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

Homemade Mustard

You know those people that you initially dislike but then grow to love? I like to describe those people as mustard.  Mustard, wine, coffee, blue cheese -- those foods that needs time to appreciate.  They're not easy flavors for children to like -- bit too harsh for those delicate little palates. 

I used to love those cheap hot dogs with questionable meat in malls.  I remember the condiment section with the bright yellow bottles and the bright red bottles.  I'd slather those bad boys with ketchup, and despite hating mustard, I'd always try just a tiny little bit of it.  Just the tiniest dollop of it on one end, enough to see but not enough to taste.  I don't know why, I think I wanted to like it.  Unfortunately my love for mustard only came about much later on.  For the longest time, my experience with mustard was limited to the American yellow mustard, and I thought that that was all that there was.  Then one day my father introduced me to wholegrain mustard, and it wasn't exactly love at first taste, but it was the first mustard experience that didn't make me grimace in disgust.

Steamed River Fish with Ginger (清蒸鲈鱼) & The Hutong Review

It's been a long while, I'm sorry.  It's been a mixture of laziness and stress and apathy, perhaps not the best way to start the year. 

So let's talk about January.  January was mostly spent in Beijing, where it was cold, sunny and "foggy".
 
I went to a cooking class over at The Hutong, which is a Chinese cultural center for foreigners.  I learned to cook Chinese New Year specialties, and this is one of the recipes that was taught: steamed river fish with ginger.  We like to eat whole fish. Fish is like the lucky mascot of Chinese culture.  It's often eaten on New Year's because the word "yu", fish in Chinese, sounds the same as the word for "surplus".  So we'd say may every year have surplus.

Mio (Beijing)

Mio is an Italian restaurant in the Four Seasons, and it's actually quite good, in fact I'd arguably say that it's the best Italian restaurant in Beijing. There are very few good Italian restaurants in Beijing, even though I'm pretty sure there are around 100 of them.  Mio's not your traditional Italian food, it's all modern with foam and gels and all that -- which is reflected in the prices

The restaurant is beautiful, and it's got an open kitchen, which for me is always a plus.  The head and sous chefs are both Italian.  They're talented, imaginative and very friendly, so feel free to chat to them if you're there. 

The meal started off with beautifully crisp bread and fragrant olive oil. 

 Tuna and fish roe. 

Whipped Cream Bundt Cake

In Italy you'll find that most bars (and that's actually cafes in Italy) have ciambelle.  These are just simple bundt cakes, usually flavored with vanilla or lemon, and my mother loves them.  They're essentially just pound cakes, but my mother said that this Martha Stewart recipe with whipped cream rather than the standard creaming of butter and sugar tastes most like the ones you find in Italy, strangely enough.

I thought this was interesting.  I was trying to use up the heavy cream I had in my fridge and googled and googled and found this.  I had never made a cake with whipped cream in the batter before.  The texture is quite nice, it's obviously lighter than a standard pound cake but I wouldn't say the difference is massive.