Pavlova

I'd never heard of it before coming to the UK. That is the national dessert of Australia - The Pavlova. I first heard of it on the show, Masterchef Australia.

Pavlova is basically a meringue topped with whipped cream and fresh berries. It is held up as a challenging dessert to get right as a result of the meringue. I tracked down the Masterchef Australia Recipe and also watched a few How-to videos on YouTube.com. From these I felt up to the task to make it for our Easter Dinner dessert.



I got up early that morning to make the meringue, which after an hour in the oven at 100 degrees Celsius came out nice an fluffy. It collapsed a little in the middle, but it was still crusty on the outside and light and marshmallowy on the inside.



Just before serving, I whipped up the whip cream and topped it with some fresh cut strawberries, blueberries, and kiwi fruit - the traditional fruits served on it.

It was a delicious, light, warm weather dessert. I can't wait to make it again this summer.

Here is the recipe if you want to try making it.

Australian Masterchef Pavlova

The ingredients are:

150ml egg white
220g caster sugar
2 tbs corn flour (or corn starch), sifted
2 tps white vinegar

Whipped Cream

Fresh Berries and Kiwi Fruit

The method is:

1. Preheat oven to 150°C.

2. Place the eggwhite in the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk until stiff peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, whisking well, until the mixture is stiff and glossy. Add the cornflour and vinegar and whisk until just combined. Shape the mixture into an 18cm round on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper.

3. Reduce oven to 120°C and bake for 1 hour 20 minutes. Turn the oven off and allow the pavlova to cool completely in the oven.

4. Top with Whipped Cream and some fresh cut berries and Kiwi fruit.

A Proper Absinthe Drink

Ever since coming to Europe, I've wanted to try doing a full fledged traditional Absinthe drink. Recently, our friend, Lisa, from Paris came to visit, and she brought a bottle of organic naturally-colored Absinthe. She even brought the essential piece of equipment necessary to do a proper Absinthe drink - an Absinthe spoon.

The traditional Czech way to serve Absinthe is to pour the shot over a sugar cube, and then light the liquor infused sugar cube on fire. Once that burns out, you trickle cold spring water over the cube until it dissolves into the liquid. Then you stir it in, and your drink is ready.

What is interesting is that the liquid goes from transparent green to a milky green color. In the 1800's this was often attributed to the Green Fairy. I think it is really some sort of small chemical reaction.

Absinthe has an herbal anise flavor. It is actually quite refreshing, though it is very high in alcohol.

I can testify that in its current form, even with the traditional Wormwood extract included, I experienced no hallucinations or ill effects. . . that I am aware of. . .

The London Coffee Festival

I've really, really come to love coffee while in London, the tea capitol of the world. I think as tea is such the social convention in England, that the coffee drinkers have been forced to bond more strongly and thus create events to seek out other coffee lovers.



Just recently, I went to the first annual London Coffee Festival. It was held in a slightly dodgy, yet undergoing urban renewal area of London called Brick Lane. It is also called "Little Bangladesh".

A lot of artists and adventurous companies are moving into the area, and a lot of new housing is going up around it as well. My bet is that in 5 years, this will be a very trendy area, and the edgy artistic quality that makes it so appealing to people now will be replaced by the status quo. That's not so bad in my opinion as it could get a little

The festival was held on the second floor of an old warehouse in the now defunct Truman Brewing Company (a beer maker that went out of business in the 60's).

There were machines of all shapes and sizes available for both the professional and consumer sides of the market.

I entered to win an Ascaso Espresso machine. I don't know where we'd put it in our tiny apartment, but we'd find somewhere no doubt. It looks like a good machine, and even has the pressure gauge on the front, which I was told to never buy a machine without one.




A lot of the major coffee vendors in London were in attendance. Starbucks had two booths: one for their standard coffee shops, and one for their new highend exotic single origin coffees.





These specialty reserve coffees are only available at a few stores. I tried one of the coffees, and I thought it was good, but wasn't my favorite at the festival.








I tried a bunch of different coffees. Most vendors were giving away samples, and I avoided any that were charging.


One vendor tricked into trying a tea. . . ick. It looked like a beautiful cup of espresso with a glorious crema, but as soon as I tasted it, it was. . . TEA!!!!




Another vendor was promoting their new highend Hot Chocolate product that they were hoping to place in coffee shops. It was delicious. All the chocolates were single origin, and listed their cocoa content. I hope it is a great success for them.



There were also samples of coffee related snacks. Probably the most unique was the gingerbread biscuit that comes from Sarah Nelson's up in the Lake District. It uses a 100 year old recipe, and was absolutely delicious. In fact, I believe they are still working out of the same 100 year old bakery. Very cool.



One coffeehouse on Brick Lane, Nude Espresso, was the luckiest coffeehouse in London that day as they were just outside the entrance to the festival. I've been there before, and they do make an awesome cup of coffee.

My favorite coffee that I tried was from a company called Percol, and their espresso roast is called Black and Beyond. I ended up buying 2 bags of it as they were having a special.

My favorite local brew coffee came from Allpress, a roaster that is right by brick lane and is an easy walk from my apartment.





In fact just recently, due to the good weather, I decided to walk over there for another fabulous latte, or what they call a "flat white". Allpress, like many repudible coffeehouses in London, is run by Aussies. As good as I would have expected.

Spring 2011

Nothing is more important to the British than the return of Spring after a long cold winter. And nothing is nicer to me than the realization that it isn't quite so cold and dark when I take the dogs to the park at 7:30 in the morning. That first morning when suddenly it just isn't that dark is absolutely wonderful.


And it just gets better and better as the sun rises earlier and earlier until suddenly, it isn't just light, it was actually sunny and the park is bathed in a beautiful orange glow as the newly sprouted leaves and flowers return to further enforce natures announcement that spring has arrived.



I even think the dogs realize the change. I've caught them sniffing the occasional flower.

As soon as the squirrels begin venturing out of their nests, they definitely know spring has arrived.






Even down in Soho, the parks spring to life as the weather gets warmer. They flower beds sprout forth the most amazing tulips that are so colorful, they seem to fool cameras into producing images that just look artificial.

On a beautiful day, I think the indoor restaurants struggle to find customers as everyone heads outdoors to relish the sunshine and the simple joy of sitting in a park for a picnic.

This last week, instead of eating in at our favorite pizza place, a group of us ordered takeout pizza from them and headed to the park. Surrounded by such stunning floral beauty, it made it difficult to return to work.

Weekend in Bristol - Part 3 - A lunch in the hills

For our last meal, we drove out to the countryside just outside Bristol to The Walled Garden. It is an artistic communty that has a lovely cafe called, "The Ethicurean". Anthony and Jon had eaten there before, and coincidentally, they had just been profiled on the TV the day before. It is a cute new restaurant run by two youngish lads.

Though the food was excellent, it felt as though they were still finding their legs and techniques for running a restaurant effectively. We met one of their mothers who was from Mexico.

We timed it all well as a small rainstorm came through just as we arrived, and Jon and I had to run from the art studios to the cafe.





We ordered a bottle of wine, and prepared to have a long casual lunch.





For dessert, we had a Cheese plate of local cheeses. Among them a soft blue that had been out of production for a long time, and only recently it had begun to be made again. In my opinion, it could have stayed out of production.





After lunch, the storm had cleared, and we wandered around the lovely grounds savoring the beautiful greens of the British countryside. It is stunning.

The views of the valley below are amazing, and as they have outdoor seating, it would be a lovely place to return in the summer.

Before long, it was time to make our way back to Brunel's Bristol Train Station, and board our train back to London. It was a fantastic break from the city, and I'm really grateful that Anthony and Jon invited me to join the.

Best of all, the dogs were exhausted when we got home. While Tony is away, they are closed up in the apartment all week, so it it great to get them a ton of exercise over the weekend.

A weekend in Bristol - Part 2 - The SS Great Britain

The highlight of the second day in Bristol was a visit to the SS Great Britain. This ship was built in the 1850's, and was the largest ship built up to that time. It was designed by the great engineer Brunel, and was a precurser to even larger ships to follow.







It served for over 90 years, and had circumnavigated the globe 32 times. It made frequent trips to San Francisco and Australia. It had a long career as both a steam and wind powered ship.



It wasn't until it suffered damage in a storm off the coast of Argentina that her traveling days ended. The company who owned it at that time decided not to spend the money to repair it, but instead sold it to a company to use as floating warehouse. It wasn't until it was practically falling apart that this company decided to scuttle the ship.

In the 60's a movement began to raise the ship, return it to Bristol, and renovate it as a museum. There is a great deal of exhibit that shows the complicated process the ship underwent to be brought back up to the surface, transported on a barge over 7000 miles form Argentina to Bristol, and them made seaworthy enough to float back up the river Avon to the same dry dock in Bristol where the ship was built. A truely amazing story.

They've done a magnificent job making it appear that the ship is floating when in fact, there is a glass structure built around the ship, which holds a few inches of water.

This allows you to go under the water and see the preserved iron hull. It is an impressive thing to see how large a vessel this was, and what an amazing engineering achievement it was for it's time.

It was also one of the first propeller driven ships instead of a side paddle. The ship allowed for retracting the propellers when opting to use favorable wind power to conserve fuel.

After going under the ship where the hull has been preserved in its current state, you can go up on top and inside the ship where it has been restored to its original 1850's configuration.

We took the audio tour, which gives you a lot of insight into what it must have been like to have traveled on this ship from Bristol to Australia - a 56 day journey.



Inside you can tour the first, second, and steerage class areas of the ship to get an idea of the differing accomodations. Niether group looked to have neither excessively luxurious nor excessively poor conditions on the ship.

One of the highlights for me was seeing a restored Brunel Engine. It is over 3 stories tall and sits center of the ship (I'm guessing due to weight). It was powered by coal and steam. A very impressive sight.

I could not help but think of the movie "Titanic", while viewing this ship. It is certainly a close relative to that ship which would be built about 55 years later.






Back on deck, I got to fulfill the fantasy of standing at the steering wheel of this magnificent ship.

The Great Britain is the #1 attraction in Bristol, and it certainly warrants a visit. It won the award for best museum the year it opened, and it is a terrific place to visit.