#2

Telling ya, it’s these pyjamas. Or maybe it’s the fact that I watched Stardust before going to bed and then read Game of Thrones before falling asleep while thinking about my trip to Barcelona in a week. But I’m going to go with the pyjama theory.

Now to fully appreciate my dream, here’s a little back story:

In the north of Spain there are large amounts of mountains and valleys and when I was younger, the roads were not as great as they are now – they were old roads winding around these said mountains, twists and turns and the constant fear of falling off the side of the mountain. I don’t get motion sickness but on these roads, even I couldn’t help but get a little queasy.

So, last night I dreamt of these hills. I was in a car with my padre and madre and my dad was driving. We started out in Madrid and it was super hot and there was just dust and desert-y and then everything was futuristic – straight outta that Kylie Minogue video from 2001, can’t remember the song – and suddenly we were on these super crazy windy roads, just like the ones in those mountains in Northern Spain, but they were on stilts and my dad was going super fast in this (really awesome) Mini Cooper and then all of a sudden I open the door to vomit because the turns are making my stomach just really unhappy and just tumble out and roll and roll (very much like in that one scene in The Princess Bride) and then I’m in these valley villages that look like super quirky lovely little villages that you seen in old films about Greece or Italy. And all of a sudden I’m in totally different clothes straight out of the Ren Fair (obviously, it makes perfect sense to dream Ruth) and I’m walking around this village and decide to head into the tea shop when I walk through a door into a palace and there’s a beautiful masked ball where I’m provided with a mask and start dancing and then I’m taken away and on this council and then I woke up.

What could this mean universe? That I’m on a whirlwind ride through life and destined for greatness?

Yeah, I think so too.

#1

Right, so.

I’ve always been prone to some freaky ass dreams.

Some great, wonderful ones where the boys of Mumford and Sons live next door and we hang out on the roofs to our apartment thats actually a giant overgrown wonderful garden and they have a cat that needs catsitting from yours truly. Some great, scary ass ones where I’m in some sort of mystical land where it’s perpetually twilight and I’m preggo on some sort of stone bed thing with glowing alien people attending to me in a circle in the middle of some forest with twinkling lights in the trees. Some exciting but also awful ones where I’m a spy but then I watch my enemies kill someone I love and then I get shot but not before some excellent running through the city.

I’ve always been quite good at remembering the dreams and really should write them down so here they shall live. DAILY. See, a way to write daily AND remember my crazy ass dreams. Unless of course I haven’t dreamed that night, which would be strange and usually means I’m ill.

Also, I’ve got these new pyjamas and I swear down, they are giving me some of the strangest dreams EVER. Seriously, I’m convinced it’s the pyjamas. Nothing to do with my mental health. PROMISE.

Sneak peek: Barcelona

I’m a regular visitor to Barcelona as it’s pretty cheap/quick to get there from London AND I’ve got friends to visit there, which is as perfect an excuse to go again and again if there ever was one. Even though there are a great deal of other places to visit and people to see, Barca always feels fresh and new to me so never truly feel guilty for going there over anywhere else. It’s a brilliant city break with the ocean – I mean really, can it get more perfect? Food, ocean, city life. Trifecta of AWESOME.

I’m headed back in a few weeks time and will report back with a definitive guide of where to go and what to eat (the more I go, the more I learn, you see?) because this time I actually have the monies to eat out and have more time than usual. Here’s a sneaky peek with my ultimate Barcelona recommendation (seriously, if anyone mentions they are going, I immediately mention this little slice of heaven…sometimes I just mention it, just because).

The Xampaneria

This gem of a place was discovered on my first visit to Barcelona – the cava is cheap AND lovely. That little glass really gives potency to the phrase “small and mighty” because I have never not stumbled out of that place and that’s only after one or two, let alone half a bottle if you stay in there long enough. You can even buy by the bottle in the bar itself during the day time to drink it there or take it home!

You have two options, rosat or normal – the rosat is sweeter and lighter than the normal cava which is drier and tastes more of the grapes. We always get the rosat, but thats mainly because my friends have massive sweet tooths. The best part is that you have to order a tapa or a sandwich, so no eating on an empty stomach (wise) and it’s also delicious. There’s chorizo, cheese, croquettas (and we all know about my deep obsession with croquettas/croquettes), sandwiches with chorizo, morcilla and all sorts of other delicious meats. It’s a minuscule place, so get there early before you have to squeeze through crowds of people and elbow your way to the bar.

Back to buisness

Oh hi, my name is Ruth and I’m a neglectful blogger. But it’s a new year, and you know what? I WILL STOP THIS NEGLECTFUL NONSENSE.

To be perfectly fair, this has been mostly due to being rather busy/not travelling somewhere entirely new/laziness/not really cooking so much in the last couple of months. And if you pay attention, this is a food/travel blog and without the cooking, the eating and the traveling, then there’s not so much to write about then is there?

Except there is… I do eat out lot and I HAVE been to some places, just none of them new to me (but new to YOU, dear readers,  because I realise I actually have yet to write about some of my dear old haunts)

Anyways – this is just a quick hello to re-introduce myself back into the blogosphere and to give a little taster of what’s to come with a mini photo diary of the past 9 odd months or so (except if you follow me on Twitter, in which case you’ve already seen half of these…if not all)

Pictures are mine, all mine so don’t use without permission/accreditation por favor. 

Lemon Coconut Cake

I really should have finished my application for the Great British Bake Off 2013, I’ve really outdone myself with this cake, as has Waitrose with its recipe skills – sadly, I have a hard time not being too lazy to fill out applications. Born out of boredom, a need for a cake for a little get together with some family friends and what seems like an inherited sense of laziness (mi madre didn’t want to go and buy a cake) we thought we would make this little beauty.

And frankly I am so glad we did. It was spongy, it was coconutty and lemony, it was creamy, it was simple and it was just pretty beautiful. I keep saying to people I don’t normally like cakes and while I think at one point in my life this was really true, I think the tides have turned. However, the surprise I get every time I do like a cake, I think will never wane. Maybe it was years of bad store bought cakes in school and friends birthdays that made me think I didn’t like cake? WHO KNOWS. This cake, whether I actually like cake or not, is a damn winner anyways. Unless you dislike coconut and lemon…in which case, this is quite obviously not the cake for you. Or is it?! When it was mentioned that it was a coconut cake, one of the ladies made a face like she was sucking on a lemon and said “coconut wasn’t her favourite” (the face really said, giiiirl I hate coconut) and she ate a big slice and then had seconds. So maybe try it? It was good.

Anyways, recipe! HERE. NOW! YAY!

This takes about 50-55 minutes

YOU WILL NEED: 

125g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon (be careful to not get any of the pith in there!)
100ml coconut cream
4 medium eggs
225g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
75g desiccated coconut (I took some coconut liberties and added a wee bit more – probably around 80g)

For le filling:

170ml double cream
60ml coconut cream
2 tbsp lemon curd

WHAT TO DO:

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C, gas mark 4. Grease and line the base of two 18cm round sandwich cake tins with baking parchment paper.

2. Rub in the lemon zest with the sugar with your fingers until pretty much incorporated and super fragrant. Place the butter in a large bowl and using an electric whisk, beat together with the sugar and lemon zest until light and pale. Gradually whisk in the coconut cream and eggs adding a little flour to prevent it curdling. Sift in the remaining flour, baking powder and the desiccated coconut and fold until well combined. Divide the mixture equally between the tins, levelling the surfaces. Bake for 25–30 minutes until golden. Cool in the tins for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

3. For the filling, whip the cream to soft peaks with the coconut cream and then swirl through the lemon curd. Sandwich between the cakes (I added a thin layer of lemon curd as well, but I really like lemon) and then sift some icing sugar on top, about a tsp or 3 if you’re like myself. A lovely idea we had was to put a piece of lace on top and THEN sift that icing sugar on, but we did not find any lace. Still though, a nice idea for someone else.

Bangin.

Wham, bam, thank you ‘Dam!

AMSTERDAM I LOVE YOU.

Not for the prossies, not for the hash, not for the other things everyone else seems to love you for.

I love you because you’re beautiful, because of krokets and bitterballen, because of all cats, because of the excellent apple tart, because you can WALK EVERYWHERE, because of the canals, and the fact that people just leave bikes everywhere and the trees and the brown cafes and ghluwien and the amazing bars and the cats in all of these places and the bikes and did I mention the krokets? Did I mention that the McDonalds had a MCKROKET?! (Why was I in McDonalds do you ask? Well too bad, I won’t tell. What is important is the MCKROKET AND IT WAS DELICIOUS AND I WISH THEY HAD THEM HERE)

As per usual, it snowed – I was lovely and expected and made everything even more beautiful (unless of course you speak to me now about snow, in which case my stance has changed to GO AWAY SNOW NO BODY WANTS YOU ANYMORE.)

KROKETS. My newest obsession. Very similar to the Spanish version of croquettas – a similar crunchy coating, and a lovely melty creamy inside – but with meats and a different flavour bechamel and a different type of crunch and with some chips and mustard and YUM. Go there, eat them! Bitterballen are the same delicious concept but tiny (like yours truly) and wonderful still. Go there, eat them too!

There is something about the canals that that make the city infinitely more peaceful than if it was just a city I think – all of the lights, their reflections glittering along the water, the ripples from the boats, their endless bridges and paths, it really is truly beautiful. Not to mention the houses, THEY ARE WONDERFUL AND CROOKED AND BEAUTIFUL.

It took all of 5 minutes to fall in love with Amsterdam, admittedly I was a little bit skeptical as we walked from the train station to the hostel – the center of Amsterdam and its well known red lights and interesting shops with their interesting goods was not the best of impressions, but the cobbled streets, the beautiful buildings and five minutes to reach a new road and the city is transformed again to something infinitely classier, its SO GOOD. I love how easy it is to just walk around to other parts of the city with its crazy wonderful joys including but not limited to the strange church in the middle of the redlight district housing a contemporary art exhibition. Can you tell I’m a little bit infatuated? No, well then let me go on. Call this my coffee cart moment (one hundred points to those who got the reference!)

I would describe Amsterdam to have the best of London and more – everything that I like in London, the cute vintage boutiques, the cafe’s-come shops-come late night drinking establishments (yes DrinkShopDo, I’m looking at you, and I’ve found your superior cousin baby but I still love you forever) which are also known as “brown cafes”, all of the great and wonderful museums (I’m looking at you Amsterdam Museum, YOU WERE AWESOME. all you others, I couldn’t afford you/you were closed/half closed – yeah rijksmuseum – so can’t judge you, but if the other museum is a reflection on all of you, then I’m sure you are also great! one problem, NOT FREE but worth every penny at the Amsterdam museum FOR SURE) the history, cobbled streets, excellent eating and drinking establishments, REALLY good coffee and very good quiche. Also, Krokets. I’m a girl obessed. Also, the Anne Frank Museum, which at its most touching, is actually at night when it is illuminated and you think about how it must have been inside and after having seen it, read it and walked through it, it is the part that really had an effect.

Lets retrace back to the Brown Cafes – I loved them, cosy and nice with the option to drink coffee or beer or gluhwine or all three with a piece of cake was  my favourite thing to do – I could live in one, best thing about them? THERE WAS ALWAYS A CAT RESIDENT.How good is that? CATS IN THE CAFÉ. Loved it. Cats seemed to be a thing, which is pretty awesome. I love cats, they love cats, we’re match made in heaven. Also, fresh mint tea. Perfect.

Would I go again? What do you think? The answer is OBVIOUSLY. I wish I lived there – anyone in publishing/magazines in Amsterdam want to hire me? I will work for korkets and drinks (and a bed)

RUTH’S AMSTERDAM TOP 7:

(disclaimer: I am by no means an expert on Amsterdam life, these are my own opinions from the one trip I took there – when I revisit, because I WILL revisit, I will see more and probably have to make a top one million by that point because I LOVE AMSTERDAM its my Barcelona to my Vicky Christina.)

Café Langeries: AH CUTE. Another café with a resident cat. One of those famous ‘brown cafes” come nice bar with couches and nice tables and books and board games and most importantly a cute cat and ghluwine AND delicious hot chocolate AND amazing chocolate cake. It was heaving by the time we left. And there was a cat if I didn’t mention that before.

http://cafelangereis.com/

Het Café Paleis: The Guardian recommended this if I ever had doubts of the their recommendations they are now considered void (although in fairness I think I always had faith in their taste).  This was a brilliant little place in one of my favourite corners of Amsterdam – very near the Anne Frank house and generally just a nice area with some brilliant apple tart and some delicious coffee.

De Taarte van m’n Tante: kitchest place I have ever seen in my life. Everything is pink and weird and fun and wonderful and the cake (or apple tart as we sampled) was top notch, and if I were to live there one day I would want one of these cakes for my birthday, the tea was pretty nice too! They also have a  bed and breakfast which is sweet (geddit?! SWEET? CAKE?!)

http://www.detaart.com/

Café Latei: CUTE. And with a resident black cat. This is the DrinkShopDo superior that I mentioned earlier, a cat, interesting wares that were actually of a decent price that didn’t make me want to upchuck, also it was just the little bit quirkier, but maybe it was the cat that I liked most? Also, they had my favourite (seemingly very popular Amsterdam treat) fresh mint tea which is literally a bunch of mint and hot water – you can find a lesser version in Leon in the form of a mint steeper – but I don’t know if it’s the mint quality or the water but its just not as good also much more expensive)

http://www.latei.net/

Golden Dragon:  Yes, a Chinese food establishment on the street where there are about six million Argentinian beef establishments and a few more Chinese ones (one Argentinian beef places being the original CAU, which opened recently in ol’ Cambridge) This is on my list because it was great – the best effing spring rolls if ever eaten in my life and I have eaten A LOT of delicious spring rolls and food including the world famous Nan King in San Francisco, California (which, by the way, is AMAZE, go there and eat as well. The calamari are God’s gift to us and we must indulge) but yes, I digress – its great Chinese and some Indonesian but definitely get those spring rolls and wonton soup, you wont regret it, it was genuinely beautiful.

Café Brecht : cosy, crowded haphazard and glorious, this little bit of Germany in Amsterdam really had a wonderful atmosphere from the people behind the bar with genuine smiles and singing along to the songs playing to the chitter chatter of the people drinking their beer and gluhwine and lovely cocktails (myself and my friend drank some lovely as ghluwine and an Aperol Spritz, which felt really appropriate for the bar). They also had pretzels. I love pretzels (see the post below about Munich if you don’t know)

http://www.cafebrecht.nl/

De Bakkerswinkel: Best coffee in Amsterdam for SURE best coffee I’ve had in a while as well, beautiful lattes to trump all the lattes I have had in my short life and even more beautiful (can you believe it?!) quiche with some delicious roasted root veggies) Also very friendly and I am willing to bet that everything else they had on offer had equal deliciousness.

http://www.debakkerswinkel.com/

So there you are, my love letter to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam, I love you.

Typich München

München, ist so cray! (there was a bus tour we went on, and honestly there was a song at the end and I am genuinely CONVINCED this is what it said – and it would be completely correct, München IS cray)

End of October (sadly, we missed Oktoberfest – but no matter, we had out own Oktoberfest, and for sure I will make it a point to come back!) and when we landed it was a beautiful sunny autumn day, quite nippy but nothing too serious, but by day two we were met by heavy, heavy snow and let me tell you, there is little in the world more beautiful than autumn leaves in all their colourful glory, blanketed in white.

So, if traveling to Germany late October, I would certainly suggest to first of all, be prepared weather wise (we got there and it was 14 degrees celsius and by day two it was snowing and -1) and also maybe going on a mini diet before hand. I never appreciated salad so much until three days in cream drenched, beer heavy, pretzel loving Munich, salad and sparkling water ( a hangover godsend) and maybe be prepared to look for places with vegetarian options well before hand. There was a veggie in our little party and he had a hard time getting food and ended up eating a lot of pretzels (which would be fine, because the pretzels are AMAZING, but for five days straight? Maybe not quite that amazing.)

I mean look at that plate. LOOK AT IT.

THERE IS SO MUCH CREAM…and it is a breaded veal meatball (or rather, breaded veal burger as it is not a ball at all) with tiny spätzle (tiny dumpling noodle things) delicious, but frankly between the cream and the beer, woah. Even I couldn’t eat it all.

Yes, the above is a GIANT POTATO DUMPLING AND IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. The sauce you ask? That there my lovlies is DARK ALE GRAVY with some pork belly and crispy bits of crackling. Hands down the very best meal I had while I was there, followed closely by a luscious chicken Ceasar salad, however that salad may have been elevated to new heights because of three full days of beer, pretzels and cream…

A definite highlight would be the Stadtmuseum which is filled with hours of fun, history and really creepy (and some wonderful) puppets. In hindsight, we probably shouldn’t have gone to the museum on the one day it was NOT snowing and below zero degrees, but it was raining.

Munich was brilliant, I had a wonderful couple of days and while mildly dehydrated due to gallons of beer (the only good reason to be mildly dehydrated) it was so wonderful. To actually go on a bus tour and see things we wouldn’t have seen from just walking was brilliant. Walking around half aimlessly is I usually see cities and feel apart of it, which of course we did, so much walking and I really feel as if Munich was home for a few days. So much in fact that I genuinely miss it and will certainly be back to explore some more. Maybe during the Christmas market time, or in the summer because frankly everywhere is wonderful in the summer. Just imagine, cold cold steins of beer, walking around with ice cream, going the the giant park we didn’t get to see and lots of that caesar salad I mentioned earlier. With more beer and ice cream, naturally. *(I’m lusting for summer in the midst of early winter and the first snow storm of 2013 here in the UK, as one does)

Beer, empty pretzel baskets, bicycles, pool, a lovely group of people and old stuff. Wonderful!

Typich München baby!

my favourite brownies

BROWNIES.

Once upon a time, in a kitchen far, far away I thought I couldn’t bake (an incident with some banana bread muffins gone terribly awry:  plastic-y on the outside and completely liquid on the inside, how this happened is beyond me). Nowadays, making these bad boys has become a deliciously bad habit. I’ve found that the best way is certainly to use melted chocolate rather than powdered cocoa. It also looks infinitely cooler in pictures.

Recipe courtesy one of my favourite food blogs, the wonderful Smitten Kitchen!(http://smittenkitchen.com/)

*mildly adapted to suit my need for dark chocolate and London location*

3 ounces (85 grams) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 stick (4 ounces or 113 grams) unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing pan
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (6 1/8 ounces or 175 grams) sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla (sometimes I use one vanilla pod if I’m feeling fancy!)
1/4 teaspoon table salt or 1/2 teaspoon flaky salt (about 2 grams)
2/3 cup (83 grams) all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 176°C. Line an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, with the ends extending over opposite sides of pan. Repeat with second piece of parchment paper in opposite direction. Butter the parchment paper.

Melt the dark chocolate and butter together in a large bowl over a simmering pot of water until it is 90% melted; remove from heat and stir the mixture until it is smooth. Whisk in the sugar, then the eggs (one at a time) then vanilla. Add flour and salt together, stirring until just combined. Spread into prepared pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

photo cred: Ciara Quilty-Harper (flatmates are excellent)

Lisboa

LISBON (by myself … !!) for the amazing three day extravaganza known as Optimus Alive.

Not gonna lie, I’m totally sold on traveling solo. Its great, self assuring and you make A TON of friends. Only problem is all the great memories I have like eating spicy snails (um, DELICIOUS.) and a certain dance circle with some crazed Australian and Kiwi folk in the middle of The Cure’s epic three hour set are things that only I have now (and of course those involved in the dance circle…) Not to mention being stuck on a hot, hot train for an hour leaving you jumping the barriers at the metro station and racing some dudes to the gate,only to meet a 20minute delay and THEN met with the sad reality that your (fucking delicious) Portuguese custard pasties do NOT fit into your tiny bag and the mean Ryan Air dude doesn’t buy that they’re from duty free (because lets be real, Duty Free ain’t a super awesome bakery down some cobbled alleyway next to your hostel with the nicest old lady EVER) which means you HAVE to eat them all and share them with

the dudes you raced because they’re really kinda cute.

See, I experienced all these things all by myself (insert violin solo here) and it would have been great to share with someone, because inside jokes are no good when they are with yourself. Still, there is nothing like waking up in the morning and just going with the flow, getting lost is not a big deal, but a great adventure, no one says anything when you decide to have ice cream and ice cream alone for lunch and if you happen to know a couple of people in Portugal, you can meet them and not feel awkward when your fellow travel friends sit sadly and silently while you chat away ( a problem often found when many of your friends are scattered amongst the universe) – these are just a few of the things that I loved about traveling alone.

Sadly, Lisbon was not a culinary expedition for me as it was really for the festival where the fine dining was mostly hot dogs, pulled pork sandwiches, some very strange wrap with chicken nuggets and pequillo peppers, and beer. A fuck load of beer (another advantage to being alone, new friends you make all want to buy you beer, and pick you up ALL THE TIME)

But I did drink some local brew, ate some local snails (in a delicious spicy sauce) and some amazing (possibly local)garlic tomato prawns with chips to dunk into that amazing sauce.

I also had an abundance of ice cream.