INAMO

I had heard a lot about this new Pan Asian restaurant in Soho, which is supposedly the first ever, and maybe the only, interactive restaurant in the world. I looked up the menu online and liked what I saw, so decided to take my friend who was down in London for the weekend to Inamo. There wasn’t anyone at the doors to greet us, and it took a while for someone to show us how it all worked, but after a short demonstration, we didn’t have to call for a waiter until paying for the bill. Surprisingly there seemed to be as many waiters as there were customers.

The interactive menu was a little hard to navigate, and it was hard to compare dishes and prices. But the projection of your selected dish on your place mat was rather nice. Ordering food was really simple and reduces the time for indecisiveness. Whilst waiting for your food there were games to play, designs to pick for your table ambience, and even a chef cam. We were having so much fun with our interactive touchpad, we were surprised at how fast the food came out.

I ordered the Cinnamon Chicken with rice, my friend ordered the Black Faced Lamb which and rice, and we had the Crunchy Salad to share. The food was delicious. Like a lot of pan asian food, it was experimental and had some really interesting combinations like moromi miso and lamb.

Over all, it was reasonably priced (£50) between the two of us. We didn’t have space for dessert, but this was probably a good thing as all they had were ice-creams. I thought they would have some desserts which were equally as impressive as the rest of their menu.

souffle time!

i had a horrible nightmare the other day... i stood in my kitchen with all the ingredients to make a souffle. my egg yolks and whites were separated, and as i began to whisk my whites, i realised all i had to whisk them was a bent fork! Horror! I stood over my whites trying to beat them to stiff peaks, but i was getting no where. Nightmare. My souffle was a disaster! Baack to real life and the following day i was watching ready steady cook, and a french chef was making souffle. Right! i thought, this is too wired a coincidence, i have to make souffle just to prove to myself i can. I'd never made it before, but knew roughly what went in and how to make it. I had goats cheese in the fridge, eegs, milk, flour, butter and some cranberry sauce! perfect. so i set about making my souffle... came to whisk my egg whites and i broke out into a sweat... shit! no whisk... this is gonna be a failure! "look in the middle drawer," suggested my house mate. There in the middle drawer lye a sorry looking electrical whisk, with one half of the whisks missing. this won't work. but i had no other choice. I fiddled around with it for a bit and made the lone whisk rotate at a very slow rate. i stood over my egg whites a whisked and whisked.... nothing happened at first, and i felt a da ja vu coming on. "give it a while" my house mate encouraged.so i did, and slowly but surely my whites started to double in size... Beautiful! great stuff, so i made my goats cheese sauce, added the yolk and slowly added it to my white. This is meant to be the crucial stage.. but it was a breeze. i filled my butter and parmesan coated ramekins and put it in the oven for 20 mins. 20 mins later, i had 6 lovely, fluffy and well risen souffles. Put some cranberry sauce on it and voila! They were very yummy. So ever since, i can't stop! i've been making camembert souffle, which is my personal favourite. Next i want to try to make a lactose free souffle with cauliflower and broccoli souffle using rice milk for lactose free friend who would otherwise never get to try souffle in her life. this is not acceptable.

Tater Mits

I've seen these "Tater Mits" on a few cookware websites. They're gloves which wash and peel your potatoes and other root veg, at the same time. This is due to the abrasive material on the palm side of the gloves. i find peelers can be fiddly and they take of too much flesh. A lot of the nutrients are also in the skin, which we tend to discard of. The Tater Mits leave just enough skin on to be nutritious but still removes the dirt on the potato. Obviously, if you want to get rid of all the skin, then just rub for longer. the only down side is you have to par boil the potatoes for a bit, and the skin should come off in 3 seconds. You can peel them straight away, and it'd take you 12 seconds...still not bad. The invention is Japanese, and has now become a big Teleshopping product. it may be kitch, and a little tacky, but it is a fresh look at how we handle and prepare vegetables. I like them and think they'd give a nice rough surface for roasted potatoes/parsnips so they're skins crisp up nicely. i'll defiantly be buying a pair pair for myself... not really for retail in any stores, but available to order online.

FOOD FIGHT @ BUCKINGHAM PALACE!

On the 5th of December, i held a food fight at Buckingham Palace. I called it the Cultural Food Fight, and the idea was to bring food from a cultural background of ones liking. We flash mobbed the area for a minuet, a minuet of messy madness. It went so well and was so much fun, i'm gonna hold another one early next year in another location. The theme will be the Cooperate Food Fight. Bring food from a large chain takeaway (McDonald's, Itsu, Pret, PFC, Starbucks... etc). Get into groups with people who have food from the same cooperation as yourself and fight!

watch this space....

till then, here is a video of the fight.

Jelly Bento

I've been making a lot of jelly and been experimenting with suspending interesting ingredients in them. I paid a visit to a Japanese supermarket of Finchley Road where i found some really strange ingredients. I get my bento box out, and decided to make a medley of pretty jelly. I made lychee jelly, champagne jelly, Rum and ginger jelly, Melon Jelly and my favourite, Passion Fruit jelly. I then layered the jelly adding my found ingredients as i layered. Even though they wouldn't taste so good, i got some lovely patterns and beautiful pictures...(Still to be put up). In my blue lychee jelly, i put japanese mushrooms and silver balls, in my champagne jelly i put burst cardamon seeds, in my passion fruit jelly i put staranese and ginger, and finally in my melon jelly i put little fish and seaweed. Looks lovely, but i'm gonna work on making a jelly that's pretty and edible.

FOOD WARING

Nadelman has recreated American war history using food to represent the different countries. It's comical and quite smart.



www.touristpictures.com/foodfight/index.htm for more info

Posh Breakie

One has to treat one's self from time to time, and treating one's self to some lovely breakie is always a good start to the day. So i decided to treat myself to some posh nosh. I got a tomato and toped it, and scooped out the insides. Rubbed it with some oil cracked an egg into it. I sprinkled some parmesan cheese on it and cracked some pepper over it. Posh eggs need posh soldiers. So i wrapped the soldiers and some trimmed beans with parma ham. I popped them in the oven on a medium heat for 30 minuets and voila!!!! The poshest breakfast you ever did see, and pretty darn simple to.

COUS COUS!!!!

I watched Cous Cous (la graine at la mulet) the other night and was wowed over the food in the film... yummy yummy lovingly prepared cous cous and mullet. i really recommend the film. it's about a Moroccan family in France going through the usual family problems, but when the farther decides to open a cous cous restaurant, the whole family pull together and dream becomes reality. In true french style, the dialogue is passionate and the cinematography is beautiful.

So inspired by the movie i decided to make cous cous and fish. But good old Mr Sainsburys didn't have any decent fish, so i made meatballs instead. I made lamb meatballs with spices and the usual egg, husk (i used weetabix), and oil in which garlic, chillies and a few onions had been fried. I quickly fried them then put them in a pan with courgettes, vine tomatoes red onions and sugar snap peas. This all went in the oven for around 40 minuets on a low heat.

I'm not amazing at making cous cous. I always seem to put too much water in, but this time it was perfect. I added some saffron to lamb stock and poured it over the cous cous and let it sit. i then toasted some pine nuts and pumpkin seeds. I fried some coriander, shallots, chilli and garlic in some oil, and then poured it over the cous cous. Gave it all a mix and plated it with some lemon.

No word of a lie... it was lovely. The bite from the nuts, the spice from the chilli, the subtle taste of saffron and aroma from the coriander made the cous cous wondefrully fragrant. The moist meatballs let out a few juices when cut open, and mixed with the cherry tomato juices created a sauce which the cous cous absorbed.

I am starting to appreciate food that's served in edible crookery. It's fun and different. It also means an amalgamation of sauce is collected and absorbed in the edible crookery. My aunt made a bowl made of corn flour and layered re-fried beans, salsa, guacamole, cheese, sour cream and jalapenos. I took the picture above when i was in india earlier this year, it's a fried potato basket with chopped potatoes, onions, tomatoes, chillies and chickpeas. It's covered in a yogurt sauce with some spices, and topped with crushed and crunchy chickpea noodles with coriander sprinkled on the top. It was lovely and al ot of fun to eat. It works well if your sharing as the bowl gets diminished as the contents lessens. It looks like it's pretty hard to make, but you have to have two identical deepfatfriyngstrainers... (that word so does not exist) which are really quite deep and round. not that hard... bread is equally good to use as is a lot of flat bread. I'm was looking at making a sculptured pie, but as it turns out pastry is really fragile and it'd probably drop to bits in the oven/kiln... i'm working on it though....

Birthday Cakes

I recently celebrated turning 21, and what an epic birthday it was... lasting two whole weeks! i also received 4 birthday cakes. the one above being the largest. Made up of 8 different flavours and weighing a ton... it was a lovely surprise from my granddad!

The second cake was a banoffee cake. With crunchy bits of toffee on the top and a soft, moist sponge. the cream on top had a little bit of banana separating it from the sponge....YUMMY!!!

My third cake was a strawberries and cream cake thanks to my unkle!

The last cake was a Oreo Chocolate Cheesecake!!!! you can't really see it here but there was a layer of crumbled cookie bit on top. The middle was made from the icing filling mixed with mascaponi, cream cheese, caster sugar and double cream. The base was just a digestive biscuit and butter mix. It was delightful... really scrummy!!! this was a lovely product from my cousin.

SPROUTS!!!

I have a grown appreciation for sprouts. Sprouts are amazing cause not only do they look bizarre, but they pack a lot of strong flavour. Spicy but a little bit earthy, i think they go very well with fish and surprisingly well with coconut-rice when steamed.

Here i used the sprouts as a garnish to a simple Blue Brie and onion chutney on toasted bread. Added a sharp, fresh crunch. Beautiful colour combination too with the shinny, rich red chutney and the slimmyness of the blue brie. It looked like something out of a mythical forest.

CHARABEN BENTO

I'm fascinated by charabebn bento boxes at the moment. Orginally they were made to get Japanesse kids eating their packed lunches by making it fun for them. Bento boxes aren't just pretty to look at, they also have to have a good balance of fresh vegetables, rice and meats. i don't believe it's playing with your food at all, just making your eating experience more enjoyable.

You even get some really cool accessories to help make your charaben boxes more interesting. Like these egg pochers (above) and this squeezy bottle for your sauce/vinegar.

Putting all this time and dedication into your food surely would mean a meal you are more likely to appreciate and enjoy.

i think we should all get on this idea. Make a charaben bento box for your hour lunch... make one for a friend, your gran, your boyfriend/girlfriend etc. the best thing is it's a temporary art, so you could design them depending on your mood, and there are so many possibilities out there!