Pizza at Nonna's Kitchen in Kirkintilloch

Having suffered from cold during the second week of my holiday, I went back to work the following week. I still had no interest in cooking, hardly any appetite, never mind doing dishes that kept piling up in the sink. My kitchen is always chaotic but at least that week I had a good excuse not to bother.
So my husband cooked dinner or went out to get carry-out for dinner whilst Maria tidied up kitchen as she couldn't stand the mess and we were running out of cutleries (and also she is a really good cleaner!).

So Friday evening last week I came home from work, still having cold, and said to my husband if we could go out for dinner quickly.  Maria said, "I thought you still got cold and are not that hungry...".  I replied, "I think I am feeling better...".  Besides, I could not be bothered cooking, to tell you the truth.

So we decided to go to Nonna's Kitchen (http://www.rivarestaurants.com/nonnas/about.html) in Kirkintilloch for a quick dinner.

My husband never tried their pizza so decided to try Pizza Puttanesca which has red onion, capers, black olives, roasted cherry tomatoes, anchovies, chilli and grated parmesan.

I must say that this pizza is really flavoursome, really tasty. In fact I am a bit obsessed about this pizza at the moment and so much so, we went back to Nonna's Kitchen last night and asked my husband to order this again so that I could steal some from his plate (as whole pizza would be too big for me and I could not decide between this or a pasta dish).

This is really yummy ...

Anyway, I love ravioli so I ordered Ravioli Frutti di Mare, which is seafood ravioli served with a langoustine bisque.  It was delicious however the portion size was so small that my husband thought that was a starter size. I finished eating all whilst he was still eating the second slice of his pizza!
The dish was £9.95.... they could put more ravioli on the plate charging a bit more...

Ravioli di Mare - more ravioli please .....?

As I was still suffering from a cold, I probably could not eat large portion of any dish anyway, however, still, pity about the portion size. It was a tasty dish, but I don't think I would order again because of the portion size.  Anyway, my husband asked if I want some of his pizza, I said yes without any hesitation and he cut me two slices and put them onto my plate.

That's how I came to taste Nonna's Kitchen's Pizza Puttanesca and I am now obsessed with it as I find it so yummy. I love capers, olives, anchovies (to moderation), roasted tomatoes, red onions and parmesan - so all these my favourite ingredients are on top of the fluffy pizza dough, and lots of them too. It's just so flavoursome, so addictive that I could eat it every day!

We normally do not have desserts but I still had some room in my stomach so I ordered tiramisu and my husband ordered sticky toffee pudding with ice cream, which we enjoyed.

We then had coffee afterwards to finish off our meals -cappucino for my husband and macchiato for me, both came with a piece of tablet. I like that.

Sorry, I moaned about seafood ravioli's portion size but over all we enjoyed the food and had a lovely evening.

I really like their Pizza Puttanesca now. I even thought about take-away from them for this weekend but their take away menu seems to have only limited selection of pizza's so I decided to refrain myself from going back there again - besides, that's like going there 3 times in 10 days ordering the same pizza!  That's a bit obsessive, so just as well....

My husband was contemplating to order Pizza Gamberoni that has king prawns, spinach and mascarpone topped with sweet chilli sauce but was not sure about the combination of chill and mascarpone.  Next time he may try this pizza and I shall order Pizza Puttanesca. By then hopefully my cold will be gone, I can eat this pizza to my heart content AND to my stomach content!

That's all forks!

Craig's food adventure - Singapore

Emily's fiance, Craig, has just come home from business trip, this time from Singapore.

He is now well familar with his routine - to take some pictures of food he eats wherever he is sent for business for my blog, hahaha.

This one was his room service for dinner at Shangri-La Hotel - Singaporean Chicken Rice. The menu informs Craig that it's a very popular Singaporean dish: the chicken is slow cooked in chicken broth until it is tender and the same broth is used to cook the rice, giving it subtle aromatic fragrances, accompanied with homemade chilli sauce, dark soy sauce and ginger paste.  Wow, it sounds really yummy.

Singaporean Chicken Rice

He then had a dessert, some kind of jelly. He remembers it was sweet. I don't know if each colour has different flavour. I am curious and visited the hotel's website but I could not find any information about this dessert.  Maybe it is only available for room service... I wonder what this is...

He thinks he may be sent to Bhutan for business next. I am wondering what he can eat there, so I consulted with internet that informs that chillies are an essential part of nearly every dish and are considered so important that most Bhutanese people would not enjoy a meal that was not spicy.  I hope he would like lots of spicy food there.  Wikipedia also informs that when offered food, one says meshu meshu, covering one's mouth with the hands in refusal according to Bhutanese manners, and then gives in on the second or third offer.

Craig's food adventure continues ....

That's all forks!

Cocktails at Hotel Avenida Palace in Lisbon

We were staying at Hotel Avenida Palace (http://www.hotelavenidapalace.pt/en/hotel-overview.html) whilst we were in Lisbon for a week for holiday recently.

They do daily cocktails so I tried all 7 cocktails every evening before we went out for dinner!
We arrived at the hotel on Saturday, so it started off with Saturday's cocktail.

Saturday - Hotel Avenida Palace cocktail: I asked Tiego, the bartender, what was in the cocktail however he said that it's hotel's secret recipe so he can't tell us what's in it. When he brought this cocktail over to our table, he said, "just imagine yourself in Caribbean and enjoy tropical fruits...". I guess that was the clue. I could taste rum and pineapple. What else ...? The cocktail had two tone colours - light lime green at the top and pastel pink at the bottom....  I am not a cocktail drinker but whatever it in, it was tasty.

Hotel Avenida Palace Cocktail

Sunday - Pineapple Mojito: it was meant to be a strawberry mojito but they run out of strawberries. I was about to have an ordinary mojito and then quickly changed my mind and ask if they could make  mojito using a different fruit. The bartender on the shift that night (Tiego was on holiday) went in to a wee kitchen and came back with this lovely pineapple mojito.  There were lots of pineapple bits at the bottom of the glass, mmmmmm, yummy.

Pineapple Mojito

Monday - Dry Martini: I forgot to ask for my martini to be 'shaken, not stirred' like Mr Bond, hahahaha. Does it really matter? According to Somerset Maugham, "a martini should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously on top of one another."  I would not know the difference!  'Dry' means very little vermouth and gin based. If it's extra dry, it may be only the slightest splash of vermouth or even just a glass-coating wash!  Wikipedia also informs me that a dirty martini contains a splash of olive brine or olive juice and is typically garnished with an olive.

It's a classy drink, clean and simple that comes in an elegant cocktail glass. There is something sophisticated about it. People drinking it look good with it and the drink looks good with olives in it!  Unfortunately I don't have coolness to look good with it. I just wanted to eat olives soaked in the simple cocktail of gin [and vermouth....] as I had never had one with olives in it!

Dry Martini

So, how was it?  It was too strong for me ... basically gin.... before even giving olives chance to be soaked in the cocktail, I just finished off olives and gave the rest of the drink to my husband. Just as well as I don't think I get it, this simple but beautiful refreshing drink ...  my husband would appreciate this much more than I would anyway.  Apparently the best part is eating those olives AFTER they've soaked in the gin for a good long time! See, I did not get this drink after all!

There seem to be different versions of how this drink originated. I like the versions of that in 1910, in a New York hotel when John D Rockefeller asked the bartender John Martini for a simple cocktail and he came up with the one being dry with a mixture of gin and vermouth in a shadow of a glass with an olive in it.


Tuesday - Blue Lagoon:  Again the internet informs me that this is made of vodka, blue curaçao and lemonade.  I have never tried this before and the blue colour makes anything really artificial however  I enjoyed this cocktail: it was very refreshing and summery.  Yeah, I get it. The colour does look like a tropical blue lagoon .... also reminded me of an old movie, 1980 American movie The Blue Lagoon starring Brooke Shields, then only 14 years old. The movie was about two young children marooned on a tropical island paradise in the South Pacific. Wow, such a long long time ago.  I doubt Emily and Maria wouldn't even know who Brooke Shields is, never mind about the movie.

It also reminds me of the beautiful blue sky we had in Lisbon.  I love summer in Lisbon - it is hot but dry and you always get lovely sea breaze to cool you down. When you look up, all you see is an eternal blue sky, not even a cloud, beneath of this you see beautiful red roof tiles and white buildings with lush green trees lining avenues.

Looking out from Rossio train station.
Castelo de Sao Jorge is on top of the hill

Wednesday - Golden Cadillac: According to the internet, this cocktail was developed in the 1970s and its key ingredient is Galliano (a sweet herbal Italian liqueur of vanilla-anise flavour with subtle citrus and woodsy herald under notes with its vivid yellow colour symbolising the Gold Rushes of the 1890s) and creme de cacao. It is more of an after-dinner drink, digestif or a dessert cocktail that pairs nicely with almost any sweet dessert, especially those with chocolate. I really enjoyed this cocktail, with some chocolate shavings on top. The cocktail was never too sweet, just perfect.

I was wondering why this is called Golden Cadillac so I did more research on internet. According to www.cocktailhunter.com (http://www.cocktailhunter.com/cocktail-story/a-dash-of-cocktail-history-2/) this cocktail was originally created at Poor Red;s Bar-B-Q in a gold rush town of El Dorado, California. A newly engaged couple came to the bar to celebrate their engagement and the bartender, Frank Klein created this cocktail to match their newly purchased golden Cadillac. Ah, that's where the creamy golden colour came from....

I thought this cocktail had rather sophisticated taste and in fact it went down as a lovely treat to go with the piano recital we had at the Palace lounge where we were having evening drinks.
I got to enjoy this lovely cocktail whilst a pianist played wonderful renditions of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Debussy.

The Recital Programme by pianist, Joao Romeiras 

Thursday - Mai Tai:  This cocktail is based on rum, curaçao liqueur and lime juice, associated with Polynesian-style setting. According to Wikipedia (and what do we do without internet!!!), this cocktail was purportedly invented at the Trader Vic's restaurant in Oakland, California in 1944. The Trader created it one afternoon for some friends who were visiting from Tahiti, and one of them tasted it and cried out, "Maita' roa ae!", literally "Very Good" or figuratively "out of this world, the best!", hence the name.

Mai Tai

I have just remembered! When I was in college, I had a weekend part time job as a PA to a General Manager of Trader Vic's restaurant within Hotel New Otani in Tokyo, Japan. I think his name was Mr Miyake or something and he was a Japanese-American. His full time PA works weekdays and I did some weekend and holiday cover to look after some admins for his office. I now remember, there were some female college students working as waitresses wearing fancy Polynesian-theme flowery dresses as uniforms at the restaurant, I used to think how glamorous they all looked, whilst I was wearing a very conservative dark blue dress with a red scarf around my neck as uniform, working in the back office. Mr Miyake liked watching sumo wrestling on TV during his break and used to tell me to practice typing as I could not type! It was rather a wonder how I even managed to get a job as his PA to begin with despite my lack of typing skills back then. I guess my English language probably helped as Mr Miyake did not speak Japanese that much.

I have just checked Hotel New Otani's website and they still have Trader Vic's!!!  They also have their cocktail menu (http://www.newotani.co.jp/tokyo/restaurant/vics/menu/drink.html) and I have found their Mai Tai for 1,900 yen.  Wow, I never thought I would end up going back to a memory lane through a drink of Mai Tai cocktail I have had in Lisbon, hahaha.

Friday - Cosmopolitan:  And finally, my last cocktail of our week in Lisbon, which is made with vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice and freshly squeezed lime juice. Is this the drink further popularised by the TV programme, Sex and the City where Carrie Bradshow, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, used to drink when out with her girlfriends?  Anyway, this cocktail became my most favourite one and I think Maria, my younger daughter, likes this too.
Would it be nice to have this when you come home after hard day's work, whilst preparing dinner to wind down? It would be even better if someone else is making one for you.  (Maria, are you reading this, hint hint ...).

A picture hang just outside of the entrance to the bar
I think it summons up my cocktail experience - a bit of decadence, luxury in relaxing atomosphere!

Hotel Avenida Palace - daily cocktail 

Anyway, I have tried all 7 daily cocktails which Hotel Avenida Palace was serving while we were staying there and I really enjoyed all. It's not something I drink back home but there was something of a bit decadence about having a different cocktail to try every evening before dinner.

That's all forks.

Portuguese boiled eggs

We went to visit Gulbenkian Museum at Avenida de Berna 45a, Lisbon 1067 - 001 (http://museu.gulbenkian.pt/Museu/pt/PaginaNaoEncontrada) whilst we were in Lisbon. The museum  houses the art collection of Calouste Gulbenkian, who was an Armenian-British businessman and philanthropist.  His art collections, totalled over 6,000 pieces from all over the world, are said to be eclectic and unique which were influenced by his travels and his personal taste, dating from antiquity to the early 20th century.  It's not a big museum however it was very interesting to visit. I particular enjoyed seeing his art collections of eastern islamic art.

Azulejo tile, made in c. 1620 in Persia,
painted and glazed in "cuerda seca" (dry cord) technique.

After the visit, it was time for lunch. Having consulted with the guidebook to check if there is any restaurant within walking distance from the museum, we decided to try this restaurant called Solar do Morais at R. Augusto dos Santos, 3, 1050-028, Lisbon.

The place was getting busy with lunch time crowd, mostly with business men and office workers.

We ordered a glass of white wine each and the waiter opened a new bottle and poured the wine to  our glasses rather generously.

I wanted to try grilled swordfish however they did not have that that day so I just decided to have a grilled salmon. On hindsight, I should have tried something different or more local as I eat salmon at home quite often.  Anyway, the salmon was grilled nicely, that came with boiled potatoes and brocollies. This was 9.90 euro so it was not bad at all.

Well, my husband decided to try the dish from daily lunch menu. It mentioned about fish, eggs and potatoes. He asked the waiter what this local dish was. The waiter said, it is a dish of fish, boiled eggs, it's very tasty and local dish, they are fresh eggs; look those plates over there, pointing at dishes on other tables near by.  I could not see which dish he was pointing at however it seems everyone is eating this dish; it seems very popular amongst the locals. My husband could not see properly what the dish looked like however assumed that this could be Bacalhau a Bras, which is made from shreds of salted cod, onions and thinly chopped fried potatoes in a bound of scrambled eggs. We had King prawn a bras before and that was very lovely. He said to the waiter, Ok, I will try that. The waiter looked very pleased as if to say, sir, you have made the right choice!

So, the dish arrived. What did the waiter said ... was it made of fish and boiled eggs? It was actually boiled fish eggs (lots of them!) decorated with boiled eggs and boiled potatoes. There was a slight lost in translation however the waiter did not technically lie. They were fish's boiled eggs, or maybe we did not hear him right. 

Boiled eggs in Portuguese style....

With abundance of seafood and cod available in Portugal, it makes sense that they also use fish eggs in dishes. I read it on internet somewhere that in Portugal they eat boiled fish eggs when you are sick, because they are mild and easy to digest. In Japan, we eat fish eggs too; sometimes raw with dash of soy source with freshly cooked boiled rice or grilled and fold them into onigiri rice balls. When I was a student, there was a very lovely coffee shop near the college with elegant atmosphere with classic music playing background.  They served different kind of toasties. One of them was a cheese toast with raw fish eggs. It does not sound appetising however it was actually really tasty. A big thick square toast with raw fish egg paste and few slices of cheese on top, quickly grilled till the cheese started to melt and serve. You then squeeze lemon juice over it to eat it.

I don't think my husband enjoyed the dish and did not like textures of it, especially if he was somehow expecting a cod a bras to arrive at his table. At least he tried this Portuguese boiled fish eggs however he mostly ate the boiled eggs (not fish's) and potatoes in the end. 

Looking around we see many other people, in business suits so assuming they are locals, eating this dish so it must be a popular dish for lunch. I tried some of the fish eggs on his plate. They tastes fine, just like what boiled fish eggs should taste like. I know the taste and texture. 

Now every time I think of Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, I think of fish eggs my husband ordered for lunch. Both were really memorable indeed. Travel and food, eat what locals eat. If my husband did not order that dish, this blog would not exist so I should thank him for ordering that dish. 

We finished our lunch with strong bica. Coffee was really good. The bill was not bad neither. A huge glass of wine was less than a 4 euro each!

We came out of the restaurant, we decided to walk back to our hotel through Parque Eduardo Vll as the north east entrance is very near from the restaurant. From the top of the park, you can see the Marquess of Pombal Square, beyond this, centre of Lisbon with tree lined Avenida da Liberdade and the Tagus river in the background.

We had a memorable lunch in Lisbon and that's what is all about.....

That's all forks!

Craig's food adventure - China and Hong Kong

Emily's fiance, Craig, went to China a few months ago for business and sent me some photos of food he ate there.  In fact he is in Singapore right now and told me that he would not send me any more food pictures from Singapore unless I blog about his food in China.  I'd better crack on and write some so here I am.

Craig's work has been taking him so many different places around the world. In the past year or two, he has been to Norway, Florida, South Korea (please see earlier blogs titled Craig's food adventure in Korea http://mwhe.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/craigs-food-adventure-in-korea.html and Craig's another food adventure in Korea http://mwhe.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/craigs-another-food-adventure-in-korea.html), recenlty China and Hong Kong, and now, currently in Singapore and Indonesia (I think....?) for business.  At each location he was there for a month to two months.  He has been becoming more and more adventurous with food, eating local food with local people; before you know he would eat around the world and eat like locals!

Anyway, one night he went out with his Chinese co-workers when he was working somewhere in China, and here are some photos of food he ate!

This is sweet boiled bread, grilled. Craig, is this the same as mantou, which is Chinese steamed bun? Were there any fillings or did you eat them with some dipping sauce? I am intrigued ....

This next one is grilled peppers and mushroom. Mushrooms look nice. Are there flakes of chilli I detect on mushrooms? I bet they were flavoursome!

And here are shredded leg of lamb, roasted...? I am sure Craig enjoyed this as he likes meat.

And eels in a BBQ glaze - I would love to try this.  Eal meat is oilier than other types of fish so they are more suited to grill. Grilled eels with special glaze sauce are also very popular dish in Japan, especially eaten in summer which is said to give people strength to beat grillingly hot summer heat.

And finally pork skewers, I bet Craig also loved this!

He also sent me a photo of food he ate at a restaurant in the city of Hong Kong. 

I am guessing this is chicken with cashew nuts and chilli ... but look at the size of chillies, unless I am mistaken these with red peppers - whole chillies - was this hot and spicy, Craig?  It looks lovely though, with contrasts of red chilli sauce and white rice, and again with red table cloth and white dishes.

Whilst in Hong Kong, he also ventured out for a walk alone and found this very unusual flowers that looks almost like an unusual butterfly.

Well, well, well, all those Chinese food, he still missed some Western food and he could not resist the temptation of getting room service hot dog with french fries at a hotel he was staying in Hong Kong!  But to be honest, although I don't eat meat, the hot dog does look good, doesn't it and who would not like french fries!  I bet he really enjoyed this too.

So, this was another Craig's very successful food adventure from China and Hong Kong. Thank you very much for having sent me these photos, Craig.  I am now looking for more photos, hint hint, hahahaha. 

Confucius said, 'Everyone eats and drinks; yet only few appreciates the taste of food."

That's all forks!

Pimientos Padron at Meson Andaluz in Lisbon - one in every two is a 'B*stardo'!

Last year, we went to the other side of Tagus River (Lisbon) to visit Cristo Rei (Please see my earlier blog, Clams in Lisbon - Cacilhas, south of the Tagus River http://mwhe.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/clams-in-lisbon-cacilhas-south-of-tagus.html). That day, we got the boat back to Lisbon, walking back from the ferry terminal up the hill toward Bairro Alto area, I suggested to my husband that we should find a wee nice wine bar or something in the area before heading back to our hotel.

To tell you the truth, I just wanted to sit down somewhere so that I did not have to walk up the hill, which seemed to me so much a great effort at that time.  And here it was, miraclously, this tapas restaurant came into our view.

It is called Meson Andaluz and it's at Travessa do Alecrim 4, just off Rue do Alecrim. We sat at tables outside and ordered a couple of small dishes to go with nicely chilled white wine.

One of the dishes we ordered at that time was a plateful of grilled green chilli peppers; the menu did carry some warning - "one in every two is a b*stardo!"  Yes, you never knew which pepper would be so hot and spicy to the point of wanting to swear and which one would be harmless kind....

They were really good but also challenging in a way as you never know which ones were really spicy hot peppers and if you got the hot one, you could not really taste the pepper... however it was interesting dish to try.
We also ordered Tuna Two-ways with red onion compote. This was really tasty.

Anyway, we really enjoyed that afternoon last year, we decided to go back again this time for a light lunch.  And yes, the restaurant is still there, with the same menu and yes, they did still have the grilled peppers!

We did not order the peppers this time but we ordered some bread, garlic prawns and tuna again.

Just a light lunch with a lovely chilled bottle of sauvignon blanc under a shade created by a big parasol while enjoying a warm sunshine with lovely sea breeze.

Then have a strong uma bica to finish off the lunch.  Lovely!

I used their facilities - there were two doors for toilets but I could not figure out which one is male and which one is female toilet. I asked the owner, with hand gesture, pointing at doors (as I can't speak Portuguese, shame on me!) indicating which one for me to go in. For some reason he thought I was telling him that the light switch was not working. He checked the light box and turned on and off the mains to check if toilet lighting worked, which did perfectly.  I said no and pointing to doors again and asked which (in English... I should have studied some Portuguese...).  He figured out and pointed out the door on the left. I was thinking, how am I supposed to know which door to go in.
Later on my husband told me that there were signs on the doors - one has a plug with a cord (for male) and the other with a socket (for female) on each door....

Anyway, we were pleased that this place was still there. We had a very relaxing afternoon, with light lunch, with a great but reasonably priced bottle of wine, with just a bird singing as background and under a lovely weather.  We just found a wee oasis in a heart of Lisbon.

At Travessa do Alecrim 4, just off Rue do Alecrim

That's all forks!