6 Foods To Eat In Buffalo

1) Tim Hortons - is a cafe restaurant chain from Canada. It's hard to go past a store without buying something and in Buffalo, there's a lot of them. My favourite doughnuts are these bite sized ones called Tim Bits. Sadly Tim Hortons is not as available anywhere else in the States. Even the  stores in NYC don't compare to the ones in Buffalo.

2) Pancakes - an American diner favourite. I ate this stack of thick fluffy pancakes with bacon and syrup. The waitress was so impressed, she high-fived me at the table. That's good diner service.

3) Irish food. Buffalo has an Irish heritage and there are many Irish pubs. My friend swears Guinness tastes better in NY vs UK. I think it's true because Buffalo is where I converted to Guinness from lager. We had a dinner at The Blackthorn Restaurant and Pub. I had the Triple D Platter with a mini beef on weck, mini crab cake, Irish beer soup and tater tots. All for $10.50. Beef on weck is a Buffalonian roast beef and horseradish sandwich. The tater tots are huge and the soup was so thick it resembled dip.

4) Buffalo wings, or just "wings" as they call them are served in most restaurants. They are fiery and an obligatory starter. I get the feeling that Buffalonians have a taste for chilli. These were from The Blackthorn and they're the biggest I've ever seen. 

5) Maple bacon - Canada is a bridge away from Buffalo and one of it's best imports, after Tim Hortons, is maple bacon. We had it for breakfast and the house smelt like maple syrup. My friend's mom couldn't believe I took a photo of it sizzling in the pan. They also have freakishly large white eggs but I'll spare you that photo.

6) Polish food. Buffalo has one of the largest Polish populations in the country. We had dinner at Potts Deli and Grille and I couldn't wait to try their pierogis which are Polish dumplings. This is their Polish platter: golomki (stuffed cabbage roll with beef), zrazy (rolled beef with vegetables), smoked kielbasa (sausage), sweet & sour cabbage and pierogi. It was home cooked comfort food. Perfect for the cold weather.

Healing With Chicken and Corn Soup

I have the flu and in the quest to heal myself, I made chicken and corn soup. From scratch. It tastes a while to make, but the effort is worth it.

This is not your usual takeaway style soup, it's healthy and not flash cooked. (I know how they make it in the restaurants!)

This recipe makes two batches to serve two people however you will need to replicate the latter section of the ingredients for the second batch of soup. It's best served as soon as it's cooked so make two lots of broth to make it worth your while!

3 litres of water, plus more for blanching chicken
3 chicken thighs, skinned and washed
2 sticks of celery, cut in 10 cm chunks
3 cloves of garlic, cut in half
6 white stalks of scallions (reserve the green bits for garnishing)
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Handful of inoki mushrooms or frozen peas (optional)
1 egg, beaten
3 tablespoons of cornflour mixed with a water to make a sloppy paste
1 can of cream corn
6 dashes of rice vinegar
3 dashes of sesame oil
3 dashes of light soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste

To Make The Broth:
Drop the chicken thighs in boiling water (enough to cover) for a two minutes. Discard water and rinse the thighs. This step is important to reduce scum forming. Then simmer thighs with three litres of water for an hour. Add celery, garlic, scallion stalks, and simmer for half an hour. Turn off heat and allow to sit with lid off for fifteen minutes.

Strain broth into another pot. Throw away vegetables but keep thighs. Reserve half the broth for second batch.

To Make The Soup:
Bring to boil stock, can of cream corn, wet ingredients, salt and pepper. Before it hits boiling point, slowly stir in the cornflour mixure. The soup should thicken slightly. Throw in inoki mushrooms/peas. Turn off heat. Slowly stir in egg to form ribbons. Stop stirring once it's all in.

To serve, add shredded chicken thigh meat (I discard the top layer as it's tough) and garnish with sliced green scallions.

I added bok choy. It was healthy and delicious! 

Roasted Aubergine

Or known as eggplant for Aussies. I love the stuff, whether it's in moussaka, stuffed with fishcake or roasted on it's own.

Making roasted aubergine is ridiculously simple. I don't bother with salting if it's medium sized or smaller. Just slice 2 cm thick and slather it with olive oil. Place single layered on a baking tray covered with foil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and mixed herbs. Roast in the oven for 20 mins at gas mark 7 (200 degrees in a fan forced oven).

After I take it out,  I let it sweat by wrapping it with foil for 5-10 mins and voila! Tasty eggplant which melts on your tongue. I'm not sure if I'm the only person who enjoys the skin as well.

For an even tastier treat, I add shredded cheese on top and skip the sweating part. Yummers.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

As a belated Christmas present, I was taken to lunch by a lovely friend. It was at L'Atelier in Covent Garden, a two Michelin star French restaurant.

The food is culinary precision to an art form. Over the Japanese sushi-counter style setting, we watched chefs prepare dishes with intricacy and a fervent eye for detail.

Le Fois Gras Terrine-garnished with tangy apricot and pear to help cut through the richness. 

L’oeuf Coque Sans Coque-Egg cocotte topped with light wild mushrooms cream. The bed of mushroom infused foam as light as a cloud.

L'Agneau Du Limousin-Confit saddle of lamb served with white beans from Tarbes. Exquisitely tender and the lamb had a feather thin crust. (Perhaps flashed by a blowtorch?)

Untitled cabbage accompaniment. The creation of it's delicate flavour and softness shall remain a mystery.

La Joue De Boeuf-Ox cheek braised in black grenache grapes then served with celeriac mousseline. Can't remember how many hours the waiter said the beef was cooked, but as you can imagine, it's done very slowly.

La Mango-Mango-Coulis mousse of mango, Joconde biscuit and exotic sorbet. A multi-layer dessert that's decadently presented.

Even the Japanese lacquered spoon is dusted with gold.

What I Ate Today

Homemade scotch Egg from The Hampstead Butchery. Perfect with sriracha sauce.

Pumpkin pie from Lanka, Primrose Hill. OMG this was devine. The crust was thin and the filling was delicately fluffy. Really tasted like pumpkin. 

Braised pork belly with "mui choy" (preserved radish) and rice. It took almost 2 hours to make but the pork was meltingly soft.

Chinese New Year Prep

This weekend I got the flat to myself because my flatmates are on holidays. I'm loving the quietness and free reign!

However in preparation for Chinese New Year, I did a shiteload of cleaning, grocery shopping and laundry.

You see, I was brought up with Chinese traditions (ie, superstitions).

Its bad luck on CNY day to:

1) Fight or argue.

2) Break anything.

3) Wash your hair (as it means to wash away your good luck)

4) Eat fried squid (because directly translated in chinese, it means to "get fired")

5) Do cleaning or heavy exercise.

6) Run out of food.

You're supposed to live a good day that's meant to reflect the rest of the year. Superstitious Chinese people are paranoid about jinxes, usually derived by negative sounding words and symbolic experiences.

This weekend I indulged with a dinner feast in Royal Albert Docks, Yum Cha in Mayfair and steamboat at a friend's. All for CNY.

Suckling pig with flashing cherry eyeballs. How peculiar looking is this?

Easy and Perfectly Moist Banana Bread

The yummiest fluke ever. I worked without a recipe and turned the oven off early because I had to leave the flat. When I got back hours later, I had slightly undercooked banana bread but it was perfectly moist and soft.

Won't post a pic because it's so ugly but after a taste, you'd wanna make love to it!!!

2 overripe bananas coarsely mashed
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp bicarb soda
30g melted butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
(Optional: dark choc chunks or chopped walnuts)

Put all ingredients in a bowl and stir until just combined. It should be thick and lumpy. Let mixture stand for 5 mins.

Line loaf tin with foil, pour in and bake in preheated oven at gas mark 5 (or 180 degrees) for 40 mins. Turn off heat and leave in oven for 20 mins.

Keep the bread in it's foil until it's served. Store in an airtight container for up to three days.