eggs. Made the "eggy hay" from pushing colored paper through the shredder. Made treat bags of Cadbury's Mini Eggs and added in some Cadbury's Caramel Eggs. Topped off with a Peep Marshmallow Chick. Any orders?

Valentine's Day Cookies

Ok, I don't really like cookies that much but if I had to eat some, I guess I would go for lemon butter thins. Got hold of a good recipe and armed with my trusty cookie cutters, these were the results! Didn't have a rolling pin but a wine bottle did the trick. You can also get these easy tubes of ready-made icing and then stick sprinkles on them - very easy and fun.

Chinese New Year Dinner at My Place

This event totally encapsulates the Law family tradition! For the start of the New Year of the Ox, it is traditional to have a big "hoi neen fan" with at least 8- 9 dishes. There is no way I can cook so many (I am not my Uncle Wan!) so roped in a few friends and voila! 9 dishes in 2 and a half hours - not bad. Or 11 if you count the soup and dessert...The menu was as follows:

- Shark's Fin and Chicken Broth

- Pork-Stuffed Fuzzy Melon

- Soya Chicken

- Spicy King Prawns

- Pan-Fried Fish

- Ginger Beef

- Steamed Silken Tofu with Prawns

- Homestyle Tofu and Pork

- Braised Chinese Mushrooms on Bed of Romaine

- Baby Bok Choi in Garlic

Blueberry muffins

My first attempt at baking blueberry muffins! Can't believe this is my first time considering you can buy blueberries in bulk very cheaply. These look good and they tasted ok - not too sweet. Should have greased the wrappers though. Let me know if you want the recipe - actually it was quite easy.

Vegetarian Chinese Banquet

Ok - this was definitely an interesting culinary experience! So you guys are all familiar with those 10 course chinese banquets - shark's fin soup, scallops and brocolli, chicken, duck etc etc. - how about a totally vegetarian version? I had the good luck of being invited (last minute) to a vegetarian "Tuen nin fan" banquet in New York. All the attendees are strict vegetarians due to their Buddhist faith. Apart from veggies, they are really into fake meats made from tofu or bean proteins. Instead of coming up with whole new dishes, the whole idea is to duplicate the taste and look of the meat versions. Of course, it won't be exactly the same but all in all, very impressive!

Take a look at the photos - one is the vegetarian cold platter with veggie jellyfish and seaweed, the soup was an amazing winter melon soup with lots of ingredients. The presentation here was key - the waiter came round and cut the winter melon on the top which released the other ingredients from the bottom.

The "scallop and brocolli" was created with a stuffed braised shittake mushroom. The tofu rolls was masterful - the filling was a mixture of different vegetables finely-diced wrapped in a tofu pocket.

2008 Anniversary Dinner

Another one for the series - this year, we headed to the North End area of Boston which is basically Little Italy. Tons of italian eateries, gelato and pastry shops. We went to Mamma Maria where Paul had the rabbit dish and mine was the tuna with squid-ink fresh pasta. It was ok - perhaps we did not make the right menu choices !? It's a sad evening when Paul declares his favorite part of the meal was the bread basket with pesto and a whole jar of olives. It was good though...