thefidgetyfoodie

The Purple Collection

Posted on November 8, 2014 by thefidgetyfoodie

Image by Pantone

It was inevitable wasn´t it? Yes, my friends are nodding. For I am obsessed with this colour.

But I do not stand alone. Pantone, the absolute authority on colour, declared the 2014 Colour of the Year to be purple. Well Radiant Orchid to be precise. Number 18-3224 if you want to be really precise.

Image by Pantone

They even whipped up this cute illustration for Halloween. Seems I˙m not the only one campaigning to rebrand all major festivals in a purple hue.

In the spirit of celebrating this fabulous colour I bring you my Purple Collection.

Purple sweet potato and chestnut tart

Purple sweet potato and chestnut tart, Hong Kong: Tell me this isn´t the most stunning little pastry that you´ve ever seen! The fact that it didn´t taste amazing was in no way a determent for me. It wasn´t sweet enough for my palate and I never have fully embraced the concept of root vegetables taking a starring role in desserts. Didn’t stop me from eating one a day though.

Aubergine, Hong Kong and London: this is an obvious addition to the list, perhaps too obvious. But the calibre of produce at the Graham Street and Borough markets respectively is top notch, and the colours so luminous they had to make the list. I found myself cradling these beauties like newborns.

Purple potatoes, inside and out

Purple potatoes, Berlin: A delightful discovery for me this year was the Turkish market in Kreuzberg where I had some of the best Turkish food I´ve ever eaten (and that includes in Turkey). Amongst the gozleme stands and fresh produce was an unassuming crate filled with purple potatoes that I almost walked straight by because their skins were not dissimilar from ordinary potatoes. But one look at the sign and a sliced up specimen spoke the truth. Unfortunately I didn’t have access to a kitchen on this occasion so didnt´t buy any and I´ve been looking in vain to find them ever since.

Purple flour! Sort of…

Flour, Stockholm. Trust the design saavy Swedes to package up something as generic as flour into a design classic. I am almost wept at the beauty of this display.

Cauliflower is back on the hot list thanks to its new shade

Cauliflower, Stockholm: Thanks to purple varieties, cauliflower is going through a renaissance. No longer languishing on crudité trays and under mounds of melted cheese and breadcrumbs, this underachieving brassica is finally having its (purple) moment in the sun.

Blackberry soup for every occasion

Blackberry soup, Stockholm: My Swedish friend Johan drinks cold blackberry soup every morning and hot blackberry soup when he is sick. He happens to be the fittest person I know so when he told me this I ran to the nearest store to track some down. A super food in super packaging, does it get any better?

You might have noticed that the last three items all came from Stockholm. So keep an eye out on the shelves of Ikea, no doubt this will be next season´s feature colour!

Does anyone have a purple food item to add to my collection?

The Breakfast Club

Posted on November 6, 2014 by thefidgetyfoodie

Breakfast is arguably the most important meal of the day. Especially if you´re arguing with a nutritionist.

When I am travelling and especially when I am staying with friends abroad, I find that breakfast says a lot about the place I am in and the people I am with.

Here are my favourite breakfast moments from the past few months:

A Full Irish breakfast

The Full Irish – closely related to the Full English, this is the type of heart stopping affair that will safely keep you full ´till dinner. Handy if you´re labouring in the fields all day or as in my case, exploring the Irish countyside. The key elements include bacon, sausages, black pudding, white pudding, sautéed mushrooms, beans, fried potatoes and tomato. All cooked in lots of lovely Irish butter and served with soda bread and a cup of tea. My favourite parts were (vegetarians look away) the respective puddings; black pudding is a made from pork blood, oatmeal, pork fat, onions and spices and white pudding is similar minus the pork blood. It´s the key defining feature of the full Irish breakfast so don’t let your squeamish side deter you!

A fresh ensaïmada from Mallorca

Not just any old breakfast pastry, Mallorca´s ensaïmada is a protected product (up there with Champagne and feta) with a guarantee of origin since 1996, even though it originates from the 17^th century. Flour, water, sugar and pork lard create sheer layers of pastry which are shaped in a coil, baked, sprinkled with powdered sugar and sometimes filled with cream or custard. They are the Balearic answer to croissants, dipped in coffee and enjoyed as the morning meal.

Breakfast spread in Leipzig. Where to start?!

My friends Marc and Kathleen in Leipzig really know how to put on an impressive German breakfast spread. It all starts with bread; lots of it and different varieties. Select a piece and build your breakfast from there. There were several cheeses including camembert and cheddar, various cured meats (even a vegetarian sliced ´meat´), crudités, jams, mustards, hard boiled eggs, homemade pickles, cream cheese, slices of apple cake, fruit and fresh coffee. I tried to be as restrained as my hosts, focusing on one piece of bread and one or two toppings at a time but with that spread it was tough!

Delicios skyr and homemade jam on toast in Iceland

A homemade Icelandic breakfast is not to be missed. I´ve already waxed lyrical about my obsession with skyr and the fact that it appears at every meal. Breakfast is no exception. Add milk or cream or just enjoy this smooth dairy product unadorned. Almost everything at this breakfast table was homemade, including the sweet kleina pastries and the delicious blackberry jam.

The classic French breakfast

Breakfast at a sidewalk café in Paris is as de rigueur as visiting the Louvre. A French breakfast is usually small and perfectly formed – typically a croissant and/or tartine (sliced French bread) with butter and jam, juice and café crème. You can jazz it up with a fried egg or swap your croissant for a pain au raisin. Très chic, just like the French.

What´s your favourite breakfast meal?

Cloudberries are my crack

Posted on November 2, 2014 by thefidgetyfoodie

That is to say this rare Arctic berry has become somewhat of an obsession for me and I´ve spent a disproportionate amount of time and money trying to track it down.

Photo by My Little Norway

These delicate berries, in season for barely three weeks, can only be hand-picked from the swamps of the Northern Skandinavian countries. Such remote and enigmatic locations are often a closely guarded family secret, passed down through generations.

I remember exactly when my obsession with cloudberries began. It was mid-2007 and I began working in London´s Soho, next door to a café called Nordic Bakery. It was a treasure trove of Skandi goods, from piping hot cinnamon buns to gravlax on rye.

This is where I first picked up a jar of cloudberry jam (hjortronsylt) and from the first spoonful I was hooked. At £5 a jar it was an expensive habit (but surely cheaper than crack?), especially when you consider my penchant for eating it straight from the jar.

I dreamt about eating the berries fresh but was never in the right place at the right time. Read More

6 sugar highs I’ll never forget

Posted on October 30, 2014 by thefidgetyfoodie

Get to the heart of a country’s sweet spot and I think you’re well on your way to understanding the very soul of those people. The Greek sweets I’ve grown up with often come drenched in honey syrup and sprinkled liberally with cinnamon. Well we are sweet and intense people are we not?!

I have an extraordinarily strong sweet tooth. And a very robust dessert stomach. Both come in handy when travelling and eating a disproportionate amount of sweet treats.

Here is a taster of some unforgettable sweet moments; memorable as much for their provenance as their deliciousness.

Hungarian Dobos Torte

Dobos Torte: this Hungarian beauty was invented 130 years ago; that’s impressive staying power in the fickle world of dessert fads (take note cronuts). Five layers of sponge cake and chocolate buttercream are topped with a firm caramel glaze and crushed nuts. Patissier József Dobos pioneered the use of buttercream to extend the cake’s shelf life, a clever idea in the pre-refrigeration age. Pick up a slice from any patisserie or cafe throughout the country.

Europe’s first liquid nitrogen ice cream parlour

Liquid nitrogen ice cream: cooking with liquid nitrogen is not exactly an age old technique but it has revolutionised ice cream production. Leading the charge is Chin Chin Labs, tucked away in London’s Camden markets. Pick your flavour and watch as the ice cream custard mixture is whipped into a frenzy with liquid nitrogen, delivering ridiculously smooth, dense and crystal-free ice cream to order.

Saffron and seasame seed ice cream with salty caramel sauce and pistachio crumbs

A myriad of curious flavours rotates regularly; try tonka pineapple one week and pumpkin cheesecake the next. They also get creative with their toppings (white chocolate coated potato chips anyone?).

Calissons, almost too beautiful to eat (but not quite)

Calisson: you can’t take two steps in Provence without tripping over a display of these stunning beauties. Each one perfectly almond shaped, they are made from candied fruit paste and marzipan with a thin layer of royal icing. The flavours represent the beautiful produce and colours of southern France. My favourite place to buy them is La Cure Gourmande. Why L’Occitane hasn’t developed a calisson flavoured range is beyond me. Read More

How to navigate a Polish milk bar

Posted on October 25, 2014 by thefidgetyfoodie

Walk around the cosmopolitan streets of a modern Polish city and the communist era is not immediately evident.

Until you step into a Polish milk bar (bar mleczny). Offering hearty meals to the masses, these cheap cafeterias thrived during the communist era and are still popular with students, pensioners and curious travellers. And apparantely the staff liked to yell at customers (soup nazi style).

Familijny milk bar in Warsaw

My equally curious friend Maz and I walked into Warsaw’s best known milk bar, Familijny, with empty bellies and a sense of excitement. It was a no frills affair, from the formica tables to the absence of any colour. Minimalist in the way only ex soviet bloc countries can be.

The extensive menu of Polish classics

We looked at the menu on the wall. 100% Polish. I can generally navigate a foreign menu, taking cues from the layout and the few words I know. We took a stab that zupa was soup and gulasz was goulash. After that we were stumped.

Diners eat quickly and quietly

So we decided to order something from each section and hope for the best. The most expensive dish was 7.5 zlotys (AUD$2.50/£1.50) so we weren’t exactly risking our life savings. This is what we ordered

1. bulka
2. zupa gzbowa
3. kurczak pieczony
4. gulasz miesny
5. nalesniki
6. kalafior

Our experimental meal at Familijny milk bar

Which turned out to be (clockwise from the top left) Read More

Wine harvest in Alsace

Posted on October 21, 2014 by thefidgetyfoodie

Alsace is my favourite region of France and in my eyes makes the best wine (no doubt Champagne and Bordeaux would have something to say about that).
The Alsace wine route runs from Strasbourg to Mulhouse and is full of quaint villages, medieval châteaux and dozens of wineries.

Dambach-La-Ville in Alsace

I’ve drunk my fare share of Alsatian wine (pass the Gewürztraminer please) but never participated in vendage or vintage; arguably the most important step in the entire wine making process. Pick the grapes at the wrong time and you’re doomed.

My friends Agathe and Manuel from Selestat knew this when they instructed me to get into the car one Saturday.

“We’re going to a winery” they said. “It’s the perfect season to pick grapes”.

Brilliant I thought. Gewürztraminer grapes as far as the eye can see!

Half an hour later we arrived in Dambach-La-Ville and pulled up at the Pierre Arnold winery.

Henry IV knew what he was talking about

Our hosts gave us a tour of the winery facilities, including the pressing room, the storage room and the tasting room. Sylvaner grapes were being pressed that day while giant oak barrels held a variety of wines is various stages of fermentation.

The large oak barrels had quotes written elegantly in French or Alsatian (the local dialect that blends French and German). My favourite quote was from Henry IV:

‘Bonne cuisine et bon vin, c’est le paradis sur terre’.

‘Good food and wine, it’s paradise on earth’. Agreed!

The barrels must be cleaned thoroughly to prevent tartar build up. At one point our host donned a waterproof suit and contorted his elongated form through the tiny trap door to give one particular barrel a good scrub.

At this point it was nearing 1pm which meant just one thing. Déjeuner! A hoard of hungry vendage workers had just arrived for their main meal of the day and it was time for us to sit down and join them.

Hungry vendage workers

I’ve always loved the devotion and energy that the French apply to their lunch. It is still common practice for people to stop everything and either return home to prepare a meal or enjoy a meal out of the office with colleagues. A sandwich at one’s desk would be unthinkable.

We joined the ravenous workers at a long table for a welcoming round of fromage frais on crusty bread and Pierre Arnold wine. Then my nose suddenly picked up a tangy, sour scent and I knew it could only mean one thing in these parts. Choucroute!!

Choucroute – definitely not a dish for vegetarians

Alsace’s most prolific dish includes piles of sauerkraut braised with various cuts of cured pork, juniper berries and boiled potatoes. Generous serves were accompanied by Dijon mustard, fresh bread and more wine. Read More

Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium

Posted on October 19, 2014 by thefidgetyfoodie

What´s the hottest ticket in London these days?

A table by the window in The Shard? Tickets to the latest version of Hamlet starring Benedict Cumberbatch?

Wrong. That would be a booking at a certain east London cafe. This place has turned back the likes of Katy Perry in recent times and you´d be hard pressed to score a table before the year was out.

The unassuming entrance of Lady Dinah´s

And why all the fuss? Cats! Practical cats, dramatical cats, pragmatical cats, fanatical cats, oratorical cats, delphioracle cats… inside Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium you´ll find almost the full spectrum of T. S. Eliot´s cats.

Read up on each cat before you enter the cafe

Introducing the cats that live at Lady Dinah´s

This café was set up primarily to care for rescued cats so the entire space is like a feline Disneyland with every nook and cranny filled with fun wheels, toys and nesting perches.

Guests are carefully briefed, sanitised and wormed… i mean warned, before entering the emporium. Don’t even think about picking up one of the ten cats mid-snooze or feeding them your macaron crumbs. If they approach you however, it´s game on. Read More

Scotch eggs

Posted on October 16, 2014 by thefidgetyfoodie

What is Britain´s favourite snack?

A piping hot Cornish pastie, Marmite on toast, jellied eels perhaps?

Well no doubt all of the above, but certainly also high up on the list is the humble scotch egg. Consisting of a hard boiled egg encased in sausage meat, breadcrumbed and fried, it was allegedly invented by the Queen´s providore, Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly London, as a convenience food. The idea was that a scotch egg or two could fit nicely into a gentleman´s pocket or hankerchief to provide sustenance on the long carriage ride back to the manor. Well it was 1738.

The scotch egg was bastardised for a while there in the 90´s and taken advantage of by service stations and the like but now seems to be going through a renaissance. In the interests of presenting a well-rounded (no pun intended) case, I recently sampled a selection and bring you my findings:

A Fortnum & Mason scotch egg

Fortnum & Mason scotch egg: Whether or not you believe their ´traveller´s snack´ tale matters not a jot. Bite into one of these beauties to reveal succulent organic mince and a perfectly cooked soft yolk egg. Read More

8 things you simply must eat in Iceland

Posted on October 15, 2014 by thefidgetyfoodie

Considering how isolated Iceland has been for most of its history, it´s no wonder the island´s tiny population (320,000!) has developed a unique cuisine based on whatever raw materials were available. Many traditional ingredients and dishes remain popular to this day and you would be crazy not to try these delicious delicacies when you go.

Skyr (pronounced skeer) is practically the national food and until recently was only available in Iceland. This high protein, low fat creation is technically a cheese, but looks and tastes like yoghurt and is delicious. It comes in a range of flavours and also in a drink form. My favourite flavour was vanilla but they are all tasty, you can´t go wrong. Skyr is available everywhere, even at the airport, which is handy for smuggling a few tubs home.

While staying on an Icelandic farm, the skyr came out for every meal. My adopted family often added cream or milk. Yes, it was a dairy overload but it somehow it worked!

Barbequed horse steak

Icelandic horses are revered for their beauty and strength (not to mention their unique ´five-gaits´) and have always been an essential prop of the economy. Eating horse meat has kept Icelanders from starvation over the years and it´s prized for its strong flavour. Throw a horse steak on the barbie if you get the chance! Read More

And the cosiest airport award goes to…

Posted on October 15, 2014 by thefidgetyfoodie

You´re thinking Singapore´s Changi because it has a pool and a butterfly garden. Or Bangkok because you can get a massage 24 hours a day. Maybe Munich for its brewery?

No.

Not for me anyway. Airports these days seem to offer everything the so called modern traveller needs but the one thing I´ve always found distinctly absent from every airport I´ve visited is a personality, or god forbid a sense of humour.

Which is why my recent visit to Tallinn airport, en route to Paris, was such a surprise. Estonia´s capital is not usually setting international style benchmarks, but I found myself delighted and surprised several times while waiting for my flight. And not by the kids play area, unlimited free wifi and Skype video booths (although they were cool too).

The help-yourself library at Tallinn airport

First up was the the airport library where you can read and even borrow a book at your leisure, with the idea that you´ll return it on your way back or replace it with a book you no longer need. A genius idea that fosters a sense of community and environmental awareness.

Book in hand, I walked into the nearby Kohver Café and was bowled over by the fact that this was not a chain café. Independent businesses are rarely, if ever, courted by airports. It was teeming with vintage décor and quirky styling, including coffee tables made out of antique suitcases (an idea I am totally going to copy). This café would look perfectly at home in Sydney´s Surry Hills or London´s Soho. Read More