u m a m i

Salon International de l'Agriculture 2008

It's the time of the year for V to say hello to farm animals and for the adults to enjoy French regional specialities at the Salon International de l'Agriculture. It was as fun and exhausting as last year's outing, though next year we'll just leave the kid at home and take the time to get to know the stalls and their products.

When V and GG were resting, husband and I walked the stalls, his objectives was wines, mine was mustards, honeys and other edible stuffs. At one point a wine merchant waved me over and asked me to "send your husband to look for me, I have some wines for him to taste." which was a bit weird, we probably stood out among the mostly Caucasion visitors. And the politicians. The Prime Minister apparently spent 5 hours there if my understanding of the evening radio news was correct- he went before the doors opened and stayed for lunch. Other campaigning hopefuls were there to shake hands and be followed by press photographers but nothing as exciting as Sarko's "casse-toi alors pauvre con" incident happened, they were all very well-behaved. Please click the video to see the makings of scrumptious Grand Marnier crepes and coffees.

The entrance fee is still 12 euros but foie gras sandwiches were noticeably more expensive, up from 4-6 euros to 6.5-7 euros this year although some stalls soften the blow by offering an accompanying cup of Jurançon or Cahor. We were not sure which foie gras sandwich to go for, and there was no question we were missing out on it because this is part of the experience, to not do it is like going to the cinema and not eating popcorn. The first one we tried had won one gold medal but it was like eh? so we tried another - it is not as bad as it seemed because we asked them to cut up the sandwiches for sharing- and literally struck gold because the stall of Jean Pierre G was festooned all over with stickers proclaiming their many gold medal wins. Their sandwiches are lovely because they warm up the bread, also their foie gras is particularly yummy, one fan told us he's been eating their sandwich for the past five years and to him, it was just the best.

On top of foie gras, our haul comprised 15 year old Grand Marnier, honeys, apple juice, mustards, wines, coconut macaroons, chestnut jams,creamy blackcurrant liquers and vinegars and substantial hunks of cheeses. I missed out on some very fresh vanilla pods from Reunion thinking there would be other stalls selling the same things but then we got side tracked with ciders, bonbons pimentes and magrets de canards.....ah well, until next year.

L'Astrance, Paris

            

(If you are reading this in an RSS reader please go to the actual site to view the yummy images. Thank you)

Like most other starred places in town, L'Astrance is not an easy restaurant to get into, we waited nearly two months for a lunch reservation. One reason for the long wait could be the relatively small size of the restaurant itself, there appears to be enough space for not more than 30 covers. The decor was serviceable with comfortable couches and chairs in striking yellow, pretty swirled glass plates and neutral everything else, I would have imagined with their success they would at least try harder on this aspect especially as the street-view is not in the least eye-pleasing.

The welcome was similar, swift and muted- there wasn't any of the usual hoopla with valets, coat checkers, doormen or washroom attendants but ladies' menu has no price listed which was not in keeping with its modern feel. Bread was served with an ordinary butter. The sommelier was very helpful and accommodating, the two wines which we tried were interesting and perfectly matched our food. The wine glasses did not have that offputting smell of a much-used drying cloth, husband is très particuliar about this point as many restaurants overlook it. Coincidentally my friend and her husband was booked on the same day and we found ourselves sitting at neighbouring tables. Although they arrived 30 minutes after us our meals were served around the same time which meant we waited quite a while for the waiters and kitchen to get into gear.

Blah decor, ho-hum service. So that leaves us the food, which was well worth the wait and expense. There were exciting flavours and pushing of some boundaries. Focus as well as experimentation. France may be a fine dining haven but it is still dominated by carefully executed dishes in traditional classical styles. Best of French ingredients and all that which is fine, but usage of exotic herbs and spices are usually half-hearted so in this aspect Astrance stands out for daring to be different.

Husband ordered the daily menu and I had the winter menu, the difference is that he got three dishes while I had two more. My first dish of mushroom pie had raw mushroom sliced finely layered with foie gras, I loved the dusting of concentrated mushroom powder on the top. Scallops came in two big fat specimens sitting on a most unwintery broth embellished with flowers and beautiful vegetables. Turbot served with a plump oyster with gingery notes, a piece of bamboo shoots unexpected but delicious. Husband exclaimed that he's never enjoyed pakchoy as much as he did with theirs. Iberico ham with white beans, olives and a piquant chorizo sauce, enlivened with a fine mince of olives. Pork belly with clams scored highly on taste and textures. The last dish of veal with salsify I found to be least interesting but I was quite full by then. I asked for a menu but they forgot to give me when I left so I am missing out on some fine details and identities of ingredients such as the bittersweet green vegetables that came with the pork belly.

Two hours into the meal I asked them to hurry the service along as I had to take V to a magic show. The waiter asked whether my appointment was at another restaurant, he may have overheard our conversation with our friends about fine-dining in Paris but was he being witty or sarcastic? When they served the desserts they "kidnapped" my camera and placed it on a nearby service table which explains the lack of images of the sweet dishes which were not that remarkable actually, save for an unusual and successful pre-dessert dessert that contained lemongrass and very spicy peppers. It couldn't be their objection to my photography, nearly everyone else was doing the same thing, including a table of three youngish men in suits looking like the competition taking notes, and I did ask for permission beforehand. I left the restaurant forgetting to reclaim my camera and had to return to fetch it, making me even more late for my appointment.

Thus was our lunch, it started off with some excitement but I must have stumbled on something in the middle because it petered off abjectedly towards the end. The food is super, I'll give them that, but I do wish they had tried harder to enrich our overall dining experience which if I am not wrong is what being a 3-star is all about.

Ginger Butter Cake

               

We had rather a lot of candied crystallised ginger left after the CNY so it was timely when I found this recipe in my Williams Sonoma's Essentials of Baking which calls for not only 140g of the stuff, but adds an additional 3 inch worth of its grated self. As if that was not gingery enough, ground ginger was also specified but I didn't have any so I substituted with a good pinch of nutmeg instead.

The baking of a cake was to provide a sweet treat for after dinner but mainly to please V, she was so excited about the project she could hardly wait for me to come home from classes, asking GG again and again when I would return. She ate up her chai-chai (vegetables) dutifully at lunchtime and eagerly put on her kiddie apron. I put her to work sending dirty dishes to the sink and for rewards, she enjoyed licking maple syrup and fluffy sugar-butter bits from the spoon.

               

The recipe below is an adapted version, because I lacked ingredients such as the aforesaid ground ginger, light corn syrup (substituted with maple syrup of which Sui Mai had given me a large tin of the high quality brown gold last year) and almond extract (sub-ed with vanilla extract). I also cut down the sugar, noted also that many of their recipes specify icing/confectioner's sugar rather than fine sugar, because 155g sounded a bit much.

1. Mix the ginger and liquer. Measure the milk and set aside, it's turn comes round in step 5.

140 g crystallised ginger, minced.

80ml Grand Marnier

125ml whole milk

2. Butter a loaf pan,  9 X 5 inch is best or a fairly large one. Line bottom with parchment paper, butter it and then dust the whole pan with flour.

3. Sift together:

250g cake flour

2tsp baking powder

Big pinch ground nutmeg

4. Whisk until light in colour and fluffy. Book says 5 minutes, it felt more like 12 to me.

185g butter

130g icing sugar

1 tbsp maple syrup

5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then whisk in the orange zest, grated ginger and vanilla extract. Actually I dumped the last three items in the bowl of eggs and kind of plopped the eggy mix in, a yolk at a time. At one point the mixing must have liquefied the ginger a bit and the batter turned liquidy but no worries, it all came together in the end. The cake will rise!

4 large eggs

Grated zest of 1 orange

3 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

6. Fold in one third of the sifted flour mixture, then half the milk. Repeat with another third of flour, then milk. Add the marinating crystallised ginger, fold lightly and finish off with a final fold in of the remaining flour. Use a light hand, the batter will come together easy-peasy.

7. Bake 50-60 mins at 180 C. Test for doneness. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then invert it with a wire rack and remove from pan, peeling away the parchment paper. Turn the cake domed side up and let cool, placing a damp kitchen towel over it to prevent drying out.

               

The book recommends dusting it with more icing sugar but I reckoned it looks mighty fine without. The cake was moist with a melting crumb yet had a pleasing bounce to the bite. The ginger bits were evenly distributed all the way from bottom to top. The flavour, in spite of the ginger layers, was not so spicy even a 2 year old will gladly eat it, and it wasn't too sweet, it is perfect with tea or coffee. The book mentions that it tastes even better after several days; well it'd better, we have a hefty chunk left.

Quickie updates: Krua Thai & Restaurant Thierry Burlot

Classes started yesterday. The first session was catastrophic as the French would describe it. Long wait at the enrolment centre, as usual the French do not care a shxx it you are late for your class, you should be grateful there are two persons manning the desk at all. Then we sat around and the teacher did not arrive, turned out we were supposed to go to another class but nobody had thought to inform the students! I found myself sitting with two other students one of whom was quite the showoff and a superbitch. The teacher was so boring I felt like demanding a refund, my new classmates had to assure me our regular teacher is much better. Then I had to make some photocopies, and of course the photocopy card can only be bought with coins but the media centre cannot break your notes into coins and maybe you want to try your luck at the cafe, etc etc.

* to my relief, she is right, we had a good lesson today.

An unexpected surprise that came out of yesterday's fiasco was a nearby Thai restaurant I lunched at, it was rather good. I ordered a la carte, ignoring their budget menu which had all the boring stuff like nems, tame soup and brain-dead combinations such as beef/ chicken/ pork sauteed with this or that. Hor Mok Pla, otherwise known to Singaporeans and Malaysians as otak otak, came in the form of delicate fish custard steamed in banana leaf cup gently seduced with its fresh fish and mild spiciness. Pad thai was unfortunately too wet and suffered for having more meat than noodles, but a comforting and aromatic dessert of bananas cooked in coconut milk saved the day. The name is Krua Thai and it can be found at 41 rue de Montparnasse. Tel +33 1 43 35 38 67

Another good restaurant not far from the Montparnasse area is Restaurant Thierry Burlot. 8, rue Nicolas Charlet in the 15th arrondissement. Tel : 01 42 19 08 59. This is an elegant white tablecloth kind of place with sleek waitstaff and a confident menu centred around truffles and other delicious French foods. It is, I think, also known as the Quinze, at least that's what it states on the covers of their menus. We had a quiet pre-CNY lunch there, husband and myself. He ordered the wine-and-truffle matched lunch which was a very good deal at 59 euros, I kept it simple with a starter of leek and hazelnut terrine and chicken with truffle foam. Husband's lunch was magnificient, as it should be if it consists of truffle toast-wiches, beautifully cooked lamb chop (oui, singular), scallops and gorgeously glazed carrots. I was happy too with my vegetarian starter, it had a brownish smear in the centre which I could have sworn was foie gras but the staff insisted otherwise...The chicken was tasty but you have to imagine real hard to smell the truffle, anyway, it could also have been chicken-fatique. Their wine list is good too, there are plenty of interesting wines at not very high prices.

February sun, trains and Chinese eats in London

               

The wedding was beautiful. The bride wore three wedding gowns, not all at once of course. The final gown was a nose-bleeding sexy dance number which raised temperatures in that cold northern part of England. Champagne cocktails flowed, emotional speeches were delivered, scottish country dancing was learnt and the candy buffet was visited many times, well actually they let people make doggy bags of it, how lovely no? Mine were filled with mostly Chinese sweetmeats and hard candies.

We spent every day of our trip on a train. Paris-London on Friday, London-Newcastle Saturday morning, Newcastle-London Sunday morning and London-Paris on Monday. At the train stations we sometimes arrived hungry and succumbed to trashy but tasty junk food like a Big Breakfast Butty and Whopper at Burger King and Cumberland Sausage Baguette sandwich from Upper Crust.

               

We went to Chinatown on Sunday but missed the parades. At Trafalgar Square the pigeons were missing, a bit bizarre because for years I have avoided this place because of the birds, now they're gone I feel a bit empty and disorientated. What happened to the pigeons?

                   

But for Chinese food, we didn't get that from Chinatown. These days all the action is happening elsewhere it seems. Like Queensway, home of Royal China and Four Seasons. This time round we made a beeline for Goldmine (102, Queensway Rd), reputedly where the ex-chefs from Four Seasons set up camp. Everything we ordered were good to mindblowing, top honour deservedly goes to their signature roast duck. The skin was teeth shattering crispy and the fats in between skin and meat so alluringly melty-savoury it would be a crime to discard. Non-roast dishes were excellent too- kangkung with fu-yu came in a generous portion with little excess oil and plenty of garlic, chilli and the fermented beancurd sauce, and a casserole of tofu with minced meat was given extra oomph with addition of crispy dried shrimps.

               

Hunan Restaurant is located in deep sloaney enclave of (51) Pimlico Road. On the second day of the Lunar New Year we found ourselves the only Chinese diners in the back section of the restaurant but to our relief it doesn't serve watered down Chinese food. The meal was by no means a bargain, to be honest it was quite dear but worth the splurge as everything we ate was spot-on with hardly a false note. A considerable feat given their format: there's no menu, they bring small servings of dishes to the table in a seemingly endless parade until your stomach waves the white flag.

Octopus dressed in spicy sauce, steamed whitebait with black fungus, meatsoup in twee bamboo cups, fish rolls with seaweed, braised porkbelly with spicy undertones. My favourite dish was one of duck steamed with fresh tangkwei, the slight bitterness played off beautifully against the natural duck richness. Not everyone gets the same dishes. We were spared the lettuce wraps of minced meat whatevers, and got instead esoterics like duck tongue with bamboo shoots. We lost count of the number of dishes and polished almost every plate clean, save for the bamboo shoots which were authentic in that it still had that dreadful funky smell, to their credit, the funkiness did ease with successive bites, to keep up our good showing I ate up all the pieces of duck tongues.

The standards were consistently high, perhaps the fact that they have a set menu means they've gotten all this down to a perfect science. Every dish managed to taste right, not over or under-seasoned, yet with its unique take, the novelty was what kept us excited most of the time, whether it was the unexpected play of textures or the surprise of szechuan peppercorn hiding in a salad garnish.

Just when we thought we were about done, they brought over a big bowl of slippery egg noodles with roe-reddened soup and sweet finely fleshed crabs. Then a whole steamed baby-sized seabass. Now we're talking! We had to turn away some egg-fried rice but not desserts which included wo-peng and nian gao, tiny servings of the red bean pancake and traditional new year rice cakes to be sure, but much appreciated for its reminder of the festive season.

               

Dragon Castle (114 Walworth Rd) sounds grand doesn't it? It occupies two storey, has a grand entrance of a pair of red doors which opens into a reception area complete with a carp pond, the dining area is spacious and feels like any number of bigh restaurants one would find in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Yet it is located in the decidedly grim neighbourhood that is Elephant & Castle and neither me nor my sister would ever dream of venturing there if it were not for husband who found out about this place from the Internet. We tried the dim sum items for lunch, the quality ranged from OK to very good. Very good applied to standard items like spring rolls, yam puffs and braised chicken feet. Our hands down favourite though was a very unassuming small claypot of rice topped with steamed chicken and chinese sausage (lap mei fan, not to be confused with a fried version made with glutinous rice which had stood around far longer than it should) it exemplified the best of what we ate in Guangzhou before, simple ingredients transformed into something magical, the meat oils and quality soy sauce flavouring the rice just so without it losing its inherent clean taste, needing only a small bite of wine-and- ginger-marinaded chicken to make it come together. I have a feeling the cooked dishes are better than dimsum and it would be worth a return trip to test that out. Best of all, the prices are amazingly cheap even for London, I bet their weekends are jampacked with hungry students and three-generation families.

             

When husband was studying for his Master's degree at Imperial College a good 15 years ago he used to go often to Stick & Bowl (31 Kensington High St) around the corner from his hall of residence. He told me this as we passed the place on the way to Whole Foods so I pulled him in to relive his nolstagia for their good and cheap eats. The decor is decidedly unfussy with its canteen style counter-top seating and homely decor which husband informed me is a vast improvement on its former self, the staff are friendly and chatty. We were too full from a very good lunch of tandoori lamb chops, aloo gobi and bindi pakora at Haandi Restaurant (136 Brompton Rd) so we only ordered a plate of beef-horfun and a bowl of wonton soup to share. The wontons had nice slippery skin  but the fillings were too stodgy and meaty. The horfun was rather alright, plentiful, not too greasy yet with that requisite, albeit mild, smoke of the wok. Again not expensive which is surprising given its upmarket location, all the more so that it has been providing this community service for such a long time.

             

Other than Chinese and Indian, we also ate at a pub. The Eagle is a gastropub in Islington and it was crowded on the Sunday afternoon that we visited. I think I should have ordered the roast chicken but instead settled for a chowder because I wanted to see how haddock would combine with pollack (answer: not very interestingly). The soup was hearty but got very boring quickly. What we all enjoyed instead was the evil cream sauce that they drown some rabbits in, bread dunked in it tasted extraordinarily good. We gobbled up so much bread that another basket had to be requested and that was soon dispensed with as well. Me and my sister can never be trusted with a basket of bread....

What else? Ah, Whole Foods. To be honest I was overwhelmed by the sheer scale and wide variety. I wished I could take home the readymade puddings (Bannofee and treacle looked especially tempting) and husband was impressed with the meats and all that PC rearing information but in the end I could only settle for some organic dry goods and bottled pepper jellies.

             

Back in Paris the sky is blue and the mercury has risen a few degrees. We've got enough good food tucked under our belt to resist venturing into dodgy places that tries to pass off onion rings as bhajis or spring rolls stuffed with fillers of mystery vegetables and bleached beanthreads.

               

               

               

Reunion dinner CNY 2008

I went to the market and discovered the florists are better stocked, their pussywillows and cherry blossoms were gorgeous, and back home the cherry blossoms have been blooming prettily and filling the hall with a delicious aroma. We have a lot of flowers this time round, in addition to some ranunculas and a rambutan-like flower arrangement I set on the reception table, the cousins gave us a lovely arrangement of orchids, très exotic for this part of the world. Please click on the pictobrowser thing to admire!

I forgot to buy fresh salmon for the yee-sang, so had to hijack the fresh scallops (meant for the hotpot) instead. Still there were plenty of stuff for the hotpot: scallop roe, entrecote boeuf, pork, farm chicken (equivalent of kampung quality), cod, tofu, quail's eggs, vegetables and an interlude of pork guotie dumplings in honour of cousin''s girlfriend who is Shanghainese. The hotpot was a great success if I may say so. We kept to a very basic stock which is made by simmering an entire yellow farm chicken in water for a few hours, no more, no less. It makes a homely, clear soup base which can only be enhanced by all the other ingredients. After dinner we crashed out by watching KungFu on DVD.

Today, we went for a simple Korean lunch of spicy rice cakes, bossam and more dumplings. I had a conversation class and after that, husband and Vera came to meet me and we all went to have tea at the Four Seasons George V, the little one enjoyed a strawberry tart while we munched daintily on beautiful finger sandwiches. Back home the central heating is not working again, fortunately GG made a pot of scallop and chicken congee which provided the much needed warmth, it was also so delicious that we cleaned out the whole pot.

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we go to London. To see my sister C and onwards to Newcastle, specifically Beamish, to celebrate my friend Sui Mai's wedding. Boots, M&S, Whole Foods, honest-to-goodness real Chinese and Indian food, pub grub, WHSmiths, here we come!

Spring Festival

               

It is drizzly but not too cold today. The florist have pussy willows and curly bamboos. Living in a temperate country really makes the promise of spring relevant, little wonder then that in China they also call this celebration Spring Festival. We saw some cherry blossoms in Belleville last weekend but silly me did not think to buy until it was too late and the shops have shut for the night.

The house is reasonably clean. I've even swiffered the books and wall moldings, as anyone who's ever visited us will know, ALL our walls have moldings. GG has made the crackers for tomorrow's yee-sang, and I am still fretting about having enough gas canisters for the hotpot.

Also, we finally finished making a new set of placemats for the dinner table. Two cotton prints, with handfinished bindings, no batting or quilting involved. Like the spring/summer fashion collections, we have florals; in the autumn/winter months we can go crazy with green dots. I made a mistake in cutting the dotted fabric and had to improvise by re-adding a strip of the floral but it turned out well in the end we think.

         

May all of you have a New Lunar Year full of blessings and happiness. Collect lots of ang-pows, win lots at mahjong and eat lots of pineapple tarts and bak-kwa!

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Kong Hei Fatt Choy

Happy Lunar New Year

Kong Hei Fatt Choy 2008

                  

Daddy called last week, and asked if there is any festive mood in Paris. I had to reply "none at all" and had been lackadaisickal about our celebrations beyond calling the cousins over for a reunion dinner this coming Wednesday. But yesterday the postman sent us a lovely and unexpected package from my friend L- it included a CNY card, an ang-pow for V and the above, festive greetings which back in Singapore I would have found cheesy beyond belief but somehow in Paris it just made us so happy and excited. My bank manager had also sent 5 packets of UOB ang-pow packets, which we turned into wall decorations. Some of it we will dangle from the 'chataigne' or chestnuts stalks which I've ordered from the fancy florist- it is what they call pussy willow. I also made some brittle with cashewnuts and almonds, and will have to find some other snacks to fill the snack trays. It is hardly like the frenetic celebrations back home but it'll do.

                  

Last Friday we finally managed to visit Isami, the most well-known Japanese restaurant in Paris, or at least the supposed best. Our lunch set of nigiri sushi comes with ankimo which I was not expecting at all (there was also a separate bowl of tiny conch-shells which I gave to husband), again I never used to like it much when Thomas (of Tomo Fine Dining, Singapore) served it to us but absence must have made the heart fonder because it was so extremely deliceux I was making the most indelicate of noises in the restaurant.

                  

The nigiri sushi does not include uni, that I ordered separately, it was okay but I still prefer Japanese uni if one can get it. The sushi items in the set were all very good, they even ask if there is anything I didn't like, so the salmon I didn't want was substituted with tuna, and the wasabi was served on the side. What I like about Isami's sushi is their rice- the seasoning is so subtle it is almost not there, so one has to chew more thoughtfully on the rice, when it eventually releases its natural sugars it then fuses with the topping in slow-motion nirvana. The maki items are all different- ume in one, minced tuna belly in another, an undefined spiciness in one which was unexpected but not unwelcomed, all in, an exciting meal. The set does not include dessert, so we walked a bit and I treated husband to a tiny cone of Berthillon caramel ice cream. Then he went back to his office, with my reminder to get his hair trimmed before CNY ringing in his head, while I took the slow bus 63 ride home.