Anywhere in the world...

If I could choose anywhere in the world to go, just to eat (no fees, no jetlag, and no limitations) I wouldn't know where to go first. So, when this question popped into my head, I decided to make a list.

Italy - No explanation needed really, but here it is: The food culture. I tend to eat quite quickly, but I absolutely hate rushed meals. So the idea of spending hours over a meal is heaven to me. I'm always sad that meals with friends tend to only last 2 courses. I wish British culture would slip some antipasti and relaxation into their basic courses. I was in primary school the first time I visited Italy; a naive little girl who didn't know the difference between gelato and ice cream (or even that there was one). But I was immediately won over by the large bowl of tagliatelle at dinner, the margherita I ate at lunch and the gelato eaten beside the Pantheon. My next trip to Rome in my early teens featured a side trip to Sorrento, which included a cheeky first taste of limoncello, apparently the area is famous for it. Delizioso. I'm thinking of making a special lemon cheesecake if I ever get my hands on the lovely liqueur, because it gives me such pleasant feelings that I bet it would be utterly sinful in a dessert.

France - I could live without some of the French restaurants in England, except for one where I had a lovely sea bass. But what France has is this: Damn good pastry. And bread. And cake. I've been learning French for years now, but this summer was the first time I'd heard the word used that would utterly consume me, la viennoiserie. Finally a word that encompasses everything that sets France above the rest for me: pastries. Or rather, Viennese pastries (hmm maybe a trip to Vienna is in order). Anyway, it includes croissants, pain au chocolat, brioche &c. I also appreciate the fact that there are bakeries everywhere, something which fills me with envy when I pass one bakery (Coombs or Coopland) and a Greggs when I stroll down my English high street. When all these pastries and breads are added to a proper cup of chocolat so thick you could eat it with a fork, you know you're in heaven.

Hong Kong - never been. But one of my closest uni friends is from there and I've heard stories. A hub of gourmet treasure troves, I yearn for a HK egg tart, to visit the Cantonese bakeries, and street vendors selling fishballs, and to eat dim sum with friends. More recently, I read about the soulmate equivalent of a bar/restaurant. As in, this bar was made for me. It doesn't serve main meals, but it does serve three courses of desserts, with dessert wines. Did you read that? Three course dessert menu. Need I say more - I have to get to Hong Kong while the chef is still there at Riquiqui Dessert Bar.

Jamaica - a lot of Jamaican food I eat at home, or at least I eat variations, since my Nana's actually Antiguan. But it would be nice to eat my favourites when the ingredients are fresh, in season, and maybe grown just down the road. I want to eat good curried goat, peas and rice, ackee and saltfish, some decent seafood, and maybe if I'm lucky a little oxtail and festival. I'm also having good memories of fruits like guineps, with its green skin, orange flesh, sweet but tart taste, and large stone. And don't get me started about sugar cane. Sigh, hopefully soon.

Brussels, Beligum - for the gaufres (waffles) and the chocolate, and weirdly enough, the Thai food. yum yum yum. Unfortunately those are the only three foods that fill me with excitement in Brussels, but what they do, they do well. The first time I ever ate frogs' legs was in a Thai restaurant in Brussels and they were incredibly well cooked. Also, there's a shop called la Cure Gourmande, which also has shops in France with slightly different regional stock, that sells the loveliest biscuits. My favourite are the navettes, these lovely long biscuits that melt in your mouth and have the most amazing fragrance. Maybe I'll write a review one day.

Those are the main places I love, or would love, to go and eat. Although there are lots of individual places I've heard of through TV shoes or word of mouth I'd like to go to, but I'm not going to another country to eat at one restaurant. Though I might make an exception for IHOP to indulge my childhood memories of stacks of pancakes and maple syrup.

Happy eating, happy travelling, and with any luck I'll be jetting off to have a lovely dinner abroad sometime in the next few holidays I get.

student_gourmande

Late Night Snacks

I have a very bad habit. In fact, it's become less of a habit and more of a tradition, an institution. The late night snack for me has become like breakfast, lunch and dinner: indispensible.

So my facebook posts invariably show the slogan "Today's late night snack was..." at around 10pm, and I figured why not blog it? Something quick but regular. Because I've had some interesting snacks. Things I find tasty, but maybe others haven't tried yet, or wouldn't anyway.

Tonight's late night snack consisted of a plain omelette, seasoned with milk, salt, pepper and parsley, in a toasted, buttered and mayonnaise-d pitta bread, with some fried tomatoes and tomato sauce.

Despite the frying and the mayonnaise, I like to think of this as a healthy snack. Everyone knows that eggs are good for you, and I once read that the majority of benefits carried by tomatoes need cooking to do any good. Plus, in general, I don't eat bread. The play dough that passes as white bread isn't fit for consumption, and the brown bread I do like tends to be too thin, falling apart on the slightest touch, or with the taste of nutty cardboard. So, pitta bread and tortilla wraps, and of course fried dumplings, are the closest I come to eating bread out of a restaurant setting. And let me tell you, even though my body loves me for avoiding bread, it also craves carbohydrates. So the pitta bread fulfilled these cravings nicely while being light enough not to affect my delicate constitution.

I blame my need for late night snacks on being nocturnal. It's like my body thinks I've already slept and my being awake means it's morning and time to eat. I'm feeling it now, even though I only ate that snack a couple of hours ago. When I was younger, and it was my mum's kitchen I'd sneak into to have my snack, I would usually make do with a cup of tea and an ungodly amount of biscuits, or even some cream crackers and mango juice, or peanut butter on toast. Looking back, I wonder how I'm not a size 20 right now.

Regardless, the late night snack has only been encouraged by moving out for university. Now I have my own kitchen and groceries bought with my own money, so there is no late night snack guilt. Especially when I tell myself I've been working, and so need sustenance.

In other news, I made a brownie cake for my friend's birthday tomorrow. Unfortunately I made the holes but couldn't make the ganache to fill them, because *someone* ran off with my whipping cream. Which I accidentally scanned twice while at Tesco. That soneone also happens to be the president of my Cooking Society actually. He and my flat mate, and technically, myself, were all making a chocolate ganache and rasperry tarte to practice before an event.

I hope my friend likes her holey cake.

Ooooh more good news: my piping set came in the post. Tala, very retro looking with a little pamphlet of piping tips. But this is good because it means I can make macaroons, macarons for the french lovers who, like me, prefer the french word because the english makes them think of racoons. (Nonetheless, I find it odd when English people in England speaking to English people call them "macarons". Even if their accents are good). So now my only question is if I should make them for my next visit home or if I should save them for mum's birthday, which I'm sure she'd appreaciate as a gift, and since I will probably be too broke to buy her anything nice. Maybe both? We'll see. To be honest, I've never been very moved by macaroons. Gourmande I may be; but almond lover, I am not. So it's not like when I cook them affects me besides the buying of ingredients, and the time needed for cooking. We shall see.

As it is late anyway, I'll wish you happy eating and be on my way,

student_gourmande

Day 13 - A fictional book.

The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense. - Tom Clancy

I like that quote because it's generally true. Life is weird and unpredictable, but there's always the one who complains about a books ending being unrealistic, or even the whole plot being unrealistic. That is strange because, for me at least, reading is a kind of escapism. Maybe the allure is the idea that these fantastical situations are actually possible.

So for escapism, the fiction book for me would be His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman. Although this is actually a trilogy made of "Northern Lights," "The Amber Spyglass" and "The Subtle Knife." The characters have a huge amount to do with this, but a lot fo it has to do with the parallel world idea. Nothing excites you more than the idea that there is this fictional world that is so different to yours that you know it's a story, but which is similar enough to your own world that you can imagine it potentially being real. You can envisage yourself in that situation. Then the kicker of a twist is when the boundary between this fantastical world and your own world suddenly rips open, and because the world Pullman describes is your world, and the characters there are so much like you, and just as shocked as you are that this world exists, that the possibility of it being real increases in your imagination, it makes more sense. Because it's all very well and good imagining that you live in a world where people have daemons- physical embodiments of their soul represented by animals- but it's another level to imagining when you imagine you live in the same world you do live in, where a doorway to another world appears.

There's a lot of science theory that goes with it, and if I could stand Physics more than I do I'd talk about that. I think it has something to do with Schroedinger's Cat, but aside from owning the book, the deepest I've ever though about that was how sick it was to make a scientific game out of life and death. Maybe it's the Christian in me, but I'm certain I know a few scientific atheists who are cat lovers. (Note: this is humour for those who don't get me. Though I do know a few atheist cat lover scientists.)

Anyway I love His Dark Materials, and am annoyed that it's classified as a children's book, because that always happens to me. I can read a book and enjoy it, then also get some deep spiritual/philosophical meaning from it, or it can really move me, but the book is "meant for kids". Sometimes the really good books are just going over these kids' heads. Like Terry Pratchett. When I get into some of the better books and their social commentary/political jokes, I think, "Surely no nine year old is going to appreciate the genius that this is." But then again, I know some adults won't, and mayne I'm not giving these kids enought credit. Few gave me the credit I deserved as a kid. Ha, funnily, one who did was the guy who gave me "In Search of Schroedinger's Cat" when I was about 9. If you don't know what it is, look it up, and see why the memory makes me laugh now. I think that one maybe gave me too much credit. And we see it all comes back to physics.

happy escapism,

student_gourmand

Day 12 - My fancy is quite ticklish it seems

So, it's ladies chooice (or this lady's choice) for the blog. Unfortunately today I had an exam that wiped me out, so it's gonna be a short one.

Revision Food

When I revise, the domestic goddess that I seem to have become simply disappears. I need to do laundry, I haven't cooked, I haven't cleaned, and I'm barely functioning after being on the computer for 12 hours a day. So the food I've been eating has been a bit sub par, even though I've gone upscale when I could.

The higher standard fare seems to be fried fish, macaroni and cheese, TEsco's finest lasagne, and Pizza Express pizza. Otherwise, instant noodles, jaffa cakes, cereal and pasta with pesto have become staples. The low point was eating an entire pack of Cadbury's mini rolls yesterday while stressing about today's exam.

So so far my favourite has been the pasta and pest, and through trial and error i've decided the cheaper oests in a jar are nicer.

Right so I'm nodding of in my chair. So I think it's time so say goodnight.

much love,

student_gourmand

Day 11 - A recent photo of me.

So I went to London the summer before last as a goodbye trip with one of my best friends, Tanya. We got a deal to get oour hair and makeup done and go to a photoshoot. Sounds dodgy, but Tan's a good planner and had it all checked out. There were some awesome shots taken, and this was the day I was truly converted to GHD straighteners. Not that I can afford them. I don't think I've changed much since I was a kid - I had my growth spurt early, I guess.

The dress was an Easter present from my Grandad. BCBG, one of my favourite designer brands, (as though I have the money to buy any), was first introduced to me by my fashionista Aunt as a present in the form of a summer dress. I'm very grateful to my Aunt and Grandad for hooking me up with these designer dresses. Maybe I owe my Aunt more thanks than she lets on, because I love my Grandad, but he's a man, and he was half-blind the last time I saw him. I think he had some help.

Anyway the trip was a success, and they managed to make a bit of money from me buying some portraits, the dress up part was fun and free otherwise. I would have been content just dressing up but these pics were too good. And before we dashed off to catch our train home, we managed to grab a bite at a tiny Chinese restaurant near the Station. I think I ordered Singapore Fried Rice. It was yummy and cheap, so I was double happy.

happy posting,

student_gourmand

P.S. BCBG is a French acronym "Bon chic, bon genre" which means, "Good style, good class" or as my teacher once put it "preppy." All those years of French put to good use :p

Day 10 - A photo of me taken (not quite) 10 years ago

I don't think I had a camera 10 years ago; my mum is not the sentimental, picture-taking type; and any pictures from back then are probably either in an album somewhere at my Grandma's house, or they've all been burnt. However, I do have couple of a picture of myself and my Daddy, when I was probably 12, so 8 years ago. It's the best I can do. But these would have joined the burning, as I'm in that awkward, embarassing puberty phase. Sigh. I can only be grateful that I'm no longer a teenager.

The first was taken at the airport in the Bahamas on our way to Atlantis Resort in Nassau, where I, unfortunately, wasn't staying but went to a New Year's Eve Party. The second was taken at the hotel. I was actually in Jamaica for Christmas, but my Dad decided we should take an impromptu trip to visit my Godfather. One of my better New Years celebrations I must admit. Sure there were mainly only old people (middle age, but to a preteen everyone is old), but I learnt how to do the Electric Slide and the Hustle.

happy holidays (you can tell I can't wait til Easter holidays, or Spring Break for the Yanks),

student_gourmand

PS Since no post is complete without a food mention. Carnival food is the best type of food, and I was lucky enough to go to a Junkanoo while I was there. Even though it rained hard near the end, it was still an amazing experience.

Day 9 - A photo I took.

I'm no photographer. I don't have an amazing SLR camera, or any mad photoshop skills, but I do have a lucky habit of buying phones with decent camera functions, and a knack of coming across wonderful scenery in city centres. So I have 4 photos for you. My favourite, taken with my phone, happened to be taken just as my friend gestured with her hand. The effect made me laugh, especially as she looks so surly. I love how relaxed and skater she looks, despite the fact we were all furiously revising for a GCSE Physics exam.

The second and third photos were taken in the city of Brussels, one of my favourite cities in Europe, possibly the world. It is the kind of city that every now and then, in the odd alley you'll come across a masterpiece of art that, despite the modern art love of graffiti, could never be called such. The home of Hergé (creator of Tintin and The Smurfs) it is no surprise that the residents are allowed to expose the artistic nature of the city on public and private buildings alike. The first was taken after getting off a tram and the second, was on the way back from the Mannekin Pis.

The fourth picture, which I've just decided to add, is of the Mannekin Pis itself, because it is the funniest fountain statue I've ever seen. Apparently it is usual for a historical society or a museum to dress up the statue in traditional dress. You'll see.

Photo 1 - Before we knew what emo was

Photo 2 - The World Behind the Stone Facade

Photo 3 - On the painted cobbled streets of Brussels

Picture 4 - Yes, the little boy-statue really is peeing into a water fountain

happy photographing,

student_gourmand

PS on the subject of Brussels, it was there that I first ate frogs' legs, at a Thai restaurant in a yellow curry. As much as I hate saying this, yes it tasted a little like chicken. But it had its own distinctive flavour, was slightly chewier and much lighter. It was delicious! Luckily, I still remember where the restaurant was, though not the name, so I will definitely be returning there if I ever visit Brussels again.