• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Snapchat
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

MsMarmiteLover

  • Food
    • Recipes
    • Vegetarian
    • Vegan
  • Travel
    • France
    • Italy
    • Spain
    • UK
  • Wine
  • Gardens
  • Supperclubs
  • About
    • Press
    • Books
  • Shop
    • Cart

New York: art, salt, wine and the web, long necked clams, spices and biscuits

January 29, 2011 7 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized

Gillian Carnegie painting of Holly Lodge Estate
 Bike completely covered with snow
 Ice skating at the Rockefeller Center
Buy a plough and attach it to your bumper
This guy is going off to ski in Harlem

I’ve been running around meeting everybody, eating loads, getting wet feet, attempting to spring balletically over the kerb-fulls of slush, navigating the 20 inches of snow that has fallen in the last week. I take it all back: New York does have weather and New Yorkers certainly deal alot better with it than we do. Remember the couple of inches that fell in the UK in December? Over here, entire cars are buried in the streets but New Yorkers just buy a shovel or affix a plough to their bumpers and carry on regardless.

The guesthouse where I am staying, East Village bed and coffee, is populated with artists, writers, music industry people. I’m sharing a floor with Turner prize shortlisted Gillian Carnegie, whose opening I attended last night at the Andrea Rosen gallery, and Brussels based artist Simon Thompson, who coincidentally knows my friend, fellow supper club host, Horton Jupiter. This morning I saw Simon, wearing a coat and no socks, padding around the kitchen, clutching his head from the post-show dinner and drinks. Gillian’s work is low key, solitary, intense, textural and skillful; some of the paintings reflect directly where she lives: the Holly Lodge Estate in Highgate, London; an interesting 19th century housing project set up specifically for women offering “an acceptable way for single women to live near to London on their own.” I particularly loved her painting of a cat on a Victorian staircase; the palette is pure London, cloud, charcoal and soot; you could almost smell the fumes of the floor lino and the gloss painted banister; redolent of rented bedsits; Anita Brookner with a paintbrush. Simon on the other hand is a larger than life loose-limbed carrot-topped wit, with a million sparky ideas shooting all over the place. I commented on the quietness of the opening last night and frankly, the lack of chairs, sorely needed after a day tramping around in snow. “Oh my last opening” he said ” was chaos. Paintings were stolen, things were smashed, books taken, I was in tears”. He was smiling as he relayed all of this. 
So this has been my week…
Monday:

 Beautifully wrapped chocolate from Brooklyn.
 Emu eggs $30 a piece
 Giant Brussel sprouts
 Green chilli sugar, good for exotic fruits I reckon
Freshly ground peanut butter
I visited Wholefoods, I love that shop. It’s a shame it hasn’t really worked in the UK. They put it in the wrong place, Kensington, which isn’t exactly known for food shopping and cooks. I have a vision of supermarkets. They needn’t be dreary souless places populated by low paid, low status workers who know nothing about food. They should be community hubs. The workers should be given tastings of all the latest products so they know what they are talking about. There should be sofas and cooking demonstrations. Employees should wear badges talking about the kind of food they like to cook. Local products would be treasured and encouraged. 

 Mahi Mahi ceviche
 Guacamole with cheese and pomegranate
Tacos with tofu.
In the evening I visited El Mercadito which specialises in tacos, ceviche and guacamole. Lovely food. 
Tuesday:

 The Starlight Room
A forest of wine glasses.
I spent a day at the Waldorf Astoria hotel for the Italian wine week with Serge le Concierge first of all attending a conference entitled ‘Wine and the Web’. For a conference about the internet I found it stunning that it took half an hour to give out the wifi connection and password and another half hour to give out the hashtag for the event. Yes, when you have an event, decide upon a hashtag (# on Twitter) which means that everybody can virtually meet online. (I got the impression that many of the delegates didn’t even know what a hashtag was). The question of the day was: how to encourage wine knowledge, sales, consumption via social networking. The key word, according to the panel of experts, a bunch of young tecchie types, was, and I agree, authenticity. Here are some points made during the conference:
  •  have a natural colloquial conversation, don’t just broadcast or sell over Twitter, talk to people. Never tell people to go online. Just mention that you had a good wine with your dinner last night for instance. Don’t ask for the sale.
  • It’s important to be natural and honest because with social media you can’t present “different bests”. People will catch you out if your public persona isn’t consistent. What you think and what you say must be in harmony.
  • Don’t just talk to people in the same business as you. Make your tweets varied and cultivate people who are geographically local to you.
  • The problem is when your product isn’t very authentic or when the Twitter/facebook/blog isn’t a person but a big company. In this situation, it’s important to employ somebody who is passionate about your product, bring them into the family and name them. People are savvy enough to read between the lines of a commercial campaign.
  • Admit mistakes. 
  • Have patience, it takes time to build your community, your narrative. 
  • The conference said while “baby boomers put wine on the map“, how do we communicate with ‘millenials’, that is the generation born between 1977 and 1990? Some statistics: there are 7 million millenials. One million people are on facebook citing wine as an interest. Over half a million of these are millenials. Millenials tweet or fb on average 200 times a day (yikes). They touch type . Post millenials (my daughter’s age) are using Tumblr which is micro blogging like Twitter but visual and image based.
  • Panel: “Post millenials were born wired. Their diapers had wires.” Audience: “I’m a restaurateur. I need people to visit my bricks and mortar place. How do I get them to spend money?” A good question for in the age of the internet, how do you get these geeks outta their bedroom?
  • Blogging and Facebook allow you to talk more in detail about your product. You can feed that into your micro blogging. One panel member said “I see them all as different parts of the house”. Facebook analytics are valuable. Twitter drives traffic to your blog. The best blog posts are often written at 2 am in your pyjamas. Readers can empathise if you’ve had a bad day. 
  • Other ‘sequential marketing’ tools are video links such as Youtube and 12 secs (which seems to have shut down but maybe they will relaunch?) and geotagging tools such as 4square.
  • One uber geek on the panel (amazed he wasn’t skyping this in) said: “Learn about google analytics, the url tool, tag links, know the source. With Twitter there are countless amounts of Url shortening services: you need one that supports a 301 redirect. This way the visitors count in Google analytics”. 
  • There is alot of fantasy around wine. City dwellers look at wine growers and, like in the movie ‘City Slickers’, think that it looks like an ideal existence. One of the panel says “That’s a social media story! A wine farmer should take a photograph of their hands every day for a year saying ‘Today I’ve been pruning’ or whatever. You don’t even need words.”
I have a bunch of ideas about this myself. The main problem with wine is that it’s boring. Of course it isn’t really boring, everybody likes wine but the people who have the money to buy wine, sell wine, import wine, write and talk about wine…seem… dull, being for the most part, old, rich, white and male. And that’s just from looking around the room. Nothing wrong with all of the former but when it’s exclusively that demographic it ceases to be a sexy topic. Wine ain’t very rock n roll. 
In the evening Serge got us into a dinner in the Waldorf Astoria’s grand Starlight room, famous in the 30s and 40s for it’s retractable roof, host to celebrity studded state dinners. A jazz band played with a Frank Sinatra style singer. Freeze dried Americans were stuffed into their best suits and dresses and foxtrotted around the dance floor. The table was covered with glasses, 8 in front of each place setting. The uniformed and elderly waiters doddered through service, one of them spilling wine on the trouser leg of a wine buyer who complained loudly and repeatedly about the waiter’s incompetence. Eventually I said “he needs the job”. One thing that always shocks me in the States is the age that people work until. In Florida you often get ancient shop assistants, in their 80s, tremblingly taking your money. You feel guilty. In the UK, they would be retired. I guess we are going to see more of this over here, with the retirement age going up.

Mark Bitterman, Salt shop , New York
 Himalayan salt blocks
 Umeboshi salt

Wednesday:
I visited Mark Bitterman of The Meadow Salt shop. I bought 11 kilos of salt; in pink Himalayan brick form and in different varieties: truffle, lemon, pyramid, Icelandic pebble (natural!), Turkish grey, green bamboo, pink umeboshi flavoured, bright orange Hawaian Alaia, chocolate fleur de sel, to add to my collection. Bitterman is GQ handsome and spent years travelling around Europe on a motorcycle “In France I learnt that every single ingredient mattered and that every chef had their own salt”. He reiterated Jeffrey Steingarten’s point that there is no connection between high blood pressure and salt. “I simply don’t know any doctors that say salt is bad for you. If you cut out salt your blood pressure will maybe drop 3 mmHg, which is a tiny amount if you have high blood pressure. Babies eat salt! They have an innate appetite for it” He talked of working with the Japanese Chef Okuda who had such a developed palate for salt he could determine the phase of the moon when it was reaped “this was harvested under a full moon”. You can buy Mark’s book: Salted, a manifesto on the World’s most essential mineral here.
I then went to meet Shuna Lydon (@shunafish) who was my pastry chef for a couple of dinners in 2009. She has a well respected blog and has returned to the states to open up first Ten Downing and now ‘Peels‘ restaurant. Peels has long wooden counters, mirrored overmantles and a classic New York soundtrack; Lou Reed. The menu is decidedly American; collard greens, grits, clam chowder apart  from Shuna’s mince pie which they call ‘winter spice tart’, a title without meat associations, to avoid confusion. 
A New Yorker foodie friend of my father’s, Steve, took me to dinner at the Pearl Oyster Bar in Greenwich village. “You’ve gotta try the steamers” he said “the fried oysters and the lobster roll”.
Fried oysters
Steamers are ‘long necked clams’ presented steamed accompanied by two bowls: one of hot water and herbs, in which you dip them to clean off any sand, and another of hot liquid butter. Steve picked up a large clam, opened it, removed a membrane from the body of the clam, revealed a long black pendulous ‘neck’, and, holding the creature by this tag, dipped it in the two bowls then handed it to me. I managed to politely force down two, biting off the body sack from the penis-like black appendage. Then Steve proudly prepared a big one for me “here you go” he said, handing it over. 
Choking back a gag reflex, I whimpered “Do I have to?” Steve suddenly became conscious that I was perhaps not enjoying this foodie treat quite as much as he intended. “They are sometimes referred to as piss clams” he added helpfully “as that’s how they move in the water, by pissing it out through the tube”. I could barely touch the rest of the meal; the thickly bread fried oysters, the large chunks of lobster covered in mayonnaise, wedged into a hot dog roll. I’m basically a vegetarian who will sometimes eat a little fish. This was protein overload. The fact that this food consisted of  broken up bodies, complete with genitalia, from formerly living creatures was all too damn real and apparent. 
I moved onto meet my former sous chef Angie Ma who now has her own supper club Once upon a table in Hong Kong, who happened to be in New York. She was eating at Sorella, an excellent restaurant owned by two female restaurateurs. I tried the dessert; gelato and fried lemon curd doughnuts. Fantastic! She was with her friend, Chef Elliot, and we gossiped about the food industry. Elliot said that kitchens in the UK and France were far tougher than American ones. He said that staff were leaving Gordon Ramsay’s New York attempt in droves as they weren’t used to be spoken to in the way that the British staff talked to them. ” In America, we have rights” he said. He repeated the famous incident when Tom Aikens branded one of his cooks with a palette knife. After a couple of hours of chatting, we left the building to be faced with a blizzard; 19 inches of snow fell overnight. Fortunately taxis were still working; driving gingerly across the thick snow. 

Me in the snow
In the back seat of New York’s yellow taxis they have a dedicated TV station ‘taxi TV’ with chat show morsels, a real time moving map of where you are and infomercials. One of these commercials, repeated so often during the journey I know it by heart,  told me “Before you leave the cab, abide by the ten lip commandments! Exfoliate, brush, moisturise, shrink cold sores with aspirin, use cinnamon to plump your lips, use eyeshadow as lipstick, use hydro cortisone as a lip moisturiser and dig out your lipsticks from the tubes and store the colours in a pillbox”.
Interior of Caracas Arepas
Arepas
Corn soup
Cheesy things
Thursday:
I met with Jason Anello, animated supper club host and one fraternal half of Brooklyn supper club Forkin’ Tasty. They do cinema nights and with a group of other underground restaurateurs, such as Whisk and Ladle, Studio Feast and A Razor, a Shiny knife hosted a group supper club night for the launch of the Michelin Guide who’d invited star awarded chefs. “Everybody else was doin’ these intricate plates” said Jason in his lively Brooklyn accent ” while I just did a bunch of chicken sandwiches and took ’em round myself on a platter”. I would have loved to have been there! We ate at a Venezuelan restaurant Caracas Arepas, which specialise in arepas, a patty made of cornmeal with different fillings. The entire area has many ‘single item’ restaurants; hot dogs, peanut butter sandwiches, lobster rolls, mac and cheese. We ordered the lunch special, a corn soup, passion fruit juice in Mason jars with handles (I love! I want!), avocado arepas with hot sauce. 
Mike Lee
Think Coffee
Next stop I met Mike Lee of Studio Feast  supper club at Think Coffee, a cool hangout for computer geeks and musicians. The tables were very small, just enough to fit a laptop on, which everybody had. Strangely, no free wifi though. Mike does between 12 and 16 events a year, with 20 to 35 guests, normally at other people’s houses. The dinners are seemingly expensive, $65 to $150 with matched wines, however, as Mike explains they “strive to break even“. He’s not a trained chef but his parents owned a restaurant. He had appeared in the A.M free paper that morning but “I don’t court the press. I can never satiate my mailing list, the demand for places is too strong“. 
Workers at Magnolia bakery
My next stop was Magnolia Bakery, which is famous for cupcakes and Sex in the city. I had a whoopie cookie which was so jaw achingly sweet I could only manage a couple of bites. 
Lior Lev Sercarz
Later that day I went uptown to meet Lior Lev Sercarz, the chef behind La boite à epices. Lior produces ‘biscuits’ and spice blends in a minalistic lab-like art gallery space. “You will know what biscuits are” he said “the Americans don’t”.  Biscuits, for Americans, are similar to scones. A good looking Julian Assange lookylikey, Lior is Israeli, but trained in France under Paul Bocuse and therefore has the hauteur and accent of both countries. Lior explained that he does two collections ‘summer’ and ‘winter’ of biscuits a year, each tin box containing five different sorts which can be eaten with dessert or cheese. Every box has an artist’s engraving on top with a set of small prints and is accompanied by an exhibition at the gallery space/lab. Sercarz takes no commission for sales of art works and for many of the artists, often hailing from South America, it’s an opportunity to get a Manhattan gallery. There is a long tradition of art and biscuit tins; today the art nouveau work of decorative biscuit tins by Privat Livement can still be bought in Belgium.
The tin biscuit box is then encased in a hand built wooden box. It retails at $65. “Quite expensive” I suggest “for a box of biccies” although the tin did look pretty and would make a great gift. He didn’t offer me a taste although I was gagging for a cuppa. I wanted to ask him the ultimate biscuit question “Do you dunk?” but I got the impression he wouldn’t have found that funny.
Sercarz then shows me his spice range of around 40 different blends, often commissioned by chefs to go with certain dishes. He uses exotic ingredients such as orchid roots, sourcing the best of each type of spice from around the world. Prices start at $15 a box. “Can I try some?” I asked. “No.” he said firmly. “They are all sealed.” I must admit, I found this ridiculous. I wanted to buy some  but I would want to taste before I bought. Conversation petered to a halt after that. He’s only been open to the public for three weeks, so maybe he’ll open a few boxes eventually and allow tastings. 
I’ll continue my New York food odyssey in my next post. 
Food Truck

Recent posts

tofu pic: Kerstin rodgers/msmarmitelover.com

Tofu recipes for the unconvinced

January 10, 2021

Food and drink books 2020 pic: Kerstin rodgers/msmarmitelover.com

Pick of the food and garden books 2020

December 6, 2020

A Christmas shopping wish list

November 30, 2020

Previous Post: « New York Supper clubs: Four Course Vegan
Next Post: New York: Brooklyn Edible Social Club »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lynn

    January 30, 2011 at 11:21 am

    What a great adventure. I'm intrigued about the Himalayan salt blocks. Would love to know what use you'll make of them. Shame about the lack of Biscuit tasting. I too like to try before I buy, especially when it comes to different tastes. Great pictures. Looking forward to hearing more.

    Reply
  2. Sally - My Custard Pie

    January 30, 2011 at 3:03 pm

    Thanks for this. I work in wine marketing and this is the most honest piece about social media and wine I have read. Love the idea about the hands – agree that the visual is often more important than the words. Sounds like you are having a wonderful time (expect for the pissin' clams! – not forkin' tasty at all!).

    Reply
  3. Catofstripes

    January 31, 2011 at 8:58 am

    What a fantastic trip. I'm so jealous. Thank you for sharing.

    Reply
  4. TheFastestIndian

    January 31, 2011 at 11:15 am

    My god woman- you managed to fit a lot in! Have to say that those long necked clam things looked a bit ick, but the lobster looked like my kind of sandwich (the kind that comes with chips!).

    Reply
  5. The Curious Cat

    February 2, 2011 at 3:29 pm

    I can't believe how much you have done in NY…incredible and really interesting…xxx

    Reply
  6. Scandilicious

    February 5, 2011 at 3:10 pm

    Only just catching up on your New York trip, sounds brilliant – so much to see, eat, drink and learn. Love the sound of umeboshi salt! I know what you mean about steamers, they're something I grew up with when my family spent summers in New England so they don't make me feel too squeamish but still…pissing clams…oh dear.

    Reply
  7. theundergroundrestaurant

    February 7, 2011 at 6:03 am

    Yes I did so much there I still have several New York posts in the pipeline. I have returned with a boost of energy though!
    Sig, steamers are obviously a delicacy for Americans but for me….I'll stick to short neck clams in future.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

Subscribe to my mailing list

msmarmitelover

Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
On the heath on Sunday. Must. Walk. More. #coronal On the heath on Sunday. Must. Walk. More. #coronaloner
Tonight’s lockdown dinner with my bubble. Proper Tonight’s lockdown dinner with my bubble. Proper pesto alla genovese with trofie, small boiled salad potatoes, steamed green beans (good tip: steam the beans in a colander plopped on top of the potatoes or pasta), good quality pesto sauce ( mine from local microbakery @seansloaf ), good olive oil (@pomoragoodfood), torn fresh basil, a few pine nuts. This turns this student dish into a balanced meal of carbs, veg and a little protein.  It’s cold outside, I’ve lit the fire. Covid rages in Kilburn high road in north west london. The rate is 1 in 30 london wide but I feel it’s higher in this poor inner london area. We have a high BAME population who are particularly vulnerable. It’s a little bit anarchic on my high street: cars perched on kerbs waiting for hijabi women, braving pound shops and Aldi . We are all covered up now. In winter masks keep your face warm, but you have a choice between safety and being able to see. I’ve not managed to prevent the inevitable steaming up of my glasses when wearing a mask. Nothing works.  #january #londonwinter #pestopasta #pestoallagenovese #vegetarian #pasta #trofie #supperclub #covid_19 #lockdownlife #lockdown3 #bubblegang
Galette des Rois, made yesterday in 12th night. Mi Galette des Rois, made yesterday in 12th night. Minus Crown and king as I cannot find either. This one is made with Tonka bean. Plus homemade puff pastry (well worth the effort). According to ike delorenzo at The Atlantic:  The tonka bean, a flat, wrinkled legume from South America with an outsize flavor that the US government has declared illegal. Nonetheless, it proliferates on elite American menus. The tiniest shavings erupt in a Broceliande of transporting, mystical aromas.
The taste of the tonka bean is linked strongly to its scent. "Scents," I should say, as the tonka bean has many at once. I register the aromas of vanilla, cherry, almond, and something spicy—a bit like cinnamon. When served cold—say, in tonka bean ice cream—the taste is like a vanilla caramel with dark honey. When warm, perhaps shaved over scallops, it moves toward spiced vanilla. Additionally, the aroma of the tonka bean shavings (it's almost always shaved) is so affecting that it seems like an actual taste in the way that opium, which has no taste in the traditional sense, "tastes" like its rich, flowery smoke.  Here is the recipe: 

Tonka bean galette des rois

Serves 8
Ingredients
* 140 g caster sugar
* 125 g salted butter, softened
* 100 g ground almonds
* 2 eggs, medium
* 1 tonka bean, grated
* 2 packs ready made butter puff pastry on a roll
* 1 yolk for brushing the pastry
Instructions
* Preheat your oven to 200c.

* Blend the butter with the sugar then add the almonds. Make sure it’s well mixed. Add in the 2 eggs one at a time, then add the tonka bean.

* If using a block: divide the puff pastry into two and roll out to 5mm thick. 
* Make two circles about 15 cm’s each in diameter. Lay one circle on a silicone mat/parchment paper on a baking tray and fill with the almond cream leaving a 3 cm border around the edge. 
* Paint the border with the egg yolk. Then lay the other circle on top, sealing the edges with a fork. 
* You could then carve designs into the top. Make a little slit in the middle to let steam escape then brush the top with the egg yolk
Mapo tofu is probably my favourite Sichuan dish. T Mapo tofu is probably my favourite Sichuan dish. This is a vegan version. ***

Ingredients:
- 400 g box of soft tofu not silken
- 5 soaked dried shiitake mushrooms, diced, keep water
- 1 red bell pepper, finely sliced
- 400 g fresh shiitake mushroom, sliced thinly
- 400 ml vegetable stock
- 1 thumb fresh ginger, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 4 tbsps groundnut or vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp fermented bean paste
- 1 or 2 small red chillies, minced or a spoonful of Chinese chilli paste
- 1 tsp heaped sichuan peppercorns, finely ground
- 2 tbsps soy or tamari sauce
- 2 tbsp cornflour in 3 tbsps water, mixed into a slurry
- 4 spring onions, finely sliced
- large pinch fresh coriander leaves

Prepare the tofu by cutting it into one inch cubes and soaking it in hot but not boiling salted water. Drain after 15 minutes.
Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms, covering them in boiling water. Leave until soft, then dice the mushrooms. Retain the mushroom soaking water and add to the vegetable stock water.
Prepare the other ingredients so they are ready to stir-fry: red bell pepper, fresh mushrooms, ginger, garlic.

Using a wok or deep frying pan, add the oil and heat to frying temperature. Add the bell peppers,fry for a couple of minutes, then add fermented bean paste, chilli paste or chillies, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sichuan pepper.
Add the mushroom/vegetable broth and simmer on high for a couple of minutes.
Carefully add the cubes of tofu, taking care not to break them too much.
Add the cornflour slurry, stirring for a couple of minutes.
Serve with rice or noodles, garnishing with spring onions or chives and or coriander leaves.  #veganuary #mapotofu #sichuanfood #tofu  #shitakemushrooms #supperclub #londonchef #msmarmitelover #ham&highcolumn #eatplants #lockdown3 #selfisolation #coronaloner #cooking #recipe #cookingfromscratch
Macaroni cheese with odds and sods from the Christ Macaroni cheese with odds and sods from the Christmas leftover cheese board. I’ve used @paxtonscheese truffled brillat-savarin and a mystery hard cheese that’s lost its label. Plus cream and topped it with samphire fried in butter. Haven’t bothered with making a roux- this is the lockdown lazy version.  #lockdownlazy #lockdown3 #supperclub #macandcheese #macaronicheese #truffledcheese #leftovers #leftovercheeseboard #londonlockdown #breakfast #coronaloner
Another thing the Japanese are brilliant at is san Another thing the Japanese are brilliant at is sandwiches. They use the softest, whitest, fluffiest bread. Their mayonnaise kewpie is gorgeous I don’t know why. Perhaps someone here can explain? Here I’ve used sourdough as it’s what I have; kosho which is a Yuzu citrus and green chilli condiment and the aforesaid kewpie Mayo to make an egg 🥚 sandwich.  I’m not a big egg fan but I suddenly had the urge. Also I’ve noticed when I eat eggs it satiates my hunger for hours. All that protein.  #sandwich #sandwiches #japanesesandwich #kewpiemayo #kosho #eggsandwich #sourdough #supperclub #cookingforone #solo #londonlife #lockdownlondon #recipe #snack #sundaysnack #sando
Agedashi tofu for New Year’s Day. With a vegan d Agedashi tofu for New Year’s Day. With a vegan dashi stock, it’s perfect for veganuary. How to make dashi: put a piece of kombu seaweed in water. Soak for half an hour then simmer for half an hour (don’t let it boil). Then mix 2 cups of dashi with 2 tbsps of mirin and 2 of soy sauce.  For the tofu: press soft tofu with weights for half an hour, then cut into cubes. Dust all over with cornflour.  Then deep fry the tofu cubes in 180C veg oil until they float. Set aside to drain, then place say 3 cubes in small bowl. Pour the sauce around and top with spring onion and daikon and togarashi 7 spice.  #easypeasyvegan #veganuary #agedashitofu #tofu #japaneseveganrecipe #newyearsday #freshstart #supperclub #londonsupperclub #msmarmitelover #visforvegan #recipe
Writing about tofu which I think has an unfair rep Writing about tofu which I think has an unfair reputation in this country. It’s so flexible and is a brilliant flavour sponge. Here I’m preparing my soft tofu for a Japanese dish: agedashi tofu. I first pressed it in a clean tea towel with a weight on top to firm it up a bit but not too much. Then I dusted it with cornflour and I will deep fry it in oil. Then I will serve it in a broth of dashi/mirin and tamari sauce, sprinkled with finely chopped spring onions and togarashi pepper from Japan. I would usually add some finely mandolined daikon radish but couldn’t find any. It’s a subtle dish of texture: soft yet crispy. After Christmas I’m desperate for light zingy fresh flavoured food. #supperclub #tofu #vegan #vegetarian #agedashitofu #newyearsday #cookingagain #lunch #asian #japanesefood
Happy new year from my bubble to yours! Keep holdi Happy new year from my bubble to yours! Keep holding on...
#happynewyear #happynewyear2021 #supperclub #hootenanny
Some of my Christmas food 🥘 lots of veg includi Some of my Christmas food 🥘 lots of veg including mashed swede with cheese and butter. I put pomegranate seeds with my sprouts, and cooked my carrots in marmalade ( worked v well), the mushroom wreath fell apart as I was transferring it to a tray 😤, roast potatoes and parsnips, then a cheese spread with fruit nuts, quince cheese (homemade), Chocs @lindtuk 😍 @guylian_uk @disaronno_official @baileysofficial @taylorsportwine and Brazil nuts. Plus a pavlova wreath ready to be topped with whipped cream and persimmons. 
#christmasdinner #vegetarianchristmas #vegetarianchristmasdinner #supperclub #londonchristmas #liqueurs #christmasspread #grazing #cheeseboard #port #pavlova
Christmas has started! Home-cured smoked beetroot Christmas has started!  Home-cured smoked beetroot and aquavit salmon with homemade blinis, creme fraiche, dill, Prosecco.  The fire is lit 🔥, the tree is up, 🎄the presents 🎁 are wrapped, we have a #brexit deal- a Christmas miracle. Peace and harmony. #christmas #christmasinengland #homemade #christmaseve #blinis #smokedsalmon #prosecco🍾 #londonchristmas
Done some doorscaping, the latest trend in Christm Done some doorscaping, the latest trend in Christmas decorating. It might also cheer up passersby. #christmas #christmasdecor #doorscaping #doorsofinstagram #londonchristmas #doorwreath #doordecor #doorsoftheworld #doordecoration #exteriors #london #supperclub #covidchristmas
Look at my gorgeous Nordic pine Christmas tree 🎄 from @pinesandneedles with some family ornaments and beautiful foodie ornaments from @gisela_graham  it’s 7 foot high and no drop. My parents brought over the candle lights. I’ve also used paper ornaments (apples and pears cut from maps) from @dionne_leonard which I first commissioned for a supper club.  #christmas #christmastree #christmasdecor #foodiedecorations #glassbaubles #supperclub #christmasinlondon
More #fbmarketplacefinds I find meeting the seller More #fbmarketplacefinds I find meeting the sellers interesting. It’s often about moving on whether through death, a change of circumstances, moving country, loss of a job. Today I visited a gorgeously renovated Edwardian house where the owners, an antique dealer & a master decorator had died with 18 months of each other of cancer.  The sister was there emptying the house, an incredibly painful experience. The husband who died was an expert in putting up lincrusta wallpaper which I’ve pictured here. All that craftsmanship and knowledge lost now.  The piece I got on Sunday, the teal chinoiserie cabinet, was from a Spanish guy returning to Spain. He’d lost his job as a hotel manager, the hotel, a big one, has now closed. The marble coffee table and arepas grill was from a Spanish couple who’d had a restaurant here for 40 years. They are now returning to Spain. Other slides: green Edwardian fireplace tiles, William Morris wallpaper, 2 small scalloped coffee tables, a knife and fork cutlery hook set.  A fireplace for my bedroom if I can find someone to put it in. #lockdownstories #covidstories #movingon #decor #interiors #bargains #secondhandstyle #edwardianstyle #williammorris #tiles #wallpaper #scallopededge #teal #chinoiserie #whitemarble #vintage #kitchenalia #supperclubrefurb #london #lincrustawallpaper
Another #fbmarketplace find £30. I can’t afford Another #fbmarketplace find £30. I can’t afford proper chinoiserie so I make do with fakes. The gradual doing up of my flat proceeds apace. Need to start on main bedroom. Looking for a storage ottoman (velvet?) bench to turn into a horizontal filing cabinet.  Any ideas? Above is a map of london based on the A to Z map which a minicab office was tossing out. Remember when we all carried mini A to Z books in our handbags? Before google maps? #nocrushedvelvet #chinoiserie #supperclubrefurb #londonapartment #londonflat #norfweezy #decor #organising #storage #interiors
My new/old rise and fall light over the dining tab My new/old rise and fall light over the dining table. Found for £50 on #fbmarketplace  but originally from @thefrenchhouse.net_ one of my favourite shops. Every day, a little more progress. #supperclubrefurb #supperclub #londonflat #interiors #lighting #riseandfalllights #lightingisimportant #frenchstyle #vintagestyle #rusticstyle #turquoise #diningtabledecor
Two vegetarian meal kits, laksa and ramen, from @k Two vegetarian meal kits, laksa and ramen, from @kit.eats.uk. Took only a couple of minutes to cook(see stories) and very good. I’m trying a few meal kits of late to see how hospitality has adapted to the great reset. As a cook I’ve always thought why would I need these but now I get it: it’s like going to a restaurant- the pleasure of food prepared by someone else. Getting jolted off of your normal repertoire, so it’s teaching cooking too.  #mealkits #vegetarian #homecooked #hospitality #covid #takeawayfood #foodpackaging #laksa #ramen #supperclubchef
Still working on my glass cupboard. I’ve hung up Still working on my glass cupboard. I’ve hung up all my wine bottle openers and cork screws. My favourite is the zigzag bottom left. If you find them at a flea market in France, if you are lucky you may get it for around 35 euros.  #supperclub #londonflat #londoninteriors #corkscrews #frenchkitchenalia #zigzag #tirebouchon #oakcupboard #diy #diyprojects
My best food, drink and cook books 2020. Winter Wa My best food, drink and cook books 2020. Winter Warmers by @ginandcrumpets; Cook, eat, repeat by @nigellalawson; Red Sands by @edentravels; Scoff by @penvogler; Sunmer Kitchens by @oliahercules; Oats in the North, Wheat in the South and The Downton Abbey Christmas Cookbook by @missfoodwise; Carpathia by @irina.r.georgescu; Jikoni by @cookinboots; Home Cookery Year by @5oclockapron; A Foodie Afloat by @dimurrell. All incredibly talented women, chefs, cooks, travellers, writers. Some are also artists and photographers and boozers. We have so much to be proud of in the UK food and drink scene. #womenwriters #cookbooks #foodbooks #lockdownwriters #puretalent #christmasbooks #christmasgifts #bookreviews #hamandhigh #msmarmiteloverblog #writing #cooking #travelling
Supper on Saturday night with my bubble. A b’sti Supper on Saturday night with my bubble. A b’stilla pie of potato, feta, pine nuts, sultanas soaked in sherry and ras el hanout. Butter or oil the dish, add 3 leaves of filo or brik, buttered in between. Tip in your filling. Fold up the sides. Brush on melted butter. Sprinkle poppy seeds. Cover with foil. Bake at 180c for half an hour, removing the foil for the last 10 minutes. Siege over some icing sugar with a tea strainer. Done and dusted(literally). #weekendsupper #b’stilla #bastilla  #pie #middleeasternfood #vegetarian #ovenready🔥 #supperclubchef #Novemberfood #lockdown2 #bubbledinner
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Archives

Copyright © 2021 msmarmitelover