Amedama on the Go Go

Alphonso Mango

I apologize again for going MIA but I have a good excuse.  I've been in India and have lots to tell you about.  Specifically, I've been in Mumbai (Bombay) and Kerala.  I kept asking friends before I left if I'd be there in time to taste the famed Alphonso Mango and I kept hearing conflicting reports.  Mumbaikars now living in London were telling me "No, it's too early",  and others saying, "Yes, and bring me back a box!" 

KaDeWe

KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens or Department Store of the West) is a Berlin Institution.  One of their biggest and best department stores, you can browse for makeup, accessories, clothing, household goods, and books.  But far and away the best reason for a visit to KaDeWe  is to wander around its massive food floor. 

Eating Berlin

I mentioned previously that I don't think Berlin is a great food city but there are some interesting things that one ought to try while in Berlin.

Goodies

I am a big fan of St John Bread and Wine.  I love the casual atmosphere and the serious attention to produce and quality of product at this offshoot of St John in Smithfield.

Bread and Wine is located in Spitalfield (East London) and is on my regular rotation of restaurants I frequent.  They never fail to bring what is in season and best about UK terroir to the table. 

But my reason for writing about them today is not the well hung game, or their unbelievably delicious vegetables and salads, or even the interesting cuts or breeds of meat they regularly put on the menu.  It's the bakery.  I'll often stop by to pick up a loaf of sourdough or perhaps an eccles cake with lancashire cheese and a seed cake to take home and enjoy.  They also usually have various other baked goods and yesterday I saw, for the first time, custard cream donuts.  I should have taken a picture of it because one glance at the sugar coated puff ball with custard oozing out the side screamed luscious.  But it didn't even make it home.  Mr M and I devoured it in the car. 

The donut itself is perfect, not too dense but definitely substantial.  And the cream is rather heavenly.  Pale yellow, generously flecked with vanilla, thick and absolutely lovely.  Together, the combination is extraordinary.  What every custard cream donut wishes it could be.

I can't promise you that they'll have baked more today... but you can take a chance if you are anywhere near East London.  Even if they don't have these scrumptious donuts, they always have other goodies to choose from.  Just walk up to the window in the back of the dining room and choose from the selection they have laid out.  I think, not knowing what freshly baked surprise might be waiting for you is half the fun.  I just can't be responsible if stopping at this place becomes as much a habit for you as it is for me.

St John Bread and Wine 94-96 Commercial Street London,  +44 (0) 20 7251 0848 

2 days to Christmas - Christmas Dinner

I've been in the kitchen for the last twenty-four hours.  Since I won't be in London on Christmas day, the English half of my family came over for Christmas dinner today.  I have a tried and trusted method for cooking turkey.  I might go for a different stuffing, or combination of herbs, possibly use a glaze, but I always brine, spatchcock, and then high heat roast my turkey.

5 days to Christmas - Cranberry Sauce

Five days before Christmas means that if you are cooking Christmas Dinner and haven't made your Cranberry Sauce, this would be the perfect time to do it (that's if you haven't already made it).  Cranberry Sauce is usually better if you make it ahead and let the flavors develop.  I just made mine last night

The recipe I used this year is anything but subtle.  Its more of a Cranberry and Ginger sauce as the ginger is as big an element in the taste of this sauce as the cranberries are.  If you are a fan of ginger, then this is a recipe you'll definitely want to try.  It goes perfectly with Turkey.

Beard Papa's Update

Beard Papa's is on the Southeast corner of Oxford and Berwick streets.  They had run out of filled chou cremes when I arrived so they freshly filled, weighed, packed, and then handed me my box of five.  On immediate bite the chou pastry was a bit dry and I thought that these little parcels of deliciousness could do with some sitting around so that the cream had time to soften the inner pastry.

I was right, its a few hours from when I first bought the chou cremes and they are now perfect.  And its a good thing I went to check because I walked into the kitchen to find that Mr. M has been busy inspecting the pastries.  I had to grab one before the rest disappeared.

Beard Papa's in London!

Do you know what country makes the best chou cremes (cream puffs) in the world?  If you said France, you'd be wrong.  The Japanese have tweaked the individual components of the chou creme and created a thick golden custard, flecked with vanilla beans, encased in a light airy puff pastry that still manages to be creamy yet, never sodden from the cream.

Just as they do with so many other products they import from other cultures, the Japanese have taken the chou creme and perfected it.

Message for Wallace and Grommit

For the cheese lovers in London, I just got this announcement:

AN EVENING OF CHEESE

AT

BOROUGH MARKET

To celebrate the fabulous range of cheeses to be found at Borough market, Neal’s Yard Dairy is organizing an evening of

European cheese.

On Thursday December 14^th from 5-8pm all the Borough cheesemongers will be in the newly refurbished Jubilee Market (opposite Fish! restaurant) to talk about, sample and sell their cheeses.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THOSE PRESENT WILL INCLUDE:

Boerenkaas:  We specialise in importing the very best examples of artisan-produced Dutch farmhouse cheeses into the

United Kingdom

.

Borough Cheese Company: Hand selected Comte from the

Franche-Comte

.

Bourne's

Cheshire

: Their aim is to produce a cheese much closer in flavour and texture to the great

Cheshire

's of years ago, rather than the modern industrially processed style of mild and crumbly.

Brindisa: Brindisa brings you raw milk Manchego from a family dairy in

Cuenca

, another from a cooperative dairy in

Ciudad Real

and the best Vicente Pastor cheese from

Zamora

.

Gastronomica: "Cheese never sleeps"

Gorwydd Caerphilly:  A mature caerphilly made to a traditional recipe, using raw unpasteurised milk and GM-free vegetarian rennet.

KäseSwiss: Traditional farmhouse cheese from

Switzerland

.

Loch & Glen: Humphrey Errington's cheeses, including Lanark Blue, and small cloth-wrapped truckles of Isle of Mull Cheddar.

Mons

: Fromager affineur and cheesemongers mature and sell cheeses sourced mainly in

France

.

Neals Yard Dairy: Traditional Farmhouse cheeses from the British Isles and

Ireland

.

Northumberland Cheese Co:  Cheeses from our Dairy in Blagdon.

Pays d’Auge Fromages: Enjoy a tour of

France

in 150 artisan cheeses. All our cheeses are hand selected every week in

France

and brought back to

England

at the peak of flavour.

Philip Crouch:.

Buffalo

milk mozzarella hand made by Nicola d’Aponte on the small Caseificio Stella in

Fisciano

,

Campania

.

Rainha Santa Portuguese Foods: Portuguese PDO and regional cheeses from artisans and cooperatives.

Real

France

:  French AOC unsalted & demi-sel Echire Butter.

Rennet and Press: Classic British farmhouse cheeses.

The Parmesan Cheese Company: Made on a small mountain dairy in the Parma Appenines, our Parmesan is organically produced and aged for 30 months. Unusually, it is made from the milk of Swiss Brown cows and is deliciously sweet and soft.

Villanova: Pecorino Sardo’s many guises have been enjoyed across

Italy

for centuries, as the world gets smaller these beautiful cheeses are gaining notoriety further a field.

WO & DL: A washed rind, semi-hard cows milk cheese made from unpasteurised Jersey milk and traditional rennet, made on the

Montgomery

farm in north Cadbury in collaboration with William Oglethorpe.

Where be Sullivan Street Bakery?

During the years I lived in New York, Sullivan St. was visited quite frequently by me.  Originally, it was to visit the Sullivan Street Bakery but along the way a yogurt maker from the outer boroughs opened a shop next door and then the street became one of my favorite snack spots in the city.