2012: A year in food

Yep it's that time of year again, the end of one food era and the beginning of another. This year has been marked by not only things that I never thought i'd ever do (go to China solo, sign up for a half marathon, drive a car....) but also things that I definitely would do. That is eat, a lot.

So I thought I would share with you my personal food highlights of 2012.

Best breakfast out

My two stints in Sydney have made this one difficult but I'm going to go with the place with not only the nicest food but also the best memory. Bills. My breakfast here was a simple affair, a good old British meets Aussie fry up. Except each element is delivered to perfection, the scrambled eggs are of course legendary, the heart stopping slab of butter positioned between two perfect pieces of sourdough and the delicious sausages. Washed down with a much too small cup of coffee (pyramid scheme). Additionally to the food I have great memories of that breakfast, it was a warm morning, I was sat opposite a school watching parents drop their children off, I'd just read about how interconnected we all are in the world and I was exchanging eye contact with the barista who was far too good looking for his own good.

Runners up: Greek eggs at Demitri's Kitchen (Melbourne), a classic fry up at Boston Tea Party (Exeter, UK), simple but beautiful avocado and tomato at Elizabeth Bay Cafe (Sydney) and the £10 French platter at Enoterra (Shanghai)

Breakfast fail of the year: Element Fresh (Shanghai), 4 poached eggs, sausage and sweet toast...really?

Best breakfast in

Smashed Avocado on Toast

This year i've spent a lot more time in my self-proclaimed fabulous kitchen. I've spent many a solo Saturday taking in the papers and aeropressing the hell out of my coffee. But one breakfast moment in particular stands out, that's my smashed avocado on toast.

I think this one was so significant because it was my first weekend back after Shanghai and I had dragged my weary hungry self to Sainsburys for the first post-jet lagged feast. With hunger and greed ravaging my soul, I had eagerly filled my basket with treasures, some super fancy golden yolked eggs (I'm pretty sure laid by hens that were fed exclusively with organic feed from Fortnum and Mason), a loaf of sourdough, some beautifully ripe hass avocados and some Greek feta. As I began to consume my eggy masterpiece I had one of those moments where I wished that somebody had been around to taste what a wonder I had created. The best I could do was take an arty farty hipsomatic instagram of it and as my friend TES would say, promise to 'blog the shit out of it'. So here it is:

Best Scrambled Eggs when you haven't eaten scrambled eggs or decent bread for 2 months
Serves one greedy person

Really good quality room temperature eggs (3 if you are feeling crazy)
Cubes of feta
A handful of rocket
A splash of cream
Butter (the good stuff, I like the one that's flecked with sea salt)
A nice ripe avocado
A couple of slices of good white bread
A squeeze of lemon
A scatter of chopped fresh parsley

Toast your sourdough or whatever nice thick bread you have cut. Lavishly spread with that beautiful butter. Mash some avocado in a bowl with a squeeze of lemon, a bit of sea salt and some black pepper. Spread generously on your hot toast. Next melt some butter (I know, I know...) in a pan and add your eggs with your handful of parsley and splash of cream. Scramble until gooey, don't let them go too far, take off the heat and let them firm up a bit. Arrange beautifully over your bread with a scattering of feta for saltiness and a handful of rocket to make you feel better. Serve with a fresh pot of coffee, the newspaper and Etta James.

Best fancy lunch

M on the Bund Brunch (Shanghai)

Dessert Platter, China Doll (Sydney)

A tie between my hatted lunch at China Doll with blushing bride VC and Welsh hottie GPR. We were spoilt with cocktails, duck pancakes, delicate and tender sashimi and a flurry of desserts (pictured).

Another incredible lunch moment of 2012 was lunch at M on the Bund with my wonderful Shanghai ladies. Not only was the food, view and atmosphere beautiful but also this was the moment, a week before I left, that I took the moment to appreciate the incredible experiences I had, and the amazing people that I had the pleasure of meeting. The fact that this moment also involved a Swedish smorgasbord and champagne was the icing on the cake.

Best absolutely mundane lunch

In my whole year my lunch highlight involves me crouching over my desk (which I made into a kitchen) in my little room in Shanghai, indulging in what might have been the best sandwich experience of my life. I think at this point I hadn't eaten decent bread, ham or cheese for a month and I had just discovered that you could get all of these things in my local supermarket just a hop, skip and a jump away. So I greedily constructed the best sandwich I've ever had, a slice of French cheese, some ham that I'm pretty sure on retrospect was a week out of date and butter all crammed in a huge crunchy and miraculously non-sweet baguette. I stuffed this with expensive salt and vinegar crisps imported all the way from the UK and for the first time in a month felt the culture shock melt away.

Best fancy dinner

Let's not beat around the bush here, my two best dinners out both involve Australia. The first, Porteno, two hatted heaven, specialising in meat but trumping with vegetarian delights such as quail egg salad with cauliflower puree. The second, one hatted happiness at Lolli Redini where I had a triple cheese soufflé foodgasm. Bravo Australia, you've done it again.

Notable mentions: The steak at Tonic (Nottingham), incredible pizza at brand new Scarpetta (Shanghai), birthday Yunnanese at Lost Heaven (Shanghai) and Duck at my beautiful friend's wedding (Corn Barn Exeter)

Best dinner in

Ronald McDonald eat your heart out

My stand out dinner also involves a solo Saturday night, for the whole week i'd had a hankering for a beautiful chicken burger. Having sneakily visited McDonalds that Tuesday for a McChicken Sandwich and still not satisfied, my attention turned to home made. I wandered around Waitrose hoping for inspiration and a few ingredients captured my attention, some beautiful fresh chicken breast strips, a packet of fresh breadcrumbs, some crunchy fresh rolls and some garlic mayonnaise. My dinner was set.

A Chicken Burger Supper for a blissful night in
Serves one girl with a hankering for a burger

A packet of chicken breast strips (you could do this yourself but I find this easier)
Either fresh breadcrumbs or a packet of panko (both are fantastic)
A crusty roll
A handful of whatever leaves make you feel better about yourself, I went for baby spinach
Half an avocado
Either homemade or really good quality garlic mayonnaise
Some mozzarella if you are feeling really naughty
An egg and some flour
Some skinny fries and Dijon mustard for dunking

Get yourself three bowls and whisk up one egg in one, some flour in another and your breadcrumbs in the final. Douse your chicken strips in flour, then egg, then roll generously in breadcrumbs. You could add some parmesan to your breadcrumbs here if you are feeling particularly mental.

Once you have coated your chicken heat some oil up in a shallow pan and fry each until golden. Pop them on a baking tray and finish off in the oven. Use your judgement depending on thickness, this should only take 15 mins max.

Prepare your lovely roll and get your chips cooked. Fill the roll with whatever you feel like. I added a strip of mozzarella, a smear of mayo and a handful of lovely peppery rocket. Add your hot chicken strips straight from the oven and serve with salad, fries and a dollop of Dijon for dunking.

Goals for next year

I have many food goals for next year, I want to visit Nottingham's very own Michelin Starred gaff. I'd love to eat a burger at Electric Diner in London. I want to try the new Scandinavian cuisine that is all the rage right now for my hopefully impending trip to Sweden and finally I'd like to bake my own bread and make some pate upon which to spread (if I can bear the sight of those livers).

So here's to an amazing year in food. I wish you all the best for 2013, may your plates be bountiful and your heart full of joy.

Lots of love and kisses
HYKAEI x

On love..

In the most sentimental entry of this blog's history I report live to you from Sydney International Airport with a few words about love (I promise next week ill get back to talking about pastry).

This later part of my 20s has been marked by the loss and gain of great love. I'm coming around to the idea that life is a constant ebb and flow. People coming in and out of your life constantly, changing little or big aspects of you. Brief encounters, people who change your outlook or perspective, people who teach you things, those who show you a path that you don't want to go down, those that shock you, those that comfort you.

But what of great, enduring love? That bit is trickier, the quest for lifelong love. That bit may require sacrifice and compromise but never ever the changing of yourself.

Today I am lucky to have that perfect luxury, the enduring love of friendship, that higher order kind of love that doesn't judge or anger but rather supports, nurtures and changes you into the person that you were meant to become.

So to all those that I love dearly. I am grateful daily to you all for changing my life. I'm so happy to be part of your world.

So wherever you are reading this, on the train, at work (naughty), over toast and tea or wine and steak. Take a moment to be grateful for those you love because its these small moments of gratitude that form the beautiful patchwork quilt that is your life.

So with love, thanks and in the search for the perfect cheese toastie.

Goodbye for now Sydney.

A Birthday in Orange

A wonderful part of my Australian holiday was a birthday trip to see the beautiful VC in her new temporary home. A mere 3 hours drive away, Orange is blessed with a plethora of gorgeous wineries, cafes and one very fancy French restaurant. In the spirit of birthdays and being all together again we decided to indulge in them all.

TES, SS and I left Sunny Sydney with a bag full of Bourke Street Bakery goodies and an ipod full of classic tunes (let's all meet up in the year 2000!) and set off for our first destination, Mayfield Vineyard.

Mayfield Vineyard
Icely Road, Orange NSW 2800
http://www.mayfieldvineyard.com/

We trundled into Orange at dusk to our welcoming cottage the House of Pears. The cottage was stunningly beautiful and completely white set on the backdrop of endless vines and some very friendly geese. One of the many reasons I love my friends is that they always know how to put on the most delicious bounties of food. This night was no exception.

We collated our various foodie efforts, Sonoma bread bought previously from Sydney, a selection of local cheeses from Orange. Salted butter, perfectly fresh salmon and huge bitey Sicilian olives from the local deli washed down with a lot of champagne and culminating in some obligatory tipsy Magnetic Zeros dancing. A wonderful evening.

Phillip Shaw Vineyard
45 Caldwell Lane, Orange NSW
http://www.philipshaw.com.au/about.htm

Not a bad view

Our morning began at Byng Street Cafe for some top notch coffee and baked treats as we lined our stomachs for the wine tasting ahead. High on the agenda was a trip to Phillip Shaw Winery, known far and wide in these parts as one of the best vineyards in town.

What I love about wine tasting, apart from the free wine, is chatting to the makers and finding out loads of detail that you wouldn't normally get from simply ordering a bottle in a restaurant. We chatted to the owners about the psychedelic bottle design, the perfect cheese accompaniment and other local vineyards that were worth a visit.

The decor of Phillip Shaw is incredible, set in their huge kitchen with a sleepy dog lazing around we felt as though we had been invited over a friends house for an afternoon drinking session. To mark V's birthday the wine maker himself came out with a tray of homemade hot pasties and a big dollop of tomato sauce. Mmmm tasted just like home.

Lolli Redini
48 Sale Street, Orange NSW 2800
http://www.lolliredini.com.au/

With a little wobble in our step we retired back to the cottage to greet V's surprise guests and open a few special bottles of wine that we had purchased on our tour. It was now time to get ready for the pinnacle of our visit. A trip to Lolli Redini.

One of the many things I love about Australia is their multiple hatted restaurants that also happen to be pretty affordable. At $80 for their set menu this still to me represents a special treat but not one that will set you back your life savings when you compare UK places of comparable quality in London. Lolli Redini was renowned for being the best restaurant in town and also French, my favourite. I was extremely excited.

We were all seated on a lovely long table and began selecting our three courses. I just could not stay away from the house signature goats cheese souffle set off with a delicate celeriac and apple salad. Without hyperbole this was one of the most amazing mouthfuls of food I have ever had.

I would sell my soul for this souffle

For second course I selected the veal which was served medium rare with a beautiful pile of sauteed mushrooms and cabbage. How they got the mushrooms so tasty I will never know but I suspect a lot of butter was involved. My Italian friend MC indulged my suggestion to share a big scoopful of truffle mash which was like sex on a spoon (forgive my vulgarity).

Far from being taboo these days eating good quality and well sourced veal is actually encouraged, good old Jamie Oliver often suggests veal as an alternative option. Thanks to humane farming practises in good places I can sleep well at night knowing that my animal was not unfairly treated. For the vegetarians among us, my friend ordered squash with shards of salty Parmesan and a sprinkle of pine nuts. It looked and tasted delicious.

Delicious veggie option

In a rare twist my dessert was not that favourable, I selected figs three ways which included a fig mousse, fig ice cream and fresh fig with honey and toffee. It was a little rich and creamy and didn't offer enough textural difference. We chatted to the chef about it and he told us about the inclusion of truffle oil into the mousse which is not to every body's taste. I spotted my friend SS's passion fruit souffle and had food envy. We decided to drink local opting only for wine from the local vineyards. We started with a bottle of Phillip Shaw's fizz that we had sampled earlier and some beautiful mellow Merlot and crisp Chardonnay.

Souffle envy

It was the perfect end to a perfect birthday. As the sun set and I had to undo my belt 3 notches I felt warm and fuzzy and overwhelmingly lucky to be in such a beautiful location, eating such incredible food with such amazing kind people.

With a lump in my throat saying goodbye for now to a wonderful friend it was time to leave. Goodbye Orange, it was lovely to meet you.

Shall we go to a trendy cafe?

Darlinghurst leafy love

Every morning of my holiday I was woken by my wonderful bundle of gay energy SS asking me the following magical question 'shall we go to a trendy cafe?'. He vowed to show me all that Kings Cross, Potts Point, Darlinghurst and Elizabeth Bay had to offer and my eager stomach was powerless to resist (besides it's all in the name of research right?).

Uliveto
33 Bayswater Road, Kings Cross
Sydney NSW 2011

Our journey starts at our first brunch together at Uliveto full of giggles, incessant picture taking and watching toned, tanned body builders tuck into their egg white omelettes with far too much enthusiasm (seriously guys, the yolk is the best bit!).

After inhaling my first decent coffee in 7 months we decided to order some food, my lovely companion ordered a chicken salad adorned with that beautiful Australian avocado and olives and I opted for a tuna melt slathered with cheese, tomatoes and lovingly scattered with herbs. It was simple and delicious, highly recommended.

Elizabeth Bay Cafe

Shop 2 & 3, 45 Elizabeth Bay Road

Elizabeth Bay NSW 2011 (I wish British postcodes were this straightforward)

Our next adventure took the birthday boy and I to Elizabeth Bay nursing a Beresford hangover and seriously craving ricotta. 

Elizabeth Bay Cafe is small and perfectly formed. The lunches are made with love and some really fresh ingredients, the best being these beautiful sweet tomatoes. The fresh sourdough was spread with olive oil, scattered with sea salt and toasted with a squeeze of lemon providing the icing on the hypothetical cake. It was a perfect start to a perfect Sydney day.

Birthday ricotta

Gelato Messina

Shop 1/241 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst

Sydney, NSW 2010

After our ricotta feed I had an epiphany, a birthday wouldn't be a birthday without a delicious dollop of beautifully made ice cream from Gelato Messina. When I was an Australian newbie S and I used to be flatmates. Our secret shame was our late night ice cream run to Cold Rock to order family sized tubs of cookies and cream ice cream with crushed chocolatey goodness. Gelato Messina takes this to a new level (the level that wins you best gelato in Australia).

What I love most about this place, apart from it being filled with lovely memories, is that you get to try whatever flavour you like before your buy, the hardest bit is deciding.

Fondante

Simple...delicious.

Petrol

9 Springfield Ave, Potts Point

Sydney NSW 2011

After already eating my body weight in delicious food, S announced excitedly one morning that he would take me to not one, not two but three cafes in one day. While this sounded excessive who was I to stand down from such a foodie challenge!

Starting the day with a coffee in a tiny hole in the wall (the name escapes me) and celebrity spotting Lara Bingle we decided to retire to one of our favourite little haunts, Petrol.

I really love Petrol, on a sunny day (and let's face it, in Sydney that's most days), sitting on the terrace is a dream. On a rainy day couches full to the brim with pillows provide a port in the storm. But the best thing about Petrol is it's beautifully crafted food. A favourite is the smoked salmon and sourdough platter but today I went for the Greek breakfast, olives n all complete with a poached egg, Persian feta and honey soaked sourdough. Absolutely incredible.

My handsome companion always loves to put me to shame and ordered a salad, although this was not just any salad it was speckled with slightly squidgy, slightly crunchy, squeaky and salty pieces of haloumi fried within an inch of their life. It was perfectly accompanied by soft juicy raisins and peppery balsamic rocket. Slightly warm, it was heaven on a plate.

By this point well and truly buzzing and completely stuffed we staggered our way to our final destination.

11 Cafe

It's so cool it apparently doesn't have an address

11 is a brand new cafe located on a Melbourne style lane way strip just around the corner from the debauchery of Kings Cross. The tiny little space is cool and enriched by the beautiful smell of freshly ground coffee. Swearing off food forever I took a glance at a wooden box full of desserts and suddenly was sold, there is always room for a Portuguese Tart.

Portuguese Tarts are a little pleasure of mine, apparently very easy to make I occasionally indulge in some eggy, buttery goodness. Today the perfect accompaniment to my treat was a spicy chai latte covered in cinnamon.

So we took the challenge, and we won. Now if you will excuse me I need to lie down.

La Buvette

35 Challis Avenue, Potts Point

NSW, 2011

Our cafe journey had to come to and end soon (are you hungry yet?) and our journey ends here at my favourite end of Potts Point. Delis are interlaced with bookshops which hide little espresso joints, everybody seems to know each other, passers by beam with happiness as if they can't believe their luck to live around the corner. I don't blame them.

We decided to settle at La Buvette, it was 32 in the shade so juices were mandatory, with our coffees of course. Then, heady from the heat I decided to do something shocking....order a salad.

Whenever I scan a menu I am somewhat predictable, if it has a high cheese or butter content I generally order it. Less concerned with someday getting chunky thighs i'm more concerned about cardiac events so now and again I reluctantly look over the croque monsieur and get something fresh and healthy. Today I opted for a grilled chicken caesar with extra bacon and poached egg (ok so this health thing is a work in progress).

I particularly enjoyed the salty chicken and the delicious parmesan set off with crispy garlic toast. Totally delicious, totally unhealthy. I very much enjoyed my salad, although I do sometimes lie awake at night wondering what that croque monsieur would have tasted like, how thick the layer of cheese and how crispy the buttery bread....

So goodbye for now beautiful suburb cafes, i'll be back to overindulge in you soon.

Spontaneous Sydney

This is what heaven looks like

As I was sitting on my 12 hour flight to Bangkok, one bearable plane meal down, lights out and watching Coldplay live at Glasto I had a thought, isn't it wonderful having friends that you don't think twice about jumping on a 24 hour flight to visit. While this might sound terribly cheesy (picture above demonstrates my penchant for cheese) these recent moments symbolise the point I am currently at in my life, since I moved back from Australia the world suddenly seems to have opened up allowing me to jump somewhat surreally between my two lovely lives.My exhaustion was causing me to be sentimental but 5 hours away from my mid-point destination I suddenly felt like the luckiest girl this side of Eastern Russia (or wherever I happened to be at the time of writing).

My trip to Sydney was hallmarked by some major events, two 30th birthdays, lots of live music, hanging in the hot tub, a vineyard retreat and of course a lot of eating. I have decided for simplicity I will document my adventures into a few separate bits: cafe eating, a weekend in Orange to and a spontaneous jaunt to Melbourne.

So forgive my endless pictures of beautiful food and sunshine. It's a hard job, but someone has got to do it.

Oh Sydney. It's good to be home

Secret Diary of a Long Haul Girl

I worked out today that I have endured 11 long haul flights in the last 5 years. All of which to Australia. I don't want to count up how much money that is but i'm pretty sure it's a nice deposit on a house. But hey, who cares, the words 'getting a foot on the property ladder' make me physically shudder.

What is do know is that's around 12 whole days spent in the air eating plane food, having juice and water brought to my seat and catching up on a years worth of free movies.

Today hovering somewhere outside Singapore was no exception. Long haul flights are both the bain and the favourite part of my life. I often liken them to how I imagine childbirth, the sweet joy of arriving at your destination means that you conveniently forget about the pain.

I have now endured enough long hauls to feel qualified to summarise them into a few key stages.

Arrival at the airport: Freshly showered, either beaming with excitement for the possibilities ahead or mildly sobbing after saying goodbye to good friends. The prospect of the food court always makes my eyes dance with excitement

1 hour later: This is the time I like to call 'disappointment that I didn't get upgraded'. Are flight upgrades an urban myth? I sure as hell have never had one. Also, why do some people have 4 suitcases and boxes containing strange things? Today a man had 4 boxes of cherries. Is that legal?

Boarding leg 1: The sinking feeling sets in as you realise that your obscurely timed flight that you assumed would be empty is completely full which invariably means that you run the risk of being stuck in the dreaded of all seats...the middle of a 4 seater. Is there anything worse in life than that seat? You walk past 1st class and business with a pained smile, everybody hates people who fly business. I also hate the extra leg room people, they always look so smug and DVT free. Also the ones who get the front row with the TVs mounted on the walls, they are always reserved for kids. Why should my sexy childless legs suffer for my life choices thus far? Ok fine, maybe a child does take up more room than my laptop

1 hour in: This is the point where you wonder why you always think long haul is so bad. This is amazing, peanuts, can of coke with lots of ice, meal being served and you've picked from the nice menu, you are halfway through a romantic comedy, you got a window seat and the sun is shining. This isn't so bad

Post meal: Mmmm more tea please, why do I always think plane meals are so bad and how do they get the veggies to be so delicious and buttery and the bread a little crisp? Mmm...

4 hours in: Ok so i've seen 2 films and i'm tossing up whether to watch some rubbish that i've seen a dozen times or to peruse their terrible selection of TV. Could I bring myself to watch 'How I met your mother'? What is that show even about? Also while we are at it, why is the Big Bang Theory now so popular? People I love and respect seem to like it, odd. It's getting dark out and everyone seems to be sleeping. I've already lost track of the day and time.

6 hours in: Ugh my suprachiasmatic nucleus says it's morning and they are serving me noodles in 30 minutes. At least I get some more of that nice warm bread

Halfway: I shouldn't have had that 30 minute sleep just before landing, now my body wants to sleep but my brain knows that I am going to have to engage my brain to find the gate at Bangkok airport. Why do I have to go through security again? Why is my secret stash of water always confiscated? After 20 or more years of being told to drink more water i'm suddenly being punished my the hydration police. The war is out there, leave my Mountain Spring alone.

Can't beat a good sunrise

At gate: Ugh what day is it? Surely I haven't still got 12 hours to go? On the plus side I live for the following: free internet (everybody is invariably checking Facebook, including me..what have we become?), those elusive loungers that you have to wrestle a child to get, a hazy sunrise or sunset, the almost alarmingly clean toilets, the serenity and the unfamiliar languages, mulling over whether to go for some traditional breakfast congee with the locals but always going to McDonalds for a sausage and egg McMuffin, entertaining the fantasy of becoming a spontaneous extremist and jumping on a flight to some remote Thai island.

1 hour into leg 2: Ok this is getting a bit painful, the aforementioned cute menu is no longer appealing, the smell of this bread is making me feel ill, this seat is way worse than the last one why didn't I sleep instead of watching 'What's Your Number?'. It wasn't Anna Faris' finest hour. I have no idea what day it is. Time for Tetris

5 hours into leg 2: I hate my life, I hate these seats, I hate the people next to me, there is a very real possibility that is somebody offers one of those horrible bread rolls then I might throw up. I hate everyone who is peacefully asleep. I wish I had managed to get a boyfriend mainly because putting my feet up on him right now would be amazing. How do some people look so fresh? I've never realised how bad my skin was before. I am never getting off this plane. How can there be 6 more hours to go?

2 hours until landing: Ha! In your face sleeping people! I too got some sleep, albeit broken and unsatisfying. I feel like I've spent 5 days in the same spot. I would sell my cookbook collection for a shower and a teeth clean. I have consumed 4 bottles of water and my mouth is still dry, why are these breakfast sausages so weird and oddly delicious? How do they get the omelettes perfect every time?

Arrival: Yes! I'm off the plane! I made it! Isn't life wonderful, oh the customs queue. Mental note must get one of those weird new passports. Oh it's good to be home, i'm never doing this again. I wonder when I can get back to Australia?

I hate long haul
Ps- I love you

Disclaimer: This post was written whilst heavily under the influence of Carol King's Tapastry somewhere near Singapore. 15 hours until landing