Taste of London

It's been busy in the kitchen but here are a few pics of the wonderful Taste of London food festival that I recently went to. I saw Heston Blumenthal speak, tasted the wares of some of the city's great chefs, ate some fresh New Zealand apples, tasted some lovely organic sparkling wine, won an evening of even mmore yummy tastings and wine at Whole Foods (next week!) and generally filled my tummy with lovely baked, broiled, boiled, salted and cured meats, sweets and treats. What a delightful festival!  A must attend for any foodie.

Laura's £5 lunchEvidence of how expensive London is? It was from Whole Foods and it tasted great but the portion of fish was so teeny that I couldn't even have a taste!

Glee Gum'Real gum' made with rainforest chicle, all natural. The only problem is that this Glee Gum, gives you no glee after a short while as the gum looses its flavour quickly. Glee Gum is made by what looks like a great family-owned company that thinks about the environment and sustainability of the rainforests. They have an interesting website www.gleegum.com which describes the process and has a gum making kit that you can buy for the kids. They are based in the US but were displaying their wares here at the Taste of London fair. I have enjoyed my 3 packs of gum so far, although they lose their taste fast I like the idea that they are all natural and are good for you. You can buy the gum in the US and Canada and in Toronto you can buy it at Whole Foods (my lunchtime favourite!). The people selling glee gum at the stand at Taste were absolutely wonderful!

Two facts from the Glee website:

• Chewing on gum while cutting onions can help a person from producing tears

• Chewing gum burns around 11 calories per hour

Jasmine surpriseWhen you order the Jasmine flower tea at Whole Foods, you get exotic flowers wrapped in green tea leaves. Once the hot water is poured over the tightly wrapped ball, the leaves unravel to display the beautiful flowers inside.

It is quite a beautiful thing to order and drink, although am not sure why it is called Jasmine Flower tea when that is not what a Jasmine flower looks like. Well, unless you read the fine print you will never know - ignorance is bliss!

Dio asked the cute American next to us if we could take a photo, we were eating next to him at the sushi bar and am sure he was loving our lunch gossip. The interruption of his meal and photo was payment for the free entertainment we provided. Dio likes to make fun of my Canadian accent, especially when I try and say Irish words - Kurrah, Currah?! Am sure he was chuckling inside.
Get to High Street Ken's Whole Foods - it is a lovely place to shop, eat and browse in - but bring your American Express Gold card as it ain't cheap!

What is Paul2 eating today?

Organic gummy worms. No artificial flavours or coloring - bought at Whole Foods- they were yummy! Made by the Natural Confectionery Co. They have the cutest website, check it out here.

Since I left Paul1 at my last job, I have inherited another interesting eater who is also named Paul - who is a bit of a sweet hound. I will document his food habits and eating as I did with the actor extraordinaire Paul1.

I hope his series is as exciting as the last...

Milan's caviar handoutIn the press it was reported that Italian customs officers seized more than 40kg of illegal Beluga caviar and distributed it to the poor in Milan as a Christmas gift. The haul was valued at £370,000 - and was said to have gone to shelters and hospices.

I am not sure if I was a person who was living below the poverty line and a little can of caviar showed up that I would even know what to do with it, or if it was plunked on my dish at a shelter I may think it was some odd garnish? Caviar is such an acquired taste and so non-filling that it was most likely not appreciated by the masses that it was distributed to. Staples like warm and hearty soups, meat and potatoes would be what I would want to feed myself or my family at Christmas. They may not have had the little water crackers or a little blini with some creme fraiche on which to serve the little salted roe (fish eggs) on -the latter is apparently the preferred way to serve caviar.

With the level of Italian corruption it was probably publicised as 'distributed to the poor' but probably delivered to Berlusconi's house for his NYE party.

From a caviar website: 'fine caviar should be served as simply as possible; the fewer accoutrements the better.' I hope the Italian customs agents passed this message on with delivery.

Someone said I am cranky this week....probably because I am still fighting a cold after a month...I think I need to browse Whole Foods today for some energising and Vitamin C filled smoothies or shakes, maybe with a dash of beluga caviar - I wonder if it has any health benefits?

Re: posts belowInterestingly, the term 'salad days' was mentioned by the baldy from Sex in the City who is now on my new favourite show, Californication - why did I not discover the David Duchovny hotness earlier? No one eats on that show, all they do is drink Fiji water, cocktails and hard liquor.

And I need to go back and write a proper post about the Whole Foods store on High Street Kensington as I loved going there a few weeks ago. I spent forever in there. I actually lost track of time, checking out all their products, produce, cheeses etc.. it was a great food shopping experience which resulted in me buying oysters, an oyster shucker, swordfish steaks and white sea bass. It was too much fish for one weekend but it was great, bar the Oysters that were not too juicy-how do you choose oysters? Do you shake them to see if there is lots of seawater inside?

More places like this are needed in London, am really getting annoyed with shopping at the local petrol station for my fruit and veg.

Anyhow another busy week, am surviving on golden pineapple in the morning, chicken and rice soup for lunch and whatever is in the fridge for dinner - lots of Thai food is being consumed from our local favourite, Street Hawker - the guy even knows us in there and asks, 'nasi goreng for you?' Errm...maybe should go there a little less. How do you get bathing suit body in 2 weeks?

Running & Pilates marathon to commence immediately...

Whole FoodsStellina eating her gelato