Days 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, and 142. International Food Week.

Days 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142. International Food Week.

 Day 137.  Monday. My friend Tamara had told me about a doughnut shop that was running a special doughnut for Australia Day. Didn't know that was a thing, but it is. I also planned on seeing if I could get day tickets for a play that evening, and they were both in the same spot, so I figured why not get doughnuts and a ticket for a play. Well, apparently I picked opening night to see the play, so no day tickets were available, but I still got doughnuts. I tried not to act shocked when the lady at the doughnut counter told me that "six doughnuts are only twenty pounds". Twenty pounds for six doughnuts? Say what?!? Um, I got three. And Tamara paid for one of them. The two I got were delicious. I got a Sea Salt Caramel & Banana Cream and a Lamnut. The first is described as, "A winning combination of homemade chocolate soil topping, chocolate sour dough base and fresh banana cream filling. A sweet but silky banana cream filling is encased in Crosstown’s light and fluffy chocolate sour dough. We then top it all off with a generous swirl of sea salt caramel and a divine chocolate soil." It was pretty amazing in the doughnut world. And the Lamnut, "a cake ring doughnut and a smothering of fresh raspberry jam, dipped in that chocolatey goodness we know and love, then rolled around in a generous dousing of coconut" made after a cake eaten in Australia, this was pretty stellar. I messaged Tamara, told her I got the doughnut, and we met up for lunch at the Falafel King on Portabello Rd for the doughnut exchange. Sweet. Falafel king was pretty great too. They sell one thing. Falafels. They serve them in pita w/all the fixings. To get to Falafel King, it is the farthest I have walked down Portobello Rd in 10 years....I remember the place I had fish and chips at was up and across the street from where we had lunch. I like my photographic memory of places, its the directions for getting there that is the issue. Food. Am I making you hungry yet? I spent the rest of the day being domestic, do laundry.

 Day 138. Tuesday. I really need to write more often/take pictures to remember what I did everyday because Tuesday I have no idea what I did other than iron. I know I ironed. Everyday off school, I think I am in London, I need to see this town, but the more I think that, the more I like my bed. Hahaha. Thank goodness for text messages. I remember what I did. I planned my entremets. The layers, ingredients, amounts, the time plan (what to make when), wrote out the recipes, and mentally prepared myself for the next two days of making this thing. I had no idea how it was going to go in the kitchen the next day (were we going to do paperwork, have a discussion, or start baking right away). I wanted to be prepared. And I was. Or at least I thought I was.

 Day 139. Wednesday. Six AM comes way too early. Adrenaline keeps me going on days like today. We started baking right away. Chef said that she would come around and look at out plans/recipes but she never did. She recommended doing the jelly/internal layer first as it needs the most time to set. That was forth on my time plan. I needed to get my baked mousse pudding in the oven right away in order to get that cooled. Then I did my jelly. I have never used cardamom in my life. Another chef had recommended pear & cardamom jelly, so thats what I did. I put a lot of ground cardamom in the pot with the pear puree, I wanted it to be tasty, but not awful. It looked cloudy/like applesauce color when I put it in the chiller, but I didnt think anything of it. I needed a jelly/middle layer, and that was that. Done. Moving on. I didn't even get scattered going out of order. I had a plan & I kept on going. I made shortbread for my crust, while that was mixing I made a tuille to fingerprint on a Silpat mat that would be covered by an almond sponge. Everything was mixed and baked within two hours. Right on time according to my time plan. Yippee. I didn't know that chef had planned chocolate and tuile decoration was saved for the afternoon session, so I had some 'spare time' to kill. I added an extra 100g to the chocolate mousse for good measure, as I didn't have anything else to do, oh well. Spoiler alert: it still stood tall in the end. After a quick break of grabbing some soup, we were back in the kitchen tempering chocolate, making decorations. The vision I had in my head, was not possible with the equipment I had to work with. I had to improvise, and make new things. I was not excited. I planned/made almond brittle & chocolate cardamom tuile, and before I knew it, I spent way too long making stuff I knew I did not want. Oh well. Live and learn.

 Day 140. Thursday. The day we put the decorations on our Entremets. Aka improvise. I wanted flat round circles of chocolate getting larger on the way o 0 O to the edge of the entremets, but since that wasn't possible, I used the tuile triangles to make a circular pattern to the edge. As I pulled my tempered chocolate away from the acetate, it fell to pieces/shards. I thought it wasnt tempered as it was so fragile. It was too much on top, but when in Rome.... i added shards of chocolate throughout the triangles. I was trying to do a desert mountain landscape, but looking around at everyone else's work, I should have gone for a minimalist approach. My shortbread was too thick, my tuile paint on the sponge needed to be darker, my chocolate shards showed 'no skill' (a requirement that i didn't use my pieces that fell apart), my mousse had chocolate bits in it but it was smooth, my jelly was like nothing she has ever had before (not in a good way), but my chocolate was in temper, and my chocolate glaze was nice and shiny. This is the feedback I got from Chef. I swear no matter what I try to do, it is never good enough. I planned, I prepared, and still its rough to have little good and lots of bad feedback. But my fan club back home was impressed, thanks to comments on Instagram. My classmates ate mine, and all liked my mousse, and some liked my jelly (those from the Jordan/Oman especially....apparently they put cardamom in everything). By the end of classes, my entremets was gone. I had lots of people try it, and got some good feedback. 

We still had two more classes that day. Two tech classes. The first tech class was our Tea Party Prep meeting, where we found out how the whole thing was going down, how it works, and what we needed to do. They divided our three groups into teams of three people, where each team will be making three desserts (30-40 portions each) over three (four hour) sessions next week. no big deal. our teams were "randomly selected" and I am with Delhi and Malta. Sweet. We can do this. They gave us the recipes, and from that we had to come up with equipment lists, ingredients list, time plan, work order, etc. To turn into our team captain, to turn into Chef my Monday morning. Tea time cooking starts Tuesday. I should have gone on vacation for the weekend to prep myself, but there is always another weekend for an adventure.

 Second Tech class we watched Chef make Verrines. Basically shot glasses of dessert, with creams and jellies that I got my shirt dirty sampling #wasntworthit. I was deliriously tired through this class, and yet when Singapore & Jordan asked if I wanted to join a group for dinner, I agreed to go. The Chef in this class was the same that did our tech where I used my fabulous fake accent. Chef at the beginning of class said, "I might have my accented assistant come up and help eventually tonight, we'll have to see." "With pleasure Chef! With pleasure!" I said from my seat in the infamous accent. The class laughed. "You don't know what your accent does to me." Chef said after the laughter died down. Uhhh I don't want to know what it does to him, :) so I did not ask, and he never asked me to help.

 For dinner, 10 of us ventured to Diwan Restaurant. It was middle eastern food. Monday's Falafel King I was told is Israeli, tonight was Jordan-ease, I am a world traveler of food without leaving London. Going around the table, we were the United Nations of school. Jordan, Oman, Singapore, China, Poland, India, Israel, and USA. We have good fun loud laughing conversations.

 Day 141. Friday. I got up and headed to the theatre again to see if day tickets were available and they were! I had talked to Jordan about it the night before, but I never told her I was actually going to go see if there were tickets, so I didn't know if she wanted to go. I tried texting to no response, so I texted Oman to see if she could call Jordan. She tried, and no luck, but somehow Oman decided to come along. I stopped by school to reserve a spot at the tea for a friend, and stopped by the american big name expensive grocery store on the way home for fresh ground peanut butter & tortillas. random, but needed. I came home, worked on all the lists/time plans we needed for the tea time to be turned into my team captain, with just enough time to get ready for the play. My first play. I think. What play? 'Taken At Midnight' starring Penelope Wilton. Who? She is on Downton Abbey people.....Matthew's mom. I did not know much about the play going in, other than it is about a lawyer who put hitler on trial (before he became THE hitler we all know) and he was captured and thrown in jail under hitlers regime. the play is about him in jail and his mothers fight to get him out. As the lights were going down and the play was about to begin, Oman told me that this is her first theatre experience ever no musical or play ever before. Dang I hoped this was good. The first bit was strange as it felt like it was already into the story when it started, and the pace was hard to keep up with. Irmgard (Penelope) seemed to be angry the whole play, I would be mad if my son was in jail for no good reason either. Overall it was good, the actor playing her son, was amazing.....he truly captured (no pun intended) his role & did an excellent job. Seriously the acting was great. Oh! I forgot to mention that the Day Tickets were FRONT ROW!! Say what? When I picked them up, the box office guy pointed to row three, but in the theatre, we were there watching the spit come out of there mouths as they pronounciate their words. Front row is so cool. And so cheap. 15 pounds. Better than a pack of doughnuts that is for sure. There was no stage door that I could find for pictures afterwards ( I really wanted one), and Oman was wondering why I was wondering around outside the theatre looking for a door. So there are no stalking stories this time around, just a picture in my heart of Mrs Crowley being five feet away from me :)

 It was 10pm when the play was over, but we were a little hungry. Oman knew a vegetarian place near by with Egyptian food. Chalk another place up for international week eating out. Koshari Street. "Koshari is a satisfying, naturally healthy meal of lentils, rice and pasta topped with a spicy tomato sauce and garnished with caramelised onion and boiled chickpeas." It was pretty good. Not so good on the way walking home when I thought I was burping and ended up having a bit too much come up (if you know what I mean) and no place to dispose of it for half a block. Not the best food memory. Hahahah.

 Day 142. Saturday. My knee was feeling a bit weird when I went to bed last night, and when I woke up this morning, it hurt a bit. Don't know what I did to it, but it must just mean that I am getting old. I rested up the morning in bed, and then decided to go for a walk around the block to see if it got better...and that turned into a walk down the river walk turning into 2.4 miles roundtrip....in a light drizzle of rain. I decided to treat myself to a place around the corner from the house, Barossa, for a late brunch. I've wanted to try this place since I moved here, and finally got to try it. I will be back. Its Australian. I got a Veggie Brekkie. Grilled Haloumi, Sautéed Spinach, Roasted Plum Tomato, Garlic Field Mushroom, Corn Fritter, Sourdough Toast & Poached Eggs. Best meal of the week. Amazing.

 And instead of writing that mysterious paper on Chocolate, I am writing this magnificent piece of literature. typos and all.