Montaditos

Kaley and I have been wandering around Barcelona for a few days now and I've been intrigued by these little, open-faced sandwich-like things that I've seen in a few spots. On our walk yesterday we were looking for a light snack and came across this restaurant serving these little sandwiches which I would later discover are called "montaditos". The word montadito comes from the Spanish verb "montar" which means "to mount" because of the way the tiny slice of bread is "mounted" with a variety of toppings. I've always disliked sandwiches, nothing against them personally but I find most of them so boring and heavy on the bread. But this was different. Each little sandwich was only a few bites and then you could have another one, or two, or three!! And the bread was really just a canvas for whatever delicious ingredients are placed on top.

There was no menu of course, only your eyes are used to pick your meal so there is a bit of mystery involved. Each piece was 1.65 Euros and we were each given a small plate and free rein to pick whatever we liked. My montaditos (below) included a brie cheese & tomato mini-burger, a mini-croissant with an egg salad-like filling, and a seafood-stuffed red pepper on a small slice of baguette.

At the end of the meal, the waiter comes by and counts up your toothpicks which is done to tabulate the bill. Genius.

DG

Roka

As a treat while my cousin Aaron was in the city, Auntie Mindy took us to Roka, a really nice restaurant in London's media district serving Japanese robatayaki cuisine. Robatayaki translates literally to "fireside cooking" and refers to food that is skewered and grilled over hot charcoal. The "tasting menu" was highly recommended which is where one gets to sample a variety of house specialities and feature dishes. We were hesitant because we had such a full day of eating (see "A Sunday Roast" post below) and weren't sure if we could manage such a feast. Aaron, being the smart young man that he is (he does go to Cambridge after all), made a very valid point:

  "Diana, you can eat a lot...like not in a bad way..."

And so the tasting menu it was.

It started with the beachu kim chi and a grilled seaweed & bamboo shoot salad. Next, we received a selection of sashimi and the yellow fin tuna tartar with seaweed crackers.


Moving into the hot foods we had a soft shell crab maki, assorted tempura, and beef, ginger & sesame gyoza.


We were all still feeling pretty confident at this point. The final round of savoury dishes was the spiced chicken wings with sea salt & lime, fried eggplant, grilled asparagus, and teriyaki salmon filet. The fried eggplant was fantastic (although not very photogenic) - it was served with this sesame miso sauce and katsuobushi (dried, fermented and smoked fish or what I simply call "fish flakes"). By the time the salmon came around I was ready to wave the white flag but somehow we managed to get through it all and even save a little room for what was coming next.


The last and final part of the meal, was the amazing dessert platter! I really should have been taking notes here because there were some really nice and refreshing desserts here: a peanut butter ice cream sundae, some sort of mango filled meringue type thing, a custard-y lychee dessert, an assortment of fruit sorbets and fresh dragon fruit (Aaron's fave). This might have been my favourite part of the entire meal and just look how pretty it is!


Such a lovely day, dinner, and visit with my Australian family. :)

DG

A Sunday Roast

My dear auntie Mindy, armed with her maps, guidebooks, and "London binder", is quite keen on showing me everything London has to offer and also giving me a real taste of Britain. With my cousin Aaron taking a break from his studies at Cambridge to join us in London on Sunday afternoon, my auntie thought it would be a perfect time to have a traditional Sunday roast at a British pub. After a long day of perusing the markets we ended up at the Marksman pub on Hackney Road (close to the flower market). It was packed but we had a reservation (of course) and sat down with a big pitcher of Pimms cocktail - my drink of choice in the UK.

I had the roasted leg of lamb (other options were beef or pork belly) with the traditional assortment of roasted potatoes, steamed kale & red cabbage, boiled carrots, mashed turnip, and of course, Yorkshire pudding. I've always found phrase "Yorkshire pudding" very misleading and wondered where it got off calling itself a pudding until today when I looked it up in the Collins English Dictionary and realized it is a totally legitimate use of the word pudding:

pudding 

n

1. (Cookery) a sweetened usually cooked dessert made in many forms and of various ingredients, such as flour, milk, and eggs, with fruit, etc.

2. (Cookery) a savoury dish, usually soft and consisting partially of pastry or batter steak-and-kidney pudding

3. (Cookery) the dessert course in a meal

4. (Cookery) a sausage-like mass of seasoned minced meat, oatmeal, etc., stuffed into a prepared skin or bag and boiled

Well, looks like I owe Yorkshire pudding an apology.

This is an incredibly hearty meal to be eating at 2pm in the afternoon but it has that homecooked feel that I love. However, having nibbled all day at the market (and knowing that we had another reservation at a very nice place that same evening) I could only manage about half of this plate. Still, I thought it was quite good and that's coming from an Asian girl who loves her noodles!

DG

Swiss Cheese

I just arrived in London yesterday after a few precious days in Geneva with my old friend, Maciek (we met while we were both studying in Singapore on an exchange semester) and my new friend Milena (Maciek's lovely wife). 

Switzerland is famous for many things but most importantly...chocolate and cheese! Why? Because Switzerland produces the highest quality milk in the world. But how? It's simple: Swiss alpine pastures are ideal for grazing and happy cows produce better milk. So you can imagine how much better it used to be back in the day when Swiss farmers were still allowed to feed their cows cannabis. Delivering on their promise to show me the best of Geneva, Maciek and Milena invited me to the restaurant in Hotel Les Armures located in the Old Town and probably one of the more famous restaurants in Switzerland. I mean, Bill and Hillary ate here. They are well known for their cheese fondue which is apparent when you walk in the door and are hit by this overwhelming smell of cheese. We started with a plate of viande séchée (dried meat) served with bread and pickles which was a nice appetizer. 

For the main course, we ordered the fondue (moitié‐moitié) which is a traditional Swiss fondue - a mixture of two cheeses, half gruyère and half vacherin Fribourgeois, melted together in a pot with white wine, garlic, cornstarch (for thickening) and a splash of kirsch (fruit brandy). We had bread for dipping and I was told that losing your piece of bread in the fondue was very bad luck so I was careful not to do this. 

We ate, really, a lot of cheese and it was so delicious but sadly we did not make it to the bottom! Per my friends, this is the best part because the waiter comes by and scrapes off the cheese that has formed a tasty, crispy crust at the bottom of the pot. Sigh. Oh well, something to look forward to next time!

Thank you for a wonderful visit, Maciek and Milena!

DG