lmdinlondon-blog

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Shhhhh don't tell...

I'm moving off tumblr and over to Blogger.  It's just a bit better for what I'm bloggin bout, and searchability (for you and me!).  You'll be able to search my posts (for like, when you're going to die without my quiche or meatballs) and comment!  Come join me: http://lmdinlondon.blogspot.com/ I promise that I will begin bringing over content from here, and will make the page more interesting in due time.

Thanks so much!

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Antique Auction House - Thank you!

Man, what a bore.  Both Matt and I have been crazy busy lately with work, wedding planning, planning a wedding, and making plan for our wedding. So, after a quick night out Friday making the rounds and seeing some friends (and being introduced to tobacco fried onions - side note, something so good someone took the time and effort to make a blog about) we had plans to just walk around Saturday, dine (or, actually drink) at our friends Julian and Rachel's place before an Italian dinner out, and that's about it.

Drinks w/ Julian and Rachel didn't work as Matt's stomach was bothering him, so we ended up having a ridiculously relaxed weekend at home.  During this, we came to the conclusion that the couch we have is, in fact, never going to 'break in', and is horrible.  Lucky for us, on what's turned in to a weekly event, we stopped by the auction house in our neighborhood and saw a sectional on sale.  So we can have friends over now and not be embarassed - phew! And, Matt and I can finally lay (or even just sit) on the same couch again, which is nice, as I see a lot of evenings doing that in the future as we've become hooked on Downton Abbey (hopefully we'll make it to the countryside where they film the show someday - looks lovely!).

Following the un-eventful weekend we had a rather eventful week; I had dinner w/ friend Julie at Wahaca - yay for Mexican! - had an evening out with Rachel celebrating her new job, and celebrated friends Daniel and Jemima's engagement on Friday (yikes, too much fun at The Albion!).  Since then we've had two notable and very exciting findings - 1) Pho Express on Upper Street is perfection for a take-away dinner (£5. nuff said) we've been there thrice already... and Monte's, the Italian deli around the corner that Matt frequents for his requiste offering at dinner parties (cheeses and meats!) makes awesome sandos.  Seriously awesome.  Maybe even skip-brunch (favorite weekend meal) awesome.  How we didn't think about this until now is unforgivable; noshing on one was an instant throw-back to SF days eating Palermo (later La Spiagga, later Tony's) or Molinari sandwiches in Washington Square Park, praying that the sun would stick and the wind wouldn't come.  Ah, memories.  I guess the next step will be eating similar sandwiches in Italy.  Oh, good idea!  I'm off to kayak.com to look at flights.  Check you later!

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And Twins!

Had the opportunity to meet our friend Julie's twin this week, finally, giving me the excuse to use this title to post.

So, this blog, it's for the people! But also, selfishly, it's for me too.  It's turned out to be a great way to document adventures in life and eating (same thing, really) so that I can look back from time to time.  

We met Julie, here sister, and some of her lovely coworkers (they're all in the film industry - always fun to hear about different peoples' professions; especially when they are so far from my own) at one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants.  That guy is prolific! We met up at York and Albany in Camden (near to Primrose Hill) before some of the group headed off to an early concert (openers on at 7:30?  seems early to me when no one in this city gets off work until 6:30 on the earlier side).  The space was great - high ceilings, lots of different table sizes and setups (booths loungy, etc.) and then, surprise! a huge room downstairs.  I think it'd be a great place for a big birthday dinner.  We had heard the pizza was good, so most opted for the salami, though I went with the pesto/chicken/carmelized onions.  I thought it was great.  Delivered on what it was explained as, was big (would have been easily shared with another person and salad) and tasty.  

We spent Thursday night over in the same general 'hood; our friends Matt & Claire wanted to go out to dinner to celebrate her birthday, so my Matt and I got to babysit their darling daughter Pippa (otherwise known as Peej).  Such a little cutie.  We picked up Japanese at Feng Sushi near the Chalk Farm station, which was really good - fresh sushi, noodle salad, salmon donburi, and all very quick!

Being over in that 'hood twice in one week has made me realize we need to do some more exploring - the only other time I'd really seen much in Camden was walking around the market, which is a bit more seedy. Maybe next weekend!

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St. Petersburg you came and left too quickly!

We spent three days and four nights in St. Petersburg and I must say that we loved it.

Upon landing at St. Petersburg airport we had the immediate feeling of being somewhere else.  Unlike we would see in the city an hour later, the airport is rather dingy, quite small, and rather austere.  They've still got the smoking room inside the building, so not only did it look different than where we usually fly in and out of, it smelled different as well.  

For the first time in our travels, we hired a guide to show us the main sights (rather than aimlessly follow a guidebook) both in and outside of the city. Sasha, who I found through a few blogs and exchanged emails with before, met us outside baggage claim and arranged for a cab to take up to our hotel.  We went on our way, down Muskovsky Prospect (which continues on straight from St. P to Moscow, 702 km) passing memorials to World War II soldiers that held the Germans outside of Leningrad (St. Petersburg's former name), a statue of Lenin, many buses (in addition to regular city buses there are 'mini buses'; oversized passenger vans crammed full of people), and over a few canals.  We were intrigued.  And we were freezing cold.  

Over the course of our four nights and days in the city we stuck to Russian food three nights, and a light Italian meal one.  Both of us are fans of pickled anything, mushrooms, and caviar (it turns out).  So we were pretty much in heaven.  Most meals consisted of ordering as many starters as we thought we could manage, and often one more on top of that.  As I mentioned earlier, I picked up Vodka nicely as my drink of choice, and Matt sampled many of the local brews.  I'm now upset that there aren't more Russian places around here.  The pies (pirozhkis) that we had for every meal other than dinner were surprisingly light and filling at the same time, and went perfectly with the requisite tea or coffee needed to bring feeling back to the hands (did I mention it was FREEZING).  Blinis (mini-pancakes to be topped with cream and caviar) are my new best friend and I vow to make them for the next dinner party we have (I'm going to have to make sure it's not another 12-person dinner... that's a whole lot of blinis!).  And I got my Borscht.  We almost didn't get it!  That would have been a foodie fail.  

Our favorite restaurant of the trip was the one we visited on our last night.  Matt sent a picture to our families, accompanied by this description:

"Gogol restaurant (where the namesake writer used to frequent)...on the same block where Dovstoeksky wrote 'the white knight"; where tchaikovsky died in his brother's apartment (apparently after being shunned by the Emperor); AND the same street--Astoria Hotel--where Hitler planned his celebration dinner for sacking St Petersburg (editor's note: this never happened, with many ramifications...)." 

As you can see, in addition to eating... we learned lots and lots from Sasha the guide.  He took us around the city Friday, starting with Peter and Paul Fortress, the ground zero of St. Petersburg.  Peter the Great built the fortress in the early 1700s, marking the change in capital from Russia to St. Petersburg.  Clearly, Sasha also studied at the school of Matathons, as we spent 8 hours walking all the major sights of the city. He wove facts and anecdotes together, making for a mix of tour and what felt like an intensive Russian History 1700-present course.

The Russian czars (tsars) and their families knew how to really dress things up nicely, with gold leaf, bright colors, mosaics and more, which we bore witness to on our trip Saturday to the summer palaces in St. Petersburg's suburbs.  You can see a few of these rooms shown in the pictures above.

I've got to run, but I'll pick up where I've left off soon!

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Toured St. Petersburg on foot today and froze our little buns off, as it's been -7 C.  Regardless, beautiful, grand city.  More commentary to come.

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St. Petersburg Day 1 - City Tour

We arrived yesterday evening after one of the easiest travel days ever (ok, stressful morning, but otherwise straight forward).  We are always trying to cram travel in at the end of a work day on the way out and the beginning of one on the way back, and this was one of the few times that we took the extra day to make life easier.  Returning - different story. Check back with me in a few.

St. P is a 4 hour time difference from London, which is a little odd seeming, as flight time is just about that - 4 hours.  I'm used to US east coast/west coast 5-6 hour flight for a 3 hour difference.  Regardless, ended up arriving in a very different world.  The airport alone was night and day difference - for the second largest city in Russia, I'd expect something bigger.  The like the grandiose here (more on that later), but it seems like this may have been one of those places the Soviets took a go at planning, and a beauty it is not.  But, on the other side of baggage claim our friendly guide-to-be for 2 of our 3 days here was waiting to help us get a cab and say hello.

The sights on the way in... well, we passed the state building from Lenin's years (from back when the city was named Leningrad), lots of old-school ads (Pepsi! Subway!) and bright lights, and about 30 minutes later we arrived at our Petro Palace Hotel.  Well, tripadvisor, maybe not exactly a 4-star as we'd expected, but it's clean, it's centrally located, and the room is oddly large. Oh and heated bathroom floors.  Which are great, as it was -8 (c) when we arrived.

As it was nearly 9:00 p.m. when we arrived, we dropped our bags and headed to the 'Russian Vodka Rooms' for a traditional Russian dinner - blinis (little pancakes) with cream and caviar (salmon - little spheres ~1/2 cm in diameter), marinated mushrooms, sour cabbage, prioshkis (sp?) and these ridiculously good double baked potatoes with... more cream and caviar (pike - almost looks more like a slightly chunky paste).  Matt had a couple of beer and I had 2 'shots' of vodka (the entire menu above is their list of vodkas available) to be sipped (I've come so far since college... or last year even).  I try to drink the 'local' thing if I can, at least once.  In this case it worked - I'm thinking maybe this should be my thing?  Get to know vodkas really well and just be a sipper.  Kind of bad ass?  I don't know, we'll see.  Happy that I liked the experience though - in Buenos Aires a few years ago I tried to be 'cool' and 'local' and ordered a Fernet and coke.  What was I thinking?  I used to gag the stuff down in SF because it was the unofficial drink of the city, but it didn't taste any better on vacation.  Worse if anything.

I'm off topic.

Today we met our guide Sasha at 10:00 am for a long tour/walk around the city.  I've got plenty more pics to upload and lots more to tell, but I've climbed in to bed and am too warm and weary to continue. 

This place is pretty cool though.  

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Brisket

Well we made it all the way through January without having a dinner party, but February came around and the itch came back.  Work has been busy lately, and we’ve had some busy weekday evenings, but with a weekend free in London we decided to do it again.  We asked a few friends to come around Saturday night – some of the regulars (Nicole, Freddy, Phil, Julie) and a few new people that we’ve been meaning to catch up with since the holiday season died down – Bryan, a friend of mine from college, his brand new fiancée (congrats!) Katy, a real – live Brit, and Tim, a friend of a friend.  One of Phil’s friends joined us as well, so we were close to half new friends!

Anyway, I have been dying to make braised short ribs for ages.  I got all pumped to make these.  Thennnn I called the butchers.  Both the ones in our neighborhood (am I the only one that thinks it’s awesome that we have two butchers?) and nothing.  “You’ll have trouble finding those around here, m’darling”.  Damn.  Oh well, maybe it’s a sign that I shouldn’t try to make them until I have the Le Creuset.

Alas,  I made beef brisket, white bean mash, and a simple salad.  The brisket – well, I need to check the temperature on my oven as I think it’s running a bit high, but the sauce was amazing.  I’ll say it.  Damn, tangy, beefy, carmelized-oniony.  And though it was good that night, it was so much better the next day when we didn’t leave the house and had steak and eggs for dinner.  Lightly fried egg, sauce, brisket.  I’ll make the whole thing over again just for day two.

And, I’ll say that the white bean mash, which I tried a few years ago for the first time, was a great alternative to the British staple – potatoes.  It looks a bit like warm hummus, but the consistency is thick and luxurious (without an entire stick of butter!) and soaks up a sauce quite nicely.

Without further ado, here are the recipes:

Brisket - ingredients below, rest of directions here.

Serves 8 to 10 servings

3 large onions, sliced 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 6 garlic cloves, peeled and halved 1 teaspoon paprika 2 teaspoons salt 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder 1 1/4 teaspoons black pepper 1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne (adjust to your heat preference) 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme 2 cups beef stock (unsalted or low salt) 1 cup ketchup* 1 cup chili sauce* (the recipe had this listed - I had to look up how to make, but Heinz will do) 1 cup brown sugar (light or dark) 8 to 10 pound brisket

White Bean Puree (serves 4) 

    * 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided, plus additional for drizzling     * 2 garlic cloves     * 2 (15-oz) cans white beans such as cannellini, rinsed and drained     * 1/3 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth     * 1 1/4 teaspoon chopped rosemary, divided     * 1/3 cup dry white wine

In a food processor, with the motor running, drop in garlic.  Add the white beans, chicken broth and 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1/4 tsp salt.  Pulse until smooth.

Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add rosemary and sauté for 30 seconds until fragrant.  Add wine and bring to boil.  Stir in the white bean mixture.  Keep on heat until warm.

Off to Russia today for a long weekend – thanks for the Christmas gift Matt!

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Just a sampling of the selections at Borough Market.  I can't wait to go back!

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Family snow time!

The best thing as a little kid was snow.  The teeeeniest tiniest bit of snow would send every kid to the window, praying it would stick, putting on ski gear and waiting for justenough of it to stick for the sleds to be brought out, and in Oregon, for school to be called off.  Turns out as adults, it's pretty much the same feeling.

Matt's sister Jen and brother-in-law Nic came and visited for the weekend, and among many other things, we got to play in a good 5-6 inches of snow (thought Matt will swear it was a foot) - making snow angels, giant snowballs, and horribly mis-shapen snowmen.  After a few glasses of wine it was surreal and almost dreamlike!  "So quiet!" we commented (well obviously, it was 12:30 in the morning), as we galloped around.  And then in the morning it was the bad snow - browning, melting and everywhere.  But, at least we've got the dream to hold on to.

Coincidentally it's snowing again - but not sticking nearly as much.  It's still pretty cool to see the snowflakes falling under the streetlights.

Aside from the snownight, we had a really great time and accomplished quite a bit.  Friday night that started with Rock of Ages - a musical told through the songs of the 80's and narrated by a young Ron Jeremy look-alike - and ended with a long, amazingly delicious dinner at Salt Yard (return visit!).  The show was both funny and entertaining, and with an early show starting at 5:30 we were able to have dinner at a reasonable time.

Saturday morning we FINALLY made it to Borough Market, amazed by how easy and quick the journey was.  It was pretty chilly out so we didn't meander quite as slowly as usual, but we were able to basically make a breakfast out of collecting samples from the cheese, meat, sauce and jam purveyors that fill this giant market.  I had a warm spiced apple juice, and had we not had a long day ahead, would have been easily convinced to try the mulled wine at every other stand.  Had we known how much it would snow that night we probably would have collected all the fixings for a great home-cooked meal, but opted to stick to our planned restaurant instead.  Warning potential visitors - you'll definitely visit this place with us, so stretch out your belly and get ready to fill it.

The late morning and afternoon were spent at a brunch (we kept some space) at what's become our go-to spot in the neighborhood - Blue Legume - serving clean breakfasts and worthy-of-weekend cappuccinos - and an afternoon blow out at Emirates stadium (Arsenal 7 - Blackburn 1).  The rest of the weekend blurred together between Bistrotheque dinner (I didn't like my sting ray, but I hear we must go back for their cabaret show), snow, and a rather lazy Sunday for Jen and I.  Dinner at The Albion rounded out Sunday and the weekend with our lovely visitors, friends Freddy and Nicole, and Jen's brother Frank and partner Aidan.  The visit came and went so quickly but we can't wait for the next!  (Pictures next post)

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Snow in London!  No one is leaving here anytime soon...

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A sampling of photos from an incredible weekend in Verbier, Switzerland.  We stayed at a chalet in Etiez, just one train stop away from the gondola in Le Chable, that takes you up to the Verbier resort town/ski area.  Friday we (Matt, our friends Blaise and Irina, and I) had a guide that took us off-piste (back country) at another nearby resort.  As the lone snowboarder, that meant taking the board off and strapping it to my back, for the hour long snow-shoeing hike.  I'll admit, I was skeptical at first, but it was a seriously cool experience.  I think in total we ended up with three runs, each longer than the next (the last being  1 1/2 hours +, partially due to a pair of broken poles for Matt and a broken binding for Blaise), an interesting way to spend the first day of the season on the mountain.  I think we fell asleep at 9:30.

The owners of the chalet (or B&B) are both English (northerners) and were so nice and welcoming.  They live a short distance away, and as we'd opted for an all-inclusive stay, would come in the morning to cook up a breakfast to sustain us for a long day on the mountain (my new 'obsession' = porridge.  Man, writing that makes me feel like a total bore, but it's undeniable) and then returned to put a giant meal on the table for dinner.  I think the place can take about 14 people overnight, and I'm hoping this was only the first of many trips.

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Switzerland pictures to come shortly - but in the week since we returned I have had lots of this.  Crustless Spinach Quiche (plus salad with chili powder roasted sweet potatoes and agave-cumin vinaigrette) helped get over the cheesy fondue hangover.

Spinach Quiche

one onion sliced an diced

handful of mushrooms, sliced

one clove of garlic

6 eggs

1/2 cup low fat milk

2 wedges Laughing Cow cheese

handful of grated cheese (I had Emmental) -S&P -red pepper flakes -one bag frozen spinach (750 g)

Pre-heat oven to about 400 F/200 C.

Sauté onions and mushrooms in an oven-proof pan (if you don't have one, a normal frying pan; you can use a baking dish or pie-pan to finish) until translucent, with a bit of oil, salt and pepper. Add garlic, sauté a minute more. Add spinach, more salt and pepper (be generous) and red pepper flakes and cook of until thawed and most moisture has evaporated.

Meanwhile, mix eggs, milk and cheeses in a mixing bowl.

When spinach/onion/shrooms are ready, scoop into egg mixture and mix until combined.  Return to oven proof pan or pie dish (add a little more grated cheese to top if you haven't spent the weekend in a place that bases all meals on molten cheese) and pop in the oven for 20-30 minutes.

I've quite literally had this for breakfast, lunch and dinner this week (not all on the same day). A quick pop in the microwave or under the broiler with a light sprinkling of cheese and it's ready to go! For a more filling meal, a salad (greens binge!) or possible a quinoa salad would make a nice accompaniment.

Next time I may add a few things in - I think some roasted red peppers would be nice, maybe more mushrooms.

Matt's sister Jen and her husband Nic arrive today for the weekend (or who knows- maybe longer since snow is in the forecast and this place shuts down with 1cm on the ground) and we have lots of fun plans ahead, including the musical 'Rock of Ages', Arsenal and a culinary tour of our favorites. I have a feeling next week will be another quiche week.

Breaking news update - I was a victim of crime!  Someone stole my last slice from the office fridge.  That's just plain weird - who steals a green slice of pie.  They even took the last bit of cheese I had brought in to melt on it.  But, I'm kind of flattered.  Of all the stuff in there, they chose mine.   

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One of many pictures from Switzerland - but this pretty much paints the picture.  Clearly bad weather and conditions.

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Arriving in Geneva for some skiing in Verbier- look who popped their heads up to say hi!

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New eats

It's been a while since we've been out to a new restaurant here - trying to stay frugal and fit and all.  But there are a few to note over the past few weeks.  Don't worry, I'm making up for it today by stewing up a pot of lentils and squash for lunch this week.

Gem: Right around the corner from the flat, I think we may have found our Friday night stay-in go-to.  I think I've mentioned before that in SF it was Estia (looks like they got a website, so maybe there's hope for them yet), which has probably shuttered since we've left town - bad customer service, nearly always empty, but HELLLO Chicken Souvlaki amazingness.  Gem serves Turkish/Kurdish (I'm guessing they're the 20th Turkish spot you'll come across on Upper Street, between Angel and Highbury/Islington - lucky us) but it's all very clean, flavorful, not greasy, and well-priced.  They've even got a downstairs bar/restaurant that you could rent out.  We got to share that area with screaming kids - what a dream - but still walked out loving.

The Comedor: again, on Upper Street.  We hit this place last weekend with friends Freddy and Nicole and will definitely visit again.  Among all of the Turkish on Upper, this is a welcomed change of pace.  Newly opened, it's menu is inspired by the flavors across South America.  Together we split a parillada mixta (mixed grilled meats - chicken, lamb, sausage), grilled steak with three sauces, an awesome roasted plantain app,  ceviche (oops - ate one of the chiles - hot hot hot), specialty margaritas made with honey (goodbye decision making skills) and the.best.chocolate.torte.EVER.  They have windows in to the kitchen so you can see everyone working away too, which was a nice touch.  Can't wait to go back.

Bam-bou:  Someone needed to drag us out of the 'hood and our friend Matt was just the person (side note, I think I know 5 Matt's here - and I don't know that many people.  Confusion.) to get us out.  He and his wife have lived here for nearly 10 years, in a few different areas, and always have the best recommendations (there's a new email chain nearly every week with us asking for some 'reco'), so we handed the reigns over for planning.  Ended up in Fitzrovia, for drinks at Bam-bou, an asian restaurant (Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese) that I'd like to go back to for dinner.  Four stories tall, it's first three floors are filled with tightly packed dining rooms that vary in size, and a funky little bar/lounge upstairs.  Their cocktail list was endless, and both drinks I had (a lychee cooler was on the menu, and a cucumber/vodka/elderflower concoction made up by the bartender) were super tasty, and easily (maybe too?) downed.

Salt Yard: dinner followed Bam-bou at Salt Yard, a block away.  I still look preggo from all the food we ate, but I think it's worth the extra 40 mins at the gym today :) Salt Yard is on-trend with the tapas-style dining that's all over the place these days, but likely one of the originators of it, as they've been around for 7+ years.  We've been to their sister restaurant Opera Tavern before, with Matt's parents before seeing The Lion King back in November and it's the same style, but I like this location better.  A little more quiet, and less jammed, we had a great table looking over the bottom floor, where we enjoyed plenty of charcuterie (iberico ham I <3 you), goat-cheese stuffed courgette (zucchini) flowers lightly fried and drizzled with honey, rosemary crusted cheese (I've lost the name somehow), venison carpaccio, incredible roasted mushrooms atop a Jerusalem artichoke puree that I need to try making, tuna and nduja sausage (unique but insane), steak with prune sauce, empenadas, and more.  I think I'd order all of it again, too.  

Well, on that note, time to hit the gym. We've got Arsenal vs. Man United this afternoon (someone say a prayer for the Ars) followed by a short week, day trip to Amsterdam, and a weekend in Verbier hitting the slopes, which will be my first time in Europe.  Looking forward to it, along with some tasty wines and maybe some fondue?  Mmmm....  

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We got engagement pictures taken while we were in New York over the holidays by the talented and friendly David Rosenzweig :)  I'm pretty pleased!

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At the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen!