food

Food keyrings in OsakaI'm back!How did three weeks in Japan fly past so quickly?Japan was a blast. Highlights included the ice sculptures at the Sapporo Snow Festival, seeing the snow monkeys (Japanese macaques) in Nagano enjoying their outdoor onsen, and making a day trip to Kobe for a lunch of Kobe beef. Rest assured, there'll be plenty of Japan-related entries to come once I wade through the

Chicken drumsticks are a really affordable cut of meat that can be made into a number of delicious dishes. I'd call it a perfect recession dish, if it weren't for the maple syrup - hardly a cheap ingredient, at least here in Estonia (and I doubt that the proper stuff is cheap anywhere). Maple syrup lends these drumsticks a lovely sweet flavour, the potatoes add the bulk and roasted cherry tomatoes cheer the whole dish up with their lovely colour. You could obviously use chicken thighs or even breast fillets instead of drumsticks. Maple-glazed roasted chicken drumsticks and vegetables ( Vahtrasiirupis röstitud kanakoivad ) Serves three to four 8 chicken drumsticks 4-6 large garlic cloves 6 Tbso maple syrup 2 Tbsp olive oil 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard 2 fresh rosemary sprigs, leaves only juice of half a small lemon 500 g small potatoes 250 g cherry tomatoes sea salt freshly ground black pepper Mix maple syrup, olive oil mustard, rosemary leaves and lemon juice in a medium-sized oven tra...

"All I want is crab."There is only one dish in Suze's mind when we head to New Shanghai in Ashfield for a spur-of-the-moment dinner. It's the crab cooked in salted egg yolk. "Mmmm..... salty....." she whispers in anticipation when we place our order.Famous New Shanghai steamed mini pork bun $6.80But first, we must have xiao long bao. It's not a proper visit to a Shanghainese restaurant without a

The Hummingbird Bakery is the bakery in London at the moment, specializing in American-style cakes and sweets. It's a brainchild of Tarek Malouf that opened in 2004, and the book - The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook - featuring their most popular cakes and pastries was published in 2009. It's a gorgeous book, full of inviting and appetizing recipes, though the only one I've made so far is this Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie . And I've made it three times during the last month or so - for K's mum's birthday (twice) and for our daughter's first birthday party as well. I've followed the recipe more or less - replacing the icing sugar with caster sugar, topping up the amount of cheesecake to suit our local 150 g packs of cream cheese, and baking it in a round cake tin instead. I might reduce the sugar content in the brownie layer next time, as the cake is rather sweet (though the slight acidity of the raspberry layer balances it all out nicely). The interestin...

It started at Bathers. As we slurped and scraped our way through the bowl of mussels on the table, the G-man suddenly asked "Do you remember the time we had the all-you-can-eat mussels at Bungalow 8?"I nod, ruefully."We had four pots!" Gun declares proudly to the assembled throng. "Four kilos! Each!"Heading shaking, I make a wan sort of smile. Oh yes, I remembered. I had eaten about ten mussels

Making fruit salads during summer is easy. Take some strawberries, apples, pears, wild forest berries, juicy apricots or nectarines - basically, whatever is in season - slice, dress, garnish and serve. During winter - at least in this part of the world - it's a lot more difficult. We're in the middle of the coldest and snowiest winter many of us can remember. None of the local fruits are in season, and the imported stuff is often of questionable quality. However, here's a recipe I've made few times that seems to suit the chilly climate of the moment. You can find reasonably good and sweet kiwi fruit, and the grapes (all imported, of course) in the shops at the moment. I guess what I like about this simple salad is the colour. The vibrant green reminds me that the Spring is just around the corner, however unlikely it seems in Estonia at the moment... Green Fruit Salad Recipe ( Roheline puuviljasalat ) Serves 4 to 6 4 to 6 ripe and sweet kiwis 250 g green (seedless) grape...

The best thing about a restaurant no-bookings policy is that impromptu plans can be easily made, even though it's late on a Friday afternoon.The Bathers' Pavilion Cafe is the casual but more budget-friendly side to Bathers' Pavilion. Patrons enter the same glass door at the front, a view of the sand and crystal blue waters of Balmoral Beach beckoning on the other side. On the left is the

It's Shrove Tuesday here in Estonia today, which means that people eat copious amounts of vastlakuklid aka Lenten buns aka semlor today. For the past decade I've been baking my own Lenten buns using this excellent recipe of mine . However, this year I decided to be a bit more adventurous, so I flirted with chocolate Lenten buns and marzipan-raspberry buns. Both were excellent and worth sharing with you. I start with the pink ones (after all, the pink-and-red-filled Valentine's Day has just passed). The recipe is very slightly adapted from the Finnish Kotiliesi . Note that these can be on your table within two hours from starting. But when I mixed the dough on Sunday morning I realised that I didn't actually have the time to bake and fill the buns. So instead of quick-rising the dough in a warm place, as usual, I transferred the bowl to a very cool garage, where it had about 24 hours time to prove and rise slowly. It did wonders to the dough, I must admit - the flavou...

The best kind of meal? One cooked by Mum and Dad.Make that a meal cooked by any Mum and Dad because tonight Stomachs Eleven have descended on the home of L&M. M's parents, who are in town for the week, find themselves with a whole hoard of eager extra mouths to feed. We'd been promised a Shanghainese feast and we could barely get there fast enough.It's hard to fathom the number of dishes already

I'm jumping on the Valentine's Day bandwagon here. I must admit it's not a holiday that we celebrate, really. Though Valentine's Day/Friends' Day has become increasingly popular amongst the younger generation, I was out of high school way before that trend began here. But it's a good excuse to bake some chocolate muffins and decorate them with heart-shaped sprinklers :) When I started looking for a good chocolate muffin recipe , I realised that the choice was endless. Instead I took my excellent rhubarb muffin recipe , replaced the rhubarb with chopped dark chocolate and added some cocoa powder for extra colour and deeper chocolate flavour. The muffins have a very low fat content, as most of the butter has been replaced with yogurt/sour cream - resulting in moist muffins with a nice crumb. I loved them! Chocolate Muffins ( Mõnusad šokolaadimuffinid ) Makes 9 regular-sized muffins 2 large free-range eggs 125 soft brown sugar 135 g plain flour 3 Tbsp cocoa powder ...

I should start a regular feature here on Nami-Nami, called the " Beetroot Recipe of the Month " or " This Week's Way with Beets " - as we do eat beetroot pretty much each week. It's cheap, seasonal and actually much more versatile than one might think. This recipe is inspired by a cream cheese spread served in a lovely deli-café in Tallinn, called NOP . I've used it as a sandwich filling here, but it would also work as a dip for crudités or as a topping for a jacket potato. Cream Cheese Spread with Beet and Horseradish ( Rukkileib peedi-mädarõika kreemiga ) Serves 4 75 g cooked or roasted beetroot 150 g cream cheese, at room temperature 1 heaped tsp creamed horseradish 1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh dill salt freshly ground black pepper dark rye bread, to serve Grate the beetroot finely. Add the cream cheese, horseradish and chopped dill and mix until thoroughly combined. Season with salt and pepper. To serve with rye bread, spread about a tablespoon of the...

Beef and beer. How can you go wrong? This week's Freebie Friday is a Beef and Beer Masterclass by MUMU Grill.The Beef and Beer Masterclass by MUMU Grill follows on from its wildly successful launch during the Sydney International Food Festival last year. Initially expecting to fill just one class of 12, overwhelming demand led them to run six classes. As a result, MUMU will be hosting this as a

Konnichi wa from Japan. It's cold here but we are having a ball.Those of you following @grabyourfork on twitter will have noticed a sporadic stream of photos. If you're not on twitter, here's a brief update on a few things I've seen so far...[Click the pics for larger versions]Today's Osaka find. Soft boiled eggs from the convenience store!Probs with kids not eating their meals? That's because

Falafel $6"Oh. My. God."I tend to get nervous whenever I recommend a dish or a restaurant, plagued by a moment of self-doubt when the moment of truth arrives.The falafel at Jasmin's are the best I've ever tasted," I confidently declare to Simon and Yas, but even when the dish arrives, I'm a little uncertain.I needn't have worried. Simon takes a bite and then nods in approval. Yas adds a chortle

This is my favourite salad at the moment - I served it twice during our daughter's birthday weekend, where it was very quickly eaten by everyone. Even my dad, a typical Estonian male (read: pork and potatoes kind of guy) had two large helpings of this salad. I've been asked to make it for a friend's birthday party this coming weekend. Thinking of that, I might just bring it to my mum's birthday table in a fortnight as well - it's really delicious and light and unusual. You see, quinoa isn't widely known - or consumed - here in Estonia, and turns out it's actually really suited for our Nordic taste buds :) Note here that the original plan was to make a cous-cous salad with shrimps and avocado, served with some creamy dressing. But the crayfish tails looked more appealing in the shop, and I had run out of cous-cous at home, so I ended up serving this delightful combination of ingredients instead. As avocados lose their appetizing green colour with time, it...

"Jamon, Aussie, Jamon... Jamon"This, I think, should be the cheer I will sing at all functions from now on.Tonight I'm at a beer tasting dinner at MUMU Grill, a preview event by owner and head chef Craig Macindoe before the soon-to-be regular event is launched to the public in March. We're also among the first to check out the new private dining room, a previously underutilised alcove that has

No, I'm not talking about Madonna's 2008/2009 concert tour , but about Sticky & Sweet Chicken Wings. I've only discovered the pleasures of chicken wings (very) recently and was surprised to find that there is actually some meat and not just bones and skin involved :) I've been trying out various recipes now - three different ones just during the last week (garlickly Lebanese ones, Teriyaki wings and these sticky and sweet ones), and have bookmarked a number of other recipe ideas (Blake Royer's Baked Buffalo Wings and Susan Russo's Maple-Beer-Chili Chicken Wings , for example). I bet there will be more chicken wing recipes coming up on Nami-Nami as well. This particular recipe is a slight adaptation of a recipe by the beloved British author, Nigel Slater. The tanginess of the mustard and sweetness of honey make these deliciously sticky and sweet indeed. Sticky & Sweet Chicken Wings ( Kleepjad magusad kanatiivad ) Serves 3-4 as appetizers, can be easily m...

Devilled eggs are a popular appetizer in Estonia - I've blogged about the classical version here . I love the traditional version, but recently I've been also exploring alternative ways of making and serving deviled eggs. Here's an idea snapped from the Swedish Arla site. It's full of Nordic flavours - dill and caraway seeds - with an addition of cooked shrimps. Slightly more festive than the traditional one, and very delicious. Deviled Eggs with Shrimp Filling ( Krevetitäidisega munad ) Makes 12 3 heaped Tbsp sour cream 100 g peeled cooked shrimps/prawns half a lemon, zested 0.5 tsp ground caraway seeds 2 Tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped sea salt and freshly ground black pepper Boil the eggs for 8-10 minutes, then cool under cold running water. Peel the eggs and halve lengthwise. Remove the egg yolks and chop finely. Put 12 shrimps aside for garnishing. Chop the rest of the shrimps as finely or coarsely as you wish. Mix with sour cream, grated lemon zest, ground carawa...

Kaiseki course, KyotoKonnichi wa!By the time you read this, I will probably have already boarded my early morning flight to Japan. Oh yes, the lure of a cut-price budget airline flight was too good to resist!Over the course of three weeks, we'll be eating our way around Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo and Takayama with a brief side-trip to Seoul, just because we can!Watching television in my capsule in

Why would three Australian winemakers travel half-way across the world to make wine in Argentina?The story of Jed Wines is best told by Tom Egan, Jed Director and one of the winemakers who makes the annual trek."When it comes to wine, the environment the grape vine grows obviously plays such a huge role in the resulting wine. What we loved about Argentina is that the climate is so different and

Last Saturday our beautiful little daughter, Nora Adeele , turned one. Like every other parent, we are amazed how quickly time flies - it seems hard to believe that it's already been a year since she rushed into this world last January (see a post here ). I've kept stories about her at minimum here at Nami-Nami, as I've been worried it'd turn into a mommy&baby blog in no time whatsoever :D But just to recap - she's been an excellent companion to us during the last year, and a healthy, curious and happy girl. She has a good appetite (we've been trying to follow the principles of baby-led weaning), but as she's also very active, she's a light one (just 8,5 kg this morning). Oh - and she's already been to Southern France (where she dined at two 3-Michelin-star restaurants :D) and to London, so she's a well-travelled little lady. We celebrated this important milestone with a party and a cake. The party was attended by many of Nora's friend (s...

Pae parata $5.50The food of Burma isn't widely known or recognised around the world. Sydneysiders, blessed with such a diversity of restaurants at their fingertips, have a specialist Burmese restaurant in their own backyard.Burma shares borders with several countries in Southeast Asia: China, Laos, Thailand, Bangladesh and India, and has borrowed elements from all of them to create a unique style

A huddle of taxi drivers is always a good sign.I'm talking about taxi drivers at eating establishments. Surely with free transport at their disposal, their endorsement of any restaurant is worth noting?There's a group of four taxi drivers outside Immanuel, a simple and barely furnished cafe that serves homestyle Indonesian food. It's not our first stop for the evening. Feeling in need of