Pictures: More Delicious Treats!

Since I know Eri-san lovvves pictures, I'll put up a compilation of some of my favorite foods/dishes I got to eat.  These are all from while I was in Europe, which was when I was obsessed with taking pictures of food:

Sushi in Milan! Italy kind of gets the whole "sushi" thing.  Not bad for Italians. Above we have shrimp tempura, perhaps the salmon+creme cheese roll to the right, and at the bottom, I'm not sure but it looks like cooked salmon. 

This is spaghetti eis!  Ice cream made to look like spaghetti. It was a dish made for children but I love playful dishes like this!  This was from a gelateria in Freiburg- they used vanilla for the spaghetti strands, some strawberry sauce for tomato sauce, and white chocolate shavings for Parmesan cheese.  How quaint!

This was the most delicious thing I had in Italy: tomato and sausage pizza in Rome, right by the Colosseum.  It was on our first day in Italy, too. Something about the gooeyness of the cheese and the spicy sausage just made this pizza unforgettable.  There was another pizza we got there that had mashed potatoes in it and it was divine as well.

The classic fish and chips in London.  My friend Megan and I spent hours deciding where to go but our choice paid off. The peas are an English thing, as well. They love their peas, and they eat them all prim and proper with a knife and fork, too.

A Happy Meal! I think this was in Germany, judging from the packaging; going to McDonalds was our late night guilty pleasure after dancing at the discotek.  Not a memorable meal or toy, but I enjoy "testing out" Happy Meals around the world.  I've had them in HK, Beijing, and some other random places in Europe. 

The best beer I have ever tasted was in Freiburg, at one of the local breweries called "Feierling".  I would pay almost anything to get some more of that beer. It was hearty, wheaty, and so drinkable- the perfect wheat beer. 

My favorite "fast food" is the doner kabab.  It's likened to the gyro, but so much tastier. A Turkish delight, they roast slabs of meat (either chicken or lamb) on a spit that rotates around a flame, then carve off some delicious crispy meat and put it into a bread roll or tortilla with a tangy yogurt sauce and veggies.  The perfect 4 euro meal.

You're probably thinking I had good food all the time. But here is a picture of the most unappetizing thing I had in Europe: Sausage salad in Freiburg, Germany.  They took hot dogs, shredded them up, and put them on a salad with pickled peppers, chunks of feta cheese, and picked veggies.  Worst food choice I had made to date. 

Here is the winner for most delicious thing I had in Europe: a cup of hot chocolate in Riga, Latvia.  We were at a trendy Starbucks-ish cafe in Riga, and when I ordered a hot chocolate, they brought me out a steaming cup of milk served with a piece of chocolate on a stick.  I am a definite proponent for playing with your food so I loved this concept. You stir the chocolate into the piping hot milk, so it's a do-it-yourself hot chocolate. Except I don't think I could recreate this at home because the chocolate they had was so rich and decadent that the hot milk turned into perfect cup of hot chocolate!  I bet this concept could hit it big in the US....

Well, that's all I have for now. 

Pictures: All Sorts of Yum!

I don't have anything constructive to write about so I thought I'd just post pictures of some food as of late that I've been eating/making:

I've been baking a lot of bread. Of course. The latest technique is mixing the beer bread and the sourdough bread recipes; that way, I get the best of both worlds: sour taste with fluffy texture and crispy crust. It's so delicious my family usually ends up eating a whole load right out of the oven so it's a good thing the beer recipe makes two loaves. MMM!

It make this delicious bread I used:

-about 1/2 cup of sourdough starter

- 6 C King Arthur bread flour

-3/4 t instant yeast

-1 T table salt

-2 t sugar

MIX with:

-12 ounces water

-3/4 C blonde lager beer

-2 T white vinegar

-1 T honey

Let sit overnight 10-20 hours in a bowl covered in saran wrap and a kitchen cloth.

Then punch/deflate and and seperate into 2 loaves. Slash top of loaves to cool bake-marks. Let rise in a warm-ish oven for 2 hours.

Then it looks like <- that picture :)

Other things I've been making are this delicious pot of asparagus and pancetta risotto. I think this was my second time making risotto and that night it was so-so, but oh man, the next day, it was SO GOOD! And then the day after, it was so much better! So my conclusion is that risotto taste so much better the day after because then it has time to soak in all the juices and sauce.

I also made this plate of "caprese salad" with crustini. I had roasted the slices of tomatoes in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and crushed garlic [at 350F]. After about 30 minutes, let it cool and then layer with fresh mozzerella and sprinkle chiffonade of basil and drizzle of more "EVOO". (ugh). And serve with slices of bagette that have been brushed with olive oil and toasted 'til crispy.

Well... that's all I got for now! :)