Rome II

As promised in an earlier blog post - more of Rome in pictures. The food, that is.

Following our little guidebook on the best eats in Rome, we started our hunt for the elusive hangouts. The trail included pizza at Baffeto, pasta at Isodoro, gelato at San Crispino's (mentioned earlier), and of course, 2 of the best recommended places: Panella and San Eustachio's.






























Panella is almost like a neighbourhood bakery, except, when you take your first step in, it seems almost too-cool to be like the old fashioned ones back home. Being an institution on its own for a gazillion varieties of bread, Panella seemed to attract the yuppie crowd- and random tourists like us! With trays and trays of delectable eats everywhere, I spent close to an hour simply just picking what I wanted to eat. They had everything - from middle eastern sweet bread to sachertortes and of course, bread :) Just looking at the baker carrying that surfboard-full of crusty bread made me want to live there forever. Carbs? what Carbs?












































And of course, there was San Eustachio. The renowned establishment located just behind the Pantheon was rather difficult to locate, unless of course, you were a local. Everyone seemed to know the place. San Eustachio is famous for its Coffee - and it apparently has been accoladed with the coveted Best Coffee in Europe title! So, despite not being a coffee fan (i get headaches just by the mere whiff), I decided that I simply had to try it. And I did. We got a shot of some of their good-stuff(I can't remember the name of it), and Boy! was it good! But with the jostling crowd, I won't be surprised if people just ordered, collected, gulped and left. While I did get a slight headache after (which I insist was a result of the crowd. Okay, I am also claustrophobic), it was well worth it! yumm.

lemons make the world go round

Lemons, I feel, win hands-down the award for best ingredient. I am always in a 'let's-make-something-lemony' mood. be it tarte au citron, or lemon pound cake, or even in its supporting 'role' for my banana cake recipe- lemons never fail to make me happy. maybe its the colour, an amazing Mr Happy yellow together with its smell of summer permeating my/jia's kitchen, that leaves me in a good mood all day.

We had 5 organic lemons leftover from our banana muffin experiments and we decided to make the first thing that came to our minds- the lemon meringue pie! I mentioned it earlier in the blog that i really wanted to try my hand at it, and voila! several months later, we did it! While we didn't have a proper pie dish (we are poor students, what extravagance!), we substituted for a rectangular-ish 1 inch deep cookie tray which worked just as well. With the remainding dough and lemon curd, we made mini lemon meringue tarts.

I've never tried lemon meringue pies before, and after we made this, I wonder why. The soft, fluffly and sweet meringue perfectly complemented the tart lemon curd - just about the best pairing since roti prata and curry met (that's a completely different issue, but you get my drift). The buttery tart shell acted as the perfect denominator, allowing the explosion of flavours to come together. And while the pie-top was browner than usual, it actually was a very nice golden-sand like brown which up-ed its wow-factor.

so, lemons lemons lemons- perfect for every season, every month, and every day baking!

of muff-cakes and whimsical names

With the new presence of the muffin tray (brought over from sg by kai) our baking experiments have since revolved around making muff-cakes. Muff-cakes as the name entails are something in between a volcano-erupting muffin and a small but decadent cupcake, layered with often too sweet icing. While muff-cakes are decadent, they usually do not rise as high as muffins ought too. Nonetheless, the amazing thing about muffins, cupcakes or muff-cakes is that you get to be extra creative.. throw in all sorts of ingredients to see what works and what doesn't. Best of all, you'll be the first to taste your new product - now that's what I love about experimental baking :)

So, since we have been making a lot of them, i've decided to dedicate a post just to my beloved muff-cakes! so far, we've made good ol' banana muffins (our crowd favourite+voted by 'part 3' of our clique as his top favourite, ), strawberry cupcakes with delish icing (adapted from martha stewart) and our latest experiment: whimsically named after one of Shakespeare's best plays - in my opinion at least- A Midsummer Night's Dream. Why the name? With our vanilla based cupcake, with dark chocolate filling and framboise icing, everything just seemed to fit. The dark chocolate was clearly reminiscent of the night and raspberry, the epitome of summer fruits. Hence, the Midsummer Night - our successful first experimental muff-cake (below)!











the strawberry cupcakes were made in honour of yan neng's 21st birthday celebrations. armed with a recipe and a box of strawberries, we set of to discover the miracle that 'pink things' are edible! with a pseudo horror story from jia about her pink cookies, the pinkish looking muff-cake batter turned out to be ultra-delish with subtle but yummy strawberry infused into the atoms and particles of flour, butter and sugar. so the pink muffin with strawberry muffcake not only turned out to be edible, it also turned out to be v. good. so yay!to us, for making another pink thing, but this time much more accepted by the 'taster/tester' group!















These little cakes are delightful things packed full of calories and definitely not one for a girl on diet. but hey, whoever said that yummy things that can induce happiness with just one bite were not sinful? happiness here indeed comes with a price, non?

quintessential breakfast

Under the massive category of 'food' lies the extremely versatile pain, more commonly known as bread. Well, at least for me, bread is breakfast in London and bread was breakfast that my mum would prepare for me to munch on the way to school (whenever I overslept). The things that one can make with bread are endless.. from French toast, to grilled ham and cheese on white bread, and bread and butter pudding!

But bread on its own, or with a spread still tastes absolutely amazing! Peanut butter (crunchy and smooth), jam in all of its crazy varieties and of course, everyone's favourite- nutella.

However, the one thing that i miss so much, especially being away from home, is Kaya. Yes, the coconut-y, egg-y, pandan infused, sugared spread that i grew up on. The kaya toast that Singaporeans relish for their morning breakfast, only 5 minutes away from home in a nearby kopitiam, alas, is about 14 hours away from me. Weekend morning breakfasts of kaya toast have always been with my family, and even with my lovingly bubble-wrapped bottle of kaya brought over from Sg (that i finished in 4 weeks), it is just not possible to get the same euphoric feeling with the first bite.

Then there's Chubby Hubby. With his recipe posted on his blog for the amazing Kaya spread, and tips from jia's mum, who happens to be an expert, we decided to try a shot at it. And why not? for the first time in london, i was able to enjoy proper kaya.

with bread lightly toasted, generous amounts of kaya, and a dollop of butter to go. yummm.

my favourite time of the year

chinese new year for me has always been about the food, the people, and people eating the food we make. at my grans, everything is painfully handmade - from the little nuggets of pineapple tarts to the handcrafted claw-shaped cashew nut cookies. no preservatives (which means validity to polish them off before they go bad), but every bit as good as store-bought.















while i wasn't able to spend pre-cny baking with my gran, or cny visiting my relatives, being able to bake for people at jia's completely made my week. we didn't really get down to cooking dinner for her guests who came for supper, but i went absolutely crazy in the kitchen. i say, this is what happens to a girl that has been deprived of baking. essays are most definitely not a good substitute. so bake bake bake.

with some research and after ploughing through the multitude of recipes,we decided on some things that we could make for the party! my haul included- butter cookies, banana fritters, egg tarts (we went crazy!) and banana muffins and jia made pop-repeatedly-into-your-mouth springrolls. doesnt it sound good already?

man, do i wish i was back home.

of rome & food

so what do you do when you're in a place with one of the world's best variety of pasta, pizzas, coffee and gelato? you eat, find the best, and continue eating. and so we did- literally eating our way through rome.

being the ever hungry horse- the gelato was the quintessential pick of everyday! ranging from the myraid of gelato shops that dotted the area surrounding the trevi, to any other gelato shop conveniently located near all the places of attraction - gelato selection was amaaaazing!

one of our favourites included this place located on the left of the trevi- huge huge selections of gelato in every flavour imaginable. and of course- san crispino's, the gelatteria with arguably the most unique flavours, imagine: camomile, honey, vanilla bourbon.. need i say more?

our favourite gelato shop near the trevi :)

and of course: the other choice of lunch everyday! pizzas.

i wish i had taken some shots of the trays and trays of pizzas of every imaginable flavour lined up in succession. but i have one shot of lunch in another restaurant near the trevi again. yes, the trevi was most often our choice for chilaxing after a long day of walking.

will include more on our food trail of rome in the next post :) watch this space!

tarte au chocolat et tiramisu

when's a good baking day? sometimes, things you make just come out so amazingly delicious and with looks to boot, but on other days, its just bleah, bad, banishable from the face of the earth.

a good baking day for me, perhaps, is when i havent had the chance to experiment, or fool around in the kitchen and am given the chance to do so after a long while. then of course, i feel the urge to expand my energies in a productive way. and of course, its always a great idea when its your friend's birthday!

so, recipe of the day: tarte au chocolate and tiramisu for the birthday girl :)

with jia's help and kitchen (my kitchen is so pathetic that just moving around will earn you bruises. ok. i exaggerate, but u get the picture)

the chocolate tart was amazing and really simple to make. using a variation of Chef Hermé's recipe of his buttery tart shell and finding a random chocolate tart filling online, voila! jia and i made magic! the chocolate filling was dense but not overwhelmingly cloying, and it wasn't too sweet since we used dark chocolate and double cream (whoops) which balanced out the overall flavour.we did justice to the tart base, whew!

of course, the pie looked great, and tasted scrumptious! so now, people think i can bake! haha, which is really not bad? oui?

and i had no idea tarts could be that fun! living without a hand mixer and my favourite deep bowl has left me searching for other resources (my hands) and tart bases are amazing for that. uncomplicated, fuss free. and fillings are easy: ranging from the chocolat, to apple (we made it yesterday) fresh fruits on custard.. the list goes on. till then, i want to perfect the art of making tart doughs, after all, its best to be really good at one thing before moving on. perhaps, a lemon meringue tart could be next up? hhmmmm.

so here's to more fun at jia's, and more food to share.