A Chinatown Delight

New York, I could write a book on my love for this city.  I have just returned from my I think 6^th trip to this magical place, or as I call it my spiritual home!  Even though I’m a country girl something in me is just drawn to the big city.  My first experience in New York was when I came over on my own for a summer during college; I worked in a ridiculous Martian-themed restaurant and spent my spare time exploring the city and being delighted with myself.  Even the smallest thing like navigating the subway or grabbing a hotdog from a street cart ignited pure joy to my core.  Being back this time was no different.  Anyone who has been to New York can testament to the diversity and sheer amount of food on offer.  I am not joking when I say that almost every second premises on most streets are food places.  There is such a variety and for the most part it is inexpensive, pizza slices, dumpling houses and that not to mention the glorious street food!  We knew from the beginning it was going to be an eating and drinking tour of the city, partly because I has an obsessively researched 2 page ‘document’ with me at all time of the places I needed to eat at and partly becase the four of us are ever hungry foodies!

I’m not going to bore you with every meal we had in NY because lets face it we would be here for a while, there was so much I had on my ‘document’ that we ended up inventing meal times. So we already know brunch, but about about linner? That long time between lunch and dinner when a little ‘snack’ could go down a treat, it was pure gluttony but it was only for a week and I’m back on the wagon now!  Funny thing is most New Yorkers are skinner than their American counterparts from other states, its all vegan food, gluten free and cycling, well at least that was the case in the neighbourhood we were staying in in Williamsburg, its an enigma!

Chinatown

So anyway what I want to write bout is this one little gem we found on our second last day.  Orla my friend has been talking about Chinatown and her ‘super Chanel’ since time began or at least since the last time we were there and she procured an amazing Chanel bag in Chinatown which she lost.  Needleless to say she was keen to replace it and we hit Chinatown with gusto early on Thursday morning.  Early enough that by 11.30 we were drained and weary and needing sustenance, we also hadn’t had breakfast (shock horror!) so it was wholly justified.  We decided to walk deeper in Chinatown and stumbled upon this place call Motzar Kitchen.  It was still empty as it was only 11.30 am but we already knew we were staying, it was friendly, welcoming and you could see the chefs working as you pass through the corridor into the dining room.  The first thing I noticed when I opened the menu was dim sum and Peking duck; I love both and decided immediately, I just needed to get someone to share the duck with me, luckily Ken was a willing cohort so we decided to order the whole Peking duck to share. 

Shrimp Dumplings

Crab Wonton Soup

Then the magic began to happen, one by one our dishes started arriving at the table and we started to realise that we had made something of a mistake; every dish was brought out individually and looked like it was for sharing.  We started with delicious steamed prawn dumplings, followed by crab won ton soup which I had ordered.  When it came out as a regular wonton I was confused and the waiter explained to me that the soup was in the wonton – talk about the excitement of a child putting it into a bowl, piercing it with my chop stick and seeing the golden liquid flow out, it was rich with crab and very tasty.  At this stage we had another revelation; perhaps,  just possibly we had ordered too much… As spring rolls, hot and sour soup and cuttlefish with cashew nuts came one by one.  The cuttlefish was a joy, lightly wrapped in a crispy tempura batter, the cashew nuts were hot and toasted and the portion was huge!

Cuttlefish and Cashew Nuts

Finally the duck came out, our waiter brought it to another table with a giant cleaver and took off the meat and put it in these steamed buns, they were not the thin pancakes that we would be used to, rather a doughy moist bun.  Garnished with strips of scallion and hoi sin sauce they were indulgent mouthfuls of pleasure.  Then the waiter  brought the carcass away and just as Orla was commenting “actually you don’t get that much on them..” out he brought a plate piled high with the WHOLE duck, cut into portions, ribs, neck, spine, the lot! Ken was in heaven but I had quite enough by this stage.  THEN the other guy’s mains came out, sweet and sour chicken and general Tsao’s chicken, both wonderful but by then we were fit to roll out of the place.  I would highly recommend this place if you are in Chinatown, it is authentic; by the time we were leaving the place was packed with Chinese people having lunch and we realised it was 1.30…we had been there eating for literally 2 hours.  A word of warning, don’t order like its your normal Saturday night Chinese, everything is made for sharing and you will have more than enough!  Even when we tried to go to dinner that night at 9 we couldn’t do The Meatball Shop in Bedford justice, we were still epically full from our Chinese brunch.

Peking Duck

General Tsao's Chicken

Name and Address if anyone fancies a visit

Chocolate Cake with Strawberries and Cream

Recently I was, how shall I put it..tricked into making a chocolate cake for my friend’s 6 year old son.  I say tricked because I don’t know how he actually did it but as the conversation was over it was clear that I was making him a cake.  I think he did the aul reverse phycology trick ‘I like some of your food Emma but not all of it’, ‘I’ve never had a cake you made me’, clever chap it worked a charm.  I took the challenge(bait) if not to prove to him that I could! He was very specific in the cake he wanted; chocolate sponge with cream and strawberries – he is a man of discerning taste.  Now I in no way claim to be an expert cake maker like say my brother’s girlfriend Mary.  My cakes are simple to say the least and amateur in the decoration.

 The last cake I made was a birthday cake for the boyfriend; while it was cooling I walked into the kitchen only to find our bold Weimararner Goose tucking into it!  I screamed, he recoiled and I surveyed the damage.  Now when I tell you the next part of the story, try not to judge, I have told some friends and they reacted with disgust!  But I knew the boyfriend would’nt care and I wasn’t wasting the cake.  I simply cut off the bit Goose had enjoyed, remodelled it and frosted it, I presented it to the boyfriend and he went ‘Awh lovely a half moon and stars!  I had to confess but he found it hysterical and devoured the cake.

'Moon' Cake

 Thankfully I didn’t have that problem with the chocolate and strawberry, it turned out very well, moist and light I didn’t want to use a recipe that was too heavy so I went for a recipe found in one of my mother’s cookbooks, it’s so old it doesn’t have a cover on it but from the back page I have deduced that it is a ‘Be-Ro’ cookbook.  I’m presuming Be-Ro supplies baking products but it’s not available anymore.  A line from the first page, “For many years, housewives have relied on Be-Ro flour to give them consistently good baking results” AHEM!! Obviously that was from back in the good old days of the patriarchy telling us that only housewives bake – God I could write a whole other blog post… but I won’t.

Front of book

So the recipe, yes I tweaked it here and there, added some grated dark chocolate and the filling.  For the strawberries I sprinkled them with caster sugar and let them sit for a while to bring out the sweetness.  We sat down to the cake after a day in the garden planting potatoes and it was unanimously agreed that the cake was yummy, hurrah my reputation has been restored with my harshest critic!

Chocolate Cake with Strawberries and Cream

175 g self-raising flour

175g caster sugar

50g cocoa

100g margarine (at room temperature)

½ tsp. salt

1tsp baking powder

2 eggs

50g dark chocolate, grated

Punnet strawberries, sliced

150ml cream, whipped

Sieve flour, sugar sat and cocoa

Add margarine, eggs and grated chocolate and mix with an electric mixer

Grease and flour 2 cake tins and divide mixture between them

Bake at 180 degrees for 30-35 mins

Allow to cool, place a layer of strawberries on one of the cakes, add the whipped cream then top with strawberries and add the top of the cake. Sprinkle with icing sugar if you want.

My Garden

I haven’t blogged in a while, I’m not going to come up with excuses I’m simply going to say that the last three weeks I have been lacking inspiration for this blog.  Don’t get me wrong I have had many wonderful meals, God forbid I actually deprive myself and have cooked a number of taste explosions just none of them excited me enough to blog about.  Any other food bloggers read this? Do you get the same thing? Now every meal you have/dish you make people ask you “are you gonna blog about this?” Then you feel pressure to take pictures of every meal in CASE you blog about it and then your phone’s memory is full with said pictures but you’re afraid to delete them IN CASE you blog about them!, Oh the anxiety!!

Spinach

 So I’m just going to talk about my garden; I have recently become the proud owner of 4 and a half raised beds, a fence and a gate, I love it.  I have been talking about this for ages and wanted to do it and it has finally happened.  It started slowly with pots of herbs last year, then I got a mushroom growing kit for my birthday (They have just sprouted – the excitement!), then it was garlic bulbs in pots and now it has manifested into a full blown vegetable garden.  I am a little worried that I am already a garden snob – as I don’t simply want to grow root or ‘boring’ vegetables like carrots, parsnips and spuds, oh no I want the exotic pak choi for my stir fries, I want rocket and radish and fennel and Chinese cabbage, am I being too ambitious? Am I a garden elitist? For the record, nothing has actually sprouted in the beds yet; despite the fact that I got the very best food-waste compost from a farmer friend but I am assured that I takes more than 2 weeks to see life, not only am I an elitist garden I am also an impatient one!

But its that little thing isn’t it? Life.  My garlic was first to sprout and the thrill I got from watching something that I had planted begin to bloom was profound.  I think its because its Spring too but I am finding pleasure in the small things and trying not to stress the big ones; the budding cherry blossom, a random chicken walking across the yard, life’s little simplicities.  Because, that’s what its all about isn’t it? Life and regeneration. We get caught up with the stresses of life but if you take a step back and just be present with nature all that silly stuff seems to slide away.  Ok enough with the philosophy suffice to say I just love my garden!

 But also one last word about gardening; I think I had a romantic notion of a bit of pruning and clipping and I would have a beautiful, bountiful garden.  Not the case.  It is hard work, hard physical work first off having to manually shovel the top soil and compost into the beds, then trying to work out depths and measurements’ and the correct times for planting. No I have realised with a shock that it is tough work, tough but rewarding, a labour of love- that little sprouting bud makes it all worth it… now as its the season, go forth and garden!

Sprouting Garlic

Mushroom Kit

My Gate

Scrambled eggs with TRITzo

After a very stressful morning which I won’t get into…. Ok then you’ve persuaded me; my car (new car by the way, well not new but new to me, 02) wouldn’t start; we jumped it, that lasted for a few miles then it just died.  An amateur diagnosis was given; the alternator was broken, it was not going anywhere and would have to be towed home.  I don’t know if any of you have ever been towed before, I hadn’t and quite frankly it’s a bit terrifying!  You’ve being pulled by a vehicle in front, you have to steer the car like you are driving but your brakes seize and you’ve no control of the accelerator!  It’s like using cruise control but you have no way of taking it off.  The journey back home was a stress inducing nightmare and I’m NOT being dramatic!!  The tow rope broke no less than 5 times! Every time it snapped the whole experience became more traumatic, and the hazard lights wouldn’t even work on my car so we had to hang a high-viz vest out the back of the car, nice! When we finally got to my town I dipped down in my seat slightly ashamed.

When we finally got home it was after 11, the whole debacle had started at 9 and we were starving!  I felt lucky to be alive and waited to celebrate my living status with a decent breakfast.  I looked in the fridge and saw the tritzo aka chorizo but we call it tritzo as a little joke. Everyone has problems pronouncing it, whether they go with the Spanish the silent ch or else they over annunciate the izo, it’s just all a bit confusing.  So our joke is to pretend we are totally ignorant and pronounce it like tritzo it also save the embarrassment of pronouncing it wrong! I knew I wanted eggs so I decided on a kind of Spanish/Mexican version with coriander and chilli.  This experiment resulted in a success that I had to share as it was so tasty and a bit of a change from the usual scrambled eggs.  It also was satisfying and uplifting after my traumatic morning!

Scrambled eggs with Chorizo

Serves 2

5 eggs

75g Chorizo

Butter

1 green chilli

Bunch of coriander

Splash of milk

Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

2 tortilla wraps to serve

Method

Cube the chorizo making sure the pieces are quite small; dice the chilli, leaving in the seeds if you prefer the heat.

Heat a non-stick pan and add the chorizo, there is no need to add any fat.  Cook for around 5 minutes then drain the chorizo with kitchen paper, you will be shocked at the amount of fat that is rendered out.

Clean this pan then add a slash of olive oil to the pan and sauté the chilli for a few minutes, while you are doing this beat the eggs with a little milk and salt and pepper.

Add the butter to the pan, lower the heat and add the eggs, when the eggs begin to firm gently stir them until you reach the consistency of soft scrambled eggs, take off the heat, add the chorizo and chopped coriander.

Serve with a tortilla wrap on the side and some salsa.

Carlingford and Fitzpatrick’s

After weeks of talking about it and meaning to do it, I made a long overdue trip to Carlingford this weekend.  My father is from Carlingford, a small village in Louth close to the border, and it holds special memories for me. One of my favourite memories is of excitedly running down the street at least 3 times a day to visit the ‘shop’, just a normal shop but a magical experience for kids from the country who’s nearest shop is three miles away!  Carlingford is a gem of a town, it is quaint and still has a small town vibe – everyone knows each other and is very friendly, but surprisingly enough it’s also become a Mecca for hen and stag parties who come in their throngs every weekend.  I find this especially funny because, having been to the night club, now I use the term ‘night club’ very loosely here – It is the small, oh so small function room of the local hotel that transforms into the ‘club’ or aka an excuse to drink longer with loud music and a smoke machine!  But I know that not all hens and stags are about this (hens anyway) and Carlingford has loads of activities to keep the groups busy during the day, plus it really is a lovey friendly town so I can see the attraction.

I made the trip to visit my 95 year old grandmother Rose or ‘Nurse Toner’ as she is known locally.  She was the public health nurse and midwife in Carlingford for many years and delivered many of my father’s and his siblings contemporaries.  When I visit, Nana tells me stories of life back then which seems like a million miles away from life now.  Like the way they all used to cycle to the dances not a car in sight – Yeah I could imagine a group of Hens on bikes making their way to McKevitts now!

Now to the food, on the way to Carlingford, after you exit the M1 at Dundalk, you pass a pub on the left hand side not far after Ballymacscanlon house.  This pub is called Fitzpatrick’s and is renowned locally.  Surprisingly enough, I’ve never been there before, probably because we are usually anxious to make it to Carlingford before contemplating lunch; but this time it was planned and I was taking several recommendations on board.

The first thing that strikes you is that it’s incredibly kitsch, every inch of every surface is littered with vintage Guinness merchandise and various other bits of pub memorabilia.  Not to mention the ceiling, Ken had a great time trying to identify all the old tools and farm equipment that is nailed to the ceiling!  We were having an early lunch so decided on a soup each then we would share what was called a seafood tempura platter and chicken wings….light lunch ya know!   I had the French onion soup which was, I’m going to say it – a taste explosion in a bowl!  The broth was rich and beefy, the onions tender and the melted cheese a delight, really it was that good, I’m definitely going to attempt a version soon.  Ken had the seafood chowder which was creamy with decent chunks of seafood.  It also with an exquisite aftertaste that was rich and fishy in a good way!  The impressive platter came out and it was presented in a quirky style – the pieces of fish were speared with a fork and help upright in a block of wood.  The fish was fresh and the batter was light, I was a little disappointed by the lack of other types of seafood – I had expected some prawns, mussels and perhaps scallops but the seafood was all of the fish variety – salmon, mackerel and either hake or cod we weren’t sure.  The fish was accompanied by a wasabi mayonnaise that I loved but Ken felt was too overpowering and a simple salad.  The wings were also served in a unique way – wrapped in paper that’s meant to look like newspaper with the Fitzpatrick’s logo on it and inserted into a metal holder.  They were spicy-ish but a little unremarkable; I’d advise stick to the seafood if you’re planning a trip, they seem to do it better.  Lunch came to €38 with a 7up and a glass of Guinness but we did get a lot of food, a return trip is positively on the cards especially with the promise of the lovely town of Carlingford only up the road.

Brown Bread

Brown bread – is there anything more comforting?  Homemade brown bread, fresh out of the oven (but allowed to cool – very important!!) spread with lashings of butter – the crunchy crust, the soft textured inside oh me nerves! We had a conversation yesterday around the dinner table (of course the conversation rarely is about anything else but food) about our death row meals, as in the last meal you would have before you died.  We all came to the conclusion that my Mams brown bread would feature perhaps in the starter, like homemade soup with Mams bread and butter, or smoked salmon on mams brown bread with lemon and pepper, or simply a fresh poached egg on Mam’s brown bread toasted, you get the drift… her bread really is legendary though, friends always remark about it and if you’re really lucky she will sometimes send you away with a loaf.  I love nothing better than coming into the house and being hit by the smell of freshly baked brown bread mmm I’m actually starting to drool as I type – not a good thing, don’t want to break my keyboard.

Sorry that last paragraph as I read it is actually a giant tease because after all my harping on about Mams bread I’m actually not going to share the recipe here!! Sorry but it is top secret I can’t go sharing Mam’s recipe with the world she’d kill me.  Nor will I ever try to live up to her legend and make her bread; because I know the result would be nice but not as good as Mam’s and my ego can’t handle that!  What I have done is make another version of it, well actually a distant cousin but with Guinness.  See the boyfriend and I got tickets to the Guinness storehouse at the weekend where we went and experienced how Guinness was made. The tour and building is actually pretty impressive the building is a mix of the old and new with all the structural details on the outside.  At the end of the tour you get to go to the sky lounge and enjoy a pint of the black stuff, I’m not a Guinness drinker but it was truly delicious. Ken a seasoned Guinness drinker, some would call him a pro – agreed that it was top notch and that really is something!!  There is a section of the tour where you see all the combos of Guinness and food, Guinness mussels, Guinness chocolate truffles etc. and I took a hand out for Guinness bread so here is the recipe.  I have modified it slightly as I’m not a fan of very sweet bread and this recipe advises 200 ml of treacle and 2 and a half tablespoons of brown sugar also it takes much longer than 40mins to cook.

I want to say a quick word about my food pics – I know they are quite amateur and I am still learning, I actually don’t even have a camera all my pics are taken on my iPhone and jazzed up with an app, so please bear with me on the photos!

Joy

Guinness Bread

Makes one large loaf

600g wholemeal flour

150g self-raising flour

75g oats

1 tsp salt

1 tsp bread soda

1tpsp brown sugar

2 tbsp. treacle

40g butter

480ml milk

½ pint draught Guinness

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl

Rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it becomes the consistency of breadcrumbs

Add the milk, treacle and Guinness and mix until it becomes a wet dough, add to a pre greased loaf tin and bake for 1 hour at 170 degrees (150 fan oven).

Allow to cool, cut and spread generously with butter, place into mouth, enjoy

Cheap Thrills

My name is Emma and I’m a citydeal-aholic, its true, I. Just. Love. Them. Seriously.  I mean who doesn’t need a series or facial injections? Or a cheap memory foam pillow? Or perhaps a beginners kickboxing course? At a ridiculously reduced price! I will be the first to admit some of my city deal purchases have been complete failures, like the Christmas before last when I bought both the brothers a half hour off road buggy experience or some crap like that.  They never used it, I would have been better off getting my money and flushing it down the toilet.  But there have also been amazing deals on the site which have enhanced life, like the time I got a TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) course for 150 when it should have been 550! I am now a qualified TEFL teacher (apparently) thanks City Deal! There have also been weekends away and many many meals.  I am a citydeal marketer’s dream and Friday proved this.  I felt like it was time for a change with my hair, I’ve had long hair for over 3 years now and impulsively decided it was time for the chop, lo and behold into my inbox that day, haircut, treatment and blow-dry for 29 quid!  Great I can get my hair done for the dinner I was going to that night, Teppanyaki for two for 22 euro oh and it’s in Greystones so we’ll stay over, bingo! 59 for 2 overnight in the Ramada hotel, yes I am obsessed but seriously the value people the value!!

Oooh, fire

Sea bass and Scallops 

The hair turned out great, I was chuffed when the hairdresser remarked how brave I was to go for the chop, felt a bit reckless like yeah this is how I live my life boldly making serious decisions on a whim (yeah right).  Then we packed up and headed to Wicklow for the night, me, the boyfriend and my hair.  Despite being a massive foodie, I had never actually made it a Teppanyaki restaurant before.  Teppanyaki is that cool Japanese style of cooking where you sit around a special table in front of a chef and a hot plate and the chef cooks your food to order.  There is also the aspect of entertainment as it is like a type of theatre featuring the chef in the main role.  Our restaurant was Scent Garden in Greystones,  I chose the seafood special and Ken chose the chef special which was basically the same but subbed the scallops for beef.  We had a 9 o’clock sitting and shared our table with another couple (definitely another city deal!) and a group of 4.  The starter consisted of a pretty basic green salad which was jazzed up slightly with an Asian dressing which tasted like a combination of fish and soy sauce and something sweet. But it was just a green salad with iceberg and a bit of tomato not that remarkable.  Then the mains and the show began, the chef reappeared in a glitzy chef outfit compete with a hollow hat in which he would throw things like eggs and a bowls.  He started cooking the raw prawns and mixing them with soy sauce and butter (which seems to be the flavour base for most of the dishes- I’m not complaining – soy and butter? Yum)  the people who had ordered the prawns got them and there was also chicken.  Then the chef did some really delicious beef which I was well jealous that I didn't order – until my scallops were served up, they were tender juicy and slightly sweet the perfect scallop lightly drenched in the soy and butter combination.  The chef then did some fancy egg work spinning eggs and making a giant omelette which he then added to rice and we were all served bowls.  Finally the fillets of sea bass were flash fried and served they were also extremely good.  The process of the cooking before your eyes was good in two ways – it never leaves you stuck for conversation you’re too busy watching the performance while you eat and also you can see exactly how your food is cooked and what goes into it.  All in all a great night was had which was made even better when the bill arrived – we only had to pay for the wine and beer which left plenty of money for a few drinks in Greystones after…just pity I didn’t have a city deal for that too.


Oh ps Im not doing a Valentines Day post I'm allergic to that stuff, so this is my anti-Valentines post!