Autumn: My favourite season for food
I love fall (autumn for you Brits). There is something about the cool, crisp air and strong afternoon sunlight that just gets you excited about the upcoming season and holidays. Moreover it gets me excited for all of the seasonal foods and all of the multiple recipes that these foods provide. From candy apples to scary graveyard cupcakes for Halloween (my personal favourite holiday), there are just so many treats to be made from the autumn harvest.
One thing about most of the fruits and vegetables from the fall harvest is that they are so versatile. Take apples…they can be sweet or sour and come in all sizes and various colours. Apples are at home in a pie whether it be a deep dish cinnamon laced apple pie or as an added ingredient to bring out the flavour of pork in meat pies. They can be stuffed into chickens or made into a rich apple sponge with raisins and a hint of rum. They accompany so many herbs and spices and bring out the flavour in many dishes both meat and sweet.
Pumpkins are another fall treat. They are so beautiful in so many colours and shapes. I always get so excited when I see the local markets displaying so many different types. I just know that the smell of wood smoke in the air is only a few weeks away.
I always get loads of squash species to use in home decor, recipes and, of course, a big orange pumpkin for your typical Halloween jack o’lanterns! This year for foodie purposes, I intend to experiment with the season’s many squash varieties with a least one soup and perhaps a bread pudding. I’m not sure yet but please stay tuned.
Dim Sum
Back from London (o.k. a month back but I have been busy with a few other unforseen things), and here to share my Dim Sum experience.
I had plans to have dim sum while in London as it has been so long since the last time I enjoyed it (while I was at Uni in Houston, Texas). For those who don’t know “dim sum” is a Cantonese word meaning “to touch your heart” and involve small, single servings of food. This food includes anything from savory dumplings which can be made from fish, meat or vegetables to sweets like egg tarts and filled sweet glutenous doughs.
There are quite a few dim sum restaurants to choose from in London. After reading reviews and looking at various areas of London, it seemed to me that some of the best restaurants were actually outside of the China Town area.
Because of time restraints and proximity to where we were staying, we chose a restaurant called Ping Pong which has a few different locations (we chose the St. Christopher’s restaurant).
When we arrived, I loved the clean, almost Japanese, look to the place. I also noticed that there were quite a few Asian people eating there (always a good sign!). They had a pencil and list of dim sum choices for each customer upon the table, as well as a menu with a description of each item on the list.
Although, as I had eaten dim sum before and so had some clear memories of favourites, the choice was a bit daunting. After discussions and some advising on my part (and our servers), we chose a wasabi bloody mary and a black volcanic salt rimmed margarita to drink.
My margarita was wonderful and the black volcanic salt, which I had always wanted to try, tasted like, well, salt (but a very pretty salt). Allan liked his bloody mary but said he would have liked more of a wasabi kick (maybe too much ice?).
Our favourite from our many (four each) choices of food was, char sui bun, spicy pork dumpling, seafood shu mai, and the crab spring roll. We chose to be served three different types of chili sauce (soy sauce is served on the table) along with our dim sum which was a good move for a bit of heat and extra flavour.
We were happy with Ping Pong for both excellent dim sum and an experience of fresh and different food from what is normally on offer. The restaurant had tasty food as well as servers that were willing to explain the menu choices and advise those new to the dim sum experience.
If you have yet to try dim sum, next time you are in a city that offers it, please go and try. You will be experiencing one of the most flavourful (and varied) tastes and a bit of Cantonese culture.
Updates
I’ve been working hard today to post a few recipes (okay very few) and get some pages up.
Over the next few days I am planning to do some serious cooking. Stay tuned to such goodies as Wild Mushroom Risotto, Teryaki Tuna with Wasabi and hopefully a few more.
We will be in London this coming week and I promise a few restaurant reviews along with pictures.
Newark’s Best restaurant
Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m not a great fan of the town I live in. It has real potential but always seems to fall sadly short, especially when it comes to food. It prides itself on being a market town but the food stalls are so limited…just the same old fruit and veg (although they are very nice). I have to admit that, at least on a Wed, there are a few extra cheese and exotic meat stalls which do make it nice. I just wish they’d be a bit more adventurous in what they sell on a daily basis.
If the market falls short, the restaurant really disappoint. Most of them are chain and have predictable menus, terrible service and bad, uninspired food. Except for a few…
One of the few stars in the food trade is The Thanal, a wonderfully authentic Southern Indian restaurant. Their food is based on the culture and food of a southern region called Kerala which translates into “the land of coconuts”. After eating the same old kormas and jalfrezies, it is so refreshing to get real herbs, real spice and real flavour that has direct links to India, as opposed to direct links to jarred sauces from Morrisons.
Thanal is relatively new to the Newark area and the restaurant itself has a beautiful decor, inspired by the Kerala region, with friendly and personable staff who are happy to help any new diners with the array of menu choices.
Some of our favourites include starting with the ever popular papadoms which are served with an onion, tomato, cumber salad, mango chutney and a hot lemon pickle.
The appetizer selection is large and has several meat and vegetarian choices. We both love the chicken drumsticks, lentil soup and chicken and pea samosas but one of my recent favourites is the cassava bonda which is a delicious mixture of potatoes, peanuts, cassava (a type of root vegetable), all spiced with ginger, cumin, garlic and other Indian spices. It is served with a wonderful split pea curry with pieces of eggplant which is good enough to be served and eaten on it own.
As for mains…it’s really hard to choose from just one item from all of the various catagories (chicken, red meats, vegetables, fish and Dosas (large Indian breads stuffed with potatoes and other fillings). I must say I personally have at least one favourite from each catagory. My current favourite is the lentil stew. No matter what I order, I always include a paratha (a coiled wheat bread which is lovely and chewy).
Other favourites include the chicken tika masala and the beef chaps. I have honestly never had anything there was wasn’t beautiful tasting. The other great thing is that the server always asks just how spicy you want your dish, so it’s customizable.
So if you have a passion for Indian food that comes from an original source and is refreshingly different from the usual “kebab” inspired “Indian” restaurants, give the Thanal a try. You won’t regret it.
For more information, click the links above.
Yet another food blog
I have for months now been(if not longer) reading both friends and stranger’s food based blogs and I have been overall impressed. Impressed enough to try my hand at one, and hopefully not bore the world with more weekly anecdotes about food and my obsession for it.
I hope this blog will capture my (and my partner Allan’s) love of cooking and eating that which has been cooked for us. I will hopefully be experiencing new and wonderful foods on my travels (and at home), as well as polishing my own skills and palate by venturing out to use new ingredients to make my own creations.
So, out comes my camera and my sense of adventure.
Stay tuned…
