Sydney New Year's Eve Fireworks

Welcome to 2011! It's hard to believe that another year has come has gone. Writing Grab Your Fork has been a huge part of it, and I'm grateful for the friendships I've made, the comments I've received, the opportunities I've been given, and the readers (yes you!) who stop by everyday.In 2010 I published a total of 224 posts, all written after I've clocked off from my day job - I've yet to find a

Culinary overview of 2010

Inspired by similar posts by Alanna and Anne.

JANUARY 2010



I blogged about many of my favourite dishes back in January - chicken with 40 gloves of garlic (photo above) and dulce de membrillo and coconut & beetroot soup, to name just a few. Our beautiful daughter Nora Adeele turned one, and we celebrated it with marzipan-topped Princess cake.

FEBRUARY 2010



Favourite recipes back in February were colorful quinoa salad with lobster tails and avocado, cream cheese spread with horseradish and beetroot (photo above), yummy chocolate muffins, decadent Lenten buns with raspberries, Hummingbird's raspberry cheesecake brownie. It was a loooong, cold and snowy month, hence the number of baked cakes :P

MARCH 2010



In March I loved the caramelised rye bread ice cream and ate lots of Georgian food (incl. fried Suluguni cheese and egg and walnut salad). Anticipating the Easter, the month ended with another lovely pashka recipe (photo above).



At the end of the month we spent a week in Davos, Switzerland. Unfortunately I was down with a nasty cold most of the time, so I missed many of the culinary delights on offer. I did manage to try some spätzle and raclette, of course, as well as some of the local cakes.

APRIL 2010



The highlight of the month was our traditional Easter brunch. As the cold and snow melted away, I fell in love with light salads again. I loved the quinoa salad with beetroot and fennel, Ottolenghi's cucumber salad with poppyseeds. I've made the Georgian spiced and creamy mushrooms on several occasions - and it's been a great hit with Estonian foodbloggers as well ;)

For my birthday at the end of the month I made three different birthday cakes, including my usual mocca cake and the popular Brita cake.

Last, but not least - in April we got four new pets, called Evita, Carol, Daisy and Madame Fifi. Here are the first three (a pure or mixed Araucanas):



and here's Madame Fifi (a French Marans) posing in front of their cool bright orange Eglu:



(And they do belong to the culinary overview of the year, as these lovely chicken have been providing us with free-range eggs that come with a dark yellow yolk and are hidden inside a beautiful pale blue or olive green egg shell :))

MAY 2010



In May I shared more lighter recipes - gnocchi Puttanesca, wild garlic tzatziki, chickpea and tuna salad. Oh, and I provided some ideas for Estonian snacks to help you host an Eurovision fan party - the idea came to me after several e-mail requests for such post :)

JUNE 2010



As the summer season began, I blogged about a new cool café in Pärnu, the "summer capital" of Estonia (one of their popular cakes is pictured above). We loved the cooked whole fish under a salt-crust, and Ottolenghi's roasted eggplant/aubergine with saffron yogurt. The Italian tonnato mayonnaise was a frequent dish on our table during the summer, and the Estonian pork shashlik was a must-try on our Midsummer table.

We also celebrated Nami-Nami's 5th birthday, asking you to name your favorite recipes on the blog. You gave fantastic feedback, thank you!

JULY 2010



July was hot! hot! hot! I almost stopped cooking during the month, as the temperatures were simply too high for a Northern girl like me :D I did blog about grilled chicken liver with sherry and honey marinade, and then moved on to pretty much uncooked dishes. Cottage cheese and egg salad, Danish sweet buttermilk soup with summer berries, watermelon salad, cold beetroot soup, harissa-spiked hummus.

And of course, as any other true Estonian, I ate lots of kama with local wild and cultivated berries (photo above) :)

We also took a daytrip to Helsinki, visiting Café Stringberg for a coffee (our little must-do in Helsinki) and having lunch at one of the hottest eateries in town, Juuri (they're famous for their Finnish tapas, sapas, but these weren't served during lunch-time, unfortunately):



AUGUST 2010



I August we really reaped the benefits of our vegetable garden. Just look at the beets we harvested (above), coming in all shapes and colours!!! Favourite recipes back in August were this tomato salad (we had LOADS of tomatoes as well), oven-baked zucchini/courgettes and tomatoes with feta cheese, cherry and plum compote (our orchard is too young to pick our own stone fruit just yet, but soon, hopefully). We had some friends over for the first ever Nami-Nami tomato tasting party (photo below; hopefully this will become an annual tradition):



It was an exceptionally good year for wild mushrooms in Estonia this year, and we ate lots of them, of course! If I get hold of some black trumpet mushrooms again next year, I'll be definitely making this black trumpet chantarelle salad again - loved the flavour and the bite! I also shared a recipe for lovely simple scones and Snickerdoodle cookies.

SEPTEMBER 2010

September was eventful. In the beginning of the month we spent over a week in Germany and France (with a short detour to Switzerland), attending our friend Margit's wedding in Köln. Of course we sampled lots of culinary delights on the trip, most memorable being maultaschen in Heidelberg:



a proper Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte in a Bizenberger family café in the Schwarzwald area of Germany:



The traditional and the more modern porcini & parmesan cheese flammeküche at L'auberge Saint-Martin in Kinzberg.



And last, but not least - a trip to the famous Bernard Antony, Eleveur de Fromages in Vieux-Ferrette was all worth it!



Back home, things were getting exciting, too. Our daughter began attending a small local nursery (luckily, she loves it!), I went back to work after a long maternity leave. We had another tasting party at home, this time getting to know the infamous Swedish "delicacy", surströmming (an event that's NOT going to be repeated any time soon).



The garden was still providing us with excellent vegetables - like these beautiful eggplants/aubergines. My favourite recipe back in September was definitely this super-easy but very flavourful cauliflower cheese with lots of mustard.

OCTOBER 2010



October was a good month for good recipes, if I may say so. The American apple pie, pumpkin scones, the Dutch apple cake and this coconut dhal (above) are all worth repeating again and again.

NOVEMBER 2010



As the nights got darker and days shorter, I began cooking more substantial meals again. I loved this roasted cauliflower with bacon and garlic (thank you, Jaden, for inspiration!), the beet and blue cheese risotto, the Danish brunsviger cake (photo above). I also posted a recipe for a Latvian dish, Kurzeme stroganoff, that hopefully many of you will try.

I took my dear K. for a special birthday dinner at Bordoo, the new restaurant of one my favourite chefs, Tõnis Siigur. The 6-course tasting menu was nothing less than spectacular and I'm looking forward to going again a.s.a.p.

DECEMBER 2010



The last month of the year just flew by. On December 1st, my first cookbook (photo above) hit the bookshelves here in Estonia, and we had a lovely book launch party that evening (the book has been doing pretty well, thank you for asking ;)). I spoke in several radio channels during December (KUKU, R2, Vikerraadio), and the Estonian print media (and bloggers!) have been very generously reviewing and covering the cookbook as well. I feel so honoured and blessed! (Again - a HUGE thank you to dear Ximena for making the book look so special and beautiful!).

Although December has been very much centered around the cookbook, I did manage to attend a special dinner at NEH and a foodbloggers' lunch at CHEDI (serving excellent modern Asian food), visited the brand new (and very cool!) Sadama turg (Harbour market) and even blog about some dishes (these cheese popovers and soft gingerbread cakei are especially recommended.

We hosted a Christmas Eve dinner to our families again (food was pretty traditional, too). And on the Christmas day we got home two new chickens - a blue and black Orpington (still nameless; these two are to keep Evita and Carol some company over the winter).

Easy canapes: Seared scallops

Can you believe it's the end of another decade? It seems like only yesterday we were welcoming in the noughties.Tonight you'll find me around Sydney Harbour with 1.5 million of my closest friends. I've spent New Years Eve in New York Times Square and on London's Westminster Bridge beneath Big Ben, but I still rate the fireworks spectacular around Sydney Harbour as the best NYE party in the

The Flute Bakery, Fyshwick Canberra

The Flute Bakery is in the last possible place you'd expect to find it. Tucked down a barren street lined with industrial estates in Fyshwick, it appears like a shimmering mirage of gustatory salvation.Even then, the canvas awnings and outdoor seating reveal little of what lays within. We push open the door to find an elegant French patisserie, pies and quiches in the warmer, a gleaming glass

Silo Bakery, Kingston, Canberra

I'm not a morning person, but if there's one thing that I will wake up early for, it's food. Work took me Canberra a couple of months ago (hello backlog), and if there was one place I was determined to visit it was Silo Bakery. It was surprisingly easy to convince my office colleagues to join me on post-work eating adventures - 'so where are we eating tonight, Helen?' they'd ask.It was even

Hugos Bar Pizza, Kings Cross

"Pizza?" Peter Evans asks, as he wends his way through the crowd at the launch of the Hugos Bar Pizza new private dining room."It's potato and lardo," he says, gesturing toward the thin crust pizza in his hand. "Basically it's potato and fat," he explains to those with blank expressions on their faces.Potato and fat? Potato and fat? I would have called it potato and deliciousness. Potato and

Raspberry and Mascarpone Fluff

I know, I know - what am I thinking about posting a recipe for summer fruit dessert in the middle of the Christmas season?? You see, I craved a fruity dessert the other day, and came across this recipe for a blackberry fluff in the October 2006 issue of the British food magazine Olive. Unfortunately, neither one of the two nearby grocery stores had frozen blackberries that day, so I had to settle for frozen Estonian raspberries instead. Not a bad choice, I think - they're still tart and sweet at the same time, plus I love the colour.

Note that the dessert has much more character when it's been given a few hours' rest in the fridge - you can taste the mascarpone again then. I didn't bother to sieve the fruit pulp, but please do, if you think the small seeds will bother you.

Supereasy and rather nice.

Raspberry and Mascarpone Fluff
(Marja-mascarponevaht)
Serves six to eight

300 g frozen raspberries
1 Tbsp sugar
250 g mascarpone, at room temperature
200 ml whipping cream (35% fat content)
1 tsp vanilla sugar or extract

Heat the berries (keeping a few aside for decorating) gently with the sugar for a couple of minutes or until they give off juice. Whizz in a food processor until smooth, then push through a fine sieve, if you want to get rid of the seeds. Cool.
Beat the mascarpone with a spoon until it is softened, then fold in the berry purée and the vanilla extract. Loosely whip the cream and fold it in.
Spoon into small dessert bowls, decorate with extra berries. Place in the fridge for a few hours before serving.

Easy entertaining: Holiday wreath bread

How was your Christmas? Mine was filled with ham, turkey, gravlax, pavlova, fruit cake and more. It was a weekend of feasting, but as Master Six intoned to me solemnly on Christmas morning, "Christmas is not about presents. It's about spending time with your family."And so there was eating and drinking, and then jumping on the trampoline and playing Snap with the kids. Everyone brought a dish for

Stomachs Eleven: Christmas dinner

Christmas? It's about the three F's - food, family and friends. What's even better is when you are able to combine all three.Over the past two years, our dinner party group Stomachs Eleven has taken turns to host a homemade meal, and these days our circle of friends has become more like a family. Someone's usually running late, the early birds will pitch in with last minute prep, and there's

Pehme piparkook or Soft Gingerbread Cake - one of my favourite Christmas cakes

I've been making this very cake for Christmas for about 6-7 years now, and it's still one of the favourites with friends and family. I made it again for a friend's birthday party last weekend, tuning the recipe a bit - reducing the amount of sugar (you could use even less, I bet), and replacing melted butter with mild-tasting oil in the batter.

There are two things to keep in mind. First, the cake is eggless (so suitable for people with egg allergies!) and the raising agent is baking soda/bicarbonate of soda. As with other similar batters, it's important to bake the cake straight away after mixing the batter - the baking soda starts to react with acid in the batter (kefir in this case) within 15-20 minutes, and if you don't bake the cake during that time, you'll end up with a very flat christmas cake :( Secondly, you could use a much larger cake sheet, but i like this in the specified size - the cake will be about 4 cm in height, which is good for me.

Soft Gingerbread Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
(Pehme piparkook toorjuustuglasuuriga)

Makes a large cake that'll easily feed about 20

400 g plain flour
300 g caster sugar
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground cloves
1 Tbsp baking soda
0.5 tsp salt
500 ml (2 cups) kefir or cultured buttermilk
150 g lingonberry jam (IKEA stocks some)
100 g rapeseed oil or light olive oil

Cream cheese frosting:
200 g plain cream cheese, at room temperature
50 g unsalted butter, softened
150 g icing sugar/confectioner's sugar

Decorating:
lingonberries or cranberries
hazelnuts, toasted

Preheat the oven to 200 Celsius. Line a 25x30 cm cake tin with parchment paper (or simply butter it well).

Make the cake batter first. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine kefir, lingonberry jam and oil in a large measuring jug. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stir quickly so the batter comes together. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when pierced into the middle of the cake.
Let the cake cool completely (wrap in clingfilm if not decorating straight away).

For the frosting, combine the butter, cream cheese and icing sugar in a bowl - I use a wooden spoon for that, but you could also use an electric mixer. Spread the frosting over the cake.

Decorate with red berries and toasted hazelnuts or something else festive :)

Charlie & Co Burgers, Westfield Sydney

Parmesan and truffle fries $8Everybody's talking about them. The parmesan and truffle fries at Justin North's burger joint Charlie & Co. have created a new obsession for hungry Sydneysiders.The frantic crowds that swarmed Westfield Sydney when it first opened have now thankfully dissipated. We found no crowds when we visited midweek at 6pm, although the last-minute Christmas rush and Boxing Day

Bodalla, Tuross Head and The Big Cheese: South Coast NSW

Who doesn't love a country fair?After a leisurely morning at the Moruya Markets on the South Coast, we pulled into Bodalla (population 308 according to the 2006 census) just after midday.Bodalla police stationThe town of Bodalla began when Thomas Sutcliffe Mort purchased 13,000 acres of land in the area in 1860. Mort was determined to create a dairy estate, eventually supplying fresh milk,

Duke Bistro, Darlinghurst

The only bore you'll find at Duke Bistro is propped up at the bar, a boar's head sitting on a stool with a bottle of sriracha chilli sauce gripped in his teeth.It's an odd sight at first, but one that underlines the devil-may-care cheekiness of this cosy bistro perched on top of the Flinders Hotel.Duke Bistro dining roomYoung guns Thomas Lim (ex-Tetsuya's) and Mitch Orr (ex-Sepia) head up the

Malacca Straits, Broadway Ultimo

I like cereal for breakfast, for supper, and as a snack, but the best kind of cereal is served on prawns - Singapore style.

Cereal prawns is a dish not often found in Sydney, and it is only as we exit Malacca Straits that I notice this dish on the specials menu taped to the wall. Here too I find salted egg yolk prawn. I vow immediately to return. On my next visit I see the sign for assam

Stewed red cabbage with prunes

Christmas is just around the corner, so I'll be focusing on various festive dishes for the next week or two. We'll definitely have some traditional roast pork with sauerkraut and black pudding for a couple of times. But we've got a big family and many festive meals ahead, so there's plenty of room to play. For the last few years we've also roasted a goose, and my favourite side dish to a goose is stewed red cabbage. Here's the way I've been making it couple of times now - and I love it. The prunes add a sweetness, orange juice some freshness and a good balsamico a lovely tang. And it's a light and virtually fat-free side dish - a great alternative to the usual rich Christmas fare.

Stewed red cabbage with prunes
(Hautatud punane kapsas ploomidega)
Serves eight

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 red onions, halved and sliced
1 kg red cabbage, shredded
250 g dried plums/prunes, halved
200 ml (just under a cup) of orange juice
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1-2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper

Heat oil on a large saucepan. Add onion and fry for a few minutes, until onion starts to soften.
Add the cabbage and sauté for 5-7 minutes, stirring regularly.
Add the prunes, orange juice, balsamic vinegar. Season with salt.
Cover with a lid and simmer on a low heat for about 45 minutes, stirring every now and then, until the cabbage has softened, but still retains some bite. (Check the liquid level at the end, and add some water, if it looks too dry).
Season to taste, and serve.

NB! You can prepare this a day or two in advance. Gently re-heat thoroughly before serving.

NIPID:
* Võid kapsa paar tundi varem valmis hautada. Enne serveerimist kuumuta tasasel tulel umbes 20 minutit.

Daruma Japanese Restaurant, Haymarket Chinatown

Teriyaki chicken udon set $9.50I have to admit it. Japanese food is my weakness. Steaming bowls of ramen, quivering fresh sashimi, the sticky sweetness of sushi rice and fat chewy strands of udon. Japanese cuisine is all about simplicity and satisfaction, presented with the visual beauty of an inspired artist.Age gyoza $4.50Daruma Japanese Restaurant in the Prince Centre is busy with students and

New York Times on Estonian Christmas Sausages

Yesterday's New York Times ran an article about making verivorst aka black pudding, the traditional Estonian Christmas sausage, in the Estonian House in New York. You can read the article here: Without Blood Sausage, It Just Wouldn’t Be Christmas.

Enjoy :)

Happy Lemon, Broadway

Green tea with rock salt and cheese. Who could refuse?Happy Lemon is the latest drinks chain to hit Australian shores, a Hong Kong company that started in 2006 and has since spread to over 100 stores across Hong Kong and China.It's easy to get swept up in the cartoon chirpiness of the place, a dizzying entrapment of winking characters, video game-like footage on the TV screen and walls that

On The Pier, Batemans Bay and Moruya Markets

Our South Coast mini-break was a happy mix of sights, from Wollongong's Nan Tien Temple to Berry's Famous Donut Van. We continued down the Princes Highway to Batemans Bay, a four hours journey if travelling straight from Sydney.It's amazing how fast one can metabolise donuts and meat pies and parfait and passionfruit slice. We were booked in for dinner at On The Pier, tucked away on the side of

Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic

Strawberry Santas by Ayana from Absolutely AyanaIt was a spectacular day for a picnic on Saturday, a backdrop of clear blue skies and dappled sunshine for the second annual Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic co-hosted by Chocolatesuze and I.Over sixty food bloggers descended on Centennial Park, a chance for everyone to meet new faces, mingle and, most importantly, eat.Christmas puddings by

Bavarian Bier Cafe O'Connell, Sydney

So what are you having?I have a confession to make. If I happen to ask you this question, there are usually hidden agendas at stake.Sometimes the planets will align and Suze will look at me and say "I can't decide between the pork belly and the pork knuckle", and I will reply with those three magic words "Should we share?"And happiness and relief will blanket us both.Freshly baked Bavarian

Freebie Friday: Win a $100 gift voucher from Audrey & Marco online delicatessen

Do you tend to go Christmas shopping but then find yourself only buying presents for yourself?

Hey, I agree. You're worth it! And this week's Freebie Friday is the perfect prize for you!

You'll be able to shop to your heart's (and stomach's!) content with a $100 gift voucher from Audrey & Marco, the newly launched Australian online delicatessen with products from all over Europe. There are

Kazbah, Balmain - Breakfast Banquet

Pace yourself.These are the two key words you must hold onto when you sit down to the breakfast feast at Kazbah.Kazbah on DarlingThe breakfast feast is not to be bandied about lightly. This is a meal of such epic proportions you should plan at least a week ahead, stretching your stomach with water as though you were a competitor in a Major League Eating competition.A set minimum of six people for

Beet & buckwheat kasha recipe

It's time to up the number of buckwheat recipes on Nami-Nami - and I think this beautiful kasha recipe fits the bill nicely. The inspiration for this recipe is from Rose Elliot's book Learning to Cook Vegetarian, and if you love buckwheat and you love beets, then you must try this! It's best served hot, but if you have any leftovers, then this is also an excellent lunch box dish.

Note that buckwheat is naturally gluten-free, so it's a suitable and tasty grain alternative to all those who need to avoid gluten.

Buckwheat with beetroot and dill
(Peedi-tatrahautis)
Serves six to eight

2 Tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
250 g buckwheat groats (about 300 ml)
750 ml boiling water (3 cups)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
500 g cooked beetroot, grated
2 Tbsp chopped fresh dill

sour cream or plain yogurt, to serve

First, you need to toast the buckwheat. The buckwheat we usually use in Estonia is pre-roasted and dark brown, so this can be heated on a dry skillet for about 2-3 minutes. If you're using the "light" buckwheat groats, then roast them on a dry hot skillet for about 6-7 minutes, until it's nicely toasty and aromatic.
Heat the oil in a large high frying pan/sauté pan. Add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and fry for another minute or so.
Add the toasted buckwheat and boiling water, season with salt and pepper. Cover the pan with a lid, reduce heat and simmer on a low heat for 15-20 minutes, until the water has absorbed and buckwheat is nice and soft (but not mushy!!!).
Fold in the grated beets and heat for another 2-3 minutes. Taste for seasoning, stir in the dill and serve hot.

Lovely with a dollop of sour cream/yogurt and some grilled (Portobella) mushrooms.

The Famous Berry Donut Van and a food tour of Berry

Mention the quaint town of Berry and I think of donuts.Not just any donut, but the Famous Berry Donut Van.The Famous Berry Donut VanThe Famous Berry Donut Van has been trading in Berry for sixty years, the old van recently given a new lick of paint and fancy colour scheme in mocha and chocolate browns.What hasn't changed is the donuts. Cooked to order and cooked by hand, they claim to have "never

Hijazi's Falafel, Arncliffe

Eating out for breakfast doesn't have to be expensive. I followed up a tip from Grab Your Fork reader Yvette and headed to Hijazi's in Arncliffe for this month's Time Out Sydney column. You could eat yourself into a stupor here and find yourself only paying about $10 for the privilege.


Hijazi's, Arncliffe

WHAT IS HIJAZI'S?
A Lebanese takeaway and restaurant that is famous for its crunchy

Delicious cheese popovers

Here's an easy and delightful popover recipe that I adapted from the September 2009 issue of The Gourmet - Mini Provolone popovers. These reminded me of gougerés, but the batter is even easier - not a choux pastry, but more like a Yorkshire pudding pastry. (Not that gougerés are difficult to do, but these were super-easy to throw together). Recommended! They're delightful as they are, but I can also imagine serving these alongside a simple soup instead of 'regular' bread rolls, and although these are best served hot, they'd disappear from a picnic basket or lunch box just as quickly.

I used a 24-cup mini-muffin pan, but you can also use a regular muffin pan, if you haven't got a mini one.

Mini cheese popovers
(Väikesed juustukohrud)
Makes 24 popovers

250 ml (1 cup) full-fat milk
2 large eggs
150 g plain flour (1 cup/250 ml)
1 Tbsp butter, melted
0.5 tsp salt
a pinch of black pepper
5 Tbsp coarsely grated strong cheese (I used Gouda)
2 Tbsp finely grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp finely chopped dill or chives

Whisk together milk, eggs, flour, melted butter, salt, and pepper until smooth, then stir in cheeses and herbs. Chill 1 hour to allow batter to rest. (NB! You can make the batter 1 day ahead and keep chilled).
Preheat oven to 220°C/425°F with rack in upper third.
Butter muffin pan with some extra butter, then heat in oven until butter sizzles, about 2 minutes.
Gently stir batter, then divide among muffin cups (they will be about two-thirds full).
Bake until puffed and golden-brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

Nan Tien Temple and a food tour of Wollongong

Sometimes a little peace and quiet is just what the mind and body needs.Last weekend I took off for a famil of the South Coast, hosted by Tourism Wollongong and Eurobodalla Coast Tourism. It had been ages since I'd headed down the coast, nothing but distant memories of family holidays from childhood - fish and chips at the beach, digging sandcastles and peeling sticky limbs from the melting

Pädaste moves to the city and becomes NEH

I've blogged about Pädaste, a luxurious manor house/boutique hotel on MUHU island, on Nami-Nami before - back in January 2007, when we spent a romantic winter night there. Since then I've been back for a quick visit couple of times on our way to Saaremaa. We also spent a very charming and delicious two days there back in August - sorry, never got around to blogging about it, but suffice to say that the food blew me away - it was extremely delicious and full of positive surprises.

However, the number of local and international tourists to MUHU island during the winter season drops considerably, and it's simply not financially viable to keep the manor house fully functional throughout the winter. So this season the chefs and staff of the Pädaste restaurant moved to the harbour area of the capital, Tallinn, and opened a charming little restaurant called NEH. They're placed in a little house on Lootsi 4, which also houses a small art gallery:


Photo courtesy of Pädaste Manor. Of course, at the moment the house is surrounded and covered by snow and illuminated by fairylights - the winter came early this year:



K. and I were kindly invited to an opening dinner at NEH last Friday, where we had a chance to explore the venue, peek into the kitchen and enjoy a 4-course meal (amuse bouche, starter. main course and dessert) with matching drinks.

First, we had a chance to explore the ground floor, which has more of a casual feel:



then the first floor, which feels slightly more cosy and romantic:



and peek into the kitchen (NB! there's a chef's table for up to 5 guests just opposite the kitchen):



The meal we were served was delicious and we're certainly hoping to go again with friends very soon. For the first course we enjoyed a 62 C free-range egg with spiced Baltic sprats and salt-baked potatoes.


The main course was a meltingly soft veal's cheek with juniper-seasoned red cabbage and apple and celeriac cream:


The dessert - a custard with bilberry compote, cookie crumbs and thyme ice cream - all very delicious (I especially liked the subtle herbal notes of the ice cream):

(Apologies for not taking any pictures of the food - we were really enjoying chatting to the other couple at our table, Ede & Sten, and simply forgot about the pictures. The restaurant staff has generously allowed us to use some of their photos).

If you are in Tallinn and looking for a place to enjoy a romantic and delicious gourmet meal, then I'd definitely recommend paying NEH a visit. After all, they are only opened till March, when they move back to their real home on Muhu island :)

You can check out the menu options here (price excl. drinks are indicated):
lunch
dinner
Chef's table
Sunday brunch
drinks/wine list

NEH
Lootsi 4
10151 Tallinn
Estonia
T +372 60 22 222
E-mail: info@neh.ee

Nami-Nami cookbook presentation

My first cookbook "Nami-Nami kokaraamat" finally hit the bookstores on Wednesday, December 1st. The official launch party took place in Rahva Raamat bookstore in Viru Keskus in Tallinn, and was a great success. There were lots of people (I signed books for a best part of an hour!) and although I was very stressed about the whole thing beforehand, I felt a great relief - and happiness - once the book was out and the launch party ended. Here's a little photo-review of the presentation.

A huge thank you to the team at VARRAK publishing house, to Heidi Park for the delicious fingerfood, to Põltsamaa Felix for providing the drinks and to all the friends, supporters and family who turned out and made me feel so special!


Krista Kaer speaks on behalf of the publishers.


My cookbook on the bookshelves, with a gorgeous cover by über-talented Ximena Maier. (It's my cousin Ingrid, who helped to coordinate some of the PR, on the phone).


An extremely lovely fortified fruit wine, Põltsamaa Tõmmu Vintage 2002.


The ever-charming Heidi Park, trained at the Culinary Institute of America and now baking fabulous cakes in Estonia (check out her website), did the catering for the party. She made three dishes from the cookbook plus her own famous brownies. Here are the edible goodies (click on the food photos for appropriate recipes, all three recipes are included in the cookbook as well):








Heidi's famous brownies.


Me signing cookbooks.




Some locals celebs with signed copies of my cookbook ;)

Roll Plus, Haymarket Chinatown Sydney

I can always eat.Is it Asian genetics that enables, nay, insists my gullet to seek out substantial meals three times a day? Forget the flimsy sandwich for lunch, or insipid salad for dinner. When I pay for a meal, I want carbs! And protein! And vegetables! And carbs!Gyoza $7The Extra and I find ourselves at Roll Plus for lunch, a small Japanese eatery tucked in along the northern end of Dixon

Black chicken soup, turtle stew and a wedding

"I ordered a few special things for dinner," our host in the Philippines said with a knowing wink.He wasn't kidding. A farewell meal to mark the end of our visit to Manila was a banquet like no other. My penchant for food blogging had not gone unnoticed, and our kind hosts seemed to take great pleasure in creating a menu I was unlikely to forget in a hurry.Live prawns marinating in rice wineWe'd