London is your oyster

Well, it's open tomorrow and Sunday. I use it as an opportunity to poke into the little places close to home. Hopefully no queues then. Hackney has some great green design homes and offices that are open. There's nothing like going poking around places where people actually work or live for a bit of fun.

One special place that I ran across last year was the Hoxton Hall on Hoxton Street. I'd walked past it for months, popping in, I was quite surprised to find 3 tiers of seating looking down at a quaint little stage. It's available to hire for parties, and I would have loved to have my wedding there. It only holds 100 people tops these days, for fire regulations. But in the past, when fire regs were much more relaxed, it held up to 1000 people. Yup! an order of magnitude more people. Squeezed through that little inconspicuous door on Hoxton Street and I dreamed of the past, a good 30 minutes of my time well spent.

I also popped into my local library to pick up a free paper copy of the booklet for Open London. You might want to too.

Trite

Hmm, having started a blog, I was suddenly hit with the big question: is this all a bit too trite? What's the point of writing a blog if I'm going to be trite. Will anyone care, should I be all about the deep, meaningful issues. And unfortunately, more importantly, if I am writing a trite blog, what does that say about me?

I read a variety of blogs, some always deep and thought-provoking and concerning issues of great import to society. I also read a lot of crafty goodness, some fashion blogs because I like clothes, and then there are the bloggers that are just like me. Often they're just documenting their day-to-day existence, often with a whole lot less advice than I'm doling out here. That's probably a good thing, but the advice is in me, can't do much about it.

I'll just have to fight the trite by trying to ensure I don't tell you all to do the same things everyone else is telling you to do. Not too sure if I can up the interest level, you'll like it or you won't. Though I do find it amusing that I live in Hackney, does that make this automatically hackneyed? Hope not. Time will tell.

Credit goes out to Fin Fahey from Flickr for the photo.

Hoxton Street: A slice of life EastEnder's style

I really love walking down Hoxton Street to visit Anderson's bakery for a fresh loaf of sandwich bread. As I pass the many cafes on my way, I'm always hearing snippets of conversations. Mostly I listen for the accents, and it's very Cockney. The shop that has anything you might need, except for food is halfway down, just across from F. Cooke's pie & mash. Try the jellied eels sometime, they're served hot with mash and are like a very nice, light white fish. The jelly melts when they're heated, so don't be afraid. The shop owners along the way are all quite chatty too.

I guess I just really like the feeling of this street being my local street, warts and all. They're all just getting on with their lives, there's not much posing (except for the group of boys outside one of the fried chicken shops). I've only seen a couple of fights on the street and I've been visiting several times a week for a year and half.

The market on Saturdays is good for fake versions of fancy handbags and questionable Top Shop clothing. For me, I prefer the street during the day during the workweek. But I realize that it won't be possible for many of you to visit then. If you ever do get the chance, have lunch at F. Cooke's then head to a cafe with outdoor seating for a cuppa to watch life go past.

Come to Carnivale in Notting Hill

Notting Hill Carnival is this coming bank holiday. There are two big days of fun. Sunday has a kids and family focus, with a children's parade. While Monday the parade is more about the adult groups, but there are still many children taking part, so don't be put off by that.

I can only speak to Monday, but I performed last year and I'm performing again this year. Get there early if you're interested in the parade. Our group, Paraiso, tries to get close to the front, as it's first come first served for groups in the parade. Samba is energy intensive, so you'll want to see us closer to the beginning of the route than near the end. It often takes 2 hours of almost continuous performance to reach the end of the route, so everyone is rather pooped by the end of it all. Our best performance will always be nearer the start of the route. You can even follow us on GPS this year, woo!

We practice all year for this one performance, and I'm sure many other groups do as well. So everyone is putting their all into making a wonderful, exciting experience for you. Looking into a sea of cameras is flattering, but the real thing that you can give to the performers is a lovely smile and a bit of a dance yourself. I find it energizing to see the audience dancing along as we parade past. We're not just bashing away at our drums for the samba girls in their feathers to dance along to, it's meant for everyone, so join in. You can even get a preview of this year's song here.

Thanks to Felixtree at Flickr for this photo of Paraiso 2008.

Everyday Life: Ethelburga Tower

I popped into the Geffrye Museum this weekend, as you do. There's a special exhibition on at the moment, which had me transfixed. Mark Cowper has photographed the inhabitants of his tower block from the about the same spot in each flat, which are all about the same size & layout. Mark surprised the tenants too, so there was no cleaning of the house before he knocked on their doors. But each flat is so very different and I sat for a long time watching the slide show of rooms go past. Each go round the building watching for different details: what they put on their walls, how much clutter they have, looking for the focus of a room, the layout, the lights, what's on the telly. I was there a while.

Yes, you could breeze in and look at the room full of photographs very quickly. But if you're interested in how people live, which I am a total sucker for, then you'll really love this chance to explore other people's lives.

There is only one more week left, until the 31st of August. Get there while you can.

A dreamy read

I just finished Autonauts of the Cosmoroute today. I happened upon it at my local library, whilst perusing the travel section's shelves. It's my go-to section of the library, always visited even when I don't go there in need of a book. I'm the first person to check this one out, always an honour. It just caught my eye, but has turned out to be far more influential than perhaps even it playfully suggested it might be.

The book begins with a lengthy prologue which served at first to make me wonder what I had gotten myself into. Such formal language, such seriousness. But I grew to see it was all in fun. And then finally the voyage embarks. You could fly through this book, but take time to savour the vingettes. Each day becomes its own story, quite different from the last. Some stories continue days after they began. Postmodernism, I now remember why I like you so much.

It served to remind me of the importance of love, how wonderful the VW kombi is for travel, and that my need to travel may not always require me going so far from home in order to find another world.

I can't wait to delve into Cortazar's other works.

Linda Plaisted's Dreamy Photomontages

I have four small Linda Plaisted prints in my kitchen. October, the one above, is my personal favorite, especially if you get the metallic print. My cleaning lady is in love with the crows, particularly this crow, the town crier. There's currently a sale on in her shop, 20% off orders of $50 or more, about 35 quid. One day I'd really like to get a large print, so I could really see the shimmery depths in it.

I like her work, I just thought that I'd share.

Go take a walk

...with some young folk like yourself. The Metropolitan Walkers group of the Ramblers is set up for people aged in their 20's and 30's, which makes it rather different from I usually imagine a group of Rambler's folk to look like. Instead it's a bunch of people my own age, who like walking, doing just that. The pace was fairly quick on the recent walk I went on, we did about 9 miles, with a stop in the middle for packed lunches and a stop at the end for a drink at a pub. I guess I'd describe the pace as "you live in London and you're walking to work", in my case it seems that most of the people walking to the tube with me keep this pace in the morning. Perhaps they are all late, the way I usually am?

Funnily enough, the first time I went on a walk, the group had a publicist for the Ramblers, newspaper reporter and photographer accompanying us. The publicist was wearing a denim skirt and cowboy boot high heels, not your typical rambler footwear of tennies or hiking boots. She did just fine on the walk, but it was rather funny. Plus she carried a purse, while most folk were sporting backpacks or messenger bags. There was a sort of mixup, she hadn't actually planned to be accompanying the reporter that day. Poor girl, but she was sweet.

What I learned though, was that a lot of people don't think that the Ramblers are really needed any more. They were instrumental in keeping public footpaths accessible to walkers in Britain, but people think that well that's done, yay. It turns out that a fair amount of legal wrangling is still needed to keep footpaths open. I've seen it all the time in the US, where rich folk decide they don't want the regular people walking past their very expensive view. I heard Madonna was once trying to close a public footpath crossing one of her country properties in England. So, the Ramblers fight that sort of thing. And they do need a new generation to step up, you don't even have to step out onto the paths. So maybe think about supporting the Ramblers Association.

I think the best part is that all it costs to go on a walk with the Metropolitan Walkers or a regular Rambler's group, is the transport to get yourself there and back. The Metropolitan Walkers walk within London and within one hour of London, check out their weekend walks and weekday evening walks sometime. They're very friendly, and can usually be spotted by their comfortable footwear.

The picture of me was taken by Carlos Jasso on the day we did our walk.

Peach and Plum Cake is so good

Wow, I'm just over the moon with the cake I made today. I am not so over the moon with how much of it I know I'm going to eat. We're already at 3 pieces today in lieu of dinner. It's based on Nigel Slater's recipe for a "wonderfully moist fresh plum cake," but of course I didn't quite have all the ingredients so I made up my own version, "Rabbit's Summer Stonefruit Cake".

Where I differed, and I think in a good way, was that I had 12 teeny tiny yellow plums (you know, from wild plum trees in your neighborhood) and 3 ripe yellow peaches. I chopped the peaches into pieces about the size of a quartered normal-sized plum and I quartered the teeny tiny plums. I left the skin on everything. I used 100 g regular caster sugar and 50g light brown muscovado sugar (superfine white sugar and light brown sugar, respectively). Instead of walnuts, I used pecans (I'm from Texas, I had a pecan tree in my backyard. Walnuts will always be bitter and not sweet like a pecan to me). But I have to say, I think you could leave out the walnuts or pecans and the recipe would be fine. I would not leave out the ground almonds, those are vital (ground hazelnuts or ground pecans might be nice alternatives, if they exist).

Using a convection oven at 160 C, it took the full 45 minutes to cook. The top gets very brown and the peaches & plums caramelize in a very pretty way. Check out my photos for the yumminess. The skins also hold a tart bite which contrasts well with the sweet cake. All the fruit inside is just what I want in a summertime cake. But I must hold off and won't have my 4th piece of cake until breakfast time tomorrow.

Serving-wise, if you are generous, this makes 9 portions of cake. It would look lovely at a picnic or more casual do. It doesn't hold together quite well enough to be eaten by hand, though I'm sure any cake lover would be happy to deal with that issue. For me, it definitely makes me think "yum, this is the essence of summer".

And now for local food...

Sausage & egg rolls, yummo. See how in the far right of the above photo two people are eating them. Good choice.

Saturday found me wandering up north. I was heading to Abney Park cemetery (chock full of blackberries at the moment), but I hadn't eaten lunch. Wandering down Stoke Newington Church Street I happened into the weekly farmer's market. Voila lunch problem solved. Stocks Farm has a small stall selling your basic baps. I had a very tasty egg & sausage (3.5 quid), which is large and generous. Prices start at 3 quid for just one ingredient, bacon, sausage, etc. She'll cook your egg runny or hard, whichever you want.

While I'm sure I could get cheaper in Kentish Town, they use Stocks Farm ingredients, which makes this an organic, local bap and it's still less than you'll pay if you go into one of the local cafes. I really was over the moon with my bap that morning, something about the hp sauce, tomato sauce, egg, sausage patty and fluffy white roll was exactly what I wanted. There are tables set up or you can grab a seat in the shade along one of the benches surrounding the school yard where the farmer's market is held.

Service was a bit slow, considering there was only one person ahead of me and she was already cooking his order. But she's friendly, even offering to grind pepper onto your egg while it's cooking.

By the by, the Stoke Newington Farmer's Market is all local (within 100 miles of Hackney) and organic (I saw one stall selling bags of flour, they're in amongst the veggies). It's not a huge market, but people were definitely just hanging out there enjoying themselves, which is quite nice. It's a great place to go shopping or eating with your kids too, because there's a play area with things to climb.

And cheers to Healthserviceglasses who did remember to bring a camera when going to eat baps at the farmer's market.

Your local

... library is worth checking out. Sure they've got books, but these days they loan/rent out DVDs, CDs and books on cd, have lots of computers, print stuff in color or b&w, sell USB memory sticks, plus tell stories to your children at appointed hours.

I'm not sure how other London libraries work, but in Hackney DVDs are free if they've been in the library for a year, if it's been less than a year you get the DVD for 2 quid for 5 days. CDs cost 80p for 3 weeks if they're recent (and I'm just saying it's a lot cheaper than itunes and it goes to support the library and probably some tiny fraction to the artist).

I borrow a lot of travel guides from the library. They help me plan my trips and if I'm going abroad for a just a weekend, buying a guidebook doesn't seem justified. Often I can find a travel memoir related to my trip as well. (I'm currently reading Autonauts of the Cosmoroute by Cortazar and Dunlop, good fun) And then if you're interested in learning a new language while you're at it, they've got books or CDs for you. I've found with the languages it's best to plan several months in advance and you'll likely have to order the CDs and it can take up to a month to arrive. But yeah, they're free. So if you decide that Polish is just too difficult, at least you haven't spent a whole lot of money finding out that you're useless at the language. (I really liked Poland, I just couldn't get my mouth to make Polish sounds. So I was lucky I had my borrowed guidebook with me to look up words from the menu)

I'm lucky, right now I live very close to my local library. That definitely is a big factor in my weekly visits. The free books/dvds/cds factor is also a big draw. Plus I have fond memories of my library as a kid. Shoreditch library isn't pretty on the inside and I don't enjoy hanging out there, but it's the books that count, not so much the way they're presented. Just this week I found a lovely Japanese film Fine, Totally Fine which is very Japanese and very much reminded me of my visit there earlier this summer. It's slow and gentle, rather different than a lot of anime.

And many thanks to La Tur for this drawing of the library in Hogwarts, a place I would very much like to hang out.

Stroganoff time

Firefly is away, which means it's time to break out the dairy and the mushrooms (he's intolerant of the first and is given eebie-jeebies by the latter). So in true decadent, time to cook fashion, I put on my 4" purple wedges (7 quid from Peacocks thank you very much) and pour myself a glass of wine (2005 Cab Merlot from McHenry Hohnen Vintners in Margaret River, good with goats cheese, a bit hard to drink entirely on its own). I also pull out my Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook, basically just to see just how far I deviate from the proper recipe. Oh right, and I put on some tunes, today I'm trying out the Copeland album, You are my sunshine.

I consider stroganoff to be a braisy-stewy kind of dish, so I definitely vary from USLC, but then I'm also using frying steak, not something as nice as sirloin. I also think the onions and mushrooms are very important, so I tend to minimize the amount of steak relative to those other two. I sort of happened upon stroganoff eight or so years ago when I had mushrooms, beef and onions in a pot. I sniffed them and thought "stroganoff!!!" and ever since, it's been in my repertoire. Despite my using a bastardized recipe that is all about it smelling right, not so much about exact measures.

So, you definitely need lots of onions, I used three tennis ball sized ones, .4 kilos (a pound) of steak, and 350 g of mushrooms. That will get you to something that smells right. I also add about a couple tbspn of oil, a teaspoon of pepper, 1-2 garlic cloves, 1/3 cup white wine, and once it's all cooked some soured cream (you could add cream or yoghurt instead, I've done both). If you're a salt fiend, add some salt as well. Maybe even more pepper if you're me, I'm a pepper fiend.

I add the onions, oil and meat together for a few minutes on medium for 5 minutes, you should start to see a grey sauce forming from the onion and beef juices, then I add the mushrooms, pepper and garlic and then it gets very juicy. Keep it on medium until the juices reduce by half, then add the dry white wine. Again wait for it to reduce a whole lot, some juices remaining, but once you add the sour cream it will get saucy in a good way, not too runny. Take off the heat, stir in the soured cream to taste, about a cup, but this step is done to taste. Check the seasoning and adjust if necessary. I have to note that this time my cream sort of curdled, so went into little white bits (looks a lot like I sprinkled parmesean into the sauce). I think I could have fixed this by adding some flour first, or even after it happened. However, since stroganoff was never exactly a pretty dish, I was not bothered and ate it anyway.

Serve atop boiled potatoes or egg noodles (not the chinese egg noodles, something more like fafarelle). Yum! If you have any questions about this recipe, feel free to email me.

Something I never do

Well, rarely at least. I'm going to see a movie/film tonight. Work rang to cancel my shift, so I've got a free evening. Now, due to the wonders of modern technology, I usually wait for movies to come out on DVD or I wait to take an overseas flight. But heck, I used to project movies in university, on Friday nights. I like to see a film in big overwhelming colour and sound. My standard seat back then was third row from the front, dead center. You know, I never knew that Luke could actually see the burned bodies of his family when he returned to his Uncle's house until I was in university, because I'd always seen Star Wars on a teeny tiny screen. So there are definite advantages to a big screen.

But I also balk at paying a lot to see a movie. However, I love Science Fiction, particularly the not-quite-so-Hollywoody versions lets do something more than just shoot lots of people. So I'm striking out, I'm going to see Moon. And since this is England, I'm hoping that means I get to have a beer with my movie. Woo!

Edited: I had a link to the trailer on youtube, but that one was removed. So you'll have to google it yourself. It's definitely a good movie, not sure if you really need a giant screen for it, but a decent-sized screen would be nice. I went to a Vue cinema. I did not find beer. I did find the 2nd row to be optimal for viewing. A small popcorn and coke will set you back 7+ quid, but they are both very big smalls. Barbican, why did you only have one movie on this evening? You have beer though not popcorn.

Quick Meal: Tex-Mex Burritos

A burrito is a quick dinner or lunch, great for take-away meals and since you can modify the ingredients to what you happen to have in the kitchen, pretty darn helpful when your cupboard is almost bare.

I think your first burrito experience shapes your expectations of a tasty burrito. I had my first burrito in Texas, so it was served up without rice inside. This certainly is advantageous in London, as I can only find the smaller-sized flour tortillas (dinner-plate size). You can buy the Old El Paso or Discovery brand, or you can probably find some in your local corner shop (my Turkish corner shop sells Turkish tortillas). The slightly weird fact about tortillas here is that they are shelf-stable for months, and I am not going to think too hard about what is enabling that. So pick up a pack and keep it in your cupboard for dinner emergencies. (Once open use them in several days)

Frankly, I guess the only real requirement for a burrito is the tortilla. But my absolutely comfort food favorite is: beans, cheese and maybe some salsa. Wrap it up, then put it in a frying pan on med-low until it's brown on both sides and the cheese has melted (10 minutes tops).

The key to making an easy-to-eat burrito is to be careful on your filling of the burrito. It doesn't take that much before your burrito is full. You want your filling to be about the size of a Picnic chocolate bar. Fold up the ends of the tortilla over the filling, then wrap the right side over the filling, finally fold the left-side over. Place in the frying pan with the folded side down. It won't unfold once it's browned and toasty.

Try to mange the wetness of your burrito ingredients, so either drain your beans very well or use refried beans (one tin of beans makes 3-4 burritos). Cream cheese would be fine, but it gets rather runny when heated. A cheddar usually works well (see, in Tex-Mex we use cheddar). If you have a really runny salsa, use a fork to scoop it up, so that the juices can run out first. Or I guess, if you have runny ingredients, you could, possibly, use a bit of cooked rice (but just a bit) to soak up the juices.

A cheat for salsa that I often use is fresh or tinned tomatoes, sprinkled with some chili flakes or hot sauce. Sprinkle some fresh coriander on if you like it. Some ingredients that do not hold up well if you grill your burrito: sour cream, lettuce, guacamole.

Edited: Now with photos of my own stellar burrito creation.

Eighties music isn't dead

I'm in a contemplative mood today. Some of my friends are going through very difficult times and I wish I could do more to help them. Unfortunately I'm half a world away and skype still cannot deliver a proper hug. For me, music is incredibly powerful. It so easily toys with my emotions or enhances them if they sync up. I'm currently listening to the soundtrack from The Mission, a movie from the 80's, which always makes me sad but the end is redemptive, so I'm hoping that I will feel a bit better at the end of it.

The Falls used to stop me in my tracks when I heard it in the halls of my dormitory. The guy across the hall used to play the soundtrack often. Don't know what that says about his mental state, but Caltech will do that to you.

However, pop music from the 80's usually makes me happy and bouncy. I've recently discovered a song that could be an 80's song, except it was made a few years ago. So yay for the 80's pop scene living on in Nightmare of You.

The Albion, hmm...

Albion claims to be a caff, but it's really more of a café with all the pretention that an e accent aigu requires. But the waitstaff were very friendly and it's on a very quiet street which makes sitting outside a real pleasure. I find myself quite torn.

I took my friends there for dinner on a Monday evening, so there was only a 5 minute wait for a table. Nice! While we were waiting we had a chance to ogle all the bread, fish pie & baked goods in their deli; that certainly made us hungry. While the menu is quite short, it does not contain any descriptions of the named food, so we spent a while learning about foods we hadn't heard of like kedgeree.

Our order came out surprisingly quickly, but we were dining quite late. I had the welsh rabbit, £4.50. It was tasty, the bread was very thickly sliced and you get two pieces. I think they must use the white loaf I saw in the bakery earlier. I prefer a chewier white bread myself, this was very crumbly instead, but overall, good marks. Firefly had the kedgeree, a curried fish & rice dish, served with a homemade curried tomato relish. Frankly I thought that the kedgeree was very bland and the curry tasted like it came straight from a bottle of Bart's curry powder. It rather had the consistency of a risotto, though with a longer-grained rice used. Firefly was happy with it though, costs about £9ish.

CD had the celeraic & apple soup, £4.50. I quite liked it while he only liked it after adding rather a lot of salt. He also had the fish pie, £9ish. A creamy fish and other fishy foods covered under a thick layer of mash, finished in the broiler. It took a while to cool down enough so that he could eat it, but once there he was quite happy. I thought that it was ok, but quite comforting. We also shared a serving of the beef dripping chips, but to be honest, they are more like petite wedges skin off, they seem more like roasted potatoes. Served very crisp, they made 2 out of 3 of us happy with the crispness, but I was surprised at how little I tasted the beef on them, £3ish.

All the portions were quite generous and next time I would probably go for a bap or the giant bowl of soup (which does not come with bread, if you're curious). Sitting outside was nice and quiet, which made talking easy. The waiters were friendly and fetched biscuits and cakes from the deli for us for our dessert, when we decided that the Eton Mess, while lovely, was more than we had room for. The cupcake has a very buttery icing and is about half icing, half cake. The gingerbread lady was tasty and not too sweet. The brownie with almonds was so moreish I ended up stealing almost half of CD's.

CD and I agreed that it felt a bit like Carlucci's or Ottolenghi, that wide-open space, white walls, cafe tables, deli. But it is the closest to my house of the three. I'd probably go back for a pot of tea (comes with a cozy) and a sweet or if I wanted a bap ( £5ish) and the weather was nice. It's certainly casual enough a place that I don't think I'd get annoyed looks from the waitstaff if I did.

And many thanks to Purple_Cloud at flickr for the great photo of the cafe, she has more photos of the cafe if you're interested.

Getting crafty wid it

I often end up with a bag of clothes on my bedroom floor classified as: "destined for Oxfam". I gradually add to it as the months pass, and often go back to it to rescue a favorite sweater or shirt. Last week I decided to give that bag of clothes another chance. I put on some loud music, I grabbed the bag of clothes and I then headed to the living room with the bag and a pair of scissors.

I've ended up with two cardigans made from long sleeved shirts cut up the front. One was also cropped. Plus a skirt made from a sweater. I'm not sure what you will think, or if people will think "ahhh, look, she's wearing her sweater as a skirt". But I thought I'd give it a go. I lopped the arms off, so now I could wear it as a short-sleeved sweater. But I really do prefer it as a skirt. What do you think?

One day I'll have to tell y'all about my drunk sewing incidents. They're fun, but they don't necessarily end well.

Hackney Wicked Festival - This weekend

Well, I had a very busy weekend planned, but work just rang to cancel my shifts. Wicked! Yes, I could use the money, but it feels like I've just been given a free day off from school. Plus, I get to bring out all my old valley/surfer girl slang which I picked up despite being a total nerd. So guess where I'm heading? Hackney Wick, with apparently the highest concentration of artist studios anywhere. That means yay for creativity and a little sketchiness for flavour.

The Hackney Wicked Festival is this weekend Friday July 31st to Sunday August 2nd. There's a ton of interesting stuff to get into, I'm listing just a few. Tonight there's something called Salad Days which could be worth looking into. Perhaps they will also be extolling the virtues of the humble beet and cabbage? There's a fete Saturday, and who doesn't like a fete? Keep an eye out for a pop-up stall run by a blogger I like, Bitching & Junkfood. Sunday it all ends with the burning of a wicker man, the burner in me is made happy by this.

Dude, now, like, you totally have to go to this.

Thanks to Ewan-M from Flickr for the photo of the Lord Napier

Yellow peach time

Please keep eating yellow peaches and ignore the interloper, the white peach. I think the flavour from a yellow peach is just amazing, it is the flavour of summer for me. A white peach is just too sweet, with none of the tang that makes a peach special. I want the juices that run down my chin if I choose to not cut up my peach, forcing me to eat it standing over the kitchen sink.

Peaches are certainly not convenience food. I like mine peeled and juicy-ripe. I know a peach is ripe if I can peel it without using a knife. The skin just pulls away in strips, it only takes a minute or two to peel a peach. You wouldn't want to put a peach in a lunch-box, it couldn't hold up to the banging. You also can't buy just any old peach, nope, you need to find a green-grocer who knows what temperature peaches should be stored at. If you ever get a mealy peach, that oh so awful mushy, mealy texture. Don't blame the peach, point the finger at improper storage temperatures. Or so I was told by my farmer, and he knew a lot more about these things than me.

Sure, white peaches unpeeled have a similar flavour to a peeled yellow peach, but it's still too mild, not tangy enough. I worry that everyone will forget the wonderfulness of the yellow peach, because yellow peaches have to be juicy ripe before they are worth eating, where you can eat an underripe white peach. But why would you want to?

So it's summertime now, head out to your local farmers market. Smell the peaches, they smell like a peach when they are ripe. Quite likely, you'll have to bring the peaches home and put them on the counter for a day or two so they fully ripen. Smell them daily, they'll start to get a bit softer, there will be a little give. A bruise or two might show itself, that's ok, just cut it off after you've peeled the peach. Then bite into little pieces of summery heaven. Yum!

Thanks to Priscilla1295 from Flickr for the great photo of the peaches.

Get thee to the berries

Your local London berry bushes are currently bursting with fruit for your enjoyment. According to a friendly Irishman wandering past while I was picking, he never thinks about berry picking until August. But I've been twice in the past couple of weeks and my local bushes look to be at their peak at the moment, so don't delay.

I pick blackberries, since that's what seems to be round these east-end parts. I've found some bushes poking out from someone's untended garden and some along the canal. The friendly Irishman reckoned that for *real* picking, you should head out to your favorite country-walk to get kilos of berries. I usually come home with about a punnet. And since I always forget my camera, the photo is courtesy of markhillary on Flickr. If you search for "blackberry London" on Flickr, the photos often list their locations, so it might give you some ideas for places to search for your local berries.

I'm storing them in the freezer until I get enough for a cobbler or to make jam with. I've just finished the damson jam I made last year, so it's about time for some more jam making. I really enjoyed the damson jam, so I think I might make more of that rather than blackberry jam. And my last peach pie was so delish, I might even try to make a blackberry pie.

Polish Food: Yum!

I went to Poland for a friend's wedding this weekend. I've come back a total convert to Polish food. I went over thinking that it would be like Czech food, tasty, but heavy and not very appropriate for a hot summer. But oh no, I tried many lovely dishes that were light and tasty. No worries about getting your daily fiber intake either. There is often both a cabbage dish and a beet dish usually in salad and or soup form. Ok, I admit I might be weird for getting excited when I see cabbage and beet dishes on menus, but they are very accessible dishes.

Coleslaw? Yep, they have it in spades, often without mayo, instead in a vinaigrette. I had a soup with sauerkraut in it, and it was not weird. The beet soups I had varied greatly. First there was a borscht which was very chunky and creamy, served cool. It was perfect for the hot weather. Another was a beet broth with some small meat ravioli in the broth. Great stuff. Really worth trying if you have a chance.

Sure, order the pierogi or potato pancakes, but why not have a salad or soup on the side?

And then there's the roasted pork knuckle, Golonka, that we had for lunch one day. It's gargantuan, but wow, if you ever get a chance to have one, they're very tender and covered in crunchy skin. But the price on the menu is per 100g, but they'll be bringing you the whole knuckle, which can weigh up to a kilo. It's still totally worth it though. Just maybe split it with your friends.

And as far as beans, I didn't see them on any of the menus I saw. And I hear that if you're a vegetarian, many of the soups are made with meat broth and there is often bacon hiding in the vegetables.

Dalston wheatfield and mill

It's rather like Dalston is returning to its farming roots. Remember how this used to be considered far from the city of London, that's why the Geffrye Museum was set up for the old folk to retire to the countryside. As part of the Barbican's Radical Nature exhibit, there is now a wheatfield and mill hiding in Dalston.

The Mill portion is hosting a number of events, plus the Mill is a cafe, so grab a cup of something and have a bit of a sitdown. Contemplate the original piece, which was a wheatfield in New York City and the differences/similarities with this one. I personally find this one a bit lacking, it's smaller and it's not in as much contrast as the original with it being next to skyscrapers. I think it's also that I do a lot of walking in the outskirts of London (Thanks to TimeOut's country walks) and there are wheatfields bang up against the outskirts of this city, where New York isn't quite so rural at its outskirts.

I do think it gives you some interesting ideas to ponder on your own at later times, but when you experience it, it feels like something is missing. Instead of blowing you away, it generates a feeling of "oh, okay". But the wheatfield is free, though you do have to get yourself to Dalston. If you combine it with a stroll through the Ridley Road market and and then finish up at London Fields Lido, you could make a good afternoon of it. If you're coming from further afield, head up to Stoke Newington Church Street for a wander and then pop into the Abney Park Cemetery.

I did like the Mill, it's not at all what I was expecting, and that delighted me. Here are a few commentaries on the exhibit to help you to decide to visit:
A down to earth commentary
An artsy commentary

1234 Shoreditch Festival

Wondering what to do this coming Sunday? I realize it's early on in the week, but some of us have to make plans. Especially with the added bonus of cheaper tickets.

The 1234 Shoreditch Festival is happening this Sunday July 26th... in Shoreditch Park, so it's close to Old Street Tube. It runs until 9pm, with three stages. 50 bands, and they're more up-and-coming, which means that they try harder.

Bonuses: music, outdoors :) , only 15 quid (Lovebox I'm looking at you), and you'll be able to get waaaay closer to the stage than you could have at Lovebox.

There's a Co-op grocery store in the Gainsborough building which overlooks the park should you need any supplies. Otherwise pick up snacks/drinks on Pitfield street as you walk over to the park.

Why the title

I feel I should clear up the title of this blog. So "beans", we won't really be talking about where to find coffee in London, unless I drag ol' Firefly into this as a guest reviewer. He's a coffee drinker and can help you coffee drinkers out. I hear Monmouth is good for coffee, there is one on Monmouth Street and one in Borough market.

Just so you know, despite being mostly from the US, I do not actually enjoy coffee all that much. I'm a tea fanatic though, drink it all day long. I'm not all that particular about my tea, I like black tea with milk, turkish tea with sugar no milk, green tea plain, oolong plain and I guess those are my favorites. I'm not a huge fan of the fruit-flavored teas or herbal teas, but if I'm sick I'll drink a lot of ginger and lemon with honey that I make from scratch. I've tried rooibos, but would probably only develop a taste for it if I lived somewhere where I was offered it often. I cannot turn down an offer of tea. I love the ritual of offering a cuppa to a visitor and taking the time to chat over a cup.

If all you have is coffee I will say yes, because that's part of the ritual. I'll just have a hard come-down 4 hours later. And yeah, a good cup of coffee is preferable to a wretched cup of tea. I've had some awful teas served to me in England, mostly in train stations, but it has only happened a couple of times.

But really, in addition to tea, I love beans. The photo for the header has 8 different cans of beans that I found in my cupboard the day I decided to start this blog. So this is my general bean-stash. I'm not a vegetarian, I just like beans.

But I also don't know beans about London, since I'm so new here. So this blog will also be exploring my ideas for fun things to do around town. Plus some recipes, which may include beans. Wow, I bet you're really excited now!

A Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down: review

I happened across A Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down in the library the other day. I didn't think that it would be an intriguing read, but I thought that despite my love of tea, milk no sugar please, I probably have a fair amount to learn about the English biscuit. I'm very well-versed in the shop-bought Aussie biscuit and to a lesser extent, the US cookie market, but I'd really only ever come across the Rich Tea, Digestives & Jaffa cakes.

So now I've got to head out to find some Penguins to compare to the Tim Tam. I love Jaffa cakes, they're just *so* moreish. But my own leanings at the moment are for home-baked biscuits. Basically so I can put butter in them, rather than hydrogenated vegetable oil (Crisco, I'm looking at you). Now there are many home-bakers from the 70's whose recipes rely on HVO, and I realize that fried chicken is just not the same without it. But somehow, I really dislike what HVO does to the texture and taste of a biscuit. It coats my tongue and somehow doesn't melt. I think its lack of flavor means the biscuit lacks a butter taste plus I can usually taste the bicarb soda because there is not the mask of the butter. And finally, well, they crumble incorrectly. It's too stiff a biscuit. Sure now the biscuit will withstand shipping cross-country and still sit happily in your cupboard for weeks, but because it does not taste that great it will remain in the cupboard for weeks. Poor dear. Why create a biscuit that is only going to be ignored?

And why haven't other biscuit-eaters noticed this weird taste/mouth-feel issue?

I know as a kid I Looooooved Twinkies. But now if I have one, all I taste are preservatives. I was wondering how my taste-buds have changed. Not sure if it is education, or sugar losing its ability to mask the flavor, perhaps my sugar receptors don't go wow! they way they used to?

Well, the book does not cover these issues of HVO, but it is well-suited to reading in little pieces, biscuit by biscuit, while you wait for the kettle to boil. If you're interested in a walk down memory lane, or perhaps you're new to the country and want an overview of the tea and biscuit landscape, then this is a worthwhile read.

First up

Hiya, this blog is about the interesting bits and bobs that I come across in London. This will mostly have to do with food, restaurants, baked goods, walks, and performance art goings on. I really do like beans, a lot. I am not a bean purist either, I will eat all comers. Though since moving to London, I eat far fewer pinto beans that I used to and now spend a lot of time with the butter and cannelli beans. UK Heinz baked beans are hands down superior to US pork and beans.

Oh, right, a bit about myself. I'm Australian and American, but have been in London about a year. I'm really loving it, particularly the summers. They're far warmer than San Francisco summers, not so sure about sunnier, but warm is good.

Anyhoo, welcome to my world. I hope you enjoy your tour.