Late Posts: South Africa & Malaysia

We have been cooking plenty but not writing these last couple of weeks. We've had two Around the World dinners since our last post. The first was on April 10. In honor of South Africa hosting this summer's World Cup soccer tournament, we made a South African dinner. We made two courses, a main and a dessert. The main course is a popular South African street vendor food, bunny chow. It is curry served inside a bread bowl. The bread serves as the container and the utensil and is supposed to have originated as a way to serve workers who couldn't afford their own spoons or bowls. We chose to fill our bread with a simple chickpea and tomato curry that I make frequently and which is a family favorite. For dessert, we made Malva pudding. The recipe came from Recipezaar, one of my favorite go to spots for recipes. The recipes for Malva pudding is here. I agree with the review declaring this "the most fab pud ever!"

Last Wed, we made a dinner from Malaysia, in order to see what Dad (aka Steve) would eat on his business trip to Penang, Malaysia. We made Malaysian rojak, a salad made of pineapple, cucumber, bean sprouts, and crushed peanuts. The dressing is usually very spicy but I left out the chilis and just used honey, vinegar, and a little olive oil. Steve and I added red chili paste to our salad. M isn't a fan of bean sprouts but still enjoyed the rojak. I also made Char kway teow, a Malaysian Chinese dish which is kind of like fried rice, except with rice noodles instead of rice. I don't have a good link to the recipe, as I mixed several recipes together. I've always had a hard time making fried rice at home and the char kway teow had a similar problem; it didn't seem as "fried" as it sounded like it should have been. But it was still tasty. I look forward to hearing about the char kway teow that Steve is trying in Malaysia and having it for myself at a local Malaysian restaurant (Peninsula Malaysia) to see how close I got it. M saw a Mango and Tofu stir fry on Peninsula's menu and is eager to try that one!

On location: England

We've just returned from a 10-day trip to England. What a beautiful country, with a rich history. And great food. I know no one associates England with good food, but we have eaten so well on both of our trips.

One of the culinary highlights was a goat cheese tart at the George Inn in Lacock Village. The tart was delish and the setting was perfect. The village of Lacock is fully owned by the National Trust and the town has been featured in many movies and TV. The cloisters in the town abbey were part of Hogwarts, one of the buildings was in the miniseries version of "Pride & Prejudice," and another house is Judy Dench's character's house in the British TV series ("Cranford"), among others. The George Inn has had a liquor license since 1362. No, that's not a typo, 1362!!

In London, we had two dinners at the Prince Edward pub. Prior to our trip, I had set my Google status to "London Calling." Guess what started playing as soon as we sat down the first night at the Prince Edward? I was so excited that I had to text a friend in the States to tell her.

M's interruption:
I liked Pizza Express. We ate there in Bath, London, AND York! I also liked the pizza at Garfunkel's at Heathrow Airport. Mom also found FIFA trading cards at the airport. I also got English Premier League trading cards and watched Bolton v. Manchester United on TV at one of the pubs.

Yo Sushi! was also very cool. Instead of ordering, you take your food from a conveyor belt. Bowls are color-coded so you know the price. Surprisingly avocado rolls and edamame are among the cheapest. I had 3 bowls of avocado rolls, each bowl has 4 rolls, so I had 12 avocado rolls!

Back to Mom.
Yes, we ate in Pizza Express three times. Among the best pizza I've ever had. I especially liked the Fiortina, which had spinach and a fried egg on top. The egg worked much better than it sounds. Really. One thing that I noticed and really appreciated about Pizza Express and other chain family restaurants is that they said that they avoided using GMOs. Wish it would happen here, but I'm afraid that the agribusiness lobbies are too strong.

Tonight, we're making our first post-vacation Around the World dinner. Keeping with M's interest in the FIFA World Cup, it'll be a South African meal ("bunny chow" and Malva pudding). Look for a post tonight or tomorrow!