Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Orcas Island...and Reflections.











It is great to be back.
I love Seattle.
I love the smell of the salt air and seeing the mountains in the distance, capped with snow.
The city is small, so it is easy to escape, and this is one thing that makes this area so appealing.
The San Juans are a special treat and for me, heading there last weekend was my introduction back into the Seattle area and also a last hoorah in a sense, as it would be the closure of my 6 month long work-free vacation.

Taking the ferry through the glassy sound as it cut through the water and the green islands dotted with beachside houses, the seagulls circling high above, my lungs filled with the cool salty fresh air. I love that part. That breath of fresh air. I love too, when you arrive on Orcas, or on any island in the sound, you enter a different time zone:

island time.

As if with a push of a button, you relax. Must be something they put in the air there. Something that I wish I had a little bottle of, always.

As I re-immerse myself back into the daily work-life routine, back into life as I once knew it, I will always think fondly of my time on Orcas with friends, my travels in Europe, with T… my time in Mexico with Dad… time with family, whether on the Oregon Coast, or at home in PV, and I will continue to feel so thankful to have had these opportunities, these experiences.

But, for now, I must put in some more time with my yeasted potato breads, my gianduja frostings, my puff pastry, my pistachio Gelato…
Ah, these things I love.

It is great to be back.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

“Back in Sea-addle again..”(I know, that is incredibly cheesy..but, I keep humming that damn Aerosmith tune and singing the words ‘Seattle’, instead of ‘saddle’.. I don’t even like Aerosmith, so it is a bit like torture.)

Well, after these last few days settling back into Seattle, I realized that I was no longer in Ithaca when:

* I awoke at 6am after a mere three hours of sleep, due to the constant noise of the traffic outside our window, and bright city lights shining in all night.. (granted, we are downtown…not all of Seattle is loud..)

* That morning, T and I were able to roll down the stairs, out the door, and into a café for coffee and sweets.… ah, convenience.

* We were actually able to register at a live Pottery Barn and visit some of my ol’ fave shops...

* That afternoon, we were able to roll down the stairs, out the door, and into a Brazilian restaurant just in time for Happy Hour and a Caprihana..

* I was able to witness some petty crime, when I walked into a Rite-Aid downtown, and brushing past me briskly on his way out the door was a suspicious guy with a bulging backpack…who set the alarm off, only to get a few stares in his direction…(where is Dad when we needed him? :))
……Then, minutes later, while perusing my shampoo options, I hear this authoritarian voice say, “well, are you going to pay for that, now that you have ruined it?” and, in response, an in-audible mumble from a seedy looking character, as he made his way towards the exit with the ‘manager’ in pursuit, sternly shaking a opened loaf of bread at him… um, welcome to downtown city living!

* I was unable to find any grocery stores…It is interesting how, we are living in the heart of the city, yet there is no place to grocery shop…you have to leave downtown for that..seems strange, doesn’t it? Most everything is at our finger tips, except the Whole Foods, PCC and Trader Joes!!
…And, speaking of favorite grocers, I was saddened to hear that two of my favorite places may be on the outs: Larry’s Market, for one…and Metropolitan Market, for the other (bought by QFC..egh!)… times, they are a changin’…

* Last night, while relaxing in our near waterfront apartment, I could hear the ferry’s foghorn, and smell that salt air..

* Today, while on the bus, I was reintroduced to the daytime bus riders, a distinctly different crowd from the morning yuppie commuters.. my seat mate, kept turning to me and asking, “how are you ladies doing today?” as if he saw a mirage of three of me sitting next to him…

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Ithaca is gorges....
























As we close in on our last days here in the Central Southern Tier, I reflect. I may have griped about Ithaca in the past to many of you out there..(all 4 of you!) But, as spring hits and the flowers and lilacs fill the air with their sweet scent, I actually feel a little sad to be leaving. So, without further ado...

Things I will miss about Ithaca..

** The “Ithaca is…” series; which features everything from ‘Ithaca is Gorges’, to ‘Ithaca is Gangsta’ (my personal fave), to just plain ‘Ithaca is Cold’…and this is printed EVERYWHERE; on tshirts, bumper stickers and license plate holders, magnets, mugs..you name it!

** Sapsucker Woods, in our backyard. Cross country skiing on the trails in the winter, and a nice walk or run the other drier months of the year. Not to mention the nice view of the trees from our windows..


** The wildlife. The flocks of geese that we would hear flying over our house every night in the early fall, the lightning bugs in the summer, the deer, birds, turtles…

** The crazy storms. snow, hail, lightning and thunder. I actually think that lightning hit our house once. Scary the sh.. out of me.

** The Carriage House Café. Home of the best café ambience, simple breakfast and latté in Ithaca.

** The Lost Dog Café. Good hearty food, always with great service..

** The Boonys. There was something nice about being out in the country for a while. Small town USA. A place where the air feels cleaner, the people call me “dear” and haircuts are 20$..

** Target. The rest of the mall sucked, but I loved having Targét within spitting distance of our house… at times, this was dangerous.

** The new Starbucks! Damn, bad timing!! I have been waiting for this for 2 years! Of course, along with this came the Ithacan poo-poo’ers…

** Hockey. My new favorite sport. And I still have my teeth! I hope to find more of this back in Seattle…

** The Farmers Market, and Ludgate Farms. Both prided on being mostly organic, and featuring locally made products. This is something that I love about Ithaca, the sense of supporting the local business community, hence the anti-Starbucks crowd…

** People Watching. I loved watching the people come out of the woodwork during the Spring and Summer here. Ithaca is full of ‘interesting’ characters.. I do think that people hole up with their acorns in the winter, only to emerge during the warmer months.

** Wegmans! The ONLY good market in town. Tops was ok, but P&C was so depressing with its un-updated and falling apart 50’s façade, its dusty cereal boxes and its crappy produce! (the clerk didn’t know what ginger was when I went in once to ask…)


** Running on country roads and the Cayuga Nature Trail.


** The Lakes, the parks, the gorges, the waterfalls..all beautiful.

** Picking Blueberries at U pick, and the buying in bulk at the Apple Orchards.

** Small town movie theaters. Where else can you buy homebaked cookies at the movies?

** Pangea Restaurant. Ecclectic and good food, cozy and fun atmosphere and creative owners who gave me so much room to grow as a pastry chef. Thanks Paul and Nina..

** Huge Book Sale. I think that this is where the people go before and after the long winter, to load up on books for the next year..

** New Friends. Come visit us in Seattle!

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Vegancake Scientist..















As a pastry chef, one of my first introductions into the Ithaca food scene was the Vegan food scene. I had only very few times in the past, baked anything vegan, so moving here in a way was the beginning of a new dessert science experiment. The first time that I baked a Vegan cake, using Soy instead of eggs and oil instead of butter, I was expecting something boring, barely palatable..with the texture of cardboard and the aftertaste of tofu. Imagine my surprise, when the cake I baked turned out almost identical in taste and in appearance, to a full fledged, full fat.. dairy cake. If anything, it was a little more crumbly, without any eggs to bind it and give it that structure. Nevertheless, I think this positive experience aroused an interest in me. Like I may have mentioned before, I am not Vegan, but there is something fun about experimenting using things like bananas, flax or tofu in the place of eggs and actually getting a pretty good tasting product….Must be the scientist in me.

When I was young, before I knew that my career path would eventually lead me through the world of science to the pastry world, I would often play ‘science kitchen’ with baking ingredients. My favorite was taking chocolate chips, cornstarch and baking soda and melting them all together. I remember being impressed when I would open the microwave to see a seething and bubbling mess of burning chocolate. Curious, and because I figured that it was chocolate, and in any form it must be good, I would taste it..(it wasn’t good) But that didn’t stop me from trying a different combination for the next batch, and tasting it yet again. I was convinced that at some point, I would come across the perfect concoction. It was only when I learned to incorporate other ingredients: flour, sugar, butter and eggs.. that I was able to come up with a perfect combination..

Today, I thought that I would tackle my almost bare cupboards once again. In addition to my basics: flour, sugar, vanilla, baking soda, oil and salt…I found some unsweetened chocolate, vinegar, instant espresso, peanut butter and powdered sugar..

Here is what I came up with:

Vegan Chocolate Espresso Bundt Cakes with Peanut Butter Icing


1 ½ c whole wheat pastry flour
1 teas baking soda
½ teas salt
1 c sugar
----
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 c water
2 teas instant espresso
2 teas vanilla
---
1/3 c oil
---
2 T cider vinegar

• Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside
• Melt chocolate with water, espresso and vanilla. Set aside to cool slightly
• Stir oil into chocolate mixture and pour into the flour mixture. Whisk to combine
• Add vinegar to batter and whisk to combine.
• Pour into mini bundt cake molds, about ¾ the way up. (about 6)
• Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.
• Remove and cool slightly, then, flip pan upside down and let cakes fall onto cooling rack.
• Cool.



Peanut Butter Icing
2.5 oz unsweetened Peanut Butter
4 oz powdered sugar
¼ c Soy milk
½ teas vanilla extract

• Whisk soy milk and vanilla into powdered sugar
• Melt peanut butter and whisk in. stir until smooth.
• Drizzle over bundt cakes




Verdict: I thought that these turned out pretty decent, yet the whole wheat flour gave them a ‘healthy’ flavor that may detract from the flavor of the chocolate. I recommend trying them also, with regular flour.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Freshly Baked Cookies and Tea.






While traveling and tasting many sweets around Europe, one of my fondest memories wasn’t some visually stunning Viennese petit four, or some overly sweetened Marzipan cake. It was a cookie. And it wasn’t even European. It was good ol’ American.. Oatmeal Cinnamon Raisin. The ingredients.. the Plugra sweet butter, the fragrant Cinnamon and the plump raisins may have been European, which always seems to make things taste better, but there was something else about this cookie that just hit the spot for me. It could have been that after months of trying many things unfamiliar, and many things downright strange, it was nice to just sink my teeth into something that tasted familiar, like home.
(and believe me, it was damn good.)

Our family friend, Beth, lives in a beautiful flat in seaside Portugal, with windows that open wide to let in stunning views of the ocean and gentle sea breezes. As we walked up to her flat on the third floor, wafting down to greet us was the sweet and warm smell of cinnamon and brown sugar. Here, she was even feeling under the weather, but she mustered up the energy to bake us cookies and brew us some strong black tea…the most welcome treat…


Today, as my second installment of Whisk, I wanted to try to recreate these cookies. This is hard to do, since I have no Butter or Eggs, and most of my favorite cookie recipes call for these ingredients. So, instead, I decided to go the Vegan route. (even though I am far from being Vegan myself) Using only what I have on hand, my wish was to recreate a good and hearty oatmeal cookie.

Ingredients that I have on hand: Organic Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, Brown Sugar, Sugar, Banana, Thick Rolled Oats, Raisins, Vanilla, Kosher Salt, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Vegetable Oil, Coconut

Recipe that I came up with:
Oatmeal, Raisin and Coconut Cookies..


2/3 c vegetable oil (or, be creative and try a more heart healthy oil..)
½ c brown sugar
½ c sugar
1 banana
½ teas vanilla extract

1 ½ c whole wheat pastry flour
½ teas baking soda
½ teas baking powder
½ teas kosher salt
½ teas cinnamon
…..
2/3 c raisins
2/3 c thick rolled oats
1/3 c sweetened coconut

• Preheat Oven to 350
• With a hand mixer, mix the first five ingredients until a little thickened and thoroughly blended.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients, then add to the wet mixture and stir with a wooden spoon just until combined..
• Add the raisins, oats and coconut at the end, and mix just to combine.
• Place by heaping spoonful onto silpat and tray and bake for about 20 minutes, turning the sheets after the first 10 minutes, to ensure even browning…
• Yields around 24…















These actually turned out surprisingly good, especially warm out of the oven. There is a hint of banana flavor, so it helps if you like banana. Also, I would recommend trying a different kind of oil, something a little more heart healthy might be good, and this will make the cookies that much more healthy. I wonder if a nut oil might be good, especially walnut… I also think chocolate would be good, substituted for the raisins!

*Of course, I have to mention, since I was looking to recreate a cookie that was reminiscent of the wonderful cookies in Portugal.. although good, this vegan variation fell a little short of its Portuguese counterpart! looks like I wont be becoming a vegan anytime soon :)

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Whisk.

After spending the last 100+ days bringing you along on all of our wanderings, I thought that I would change gears for a little while, and bring you to the other purported half of this blog; the half that has told me recently that she has felt a little left out of the action. And she just isn’t going to take it anymore.

So to start, I thought that since we are moving, hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks, that I would bring you along on a little culinary adventure. Not to places far, but into the depths of the cupboards in our kitchen, where the ingredients for some potentially tasty baked things have been sitting idle and gathering dust for the last 3+ months. My goal, is to use up as much as possible…clean it all out, hopefully baking up some good things in the process.

My first assignment.

One thing, among many, that I missed while traveling, is that smell of yeast, the kneading of a young dough and the punching down of a risen one. Bread is my first love, when it comes to baking, and it is something that I never tired of even when working at my first bakery, with my head and my hands in dozens of different doughs a day. I always loved the process of mixing, using the larger than life ‘phaebus’ or the smaller ‘hobart’ by its side, mixing dough’s simultaneously.. rosemary sourdough in one, honey wheat in the other.. then, ciabatta in one, pumpernickel rye in the other.. And that isn’t where it stopped. I loved the benching. (the forming of the loaves) I loved giving each loaf its own shape, giving each type of bread its own personality: torpedo shaped with sesame seeds on one, rounded with oats and multigrain mix on the other…. Then, there is the baking. Checking the risen doughs for that perfect airy, yet springy feel..the act of loading the bread belt, scoring each loaf with its signature cut, the dusting of flour, the light spritz of water….then, lifting and sliding the loaves onto the stone hearth of the multi deck oven, letting the doors close, then giving a hearty burst of steam from the button on the side…a boost for good measure, not to mention a nice shiny crust. Then, there is the shuffling of the breads using what is called ‘the peel’, a huge paddle with long handle. I loved this part. This is where the theatrics came into play. The oven was in the retail area of the bakery, so you could always hear people “oooohing” and “ahhhing”, as you shuffled numerous breads onto and off of the paddle, moving them from one end of the oven to the other, giving all an equal chance at the perfect brownness, the perfect crust. As you pulled the breads out of the behemoth oven, again you could hear the “oooohs” as you precariously balanced the crackling loaves, beautifully crisp browned crusts and all, and deposited them with a dramatic flick of the wrist, onto the cooling racks.

Of course, I can’t recreate this whole experience, in our smaller kitchen, with our two shelved non-bongard oven and our lack of industrial sized mixtures, but I can still hope to make a decent loaf or two.

Ingredients that I have on hand for this project: Wheat Flour, Honey, Dark Corn Syrup, Oil, Yeast, Kosher Salt.

Recipe that I found: Vollkornbrot, from Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads.

This recipe calls for nonfat dry milk, molasses and butter, along with whole wheat flour, yeast, salt, thick oats and water.

I tweaked it a bit, since I didn’t have molasses, dry milk or butter.
Here is what I came up with:

3 c whole wheat flour
1 Tablespoon + 1 ½ teaspoons dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup warm water
1 Tablespoon dark corn syrup
1 Tablespoon clover honey
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
A spritz of water and thick oats to garnish..


-bloom yeast in warm water for 5 minutes, then add honey and syrup and oil.
-add flour, 1 cup at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon. (you may not need all three cups, so reserve the last cup, and see where you are at before adding. You can use it for dusting your counter while kneading, also)
-add salt, and mix in.
-throw down on counter, and flour with remaining flour as needed, as you knead the dough for 8 minutes, until it becomes smooth.
-let dough rise for 90 minutes, in a bowl, in a warm place.






-punch down, knead briefly and shape into a round. Let sit for 10 minutes.
-form into a torpedo and place into a greased loaf pan.
-let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
-preheat oven to 375, and add a pan with water, 20 minutes before baking.
-spritz the loaf lightly with water and sprinkle with oats. Then, score the loaf by making a slice vertically down the center, about a ½ inch deep.
-bake for 30 minutes, then remove the pan of water and bake for 15 minutes more.
-remove from the oven and onto a metal cooling rack.
-cool, then devour…preferrably toasted, with crunchy peanut butter and honey.







* this bread, made of all whole wheat, typically wont rise as high as one with white flour. This is in part to the lower level of gluten formed when using whole wheat flour.

Friday, May 05, 2006







Welcome to the Post Travel Interview! I thought that it would be fun to share some of our experiences. For more details, you can read about each place we visited in the archives.

Which Cities were your Favorite?
Zurich, Switzerland
Budapest, Hungary
Athens, Greece
London, UK


Which towns were your favorite?
Nafplio, Greece
Salzburg, Austria
Sintra, Portugal


Which small towns were your favorite?
Oia, Santorini, Greece
San Guzme, Italy
Radda in Chianti, Italy

Which City was your least favorite?
Milan, Italy.. but not because it was bad, just the least interesting, and we couldn’t afford any of the nice clothes!

Which Countrys do you most want to return to?
Greece(Northern and the islands, again)
Hungary(Brataslava and the Country)
Italy (the lesser known areas..Marche, Emilia Romangna)
Portugal (the Alejento)
Croatia and Slovenia (because I missed them this time around)

What were some of your most memorable meals?
Warm Fava bean dip in Santorini
Goulash Stew with iced pickles and egg noodles in Budapest
Fagiole en’Olio and Pomodori in Tuscany
Grilled Panini with Prosciutto, Arugula, Tomato and Truffle Oil in Venice
Assorted flatbreads(focaccia, piadina) with assorted meats: mortadella, salami and prosciutto with melty local cheese in Bologna
Olma Brats in St Gallen
Eating in the dark in Zurich
Tuna Sandwich on Volkhorn Bread in Berlin
Bruschetta with shaved Black Truffles, salt and Olive Oil in Chianti
Chicken Piri Piri in the Algarve, Portugal


Where was your most memorable Caprihana?
In a Mexican Place in Amsterdam, where after a few( too many), T took to muddling his own limes in the glass, and it shattered. (this did get us a couple on the house!)

Where was your best coffee?
Greece and Italy, of course…Anything that wasn’t Nescafe!

What was the best sweet?
Baklava and Halva in Greece
Swiss Chocolate
Nutella filled croissant in Siena(this was breakfast, but could have sufficed for dessert)
“Panna Cotta” flavored Gelato in Venice (basically caramel, oozing caramel, oozing caramel)
Cream Cake in Budapest
Torrone in Venice
‘Pasteis de Nata’ and Palmiers sandwiched with Custard in Lisbon
French Macaroons in Zurich
Arroz con Leche in Madrid

What was your favorite Museum?
In Zurich, I loved a Special Exhibit that the Kuntsmuseum had, called Feast of Color. In Venice, I enjoyed the Peggy Guggenheim collection
In Madrid, the Reina Sofia Modern

Did you have a favorite site visited? Like a Castle or Church?
I loved seeing the fortresses. In Nafplio, it is perched on a cliff, overlooking the ocean. In Salzburg, it overlooks the town and river. In Sintra, it was buried deep in the woods..I also enjoyed the Epidavros ruins, more to see there than just the ancient theater. Of Course, the Acropolis was pretty amazing as well. The Duomo in Milan. I will never forget how it took my breath away when I first saw it and The whimsical and colorful Palacio de Pena in Sintra

Where did you find the most pleasant people?
Greece and Tuscany(Florence, Chianti)
Portugal..they spoke the most English

At what point during the travels were you the most stressed out or frustrated?
When we were trying to figure out how to get to our hotel in Athens from the airport and the woman behind the glass at the train ticket counter was yelling at us.
When we were lost in Athens trying to find our hotel and walked around for 2 hours using the wrong ‘Acropolis’ as our beacon!
In Torino, trying to get to the Olympic venues.

Where was your favorite train ride? Least?
Least was a night train where our sleeper compartment was literally above the wheel well, it was so loud, we couldn’t sleep, even with ear plugs.
And the train to Zermatt when we were sitting next to some annoying people..
Visually, the Swiss trains all went through some beautiful areas, and the most beautiful was going from Switzerland to Italy through the mountains and the lakes to Milan.


Was there a place that you went which surprised you? This could be a place in which you were not expecting much and were very pleasantly surprised, or vise versa.
Athens. We were told not to waste time there, and it was a great experience.
Siena. I expected something more quaint and quiet and was very surprised at the number of tourists and students crammed into this small town.
The Albufeira area. We had read and heard that the town was horrendous, which it was, but luckily, we were staying just outside the town on the most beautiful and quiet beach. It was a great surprise, especially after seeing the horrors that lay in town..

Where were the most annoying crowds?
Venice and Siena!

Where was the most romantic place?
Salzburg, Venice, Oia, Chianti

Thursday, May 04, 2006

In the homeland, once again..



Ah, it felt good to get home. Once we finally exited the Dulles Airport Hertz rental parking lot, after an hour of having arrived there, we were able to breathe a breath of fresh..ah..stop and go traffic. You ask, why in the heck would we fly to DC if we live in the Southern Tier of NY state? Well, if I were to lie, I would say that it was so that we could take in a little Americana, after so much Europa…

So, we had a little taste of the traffic in the DC area, which was at its prime at 5pm when we started on the interstate, going the wrong way..(we even stopped at the toll, payed, and were told by the booth tender that we needed to turn around.. hmm, can I have my $2.70 back?)
Before we got on the absolute right track, it took me almost taking the wrong turnoff and jumping a curb to avoid going the wrong way, again…tires squealing…burnin’ rubber in the burnt orange chevy….sweeeeeet! Of course, the driver I cut off didn’t think I was all that stellar.. but, hey, I haven’t driven for a few months, so it took me a while to get in the groove again.. (and I just felt groovy behind the wheel of that chevy!)

As soon as we emerged from the traffic, and were on the right track, we decided that we needed some real American nourishment. We bypassed the Walmarts, Outbacks and McDonalds, and decided instead to stop at the “Apple House” in rural Virginia. It was a gift shop/burger joint and it looked goooood. I ordered up the BBQ special…the juicy pulled pork sandwich, with baked beans, kraut and chips… and T ordered the #2, which was a hefty hefty portion of pancakes, potatoes, bacon and eggs. It was so big, it came to him on two heavily weighted plates and landed on the table with a thud. Ah, welcome home….. it was apparent to me at this moment, as it has been in the past, why we are the most obese nation. Full and feeling fat and a little perked up, for now, we left and resumed our travels onward.

On London time still, it was approximately 1:30am(8:30pm EST), when we decided that our eyes were feeling a bit too heavy to continue. So, we checked into a Best Western hotel in small town Maryland. We decided that since we were 5 hours ahead in our minds and in our internal clocks, that we could go straight to bed, and then get up at 3am to resume our journey. When we checked out mere hours after we checked in, I do believe that the desk clerk found it curious, raised eyebrows and all..

So, the journey ends for now, as we rolled into Ithaca, once again, this morning. It was nice to find that our house was still in tact, car still in the garage, pretzels in their ziploc bags, still somewhat fresh...

My first order of business, after unpacking and sorting through the mail, was a trip to Wegmans. My favorite place in Ithaca. I craved something homecooked, from my new Tuscan cookbook and decided on Ribolita (a homey stew with kale, white beans and bread) and Bruschetta… both things that I enjoyed more than a few times while in Italy… It felt good to be back in the kitchen, even if I have yet to test out the new sweet and bread recipes that I acquired throughout our travels. There is still time for this, and of course, as always I will keep you posted..

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

'Mind The Gap'... and, Home within reach..






As we landed in London, the captain reported over the loud speaker, that the skies had been rainy all morning and that the remaining days forecast called for more of the same. The people, all of which I think were Brits, let out this collective laugh and sigh. This is something that I have encountered many times on flights to Seattle from the warmer reaches. That feeling of, “oh yes, what a surprise to be coming home to my beloved city from someplace warm… only to be greeted by the drizzle and rain..”

Maybe this is why I felt so at home in London..the weather is quite similar to Seattle. And the city felt familiar. Maybe it was the similar feel of this city to a US city, or maybe it is just a cool city.. maybe a little bit of both.
And the coffeehouses everywhere seem to mimic those of the NW..a way to wake up, warm up, cheer up and get out of the rain.

After weeks and months of pointing to the menus, pantomiming and just plain guessing, it was refreshing to be able to communicate with people, know at once what you were ordering in a restaurant, and to be able to take away a coffee, without it coming with strange looks and hot muddy liquid in a tiny plastic cup. London has this good energy about it that I didn’t notice so much in Madrid. I don’t know, maybe it was the space, the cool crisp air, and the wide sidewalks. It just felt good, breathing in that cool rainy air.

We only had one day here, really, so I made the most of it by trying to walk a lot and see some areas that I hadn’t seen the last time around. I am not sure if I succeeded in doing this or not. I was lured to Oxford Street, where Min and I had discovered the Urban Outfitters and H&M last time.. This time, I also came across the Borders…which was great after being in bookstores offering only a limited selection of English books, many of which were of the Michael Crighton variety. Here, I found another addition to a great book I bought the last time I was in London. I highly recommend this author (Tessa Kiros) and her books, for they are beautifully laid out, with great pages, nice photos and great recipes. My last purchase of hers was called “Falling Cloudberries”- with recipes of her ancestry- which is Greek, Cypriot, Italian and Icelandic(?)..the other cookbook, called “Twelve,” is a Tuscan book that goes through the 12 months of eating..so far, it looks as amazing as the first.

I also stumbled into the huge department store here, called Selfridges. It is quite large and has this amazing food hall. I saw so many interesting baked goods, teas, jams..so much great packaging, all of which I wanted to capture with my camera. Of course, just after I snapped my opening shot, of some self serve infused liquors, I was politely told ‘tsk-tsk’ by a large and intimidating security guard..

I wandered into the center of the May Day march as well, where I was able to see that London is made up of a variety of minds.. a few of these being Socialist/Communist.. Of course, everything was under protest here..from the obvious issues of Bush and Blair keeping their hands off Iran and out of Iraq, to the Hairy Women marching against bikini waxing. of course, there were fewer of the latter..

Cheerio, London. until next time.