Budapest

Continuing on with the Eastern European exploration, my latest adventure was to the capital of Hungary. There is something charming with these countries that is hard to quantify, but always leaves me with a thirst for more. Maybe I've gotten used to going to all the touristy areas with my parents, but it feels refreshing to being in a place where you feel like you are walking amongst "their" world, rather than a world that has been retrofitted for tourists.

Okay so Budapest has its fair share of tourist shops selling a plethora of scarfs, Russian dolls, magical boxes and bottles of the local beverages, but on the whole, most of the restaurants, pubs and parks seem to be tailored for and used by the locals. Which is what I want when I'm on holiday - I want to have my beer in an authentic Hungarian cellar bar, not an English bar!



And conveniently, such a bar was right on our doorstep, which is where we ended up on quite a few occasions! Ever since returning from Prague I've been longing to having more of the Bavarian style dark lager, and Hungary certainly didn't disappoint. And to my delight, this delicious malty drink was served in whopping one litre Maßkrüge glasses.



Traditionally, Hungary is perhaps the least vegan friendly city imaginable, and it really was a struggle to find something to eat in a regular restaurant. I had come prepared with a piece of paper describing exactly what I could and couldn't eat, in Hungarian, and it helped to drive the point home. However, I wouldn't stake my life on everything I ate being entirely suitable for vegans. Good thing I'm not allergic to anything.



Luckily the abundance of tearooms made up for the lack of restaurants, I think I must've drank my body weight in tea! And there were a few vegan restaurants that I got to try during our stay, Darshan Biopont being the most memorable, where I had a sampled some extremely delicious cake!




So, I will now reveal what my new toy was: A camera! My purple friend was actually "Pain" from Hercules, but I've had him for years - he was simply modelling for me. So I've finally managed to get my hands on an awesome photo-taking machine in time for this holiday, allowing me to take much better photos than my mobile phone would allow. I just have to learn how to use it now!

A New Toy?

And so halloween is again descending upon us. Trick-or-treating and bonfires aside, there are a few things looming ahead, which need a bit of preparation. Firstly, a scarey costume, so I don't stand out from the crowd next Friday. Next is a pumpkin, with eyes and a mouth, because lets face it, a halloween without pumpkins with faces is like christmas without presents. Lastly, I need to get my lazy butt into gear, and make me some halloween themed treats, possibly involving said pumpkin, killing two metaphorical birds with one big stone, or in this case, big orange gourd.

10 cookies if you can name my new toy :) The clue is in the photo.

Dealing with the Masses

"You just have to this party, it'll be fun!", my sister told me a few weeks ago. Only after I'd agreed to trek down to London, did she mention that she actually wanted me to cater for it! Apparently, the host had actually requested my sushi. I'm sure he must've read about the legendary last batch which turned out so well...! Or maybe he just likes sushi. Anyways, I like a good challenge, so I went for it.

I planned to go to the Japan Centre for essential sushi-making supplies the day before, but after a slight detour to a pub, followed by a salsa club, and then a quick kip for a few hours, it seemed like my day of preparation had dissappeared, and had been replaced by a few hours before the next party in which to improvise up some much-anticipated sushi. A quick trip to the local supermarket didn't yield a lot - no special sushi rice, not even any tamari! I had to make do with plain old shortgrain rice. I even ended up buying some placemats, which looked a bit like something you could use to roll sushi. Luckily I had bought the nori with me, which was a good thing, else it would've had to have been nachos...



With all the ad-hoc cookery going on, I was expecting a bit of a disaster, but by the end of the afternoon, I was the proud owner of a several plates of delicious looking sushi! My single previous sushi session must've been a good enough training experience to let me loose on a sheet of nori and some rice.

They didn't last long I can tell you. A success!

An Excerpt

"We will eat," I told him. "Good," he said, holding the photograph very near to his face. Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior was persisting to cry. "One thing, though," the hero said.
"What?"
"You should know..."
"Yes?"
"I am a...how to say this..."
"What?"
"I'm a..."
"You are very hungry, yes?"
"I'm a vegetarian."
"I do not understand."
"I don't eat meat"
"Why not?"
"I just don't"
"How can you not eat meat?"
"I just don't"
"He does not eat meat," I told Grandfather.
"Yes he does," he informed me.
"Yes you do" I likewise informed the hero.
"No. I don't"
"Why not?" I inquired him again.
"I just don't. No meat"
"Pork?"
"No."
"Meat?"
"No meat."
"Steak?"
"Nope."
"Chickens?"
"No."
"Do you eat veal?"
"Oh, God. Absolutely no veal."
"What about sausage?"
"No."
"No sausage either?" I told Grandfather this, and he presented me a very bothered look.
"What is wrong with him?" he asked.
"What is wrong with you" I asked him.
"Its just the way I am" he said
"Hamburger?"
"No."
"Tongue?"
"What did he say is wrong with him?" Grandfather asked.
"It is just the way he is"
"Does he eat sausage?"
"No."
"No sausage!"
"No. He says he does not eat sausage."
"In truth?"
"That is what he says."
"But sausage..."
"I know."
"In truth you do not eat any sausage?"
"No sausage."
"No sausage," I told Grandfather. He closed his eyes and tried to put his arms around his stomach, but there was not room because of the wheel. It appeared like he was becoming sick because the Hero would not eat sausage. "Well, let him deduce what he is going to eat. We will go to the most proximal restaurant."
"You are a schmuch" I informed the Hero.
"You are not using the word correctly,", he said.
"Yes I am," I said.

"What do you mean he does not eat meat?" the waitress asked, and Grandfather put his head in his hands. "What is wrong with him?" she asked.
"Which? The one who does not eat mean, the one with his head in his hands, or the bitch who is masticating her tail?"
"The one who does not eat meat."
"It is only the way that he is." The hero asked what we were talking about.
"They do not have anything without meat," I informed him.
"He does not eat any meat at all?" she inquired me again.
"It is merely the way he is," I told her.
"Sausage?"
"No sausage," Grandfather answered to the waitress, rotating his head from here to there.
"Maybe you could eat some meat" I suggested to the hero, "because they do not have anything that is not meat."
"Don't they have potatoes or something?" he asked.
"Do you have potatoes?" I asked the waitress. "Or something"
"You only receive a potato with the meat," she said. I told the hero.
"Couldn't I just get a plate of potatoes?"
"What?"
"Couldn't I get two or three potatoes, without meat?"
I asked the waitress, and she said she would go to the chef and inquire him.
"Ask him if he eats liver," Grandfather said.

The waitress returned and said, "Here is what I have to say. We can make concessions to give him two potatoes, but they are served with a piece of meat on the plate. The chef says that this cannot be negotiated. He will have to eat it."
"Two potatoes fine?" I asked the hero.
"Oh, that would be great"
Grandfather and I both ordered the pork steak, and ordered one for Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior as well, who was becoming sociable with the hero's leg.

Everything Is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer

I started reading this book a week ago, and am really getting into it now! I found this passage really rather funny, and familiar at the same time, after some of my previous debacles in Prague. Which is particularly appropriate to mention, now that I have just booked a flight to Budapest for late November, and expect to go through a similar trial when my friends inevitably drag me to one of the more traditional restaurants that Hungary has to offer.

Incidentally, my boss is from Hungary, and had a great(!) story to tell of one of his experiences of eating our there with a vegetarian. Him and some colleagues, including the poor unsuspecting veggie guy, had a table booked in one such traditional restaurant. On arrival, to the guy's horror, goose was the only thing on the menu. Goose pie, goose steak, goose soup. You name it, it was made out of goose. So when the vegetarian asked the waiter if there was anything at all that he could have, the waiter went away and asked the chef, and came back excitedly, saying that it could be done. Eventually, the food was bought out, and it turned out that the chef's idea of a good dish suitable for such a diet was some bread soaked in goose fat.

Anyway, read the book! Its great - a really compelling mixture of humour, mystery, tragedy and love.

Social Food

I like food as much as the next guy, but more often than not, I find myself throwing my ingredients into a saucepan with only my hunger to drive me. Sometimes I won't have even decided what the final meal will be until half way through cooking it, as they all start of the same, relying only on the herbs/spices and the staple they are served with to define them. Cooking for one just isn't very inspiring!

So when I get the chance to cook for friends or family, I always jump at the chance! Having real people appreciate your food is a lot like giving presents at Christmas - you get that same warm and fuzzy feeling of satisfaction, any time of the year.

Yesterday it was sunny enough to coax me outside, and I ended up walking along the canal for about an hour, ending up in the neighbouring town. The local fruit and veg market was on, and I couldn't resist - I ended up buying kilos of tomatoes, avocadoes, courgettes, mushrooms, strawberries, cherries and a couple of interesting breads that I've never tried before - chive ciabatta and a rustic looking round loaf of sourdough.



One of my oldest friends was back here for the weekend (known him since I was 3!), so I invited him and his girlfriend over for dinner. There was only one thing I knew to do with a kilo of tomatoes, so pasta it was. To go with it, I roasted some mushrooms, an onion, courgette, and marinated tofu in the oven, and also toasted some of my ciabatta bread. It was a feast, (ie I was stuffed!).

A close second place to cooking for other people, is being fed by other people. This is a much rarer event, as most non-vegans are usually fairly convinced that without their favourite ingrediants, food is impossible to make. I'd probably be the same if I had to cater for someone on an even more resrictive diet: "How can I cook anything without heat?! Here have some lettuce" I would say to a raw vegan...!

Anyway, the other day, one of the veggie guys at work took the vegan challenge and had a couple of people round for dinner. He did very well! Potato and leek soup for a starter, vegan burger, with roasted potatoes and parsnips, brocoli, cauliflower and spinach, and a kind of nut roast. It reminded me of a typical Christmas meal in my parents house! And as if that wasn't enough, there was also dessert:


Some oat cookies I made earlier in the morning for everyone, loosely based on VCon's Chewy Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies, which went down well, and also:


Which we also made earlier that day, from my friend's German cookbook. I couldn't read any of the recipe, or even the name of it, so she had to translate it for me as we cooked it. It was a kind of sweet lemony rice pudding, with grapes and pine nuts. I was sceptical at first, as it sounded very bizarre, but I was pleasently surprised! The lemon counteracted the sweetness of the risotto rice quite well, and any recipe that involves a bottle of wine in the making can't be that bad!

Crafty!

Programming doesn't sound particularly creative does it? But working in the games industry sometimes surprises me with opportunities to release my creative side. In a way, games programming is a lot like cooking - creating something fun from pretty much nothing. The satisfaction I get from getting my friends to play my latest game, or eat my food is all I need to make it totally worth it!

Somewhere inside me is an artist trapped, and trying to escape, inspired by such creative blogs as Hannah's, and random friends who like to make their own clothes. A while back, fuelled by this inspiration, I invested in some new tools to help turn a ball of wool into whatever my imagination demanded, and started to learn the basics. Several weeks later, this is what I ended up with:






Any budding crochetters can find the recipe here: Melon Ball the Kitty. He's the only thing I've made so far, and made a nice present for the same person who encouraged me to try out crochet in the first place.

Making such personalised presents for people is also really satisfying, so I didn't stop there - for my sister's birthday, I managed to make these funky pillows:




I'm looking forward to my next crafty adventure!

My New Favourite Rock

Returning from Ibiza, I bought with me a mere two souvenirs - a stick, and a rock. I feel more compelled to talk about the rock, as its not just any old rock. (Although I did find it on the beach). Its my new multi-purpose kitchen tool.

I've found it to be useful breaking up giant bricks of frozen chickpeas into more manageable sizes, pounding whole spices into dust, hammering nails into walls, and most recently, reducing linseeds into powder in under 10 seconds flat. Which is a lot speedier than last time. So with the help of my new igneous friend, I whipped up a batch of quinoa muffins in whirlwind speeds, and they turned out great!



What other applications will I find for my rock I wonder? I bet it would make a great cookbook-keeper-opener...