The Sugar Bar

It’s time - time for making new year’s resolutions. I haven’t made any lists or any resolutions (officially) for a while now. If I had, they were just kinda a rough ideas formed -sorta- in my head, or a mish-mash of old and new resolutions, easily forgotten, easily dismembered into something else completely. Not much substance, not much thought given to it, not much of an effort really.

Now someone tell me that’s so lazy?

2009 was one of the best years. The middle of it marked the end of my (and a fairly successful one at that) undergrad life, witnessed the most amazing graduation and grad ball, a little romance, crazy Spain holiday, sophisticated Parisian trip, lots of sun and the best tan I’ve ever in my entire 22 years achieved, a little heartache, lots of eating and birthday fun, etc. So much happened, and oh blimey! Lady Gaga was born; so much was learnt I can barely attempt to describe what I got out of the year, the crazy antics that occurred, the jokes that were told, the food that was cooked.

Everyone’s a little more mature, or more mad, more enthusiastic, a little more on their way to achieving their goals. Although it’s sad to turn around and look at your past selves, the ghosts of you, I can safely say I regret none of the things that I’ve experienced or done. The years and the selves that make you YOU are all bits of you. 2010 may mean I shall look back to see a younger Diva fussing and fiddling about to find her way; and sometimes the past self is just a little bit unrecognizable or embarrassing to acknowledge. Nonetheless, I am accepting all the ghosts of me and taking them with me in the back of my mind and heart to welcome 2010.

And with that, here are just some things I noted down as reminder to myself ~ 9 resolutions. A bit much? Nah. They ain’t too tedious so they’re all a bit of fun anyway. What about you, any resolutions for the coming new year? I’m sure you’ve got some. Now don’t be lazy and whip out your list!

2010 Resolutions
1. Learn to start brushing my hair. Beach frizz, bedhead, volumatic poofs are great but surely it wouldn’t hurt me to have a little sleekness next year?

2. Make more of an effort -the motto for all things: with keeping in touch with old friends, with cooking, with work, with my writing, etc.

3. As much as the big city sometimes upsets me, attempt to get to know London a lot better. I’ll start by eating through this city of smoke (and also shopping through its great vintage finds). And oh yea, don’t forget to take my camera out with me even if it’s for a little stroll. It’s the new fashion statement, hung around your neck or held between two icy cold bare hands.

4. Look after my health and fight off dehydration. Water’s your best friend and your only friend sometimes.

5. Promote optimism - I’m not mad and even if I am, it’s a good mad - it’s creativity. She says.

6. This is totally cringe-worthy and virtually everyone I know, when asked to write a list of new year’s resolutions, bangs this one out. Time management. You just gotta say it. Every year I’m fighting against time as I take on more things to do, as I refine my goals and dreams, this bugger’s gonna be stuck to me and to my list for years to come.

7. Visit more food markets; actually, no. VISIT FOOD MARKETS. I haven’t done any of that ever since I moved to London. Too busy for fresh food shopping, too tired to cook anything fresh. It’s a horrid lifestyle. Totally gotta change that.

8. Shop smart for train tickets. Book in advance (way in advance if I can) or use megatrain to get regular Virgin train tickets for embarrassingly cheap tickets.

9. Get more involved in recyclable fashion and chuck less stuff out. I’m getting used to scoring at vintage shops, Oxfam and ripping and re-tying old things for a new look. It’s fun and stops my brain going belly-up from too much academia.

•••

Serious stuff done, let me share some food eye candy with you.

Napolean Tea & Caramel macaron, Moroccan Mint Tea macaron; Sakura Sakura! Tea, Jade Blossom Tea at TWG Salon, ION @ Singapore

The Christmas holiday was well spent and our Christmas roast (prepared, executed and served by moi with some help from the sisters; grocery shopping was team effort with Mum; turkey carving was left to Daddee) a true 2009 success, topping all our other roasts from previous years. I think when Mum’s eyes lit up from the moistness of the turkey, I achieved my first shining Mama-chelin star. So chuffed.

Unfortunately, not many photographs were taken this time round. My camera battery was low and wallybrain me had decided to leave it in my flat - who does that?! But it was glorious and there couldn’t have been a better way to spend Christmas family time. At TWG Tea Salon, we didn’t take much either as we were literally quivering with fear as we’d heard rumours about a no-photography policy. When we did gather our courage to whip out the cameras, no one stopped us. The waiting staff were pretty helpful, offering to take photos of us too which was great! Shame we didn’t get to document our tiers of cakes, patisseries, macarons and finger sandwiches. They were as beautiful as they tasted.

I admit that I was a bit of a hermit, staying in and working furiously like Silas Marner at my essays. I’ve yet to complete the last one which has been a pain in the ass for a real long time but I’m pressing on. Nonetheless, having work to do over the holiday (a real bummer) has taken up loads of my time to meet up with old friends for coffee/catch-ups. A shame I know but I did manage to squeeze a little tea session with the best girl at TWG Tea Salon, movie with the sisters and a lovely lunch with the family.

Mitsu Bay Scallops, Lotus, Chicken, Grated Radish, Shiso Leaves and an Ume Sauce at Ootoya

The weather’s been pretty mild here. I was a little worried about getting totally roasted to death but somehow, the weather’s been so good - cool, not as humid as expected, with a little sun and wind. Not that the weather makes any difference on my sugar/sweet/desserts cravings! And there’s evidence that these cravings were satisfied…

Going out without my camera felt a little odd but knowing that my sister had her Canon D-SLR with her was thoroughly exhilarating. For the first time, I properly held on in my hands and fiddled about with the manual settings and focus. I ain’t good at it (I hope I can say ‘yet’). But it felt amazing. There was like a charge in the atmosphere when I picked it up - not that my own little Powershot G10 isn’t loved but having my eye up to the camera, as though it was some mad extension of my dessert-hungry face, was pretty cool.

Maybe now I’m one of those cool kids with the d-slr and who traipse about knowing they’re all cool and shit with their cameras? Damn ‘em. I’m envious. Oh well, Powershot G10, you’re stuck with me for a long while now. And you’ve never let me down so I’m not unhappy about that. It was just wicked to feel a d-slr in my hands. Kinda like being taken up in a helicopter over a big city by some fancy rich guy ~ something I dream about but don’t really need at the end of the day.

Beautiful Matcha Mousse, Shirotama, Adzuki and Vanilla Ice Cream

I was whipped. The mousse was so matcha-ey with enough bitterness to send me flying. This is one dessert I’ll come back for.

Matcha Parfait - what a classic! - concoction of brown sugar syrup, custard, sponge cake, whipped cream, adzuki, matcha ice cream, what else? mmmm…all good.

The parfait was delicious! I loved the brown sugar syrup at the bottom of the glass. Not a tall glass, so not much to consume but just enough to make you wish you wanted more although you’re totally full up.

My time at home included loads more desserts like kakigori, homemade carrot cake, cookies, biscuits, chocolates, etc. It was a sweet Christmas. And a lovely way to end 2009.

Now, hello 2010. I’m confident that there’s more good sweet things to come. And the next time you hear from me, I’ll be back in London with twice the cravings and hopefully zero jet lag.

We’ve had a rainy few days but it’s still muggy and hot as hell. It’s not surprising how the heat has killed off some of the plants in our garden and what remaining flowers we’ve got, the dogs have deemed it okay to chomp them away whilst their nectar’s still sweet. I have four dogs (a cocker spaniel, a labrador, and two of their spanador children) and they can be a mammoth effort. My little cocker spaniel, the treasured female of the quartet, has made snacking on flowers her favourite past-time. Her boyfriend, Daddy Scott, and her children simply follow suit since without her roving tastebuds, they would have never discovered the sweet honey of our garden’s flowers. ‘Tis surely an annoying habit my mum obviously does not approve of but one that should be corrected by this evening with the new flowers, etc. that we purchased from the nursery today. Gosh it was hot hot hot and I might’ve gotten a bit of a tan on the legs from just walking about searching for the perfect shrub and flowering plant for our front garden, patio edge and back garden. Blimey, it was effort battling the heat. 

And it wasn’t just today that the heat was a little mind-boggling. Last week was absolutely crazy. The heat was cruelly intense and the humidity oppressive beyond comparison. Where we live, an old man would usually come riding by on his freezer-attached bicycle, ringing his little bicycle bell, selling ice cream wafer sandwiches and homemade local ice cream - the flavours usually ranging from vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, yam, corn to sweet peanut. Not the usual high street luxury flavours but luxury nonetheless to me considering how smooth and tasty the ice cream always is. Somehow, it’s never too creamy or too sweet and the fact that I can get it if I’m quick enough to catch the ice cream man makes the whole experience even more rewarding (if my little legs did carry me quick enough to chase the old ice cream man), rustic and indulgent. However, the week went by with no ice cream man in sight. The one time I heard the ringing of the ice cream man, it was too late and I’d lost him. 

I was fed up. I was hot and sweaty. I had no ice cream maker but that wasn’t about to stop me. Not bloody likely.

I have been wanting to try one of Harumi’s recipes, which are always highly raved about. And lucky me, I found one adapted from her cookbook via Cookbook Catchall which is a real brilliant foodblog with fantastic food shots and recipes. The great thing about this recipe was the doing without of an ice cream maker which of course I do not have and doubt I will be able to afford one any time soon. Besides, it is one of those things I know I should really get since I’ll use it loads to get my money’s worth but somehow, have never found the mental or physical effort towards actually getting the dastard thing. But you know me - I’m laziness personified and I’ve always preferred the regular metal whisk or wooden spoon; so finding this recipe was like ‘WHEY!’, jackpot! 

I actually enjoyed banging the wooden spoon about to break up the gradually freezing ice cream mixture. It was quite refreshing but a little part of me (obviously, the lazy bit) now desires an electronic ice cream maker to do the whole job for me whilst I go off and traipse about somewhere doing my own shizzle. Whoops. I’m caving. Aside from that, this was a straightforward recipe and easy to follow. Nothing too complicated or mentally challenging which was great and the ingredients were fairly easy to get hold of. 

I highly recommend getting a pretty good grade or brand of matcha. Because making the ice cream was a pretty spur of the moment thing for me, I was unable to get my usual choice of matcha and had to resort to one which came in tiny single serving sachets. It was very light in colour and too mild a flavour for this recipe. The results were slightly disappointing since the matcha flavour was lacking and what was left was simply the taste of very sweet cream. I doubt I would’ve had this problem with the sugar either if I’d used a stronger matcha where its bitterness would undoubtedly have balanced out the sugar used in this recipe. Furthermore, the colour of the ice cream would’ve turned out a deeper, richer matcha green.

Despite that, I am thoroughly pleased with this recipe and will not hesitate to make it again. Jing Tea has informed me that they will finally be stocking matcha powder and that they’ve got a pretty amazing grade ready to be put on their webbie later this week! Exciting! Jing Tea is the UK’s premium online tea shop stocking a wide selection of green, black, white and blended teas all wonderfully packaged in air-tight bags or in tin boxes or gift sets. They’ve also got a wonderful range of teaware and accessories. Shipping within the UK is a breeze with Jing Tea and they ship worldwide as well, which is good news for whoever’s got their eye on their quality teas. If you’re unsure about certain teas or simply have questions about infusion times, etc., they’re always quick to return your emails with loads of helpful tips and advise. Real friendly team on hand to help.

Enough gushing about Jing, however, and let’s get to the promised pictures of my doggies. They got a little curious as to what I was doing with a camera and food. Unfortunately, only Daddy Scott and the boys are here to say hello. My little cocker Fifi was too busy looking for flowers to eat and what not. She’s too busy for the camera. Something tells me she can’t find the time to sit still for a couple of let’s-look-pretty-and-cute shots, when she could be doing something truly worth her while - like trotting about on her tiny legs hunting for juicy sweet flowers to eat and tiny creatures like geckos, frogs and beetles to torment. Pffft. Women.

Still, homemade ice cream, new flowers and a fresh garden and three loving doggies make for Happy Days @ Diva’s. 

Green Tea Ice Cream
(Recipe from Cookbook Catchall)
Ingredients

2 tbs matcha
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup heavy cream

In a small bow, mix together with a fork or small metal whisk the green tea powder with 2 tbs sugar.

In a separate bowl, mix together the egg yolks and remaining sugar.

Pour the milk into a small heavy-based saucepan and gently heat, taking care not to let it boil (ideally the temperature of the milk should be 176 degrees F). Remove from the heat and mix a few spoonfuls of the warm milk with the green tea powder and sugar in a small bowl. When you have a smooth paste, add it to the remaining milk in the pan, then gradually combine with the egg yolk mixture. I used a whisk to ensure a smooth mixture.

Return mixture to the stove and heat slowly over low heat (taking care to not let the mixture boil), until the mixture has thickened a fair amount and now coats the back of a spoon. Remove, strain through a fine sieve, and allow to cool completely.

Lightly whip the cream til it is just firming up and then add it to the cold green tea-milk mixture.

Transfer the mixture to a large container. It is advised to chill for an hour or two in the refrigerator before placing it in the freezer. As ice crystals start to form, remove, and mix well with a wooden spoon to break them up and return the mixture to the freezer. Repeat this a few times as it freezes to ensure that the ice cream is smooth.

If anyone’s noticed I went AWOL for a little bit, there’s a lush reason for it : I was on holiday in sunny Salou, falling asleep on the beach with salt in my hair and sand between my toes, feasting on fresh tapas, learning to fry Spanish tortillas and knocking back shots of black cafe (cafe con leche? no thank you). Between days of doing absolutely nothing on the beach or by the pool, or shaking off the numerous bar promoters that hounded us left right centre by night, we ventured out to Le Pineda, the sleepy fishing village Cambrils and the much-loved Barcelona. Amidst our traipsing through Costa Daurada and Barcelona, we met many a dashing Spanish waiters whom we became quick friends (and Facebook friends) with, met a famous DJ, the owner and manager of club Snoepy’s. In the space of a  week, our little classy quartet became known on the streets for the better-behaved English, re-named the PCDs or Spice Girls however complimentary that would be. 

Despite the gradually accumulating hangovers, through the rose-tinted, siesta-induced Spanish lens, Diva was scouting for affordable, chill/laxing places to dine at or cute shops worthy of a second visit. Apart from buying random things like a fan and vintage Ozzy tea-shades from the Monday Salou markets and spending a little on bottles of vodka, mixers and mineral water, the week went by relatively worry-free on £255, non-inclusive of flights and board - quite affordable if working on a student budget really. Here’s a little roundup of some bars, eateries, restaurants, parlours and shops I’d like to share with you!

SALOU
Lunattic Bar

A nice chilled out bar at the waterfront offering a range of tapas, snacks and hot food alongside a very impressive menu of sweets, ice cream and fabulous cocktails which are served with rockets, sparklers and heck-loads of decorative stirrers. Check out the giant cocktail bigger than myself for sharing, their house special Pina Colada and the chocolate brownie.

Farggi 

A snazzy ice cream parlour situated by the beach for emergency ice cream, smoothie or coffee breaks. The finest and most varied offering of flavours and chocolate coated sugar cones. This ice cream parlour is top! Diva loves. And recommends the Lemon Sorbet for classic-goers or the Coconut Pistachio & Chocolate Truffle for the ultimate holiday experience.

Le Tagliatella

A restaurant about 5 mins away from our little hotel, this was a gift from the heavens. We went twice in the space of a week simply because the food was fabulous, the sangria refreshing and sneakily intoxicating and the Spanish waiter Dino adorable. The pizzas are bigger than the plates. You have been warned. There isn’t an elegant way to go about eating them, trust me. Definitely do not forget to try their fresh pastas (or risottos if you must) as well. Mind-blowingly good. I had some salmon filled black & white ravioli in an olive oil, shrimp and garlic sauce and I was close to tears by the end of my meal.

Uncle Sam’s Diner

Ok so really what are we doing going to an English-run American diner in Spain? I’m not gonna lie and say this was good but it’s worth a second visit on hungover days. No matter what I do, there is nothing like a bacon or sausage sandwich, or a fry-up the whole works you know to sort you out and make you feel like you’re still alive after a night of boozing. Just be warned, if you’re starving for something fairly fresh like orange juice, a pint of it (which comes up to 2 small glasses) will cost you a little over €3. Ouch.

BARCELONA
El Bosc de les Fades

A little way off from Le Ramblas, this little cafe is just precious. Its dark interiors is home to a manmade rainforest and its moody thunderstorms. Veering off from the main bar are little rooms containing an odd combination of things: a floating female body clad in a white floaty nightgown, an Indian guru, a glowing mirror that reveals the body inside at eerily regular intervals, etc. Even the toilets are a little special and go dark every 15 seconds if you don’t slam your fist down on the light button quite a way away from where you’re sat. Don’t get too carried away gawking though as the bar gets very busy and you’ll have to queue quite a bit before getting served.

Happy Pills

This quirky sweet shop was unfortunately closed the day we went to visit but I’m sure I’ll be back to visit again! Instead of popping pills, this shop promotes some other kind of rush for our prozac nation - sweets in little pill boxes! Très cute.

Giovanni Gelateria

Diva loves ice cream so she decided gelato for ice cream was the perfect Barcelona treat. This quaint gelateria seems to be a favourite amongst tourists and Barcelonians. The smell of hot waffles coated in chocolate sauce wafts up the streets and is the best way to finding this little shop if all else fails. Not the best customer service in my opinion but who’s complaining when the servings are that generous! I wasn’t the only one chuffed about my ice cream…obviously

I am feeling slightly nostalgic as I put these pictures up. A fab holiday, with loads of yummies and much to see. The last night was spent at a club Kiss where our little quartet surprisingly met all the Spanish waiters we’d befriended along the way and somehow made me miss the food even more! Nevertheless, we flew out of España with happy bellies and a gorgeous tan ready for the final end-of-university partying and GradBall. More adventures to come.