The White Zin of Bacon

This morning I made a breakfast I've been craving to make since I had it last December. The story goes like this. I was visiting Suzanne in Stockholm one last time before my trip back to the States and craving pancakes. Something that is hard to come by in London unless you want to pay $15 for something that is two notches below that of Aunt Jemima's pancakes! Hakim, Suzanne's husband, being half American, half Swedish immediately understood and whipped me up the perfect combination of pancakes perfectly combining both his worlds: pancakes with Dubliner cheddar cheese and lingonberries. Except he didn't use Dubliner cheddar, he used a type of Gouda cheese that was amazing. As all Gouda generally is.

I've included a photo of what he made and one of what I made. Obvioulsy his looks much better then mine, but so goes the ape's story... Oh! And I coupled mine with what Mike refers to as the White Zin of bacon, turkey bacon. So snotty, yet probably true.

To recreate this recipe, all you have to do is make some pancakes, melt some cheese on top and serve with lingonberries and any other breakfast delights your belly desires.

Bon appetite!

I Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore...

It's been so long since I've blogged! I've missed it. Even though I have a busy summer ahead of me: dissertation, two papers, work, travel, visitors, etc. I feel I am ready to get back on track. I am long overdue on an entry dedicated to British fashion, but its so difficult to capture the outlandish fashion here with my iPhone discreetly! But I am working on it.

As you know, I hated Sex and the City sequel. But that is not what this blog is about. Nope. As we were waiting for the torture to begin, we saw this commercial (yah they show commercials before movie trailers and the actual movie here too!!) and it's just too good not to share. Enjoy!

My O' Meyer Lemons!

Even though I am not living in the Bay Area, I still visit the SF Chronicle's website for news updates, recipes, and foodie trends. Today I came across a yummy tea cake made with one of my favorite summer ingredients, Meyer lemons. I hope they are as popular here as they are in California this time of year, because I really want to make this tea cake:

Meyer Lemon Tea Cake With Blueberry Compote

Makes 2 9-inch round cakes, serves 14 to 16

From Rebecca Rader, pastry chef and owner of Frascati restaurant. She serves these cakes in individual portions, but if you don't have several small cake molds, it's fine to make this in two rounds. If you can't get Meyer lemons, use regular Eureka lemons.

• The lemon cake:
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup grated Meyer lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
• The soak:
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• The frosting:
• 1/3 cup butter
• 3 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
• The blueberry compote:
• 2 cups blueberries
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon butter

To make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans or set aside two non-stick round pans.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a bowl; set aside.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the lemon zest and honey, and beat quickly to combine.

In another bowl, combine the cream, vanilla and lemon juice. Add the dry ingredients to the batter, alternating with the cream mixture, in three additions, scraping down the sides as you go.

Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans, smoothing the top. Bake until the top springs back and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes.

Let stand for about 10 minutes; remove cake from pans onto a parchment-lined pan or other surface.

To make the soak: Heat the lemon juice and the sugar in a small saucepan until sugar is fully dissolved.

Using a skewer, poke several holes in the tops of the two cakes. Spoon the lemon-sugar mixture evenly over the two cakes, letting it soak into the still-warm cake.

To make the frosting: Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir in the lemon juice and remove from the heat. Pour over the powdered sugar, whisking constantly until smooth. If too thick, add a little water or more lemon juice to achieve a pourable consistency.

When cake has cooled slightly, drizzle the icing over the tops, letting it run down the sides.

To make the compote: Combine 1 1/2 cups of the blueberries with the sugar and vanilla in a saucepan. Add just enough water to moisten the sugar; it should look sandy.

Cook over medium-low heat, until the blueberries start to break down, about 7 to 10 minutes. Add the cornstarch slurry and let simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes, until thickened. Remove from heat, stir in the remaining 1/2 cup blueberries and the butter.

To serve: Serve the cake in wedges with the compote spooned over the top.

Per serving: 507 calories, 5 g protein, 77 g carbohydrate, 21 g fat (13 g saturated), 111 mg cholesterol, 212 mg sodium, 1 g fiber.

To Eat: Little Lamb

I follow a London foodie blog, Tamarind & Thyme and they posted a review on Little Lamb, a restaurant on Shaftesbury Avenue. Yum! Here is how they describe the restaurant experience followed by some pictures they took. It's been added to my "to eat" list:

"hotpot...a fabulous meal for cold days, [is] essentially a big pot of boiling hot stock (can be mild, can be spicy) in the middle of the table and a whole lot of raw ingredients to cook in it. The meal becomes quite a long and very social affair in which the food gets cooked little by little (the whole lot would never fit in the pot at one time) and after all has been cooked and eaten, the broth is so lovely to drink as it’s taken on all the flavours....we got to work deciding on the 30 dishes of raw ingredients we’d have between us. Yes, that’s right – 30 plates of food. For £20 a head, you get the broths of your choice plus five ingredients to toss in there. Multiply that by six and you end up with more food than your table can handle"

Summa Summa Summa-Time!

Sunday was spent going to (free) museums and window shopping with Rudabah. Well I windowed and she made a fabulous purchase. We stopped off at Waterstone's which I guess is the Borders equivalent and guess what I saw?? The American Vogue. As you've read before, I miss American magazines so much! As I skimmed through the pages of waif models and Gisele Bundchen aka 'Earth Mother' rant of how women use pregnancy as an excuse to become 'garbage disposals', the fashionista in me started getting inspired. That is inspired to summer-ise my very winter wardbrobe. So here are a few basics I need to pump it up for this very summery summer:

1. Panama Hat
2. Shades (shown: Chloe's Mimosa Rounds, obviously out of my price range!)
3. Just Enough Buff by Revlon
4. Nude colored dress (this one is by Calvin Klein, once again, I'm in fantasy land)
5. White semi-flowy tank top

London Eats: The Cassie Edition

Aside from chowing down at the Indian YMCA, Cassie and I indulged in a few other London dining experiences.

Pizza East

After joining my colleagues for happy hour, Cassie, Jed and I went to Pizza East. The service was great, which for those of you who have eaten in London, know service usually sucks here. The server picked up on the fact that I don't eat pork and stopped us from ordering lamb meatballs which were actually lamb-pancetta meatballs. We ended up sharing two pizza, an order of bruschetta and the bone marrow. The pizza crust was perfect and the only thing missing was a side of honey to drizzle on it. The pizza with egg was interesting and surprisingly complimentary. Another surprise was the way in which the bone marrow was served. Made it much easier to scrape all the yummy goodness out of it and suck on the bone.










The Sunday Roast

Before indulging in the ever so popular high tea experience, Cassie and I met up with Andi, her parents and some friends for a traditional Sunday Roast at the Southwark Tavern near London Bridge. The company and the food were fabulous! We shared an order to save room for tea and thank goodness because it was more than enough for one person!

Sunday Roasts usually consist of some sort of meat, potatoes, veggies, gravy, Yorkshire puddings and stuffing. The toasted kale served with this roast was fantastic!


Most importantly, Cassie got in some real London dining experiences. Stay tuned for the post on our pinkies up high tea!

The Media Literate Mind Never....

Sometimes I think the Tube is one of the most stimulating places in London. With its random smells, sounds, and endless amounts of people watching. Granted, sometimes they are disturbing. A whiff of good perfume one day, the smell of poop another. Great live music tonight followed by loud noises from within the tube tunnel tomorrow morning. This is also true for tube adverts. Take a look:

#1 Coochie Friendly Ad













People! "Coochie" at "Loveyourvagina.com" At first glance, I thought I saw "Cookie" but then I opened my eyes and could not believe there was an ad, in one of the most popular places in London that spelled the word "Coochie"!!? I mean lets face it, British adverts are definitely more blatant than American ads, especially around drunk driving, smoking, etc but this was no public service announcement! Don't get me wrong, I think its great and it definitely brightened my day. Empowered "coochie" is much more fun to witness than waif, starving, airbrushed "coochie." And its for a great cause as it turns out! The "moon cup" which is an alternative to pads and tampons. It did a great job of catching my attention without making me feel bad, ugly, or fat and without degrading a woman! Can't get too upset about that!

#2 Coochie unfriendly ad!










What the eff is this? I mean don't get me wrong, I kinda want those jeans, but it's not because of some freakishly ridiculous ad. It's because British fashion is getting the best of me and I can't resist. Anyway, are we so out of ideas to sell clothes that we have to make some model's airbrushed body look all mangled up? The emotional reaction I get is not "I want" but "ouch!" Nice work Miss Sixty, but perhaps you should take a lesson from Diesel...

#3 Sex Sells (hopefully safely!)













Diesel's is not messing around (no pun intended) with their current storefront campaign! Not that I think this is anything less than a marketing ploy, but I do appreciate their gall to get straight to the point! Still doesn't make me want to buy their jeans!

*btw, this picture was taken in front of the Diesel store near Hyde Park, not inside a Tube station