Table for one, please.

Yes, I'm that person that goes to restaurants by herself.  It's a treat for me.  I'm also that person that goes to one coffee/lunch/dinner/drinks date after another, trying to fit in as many social functions into my diary as possible, with a smile glued on my face, ready to be engaged, ask questions, listen and chat away and all the mean time keeping up with social media, replying to texts and Facebook and Whatsapp messages and...yea.  I actually love being alone sometimes where it's just me and my thoughts. 

http://www.asupposedlyfunthing.com/post/2814395980/notes-on-food-courts-and-eating-alone

Valentine's Day Dinner [a guide]

"I think careful cooking is love, don't you?  The loveliest thing you can cook for someone who's close to you is about as nice a valentine as you can give"  - Julia Child

from http://society6.com/product/Love-Birds-jFl_Print#1=45

Best of 2013

And the year's drawing to a close.  I've been reading "Best of 2013"'s everywhere, from food news to celebrity moments to advances in technology.  So I've decided to share Happy Belly's highlights in 2013 - a combination of viewers' favorites and mine. 

Best breakfast
It was difficult to choose the best breakfast, because I have a ridiculous number of breakfast recipes.  But I had to choose this oatmeal over any other pancakes and eggs because.. it's just love and comfort in a bowl.  It's the perfect thing to have over and over again for a whole month.  It's cumbersome and time-consuming, yes, that is why I shamefully admit that I still make oatmeal in the microwave sometimes.  However, as I'm on holiday right now, I've been making my porridge according to this recipe every morning.


Best Dessert
This Hazelnut-Praline Dacquoise was popular.   Indeed, it took me a whole morning to make it and look how pretty.  Two nut based sponge cakes with a rich creamy center.  Despite all the sugar and butter in this dish, it was beautifully light. 















 Best Vegetable
Broccoli with Tahini 
Steamed vegetables can be boring if you don't know how to dress them.  

"Can I have it without the mushrooms please?" - A Post on Food Preferences

Source

I am the least picky eater you'll meet. I am not prejudiced against any foods. Yes, some I prefer more than others, and I'm not exactly the biggest fan of liquorice, but if you give it to me, I'll eat it.  Yet, unfortunately, I'm one of the few in the world like this.  I know so many people who refuse to touch anchovies or mushrooms or tomatoes.

So I pondered upon this.  See, food is not only a physical source of nutrition and toxins, but it is also as a source of pleasure and a mediating tool in social relations. Reasons behind our food likes and dislikes are therefore quite interesting.

One Week Paleo Challenge

First of all, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! it's the year of the snake.  If you can read Mandarin, you'll be able to appreciate this.

"朋友您好，為了你好，
請您坐好，用心聽好。
錢多錢小，夠吃就好。
人醜人美，順眼就好。
人老人少，健康就好。
家窮家富，和氣就好。
老公晚歸，有回就好。
老婆嘮叨，顧家就好。
父母健在，福報最好。
翁姑兩老，有了是寶。
孩子從小，就要教好。
博士也好，賣菜也好，
長大以後，乖乖就好。
房屋大小，能住就好。
名不名牌，能穿就好。
兩輪四輪，能駕就好。
老闆不好，要忍就好。
是是非非，不理最好。
一切煩惱，能解就好。
堅持執著，放下最好。
人的一生，平安就好。
不是有錢，一定會好。
心好行好，命能改好。
孝善二行，原來最好。
誰是誰非，天知就好。
修福修慧，來世更好。
說這麼多，明白就好。
天地萬物，隨緣就好。
很多事情，看開就好。
人人都好，日日都好。
你好我好，世界更好。
今天立春，蛇年啟動！"

Mistakes in the Kitchen

My hands are not pretty.  My nails are chipped, my fingers are rough, and I always have band-aids on at least one of them.  I've currently got one on my right ring finger because I've shredded a piece of skin off.  My finger is okay but the shredded carrots were stained.  My point is, I make mistakes in the kitchen all the time.  I do a lot of housework and I have the horrible habit of biting my nails/fingers, but my scarred hands are mainly the result of cooking, cutting and burning myself.

Other than self-harm, a lot of my dishes turn out to be disasters as well.  When people actually live with me, they realize that not everything gets put on Happy Belly.

These were American biscuits/English savory scones I've tried to make last Thanksgiving.  This is why now my American friends make the Thanksgiving dinner exclusively Americans in the kitchen only now.  They didn't rise :(  I've actually tried to make scones once before this as well -- double chocolate scones.  I think I had overworked the dough, just as with these biscuits, because they turned out to be fudgy double chocolate cookies/brownies.  They were actually very tasty, mind you, they just weren't really scones. 

Two-Week Gluten-Free Challenge

Oh this is going to force me to be quite creative.  Aside from the obvious no bread no pasta no cookies no pastries, I also probably won't be able to have gravies, soups, and sauces.  Flour's in everything.  Actually, I won't be able to have most: ketchups, soy sauces, mustards, mayos.  It will be very difficult to eat out, but at least telling the waiter that I'll go into anaphylactic shock from the slightest consumption of gluten, than telling the waiter I'm vegan. So this challenge will be easier socially. 

I'm worried about breakfast. I love cereal, I can't believe I won't be able to have cereal for two weeks.  I refuse to waste my money on gluten-free cereals, I'm going to make this challenge very student-budget-friendly, I'm not going to buy any special gluten-free products.  Gluten-free oats are 3 pounds.  I buy my oats for like 79p. So, no.  Apparently oats are naturally gluten-free, but they're not made in a gluten-free environment..and I'm going to do this...properly.. Oh I might cave after a couple of days.  I had polenta porridge for breakfast this morning, was quite good.  I had it with sugar and chestnuts with a splash of milk at the end. Mmmm. 

Two-Week Vegan Challenge

I had started this challenge on Monday.  It's really just for fun, just to see if I can.  I don't think I could ever become a vegan, I personally don't think it's necessary.  Becoming vegetarian is something I'd like to do but unfortunately I love steak and bacon too much.  Eggs, milk and cheese --- I feel no guilt in consuming these.

It's good to have some self-control.  Perhaps it's because I know so many vegetarians, Muslims and Jews that have all these eating restrictions, and I admire them for their self-control.  A week ago I'd have thought I could never turned down a crackling pork belly or lobster ravioli, and now, I know it's only been 3 days, but I've been pretty good.  Soy milk and cereal in the morning, lots of fruits, vegan brownies, vegetables and pulses and beans.

It can be quite healthy, and you could lose weight on it, but only because food choices are so limited. People always offer cookies and ice cream and whatnot, and I've had to turn them all down because they contained egg/dairy/butter.  In restaurants I'm forced to eat salads, because there's not much else.  Most restaurants are pretty vegetarian-friendly with at least a couple of vegetarian options -- but they always contain cheese and so I can't have it.  Although the other day I ordered a feta salad without the feta.  It's like once I ordered a caesar salad without the caesar salad and I could sense the waiter mocking me.

Cantonese Dim Sum

So how much do you know about Cantonese dim sum?  As I was looking through some old photos I stumbled upon these dim sums I had at the Noble Court restaurant in Beijing (highly recommended, one of the best places to have Cantonese dim sum in Beijing.  In my humble opinion).  I'm going home soon. Oh the excitement.

Ok I hope you find this educational, or at least I hope this will motivate you to wikipedia some of this and start planning your gastronomic trip to China.  By the way, the pronunciation guide I have for these are how you would say them in Mandarin, not Cantonese.

I'll start with 叉烧包 (cha shao bao) -- BBQ pork buns. These are my favorite.  These are quite common in Western Chinese restaurants, actually, so you might know of them.  It's just pork marinated in this sweet and savory cha shao sauce (a mixture of soy sauces, corn flour, sugar etc.  You can find the sauce easily in most Chinese supermarkets -- char siu sauce in Cantonese), then stuffed in a light yet rich bun.  To die for.

You can have the BBQ pork on its own as well, commonly eaten with just rice and some simple steamed vegetables over rice (叉烧饭) -- cha shao fan.

Easter Goodies

All my favorite holidays are marked by some food item.  For Easter, it's chocolate eggs.  Growing up in China in the 90's meant that there wasn't the atmosphere and the excitement around Easter time.  There weren't aisles miles long of chocolate easter eggs in supermarkets; no giant statues of rabbits and baskets in shopping malls; no special Easter Sunday menus in restaurants.  When I think back to Easter as a child, only vivid memories of chocolate eggs come to mind -- two types of chocolate eggs.

Large chocolate eggs, the size of my little head, wrapped in bright gold foil with a big colorful bow, barely holding its shape after the long journey from Italy to China. Behind the wrap there were thin and fragile broken egg shells that revealed a tiny little plastic toy inside -- unfortunately the size of the egg was not at all representative of the size of the toy.

Then there were the bags of mini Lindt chocolate eggs from my parents' friend, Giovanni Di Pasquale. He'd always come around Easter time. Unlike other family friends whom we'd had to unwillingly entertain by being present at the dinner table and smile and nod along their meaningless adult conversations, the guy was wonderful -- he cooked and gave us chocolate. Every year was the same bag of assorted colorful Lindt chocolate eggs. Colors and chocolate, it was like a small bag of edible rainbow droplets that gave so much more satisfaction than just a sugar high.

I open the bag and try to take one of each color out without pouring all of the eggs out. Then I examined them, carefully deciding which to eat first before putting everything neatly back and saving them for the future gluttony.

With time, grandparents stopped sending chocolate eggs, and the friend started coming around without chocolate eggs. Easter's sole excitement was that it meant a couple of days off school.

Nonetheless, even though my Easters were marked by solely Chocolate eggs as a child, many countries, including my own, celebrate Easter with proper traditional breads and cakes.  In Italy, we obviously have La Colomba Pasquale (Easter dove).  

The dough is similar to that of a panettone, but contains no raisins, topped usually with pearl sugar and almonds, and is shaped into a dove (kind of).  Like panettones, it's usually bought rather than homemade as it's quite a complicated process. But if you fancy making it, there are lots of good recipes out there (like here).  Do tell me if you succeed.

In the UK there are these wonderful Hot Cross Buns.  Soft, light and spongy square breads marked with a cross. Like many other British cakes and breads, it's flavored with dried fruits and spices.   

Here's quite a good recipe of it.  This can be easily made at home.  

Tsoureki is a rich, brioche-like sweet bread eaten at Easter in Greece, but it has its close relatives throughout Eastern Europe.  It's similar to the Armenian choreg, the Bulgarian Kozunak, and the Czech Houska. They all have the similar dough but they're flavored with different ingredients and topped with different nuts.  It's braided and then baked with a pretty colored egg in the middle.  I recommend this recipe.  

Then there's the Dutch Paasbrood.  Sweet bread with candied fruits and stuffed with almond paste, similar to a stollen.

So I hope you do some home baking this Easter, if not you could always go and buy yourself some packaged ones in a store -- either way, make sure you eat some delicious and traditional baked goods this Easter.

Home Baking

I pondered upon the concept of home baking as I strolled through a Tesco Extra. There were aisles and aisles of baked goods ranging from humble ginger breads, apple crumbles, and sticky toffee puddings, to lavish chocolate eclaires, profiteroles, and citrus tarts. Upon these superordinate categories of tarts and fruit breads, you have the basic level of muffins and scones, and then the subordinate levels of fruit scones and chocolate chip scones, and each of these then has their own numerous subtypes. Choices are overwhelming. Take a plain sultana scone. One can decide to get it in the Cake and Baked Goods aisle, packaged and mass produced by different companies, ranging from Tesco Value to Tesco Finest and the common big brands. One can go to the Bakery aisle and find fresher scones made recently with simple clear pastic packaging only with the name of the item and the date of production shown. Or put in a bit more effort and go to the frozen aisles where they're jumbled up in a bag, ready to be popped in the oven. With a little more work, there is the Cake Mixes aisle with the boxed mix -- add an egg and some butter and cream, stir and bake. You could even get fresher mixes in the refrigerator aisles. If the choice is a plain sultana scone with cream and jam to accompany an Earl Gray at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, there is a pool of choices before deciding how and what to acquire.

Last Day of 2011

So it's the last day of 2011.

I'm currently in Calabria stuffing my face with foods that are contributing to my ever growing love handles.  Eating 4 course meals everyday for lunch and dinner including dessert.  Feeling disgustingly blissful, while at the same time panicking and studying for my exams that are quickly approaching.

So obviously I haven't been cooking.  I wanted to do restaurant reviews of some sort. But I don't think I'd be good at it.  I've visited Alia, which is in Castrovillari, and Le Cucine di Palazzo Salfi.  Alia's said to be one of the best restaurants of the country, serving Calabrian food with a modern twist.  I'll perhaps do a more detailed post about these two places later, I've taken photos, but right now, in summary, it was a big disappointment.  I've given it a 2.5 stars out of 5 in my book.  it was average.  Merely average.  It was good, but it wasn't splendid.  Maybe 2.7 stars.