Borough Market, London

 Part of the pleasure of cooking is that primitive urge in all of us to sate our appetites, the other primitive urge I relish is the hunting and gathering aspect. I love to go to market and fill up my senses with all of the options of what to eat, what to make and what to (proverbially) bang over the head and drag home. This goes for lettuce as well as pork. This week I went to Borough Market in London. This is one of the cities oldest fresh markets and you can find anything(almost) that you desire for cooking and eating. The market is down under London Bridge on the South side. This place really gets heaving around lunchtime, especially on a Saturday. I like to go on Thursday or Friday but, I am a great shopper and can usually ignore the crowds. The great part of any market like this is the tasting and choosing and the inspiration as the ideas of what to do with each next delicious item pops into my head. I am often overwhelmed and I always try to edit myself. I come home with random items and half eaten treats but often with the inspiration for a new dish or a new ingredient to experiment with. This week, I went, ostensibly, to find veal scraps and bones to make veal stock. Veal stock is something that G has been wanting to make, inspired by one of his French cookbooks. They didn't have any. The butcher was friendly but, not fruitful. I asked about it and it seems pretty difficult to get. I had thought this, of all places, would be the place to find any weird thing you might want for cooking.

This is the flavor of the butcher shop.

 Never mind the stock, what else can I make? I wandered the market and tasted all of the cheeses on offer. I love you, Cheesus. I bought some bright green olives that are so tasty and the color is not your typical shade of, well, olive. They are so bright firm and briney that I just popped one in my mouth as I am writing, irresistible. I picked up some pork belly for Momofuku pork buns, that is in a brine right now. Next, some fresh unpasteurized butter with sea salt and my new friend, smoked garlic. Smoked garlic, you and I are embarking on a journey of new discoveries, we will become fast friends, I think. Smoked garlic, I can't wait to put you in, in...hmm, I still think our love is real. I might just bake you and spread you on bread.
After that, I moved on through the produce area, which is so beautiful, the mushroom table alone overwhelms and I will head back to market on Thursday to buy a truffle or maybe two for a pasta we are making. Oh, I started dreaming of truffle pasta. We had truffle pasta in Paris. We ate at a wonderful Italian restaurant somewhere on the Rive Gauche. I can't tell you where it is right now but, I did manage to find it on my rent-a-bike when I went for lunch later that week.

A perfect lunch in Paris, I couldn't wait to eat, it came covered in truffles, shaved, delicate...

When G took me to dinner there we were mid-dinner when he announced that is was Bogey's favorite Italian restaurant in Paris.
'How do you know that?'
'I had dinner with his wife here.'
'Lauren Bacall?'
'Yes'
'Um, how was she?'
'She was a nice older lady.' And that is about all I got out of him. Seriously.

Paella gets better and better

I have been making paella every week or so since I found that rice back in October. G loves it and he encourages it. When we make our Sunday chicken, I make paella on Monday. This time we had some whitefish to add in as well. I made the mirepoix with my veg combo. I just raid the crisper and take whats good. This time is was carrots, broccoli, shallot and mushrooms. I used the new food processor and blitzed that up in a few seconds. I charred up the chorizo, set it aside and added the veg. I tossed in the white fish. I took the chicken's 'gold' and made it into a broth then used it to make rice. I dropped in the chicken, layed the chorizo back in and tossed in some fruit de mer. This loveliness bubbled away on the stove and really was a comfort for dinner.


Over the holidays I promised A I would bake for her. I over promised a bit. I still owe an angel's food and a carrot cake. I did make a gingerbread or two, really. The recipe starts with stout and takes fresh and ground ginger and molasses. It was fast and easy to make and came out of the oven so lovely and needed no accompaniment.

deep, dark, rich and ready for the oven

The deep flavor of the stout and treacle with the bite of the ginger made it a special treat. Make sure to eat your first piece as soon as it comes out of the oven. I cut some for a test piece and we all ate some warm gingerbread. I made the second gingerbread for our New Year's Day dinner. To kick off the new year were invited to dinner with S and other good friends. I think we had 5 courses. There was a smoked salmon cheese dip with crusty bread, potato leek soup (which kicked off my current obsession with leeks), a gorgeous rib roast and plenty of veg (sometime during this course I had to take a break from eating and couldn't finish that plate), next up was a pavlova with fruit and cream and finally gingerbread and cheese plate. I like thinking about gingerbread as well as eating it. The nostalgia of just saying the word is enough to put me into a reverie of icing and Christmas memories. I remember one year my dear old mum made me and my brother's school classes gingerbread houses. She made two for each class on a board covered in tin foil for the icy wonderland and a fence around. There were gumdrops and swirly hard candy to decorate. I think the roof was shingled by graham crackers... Anyway, it is a treasured memory and it puts the gingerbread into a magical category of food. I relish it today. (Um, Mom, you could send me a photo of the houses!)

Chowdahead

Glasgow, Scotland, I am hungry. I haven't had the best luck getting a decent lunch out of you. I want you to feed me something light, satisfying, fresh, tasty, enjoyable, brief, surprising...I want a good lunch. Can you help me out? We started looking for you, elusive respite, after Christmas. We went to a new place called 'Butchershop & something something' and sat awaiting some meat for nearly an hour. I want to be as fair as I can be. I am not writing this to dis this new restaurant. I just wanted a steak frites in about the time it takes to cook a steak. I thought we might get the hamburger in the same amount of time. It was busy, not that busy, but busy. We had pleasant service and the food was good. That is all I can say.

We don't give up. The next day, we went over to 'The Crab Shack'. We went in and they asked us if we were ok at the bar. They told us they didn't have much on the menu because the fishing boats hadn't been out from Christmas. No crabs, langoustines, mussels, etc. We ordered up two seafood chowders and the fish dinner. The chowders showed up pretty quickly and they were not small cupfuls, they were lovely big bowls with thick bread. Now, I am from New England, I consider myself a chowder expert. I have been eating chowdah since I first supped on soup. I have had every possible chowder concoction and they measured from the inedible, stomach churning canned type to the fresh, creamy, made at the dock as the clams came off the boat variety. Chowdah, how I luv ya, how I luv ya chowdah. So, I was so excited to dig into a bowl and this is it. This is a wonderful chowder. Thank you Crab Shack, Glasgow. Thank you friendly waitstaff, thank you nice American dude who plunked this bowl down in front of me. This steaming, creamy, leek filled bowl of yumminess. This chowder is one that I want to make, that I am going to attempt to make, that I need to make. The chowder itself is creamy but not thick or heavy. It holds the seafood and leeks and suspends them in its level richness. Those leeks, the tender mussels and clams, the scallops and fish...

Creamy goodness, chowder, welcome to my tummy.

Well, it was really very good. We were fully satisfied by the end of the bowl. So, although I don't recommend this as an everyday thing, we asked if they would cancel the fish and chips we had yet to come. I don't think I have done that before. It did take G and I some discussion of if it were alright to request and had they said no, we would have just had the dish anyway but, they said no problem and smiled. Thanks again Crab Shack. We ordered up some lovely oysters (I can't remember where they were from) and finished a lovely lunch.

Glistening oysterless shell

We headed out again for lunch a couple other times that were successful. We went to the always satisfying 'Left Bank'. They do their snack foods right. G's lovely friend owns it and I think we eat the same things. All of the little bites on the menu are attractive to me and I wanted to eat my way through it. I only had enough room for the chicken satay with lovely peanut sauce, the side salad and the fries. The fries had rosemary and were salty and delectable. I dipped them in ketchup. I dipped them in peanut sauce. I ate them on their own. I looked at G sideways when he ate some of them.

We also got an impromptu lunch at this funky cool East Village type resto in a hotel. They make a messy little hand pulled pizza that hit the spot. It was thin crusted and had tasty toppings on. So, Glasgow, you have made a luncher out of me.

Ahhh, my hero.

Well, I have missed this report. I took all of the Christmas holiday off to go out and taste things and gather more fuel and inspiration for this little project. Right now, we are on the train from Scotland to London. The holidays are over and we took an entire day just to remain still before boarding this train. Just now, I am munching on good old potato chips and couldn't be more content. I got the new Tom Waits bio 'Lowside of the Road-A Life of Tom Waits' for Christmas (thanks M). I am even more inspired by TW now than I have been. So, I put the big man on the headphones and sunk into the details of a hero of mine. I start to think, a hero? Is that right? Yeah, that's right. First I've got the lyrics, those words that roll over me and remind me of lives I have lived and those I will never live. I feel a sort of dreamy peace drift in and take me off the train and into a late night world where clever prose and funny, but hokey, dirty jokes stuffed with entendre and brimming with ennui and pleasure together. Wow, TW, you get me feeling hopeful and romantic.

What have we been cooking and eating though? I was away from the stove for most of the holiday but I watched, photographed and partook at every opportunity. I am still a little hazy on all of the details of our trip to Glasgow as many days were spent meeting and having impromptu cocktails with many of the denizens of the West End. The last few days before the New Year were a near constant party with many locations to hit. The relative quiet of walking or traveling from one party to the next was often just an opportunity to run into another Glaswegian doing the same. From there, a list of the planned events would be shared and gone over for an opportunity to see the other later.

This is the first try for dough. Although it looks nearly perfect, the dough was not good. But, do not fear...

This year, I swore to do more cooking than last year. I did that, just slightly. This year I made bread dough from some of G's leftover dough. G made Christmas dinner and added some Momofuku touches this year with the mini apple kimchi salad and baby pork buns. We left London on the 5:40 am train on Christmas Eve so we didn't have much room for error but, error moved in and made itself at home. The train was a little late but, no mind. We got into Glasgow incident free (if you've heard the story of last year's train ride you will understand) and to the house in a cab with our 6 bags (3 large, 3 small, all bursting) then we headed out to the Waitrose grocery store on Byres Road. It was jam packed with insane, last minute shoppers like us. G instantly went into his grocery mode which is run through the aisles and last one to checkout gets a glowering look. (We actually got into an argument yesterday about our different grocery shopping 'styles'. So, I will say only that) I was trying to find baking ingredients which proved a little more difficult especially with so many people buying all of the typically seasonal spice flavors up. The shelves were a wasteland of knocked over jars and picked over non-essentials. As usual, I was the last one to check out. Then followed what I have endearingly termed 'the forced march with baggage'. It seems I can't visit Glasgow without this occurrence.

Onto the buns, G made up the dough from a mix, not hopeful to begin with and although in the photo they look like perfect little buns, they were a bit tough. We had bought flour and yeast, etc and he decided to try it again on Christmas day. My dough for fried dough on Christmas morning also failed and we were both bummed. But, with Christmas morning came great surprises, especially for G, as he got a pile of gifts to rival any 7 year old in town. He got a fantastic food processor and dough making became an easier task. So, G started in on making his amuse bouche. The pork belly came out to it's fatty succulent self and those tiny sandwiches were way too small for the appetite that they inspired.

Top view of mini pork bun, notice the lovely fresh pickle and the way the pattern plays off the bun.

Crispy pork belly and an appropriately fluffy bun

I know that's the point but, it must be pointed out. G also made the exciting apple and kimchi salad. We brought the kimchi and the smoked bacon up from London ourselves. We got the apples, labne and rocket(arugula) in Glasgow. If you haven't had this at Momofuku make it. It is easy and involves simple prep and little cooking. It isn't difficult to find kimchi in NYC but, in the UK it is a little more of a challenge and for the second batch G went to the Korean restaurant in Glasgow and bought a serving of the stuff from a bewildered Korean man who had to make up a price for it.

Another top view, the apples are hidden by the tasty bacon.

The apples and kimchi are tossed together and dresses with maple labne.

The sweetness of the apples and the pickled cabbage mix together and deliver a punch to your taste buds. The creamy, sweet labne, like my hero, Tom, this dish mixes all of the best of the deep and peppers the sweetness of life to mind bending results.