Our night out in the veggie pub

Last week, we ( charity shop thursday team) went out to our little christmas do in the suffolk veggie gastro pub. I went there twice before, and thought foods were alright. ( hard to please a chef....) Good thing about menu in the place like that is I can eat anything on the menu. No meat, no fish!!! But they use cheese, wheat, gluten products and sugar. Never mind. I don't eat out often, so, once in a while is allowed! And I enjoyed my dessert... selection of sorbet! I do love lemon sorbet. Last restaurant I used to work, my pastry chef loved her lemon sorbet, so we used to make it really lemoney and sweet. It was the best lemon sorbert. I kind of miss sometimes, making own ice creams and sorbets. Defo this year, I'd like to make my own. Vegan icecreams and sugarfree sorbet etc. I got a ice cream machine, Marcus has very good blender. I've got an idea in my head I want to experliment. Wow, even just thinking about it, I get excited. I do love messing round with foods to create something yummy. Last week I made tofu again, but this time I mixed lemon pepper and greek dried oregano into my tofu mixture and let it set. It was perferct with salad or even broth. 

Anyway, go back to the veggie pub night out, this is our Thursday crew.

And this is what I had for my main.

It's chestnut pudding in veg suet paste. It was quite nice to start off with , but about half way though I got bord eating it. I love chestnuts, but the filling inside was too rich for me. I think it was cooked and reduced, very syrupy consistancy inside. I left pastly too. It was too filling.  To be honest, the meal was far nicer than one I had when I went out with my other work. I had selection of sorbet for my dessert, and it was yummy. This is Marggie and her dessert( she had a cheese cake)

And this is Pouline and Sylvia.

 Looks like we had loads of empty drinks, they are soft drinks mainly though. I only drink soft drinks. So as these ladies. They don't drink much(virtually none to me). Oh, sorbets in glass coupe is my dessert. I asked for vegan option. And this was what I got. Basically, without chocolate basket. 

 We all enjoyed our night out. When we went out side after our meal, Jupitor was shining and Olion and Seven stars were smiling at us. We decided we'd like to go there again in summer.

pre-christmas detox

It's nearly Christmas. Everyone around me have been busy getting ready for Christmas. For me, nothing changes even Christmas. This Sunday is as same as any other Sunday for me. I'm cooking massive dinner for old people at work. Some thing people say I get pissed off( not badly though) is this question: "are you ready for Christmas???" and " have you finished Christmas shopping??" I'm not barhamba(not sure spelling...later Marcus will correct it...), buuuuut, what do I need to get ready for? Christmas shopping? my friends and boyfriend have things they need in their lives, and I don't wanna get anything they don't want. Otherwise they get wasted!!! I can see point in Christmas if someone with kids or religious people. Christmas has became money spending consumer product! Anyway, I had 3 Christmas get together parties (works) last week, I had lots of naughty foods( wheat, sugar and some dairy products) , felt very sluggish. So, I did 1 week detox which involved 3 day fasting( on fluid). During my fluid fasting, I had naked smoothies for breakfast and dinner, rest of the day, I just had peppermint teas and mineral water. After my detox, I felt brilliant! What I like about fasting is I feel very calm during fasting. I was told that was perhaps I couldn't be bothered due to my hunger. Actually, what I was doing was that: to eliminate thoughts and actions which I used my energy wastefully, which means I lowered my stress level by doing or thinking only I needed to do then. I didn't do or think anything I didn't have to do that point. And I usually take my time when I fast. My taste buds and smell get sensitive too. Last time I did fasting ( with special lemonade), I tasted differences between Evian water and volvic, local mineral water etc. I was very excited to start eating again too. I even put some rice cakes and pumpkin butter on work top in my kitchen on last night of fasting. Following morning, I woke up really early and had my breakfast. It was yummy!!!  This is what I made during my detox. And looking forward to eat them! My favo snacks!!!

Energy balls and carob and vanilla coffee squares. They are perfect snacks especially when I feel a bit peckish. And I love them. No added sugar, wheat free, gluten free and vegan.  Sadly, I already had very naughty foods....I always have good intentions to do fasting, detox and staying healthy. But it doesn't last long. If I stop working in the residential home, my diet will be perfect. Not sure when I can get a new job....never mind, I keep trying to overcome my sugar addiction!!! Even I rel apes, I can anytime start again! Oh, theses biscuits were made by my friend, Andy's kids (and mum). Gluten free vegan biscuits. They were part of some nibbles(cup cakes and mince pies) from our Tuesday night sessions(core training, qi-gong and combat fighting). They were yummy too. Arrrr, bless them.

They look cute too❀❀❀ Andy's kids love baking. When I saw them making cupcakes with Louise(mum), they looked really enjoying themselves. Reminded me when I was a child. I used to cook and bake quite often. I made loads of biscuits, cakes, and choux buns but I made far too much, my mum used to tell me off! Me and my brother ate them all though. I think that was one of reasons why I was chubby as a child. I still am! Good to enjoy yummy foods!

vegan coffee cake and me

I do love coffee and walnuts cake with nice strong mug of (decaf) coffee. Since I cut down on sugar I haven't really had much coffee cake. And, usually when I eat they are either staled, dry or doesn't taste coffee enough for me anyway. So, of course I prefer making my own coffee cake. Last week, I had coffee cake cravings when I got back from work, so I made some. I used hemp flour and gluten free flour(half and half), made crumbs with coconut butter, mixed with tofu mix(tofu and oat milk or soya milk blitzed), 5-6 heaped strong coffee(I made strong liquid),maple syrup, vanilla, flaxeed mills to make cake mix. then spooned into muffin cups. I baked about 20mins or so. And there were delicious! Of course, they went really quickly. I made another batch. But this time I made sugar free coffee chocolate topping! And even better! I made choco topping with coconut butter, really small chopped cacao nibs, and sugar free coffee chocolate. I loved the topping! I don't really have recipe, I make up as I go. But I do use my old recipes from my restaurant days, and adapt them into healthier options. I think any recipes in magazines or cooking books are easy to adapt to your own taste or healthy foods. I stopped buying cooking books long time ago. I do like flicking through them when I see some books which are interesting or strange vegan cooking books. They are fun. I haven't seen vegan cup cake book yet! Oh, I might treat myself for my Christmas present from me to me! I do that every year( just an excuse for retail therapy. I bought i-pod touch off Tony last year!). My expense this month and last month were more than what usually goes out, so I needed to earn extra cash selling my stuffs on eBay. And, next month too. I need to pay my course fee..... anyway, I always go to my favo supermarket on Thu and Fri arvo for reduced products. I've been on budget for a while, I just love finding bargains. Salad with some tofu, rice noodles with (reduced packet of mixed vegetable) steam fry vegetables, I do sprouts some beans and alfalfa(which saves me a bit of money), juicing, rice salad etc, and actually not bad so far, I got some foods in my cupboard too, so I just need to eat that too.  I must be careful not to eat same foods every day, I don't really wanna develop food allergy..... That's another thing, if I like something, I eat same thing almost every day till I get board. Luckily, I get board really quickly, that's one of reasons why my cupboards are full of foods!( I'm not sure if it's good thing or not) Anyway, these are what I made.

These were my savoury carrot cake I made when I had a day off last week. I fancied some savoury muffins, but I didn't have lots of ingredients to make any fancy cake. So I grated some carrots, add some seeds, seaweed, vegan pesto and avocado to make cake mix. Actually, taste wasn't too bad. They didn't last long though, lasted about 3 days. By 4th day, started to go off. I think first a couple of days were the best with some nice green soup.

Am I addicted to garlic????

I know I always love garlic ! Recently, my garlic intake's getting increased. I need to have 2(large) cloves of garlic at least for my dinner. I love garlic in any form. Roasted garlic is really sweet and makes nice risotto or soup also pasta sauce. Thinly sliced and fried really slowly to make them really crunchy, oh, it's yummy as rice topping, or stir(steam) fry dishes as garnish with coriander. But classic use of garlic for me is raw and grated. I remember when I was a child, I used to love grated garlic with my sashimi dipped in soy sauce. To finish the dish, I put soy and grated garlic mix on to my hot sticky (Japanese) rice. That was divine. I'm not sure If it's becoming a part of my "back-to-the-source", I have now really started missing it. I grate garlic and mix into my raw pasta sauce, make garlicky vegan pesto for my salads, garnish for risotto, baked sweet potato etc....I just can't get enough of it. Anyhow, raw grated garlic is good for you. Yes, I did my little research☺This is what I found out:

Garlic is anti-oxidants, anti-fungus and anti-bacterial, decrease blood vassal stiffness, and reduce blood pressure! (My mum need to eat lots of it!!!!), and helps to reduce the overall risk of coronary diseases. When garlic is chopped or grated(crushed), it produces allicin which is major component of garlic. Cooking garlic is apparently as not good as when eaten raw(grated, finely chopped or crushed). O.k, it's not as nutrient as raw but taste good. I use both! Because I'm greedy!☺I love my food to have different texture and taste. Anything in moderation, as long as I don't overdose(easily done), garlic is good for my health. Therefore, being addicted to garlic isn't such a bad thing, in this world, we get addicted to all sorts of things. Marilyn told me Anna-Marie was addicted to chili one point. Oh, chili....it's very addictive. Again, in moderation, it's good for you too. Chili burns calories, possibly prevent ulcers, helps to fight cancer and headaches, relieve pain and has capacity to prevent food-borne bacterial disease. Also, stops feeling sluggish digestion and constipation, and many more advantages including chili into every day diet. When I was a school girl, my mum used to tell me to eat some chill to have beautiful smooth skin like Korean ladies and some Chinese people(mainly Cantonese? who take lots of chili in their diet), maybe because of that, I still have nice skin for my age?????❀❀❀ Well, the most important thing is: whatever works for me(and you). I'm quite happy having garlic breath at moment. Just need to be careful not having hangovers from eating too much garlic!!!!

Azuki bean terrine with roasted kabocha and enoki mushroom

Since I made pumpkin tofu, I've been experimenting a bit. My soya tofu was good, and yummy. So, I thought if I could make azuki bean tofu.... I soaked some haricot beans and azuki beans to make tofu. The following evening, I blitzed with some spring water made milk. I brought up to the boil, tuned it down, added nigari mix. I stirred and stirred and waited , waited for about half hour... then realised it didn't coagulate. Gutted. I soaked some more beans, tried again. But this time, I made terrine using vegan gelling agent. And it wasn't too bad. Very suttle taste, I didn't make it spicy or anything. I was quite pleased how it turned up. After adding gelling agent, I kept mixing very slowly till thickens, this takes about 30mins or so out side fridge. This is how I used to make Panacotta without vanilla beans dropping to the bottom of mould. Every 5-10mins, slowly mix with whisk , then pour into moulds and chill till ready. This is what I cooked on the Sunday for our dinner.

On Saturday evening, I made azuki bean and vegetable burger with steam-fried leek and baked sweet potato. I made azuki bean burger from cooked "okara" from my attempt on azuki tofu on previous night. I didn't want to chuck the okara, so I cooked it. I roasted the burger very slow in the oven. Yes, I made a bit spicy with spices and chili. In Japan, we eat lots of azuki beans. I used to hate azuki rice. But I liked them in sweets. Japanese make their traditional puddings/sweets using azuki beans, quite filling too. I think I'm getting old. I now love the beans.....Just like my granny! She used to love them!

Orange thing on the top is hummus with harrisa. Sprinkled roasted seedies too.  Mmmmm, yum yum. It's going to be porcini mushrooms and chestnut (in my cupboard)something this weekend for our dinner!

Spelt and hemp bread with 3seeds

I had this sentence in my head the rest of weekend and  on Monday all day, all I could hear in my head was : " I had the leek and potato soup and nice bread dipped in it, that was what I had last night for my dinner". That was said by Marilyn on the Sunday. I think I was imagining how she was dipping the bread into the hot soup, just came off the stove into the soup bowl. And it looked really delicious in my head. So, I baked a spelt and hemp bread, made some butternut squash and canellini bean soup with vegan pesto. Can you guess how I had my soup? Yes, I dipped them right in it! ☺Oh, I felt happy and satisfied, sounds a bit like drama queen, but that's how I feel when I have something in my head and can't get it out. But it's not cravings. I know too well what cravings feel like. Well, at least how I was feeling wasn't harmful to myself. ✿ Anyway, I had a bag of spelt flour and some hemp flour left in my cupboard, also, I had some dried yeast in my fridge. I usually make my spelt bread with half white strong flour, but this time I used all spelt and add some hemp flour, add some seeds(sesame, poppy seeds, and kia seeds). I proved it really slowly, oiled the top with extra virgin olive oil, cling filmed it. When done, I shaped it, placed on non-stick baking sheet with some flour. Again, topped with more E.V olive oil, proved it till ready. (it's dense bread, doesn't raise like a white bread.) Then baked at 220 degree for 30 mins or so, when tapped, hear hollow noise, that's ready.  Here's my spelt bread.

And this is sliced, ready for dipping!

And my soup!

I wasn't feeling board but I felt I needed some sweets, so while the bread was being proved, I baked "Anzac biscuits" with no sugar, golden syrup, no oats, and vegan. Instead I used gluten free muesli, coconut butter and honey. I baked them till brown. Now they are still in my kitchen, still crispy and ideal with my mug of tea! At moment, I'm into Tulsi Green tea. Taste far far different from Japanese ones. Oh, I do love my green teas♥ Ah! I just remembered, I got a Japanese sweets book, I might try to make some soon.....But first, I need to get myself a electric scale...............

By the way, this is the biscuits. look very similar to last ones I made. But this one's much better! It's crunchy and coconutty!!! loooooove them❀❀❀

sunday lunch

Cor, blimey! It's November already. I don't wanna hear anymore "soon be Christmas!" Fxxk Christmas ( sorry, if you like christmas), I'm working cooking massive turkey for the residents just like last year. It's fun in some way, and just being nice being with some old folks there. I don't do very much anyway. And, I don't mind really, pay is good. Since I don't eat meats anymore, I don't have any interests to cook them. My meat eating days are over. I had enough. I'm not complaining, but everywhere I go, menu is shit (for veggie option, and here in Suffolk not many nice veggie cafe or take away shops! ☹), and quite often I say to myself " I can do better than this!" One of my colleague, Denice the gardener ( I hear she's very good home cook/ house wife) agreed with me too. That's why when I get invited nice veggie lunch etc, I get excited! on Sunday(6th/Nov), me and Marcus went to see Marilyn (have I got it right??). It was lovely to see her! And I met Marcus sister, "Anna-Marie" (is it right spelling???). She was lovely. We had really chilled out afternoon in front of fire. Marilyn's cat was enjoying herself by the fire too. Here in England, it's already really dark 4-5pm. anyway, here's our lovely veggie lunch♥

Lovely home made leek and potato soup from Anna-Marie's garden with watercress and soya yogurt.

some salady things on the table. they were all yummy. She made carrot in ginger juice. Purple haze and orange carrot, lovely colours. Again, purple haze were from Anna-Marie's garden. I love the simplicity of foods like this, no need to add anything on fab quality of ingredients. Sometimes I see in cafes/restaurants here (locally), they make foods too complicate. That's how I feel anyway.As usual, I ate quite a bit. When Marilyn asked us If we were hungry or not, I really wanted to say "yes" straight away. But I didn't. I didn't want her to think I was a greedy cow (excuse for my language☺)........ I'm always hungry!!!!! And I can eat anytime good foods and cakes!!!! Then that evening, we were hungry again, so I cooked "Quinoa and bean burger and tofu sausages with "sweet potato and chill puree". it was sweet and spicy. I made sweet potato and chili puree by cooking in water first ( I usually bake them but there were no baking tin in Marcus's house so, I cooked in water), then blitz with good harrisa and extra grated garlic and extra virgin olive oil. When sweet potato are cooked, it's quite watery anyway, no need to add anything runny. For quinoa burger, I chopped garlic, very lightly blanched fresh broad beans, cooked quinoa, blanched spinach, then,  i kind of blitzed it half way, add chopped butternut squash and broad beans (they both raw), some herbs, seasoning. Made shape. If I had dehydrator, I would defo put them in the machine for some time, but I don't. So, We ate them how they were. (I would bake slowly @ 100 degree for 1 hour or so, turning once to make outside crispy)

 Basically, our dinner was my left over vegetables in my fridge and Anna-Marie's fresh products. Not bad result!!!

I don't eat tofu sausages all the time. I do eat something else. Just when I take photos what I cook, it tends to have them on our dinner menu! Well, I will cook something else next time!

home made tofu

Last week I made pumpkin seeds "tofu". Following day, I soaked some soya beans for a day, I made a tofu. I didn't think I put enough nigari mix to my tofu, it was soft. I love soft tofu too. so I'm not complaining. When I just made tofu, I could taste nigari. I didn't add too much. So, I soaked it for over night. I had my tofu following evening with Miso dressing Japanesey style. Oh, reminded me of home. Felt a bit melancholy.... So, it says all. Home made tofu is nicer that shop bought and easy to make. I also cooked all okara and had them in my salad for 3days dinner and lunch. Cor blimey, I farted a lot☹. I told Sam and Rachel on Tuesday evening (at the core training). They didn't think much though. Because of how soya bean processed and everything, they don't eat soya and soya products full stop (apart from tempei.) Sam asked me If I made tempei yet, well, that's my next mission anyway. But I would like to explore more about tofu making(not with soya beans, but other nuts and seeds or even mix!). And I think I know what to make with okara next time. I got an idea! Make something different and interesting so that I don't get bord eating the same shit. (well, good shit☺) Anyway, this is my soya tofu♥♥♥.

Not bad, don't you think??? 

This is cooked okara. Ready for another use. Making foods from scratch is always fun. Like jam making, chutney making, mustard making...etc, I can make them  how I like. I do miss making them, but I don't eat them anymore, so can't be bothered. Today I went to see my tattooist, he is strictly and politically vegan . and he told me some good vegan pie cooking book would be out soon, and he was very excited. Arr, bless. I think time for cuppa and biscuits......

three seeds biscuits

 Just finished my 11days stretch. And I enjoyed my days off. Last week, my best mate Tony came back from Brighton(he moved there for 3 months) for a few days till he was off to Morocco. It was lovely to see him, I hadn't seen him since he went down in Brighton. We had lovely cups of coffee. This week, I had 3 days off. I did meet up with my friends, had good chat about life...as we do, and gossipping......a little☺. We are sooooo nosy, I wanna know what some people are up to. My "nosiness" isn't as bad as one of domestics at work. She's really nosy, and she knows it. She wants to know everything going on there and when she asks me who's car it is parked up outside for example, I always tell her, if she doesn't know, how come I know???? She's really funny though.  anyway, that day my friend Emma came round mine and had light lunch and chat, I was reminded following day, I was supposed to be at work for some refresher course. I completely forgot about it. But it turned up to be far better day than sitting in the conservatory room at work listening to boring lecture(I always fall asleep anyway). I had very productive day that day. 10 out of 10 for week days off(weekend off are always fantastic)☺. What happen to the course??? Apparently my boss is arranging 1 to 1 session...oh dear...with her!!! Damn it☹!!!! Anyway, these were one of few things I did during my days off.  I had sudden urge to eat some savory cookies. So I baked "3 seeds buckwheat cookies". I gave Emma with our little lunch, and she liked them too. 

We had them with cannellini bean paste I made for our lunch. I made "quinoa and cashew burger with salad and bean paste" I made 6 small burgers and slowly baked them in the oven. Crunchy outside, and moist inside. Yum Yum. I've been having it at work for my lunch(leftovers) too. Also I made oaty buckwheat honey cookies too. They didn't get crunchy due to fat I used. Butter usually make those cookies crunchy, I think taste nicer than butter though. 

3seeds biscuits, here's recipe if u wanna try. 

50g fat ( I used organic sunflower merg)

40g buckwheat flour

40g gluten free flour

20g oatmeal

20g linseeds

20g kia seeds(not sure how to spell, sorry...)

20g sesame seeds

mix all together, add milk(I used hemp milk I had in my fridge) to bine, make a dough. Roll out very carefully(very crumbly). then cut out, put them on baking tray. bake for 15mins or so. Let cool on the tray for 5mins before moving them to cooling rack.

they are nice with vegan yeast extract, pumpkin butter etc. I love them with hummus or bean paste.

my first pumpkin-"tofu"

Hooray, I finally made my own "tofu" this evening. I wanted to make it with hemp milk. I got "Nigari" which I bought from the health food shop in France. I boiled the hemp milk, waited to cool down a bit, then added nigari dissolved with 1 cup of water. I waited....for about 15mins... I couldn't see the milk curdling. So, I went on the Internet, I found a forum.... apparently, "GOOD HEMP" milk doesn't coagulate due to the corrargen(stabilizer). O.K, I admit I was being lazy to use the hemp milk. So, I made pumpkin milk, sieved, boiled for a bout 3-4mins... hooray, I saw the milk curdling! I poured into muslin cloth with colander, put some weight on for about 5mins(or less).... here's my pumpkin "tofu". 

Tasted slightly sweet, I loved it. Mind you, I love pumpkin seeds. I munch them quite a lot. Good thing about this tofu was I didn't actually use nigari to curdle. Then, give me an idea. "cashew nuts "tofu""??? It doesn't have to be soya beans does it? Depends on what to serve with(garnish) or what type of cuisine you are cooking, change the flavour of "tofu" too. I wasn't very hungry, so I made a small oriental salad with it. ☺

I wasn't guanna eat another piece, but I did. With little bit tamari♥. Yum Yum. I sprinkled omega3 mixed seeds roasted with tamari which I made on the poodle weekend. I got this salad for tomorrow lunch too.☺I love tofu. My parents' friends in Tokyo make tofu. I remember the tofu was really nice, one of the best tofu I ever had. Kyoto tofu taste different from Tokyo tofu. I think Kyoto cuisine in general taste more sutler and they make foods with good dashi. So as their Kyoto tofu making. My mum used to mail-order the tofu from Kyoto every now again, for our treat. My mum is a good cook, but she never made sushi and tofu at home. That was main reason I was really surprised one of my friend(tami-chan in Canada) told me his mum used to make sushi at home. I didn't realized sushi was also a home cooking. These days I do make my own sushi sometimes(vegetarian/vegan), and it's fun, it's yummy, easy, cheaper than restaurants too. I think I've found some fun in "tofu" making! What tofu shall I make tomorrow????

Our dinner and breakfast with French produce

That's it, enough of cake talks now. I did cook/make some healthy salads for our dinner and breakfast. First evening I made "Fig & parsley salad and bean & olive salad with lemon and garlic dressing" Using produces from the farm shop. 

We had some risotto for a few days too. It was a bit trouble finding risotto rice...not sure why not everyone(spars) had the rice.... This is what I cooked.

I roasted some green, red pepper and a round courgette, left skin on, slice them, in a mean time cook risotto rice accordingly to the cooking instruction on the packet.  Saute some garlic and white onion, add rice. I would use little bit white wine, make veggie stock, slowly add to the rice. keep stirring. When the rice is done to al dante, add some chopped parsley(or herbs of your choice) and season. Serve on the rice onto a plate, top with the roasted veggies. Drizzle some oil on the plate make it look pretty! Risotto is eazy, quick and yummy. 

This is another risotto dish I cooked. I used left over vegetables in the fridge. I cooked "chili, sun dried tomato risotto with roasted round courgette" Again, I used lots of good extra virgin olive oil...Oh, I bought a packet of local salt(it's grey!) and the salt takes flavour of food really well and not too salty either. And it was very cheap. 500g for €1.90. Of course, I took the rest of salt with me. I only used a tiny bit while we were there anyway.  When we were on our way back to the airport on Sunday, Marcus showed me where those salt were made. I'd never seen how salt was produced. Cool! Marcus had his birthday week before, I told him I would like take him out for dinner. So, we were looking at menus for something we could eat. I could understand a bit of French menu(only some kitchen French I know), most of dishes were either meat or fish, or contained wheat. So, after a 3 days looking, we gave up, and on Thursday, I cooked dinner. I wanted to do some dishes a bit like tapas, but didn't turn up how I would hoped, but using beautiful veggies, taste yummy anyway. This is what I cooked.

"Roasted round courgettes with home made tapanade", "Roasted aubergine with salsa rosso", "potato with mint dressing", "fennel and orange salad", "Jerusalem artichoke with olives and walnuts".

 I love salsa rosso, I sometimes make it, and eat with my buckwheat pasta(or gluten-free pasta) instead of using cooked tomato sauce. Also, it also makes yummy topping for tofu sausages and pumpkin mash. Breakfast, we generally had some fruits smoothies and kaki. But me being naughty, I had either pain aux raisin or pain aux chocolat.....

Don't they look beautiful♥♥♥

These are our snack/lunch when we went for long(?) walk to the light house(please see my other blog!) We got some buckwheat crackers and assorted mini vegetarian pates from the health food shop. It's always pleasure to eat pates!!! Assorted ones like theses are good trial sizes to different flavours.  I don't get bord either! I sometimes get complain from people around me saying "norie, what are you eating? It stinks!" When I hear comment like this, I normally am eating mushroom pate in a tube or veggie pate. It might stink but can't help eating, they are yummy. More tastier and lot less smellier than some shitty meat pate(and cheap) from cheap supermarket(and that's what they eat) anyway! What are they chatting about??? Well, never mind. Some people have passion for complaining, they need to do that to survive. So, let them, and when I'm feeling bord hearing(I don't really listen) it, tell them to shut the f**k up politely. Anyway, I've been dreaming about kaki since we got back...I can't wait for our next adventure and kaki♥♥♥

French Patisseries

How could I resist French patisseries while I was in France. It was pastry chef's dream to look round. When I was a pastry chef in London restaurants, I did think about working in French patisseries in either in London or France. But I talked myself out saying I prefered Italian patisseries and desserts so working with Italian restaurant and Italian chefs were fine.... To be honest, I just love good cakes and desserts, I wouldn't care which, those days, I just didn't have gutts to do anything. Anyway, as usual, when I had some visits to patisseries/bakery, I bought 2 cakes each time. It also took me ages to decide which one to buy. They all look wonderful, I wanted to eat all of them. I was very impressed even small village bakery/patisseries had wonderful products. I just couldn't keep my eyes off. Then I understood why French pastry chefs(who I used to work) were soooo proud of themselves. I remember most of them actually, when they introduced themselves, they always mentioned they were French. I thought that time, "what a twat, did they really need to say that???" Anyway, they were just proud of their products and what they did. And, French do have fabulous patisseries!

This is pain aux raisins from local spar. It looks good!

 These are from one of local bakery. These were one I bought and cained them straight away!

Rasberry and strawberry tart and caramel tart. They both were devine. What I love the most was the pate sucre. Baked till brown, crispy and thin which I love and that was how I was taught to bake. In England, local bakeries tend to use short pastry(even home bakers too) and roll out really thick. I don't like thick pastry. And, underneath the fruits, there was crem patisserie. They were delicious. Really light considering how it was made. Well, caramel tart, base was almost like brandy snaps with nuts, caramel in the middle, topped with butterscoch cream. It was very sweet, but loved it! 

next one I had was...........

Chocalate eclaris from the small bakery in the chestnut village in Collobrieres. Again, even chox pastry was baked till brown! Chocolate crem patisseirie was really chocalatey and didn't taste cheap and nasty ready made custard cream(which often been used round here.). I was very pleased. Breads looked fantastic also.

Next photos are from patisseries in Cavalaire. I didn't buy anything from there, I didn't want to eat too many cakes and clogg myself up again. But I had sugar come-down(always makes me grumpy a bit...☹)

And this is the other local bakery/patisserie shop. Again, I bought 2 cakes from them.

And these are ones I bought and I really enjoyed my tart au citron♥♥♥

Every time I see those photos I can still hear Marcus saying " you have lots of photos of cakes!" yes, I have and  I can look at them all day......

Finally, they are the last cakes I had in France. Pear and frangipane tart and cherry cake form cafe in the airport. I was very happy with my last cakes. Since then, I haven't touched any cakes here. Nothing here inspires me to eat(yet). Instaead, I'm now very motivated and inspired to bake and make some scrummy things!!! I've got a few days off next week, spend some time baking!!!!

French farm shop

Wow, amazing foods, and fantastic farm shop! When we arrived in Toulon, south of France, it was nearly 3pm(i think). I was already thinking about what to eat for dinner. (which is quite normal for me....thinking about food all the time.) I suggested Marcus if we could pop in to green grocers to get some vegetables and fruits. I always get excited when i imagine myself in local shops, choosing vegetables, smelling just baked bread, looking at pretty fresh products and buying them. When we picked up our hire car at the airport, driving off to La Croix Vamier, we were talking about which shop to go. Then Marcus saw a sign for a farm shop. (I'm sure the farm shop was quite near to the airport.... ) Sounds good...Farm shop, by then, I already started thinking about which veggies to buy........ about 5-10mins driving from a roundabout, we found rustic farm shop. We parked our car in the car park there, when i opened the door, I saw....a fig tree! Of course, Marcus and I scrumped some figs.(we had them later, and they were delicious!) This farm shop even had spring water tap! Oh, it reminded me of beautiful Greece! They had all sorts of freshly picked herbs to marinated olives, organic wines to local extra virgin olive oil! They all looked wonderful, I wanted to buy the whole shop! 

We bought some figs too. They were lot cheaper than ones we get here in England. Sure, we made the most of it, we ate lots! (like amount of cherries we ate when we were in Greece. we ate load of them too!!!)

Look at the sweet potatoes! they all look very rustic, none of them shape the same!

Far left, they had shelves for wines, preserves and extra virgin olive oil.

Beautiful french garlic. We bought one, and tasted fantastic!

Lots of pumpkins and butternut squash. Never seen so many!

these were what we bought (part of...). look sooooooo pretty♥♥♥

As far as I can remember, we paid around  just over €25 including a bottle of extra virgin olive oil. We bought locally grown products possible all though our stay in south of France. Dark local grapes were €4.99 for a kilo, green prumpy Italian grapes were €2.99 for a kilo. We thoroughly enjoyed eating local grapes!!! On 3rd day, we went to Cavalaire(next town to where we were and very touristy place) for our food shopping. Then we found...cute green grocers!

Colours there were beautiful, again, they had loads of local products and surprise, surprise, they had "kaki"(sharon fruits). Marcus told me how amazing French kaki was. Here they were, I was finally able to taste! They were very big and ripe, reminded me of ones I used to eat when I was in Japan. Kaki is very Japanese, I remember when I was child, my granny( my mum's mum in Fukushima) used to make dried sharon fruits. I remember looking at them thinking what ugly things they were and scared to eat. I think it was my granny made me eat my first dried sharon fruits, and tasted sooo yummy and sooo soft that I ate loads. Do you know what happened next? I couldn't keep away from the toilet. I did similar thing with satsumas. My brother actually felt really ill by eating 1 massive box of satsumas with me. I was fine, but he was really ill for a few days. Anyway, this green grocers was the only one who had beautiful sharon fruits. Of course we went back every couple of days to get the fruits for our breakfast. When they are in season, I normally get from my local supermarket in town which sells bland and tiny sharon fruits. Skins are too thick, never really go ripe and too small for the price!!!!!!☹ That's why it's wise to make the most of opportunities I get . That my motto anyway.

I can hear figs and the kaki are saying.."norie, eat me! eat me!!" Yum Yum♥♥♥