Roast Parsnips and Carrots with Pancetta

I wanted to squeeze one more post before I left the amazing country of England. I'm snowed-in and our flight got cancelled yesterday so why not? I wanted something easy, flavorful and quite English. At Sainsbury, parsnips were on sale and I decided to go for them. I think that parsnips would scare most Americans away. I don't know why; these root vegetables are relatives of the carrot. They are white in colour, starchy and quite sweet. I rather like them and I reckon that they would make a great side to a very English, Sunday roast.

The Ingredients
5 carrots
5 parsnips
200 grams (7 oz.) cubed pancetta
1 tablespoon butter
salt


The Method

Preheat your oven to 220 C/ 425 F/ gas mark 7. Take your roots, peel and quarter them longways. This will allow even cooking and give you nice long spears. Par-cook your the vege in salted boiling water for about 5 minutes. Drain and set them on a rack to steam dry. Having them dry is important as it will allow them to get brown and crispy.
Meanwhile, take a pan and throw the pancetta in on medium heat for less than two minutes, just until the fat starts to turn translucent. This ensures that the pancetta will get crispy as well. Toss with the vege as well.
Align the vege on a lined baking sheet and place it in the oven.

Roast for about 25-30 until the vege starts to turn light brown. Because of their shape, the spears cook not completely at the same time. Honestly, I kinda like this; it gives you a variety of textures. The sweet vegetables go well with the crunchy, saltly pancetta. Try these for Christmas dinner or a Sunday roast.

Get your Sunday roast ready with roast potatos, gravy, brussels sprouts and my favourite, Yorkshire pudding. This will serve about 4-6.

Recipe by Spencer Huey

Athens, Greece: ancient history, tasty food, and helpful people

Rome, then England for two short days and then to Athens, Greece -another foodie friendly country to visit. We stayed in the capital of Athens for three days to see the major sites and get a taste of Greek culture. 

Parthenon on the Acropolis

We were especially excited for Greece because this term we were taking two Greek classes: gods, myths, and heroes (religion in Ancient Greece) and Greek art and architecture. After studying all these art pieces and buildings, we were finally going to get the chance to see them. Our hostel was right in the middle of all the sites. Located in Plaka, we were less than a 3 minute walk from the Acropolis, Roman and ancient Agoras on one side and the temple of Zeus Olympus on the other. Plaka is a safe and a fun area to stay in Athens, I highly recommend it.

Temple of Zeus Olympus

I also recommend eating as much Greek food as your stomach can handle. First start off with the € 2 gyros. The toasted pita is filled with spit-roasted meat, tomatoes, red onions, and tzatsiki sauce. We found good ones in Monastiraki square and near the Central Market.

Tasty Tasty Gyro

 Many of the restaurnants are touristy and try to lure you in with sweet Greek talk. Don't eat at them. Instead find our favorite taverna, Scholarhio, is located off the tourist path in Plaka on Tripodon 14.This is a MUST-EAT in Athens. It's a family style place where they bring you 18 traditional Greek dishes of the day you choose which ones you want. 

Talk about a decision.

Although it was a little expensive (€ 14, that's a lot for travelling students), you get to taste a huge variety of Greek dishes. 

Bekri Mezedes (Pork stewed in wine), Hortes (Wild greens with lemon, Tiropita (Cheese pies) and Keftedes (Meatballs)

For two of us, we got to choose 5 of the 18 with drinks, bread, and dessert. We were beyond stuffed. Great deal in my mind.

Moussaka

There is a great bakery located on Athnias 39, on the way to the central market. The name was impossible for me to say or write down. All the cookies were made with olive oil and were a perfect snack. I really like the chocolate chip made with olive oil and the cookie with cognac, raisins, and orange zest.

After the cookies, head to the Central Market. It's a large, chaotic place full of very fresh and inexpensive products.

They have stall after stall of meat, mostly lamb.

I had a blast in Athens, it was the perfect way to end our trips around Europe. After England, Greece was my favorite country overall. The people are ridiculously kind. The food is tasty and the city is clean. I can't wait to come back and do some island hopping. Be sure to check for strike days for public transportation, free days (mostly Sundays during the winter) and student discounts (There are a ton!).


We leave Canterbury in two days and were heading back to California. It's surreal that I'm finally leaving. I feel like it went by in the blink of an eye but at the same time the initial flight into London feels like years ago. It's been such a good trip and I'm going to miss my friends here so much. We started saying good bye to them, I hope to see them really really soon. Canterbury is such a great place, definitely my favorite place in Europe. It's full of great history, the best people, and good food. It's what you would imagine an English town to be. If you're ever in England, swing by Canterbury and explore my favourite city. 

Rome: the pope, piazzas and pizzas

I just returned from a five day trip to Rome, Orvieto and Tivoli. 

We had a reading week for one of my courses which means I go travelling instead of studying. To be honest with you, many of the restaurants in central Rome are touristy and serve average Italian food. I was disappointed at first, I mean, it's Italy right? To get the really great places to eat, I suggest some research is in order. Here are some of my favorite places to eat in Rome:


Trattoria de Valentino
Via Cavour, 293
(Near the Coliseum)
The pastas here are inexpensive and are quite tasty. I had the lasagna and it was one of the best I had ever had.


'Gusto
Piazza Augusto Imperatore, 9
(Near Piazza del Popolo)
They have a great pizzeria. I got the pizza Romana with mozarella, black olives, capers, anchovies and oregano. 'Gusto also has a lunch buffet where you pay by the weight of the food. It was also tempting.
website

Volpetti
Via Mormorata, 47
(Near Testaccio)
This was a deli with every kind of Italian cheese and meat. Right around the corner, they sell prepared food. I suggest the arancini (fried rice, ragu and cheese balls)
website


00100 Pizza
Via Giovanni Branca, 88
(Near Testaccio)
My favorite Pizza al taglio (by the slice/weight) in Rome. It's named after the kind of flour they use plus Rome's postcode. Try the potato and sausage pizza, it will leave you wanting a whole kilo of the pizza. Also try the trapezinni which is kinda like a hot sandwich but WAY better.

Biscottificio Innocenti
Via Della Luce, 21
(In Trastevere) 
Hole-in-the-wall cookie shop. The baker was so nice; she gave me a few for free even though I bought just over a euro's worth. I got nocciola(hazelnut) cookies, marzipan cookies, and jam cookies. They were the perfect snack after walking Rome all day.

Sant'Eustachio
Piazza Sant'Eustachio, 82
(Near the Pantheon)
This place is world famous for their espresso. I'm not a huge fan of coffee in general but I was quite surprised that I liked it so much. The New York Times said "When the need for a real espresso becomes overpowering, buy a ticket to Rome, tell the taxi driver to head straight for the Sant’Eustachio cafe. The espresso will be perfect. A little expensive, but surely worth the trouble."
There is so much precision with espresso with the grinding, pressure, and getting the frothy foam just right. It was a little pricey - about 1.40 euro for a few sips of a pick-me-up, but I think its worth a visit.
website

Gelato in Rome is legendary. Although its December, we ate gelato at least once a day. We did have some Italians give us weird looks but seriously, when else are we going to have the world's best gelato. There are two famous places for gelato in Rome. 


San Crispino
Via della Panetteri, 42 (Near the Trevi Fountain) OR
Piazza della Maddalena, 3 (Near Pantheon)
They offered flavours like pignoli (pine nut), basilico (basil) and a few kinds of meringue flavours along with the classics. Their gelato was packed flavour and had the perfect creaminess.

Giolitti's
Via Degli Uffici di Vicario, 40
(Near the Pantheon)
This is classic gelato from Italy. This is a MUST eat.

Rome was such a great city full of history, culture and amazing food in the right spots. Next trip, I would definitely encourage a day trip to Orvieto which is about an hour and half outside of Rome.

I hope that on your next trip to Rome, you include these tasty places in your itinerary and share more food friendly places with me. 

Bremen, Germany: the best wurst, Knipp, and the Town Musicians

This past weekend, we traveled to Bremen, Germany to visit our friend, Felix. His family let us stay in his house and his mom even gave us an insider's tour of the city. The city is in the countryside of Northern Germany. The town has a blend of old historic sites with new modern buildings. I posted about the trip on my travel blog.

His mom showed us their favorite places to get the best wurst (sausage). The bratwurst was perfectly cooked and steaming hot. The sausage was really meaty and full of herbs. This was a great starter to German food.

For lunch we went to a restaurant called Friesenhof. I ordered the FriesenJager Schnitzel which was a breaded pork cutlet, and salt pork fried potatoes. The meat was still juicy and went well with the creamy mushroom sauce.

My friend, Kevin, order the Bermer Knipp which is a local dish with sausages. It is made of ground pork from the belly, head, and rind mixed with barley, and spices. The sausage is then smoked, sliced and fried on both sides to get a golden brown and delicious crust. The knipp was laid upon a mound of fried potatoes and there were gerkins to add acidity to the overall dish. Without the grains in the sausage, the flavor would have been to rich. This dish tasted very similar to haggis.

These dishes were both tasty and we were overwhelmed with food. Sadly, we couldn't even finish our plates - we thought that Americans have huge portions. We also got Beck's beer which is made in the town of Bremen. Let's just say I'm not a huge beer fan.

Then we saw the Town Musicians Statue which comes from a story written by the Brothers Grim.

In the tale, a Donkey, a Dog, a Cat and a Rooster are getting old and are retired from their work on a farm. They realize that they will soon be killed by the farmer and they decide to run away and becomes musicians. What else would these animals be? During the night, they make their way to Bremen and see a cottage with thieves inside.  They hop on eachothers' backs and play music in hopes of getting the thieves approval and perhaps a meal. The music is so "great" that it scares the robbers and they run from the house. The animals rush inside and enjoy a meal together as free animals. Later, one of the robbers return so see what that has taken over their house. The animals act quickly: the Cat scratches the thief's face with her claws, the Dog bites his leg, the Donkey kicks him in the gut and the Rooster crows and chases him out the door. The robber retells his story to his fellow evil doers. He tells them of the witch that scratched him (the Cat), the ogre with the knife (the Dog), the giant who clubbed him (the Donkey) and the finally the dragon who chased him away and screamed from the rooftop (the Rooster). The robbers decide to never return and like good fairy tales, the animals live happily ever after.

After walking around the city, we decided to get a pretzel from the local bakery. It had that chewy outside, bready inside and the amount of salt crystals was perfect.

I forgot to mention that I started a new tradition - every time I visit a city in Europe, I find a kitchen supply store and buy a cooking utensil. In Paris, I bought a whisk and in Germany, I bought a silicon mixing spoon from Henckels. Henckels? Why didn't I buy I knife? I couldn't really bring it on the plane and we didn't have time for me to ship it home. I will find a knife somewhere. Anyways, I really enjoyed my time in the countryside of Germany and I hope that one day you can visit too.

Paris: the land of brasseries, macarons, and crepes

This past weekend, we went to Paris to celebrate Kevin's 21st birthday. There are so many things to do, see and eat in Paris.

We went all around seeing the Notre Dame, Louvre, Arc de Triomph, Jardin di Tuileries, Eiffel Tower, Saint Chapelle, Marche au puces (world's largest outdoor market) and Montmartre. There are just so many places and monuments to see around Paris. I would recommend getting the metro pass, for students its only 3.40 euro for the whole day. Also, bring your student IDs if your are studying in Europe. We were able to get into museums for free because of them.

Sacre Coeur

The weather was great as well; the leaves were just starting to change.

I wish I had several extra stomachs to fit more food in. Here are some of my favorite places that we ate at. If you are ever in Paris, please give these a go. Also, be sure to get as many crepes, pain de chocolats and baguettes as you can. I don't have any particular places but crepe stands and bakeries are practically on every corner.


L'as Du Falafel (34 Rue des Rosiers, Paris, France. Near Saint Paul Metro)

Ok, I know. It's not really French, it's middle eastern. But this place was written about on practically every food blog about Paris. The fried chickpea spheres were layered perfectly with the pickled cabbage, cucumber, tomatoes, and grilled eggplant. They were all tucked into a pita and topped with a creamy tahini sauce and hot sauce. The long line was well worth the wait.The whole thing was only 5 euro. There will be a guy asking how many falafels you want, pay him and he'll hand you a ticket and then you get in the line. It moves faster than you think. There is another falafel place benefiting from the popularity of L'as du Falafels and I'm sure they're good but you did come all this way. We came here twice on our 3 day journey in Paris.


Amorino Gelato (4 Rue di Buci, Paris, France. Near Metro Saint Paul)

This is only a couple of streets over from L'as du Falafels. Their all-natural gelato is refreshing, creamy, and the perfect place for a stop after walking around Paris all day. If you order a cone, they put the gelato in the shape of a flower for the same price as a cup. 

Another cool thing is that you can choose as many flavors as you want. I suggest the Amaretto and the Passion Fruit.

Chez Janou (2 Rue Roger Verlomme, Paris, France. Near Metro Chemin Vert)

If there one place that I had to make a recommendation for it would definitely be for Chez Janou. It is a local bistro place and it was pretty hard to find. Thank goodness for the lady at the dry cleaners; even she got excited that we were going. Try and make reservations before going, it does fill up. So the main problem. No one in our group speaks French, not even a little bit. So the menu looked the same. I did know a few foods. I saw margret de carnard aux baies de cassis and I knew I wanted it. It was duck of some kind and that's all that mattered.

 My friend, Angela, asked about the foie de veau aux pommes; I advised her not to because I think it was veal liver with potatoes...turns out I was right. Those hours of watching Julia Child and Jacques Pepin as a kid finally paid off. Our very patient waiter was able to explain all the dishes for us in English. Kevin got the cuisse de lapin confit a huile d' olive which was rabbit leg confit. Janice got risotto d'epeautre et ses Saint-Jacques, seared sea scallops on a bed of risotto. I got the seared duck breast with mushrooms and potatoes which was cooked perfectly and Angela got the espadon a la provencale, a huge steak. This bistro has served the best food that I have taste since I landed in Europe. I thought about it the rest of the night. It was about 14-18 euro a plate which is about normal for dinner in Paris and we were celebrating Kevin's 21st Birthday. It was well worth it.

Laduree (16 Rue Royale, Paris, France. Near Metro: Madeline or Concorde)

This is a luxury French bakery; it is the bakery that invented the double-decker macarons which are one of the big food fads right now. 

I got a lemon macaron and Kevin got a Madagascar chocolate macaron. It was crisp on the outside, slightly chewy in the middle and bursting with lemony goodness.

We had such a great time in Paris seeing all the sights, tasting all the food and experiencing the city with some of my best friends. I hope that you can eat at some of these places, too. Bon appetit!

Fish & Chips from Canterbury, United Kingdom

Let's play a game. I say a country, you say the first dish that comes to mind. Ready?

Japan.

Sushi. (Too bad sushi or sashimi isn't here in Canterbury)

Spain.

Tapas. (Ok, it's a category, but still)

UK.

Fish and Chips.

Fish and chips is the first English food that comes to mind for me. To be honest with you, I was not looking forward to the English food scene before coming. However, I am happy to say that I am pleasantly surprised at the variety of fresh produce, meats, cheeses, breads, and other products that are available here. I like the stores here better than I like the store back home. I wish I could bring the local grocery store, Sainbury's, home with me so that I can inexpensive, fresh products for the rest of my life.  

Anyways, I knew I had to get fish and chips sooner than later, so I asked one of my English mates where the best place was in town. He told me to go to a shop right off of High Street, the main street, called City Fish Bar. 

We found it and I placed my order. When the cashier handed me the artery-clogging goodness, I was in shock at how large the piece of cod was.

After adding a sprinkle of salt and a splash of malt vinegar, I ate my first bite. It was perfectly battered, crunchy, and the cod was very moist in the middle. As for the chips, they were thick cut, crispy on the outside, fluffy potato on the inside. Delicious.

As soon as I walk a few more miles, I'll be ready to try other kinds of battered and fried foods like hot dogs.

Cheers! 

Sauteed Sea Bean and Mushrooms

So we went to the English Walmart the other day. It's called ASDA. I have no idea if it's an acronym or what it stands for. I do know that it's apart of the Walmart family.I am not a huge fan of Walmart, sorry if that offends anyone.

However, I have a confession to make, I do like ASDA. Imagine Walmart but 2/3 of the store is food. Don't think frozen, processed, heat-and-ready-to-heat kind of food. Think aisles, many, many aisles, of fresh produce, meats, cheeses, breads and more, of course more, it's Walmart.

So I picked up at package of spinach and on the label is the farmer's name. In fact, most of the produce packs have the name of the person who grew it, how cool is that?

Things were as inexpensive as our other favorite store, Sainsbury, but still a full sized, glass jar of Nutella was only a pound, fresh herb plants were 68p, and I bought sea beans for 1.5 pounds. It was my splurge of the day.

My first encounter of sea beans was in the summer when I was about seven. I was enrolled in a summer camp called Bay Camp where we learned about all the creatures and plants that lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. If you didn't know already, another passion of mine is animals and zoology which also came at an early age. Anyways, they told us we could eat the sea beans (they called it pickle weed) and so we tried them. They tasted salty, crunchy and of the ocean. They also provide habitat for many of the shorebirds and the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse. Say that ten times fast.

Fast forward to this summer when I was at my favorite produce store, the Berkeley Bowl. I was shocked to see the pickle weed I tried as a kid selling for $14 a pound and the name changed to sea beans, which sounds better than pickle weed, I guess. I guess the habitat for salt marsh animals has turned to a classy, modern green for foodies. Don't worry, the sea beans are grown like any other crop, no mice were hurt in harvesting.

The sea beans (pickle weed, glasswort, samphire) grows in a salt marsh and therefore have a distinct salty taste. They can be eaten raw in salads or cooked. They are crunchy, salty and resemble spinach or asparagus.

The Ingredients

a couple of handfuls of sea beans (less than 1/4 of a pound)

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
2 teaspoons of water

1 teaspoon butter

1/2 teaspoon oil

1/2 teaspoon chopped parsley

1 clove of garlic chopped


The Method
Heat a pan on medium high heat and add the butter and oil. Thrown in the mushrooms and cook until lightly brown on each side.
Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Toss in the sea beans and water.

Cover for about 2 minutes and then saute until all the water is evaporated. There is no real need for salt because the sea beans are quite salty.

If you happen to run into sea beans, give them a try. They are a perfect side for fish or other seafood.

Recipe by Spencer Huey

Switzerland: Climbing Alps, Chocolate and Cheese

This past weekend, I went to Switzerland. It's such a beautiful country filled with rolling green hills, lakes filled with swans and color changing forests. We started out in Zurich and then took a train to Luzern. 

We hiked around Mt. Pilatus area which as the local legend goes is where Pontius Pilate is buried. It was so cool to be so immersed into God's creation. It was a little foggy and rainy when we went, but still it was worth it to see the leaves changing colors.

I posted about the trip on my travel blog, A Canterbury Tale. Cheesy, but I'm living in Canterbury for school this semester so, why not? Switzerland was pretty expensive for us college kids. We went to Starbucks and MacDonald's just to see if anything was different. The prices jumped out to us immediately. Try $7.50 for a tall hot chocolate or $12 for a big mac. Something that I would barely consider food is $12! We decided to buy groceries at the local store and cook food ourselves. We ate lots of pasta, cereal and sandwiches...not to exciting but the landscape made up for it. But of course we had to try some local specialties. Switzerland is famous for cheese so we got some great Swiss Gruyère.

It was perfectly salty, sweet, and nutty. The cheese originated in Switzerland and has no holes whereas French Gruyere have holes according to French agriculture law.
We also had Swiss chocolate from Merkur Chocolate. It was so good; smooth, creamy and melted perfected on the tongue.

We also tried a shenkli which is a Swiss donut. It taste like lemon flavored, old fashioned donut. Crunchy on the outside, lemony in the inside.

Lastly of the strictly Swiss foods, we drank some rivella. This is Swiss soda is made with milk whey which doesn't sounds appealing but the drink is quite refreshing. The taste is a combination of coke and ginger ale with a heavy wave of fizz at the end.

I had a great time in Switzerland and I would recommend anyone to take a trip to Luzern and do some hiking around Mt. Pilatus. Do bring a heavy jacket if you go in the fall or winter, it does get quite cold.