Dim sums

Normally, I only ever eat out with my husband. That means I don't sketch my food. He respects food a lot more than me, so sketching while it goes cold would be a sacrilege. On this occasion, I was on my own, going from A to B and I had a quick lunch of dim sums. I had sketched the background while waiting for the food to arrive. And when the plates were placed on the table, I quickly sketched in pen. Then I had my food. Which was delicious. Then I added colour and shading. That was fun.

Capel Street

On the same day Dublin Sketchers went to 14 Henrietta Street, we also sketched in the Capel Street area. It was a long day. So I needed food. Blas at the Chocolate Factory on Kings Inns Street had the perfect lunch for me - a vegetarian Irish breakfast. And plenty of inspiration for my Bloomsday 2019 Sketching!

Inside Blas. I miscounted the number of panes in the window, but you wouldn't really notice, would you?
'—One thing I never understood, he said to be original on the spur of the moment. Why they put tables upside down at night, I mean chairs upside down, on the tables in cafés. To which impromptu the neverfailing Bloom replied without a moment’s hesitation, saying straight off:
—To sweep the floor in the morning.'

I tried to sketch it from memory (I like my food hot, well not too hot, so I rarely sketch my dinner!) with a pencil and it wasn't pretty. But when I got home, I added a dash of colour and everything worked out all right.
'So anyhow in came John Wyse Nolan and Lenehan with him with a face on him as long as a late breakfast.'

Another sketcher had found a great spot to sketch on Capel Street - towards the top, across from the Black Sheep pub there is a business with a railing in front of it where you can sit down in peace without disturbing any of the passersby - good on a Sunday anyway). This was my last sketch of the day. I was pretty tired at this point, but also energised and I did this sketch in no time - a quick line drawing from right to left (and I'm not left-handed but I often sketch from right to left) and loose watercolour. I was done in less than half an hour. Sometimes, you get beyond tired and the most expressive sketches can appear on the page like magic!
'Where was that? Ah, yes. Mutoscope pictures in Capel street: for men only. Peeping Tom. Willy’s hat and what the girls did with it. Do they snapshot those girls or is it all a fake? Lingerie does it. '

Radishes

Did I mention I'm growing a few vegetables in our garden? I'm not a very talented gardener, but radishes are so easy. And pretty!
And I found the perfect Ulysses quote:
'Before and after'

Lunch

I don't usually sketch my food. But this time it was cold and I was on my own, so I decided to have a go. Quite a healthy lunch, don't you think?
No Ulysses quote this time. Sometimes vegetables are just vegetables!

Chinese, Korean and Japanese delicacies

I often say that I'm not that interested in food. I could eat the same thing (baked potato, coleslaw, cheese) every day and be happy. Yet, our trip in September/October was very food-focused. Well, I love Japanese food, so that's the easy bit. And my husband looooves food.

My previous experience with real Chinese food, many years ago, wasn't that great. But this time, my husband had done the research - actually now that I think of it, the Internet didn't really exist the last time we went to Hong Kong - maybe it existed, but there was certainly no broadband at home and I'm not sure Google existed, let alone TripAdvisor. I remember reading an article in a computer magazine at the time about the coolest websites and Google was one of them, and me and my husband were there 'yeah, we agree, it's so cool!' Now nobody even thinks about Google Search. It's just there. Also, Hong Kong hadn't been handed over back to China yet. God I'm getting old!!

And as for Korean food, I had never touched it, worried it might be too spicy for me. I had plenty opportunity to try it in New York, as any time we went, we stayed in a hotel very close to Little Korea, but it did not appeal to me and I always pushed for other food choices (all you can eat sushi was around the corner too, and that was hard to resist!).

So here we go, a brief overview of the weird and wonderful foods we tried.

Sea Cucumber soup
Sea Cucumber was on my 'try-before-you-die' list. Now I can say I've eaten it. Never need to do it ever again. Not much of a taste. It's an interesting texture. The two things that go against it from my perspective are 1. it doesn't look appetising - I won't say it - you just have to look at the picture below; and 2. it's really hard to grab with chopsticks!

Jellyfish (it's the one at the end)
Jellyfish, on the other hand, was delicious. On the occasion below, it was with a chilli sauce. There is a bite to it, which I didn't expect. This was in Hong Kong, but we had jellyfish again in Japan and it was delicious too.

Baby Tako Yaki
I feel bad for the baby octopus, but you can't go to Ōsaka and not eat tako yaki!

Tako Wasabi
I wonder is that the right picture, or is this Japanese jellyfish? We had both at the same meal in an izakaya. Both were yummy. Tako means octopus. And wasabi is the spicy green Japanese sauce.

Dim sums for breakfast
Sets you up for the day!

Salmon Roe (ikura, イクラ)
I love the pop of salmon roe on my tongue. I could eat it all day (it would be nice on top of baked potato, actually!)

Shaved ice with sweet beans

It was still hot in Japan, so I had to try one of these! So refreshing!

Tofu and other goodies

I love how you can order set meals in Japan, so you might order tofu, but you also get tempura, salad, miso soup, rice, and pickles. We tried many different varieties. On one occasion, I even tried yuba, which was delicious too.

Okonomiyaki

Again, you can't go to Ōsaka without trying okonomiyaki (it sounds like a difficult word, but once you've tasted it, it will roll off your tongue - just try to say each syllable on its own slowly o-ko-no-mi-ya-ki and then faster and faster). It's a kind of omelette, with cabbage, seafood and all sorts of yummy things (I'm trying to alternate between yummy and delicious - I could also go for oishii, the Japanese equivalent! - My food vocabulary isn't very extensive, this is why I'm not a food critic!)

Bibimbap
Onto Korea now. Well, we only had two full days there, so I had bibimbap, bibimbap, and bibimbap again (forgot to take a photo of the first one, but it's in one of my sketchbooks). It's a kind of mix of rice, vegetables, sour hot cabbage and sometimes egg. The one at the top was brought in a big earthenware dish and the rice continued to cook against the bottom and sides of the dish, making it crispy and even tastier. As the chilli sauce was served on the side, mine was quite mild. The one below was an octopus bibimbap - it was spicy, probably the spiciest food I've ever eaten (apart from my first time eating Indian in London - it put me off Indian food for years), but the soy bean accompaniment tempered the spiciness. It was a small restaurant near the entrance to the palace near the City Hall in Seoul, we were the only westerners there, there was no English spoken, except for the basic menu, and I can say that after eating there, I felt ready to convert to Korean food!

Any dessert with sago in it!
This one was particularly spectacular (in Hong Kong), but I love sago. I tasted it for the first time on a short Cathay Pacific flight between Taiwan and Hong Kong, a long time ago, even before that trip I mention earlier in this post, and I still remember how happy it made me feel!

It's Snails, Jim, but not as we know it.

I still have lots of bits about Japan that I wanted to share with you, but at this stage, I'm barely keeping up with day-to-day life, so it's going to have to be quick!

If you're squeamish about your food, leave this page. But it's probably too late already, as your eye has glanced down the page and seen the pictures below!

I am Belgian. I have been eating snails all my life. I have eaten lamb's brains, and frogs' legs, and plenty other delicacies!

But a snail this big? Never! My Japanese friend was keen that we try foods that we might not know to order on our own! I have to admit that when I pulled the snail out of its shell, the dangly bits didn't look too appetising to me! So what did I do? I ate it of course, starting with the dangly bits, which were actually the tastiest, softest part of the whole thing - the foot was a little chewy, but I managed - with the help of a glug of umeshū! I'm glad I tried it. Would I order it again? 多分

A few days later, we were presented with another snail, much smaller and daintier. おいしい

Matcha everything

Starbucks have made Matcha Latte popular around the world. But when you go to Japan, it's Matcha everything you can dream of! Here are the versions we had:

Matcha icecream

Traditional matcha with wagashi (or you can have coffee and cake if you prefer!)

Matcha kitkat - it was surprisingly delicious! I want more!

Our own vegetables

We're not gardeners. I used to grow flowers in pots and they did well, but 10 years ago, we changed our back garden to a decking, and we wanted to keep it sleek and modern. So all the pots were got rid of.

cucumber and gherkin plants

In the last few years, a friend tried to make gardeners of us, giving us tools, plants, but nothing worked. We were just not into it.
But this summer was different. We got the free little seed pots that Lidl were giving away when you spent €40 or more. They were so cute I couldn't resist! Some didn't work out (lamb's lettuce, rocket). But with the wonderful summer we had, a few things thrived,  like the mixed lettuce and the parsley. What gave us joy in particular were the cucumbers and gherkins - it was wonderful to see them grow, spread their leaves, extend their tendrils, offer their flowers to the bees (bumble bees mostly) and then to see the fruit expanding day by day! It wasn't a huge crop - you can't really talk of a harvest, but it was exciting all the same. So far, one good cucumber, four gherkins, with a few more potentials, if only the weather can brighten up again. It's been so much fun. We'll have to try again next year!

our own mixed lettuce, parsley and cucumber!

2 gherkins and 1 cucumber

Pickling gherkins was a lot easier than we thought (well, I just watched!). We'll know in a week or so if they are good. We tasted them before pickling and they were very tasty already.  A lot of effort just for one jar? It was all worth it!

Favourite Foods

I'm not a foodie. But I love eating. And I need to eat regularly. Or I get cranky.

So I made sure I took every opportunity to eat while in Porto. It's not hard. There are restaurants everywhere.

For breakfast, I got a few things in the nearby mini-market - so I had green tea, yogurt, blueberries, banana, rice cakes and a square of dark chocolate. A good way to start the day.

Lunches were mostly rushed during the symposium, as we were going from workshop to workshop/sketchwalk. 

Dinners, we had a bit more time. We ate well every day, despite minimum Tripadvisor research in advance!!

DaTerra vegetarian and vegan restaurant, on the ground floor of my building. Noisy, and staff can be a bit stressed at times, but the food was simple and tasty. And it's an all-you-can-eat buffet at lunch and dinner during the week. 

Tram Restaurante, just beside the tram, lovely terrace shaded by a big tree, nice service. Delicious food. Sardines bruschetta starter!

And then I had a main course of octopus and potatoes and salad. A good lunch! Despite my love of octopus, I was able to eat this! It was perfectly cooked. Firm but tender.

I wasn't sure of the name of this place. It's a little restaurant on the little praça just below the Alfândega do Porto, our hub for the Urban Sketchers Symposium. According to Google Maps it's called Casa Mara. The owners were a bit stressed as every chair was taken by hungry sketchers. But the food was lovely, and very good value. We wanted to eat there one evening, but they were closing. Maybe they were sold out. And they feed the local felines, including a beautiful Siamese cat. In this picture, sardines and rice.

This wasn't the best meal of the holiday, but it did the job - chicken, rice and crisps. I was hungry. It filled my tummy. Somewhere near Rua das Flores. A pork restaurant. Friendly and good value. The power kept going off.

Back to DaTerra for a lunch on my own. I needed a break from all the talking. I actually found the food better at lunch. And I had an Eddy Veggie green drink that pepped me up.

Taberna do barqueiro - this became my favourite restaurant in Porto. We wanted dinner in Casa Mara but they were not serving food in the evening, so we went literally across the lane. This turned out to be delicious. I had octopus and rice that evening. Pat had the seafood pasta, which looked divine. With a glass of vinho verde, the perfect end to the day. And good value too.

Back to Taberna do Barqueiro - octopus and salad. I had sardines and salad another lunchtime and it was equally delicious. And on the last day of the symposium the chef brought pastries to Shari Blaukopf and her students, who had been sketching in the lane right behind the taberna.

Not my best picture, but this is Taberna do Barqueiro - the yellow building with the red window frames. Small, but perfect.

For our last night, we found a more upmarket restaurant, Restaurante LSD (don't ask, I have no idea).  On the little praça at the bottom of rua das Flores. There was no room at the terrace, so we ate indoors. Some had fish, others had meat. I went for a vegetarian dish - peas, barley, asparagus and other bits and pieces. It was delicious, and still amazing value.

I couldn't end this post without mentioning pasteis de nata (pastel de nata is the singular, pasteis de nata is the plural). A sweet pastry with custard. Delicious at any time of the day or night! And I was able to buy a box of six at the airport to bring home to my husband!

La Cocotte

It was cold in town on Saturday. The David Bowie lithograph exhibition at Gallery X was disappointing. It's amazing, though, the power of dead celebrity.  It got an excellent review in the Times and Sunday Times Ireland edition. If I drew a self-portrait like that, I would be the first to say it's not a great likeness (although it does capture some of the essence). I'm not saying he wasn't a talented visual artist. I'm just saying I think his music is better than his paintings, and if he hadn't been so well-known, nobody would be looking at these prints.

When we go into town, we sometimes go for a bite to eat at La Cocotte, the café/restaurant in the Alliance Française. Today, it was full of parents with their children. Mostly French or half-French and there for their Saturday morning classes. Studying Grammar, Spelling, Vocabulary, I guess. All these things they'll need some day.

We always enjoy the food. BB tends to go for boeuf bourguignon, while I try different things. Today it was meatballs in tomato sauce. I chose the healthy option, though, salad instead of chips. And felt very self-righteous! Although I did steal a few chips from across the table!

I had my pens with me, so I did a quick sketch of BB across the table as he was checking something on his phone.

Palm Oil in Côte d'Or Noir Truffé - We're doomed

Palm oil seems to be in everything these days. In the last hour (this blog post was written a few weeks ago - I am NOT travelling again!), I've seen it listed in every single brand of Belgian chocolate at Brussels airport, and in my ham and cheese croissant on the Ryanair flight. I haven't looked at the list of ingredients in the face cream I bought in the duty free, but I'm worried.

How can I find chocolate without palm oil? I love chocolate, but instead of buying my usual supply, I only bought one bar. And this was my last Ryanair ham and cheese croissant. Sigh! They were delicious.

I just refuse to contribute further to the cutting and burning of rain forests, which lead to the death of whole species, including the orangutans.

And I'm not sure I can believe the "sustainable palm oil" label. So I'll do my best to eliminate anything that says palm oil in the ingredients. Not so easy, as I've just discovered an article listing all the names used on labels to name palm oil!

And I haven't even looked at the label on my shampoo and conditioner! But I did check some yummy soaps I bought last Christmas, and they won't be on my list again next year!

How much impact will my actions have on the world? Probably none if I'm the only one who cares. But I do hope things will change. Otherwise, it will be a bleak world for the next generation. Not that they seem to care much themselves. We're doomed!

Read more here!

Venice Food 2

Completist that I am, I have to show you the rest of our food photos from Venice. Some of them are a little dark as one of the restaurants had more of a romantic, candle-lit, theme going.

Ciabatta at Bar da Gino in Dorsoduro. We didn't feel up to a big meal that evening. But we found that portions were more than generous in this lovely little place, which is open from 6 am to midnight, so you can start with coffee and a croissant, have lunch, say a ciabatta, a hot chocolate in the afternoon, then an early evening glass of wine before you have your pizza for dinner!

The rest of the photos are all from a restaurant called La Calcina. It's also a hotel. And most of the patrons appeared to be French. None of the pictures below do justice to the food, which was absolutely gorgeous. A combination of low light and hunger meant that by the time we'd remember to take a photo, we had already taken a bite or two of our food! In the summer, they have a big terrace on the Guidecca canal, La Piscina - a lovely cool spot on a hot summer's day, I'd imagine. In the winter, the dining room was cosy and the service impeccable!

Porcini soup with croutons

Venician liver and onion, with polenta on top

Osso buco (half eaten) 

Spaghetti vongole

Milanese veal

Fritto Misto

Venice Food 1

Impossible to go to Italy and not put on a little bit of weight! Every meal was a feast. We didn't even have pizza once. And dessert only twice (1 panacotta and 1 tiramisu, and we even forgot to photograph them!). We had a special request for photographs of our food. We did our best!

Barely arrived, and eating like queens already. Cantinone Storico.

A mixed starter, with polenta, octopus salad, cod purée and sardines, onion and pine nut salad (sarde in saor). With the bread, that would have done me for lunch! But I had already ordered a main course. Ah well!

Seafood Soup - messy to eat but delicious

Spaghetti vongole

Breakfast buffet - I became addicted to croissants with ham and cheese! Great breakfast at our hotel, American Dinesen

Aperitif - and that was only lunchtime. Great menu del giorno at Antica Sacrestia!

The lightest lasagna I've ever eaten

Spaghetti pomodoro - yes that was a starter portion!

Main course of Fritto Misto (fish, calamari, prawns). It came with the mixed vegetables too.

At €20 a glass, we didn't do this everyday. But you have to try Harry's Bar's Bellinis once in your life!