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Bidmeads in Bratislava – stag-dos, schnitzels and stodge

7th March 2017 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

Bratislava is a popular stag-do destination, famous for its cheap booze and party atmosphere. While the allure of strip bars and gaggles of drunk British males is debatable, bargainous beer and the attraction of an entirely new country is not. Looking for a change of scenery, Bratislava seemed like the perfect destination for a weekend away with my mum and sister.

We arrived in the city shortly after lunch and headed off in search of a menu del día, Slovak style. Following a Lonely Planet recommendation we tracked down Gastro u Jakuba in the city centre for a spot of lunch.

A little rusty on our Slovak, it was a challenge to work out what was on offer. While one woman enthusiastically shouted ‘chicken!’ while pointing at each dish, we were able to decipher the difference between pork meatballs, beef stew, sausages and roast chicken. The overall conclusion? Slovak food is big on meat, and seemingly little else.

While my mum opted for the huge pork meatball, my sister was less enthused with her veggie dish, a sort-of vegetable risotto in which the rice had condensed into one large starchy mass. Understanding that any hopes of great veggie mains where perhaps better pushed aside, she was able to eat the filling and flavorsome caraway spiced potato soup, which came included in the lunch.

Pork meatball with sauteed veg and boiled potatoes

The pork meatball was like a large chunk of meatloaf, sauteed with vegetables and served with some incomprehensibly buttery and soft potatoes.  Arriving hungry and on a rainy day, this was just the kind of meal we needed to perk us up and fuel us for some sight-seeing. Gastro U Jakuba is a good stop for anyone (vegetarians, you not so much) looking for a proper local lunch, for less than the price of a pint (£3.90 for the soup and meal).

From low-cost canteen lunches to fancy five o’clock high tea, we paid a visit to Cafe Meyer, one of Bratislava’s classiest cafes. Lavishly decorated with dark wood and red and gold colors, the cakes are beautiful creations with intricate chocolate decorations and fancy fondant icing.

Cafe Meyer, Bratislava

A popular cake in Slovakia and its surroundings is the Esterházy torte; layers of nutty meringue sponge filled with a hazelnut buttercream. A proper British bake off technical challenge and super complex and fiddly to make, I would never dream of making this at home, but out in a cake shop it’s my first choice. The layers of nutty sponge added just a tiny bit of crunch to the cake, with the buttercream filling merging the whole thing together beautifully.

Esterházy cake

While Cafe Mayer earned top patisserie points, it was on a day trip to Vienna that we’d really find our cakey nirvana. Just an hour away from Bratislava by train, our first stop in the city was Cafe Central, where we would sample the height of Viennese patisserie.

Cafe Central, Vienna

Cafe central opened in 1876 and is steeped in history. The famous Viennese journalist Alfred Pogar once said “Central is not a coffeehouse like any other – it’s a philosophy”. A philosophy based on coffee and cakes? Now there’s a subject I’d like to study.

I choose a rhubarb and cream cake in which layers of flaky pastry served as construction shelves for lashings of patisserie creme streaked with rhubarb coulis. My mum chose the cheese strudel and my sister the pear cheesecake – together it was a veritable sweet creamy cheese fiesta.

Creamy cheese delight @ Cafe Central

After much sight-seeing and museum visiting, we stopped off at Naschmarkt, a food-cum-flea market where you can browse for second hand furniture and then dine on anything you fancy, from Schnitzels to salads and everything in between. There’s a clear middle eastern influence at this market, with the majority of food stalls offering up mezze style bites to nibble as you go.

Mezze madness at Naschmarkt

For a modern middle eastern meal with a twist, in a trendy spot with seats and table service, head to Neni right on the main strip of the market. The restaurant was swarming with a mix of locals and tourists with an attractive menu made up mainly of small plates to share. We ate homemade pillowy pitta bread accompanied by silky smooth hummus (some of the best I have ever eaten), marinated artichoke and muhamarra, a red pepper dip I had tried previously using an Ottolenghi recipe. Neni’s muhamarra was made with red peppers grown in their very own farm, blended up with walnuts to create a sweet, smoky and nutty dip.

Back in Brat for dinner, it felt time to try some more typically Slovak food. Following the number 2 top rated restaurant in Bratislava we chose to go to Zeleny Rodrigez, which despite sounding like some kind of Slovak-Spanish hybrid, turned out to be a very nice restaurant serving modern Slovakian meals (some of which even turned out to be vegetarian, hurrah!).

While my mum kind of copped out of the Slovakian dining and just went for the steak, I chose a typical dish – beef with sautéed paprika vegetables served in a potato pancake. I liked it; the beef had a soft texture due to its slow cooking, and although the pancake was a nice accompaniment after having been sat on top of the stew for some time it disintegrated into a sludge, which was less delicious.

Slow cooked beef with potato pancake

My sister’s vegetarian dish was essentially made of up pasta, cream and cheese; sheep’s cheese dumplings topped with a creamy dill sauce. The sweet licorice flavor of the dill complimented the salty sheep’s cheese very well, and it was this combo of sweet and savory that added depth to what could potentially have been an overly rich dish.

Cream on cheese with a lot of dill

I’ve not written about how cheap the beer was in order to swerve the conclusion that all we did was drink beer for three days, but…it really is very, very cheap. The craft beer scene is gaining popularity, with a couple of really cool breweries in the city centre.

Craft beer bar in the city centre

Bratislava is a long way from winning any culinary capital awards, but I enjoyed everything I tried during my time there. The old city centre is filled with beautiful buildings and it makes for a lovely weekend away, while the cities proximity to Vienna makes it a great base for exploring into Austria, where perhaps for a keen sight-seer there is a little more on offer. In short, as mini-breaks go, don’t come to Bratislava expecting the buzz of Berlin or museums and art galleries of New York. But do visit, enjoy the relaxed vibe all around the city, eat a lot of meat, get drunk on one pound pints and tick another country off your bucket list.

Filed Under: food market, travel bidmeadbites, travel writing Tagged With: bratislava, slovak food, travel bidmeadbites, travel writing, vienna

Munching in Milano – the Bidmeads do Italy

11th August 2016 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

Keen for a weekend away, the Bidmead girls (my mum, sister and me) snapped up a deal for three nights in the style capital of Italy – Milan. It might have not have to romance of Rome, but it’s still in Italy, and that means….food!

A friend from work is from Milan, and she sent me off with an amazingly extensive list of must-dos and mainly, must eats (see her incredible list here…thanks, Giulia!). We headed to her recommend spot for the ‘best pizza in the city’ for our first dinner, a swanky cocktail and pizza bar called Dry.

Dry is distinctly different to the traditional Italian trattorias that line the streets of the city, marking itself out as a dimly lit, minimally decorated bar that serves up proper adult cocktails (not a piña colada in sight) and thin crust pizzas, beautifully topped with finely sliced cured meats, veg and fresh herbs.

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Pizzas and vermouth at Dry

My sister is a veggie so we skipped the meat options, but this was no hardship. With a fresh courgette and basil pizza and a spinach, fior di latte cheese and tomato number, our pizza cravings were more than met, albeit it meatlessly. As my mum and sister sipped their classic Italian Aperol spritz’s, I went for a short, sweet red vermouth. Similar to a jäger mister, this still had a slightly medicinal note to it, but with a lighter, sweeter aftertaste.

The next day, we hit all the sights and after a morning moseying around the city, the strong midday sun beamed upon us and it was time for a pit stop. On my friend’s suggestion, we found the little side street behind the city’s impressive Duomo cathedral, on which the equally famous Milan landmark Luini is located.

Luini is a Milanese institution, serving up panzerotti; filled pockets of bread, sealed up and deep fried. A quick and cheap lunch option, I tried two panzerotti: one baked with anchovies, cheese and tomato and one deep fried, filled with spinach and ricotta.

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Baked anchovy, cheese & tomato panzerotti

The baked panzerotti had a strong fishy flavour which verged on overwhelming, but was toned down by the melted cheese and tomato accompaniments inside the fresh warm bread. The fried ricotta cheese option, however, was a combination of sweet bread and savoury filling, which I didn’t like at all – if I wanted a sweet option, I would have chosen the Nutella one.

For Saturday’s dinner we headed to the traditional Italian trattoria Damn Atra’, another one of my friend’s suggestions. Located in the buzzing canalside area of Navigli, this restaurant is worlds (and decades) away from the hip, young joints that surround it, serving nothing but traditional Milanese dishes.

Saving all potential ordering doubts and distress, it seemed like the ‘done thing’ was to order the menu degustazione, a three-course meal with proper, Milanese classics. Very meat heavy, my mum and I opted for the menu, while my sister had tortellini di zucca for primi plati and a mixed vegetable and cheese grill for main.

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Tortellini di zucca – pumpkin ravoli with sage

Tortelli is just another name for ravioli, and my sister’s first dish consisted of pumpkin filled pasta parcels, coated in a buttery, sage sauce.  The sweetness of the pumpkin was brought out against the intense savoury taste of the sage, and the rich buttery sauce brought the flavours together perfectly.

The starter for the degustazione was mammoth; cured meats, fried bread, soft cheese dip, Russian salad, fried potato skins, crispy onions, and…nervetti.

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A starter for two, or a small county

What’s nervetti, you might ask? Looking deceptively like pickles, I probed them and knew something was not quite kosher. I asked the waitress what these curious jellied little nibbles were, and with a smile on her face she replied “nervetti!”.

Upon studying them closer, I saw their resemblance to bacon lardons, made the phonetical link and asked “nerves?”. “Yes! Nerve endings“.

Suspecting a translation fault, I later looked this up – nervetti are actually gelatinous cubes of pressed calf’s foot. Not the veins, but the extremities of the animal instead. Even for an offal enthusiast such as myself, this was an animal part too far. There’s a clear reason the Italians exported pizza and pasta and jellied animal feet stayed home.

Starter over and done with, and nerves safely off the table, what landed in front of me next can only be described as a real contender for an eating challenge, of professional standard. What could be more Milanese than it’s namesake dish? Presenting, my milanesa main.

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Cotoletta alla milanese, hand added for scale

Full name going as Cotoletta alla Milanese, this is a thinly sliced fillet of veal, breaded and fried. Actually hugely popular in Argentina too, I’ve tried many a milanesa in my time, and despite loving my meat, this bashed and breaded beige beast has never been my dish of choice.

This milanesa was the size of a steamrolled baby bear, breaded and fried. My mum had gone for the far more manageable mondeghili , Milanese meatballs, although with the two dishes combined we had enough food to feed a family for a week.

Like a thinner, pork filled chicken nugget, my opinion on milanesas was not swayed by this version. With no sauce, it’s extremely bland as a dish. Although the meat wasn’t dry I found myself aggressively squeezing more lemon on top in search of some extra taste. I much preferred the Milanese meatballs, which had the crunch of the breadcrumbs on the outside and the soft, herb filled mincemeat on the inside.

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Milanese meatballs, the ‘lighter’ option

However, Damn-Altra was exactly what I wanted for a Saturday night in Milan. As traditional as an upmarket trattoria could come, it was a definite education in traditional Milanese food, even if the end result may be that this just isn’t my favourite kind of meal.

Having learnt I wasn’t mad for a milanesa, more room was freed for pasta and pizza – no bad thing at all. On Sunday we headed out to visit Lake Maggiore, an hour away from Milan city. We took a boat trip to visit Isola Bella, after arriving at Isola dei Pescatore – our lunch spot.

The tiny island is filled with restaurants, all serving up fresh catches of the day as well as the classic and much loved Italian dishes – please no more veal milanesa, though. We sat down at a restaurant right on the lake’s front and started our lunch with a mix of grilled vegetables served with salsa verde and burrata.

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Beautiful burrata cheese and freshly grilled veg, served with salsa verde

Burrata is made from mozzarella and then filled with a curd cheese and fresh cream, and in this dish it was firm and perfectly rounded, yet under the weight of a fork the cheese oozed out its dense, dairy sustenance. Ignoring the Italian status quo and power ordering three first course primi plati dishes as mains, after our burrata we asked for mussels, spaghetti alla vongole (clam spaghetti) and linguine pescatore (seafood linguine).

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Seafood spaghetti

Seafood linguine has long been a favourite of mine – it’s simple, not much more than tomato, garlic and fresh seafood. But when the seafood contingency of the dish is made up of whopper king prawns and meaty mussels, these simple flavours totally shine.

My sister had chosen the spaghetti alla vongole, which I never normally go for. Literally just a sauce of clams, garlic, white wine and olive oil, the clams were tiny yet bursting with flavour, happily swimming in their garlicy liquid. The mussels shared a similar sauce to the linguine, but in this dish it seemed slightly thicker and richer in flavour. All together this was a standout meal of the holiday, and the joy was…we still had room for dessert!

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Many people associate tiramisu with overly boozy, soggy bottoms, although when properly done it can be light and soft, with subtle hints of alcohol and shavings of chocolate. Opting for this potted pick me up to round off our lunch, my mum and sister converted themselves into tiramisu fans with this rendition, which was distinctly booze-free but heavy on the chocolate, and topped with creme-brulee style shards of burnt sugar, which added a nice crunch to the whipped creamy filling.

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Tiramisu on fisherman’s island

Despite such a huge lunch with a tiramisu on top, with an hour left in the lakeside town of Stresa before our train back to the city, I saw a pasticcicceria that looked like something out of a 1950’s Italian film, and just had to peak inside. Drawn into a tardis, taking me back in time, not only was I surrounded by red velvet cushioned chairs and old fashioned tablecloths, but I also found myself spoilt for Italian pastries. Torn over what to order and tempted by it all, it was the ricotta-filled, chocolate-lined shell of this cannolo which most caught my eye.

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Cannolo (singular of cannolini) in Stresa

The rich ricotta cheese, sweetened and stuffed into the shell, was as light as a cloud, yet also densely rich with a texture that happily covered the whole inside of my mouth. This, mixed with the crunchy outer cone, was pure,= pastry bliss.

Getting back into Milan, after such a hard day’s work eating and drinking, it was time for an aperitivo, or pre dinner drink. Typical tipples for an aperitivo include bitter beverages, such as campari, vermouth or fernet. You could go for the all-out alcoholic negroni, a dangerous combo of gin, vermouth and campari, or opt for the  more drinkable sbagliato.

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A goblet of negroni? I think I will

Sbagliato means “mistaken” in Italian, and this drink supposedly originated from a busy bartender using sparkling wine instead of gin in a Negroni. The prosecco lightens the alcoholic load, and I had no problem sipping my way through a goblet of bitters.

Post potent-cocktails, we stumbled down the street and found what looked to be a classic neighbourhood pizzeria – Portabello.  So old-school I’ve now realised it doesn’t even have a website, it’s down the road from Bar Basso at Via Plinio, 29.

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Margherita pizza at Portabello

The pizzas came fresh, thin and crispy, with a whole host of toppings, from the classic quarto formaggio to the distinctly less traditional ham and pineapple. This margherita with basil was nibbled along with a caper and anchovy pizza, washed down with an €8 litre of red wine. If that’s not value, well I don’t know what is! The whole of this pizzeria was miles away from the fancy, cocktail and pizza joint Dry we had visited on our first night, but both served up exceptionally good food. This is perhaps my main reason for loving Italy as much as I do. Go to a fancy restaurant, and you’re sure to eat well. But find a local little place, where the food and wine is cheap as chips, and you know what? It’s also delicious! Lord praise good, Italian food.

Sad to leave what I’ve now know to be my the home of my gluttonous heart, I said ciao for now to this beautiful (and delicious) country. Italia…ti amo!

Filed Under: food writing, Italian, travel bidmeadbites, travel writing Tagged With: italian food, lake maggiore, milan, pasta, pizza, seafood, travel writing

Roaming around in Rome – a whirlwind food tour

18th June 2016 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

Rome is a city that I’ve always wanted to visit; the romance, the history and overall Italian-ness of it all made it next on my list of city breaks. While in Colombia I lived with my very own Roman called Chiara, and after a year and a half apart I decided to pay her a visit in her hometown.

Chiara, a born and bred Romana, shares my interest in all things edible and exciting, and she took me on a food-filled tour of the city. After being welcomed to the city with a fantastic three-course meal at home, we started the next day with an amble around her local area of Tor Pignattara. Taking rest from Rome’s strong midday sun, we grabbed some lunch at Necci.

Necci, opened in 1924, was a favourite haunt of the famous Italian poet and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini, and today serves up a menu that is focused on classic Italian recipes with a slight twist. We shared two plates, a Panzanella salad and a black rice dish with anchovies and an asparagus cream.

Posh Panzanella bread salad

The traditional Panzanella salad had undergone a modern makeover, turning up perfectly shaped and formed into a cube. Breaking into this building of bread, the soft and chewy carby bites absorbed the flavours of the vegetables and oil perfectly. The creamy ricotta was delicious in mouthfuls on its own or smeared across the deconstructed bread tower.

For the rice dish I expected a risotto-like recipe, but was pleasantly surprised with a lighter plate of al dente grains with crunchy anchovy breadcrumbs and a smooth green asparagus purée. A more flavoursome, Italian touch on the health food power bowl craze, I liked it a lot.

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Black rice salad with crumbled anchovies and asparagus cream

Having practically eaten a salad for lunch (discounting the fact it was made of bread and rice), plenty of room was left for dessert. Gelato, to be more specific.

Although Rome is filled with gelaterias, finding the very best could prove a tough task for the average tourist. Luckily, my local guide took me to what she guaranteed to be some of the best the city has to offer. “But how do you know?”, I asked. Apparently it has a lot to do with the flavours. Really good ice cream parlours here will choose their flavours according to the seasons. Il Come Latte, Chiara’s gelateria of choice, not only had all the fruits of the season but many more creamy, nutty and chocolatey flavours too.

Ever eaten a cornetto ice cream cone and thought how good that little bit of chocolate is at the end? Clearly the owners at Il Come Latte have too, as they offer the option of drizzling hot melted white or dark chocolate into your cone before the ice cream is scooped in. This chocolate solidifies and becomes like a mini chocolate bar, hidden inside the wafer holding up your mound of ice cream. As well as this, they top the gelato with freshly whipped cream flavoured with vanilla, cinnamon, lemon or left plain. Oh, and then just an extra drizzle of chocolate on top too.

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Ice-cream heaven has been reached

Opting for a combination of blueberry, salted caramel and hazelnut, this gelato was a thing of beauty. The three generous heaps of ice cream stacked onto of each other formed an orgy of nutty, fruity and sweet flavours with just a touch of salt. The texture was perfect – the bite and satisfaction of a quality ice cream, with a hint of the ever so moreish smoothness that the Carte D’ors and McFlurrys of the ice cream world possess.

Chiara’s love of food is clearly a family trait, as her brother is a professional chef who works at Baccano, an upmarket wine bar/restaurant in the city centre. We went to visit him to sample the drinks menu and were treated to some of the kitchens produce; mini sandwich bites with freshly baked brioche bread and hand made sausage inside. I opted for an amber spritz to drink, a sourer twist on the classic bright orange Aperol classic. Chiara enjoyed a peach Bellini – her first ever, it turned out, and it got a thorough thumbs up.

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The very lovely Chiara, and our drinks and panini bites

Pizza is everywhere in Italy. But without a Dominos or Pizza Express in sight, on almost every corner you’re able to find genuine Italian pizzerias, baking in wood ovens and lacing the streets with the warm, wafting smell of thin crusts and tomato toppings.  For dinner, Chiara took me to a little place called La Focaccia, where pizza options were plentiful.

You had the choice of pizza al taglio, where smaller slices are cut a larger rectangular pizza, a wafer thin larger pizza romana, or focacciotti, small individual round pizzas with puffed crusts and various toppings. Between three people, we each chose one of the smaller focacciotti pizzas; a classic margarita, one ‘alla norma‘ (with aubergine, basil and ricotta) and one with radicchio, gorgonzola and spec.

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Our mini focacciotti pizzas

The charred, airy crust crumbled in my enthusiasm to tear into my  mini pizza, a wonderful trio of flavours – the strong gorgonzola cheese, salty ham and tart radicchio leaves. Beer is the perfect pairing for pizza, and as I sipped a pint of freshly pulled local pale ale, I wondered why on earth I hadn’t visited Rome sooner.

Yet sadly, after just a day it was nearly time to leave to start the next leg of my Italian tour. But of course, I wasn’t going to set off without a proper breakfast in my belly. Chiara’s local neighbourhood of Torpignattara is filled with little local gems, from the freshest fruit and veg in the shop on her corner to top-notch take-out pizza and pasta joints. She took me to her favourite bakery Pasticceria Zampilli, which serves up the classic Roman breakfast: cornettos and coffee.

No, the Roman locals don’t start their day with a Wall’s ice-cream – a cornetto is a traditional Italian pastry, similar to a French croissant. They can be semplice (plain) or ripieni (filled), with popular fillings such as crema marmellata (jam) or cioccolato (Nutella). As my friend Chiara is on friendly first-name terms with the owner, we got a very special breakfast treat; a freshly baked cornetto semplice, taken into the bakery and returned with an injection of sweetened ricotta and chocolate inside.

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What a way to start the day

To balance the sugar overload I choose a dark, strong espresso, but when learning I had the option to add a sweet hazelnut drizzle to it, I couldn’t refuse. This is called crema, and apparently a very popular way to sweeten coffee. As someone who never adds sugar to coffee, but absolutely passionate about hazelnuts, I think I have been converted to the sweet side.

Although the cornetto was incredibly sweet as a whole, actually the pastry itself is not, which allows for the rich filling to provide a sugar-rush to start the day. The bakery itself was filled with cakes and tarts, and I got a chance to admire the traditional roman treat of maritozzi – a cream-filled bun, that looked brilliant yet beastly.

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Can anybody say cream?

Rome treated me well; beautiful buildings throughout the city, a sense of romance and fun in every area I went, fantastic company and some of the best food I’ve had in a long time mean I will most certainly return. Leaving the city though, I was headed to Pisa for a night, and then onto the Island of Elba, off the Tuscan coast. More food filled posts to come!

Filed Under: food writing, Italian, travel writing Tagged With: food, ice-cream, italian food, italy, rome, travel writing

Learning to cook, Sri Lankan style

6th April 2016 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

A country’s cuisine is an insight into so much more than just what people fancy for lunch. It’s a glimpse into a culture’s daily routines and rhythms; is lunch a quick sandwich inhaled in front of a computer screen, or a two-hour, two-course affair, leaving time for an afternoon siesta? Sri Lankan meals are never a quick one-pot affair, with various dishes and sides present in each meal. Looking to learn the recipes and techniques that make up Sri Lankan cuisine, we donned our aprons on and took a Sri Lankan cookery course.

On a Lonely Planet recommendation we chose a cookery course in Unawatuna, a little beachside village just 10 minutes away from Galle, the colonial town we had headed to from Colombo. Leading the class was the extremely charismatic Karuna, who has been running the course since 2004.

Having read lots about the course, and Karuna, I knew what to expect – a trip to the market, the chance to make an array of traditional curries, and the experience of Karuna herself. Chatty, smiley and an absolute domestic goddess, within ten minutes of meeting her she had her arm around me and was already bossing orders. I felt like Karuna and I would really get on.

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Colourful fresh produce at Galle market

Picking up our ingredients in the market, I saw vegetables I didn’t even know existed. Round baby aubergines? Well I never. Leaving the market, we stopped off to buy some fresh tuna. Never one to be squeamish, the sight of a man driving a machete into this enormous tuna fish’s head had even me looking away.

Tuna beheading

We made an impressive 7 curries in total, each using a similar blend of curry and pandan leaves (pandan is similar to lemongrass) and various spices. Each curry contained coconut milk or cream, which we extracted ourselves from just one coconut. Once split in two, the coconut flesh is then extracted out of the shell and then twice drained through a sieve with water; once to obtain the coconut cream, and a second time to get the milk.

Sister Bidmead on coconut duty

Coconut admin out of the way, we could start preparing our many curries.  The tuna curry was our spiciest, with an intimidating two teaspoons of chilli flakes. Karuna ignored my pleas for a milder version and continued to add in a handful of baby green chilis. She told me if I didn’t like spice, I just didn’t eat the chilis. Fair enough…and what Karuna says, goes.

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Tuna curry

After just over an hour of cooking, we had managed to rustle up a true feast. We all took away mini notebooks, with the recipes scribbled down and top tips noted. It was fascinating seeing how these traditional dishes are made, and to summarise a bit about each recipe…

–          They all have a lot of garlic. Want to cook great curries? Don’t scrimp on the cloves – all of the dishes we made contained at least 6.

–          Revelation: you don’t need to soften or cook the onions first. Honestly! We just mixed all the ingredients in a bowl with its liquid (either the coconut milk or cream) and then put it straight in the pan. A time saver or what?

–          Garam masala, turmeric, salt, ground black pepper and chilli are your key flavours.

–          Fresh curry leaves are amazing. All recipes had at least 10 in, shredded roughly by hand. Pandan leaves are also incredibly fragrant, but if you can’t find them, opt for lemongrass instead.

Without further ado, here is my favourite curry recipe from the day.

Pineapple curry

Serves 4 people as a side dish, 2 as a main.

Ingredients:

–          ½ kilo pineapple (can also use plantain/green mango/chicken – for chicken, alter cooking times*)

–          1 and a half tsp curry powder

–          ½ tsp chilli powder

–          ½ tsp ground pepper

–          ½ tsp garam masala

–          ½ tsp salt

–          Ginger

–          Garlic

–          Onion

–          20 curry leaves

–          Lemongrass

–          Cinnamon

–          1 cup coconut milk

Method:

–          Mix all ingredients together. Cook in 3 tsp of oil (sunflower/vegetable/coconut) and simmer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, add in 2 tsp sugar. Stir, simmer for 5-10 more minutes*.

*If you’re going for the chicken version, make sure you’ve cooked the dish for at least half an hour, and that no flesh remains pink!

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The fruits of our labour: tuna, pineapple, green bean, pumpkin, beetroot and lentil curry, eaten with brown rice and poppadums

Not one to blow my own trumpet (and of course this plate is due mainly to Karuna’s knowledge in the kitchen rather than any skill of my own), but this meal was one of my favourite of the entire holiday. This huge mix of flavours on one plate meant every mouthful was exciting, with different tastes in each dish, from the sweet pineapple right through to the spicy, meaty tuna fish. It was incredible how every dish was so unique, despite all of them using a similar mix of spices and herbs.

If anybody is eager to know any of the other recipes we made, feel free to drop me an email and I will happily share them with you.

Filed Under: cookery course, Sri Lankan food, travel bidmeadbites, travel writing Tagged With: cookery course, curry, market, sri lankan curry, sri lankan food, travel writing

Sri Lankan BidmeadBites from Colombo

4th April 2016 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

With ‘rice and curry’ as the national dish, Sri Lankan food, at first glance, doesn’t reveal much to the foreign palate. But this is no anglicized chicken korma affair. Think of a jackfruit curry with a surprisingly meaty texture, or a lentil dahl spiced with sweet cinnamon and cooked in coconut cream, piled on top of sweet, yet ever so slightly charred, soft roti bread.

These, along with many other dishes, form a cuisine that is both richly spiced yet soothing and comforting, which at each meal allows itself the chance the present three or four dishes, made to be shared and eaten in company. I was lucky enough to head to Sri Lanka on a two week holiday with my mum and sister.

After arriving in the countries capital of Colombo after a long flight and unsure whether it was lunch, breakfast or dinner, the three Bidmead’s ordered a distinctly odd array of dishes for our first bite to eat. Porridge for my mum, a banana roti for myself and a vegetable kottu for my sister.

Vegetable Kottu

By far the most interesting of all three, kottu is chopped up roti bread (a roti is similar to a flatbread) mixed with either egg, fish, meat or vegetables. It’s similar to egg-fried rice if the rice was replaced with small slices of flat bread, and the whole thing was bursting with spices.

With just a day in Colombo, I made sure we made it down the Galle Park pier for sunset. An expansive stretch of green on the sea, this charming spot fills up on a Sunday evening with families, couples and kite flyers, but more to my interest…a truckload of food vendors too. Selling typical street food, known as short eats, it was the perfect place to gain more insight into Sri Lankan cuisine.

Fresh crabs and fried prawn cakes filled the glass cabinets of the street food carts, as well as richly spiced fruits (think pineapple with chili and mango with salt) sold from huts behind.

087

Fresh crab and fried prawn and sweet potato pancakes

As we sat down at a barbecue shack with tables and chairs, I admired their fresh seafood, marinated in a wealth of spices, ready for the barbecue. The meaty menu options caught my eye too; my offal enthusiasm seemed to be shared by the Sri Lankans, as waiting to hit the grill were trays of tripe, prepped in herbs, onions, and spices.

A tray full of tripey goodness

After having a rest from a day walking in the fierce sun and heat, we decided for our first dinner we’d opt for a taste of the North. We sadly wouldn’t have time to make it up to the Jaffna, one of Sri Lanka’s biggest Northern towns, but thought as second best, we’d at least be able to give the cuisine a go.

Famous for their curried crab, Yaal Restaurant was a very casual, low-key local diner, where no dish cost over £4. Knowing we had to order crab but otherwise feeling quite overwhelmed by the amount of dishes to choose from, options ranged from savoury curried porridge to devilled kidneys and livers.

crab

Jaffna style crab, cooked in a spicy curry sauce

Fiddly to eat (as all crab is), we wasted no time in cracking, sucking and biting our way into this curried crustacean. A hot and spicy dish, the crab was slightly cooled by the rich coconut milk in which it was cooked, and this sauce had us all slurping away to the very last mouthful. Along with the crab, we ordered a cuttlefish pitthu, with bears some resemblance to egg fried rice, yet instead of rice the grains are actually made out of rice flour, mixed with spices and steamed in a banana leaf.

jaffna plate

Two prawn paratha plates, top right is the cuttlefish pitthu and bottom rigtht, Jaffna style crab

The wraps were parata flat breads filled with crispy prawns and served with dahl and a curried coconut sauce and were a great mix of crunchy prawns wrapped in the soft, doughy bread. Northern Sri Lankan food is typically spicier than that of the south, and for a first meal in Sri Lanka, I realised I would have to get my spice tolerance up for the duration of the trip!

From Colombo, it was onto Galle, an old Colonial town down in the South.  Keep reading for the next Sri Lankan Travel BidmeadBites!

Filed Under: food writing, Sri Lankan food, travel bidmeadbites, travel writing Tagged With: Colombo, jaffna food, sri lanka, sri lankan food, travel writing

Comiendo en Cartagena

8th September 2014 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

A month has now passed since I touched down in Colombia, and one of the real beauties of living here in Barranquilla is its location. An hour or so out of the city you can find small hillside villages, the glitz and glamour of exclusive beachside resorts, world-renowned national parks and some of the best diving to be found on the continent. Last weekend saw me headed to Cartagena. Declared part of the UNESCO World Heritage in 1984, Cartagena is a gorgeous city with beautiful Spanish colonial buildings, a nugget of the Caribbean coast seemingly frozen in time.


A mere two nights was not sufficient time to fully explore the beautiful old city, and I feel sure I will return again many times to further discover what Cartagena has to offer. My first trip did however offer up something very special – a trip to one of the islands that makes up the Islas del Rosario. Once we reached the island, of course the question on everybody’s lips (perhaps mine the most), was – “What’s for lunch?”.

To be brief, this fellow...
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Now some people might think it weird, or cruel to hold a live creature in their hands (or fingertips) just before they proceed to chow down on it. But hear me out. I think with all the convenience of supermarkets today, where you can buy cleanly wrapped, pre-packaged portions of meat and fish, it’s easy to lose sight of where the produce initially comes from. So when presented with the opportunity, I took the chance to get cosy with my lunch. An hour later I found my new friend served along with the traditional sides here on la costa, coconut rice and patacones (double fried plantain chips).

A traditional Colombian costeño lunch was followed by a trip to the less traditional, but no less loved chain restaurant of Crepes and Waffles. Absolutely huge over here, Crepes and Waffles serve…you guessed it. There is a huge variety of savoury crepes to choose from, as well as great salads and filled pittas. After such a huge lunch, I opted for the lighter salad bar option, which permits you the freedom to fill your own plate with delicious and nutritious nibbles such as vegetable quinoa, roasted aubergine, many nuts and seeds, eggs, all the vegetables you can think of. And then obviously there’s room for waffles for dessert, which I ate with such enthusiasm I forgot to take a photo (apologies!). But let me reassure you – nutella, hazelnut ice cream and waffles make a damn fine combination.

What is also particularly great about this chain restaurant is their employment ethos, where they hire a solely female workforce, providing work opportunities to single mothers who would have perhaps otherwise struggled to find work. So, you can eat your waffle and feel good about it. Excellent news.

Sunday was the last day of our brief trip and I decided to retry some of the dishes I briefly mentioned in my last post, starting with a traditional costeño breakfast of arepa con huevo. Perfect for those of us who want a bit of protein with our carb, this is a normal corn arepa, opened and fried with an egg cracked inside. And why not double the dose of that morning protein with some ground beef in there too?

The best arepas con huevo? So I was told!

There’s various spots on the beachfront selling fritos but when I asked what places were best, I was sent directly to this lady, who proudly told me she had been frying her fritos for twenty years. Amen to that I say. While everyone else seemed to be able to sit in the blazing sun with their breakfast snacks, I waited to get inside to enjoy the blissful fried ball of egg and meat in peace and cool.

Enjoy my frito in the comfort of an air conditioned apartment

Before headed back to Barranquilla, we thought it only right to get some lunch on the way home. Lunch in Colombia is a large affair, consisting of a soup, rice, beans or plantain and meat – meaning dinner is often a lighter snack rather than another huge meal. Although not what I’m used to, it is more a nutritionally sound form of eating, giving your body time to digest your biggest meal of the day, rather than just snoozing straight after it. And I would need a lot of time to digest what our lunch spot was about to provide!

A typical cheap eatery over here, nothing on the menu exceeded COP 20,000 (about £7), and although the owner himself is Argentine, El Pibe serves up nothing but good, hearty Colombian fare.What better place to try what is arguably the dish of the country, Bandeja Pisa? Known to be notoriously large, I felt this dish might defeat me somewhat, so opted for the ‘Bandejita Paisa’, the supposedly ‘half-sized’ portion.

Just a light snack

Half size? Come off it! Kidney beans, rice, arepa, chorizo, ground beef, plantain, fried pork rind and a fried egg make up this beautiful dish. And yes, I ate it all. A full-size portion though? Give me a few more months practise and then let’s see how I go.

Back in Barranquilla, I’m continuing to eat new things daily. Strange animal parts, exotic fruits I’ve never seen before, a variety of deep fried, delicious snacks…and I’ve got so much left to try. Who knows what’s next?!

Filed Under: Uncategorised Tagged With: arepa, cartagena, islas del rosario, lobster, travel bidmeadbites, travel writing

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