Washington, DC

Stayman apple from Eastern Market (TNT #29) was soft but the chicken empanada (TNT #30) from a nearby stall was tasty. Overall the market was a lot smaller than expected.

Vancouver Eats

A 10-day trip to the Vancouver International Film Festival allowed me to see some excellent films at an amazing festival, and enjoy some great Chinese food and patisserie, as well as try so many new things.

From left to right, top to bottom: Pistachio kirsch cake from Thomas Haas, self-saucing hotdog model outside my hostel, buffet lunch from Saravanaa Bhavan, hazelnut cake from Boulangerie La Parisienne, honey cake from T&T, cumin beef flatbread from Peaceful (TNT #23), oroshi hotdog from Japadog (TNT #24), cold handpulled noodles from Peaceful, cold spicy pickled cucumber and tofu skin from T&T, amazing croissant and Goyave et Fraises from Ganache Patisserie, pates from Oyama (TNT #25), Burmese tea leaf salad and satay from Bo Laksa King's Bubbles and Bits (TNT #26).

Not pictured are a Clover coffee from Caffe Artigiano (TNT #27) and poutine from Fritz (TNT #28).

TNT #12: Gooseberries

Gooseberry icecream from the USDA Farmer's Market along with a Jamaican beef patty made a quick lunch on a stiflingly hot humid day. Gooseberries were refreshingly tart.

Boston: Bun Rieu (TNT #4) and Cannoli (TNT #5)

Another work trip, more opportunities to eat.

I very much prefer menu-based dim sum versus the traditional cart dim sum so was looking forward to trying Winsor Dim Sum. The salt and pepper squid was well fried, the stuffed eggplant piping hot and creamy, and the steamed spinach shrimp dumplings a change from the usual. Skins on the last were a tad brittle when hot, but otherwise a great meal. The stylish square white plates and plating of the squid was a pleasant surprise.

I've been dying to try bun rieu after reading about it on Wandering Chopsticks. Xinh Xinh's version was not spicy at all and lacked the afore-mentioned snails, but was very tasty and steaming hot on a cold day. A good change from pho.

I hate to admit this but several meals were eaten at the Prudential food court. These were actually surprisingly tasty. Masala dosa, samosas and keema naan from Gourmet India were freshly made and well-spiced. The breads were fluffy, light and delicious. Rotisserie chicken filled a need for comfort food. Other chain food was a breakfast sandwich (ham, cheese and egg on a plain toasted bagel) from the ubiquitous Dunkin Donuts. Perfect for dinner.

A cold Sunday night took me to the North End to sample cannoli. The long lines outside Modern Pastry and Mike's were unexpected, as were the sheer number of cafes in the North End. Plain cannoli with ricotta and chocolate-dipped with vanilla custard were ordered, carried back to the hotel and sampled. I guess I just don't like cannoli as these were boring after one bite, and way too rich.

Snacks included tea, hazelnut gelato and a coconut bun. Canned octopus with everything bagel was a cheap dinner one night.

Chicago: Lebekase (TNT #37), Beard Papa (TNT #38) and Samosa Chaat (TNT #39)

Can you spot me in this only-in-Chicago photo?

A quick three day trip over the Christmas break to Chicago allowed me to add to my TNT count but despite this last minute valiant effort, I am definitely not going to reach my goal of 52 new things in a year. Never mind, this remains a goal for 2010. Hopefully this trip to Chicago will lead to several 2010 TNTs as grocery purchases lead to more new recipes and ingredients.

Lebekase on the last day of the 2009 Christkindlmarkt was less Spam-like and salty than expected. Bread roll was overly soft and nothing like real German brotchen. Next up was a plain Beard Papa cream puff with original vanilla filling. The choux pastry was extremely light fluffy, the cream filling runnier than expected, leading to chin-drippage. Excellent and the lightness of the choux makes them very moreish. I was so lucky to be here the week the Chicago branch opened.
A Christmas day visit to Devon Ave for some grocery shopping led to a quick samosa chaat at Sukhadia's. Super hot and a surprising (to me) mix of hot samosa, cold yoghurt and lots of crunchy toppings, this was a delicious snack.

Other meals:
Braised chicken and mushroom in bamboo and dan dan noodles from Spring World. Very herbal chicken and seven kinds of mushrooms promised multiple health benefits but was a bit too much after a while. Bamboo cane presentation and rustic dinnerware was pretty cool. Loved the dan dan noodles which became another night's dinner.

Various dim sum dishes from "Little" Three Happiness. The fried shrimp paste and taro dish was the most unusual and best offering. Cheap and satisfied a dim sum craving without the crowds on Christmas day.

Pork stew in red chile at Nuevo Leon. My first trip to Pilsen will not be my last. Great tortillas and salsas. Huge platters of food at this packed restaurant. Super tender pork and great pickled carrot.

Finally a visit to the French Market to stock up for the train ride back home. A sandwich campagne from Pastoral was a bit salty but delicious. Chocolate croissant from Vanille Patisserie was appropriately flaky but could have been more buttery. Lots of very tempting stores but at this point I was trying to conserve calories and money.

All in all a very fruitful trip although no fruit was actually consumed.

Minneapolis: Lefse and walleye (TNT #28 & 29)

A work trip to Minneapolis added another two Midwestern specialities to the TNT list. Served with jam by our excellent hosts, lefse was pleasant but not too exciting. Walleye was another mild white fish.

A day to recreate after the meeting allowed me to go to Mill City farmer's market where I had an amazing French toast topped with strips of apple that cut the richness well, plus a bratwurst. Delicious. Lots of cheese but a long travel day meant no shopping.

Also had the opportunity to try the cafe at the Target Center. Surprisingly tasty with healthy Archer Farm salads and wraps for a low price.

Australia: Tim Tams, pies, kangaroo (TNT #25) and barramundi (TNT #26)

Three weeks in Australia. Lots of opportunities to eat.

TNT #25: Tried kangaroo for the first time. Seemed to be fairly common at least in the Northern Territory. Tender and mild. Delicious, if not over-cooked. Eaten under the stars.

TNT #26: Also pretty common in Darwin was barramundi. In fish and chips, not a whole lot of discernable difference to this palate from a other firm white fish like cod.

A lesser-known Northern Territory speciality, the iced coffee, proved refreshing in the heat. Coffee-flavoured milk rather than coffee with milk as one might expect from the name, these were ubiquitous. A homemade version at Darwin's railway station was the only non-commercial version I had the opportunity to try. Good alternative to chocolate milk.


No trip to Australia is complete without pie. Three trips to Harry's Cafe on Wheels for a traditional peas and pie and seafood pie demonstrated why this is such an icon. The generous scoop of peas was bland on its own, but delicious when mixed with the surprisingly peppery, piping hot meat pie innards. The seafood pie was chocka with fish, prawns and surimi in a very light white sauce. No filler here.




Cake was another major food group. Loved the way all slices of cake were served with a dollop of whipped cream, even this Toblerone cheesecake. Very generous with the Toblerone which decorated the top and was incorporated in the cake as well.

New Tim Tam varieties are pretty hard to get in the US, so these Black Forest and Honeycomb Tim Tams were an exciting find. Both very sweet, the Black Forest contained a sticky inner raspberry cream filling. Honeycomb was basically bits of honeycomb embedded inside the biscuit. No real textural contrast there. Interesting but double chocolate remains my favourite.

Random snacks included Gaiety biscuits (chocolate covered wafers and this Milo ice dessert. The MIlo flavour needed to be a lot stronger. The heat led to a lot of "testing" of various ice cream bars. Weis mango and cream bars were definitely the winner with a strong mango flavour.

TNT #23: Rabbit

Home-style rabbit at Chicago's Lao Szechuan restaurant was spicy and tender. Reminiscent of chicken. Tasty but bony.

Other meals were dim sum at Shui Wah, panini at Corner Bakery and meatball and shrimp paste bun at Pho 888.

Snacking through Frankfurt and Cologne

A short 4-day trip over the Memorial Day weekend to Germany resulted in these snacks. The first, courtesy of KLM, was your basic chocolate biscuit. The espresso bar was rich, smooth and creamy. Lots of bratwurst and gelato eaten on this trip but no TNTs as I was on a budget.

Tampa: TNT #14 Jamaican food and TNT #15 cannoli

A short work trip to Tampa yielded two pretty disappointing new food experiences. My first cannoli was stale, overly sweet and filled with "creme". I was pretty excited to try Jamaican food for the first time but was disappointed to be told all the food had been toned down for American palates. Sure enought, the chicken curry was bland but filling.

London treats, TNT #10 (clotted cream) and TNT #11 (Eccles cake)

Deciding to celebrate my birthday in London this year gave me the opportunity to re-visit this fascinating city, see some excellent exhibitions and for the purposes of this blog, try some new foods and shop for chocolate!

The trip began well with a burger on a toasted bun and excellent fries from Billy Goat Tavern at O'Hare. This almost made up for missing my flight due to a delay in a connecting flight.

On this trip judicious use of Chowhound's UK board gave me (too) many places to try but I was really happy with most of my meals and most importantly got to try many new foods. No photos sadly.

No. 10 chinese restaurant : Conveniently close to my hotel this was the site for my birthday dinner. More elegantly decorated than I expected, dinner was a large bowl of water-cooked fish from the Chinese-only menu. Loved the Sichuan peppercorns in the flavourful broth and the generous chunks of fish and napa. Not as fiery as other renditions but the flavour more than made up for this. Priciest item on the menu at £12.50.

Museum cafes were overall excellent. Meals in the Victoria and Albert's magnificently decorated cafe are always a pleasure. A very good salami tart with excellent carrot and radicchio salads. A currant tart at the British Museum after the magnificent Shah Abbas exhibition was particularly memorable. Best of all was the cream tea at the National Gallery Cafe. Amazingly this was the first time I have had clotted cream. With a dollop as large as the scone served alongside it, the cream was amazingly smooth but not overly rich, as I had feared it might be.

Afternoon teas and snacks are always one of my indulgences while travelling. This trip was no exception with coffee and croissants at Paul, a lemon tart at Patisserie Valerie, surprisingly good cappuchinos at McDonald's for breakfast, a focaccia from Ottolenghi, steak and mushroom pie from Square Pie and a spicy chicken pasty from a pasty chain.

Other memorable meals were the huge and very tasty bacon sandwich from St John Bread and Wine, nasi lemak at Rasa Sayang (memorable for the blandness of its sambal) and a light gingery cold spinach plate and bowl of dan dan mein from Baozi Inn.

Borough Market: a huge and piping hot sausage roll from Ginger Pig satisfied my sausage roll cravings for the next few years. Other snacks picked up at the market were creme caramel (a light and cool dessert after the sausage roll) from Real France, an amazing Eccles cake (packed with currants in a flaky pastry and topped with crunchy sugar crystals) from Flour Station and an incredibly rich, dense wedge of chocolate tart from another stall.

Lots of chocolate and biscuit purchases as well that I'll be working my way through in the next few months...

Denver: TNT #3 Corned Beef Hash and #4 Tamales

My first visit to a deli and my first taste of tamales came on a recent work trip to Denver. Cold weather meant I didn't get round to all the restaurants I had jotted down, but please to have tried these two things anyway. No photos as I am a little wary of photographing food in restaurants.

At Zaidy's corned beef hash with scrambled eggs and an everything bagel was filling and very tasty, if a little undersalted. My first time sitting at the bar as well!

Red pork tamales smothered in green chile from Tamales at La Casita at Denver airport were tasty and spicy, if a little gloppier than expected. Great option for lunch while waiting for my plane on a wintry snowy day.

Turkish Delights

A short Thanksgiving trip to Istanbul yielded some interesting chocolates and snacks.

This dark chocolate bar promised whole pistachios, but while the chocolate was very smooth it was sadly not as replete with pistachios as I desired. Decent for chocolate cravings ate work.
An Alpella bar purchased for a quick chocolate hit while walking around the city. Love the wafer but chocolate was rather waxy.
A couple of pick and mix chocolates sold by weight. The one in the petit-four case does a great job of mimicking the flavours of Ferrero Rocher though not the complex architectural form of the Rocher.
And of course an actual box of Turkish delight or lokum from Haci Bekir, the oldest manufacturer in Istanbul. A mixed box with rose (fragrant but very sweet), plain (sweet), hazelnut (the best), pistachio (OK). Wish I had had the courage to buy the fresh pieces as they were definitely slightly softer.
Some yoghurt biscuits picked up from a local supermarket. These are delicious with rich shortbread biscuits sandwiched together with vanilla yoghurt.
Billboards all over Istanbul touting this Magnum chocolate bar finally persuaded me to buy one. Significantly more expensive than local chocolate, this bar is incredibly glossy and smooth as you can see from the photo. The fondant inside is chocolatety, sweet and creamy. Very moreish, in a "so bad for you" way.
Finally, a wrapper from a frequent stop on my travels...

Baltimore eats

Not a whole lot to report from this brief work/vacation trip. Just a scrumptious smoked pork loinpie from the Baltimore Public Market. Very rich and plenty for two meals.

Sandwich and cake

A mozzarella sandwich on crusty bread and a slice of strawberry cake make a perfect lunch in the shady grounds of Schloss Benrath, Dusseldorf.

Philadelphia Interlude

A long weekend in Philly allowed me to get some decent food for a change. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of the restaurant where I had my first meal on arrival on a wet rainy day, but the cart selection was decent. Har kau, har mai cheong, gai lan, chive shrimp dumplings, different shrimp dumplings, unusual chrysanthemum greens and shrimp dumplings made a good, if slightly greasy lunch. Other good meals included:

Banana Leaf: Had dinner here twice after convincing my colleagues to eat here the night after I visited for a solo dinner. The poh pia and assam laksa were great, flavourful and authentic. The beef rendang a little less aromatic than desirable, but my friend's nasi lemak looked fantastic. Prices were very reasonable too. It was packed the second night.

Rangoon: A quick lunch in this very nice restaurant was my first experience of Burmese food. I love noodle soups and the festival fish noodle soup was spicy and just right for a cold winter day.

Other memorable meals include a chicken, apple and brie sandwich in Terminal E and an airy vanilla custard tart from a Chinatown bakery. Also forced myself to down some rosemary honey goat milk and cactus pear gelato from Capogiro.

Tea and cake

There are two types of kuih lapis that I know of: Nonya and Indonesian. Both share the basic chararcteristic of discernable layers, hence their name which means "layer cake". However the first consists of steamed layers of rice flour, sugar and coconut cream, whereas the Indonesian version is a more tradtional baked version, but with spices including cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, mace and possibly saffron. Both are steamed or baked in layers, making them a major pain in the rear end to make. The Indonesian version is also traditionally an expensive luxury, whereas the other is easily and cheaply available in Malaysia and Singapore. Both evoke strong memories of my childhood. Kuih lapis was and is my favourite Nonya kueh, and I spent many happy hours slowly peeling the many layers. The Indonesian version I associate with my grandfather who lived in Indonesia and would bring these back for us. This was a much rarer treat.

All this leads up to today's afternoon tea which included a slice of kuih lapis purchased in Rotterdam on a recent trip. This was a factory-baked rather than homebaked version, so lacks the rich butteriness and strong spice aroma I associate with this cake. However the spice profile was spot on, and was sufficient to bring back many memories. In general I was surprised by the amount of Indonesian foods even in mainstream Dutch grocery stores, with many types of kropok, spice pastes, boil in the bag lemongrass-flavored rice, bami goreng and other fried noodles in the ready to eat section.

Quebec City and Ottawa Eats

Just a few photos from a recent trip. Ate lots more including gelato and pastries, but sadly no photos of those.

Seattle: restaurants

Just a few of the places I ate at while in Seattle. No photos as I don't want to take photos in restaurants. In general I had good and unusual meals, proving that research does pay off. My one regret is despite trying three bahn mi from three different places (Uwajimaya, Pike Place Market and Saigon Deli) I didn't find a good one. Fortunately bahn mi are like French fries in one respect - even the not so good ones are pretty tasty.

Fu Lin (512 S. King St): my first experience of ramen ever was at this restaurant combining various ramen with traditional Cantonese dishes. A tonkatsu charsiu ramen was topped with pleasantly unfatty charsiu slices, bean sprouts, sesame seeds and bamboo shoots. Fresh noodles which actually managed to replicate the texture of instant ramen floated in a milky if salty broth. An interesting experience that left me interested in trying more ramen.

Jewel of India (4735 University Way NE): another quick buffet lunch after a visit to the University of Washington. I liked how moist their tandoori chicken was, not easy to achieve in a buffet, and how everyone gets a freshly baked naan. Vegetarian dishes were ungreasy and not too creamy and rich.

Malay Satay Hut (12th Ave): my fault for not ordering the eponymous satay, but the chef's special of mee siam on the blackboard sounded too tempting. This was an unusually dry version without the sauce which traditionally makes this dish unique. Beehoon fried with chilli, tau pok, shrimp, sprouts and topped with hard-boiled eggs is tasty but without sauce this is not mee siam!

Pho Than Brothers (Broadway): a pho tai and choux puff was delivered with speedy efficiency with the usual accompaniments of rau ram, lime, jalepeno and sprouts. A quick, tasty and cheap meal after a visit to the Seattle Asian Art Musuem and Volunteer Park Conservatory.

Purple Dot Cafe (515 Maynard Ave): pleasant and obliging servers made a dim sum lunch here more enjoyable. With some unusual dishes such as three mushroom cheung fun, which unfortunately I didn't see till after I ordered, I was content with har gow, chiuchao fun guo, wu tau ko and dou miao dumplings with an unusual green-colored skin with visible strands of sprouts in the skin as well as the filling. All dishes were OK, though the skins of the dou miao dumplings were a little mushy from being over steamed. A more modern setting of stainless steel, purple and yellow.

Seven Stars Pepper (1207 S. Jackson): I visited this restaurant on the 12th/Jackson Vietnamese restaurant hub twice for dinner. Staff were very nice and friendly both times. A huge vat of fish tofu was my first meal. A fiery looking red broth covered an immense quantity of napa, fish pieces and tofu, topped with dried chillies, coriander, green onions and bamboo pieces. This was mildly numbing indicating the presence of Szechuan peppers, but nowhere near as spicy as expected, though the heat does sneak up on you gradually. This was delicious and I ate way too much of it, though there was enough for breakfast the next morning. The second dinner was for a dish of cumin lamb. My first experience of this dish, it was flavorful and sneakily spicy, though again not extremely so. Excellent.

Shanghai Garden (524 Sixth Ave S.): my first taste of handshaven noodles with the house special barleygreen chow mein. This reminded me strongly of pasta and was a tasty mix of light green, irregularly shaped noodles with shrimp, squid, carrot and egg. Very moreish and definitely comfort food.

Tropics (606 S Weller St): roti canai was way too oily and the accompanying curry sauce was overly sweet. Har mok was a huge bowl of mussels, shrimp, fish and squid topping napa steamed with egg and curry paste. A good rendition, though a request for hot didn't really result in much heat.

Seattle: bakeries

Le Panier

Pain au raisin: one of my favourite basic French pastries which is so hard to find in the U.S. This was a staple of our French bakery purchases back home in Auckland. This version was very flakey though not as buttery as I would prefer. Still excellent, especially when eaten sitting on a bench at Victor Steinbrueck Park watching the ferries coming and going on Elliott Bay.

Croissant au fromboise: very flaky as croissants should be, but intensely messy as the jam squirted everywhere.

Sandwiche avec pate de campagne was pleasantly reminiscent of the sandwiches found everywhere in Paris.

Chocolate macaron: my first taste of a macaron, this was pleasantly, not overly, sweet. The outer shell was soft and cakey and the ganache very chocolately. A good first experience.



A Piece of Cake

A hot dog bun, from this bakery in the International District was breakfast twice. With soft and slightly sweet bread in the Chinese style, this was a very good rendition of this classic.

Three Girls Bakery

A raspberry scone had a good texture and good balance of richness from the scone and tarness from the raspberry. The amount of flakes covering my clothing after I have eaten a croissant are pretty much how I judge croissants. This almond croissant was not messy enough by this measure.

Chocolate drop: a rich chocolate ganache on top of a shortbread-like base, this looked so beautiful, but was a little too sweet and rich for my tastes.








Dahlia Bakery

Coconut pie bite: this is an amazing pastry - creamy, not too sweet though not much coconut flavor, with an excellent contrast between the creamy filling and the shards of chocolate/coconut. As you can see it is also beautiful.





Meringue tart: the very rich, slightly sweetened caramelized meringue was a great contrast to the tart very lemony curd underneath. The caramelization added extra flavors and sweetness and is so beautiful. It's hard to tell from the photo but the meringue was about 2 inches high. I ended up deconstructing the meringue, and only eating about half of it as it was just too rich. Declicious when eaten alone the next morning.

The Crumpet Shop

A toasted crumpet with manchego is not the most traditional of toppings but was very good. The crumpet was a little denser than expected, but as my only previous experience of crumpets are grocery store crumpets back in New Zealand which are much lighter and fluffier, this may be normal. This is a very pleasant store with the crumpet baker and baking clearly visible from the dining area. It also sells all kinds of tea, honey and British goods such as Marmite.

Gelatiamo

Not a bakery but as I sampled the tiramisu from here rather than their gelato, I'll write about it here. This was my belated birthday cake and so I was a little disappointed. While it looked very pretty, the cake was a tad dry. My fault probably for buying it at 6pm.