PARIS: The Unfood Bits

I've been eating like a queen everyday since I travelled over from London on the Eurostar to meet my family in Paris. As a result, I'm actually getting, dare I say it, sick of eating. So, this is a one-post break from food, dedicated entirely to un-food photography. 

When I think of Paris, I think eiffel tower (surprise, surprise), generously buttered croissants and effortlessly well-dressed french people. I found this to be entirely true when I finally got here, complete with exorbitant prices and a blatant tourist-infestation. I've discovered over the past year that the kind of people you find when you travel is unique to the city within which you find yourself. While Londoners are effusively eccentric with their red tights and faux cheetah fur coats, Parisians have a distinctly polished style. A friend of mine once said, "the closer you get to the central area (in London), the thinner and more beautiful people get." In Paris, it seems as though they're beautiful everywhere, all the time.

What I love about Parisians is that they rarely go out looking drab; even old men are dressed very sweetly in well-fitted tweed and berets. After the two days I spent in Paris taking these photographs, I now completely understand the motivation behind The Sartorialist. Sometimes strangers make far better subjects than scenery and food.  

How did she do that??

 

No prizes for guessing where this is. I have a sudden urge to re-read The Da Vinci Code. 

Sometimes I wish I'd taken art, just so I'd have an excuse to sit serenely in a museum for hours, lost in my own world as I sketch away.

Look who I bumped into at a cafe in the Louvre!

LONDON markets: Portobello

I bought the tomatoes

mutant cherry tomatoes, £1 per basket

Oh Marks & Spencer, whatever would I do without you?

my dinner for the night: juicy, ripe tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella on a bed of wild rocket - to be drizzled generously with sweet balsamic vinegar

Photos 1 & 2 taken by Carmen

LONDON: Tania's of Hampstead

Isn't it strange how you can find delicious coffee in the unlikeliest of places, yet well-known establishments can do the worst coffee? (see previous post) Ever since Carmen arrived, we've been going on regular morning coffee-hunts to fulfill her caffeine addiction. It was by chance that we came across Tania's of Hampstead, a make-shift stall cum van parked at the end of a narrow footpath. 


I'd passed by before but never expected their coffee to actually surpass the quality of those at the myriad of cafes along Hampstead High St. I probably should have realized it earlier though - Jun and I had been walking by Tania's when we heard a teenaged girl shyly tell a young man in wayfarers "I really like your tv show, can I have your autograph please?" 


Somehow, friendly conversation seems to thrive at this sliver of a crevice along Heath Street. The coffee-maker is a friendly lebanese man. On our first visit, he kept greeting us with, "good morning from Singapore!" until we told him Singaporeans speak English. This sparked off amused smiles from two other customers: a portly old man who owns an antique shop nearby and a beautiful, model-esque french lady who told us Singapore was very " 'ot and 'umid". 


Hot chocolate at Tania's is one of the best I've had so far in London and definitely on par with Ginger and White's hot chocolate. The cappuccino is fresh, aromatic and steaming hot. Best of all, it's amazingly affordable - only £1.50 per cup. 


Tania's of Hampstead: 
Hampstead Antique Emporium, 12 Heath Street
Hampstead
NW3 6TE

LONDON: La Pain Quotidien

Brioche, £2

Iced Moccacino, £3.20

chocolate spread

Photos 1, 3 & 4 taken by Carmen

It's been a while since I could step outdoors and immediately feel intense heat wash over me, but yesterday was one of those days. I'd decided to take Carmen, who's visiting from Singapore, to Portobello Market at Notting Hill Gate. Before we dove into the throngs of people edging their way through the market, we paused for some breakfast (and Carmen's daily dose of caffeine) at Le Pain Quotidien.


Disappointingly, despite its lovely rustic charm, Le Pain Quotidien serves astonishingly bland cappuccinos and,ironically, heavily sweetened iced moccacinos. The brioche I'd ordered just didn't have the freshly baked texture that Harrods' brioches achieved with deceptive ease. Even the temptingly thick chocolate spread we spied, and swiped, on our neighbour's table couldn't save it. 


In spite of all this, however, I'd go back to Le Pain for its moist, freshly-baked cakes and the countryside quaintness of its decor that brings you away from the stark modernity that London can sometimes be. In short, don't visit Le Pain for breakfast; save it for tea and dessert.



Le Pain Quotidien:
81-85 Notting Hill Gate
London
W11 3JS

Strawberry & Blueberry Cupcakes (and a dash of summer)

The transition from winter to spring and eventually summer is both beautiful and foreign to me. Dull greys and sombre browns turn to sunshine yellows and baby blues; and from the dreariness of winter emerges the glorious exuberance of summer. 

The insurgence of colour that summer inevitably brings inspired me to try my hand at decorating cupcakes for once instead of focusing on its ingredients. I think taste is partly psychological, and superficiality is a virtue rather than a vice in the realm of food.

To make these:

You need this: 

and these:

Mash the berries:

Bake and let cool: 

Smother, sprinkle and serve:

I very rarely allow myself to bake wholly unhealthy things, but when friends come round, I have to make an exception (all in the name of friendship of course). But eventually the health monster in me rears its ugly head and destroys any inclinations of smothering the batter with butter - it'd be akin to injecting my food with lard. So this time I swapped butter for extra virgin olive oil, and plain flour for wholemeal flour - all with little impact on taste. 


Strawberry & Blueberry Cupcakes with Vanilla Icing Recipe
Based on BBC's raspberry cupcake recipe

Ingredients
200g self-raising (wholemeal) flour
2 tsp baking powder
125g olive oil
3 eggs
125g caster sugar
50g ground almonds
3 tbsp cinnamon
1 punnet strawberries and blueberries, lightly crushed, plus extra to decorate
Optional: Sprinkles, and hazelnut oil instead of olive oil 

1.  Heat oven to 180C. Tip the first 7 ingredients into a large bowl and beat with electric whisk until smooth. Fold the crushed strawberries and blueberries through the batter.
2.  Divide the batter between the cases (they should be about half full) and bake for 15 mins or until golden and just firm.
3.  Remove the cupcakes from the oven and allow to cool a little. Top with the extra strawberries to serve. 

Vanilla Icing! 

½ cup unsalted butter, softened

4 cups confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup milk

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

1.     Place the butter in a large mixing bowl.

2.     Add 2 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla.

3.     On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes.

4.     Gradually add the remaining sugar, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. 


After distributing these amongst my friends, I left the rest on the kitchen counter after dinner with a note: "FREE CUPCAKES!" I'm happy to say that all of them had been devoured by the time I entered the kitchen at 6am the following morning. 

LONDON: Base Bistro

Eggs Royale,  £7.95

An ideal breakfast is filling, but not stuffing, and gives you just enough energy to last through the morning so that by the time lunch comes around, you're nicely hungry. Too bad eggs benedict isn't one of those breakfasts. 

Eggs benedict goes like this: two toasted English muffin halves layered with ham, covered with poached egg and drizzled over with hollandaise sauce. Common variations of eggs benedict are eggs royale (smoked salmon) and eggs florentine (spinach). 

Base Bistro is yet another cafe along Hampstead High Street (I'm sorry but I can't help it, I only have a few days left and I must savour every moment HHS is within walking distance). I've been here only twice and both times I've stubbornly stuck to my order of eggs benedict because they do it so tantalizingly well. I've ordered it several times elsewhere but nowhere does the eggs as fluffy and the smoked salmon as fresh and salmon-y as Base Bistro. 

Base Bistro

71 Hampstead High Street
Hampstead
London NW3 1QP

020 7431 2224

LONDON markets: Borough Market

The Honest Carrot: Nutty Crumbles at £3 each.

The Honest Carrot: flower pot bread 

Portugese Egg Tarts

Just look at all that hummus!!

Raclette cheese toast

Pistachio Birds Nest Baclava

You can't write about food in London without covering Borough Market. I don't even know where to begin. It's a messy amalgamation of food stalls selling gourmet-esque, unique food. You're literally spoiled for choice; and the fact that there are tasters at almost every stall isn't much help. My personal favourites to bring home are the nutty crumble (from The Honest Carrot, made of breadcrumbs, walnut, carrot, almond, leek and cheese) and the mushroom pate (from Pate Moi). Then again, this is a manifestation of my psychological need to compensate for my cake love with healthy meals. 

In a more indulgent mood, I'd go for the Raclette cheese toast or the gnocchi. Though the food is a bit more on the expensive side, it's worth every penny. A relatively new addition (yes, I go often enough to notice these things) is the lebanese/mediterranean food stall. It has a dozen varieties of hummus and delicious baklava - that's a lebanese dessert made of nuts and pastry drenched luxuriously in honey that welds the everything together. 

Other things to look forward to:

Truffle oil (as a dip or drizzled over pasta - I make sure I never run out) 

Fig jam

Gluten-free toasted cereal 

Cheese tasting (buffalo mozzarella!) 

Carrot cake

Lamb "hotdogs" - because to call them sandwiches would be a massive understatement. 

(Leave a comment below if you've been to Borough and think I've missed out anything!) 

Before you start thinking Borough Market is some kind of food heaven - a few words of warning: kangaroo burgers and crowds. I no longer remember what the kangaroo burgers tasted like, but I felt slightly sick after consuming about a quarter of it. Maybe it was the thought of the lovely creatures leaping across a plain or the awkward aftertaste. Either way, it's definitely not something I'd try more than once. Another put off is having to weave through masses of slow moving people but then again I don't blame them, it's a natural consequence of placing good food out in the open - we're drawn to it like bees are to honey. 

Borough Market

8 Southwark Street

City of London, Greater London SE1 1TL

020 7407 1002

LONDON: Ginger & White

Moist red velvet cupcake, oreo cupcake and cappuccino 

Photo taken by Jun (with my iphone)

Cliché as it sounds, it's a fantasy of mine to set up a pleasant, quiet little cafe amidst a smattering of quaint bookstores and alfresco eateries. The cafe I've dreamed up is a meld of the rustic nature of Le Pain Quotidien and the happy ease of Ginger & White. I did mention the latter in my first post, but I didn't do it justice so here's an entire post dedicated to it. Nestled within Hampstead High Street, Ginger & White is along the street right next to La Crêperie De Hampstead (see two posts down). What makes a cafe isn't just the cakes or its walkable distance from where you live, it's the atmosphere - the kind that makes you want to stay and sip coffee and read for a good few hours. Ginger & White wouldn't be Ginger & White without its azure blue plates, attentive staff (that somehow seem so innately content) and window seats bathed in sunshine. 


Unfortunately, I'd decided against bringing my dslr because of its weight so these pictures were taken with my iphone - though for a camera phone, I honestly think they're not too shabby. Afternoon tea with Jun today was a combination of decadently iced cupcakes, chilli-infused hot chocolate, light reading and good conversation. 


My chilli hot chocolate was a refreshing, albeit strange, change from the usual kind. Though the chilli's spiciness somewhat disguised the chocolatey taste, it wasn't at all unpleasant. Ginger & White is one of my favourite haunts and as a direct result, I know to come on weekdays, order the carrot cake when in doubt, avoid the mocha and go straight for the hot chocolate. The carrot cake is so good, in fact, that by the time we got there at 3pm it'd been sold out for an hour. For those of you in Singapore though, don't worry, Cedele's carrot cake is just as delicious and it comes with a walnut-encrusted side. 

Banana Soufflé

Banana Souffles: Photo taken by Dad.

Most of my friends already know this, but when it comes to food that isn't dessert, I can be a health freak. Macdonald's is enemy no.1. (Unless it's 3am and I'm starving after a night out. Then maybe I'll buy the apple pie.) When I cook for myself in London, salmon, salad and soup are ideal. Striking a balance between taste and health is simple when it comes to savoury food - a little avocado, a few freshly toasted walnuts or a sprinkling of wild rocket leaves go a long way. The hard part is making a dessert that isn't bloated with the same number of calories as your main course. 


Soufflés fall neatly into this category. The French are ingenious for coming up with the soufflé. They're completely flourless because they're made mainly of egg white and then puffed up with air so they're relatively guilt-free. And they taste like a more intense version of mousse. (Side note: on one of my enthusiastic but failed attempts to learn french through a combination of weekly lessons and french movies, I discovered that soufflé literally means "puff up" in french. I don't know why but I found that amusing.) 


Soufflés are one of my go to favourites because they look like they took an incredible amount of effort but are really deceptively easy to make. I stumbled across this Banana Soufflé recipe when I was desperately trying to find a way to salvage some of the 20 plus bananas lying around the house. Don't ask me why we had 20 bananas, but the point is that they had to be put to good use before they wasted away with age. I no longer remember where I got this recipe from, but it worked wonderfully on my first try:

Banana Soufflé Recipe 
Serves 6

INGREDIENTS

22.5 grams unsalted butter, melted

7.5 tablespoons sugar

3 firm, ripe bananas, mashed (2 cups)

1.5 tablespoon fresh lime/lemon juice

2 medium egg yolk

5 medium egg whites

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of salt

optional: grated chocolate instead of sugar to coat ramekins

.                 Preheat the oven to 204°C. Brush six 1-cup ramekins with melted butter. Add 3 tablespoons of the sugar to 1 of the ramekins and rotate it to coat with sugar. Tap the excess sugar into another ramekin and repeat until all the ramekins are coated with sugar.

.                 In a food processor, pureé the bananas with the lemon juice, egg yolk, 3 tablespoons of sugar and cinnamon until smooth. Scrape the banana mixture into a large bowl. 

.                 In a medium stainless steel bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt (and the rest of the lemon juice) until soft peaks form. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar and beat until firm and glossy. Using a rubber spatula, beat one-fourth of the beaten whites into the banana mixture, then gently fold in the remaining whites. Spoon the soufflé mixture into the prepared ramekins and tap them lightly on a countertop.

.                 Transfer the soufflés to a baking sheet and bake in the center of the oven for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown and risen. Serve at once. 


The difficult part is beating the egg whites and stopping at the right moment when stiff peaks form. I found this to be of invariable help when I first started with making chocolate soufflés.

LONDON: La Crêperie De Hampstead

I've always been a crêpe person. Back in Singapore I could spend the entire day looking forward to having them at dessert time, that golden hour after dinner and before bed time when the family gathers together, forgets the days worries, and tucks into whatever my mum has prepared or my dad has bought from Cedele. Hot from the stove, the crêpes are stuffed mercilessly with häagen dazs ice cream and drizzled over with jam. 

Hampstead High Street

Almost, almost, comparable to the crêpes I have at home are the ones at Hampstead High Street. 
This peaceful, quaint little area of London seems so far away from the claustrophobic hustle and bustle of Oxford street and Piccadilly circus, it's London's version of Singapore's Holland Village; especially so to me, since both are walking distance from where I live in both cities. 

Crepe Complete - ham, egg and cheese

At La Crêperie De Hampstead, the crêpes are made fresh before you by two very french crepe-makers, exchanging light-hearted conversation in a language I wish I could speak. C'est très jolie, n'est pas? 


These crêpes range from savoury and cheesey for lunchers to sweet and chocolatey for dessert, but my favourite is the almond, butter and sugar crêpe - less really is more in this case. The magnificently thick batter is swirled onto hot plates, browned, and butter is melted onto it before being sprinkled with chopped almonds and sugar - all folded together into a single slice of heaven. 

La Crêperie De Hampstead

77 Hampstead High Street
City of London, Greater London NW3 1RE