121212 - Gamba, Seafood Restaurant in Glasgow

One two, one two, one two, one two.... am I doing an exercise? No way, not especially I got so much food at home at the moment. Is this a code? No.

Apparently at least five newborns have come into this world this year on once a century good luck date of 12.12.12 at 12:12!  In the meantime my husband was born xx numbers of years ago on 12.12 so to celebrate his birthday, we went to Gamba (http://www.gamba.co.uk), seafood restaurant in Glasgow on 12th December.

Emily and I checked their menu online and found an excellent deal of Winter Menu that comes with 3 courses and a glass of Prosecco for £20 each.

For starters, Maria had a bowl of parsnip, honey and cumin soup with creme fraiche, Emily had prawn and pear cocktail with chilli jam and lime while my husband and I had Gamba fish soup with stem ginger, Portland crabmeat and coriander. The fish soup was so excellent that you just want to keep going back to the restaurant to order another bowl! For information, if you order this soup from A La Carte Menu, the soup comes with prawn dumplings.

Parsnip, honey & cumin soup with creme fraiche

Gamba fish soup with stem ginger, Portland crabmeat and coriander

Prawn and pear with chilli jam and lime

We then moved on to the main courses. Emily and I had Baked grey sole with smoked haddock, leeks, garden peas, scallop cream and chives, my husband had line caught seabass with Caesar salad, crayfish tails and capers and Maria had crisp fried salmon, garlic olive oil and sweet soy with fragrant rice.

Seabass with Caesar salad, crayfish tails and capers

Baked grey sole with smoked haddock, leeks, garden peas, scallop cream  and chives

Crisp fried salmon, garlic olive oil, sweet soy with fragrant rice

All these dishes taste exactly what they look - very delicious indeed ... in fact the photographs would not do justice as they were much much tastier than they look.
Alas, halfway through the main course both Emily and I were defeated by the volume of dish and grudgingly had to give up but grey sole and haddock was so delicious, we really wish we could go back right now to finish the rest if we could....

It's funny how we always manage to create extra space for dessert no matter how much we are full. Three of us ordered Honeycomb ice cream with chocolate sauce and Maria ordered Christmas pudding creme brûlée.

Honeycomb ice cream with warm chocolate sauce

Creme brûlée with Christmas pudding inside

We then finish the courses with teas and coffees that came with home made tablets. Yummy...

The food was delicious, good price for excellent quality of food and attentive customer service. Overall it was a lovely evening with lovely food and lovely company (of course!) to celebrate my husband's birthday on 12/12.

In case you are wondering, I have checked my husband's birth certificate to find out what time he was born. It was not at 12.12. It was not even close but at 20.10pm.

Having eaten all those food, I think I would need to go on a treadmill and go 'one, two, one, two' but I will wait till after the New Year.

Hope you all have had a lovely year 2012 and wish year 2013 will bring a lot of happiness and good health to you.  That's all forks!

A little Lisbon in Glasgow

It's amazing how time flies...  we have been on holiday for just over a week now. Around this time last week, my husband and I were having coffees whilst reading newspapers on the top floor of the Princess Square in Glasgow, sitting at a cafe called Tinderbox (http://www.princessquare.co.uk), looking forward to a long relaxing holidays ahead at home for Christmas and the new year.

There was a Christmas choir group of school children singing under a big Christmas tree right in the centre of the Princess Square and it really gave me a lovely festive feeling. It was also a special moment when Emily phoned me on my mobile to tell me that she got promotion at work. Congratulations, Emily!!!  So, it was joy and happiness all around us.

This is also the place where you can get egg custard pastry, reminiscing the good time we had when we visited Lisbon for our wedding anniversary in 2009. This pastry is very rich and sweet with lots of custard but it goes very well with strong coffee. 

If you ever go to Lisbon, you got to try their local Pastel de Nata (a Portuguese egg tart pastry). Every coffee houses sell these and there are also pastry shops dedicated to this national sweet, such as the one we tried called Casa Brasileira in the heart of Lisbon. Here shop window displays freshly baked pastel de nata.

Lisbon's old but charming tram is pre-World War I model.

Window display of Casa Brasileira in the centre of Lisbon.

Inside of Casa Brasileira -
you can order and eat freshly baked and warm Pastel de Nata with strong Portuguese coffee!

Rich custard cream encased in flaky pastry - definitely not good for those watching waistline!

Mmmmmm, just thinking about it make me want to go back to Lisbon again.  There are so much to see in and around Lisbon and so much to eat, catering very well for both fish & seafood lovers like us and for meat eaters too.  Maybe I shall talk about what to eat in Lisbon soon.....

Hope you will all have a Happy New Year.  That's all forks!

Whole Lotta Love with Christmas Dinner

Hope you all have had a lovely Christmas.  As usual we all ate too much and so as everybody else!
Here are what we have all had for Christmas....

My older daughter Emily and her boyfriend Craig decided to do their own Christmas dinner quietly at their house on Christmas Eve.  Emily prepared peas and ham soup to start with and turkey with all trimmings for Craig. They were so full having had all these that they did not have any puddings afterwards however they had a nice and relaxing Christmas dinner just two of them. Ahhh, whole lotta love!

The next day, Craig went to his mum and dad's for Christmas dinner while Emily and Maria went to their father's for Christmas dinner this year as Emily was in Japan with us last year for Christmas. They take turns visiting their parents for Christmas and New Year.

By the way, Christmas in Japan is nothing like here as people basically celebrate it more commercially - good excuse for spending money on sales. Some couple may go to nice restaurants, usually French, for Christmas dinner for a romantic dinner for two but anything merely resembling to Christmas dinner experience over there would be to go to KFC to buy chicken drumsticks, so you see a long queue of people outside of KFCs in Japan on Christmas eve. People also buy Christmas cakes leading up to 25th. Many many years ago it was quite normal for females in Japan to get married in early 20s. Those who were still single beyond 25 years old were cruelly nicknamed Left Over Christmas Cakes as people do not buy Christmas cakes after 25th December for passing shelf-life, thus referring single females over 25th to such cruel nicknames as no one wants to marry them. Obviously this is no longer the case and it is probably very rare now that females getting married in early 20s.

Sorry, digressed as usual. Back to the Christmas dinner. Emily and Maria went to their father's for Christmas dinner.  They had choices of prawn cocktail or Christmas tree shape-pate with toasts as starter.

They then had turkey with all trimmings. I am not a meat eater but it looks delicious, I must say...
They also had chocolate cake with cream and ice cream. Again, there's whole lotta love going into the meal.

In the meantime, my husband and I went to his sister's house for Christmas dinner as we normally do every year.  His sister, Mary, made home-made mackerel pate with melba toast.  She add butter to the pate to make it 'pate-like' consistency. Her tip was also to use older breads to turn into melba toast which I found a fantastic idea. We then had fish pie while others had turkey.  However my highlight of the day was Sicilian Cassata cake!

Cassata Siciliana

Cassata is traditional Sicilian sponge cake, layered with ricotta cheese, candied peel and vanilla cream and covered with green marzipan and decorated with candied fruit such as cherries and citrus fruits. My husband and I went back to Sicily this year for holiday and Mary knows we love Italy so much that she went to this Sicilian bakery in Edinburgh and got this cassata specially for Christmas. When Mary told the owner of the shop that she and her husband had been to Sicily and how much they loved it there, the owner explained that Sicilians eat this for special occasions but also for Christmas and started talking in Italian (or Sicilian) to her...  I love that!  I must get the address of that bakery off Mary and one day I shall visit that bakery!  We never got to eat cassata while we were in Sicily so this was a special delight for me. To be honest I am not much of a fan of marzipan although I do love almonds and this is a very sweet cake but I really enjoyed it!  It also felt like Cassata has brought a Sicilian sunshine to this grey British weather for Christmas and all these colourful decorations are so appropriate for the occasion! Again, lots of love and happiness going into the Christmas dinner!

Emily's friend' Jennifer has also sent me photos of her Christmas dinner. She and her family went to Glenskirlie House ( http://www.glenskirliehouse.com/GlenskirlieHouseRestaurant.aspx) in Banknock for a lovely Christmas dinner.
They had smoked salmon and pate (note for Christmas tree shape melba toast!) for starters, followed by sorbet to cleanse their palate for the main course.

    

They then had turkey and venison for main courses! I don't eat meat but the venison looks impressive!

For desserts there were fantastic choices -  they had poached pear with brownie, trio of ice cream, cheese cake and fruit jelly. They all look pretty and delicious! I personally want to try that poached pear!

Everything looks very yummy and beautifully presented. I am sure Jennifer and her family had a fantastic Chirstmas dinner with lots of happiness and love on Christmas Day.

I know it's only dinner but you see, everyone celebrated their Christmas different ways and just looking at these photos makes me feel really happy, thinking that everyone really enjoyed themselves with loved ones, eating wonderful meals together. That's whole lotta love!

Merry Christmas and that's all, forks!

I am all pickled this Christmas

It's Christmas eve and we are invited to my husband's sister's house for Christmas dinner tomorrow so no hassle and bustle for toiling all day in the kitchen now. It's perfect for a lazy cook like me.

So how did I spend my afternoon on Christmas eve? Making pickled vegetables in a lazy way, of course. My original intention was to prepare pickling vinegar from the scratch but when we went to supermarket last night I found a huge jar of Sarson's Malt Pickling Vinegar. It was inevitable that I had to buy this jar to create the most easiest and quickest pickles at home.

My mother in law has been making chutney and jams so I have been keeping jars for her. I need to create some space in the kitchen so why not, let's make some mixed pickles using these jars, eat more vegetables for 5-a-day and clear up the kitchen a little bit too.

I have done some research online about making pickles but in the end Sarson has decided for me that I just go for hassle free recipe of making pickles after all - all I did was preparing vegetables and immerse them with the pickling vinegar with some peppercorns and some chills. I might have overdone chillies but it's too late now. I just see what will happens and will let you know how my pickles will be like.

In the meantime, just to wish you everyone a Merry Christmas and have a lovely Christmas Dinner. I wonder what you will be eating...?   You will find out what I will be eating of course! Send me your photos of your Christmas Dinner and I may even put them on my blog too!!

Anyway, enjoy your Christmas.

(This is not me but Emily...)

'SEE' Food in Glasgow

Once again I have been neglecting in updating my food blog, big time! I have been really busy with ... work, Angry Birds, work, Angry Birds, work, catch-up TVs (Can't wait for next series of Scandal and Revenge!), work, Angry Birds.....

I have been however eating, taking pictures here and there and I am now officially on holiday until after New Year, so I got some time now to come back to my blog.

The other day, we went back to Coia's Cafe (see my earlier blog) in Glasgow (www.coiascafe.co.uk), this time with my husband, Emily and Maria. We remembered to book the booth and when we arrived, we were seated near the kitchen. Well, this was a fantastic seat as we could see all the foods coming out of the kitchen.  Every dish looked so delectable, especially seafood dishes. Big plateful of mussels or langoustines, piled up high on plates and the smell was phenomenal. Every time chefs put plates on the counter for waiting staff to take away to serve, I kept saying "Wow, look at those!" or "Mmmmmm" with so much excitement that my family could not help laughing, saying "Look at mum's face looking at those foods!". 

Our seat near the kitchen - can see all the foods coming out from the kitchen!

So we first of all had garlic bread with mozzarella as starter to share.

Emily had main course portion of Cozze Marinara (fresh mussels with garlic, chilli and tomato).

Maria had Pizza Calabraese (spicy chicken and mixed peppers).

My husband had Tagliatelle Gamberoni e Cappeante (Garlic, chill, tiger prawns, scallops, cherry tomatoes and rocket).

and I had Linguine Pescatora (mixed seafood in a garlic, chilli and tomato sauce) and I was WOWed!
Just look at this - abundance of seafood and the plate was almost too small to hold everything!

My husband then had a hot apple crumble with ice cream and fresh cream for dessert and we all had cappuccino (... yes, I know Italians dare not to do drink this after noon but we don't care...)

There were so much food and we could only manage half, so we asked for doggy bags for Emily's mussels, my seafood linguine and Maria's pizza, which they were happy to oblige  - even boxes were huge to contain all our foods we could not manage. You can guess what we had for dinner the next day - nothing got wasted and we all had happy stomach!

In the meantime, more food kept coming out from the kitchen and I kept saying 'Wow' for everything.
We'd definitely go back again for SEEfood experience!

That's all forks!

What I ate the other week

I know, I know, who wants to know what I ate in a week. I would be thinking the same thing myself... but why not?  I am sure my family would read this anyway. This is the thing about my family - we always ask each other 'what did you have for lunch or dinner today?' in the same manner as 'Hello, how are you?'.  It's a mandatory question but comes so naturally that we don't even need to think. We are all obsessed about food, but in a good way.

My husband said, 'Are you cooking that for the sake of your blog?' Well, yeah it seemed that way in the end but it was also interesting to see what I had in one week;  it made me think what I should eat. You should try it yourself.


Sunday: Vegetable omelette with a slice of buttered toast for breakfast. I like lots of tomato ketchup.  Had a cup of green tea with almond cookie that I bought in Sicily for mid day snack. For some reason, I was not that hungry that evening so I had small portion of mozzarella salad with tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, black and green olives and basils, with generous drizzle of balsamic vinegar glaze and olive oil. I then had a chocolate vanilla cornet for dessert.

Monday: 1/2 portion of Mexican Corn Tortilla soup (from Sainsbury) with some French loaf for lunch at work. This soup is really yummy. Finished the other 1/2 of the soup with Spanish Piquilo Pepper Tomato bread (from M&S) for starter and 1/2 Canadian lobster dressed with a lobster mouse with chips and salad (again from M&S) for dinner. We would have been eaten this for Sunday but my husband goes for Aikido training every Sunday evening so we never get to have a proper Sunday dinner as such, plus he just went to a dentist and got his back tooth taken out which he did not expect to happen so I thought this would be easier for him to eat for dinner. We then had lemon souffle for dessert (again from M&S). What do we do without M&S???

Tuesday:  Boiled egg and toast for breakfast as I made egg mayo sandwich for lunch for me and my husband, with grapes. I like mixing some grated cheese with egg mayo. For dinner, buttered mushroom with salad, followed by mushroom risotto (M&S again!) with parmesan shavings. There were chestnut, portobello and button mushrooms in this, yum.

Wednesday: It was Halloween and I was thinking of putting sweets out for children from neighbours in case they come for trick or treat. So I had a toast with Nutella!  For lunch I made prawns with salad wraps with drizzle of sweet chill sauce for me and my husband.  For dinner we had Icelandic Cod with a cherry tomato and basil with a parmesan crust (M&S again!). Seriously, what do I do without M&S...

Thursday:  Had mixture of honey & nuts and honey & oats cornflakes with skimmed milk for breakfast. I love playing Angry Birds and sometimes I play 10 minutes in the morning while eating breakfast ... terrible, and so childish but who cares! It's good for de-stress.  I have completed all Angry Birds series now so I got nothing new to play. My husband has promised to get me new Angry Birds Star Wars series - I wonder if Yoda will appear....  My family teases me that I speak like Yoda.
I made cheese and salad wraps for lunch for my husband and me. For dinner we had Japanese ramen soup noodles with grilled salmon.

Friday:  I had a croissant with strawberry jam for breakfast. I was working from home that day as my car went to garage for some repair. I made myself Japanese soba (buckwheat) noodles with tempura prawns and poached egg for lunch. I did manage to get a lot of work done, so I deserved a nice glass of rose. I could not find anything to go with it so I had some tortilla chips with salsa. My husband went for a weekend residential Qi Gong course so he was not around for dinner. I was not planning to make anything special and thought of something quick to prepare. My daughters, Emily and Maria were around so we just had scampi, chips and salad for dinner together.

Saturday: Emily and I were going to Cafe Coias for lunch to try their seafood soup, which we had been looking for for some time, I just had a cup of coffee for breakfast, made with Nespresso machine - this is the one George Clooney advertises, and he never lied!!!  This is a fantastic coffee maker, so easy, hassle free and easy to clean - perfect for a lazy cook like me and coffee tastes amazing! Then Emily and I went to Coias for lunch. It was really yummy - see my blog "Great Seafood Soup in Glasgow".
Because we had such a big meal, I was not planning to eat anything for dinner but I remembered that I had some prawns to finish so I had just 3 prawns with a glass of rose for appetiser. I love peeling off the shells and sucking prawns's heads - this is part of the fun for eating prawns. I then had a small bowl of Japanese soba noodle with just sprinkles of spring onions and seaweed for dinner.

Well, forks! These were what I ate the other week. I must say my food choice are rather random and eclectic. Perhaps too much M&S and not much home cooking but I am working during the day so it's a compromise - at least we tend to eat variety of foods and try to make our food colourful as possible.

I wonder what other have had during the week ...