Noodle Extravaganza

It's so good to be home, I needed a rest from all the eating I'd been doing last week...
with 4 days in Tokyo followed by 3 in China I'm well and truly noodled out!
It's been nearly 3 years since in was in Tokyo last, so I was super excited to see what was going on in the stores and get my chopsticks into some yummy food.

Tokyo doesn't have a great choice of hotels, we wanted to stay at the The Claska but the location for us for work was a little out of the way...so we ended up at the Excel which is directly opposite Shibuya train station, a great location for shopping and getting around the city.

Loft  - you can lost in here choosing which pen, notebook or lunchbox you want to take home.
Tokyo Hands - is of a similar genre although not quite so well presented as Loft.
Marunan - We can then get lost in here deciding which Quilting thread colour you can't live without.
The location is next to Shibuya Station with blue awning (very close to Hachiko exit).
Parco Part 1 For japanese magazines and books head to the of basement of Parco Part 1.

Apart from the jetlag...and not having a great appetite eating is always a pleasure in Tokyo, with only 3 nights we managed to get in 3 food types Sushi, a traditional Raman and a Japanese pub style Izakaya.

If you love vintage and japanese style fashion you cannot miss Kapital, it's one of my favorite places to hide away for an hour and believe I can get away with Japanese style and generally realise when I get home this is not possible on a 5ft 9 frame, I can only accessorize.

China was all about working & eating, Dalian is not the prettiest city, but we certainly ate well.

Bypassing the dog & serpent restaurants, they really do eat everything in this city, but being on the coast gave huge influence to the seafood. A highlight for food was definitely the white tuna sushi - I know we'd just come from Japan and I was eating Japanese in China...but we spent a wonderful evening at a teppanyaki restaurant trying everything from sea cucumber to frog.

Chinese Fondue...YUM!!

OD'ing on Dumplings.

Farinata Ligure

As an add on to a previous post, I've decided to add the Recipe for the Farinata di Ceci pictured in the Easter Weekend...

::Farinata di Ceci ::

400 gr chickpea flour

4 tbsp EVO

1.5 ltrs water

Salt 

Pepper

Place the flour and mix with water into a bowl 

Add salt and let stand overnight.

A foam will form which must be removed with a slotted spoon.

Put oil in a pan and pour in the batter, mixing well, until it has absorbed the sauce.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.

Sprinkle with pepper and serve it to pieces.

Is it really Spring?

First weekend back to the allotment in a very long time, we were so eager and ready to get back even the soggy wet ground & grey skies couldn't keep us away two Saturday afternoons ago.
Surprisingly there was very little to do, before the planting of the seeds, a slight Mint take over which has now been cleared back and I have a lovely jar of fresh mint in the kitchen.
We got some potatoes in the first 3 banks, planted some Beetroot, onion, carrot & spinach seeds. The peas are coming through as is the garlic.

Easter Weekend

The weather was less an inspiring, but we'd been planning to get to the house in Liguria for weeks...so we were going!
As always when faced with bad weather the first thing that comes to mind is to hide away in restaurants and watch the world go by...which is exactly what we did.
Liguria, as I have said so many times before has some of the best food in Italy, suffering the bad  weather has it's upside.

:: Saturday ::

: Aperitivo

: Lunch

: Herb & Flower market

: Walk along the seafront.

:: Easter Sunday ::

: Aperitivo in Sestri di Levante

: Lunch in Ne

: Walked up to San Salvatore cemetery to visit my husbands Aunt you passed away this winter, the sun was shining.

Marmalade

This is 2 weeks late being posted...you wouldn't think it by the state of the weather, snow blizzards in the UK and rain almost everyday here, but it's Orange season, typically for us British folk it's Seville orange season, but as I've discovered in Italy it's all about the Silician Orange!

Jars at the ready, we juiced, chopped, simmered, boiled & canned all day Saturday.

As well as making the  Red Onion Chutney made famous from our wedding.

Two batches were made one traditional Orange Cut & and other Orange & Ginger Cut.

::Orange Marmelade::

Makes about 4 x 500ml jars

Seville oranges 1 kg
lemons 4
granulated sugar 2 kg

..........
fresh ginger 100g

( added this as an extra to the second batch)

Begin by measuring 4 pints (2.25 litres) water into a preserving pan, then cut the lemon and oranges in half and squeeze the juice out of them. Add the juice to the water and place the pips and any bits of pith that cling to the squeezer on the square of muslin (laid over a dish or cereal bowl first).

Now cut the orange peel into quarters with a sharp knife, and then cut each quarter into thinnish shreds. As you cut, add the shreds to the water and any pips or spare pith you come across should go on to the muslin. The pith contains a lot of pectin so don't discard any and don't worry about any pith and skin that clings to the shreds – it all gets dissolved in the boiling.

Now tie the pips and pith up loosely in the muslin to form a little bag, and tie this on to the handle of the pan so that the bag is suspended in the water. Then bring the liquid up to simmering point and simmer gently, uncovered, for 2 hours or thereabouts until the peel is completely soft (test a piece carefully by pressing it between your finger and thumb).

Meanwhile, chill the saucers in the freezer compartment of the fridge.

Next, remove the bag of pips and leave it to cool on a saucer. Then pour the sugar into the pan and stir it now and then over a low heat, until all the crystals have dissolved (check this carefully, it's important). Now increase the heat to very high and squeeze the bag of pips over the pan to extract all of the sticky, jelly-like substance that contains the pectin. As you squeeze you'll see it ooze out. You can do this by placing the bag between two saucers or using your hands. Then stir or whisk it into the rest.

As soon as the mixture reaches a really fast boil, start timing. Then after 15 minutes spoon a little of the marmalade on to one of the cold saucers from the fridge, and let it cool back in the fridge. You can tell – when it has cooled – if you have a 'set' by pushing the mixture with your little finger: if it has a really crinkly skin, it is set. If not, continue to boil the marmalade and give it the same test at about 10-minute intervals until it does set.

After that remove the pan from the heat (if there's a lot of scum, most of it can be dispersed by stirring in half a teaspoon of butter, and the rest can be spooned off). Leave the marmalade to settle for 20 minutes.

In the meantime, the jars should be washed, dried and heated in a moderate oven for 5 minutes. Pour the marmalade, with the aid of a funnel or a ladle, into the jars, cover with waxed discs and seal while still hot.Label when cold and store in a dry, cool, dark place. Then hurry up and make some toast to try some!

It seems to have been a great success, with several jars given to friends, with requests for more...I will say that I thought it was maybe too runny but having discovered it soaks deliciously into toast, I'm going to say it all went to plan!