my social production
Updated! London Gigs List 2005-2010
-
Viewing all posts tagged "food"
-
Breakfast this morning was simple omelet, toast, coffee and a special fry up of portabello mushrooms, onion and chorizo. Nearly four years in Britiain and this is the closest I can get to cooking an English breakfast? No matter, my texican surprise rocked your hungry face. What did you have for breakfast this morning?
-
When Ming poured these Chinese food items all over my desk, I was surprised at the smell considering each one was inidividually vacuum sealed. Not vacuumed enough, says I. In this shot you can see squid head, squid body, shrimp, duck, scallop, and other oddities. Add this to the durian sweets and processed meat candy and you have one seriously foreign cuisine.
-
Eastern Europe Trip - The Food
The easiest way for me to describe my recent trip to four cities in Eastern European is through a series of thematic posts. This is how I will remember the trip, anyway. And to anyone reading this, it’s probably more interesting than the usual chronological re-telling of events or “activity stream” that attempts — incapably — to have you experience the trip exactly as I did. What a pointless exercise! Instead, I want to describe what I took away from the trip personally and share a few photographs.
The Food
I like food. I like to cook it, I like to eat it. I like to try new things and learn how to make them. For these reasons, Eastern Europe was a major treat! I have never eaten so much meat (82718 pigs worth) in such a short period of time (10 days). Here are some of the dishes I ate and where:
- stewed pork goulash with bacon dumplings (Prague, Czech Republic)
- roast pork with boiled cabbage and bacon dumplings (Prague)
- half a duck, roasted, with stewed cabbage and dumplings (Prague)
- ham cold cuts with cheese on dark rye toast (Prague)
- grilled pork neck with roasted potatoes (Prague)
- ham sandwiches (train to Warsaw, Poland)
- grilled sausages (Warsaw)
- scrambled eggs with tiny chunks of pork in them (Warsaw)
- roast pork fillet stuffed with bacon, mushrooms and cheese, breaded & deepfried, topped w/ melted cheese (Warsaw)
- pierogi dumplings with shredded meat (Krakow)
- ham cold cuts and cheese on toast (Krakow, Poland)
- more scrambled eggs with sausage (Krakow)
- tomato soup with beans and sausage (Krakow)
- roasted chicken breast wrapped in bacon (Krakow)
- more pierogi dumplings (Krakow)
- stewed pork goulash and spicy rice balls (Budapest, Hungary)
Did I mention yet that all of these food was C H E A P as hell? But when it got so frigid in Warsaw that I needed to buy a new hat and gloves at the local H&M, it struck me that the exact same items sold back in London for significantly less.
We found the locally produced fare in Eastern Europe to be very cheap, from food and drink to clothes and toys. On the other hand, imported goods from the USA, UK, and other European countries are way more expensive than the local Eastern Europe equivalents. We found this to be true with most consumables, for example vodka (Wyborowa vs Absolut) and groceries (Albert vs Tesco).
Signing off now so I can go for a bike ride and burn off more meaty calories!
-
My love affair with paprika began with chorizo, continued with goulash, and has developed into something so powerful that I’m not quite sure where it will lead.
My obsession accelerated quickly. In Budapest, over a bowl of brothy, meaty goulash, Jennifer, my wise and trusted guide and advisor of Spanish meat, pointed out something so blindingly obvious to her, yet unnoticed at that point by me.
“You know it’s paprika that gives it that color and taste, right?” she said.
Of course! The same ingredient that makes Spanish chorizo so freakin’ amazing and distinctive was used in this Hungarian goulash.
Since returning from our 10 day tour of Eastern Europe, during which time I ate more pigs worth of pork than I probably had done in the 10 months prior, I have been making soups at a rate of about 3 per week.
…and I keep throwing in paprika! It honestly makes everything better. Chicken and pearl barley? Add paprika! Potato and carrot? Add paprika! It does not stop.
Then I got to thinking about growing up and the amazing soups my mom made. The vegetable soup was especially tasty, but what exactly was it that made it so good? Was it the homemade chicken stock? The oniony base? The surprise chunk of ham every few bites? Probably all of these things… but… I must know.. did it have paprika?
©2010. Tumblr theme by Greg Cooper. Icons by P.J. Onori. With thanks to Jamie Cassidy. Inspired by Panic.
Comments