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Posts Tagged ‘British’

Being a food tourist (UK Edition)

Posted in British Cuisine, General Food Topics, Gourmet, Italian Cuisine, Re-"vu"-s, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 28, 2011 | 1 Comment »

For the last couple of weeks, Chris and I have been showing my parents, aunt and uncle around the UK. As you’ll know from my blog, my family loves food. So it was only fitting that food was a central part of being a tourist with me!

We started in Birmingham for our 2nd wedding celebration with friends and family. We were blown away by our amazing caterers – Celebration Caterers- who fed us so well with the creamiest homemade pâté, incredible roast pork with the best crackling I’ve ever had, delicious vegetarian lasagna and much much more.

Homemade pâté with a clarified butter top

Served with rustic bread, mixed green salad and red onion chutney

Our next stop was to the Lake District to the family caravan. I couldn’t believe how lucky we got with weather! Loads of sunshine the first day and barely any drizzle the next. I promised the family that they were in for some of the best fish and chips and Cumberland sausages and they were not disappointed. You can’t really go too wrong with these classics!

Next stop – London!

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My Ongoing Love Affair With Meat

Posted in British Cuisine, Sandwiches, Vietnamese Cuisine, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 1, 2010 | 2 Comments »

As you all know I am quite carnivorous. I do love my veggies and am improving on my fruits, but nothing can really beat a juicy steak or Sunday roast (except for maybe anything fried).  So I thought I’d share a little slide show of the meat I’ve been eating. Hope you enjoy! 

Sunday Roast - Rosemary Garlic Lamb

Perfectly crispy, fluffed, roast potatoes

So many people give the Brits a hard time about their “plain” food, but as I’ve come to learn plain is just another word for simple. And if you have good quality ingredients, you don’t always need a whole lot of them. The above is courtesy of Mr. Chris Hutton (the boyfriend). Lamb was the very first thing Chris ever cooked for me, and three years later I’m still around! He stuffs garlic cloves and rosemary into the meat and rubs English mustard powder and a bit of flour on the outside. Since rosemary is such a fragrant herb, it can really stand on its own. (Tarragon and sage are other unique, distinct herbs) Be sure to keep it covered ~75% of the cooking time so moisture isn’t lost. It’s SO simple, but when done right it’s such a comforting meal.. Especially when it’s accompanied by perfectly crisp, fluffed potatoes! It’s not fair the Brits get such good potatoes. I have neeever been a potato person, but I’m definitely a convert! A classic trick is to use some goose fat to brown your potatoes in. It’s a natural product and will give you super crispy results! For crispy fries/chips, ensure you have dried, cooked potatoes before frying. Stick them in the oven for just a minute or two to finish off the drying process and voila! 

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A Bit Of MY Soul Food

Posted in British Cuisine, French Flavors, Italian Cuisine, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 9, 2010 | 10 Comments »

As the weather begins to turn here in England, I find myself craving for really hearty, comforting, food for the soul. The kind of food you smile at or smile thinking of. The kind of food your fork lingers over. Most importantly the kind of food you finish then curl up onto the couch and sleep a blissful sleep… 

For now I’d like to share three examples of the kind of food that makes me just simply happy… 

Let’s get right to it, shall we? As I’ve mentioned before, one of my favorite weekend pastimes is to cuddle up with Chris and watch BBC’s Saturday Morning Kitchen. Just a couple weeks ago, we watched the well known British chef Sat Bains (who runs Nottingham’s only Michelin-starred restaurant “Restaurant Sat Bains”) whip up one of his family’s favorite brunch dishes – Chorizo Eggs with Scallops and Coriander Salt. As neither of us had had breakfast yet, Chris got inspired to run out to the store and make us breakfast. He came back and did a wonderful job of whipping up this incredibly satisfying breakfast below. It’s incredibly simple but made even better with high quality sausage and high quality bread. Any spicy sausage would really do. For the bread, Chris nipped to our local Italian delicatessen (Filippettos) for some ciabatta. Believe it or not this little delicatessen is perfect. The owner is actually Italian and many of his products are imported directly from Italy (with the packaging written in Italian only!). If you’re ever around, you must have some of their ice cream… But more importantly they have a wide variety of cured/smoked meats and fresh bread. 

Chorizo Fried Eggs with Sauteed Mushrooms on Ciabatta

As you can see Chris added his own little addition of mushrooms sautéed in butter… I think any egg-lover will agree with me when I say there’s something SO satisfying about breaking a perfectly runny yolk. The gooey liquid spills out everywhere and drips off your bite of egg, spicy/smoky chorizo, buttery mushroom and crispy but light toasted ciabatta. And that’s when I look over at Chris and remember why I love him :-) Because he knows exactly how to make me happy! 

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ARTICLE: To salt or not to salt

Posted in Food News, General Food Topics, tagged , , on June 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

An article was published over the weekend on NYTimes.com regarding recent campaigns on salt – http://nyti.ms/a3NYva.

As you may have noticed over the past few years, there has been lots of buzz over “newly discovered” super foods. Coincidentally, availability of these super foods has dramatically increased. Of course there are foods that were already available like blueberries, but now things like acai and goji berries are more widely known. It’s not just the occasional infomercial selling them either. They’re in smoothies (ex: Jamba Juice) or Starbucks stores or trail mixes and of course health shops (ex: GNC).

Alternatively, there’s also been news on what’s harmful to us as well. Trans fats have become enemy #1 to the extent that many US cities now ban all use of trans fat. This especially hit the fast food industry although I’m not sure what the financial impact has been. Another public enemy has become salt which studies have linked to high blood pressure. Of course the expectation is that there would be pressure on food producers and restaurants to reduce their use of salt. But it’s not as simple as, for example, reducing sugar usage by replacing it with artificial sweeteners. The article discusses this point in more detail, but what I find interesting is the difference between countries regarding food campaigns such as this.

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