In Defense of Cooking

Since I'm not working at the moment, I've decided to take my housewifely duties quite seriously, especially in the kitchen. No more sandwiches and crisps or takeaways for J! I'm pretty sure he cries himself to sleep at night at the prospect of oven-baked kale chips, but I sleep fine so all is well with the world. Hehehe.

When I lived on my own, I ate mostly yogurt and raw fruit and vegetables. Not because I was on some weird diet, but more because I couldn't cook and I just couldn't be bothered. I didn't even own a microwave, and kitchen appliance stores like Sur La Table just scared me. I couldn't figure out what most of those things were for. Example:

Once I got married, I decided that I should learn to cook. It's an essential life skill, and one I should've picked up before the ripe old age of 28. You can't eat raw food forever, it turns out, and your husband probably won't go for it. I know mine didn't.

My first attempt at baking resulted in a spectacular chocolate cookie fail when I thought baking soda = baking powder. That turned out to be so not true. But I eventually figured things out in the kitchen, and I'm pretty good about getting a healthy meal together for the two of us.

And then along came a book by Michael Pollen - In Defense of Food. It's a pretty interesting read about the "food" that we eat today and the associated negative health effects. His advice? Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

It sounds easy, but it turns out that most conventionally grown fruit and veg lack the same nutrients as their organic counterparts. Major bummer, especially since organic costs so much more.

Solution? A CSA box! I put in an order for a fruit and veg box to be delivered weekly from Abel & Cole. They pile organic and seasonal fruit and veg in a box and deliver it straight to your flat. The prices aren't that much higher than that of conventionally grown produce, and eating seasonal, locally grown food is much better for you and the environment. Just think of it this way: You're buying nutrients, rather than calories.

My delivery came early, and I jumped out of bed to check out the goods. And the goods were good.

I usually dislike cooking and see it as more of a necessity, but looking at all the fresh produce got me moving. Once I spied the carrots, I decided to make a hummus dip.

I'm thinking J wouldn't mind eating raw carrots so much now...

One of my most hated chores is prepping vegetables, and I thought I'd get it all out of the way in one big shebang. I spent all morning washing and chopping and julienning and mandolining, and now my refrigerator looks like this:

Truly, the stuff of J's nightmares.

But heaven to me is a bowl of freshly washed fruit.

Don't worry, he'll live. Since I made biscotti and roast chicken - I'm not that cruel...





Except for the fact that I ate it all while he was at work. Muahahahaha!

International Potluck

We thought it would be nice to celebrate Christmas at the office with a Secret Santa and if everyone brought a dish from their native country. However, this plan went to pot after a few "shifts" were made, and our happy family was very sadly broken up. Those of us left behind decided to forgo Secret Santa, but we decided to go ahead and do the potluck anyway.

Since most of the people in the room had never had pumpkin pie before, I decided to bake one for the office. It was a good thing I had made an extra pie crust when I was baking for Thanksgiving! J looked so pitiful this morning as he watched me prepare the pie for its journey to the office that I couldn't help but cut out a piece for him and cross my fingers that no one at the office would notice that my pie was missing a slice! =)

Anyway, we had quite the array for our Christmas lunch! The two Spaniards had a cook-off, where both of them made a Spanish tortilla (omelette) but with a few different ingredients. We got to be the judges, and I much preferred the one with the onions. Yum!

The Japanese girl brought sushi, and the Italians brought fresh mozzarella and carpaccio. The Aussies brought Lamingtons, which is a sponge cake with a cream/ jam filled center and covered with a chocolatey sauce and shredded pineapple. Also excellent, despite the fact that I hate coconut.

The English girl brought mince pies (a pastry with a sweet fruit filling) and Christmas cake (a fancy fruit cake with icing and marzipan).

The Kiwis were meant to bring a lolly cake (I still don't know what that is, exactly), but their care package from New Zealand didn't arrive in time, so I'll find out what it is once the parcel arrives!

One of the nicest things about London is the international community that's here. I'm always discovering new things, and it's not always just about the UK. I feel like I'm always learning something new about people all around the world, and it makes me curiouser and curiouser every day!

Conquering Fears - Marmite

Sorry it's been so long since my last update, but the cold weather has been making it hard to do much of anything. It's definitely autumn, and I just want to curl up on the couch with a blanket and a good book. Needless to say, everything's kind of fallen by the wayside until I've made the mental adjustment to the cold weather.

The nice thing about the cold weather is that it finally got me to try Marmite! Now what is Marmite, you ask? Per Wikipedia:

Marmite is made from yeast extract, a by-product of beer brewing. The British version of the product is a sticky, dark brown paste with a distinctive, powerful flavour, which is extremely salty and savoury. This distinctive taste is reflected in the British company's marketing slogan: "Love it or hate it."

Judging from the description, this doesn't sound at all appetizing. It's even scarier when you ask people to describe the taste, and they just don't have the words. I've been instructed that the best way to eat Marmite is to get a nice piece of toast, spread a thin layer of Marmite and top it off with a slice of cheese. Believe it or not, Starbucks supposedly does a great Marmite and cheese sarnie!

I was at work late one day and the cold weather gave me a craving for some hot food. My work mate was making a Starbucks run, and on an impulse, I asked her to pick up a Marmite sandwich for me. It was hot and gooey with lots of melted cheese - perfect for a cold night!

I didn't hate it and I didn't love it, but I did like it enough to have it again. The best way I could describe it is that it tastes like hyper-concentrated gravy - brown and very salty, but with a much runnier consistency. I cut up my sandwich in bits and shared with some other people that hadn't had it before. Another American hated it, while the Japanese girl liked it.

Of course I couldn't let J get away with not trying Marmite at least once, so I dragged him to a Starbucks the following day and bought him a sandwich. His verdict - he liked it! Definitely enough to eat it again.

Now I just need to try Bovril....

Paris, One More Time

One of the perks of J's job is that sometimes it sends him to fun places. This past weekend, he had to attend a "retreat" of sorts in Paris, and the firm was kind enough to put him up at the Hotel Regina in central Paris for two nights. Although I'd been to Paris before, I thought it'd be fun to tag along and see some of the sights I didn't get a chance to the last time I was here.

We hopped onto the Eurostar Thursday afternoon, and we were in Paris by early evening. We were pretty hungry, so we headed over to this cafe called Le Fumoir behind the Louvre that a friend had recommended to me. The dining room was adorable - it was basically a smallish library with dining tables scattered about. I already knew about the sky high food prices in Paris, but my eyes still bugged out a little when I saw that dinner was a set menu of 3 courses for 35 EUR. Yikes. But the food was amazing and worth every euro - I would definitely go back.

After our great meal, we wandered back to the hotel to find a host of problems waiting for us. The Hotel Regina is a four star hotel that had been recently renovated, and the rooms don't come cheap. Too bad it doesn't show. The thing about European hotels is that they're never going to be as nice as American hotels, so you have to reset your expectations. In any case, our room had a musty smell, the bathroom had a funky smell, the volume on our TV didn't work, the safe wouldn't shut, and the mattresses were overly firm. Oh, and a double bed is literally a double bed - two mattresses pushed together.

We called down to reception to see if anything could be done, and they sent over a guy to fiddle with the TV some to no avail. We pretty much shrugged our shoulders and decided to hit the sack. To be frank, I think we would've been surprised if they had done something about it - service here is not the same as it is in the US. We went to sleep on our overly firm mattresses, and I laid there wondering what I should do the following day when I was going to be on my own since J would be occupied with work things pretty much all day long...

A Tourist in London

Yesterday was the first day we tagged along with my little bro and his gf on their travels around London in their attempt to see pretty much everything.

The first place we visited was the British Museum, which currently has a Australian landscape set in its front court. The kids especially enjoyed the Asian exhibit, and J and I hadn't seen it either so it was new for all of us.



We took a quick taxi ride to the National Gallery with a very amusing driver. He asked where we were from and I explained to him that we lived in London and our guests were visiting us from LA. He then informed me that he watched Real Housewives of Orange County and Jersey Shore quite regularly. We all groaned in unison, and we had a good chuckle over our American reality TV embarrassments. But I had a chance to tease him in turn for The Only Way is Essex and Made in Chelsea and Geordie Shore - trust me, you don't want to know. It's true what they say about London taxi drivers - they're the best in the world.

I was amazed when we arrived at Trafalgar Square - it was packed! I had never seen the square so full of people, and we quickly beat a hasty retreat into the National Gallery where we wandered about for an hour.


Our next destination was Covent Garden, where we caught a quick street performance and wandered in the Apple Market for a while.


We then headed to Jamie's Italian for a quick dinner. The food was great and well priced - you haven't had pasta until you've had homemade pasta! We had a selection of desserts - walnut and espresso tart, tiramisu and a chocolate brownie. The tiramisu beat all, hands down. I'm proud to say that I picked it. =)

Full of delicious food, we then took another taxi to the Lyceum Theatre for an evening showing of The Lion King. The theatre was absolutely beautiful and the seats very comfortable, and I had heard excellent word-of-mouth about the show so we were quite excited. The production was absolutely amazing, probably the best I had ever seen, but the singing was a bit sub-par. Although the singing was a bit disappointing, the production and some of the actors were fantastic enough to make up for it.

We were pretty tired by the end of the night, and we headed home. I'd forgotten how exhausting it can be to be a tourist in London. All of the museums have so much to look at, and navigating London streets can get a bit confusing. I was really really glad to see my front door that night.

Visiting Jane Austen in Bath

As we drove into Bath, all I could think was "wow." The entire city is built from limestone, which means that all of the buildings glow gold in the light of the sun. It almost looks like a fairy tale kind of place, filled with beautiful architecture and picturesque green spots. If I had to sum up the city in a word - it's pretty. Really pretty.

We got dropped off in front of Bath Abbey, which is in the same plaza as the Roman Baths, our first stop of the day. The Abbey is beautiful, and the gothic details in the turrets are pretty amazing. The only negative was that it's difficult to get a comprehensive view of the church since the plaza right in front of it is quite small and full of performers and gawking tourists.

We quickly made our way into the Roman Baths, which is a lot bigger inside than it looks from the outside! It's the only natural occurring hot springs in the UK, and the Romans couldn't quite explain it so they chalked it up to more monkey business by the gods and thanked Minerva Sulis for their natural hot tub.

But they didn't forget to include themselves - there are a series of statues dedicated to the Roman emperors overlooking the main bath.

The baths underwent a revival in the 18th century, when fashionable people would leave their country estates and come to Bath to hang out and "take the waters" to cure common ailments such as gout. They even drank the stuff, convinced that the minerals and all the goodies in the water would improve their health.


Clearly, you don't want to drink this stuff. There are signs posted everywhere warning you to not touch the water, but that doesn't discourage the intrepid few who find slimy algae-filled water to be irresistible.

Right next door to the Roman Baths is the Pump Room, which is where the same fashionable people would meet their friends and drink the spa water. The Pump Room has now been transformed into a restaurant, and the spa water is still on offer for those that are curious about the taste.

We were pretty hungry by now so we wolfed down a quick lunch at Pret, and we soon found ourselves on Milsom Street! I was beyond excited because this was the shopping street that Jane Austen had written about in her novels, and I never thought I'd see it in person!

And it's still a shopping street, with loads of your typical British chains and some street vendors selling ice cream and flowers.

We hoofed it up the street, until we reached The Circle, which is a set of four large buildings that are set in a circle around the circular garden in the center.

To fully glory in my inner nerd, we went in search of the Jane Austen Centre, and we walked down Gay Street...

Until we found it!

The downstairs is a souvenir shop, where I was sorely tempted by a fancy fan or a frilly parasol, but we left empty-handed but for a picture with this nice chap who hangs about the door, greeting all Jane Austen fanatics. There is also a museum upstairs, but I couldn't do that to J, and I was satisfied with at least paying an homage to the centre.


Last on our itinerary was the Royal Crescent, which is another large building set in a semi-circle. The architects of Bath sure loved their curved buildings! Anyway, it's much too large to catch with my camera lens, and yet another park was set in front of the building and lots of people were relaxing out there with bbqs out in full force.

With everything ticked off my list, J and I began a slow wander around Bath, just enjoying the city as it is. It's quite small so you could cover the whole city in a day on foot quite easily.

We were pretty tired by the end of the day, and we decided to finish the day off with a Bath bun from a local tea shop.

The Bath bun is a pastry that's slightly sweet with currants and rock sugar loaded in the center that was created by a 18th century doctor to treat his overweight patients. The bun was considered relatively healthy back in the day, but the doctor's plan backfired when his overweight patients went nuts for the bun and didn't lose any weight at all! "Duh" seems to be appropriate here.

Overall, Bath was such a pretty city, and I have plans to return in September during the Jane Austen festival. Until then, Jane.

Sunday Morning

Today is supposed to be absolutely lovely weather-wise, and I was chomping at the bit to get out of the flat. I had some errands to run at the grocery store and at Boots, but the shops weren't going to open for another half hour, so J and I took the long way there.

We stopped by Paddington Park, which is a park we discovered on our first day in our new 'hood when we were flat-hunting, and we've been neglecting it since Regent's Park is so close and impressive. Too bad for us since it's a lovely space to just sit and enjoy being outside.

We stumbled on a farmer's market right after we left the park, and we decided to pop in for a quick gander to see what was on display.

Of course we couldn't leave without buying a little something something, so we left with a loaf of raisin and walnut bread under one arm and a chicken pie under the other. Score!

Now that we're back at the flat, J is getting ready to take off to the office, and I'm settling in to work from home. It's too bad we can't enjoy the day together, but work is work. Better luck next weekend.

Wasabi Fridays

Without fail, the law firm I currently work at serves fish and chips for lunch in the cafeteria every Friday. I don't know about you, but I don't really like finishing off the work week with a big dish of brown, fried food. Weekends are for fitting into your cute (translation = much tighter) clothes, and food boiled in oil for several minutes isn't going to help a sister out any.

I was pretty hungry by the time lunch rolled around so a yogurt with fruit just wasn't going to cut it so I decided to hit up Wasabi for some Japanese takeaway. I did the same thing last week, and some of my work colleagues and I decided that we're going to do this every Friday in silent protest of the chef's insistence on fish and chips.

The Brits do takeaways very well. Note that they don't call it "to go" or "takeout," it's always a takeaway, and it usually costs less than to dine-in, which I think is a total rip. In any case, there are a lot more choices here than in the US. Takeout food in the States invariably reminds me of hamburgers, pizza, Mexican food, and sandwiches if you're lucky. Here, you can get sandwiches from Pret, Japanese from Wasabi or Itsu, chicken bowls from Nando's, croissants and pastries from Paul's or Patisserie Valerie along with the ubiquitous American chains you can't escape anywhere in the world.

Takeaway sushi did throw me for a loop at first, but I'm getting quite used to it - I really like getting a takeaway seaweed salad for lunch! Of course the quality's not the same as an actual sit down restaurant, but it's nice to have a healthier option than Taco Bell. I admit that they do look a little funny - the sushi comes individually wrapped in plastic, and they almost look a bit fake but still very very edible.