Last Christmas, my good friend Divya gifted me a Julia Child cookbook: Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This book is very versatile and everything in it is so beautifully explained. I get inspired by this book everytime I pick it up to read a recipe or two. Yes, it may sound weird that I read a cookbook for pleasure but the book is written like it were a story book. You can feel the hearts and souls of Julia, Louisette and Simone poured into this book.
What I love about this book is that, by understanding the basic techniques of food preparation, you can literally master any dish- be it roast chicken or an apple tart.
Also, this book confirmed my sneaky suspicion that, to make food taste good, you need butter. Hey, if you don't believe me, watch French Food Safari. They use artery clogging amounts of butter! They start with butter, they add butter to thicken the sauce and they use butter as a finishing touch. It's a wonder how French Women stay so lean!
Never the less, French food isn't my favourite cuisine in the world. Yes, I know that the cuisine is now protected by UNESCO (you can read more about that in the NY Times article here) but, there are some French preparations that I can't get my head around...like snails for example...even though they are- most of the times- prepared in butter based sauces. I think that the main reason for my not wanting to eat snails has less to do with the fact that they are snails and more to do with the fact there is a nursery rhyme in Japan about snails that has been engraved into my head ever since I was a baby. Although, having said that, I did eat some Chinese style sea snails once (accidently, let me assure you) when I had gone out for dinner with my Chinese friends in Glasgow. It tasted like woody mushrooms. And I thought it was in fact a dish of sautéed mushrooms till I asked one of my friends and she said something in Mandarin, which I didn't understand, so she drew me a picture of a snail on a piece of paper. Did I freak out? Yes, I did. Sigh.
If snail is something that I never want to try again, ever in my life, dumpling has got to be the one thing that I could eat everyday of my life. I tried making pork Baozi a few days ago and it was great. Only, my dumpling wrapping technique isn't all that awesome so, when I perfect that, I'll have the recipe up on this blog. But you can get perfectly good frozen dumplings at any oriental store. There is this huge See Woo Oriental Store in Glasgow that I frequented- at least once a month- for my oriental food purchases and pleasures. Where else can you find Asahi beer, fresh seafood, xiao xing rice wine, frozen dumplings, Chinese Char Siu, ramen and Pocky chocolate sticks all under one roof? Seriously! If you live in Glasgow, you have to go there. You will end up spending upwards of £50 per visit but it's worth it.
The closest thing to See Woo in New Delhi is the Yamatoya Japanese Store in Sarfdarjung Enclave Market. Mum usually stocks up on certain things from there like Japanese Kewpie Mayonnaise- which is just so much better that most other brands of mayonnaise-, karashi mustard, udon noodles, natto, beef, nihono ramen, konnyaku and asuki... sigh...Must.Go.Buy.Meiji.Chocolate.
Too bad that the recent Fukushima Nuclear Plant disaster is still affecting Japanese food imports into the country because the last time I went to Yamatoya, the shelves were almost empty and there were only Korean Ramyun packets left in the store. Which is just sad to say the least. More so because Shin Ramyun tastes nothing like Japanese Ramen.
Too bad that the recent Fukushima Nuclear Plant disaster is still affecting Japanese food imports into the country because the last time I went to Yamatoya, the shelves were almost empty and there were only Korean Ramyun packets left in the store. Which is just sad to say the least. More so because Shin Ramyun tastes nothing like Japanese Ramen.
Anyway, I think I'm going to go and bake an apple cake today. Hopefully, it'll turn out okay :)
xo
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