October Daring Bakers' Challenge - Macarons

Choc-mint macaron

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Oh yes. Macarons. Seemingly the holy grail of the biscuit world. I've been wanting to try my hand at making them for some time now but had never quite got around to it. Fear? Possibly. I wasn't about to let a biscuit scare me off though, no matter how pretty and elegant it was.

Although it's not so apparent here in Perth, macarons have become the cupcake of the biscuit world - they are everywhere right now. Perhaps not literally everywhere, though that would be pretty awesome. Would prevent many trip and fall injuries too, with all that soft meringueness.

(Speaking of "literally", I enjoyed the new Jamie Oliver show last night, but when will someone teach him the meaning of the word? I don't mind so much if he's saying "now you just literally add some salt" as this is just being a little redundant, but when he says something like "in New York you can literally have the world on your plate" then I start to get irritated.)

Now, the recipe given for this month's challenge apparently caused many issues for many Daring Bakers. I was not willing to undergo such issues so I cheated and used Trissa's tried and true recipe. Seriously, if you want to make macarons, this is the way to go.

Kahlua macarons

Trissa's Conor-proof Macaron Recipe
Taken from Trissalicious

Ingredients
250 g almond meal
300 g icing sugar (not icing mixture)
200 g caster sugar
200 g egg whites (roughly 6 eggs)

Method
1. In a food processor grind the almond meal and icing sugar for around 5 minutes until very finely ground.
2. Place the egg whites in an electric mixer and whip the whites until soft peaks.
3. Add the sugar, 50 grams at a time while the egg whites are being beaten.
4. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks.
5. Fold the ground almond meal mixture into the egg white mixture in three additions until fully amalgamated.
6. Pipe on to baking trays which have been lined with baking paper. Note: If you are using food colouring, add it now.
7. Let the macarons dry for around 30 minutes until the “shells” are dry.

Hmmm, perhaps you should pipe the green mix last, or at least clean..

8. Bake in a pre heated fan forced oven (150c) for 15 minutes, waiting very impatiently to see if your macarons will develop pretty "feet" or if they'll be the ugly stepsisters!

They have feet! They have feet!!!

Seeing these babies with their pretty little feet was reminiscent of the joy of having my puff pastry actually rise in last month's challenge. I have a couple of friends who have recently given birth (congratulations J&G and K&A!!!), and I think that this is my equivalent. Plus I get to eat these afterwards.

After making the actual macarons, it's time to get ganaching. Here's the basic recipe:

Ganache

Ingredients
400 g chocolate
200 mL cream

Method
1. Chop up the chocolate into very small pieces and place in a bowl.
2. Scald the cream then pour into the bowl with the chocolate.
3. Let it sit for a minute or so then mix it up well until a creamy consistency. If you still have chunks of chocolate, melt it over a double boiler or just zap it in the microwave very briefly until it is all melted.
4. Let the ganache set before using. You can speed this up in the fridge.

I did three different types of ganache. In one dark chocolate mix I added Kahlua (using a bit less cream to account for the extra liquid), in another dark chocolate mix I added mint flavouring, and the third was a plain white chocolate ganache.

Two Kahlua macarons, a choc-mint one and a little white choc one up the back

Thanks to Ami S for hosting this month's challenge, and a big big thanks to Trissa for being the Macaron Queen! Her macaron brilliance is so bright I think I need to wear some of Rilsta's patented macaron sunglasses :D

Subi Farmers Market

The Subi Farmers Market opened its gates for the first time on Saturday 17 October, and I went to check it out yesterday to see if it lived up to how good its website seemed to suggest it would be. Unable to sleep in with the early spring sun glaring through my blinds, I was at the market bang on 8am with a hungry belly, hoping that this expedition would not be a repeat of last week's hungover shamozzle of unrequited crepe love.

Information Stall

The tagline for the market is "the natural way to shop" and there is a real focus on organic, biodynamic and sustainable practices. They apparently have a strict 'no plastics' policy, and sell Subi Market branded reusable bags and trolleys. I like the idea of a trolley, as my eyes are generally bigger than my arm and shoulder muscles, but I just can't bring myself to buy one. According to the useful blackboard at the Information stall, they also have 'Story Time under the Tree' at 9:30, which I assume is for children and doesn't involve farmers regaling each other with tales of how big the bugs are whose plots they managed to foil through non-pesticide means, but I had made good my escape by this time so I can't comment further. Oh and there's a "Bike Parking" sign which you might be able to see next to the bikes. I'm surprised the Subi parking inspectors haven't utilised this potential parking ticket revenue stream.

Ringwould goat cheese stall

First up in the tasting stakes was the Ringwauld goat cheese stall. They keep their goats in Redmond, near Albany in the south west of Western Australia, and I can say that these goats make a tasty, tasty cheese. We tried all four on offer, and though they were all really nice I was most taken with the Ringwauld Blanc fresh goat's curd (in the little tub). It was mild, deliciously creamy, and would make a perfect mayonnaise substitute.

Loafers stall

Next to the tasty cheeses was the Loafers organic bread stall. According to their little sign, they make their organic breads using traditional slow fermentation methods, and thus their sour dough takes one week to make. The breads really did look great, with the crust on their "Bayern Brot" looking particularly tempting. Given that I don't each much bread, and knew that I already had a loaf sitting in my freezer, I resisted the urge to buy a loaf and rip into it there with a pot of that goat curd.

Passion Ate

Diablos Oven in action, with my "Garden Gnome" breakfast calzone

By now my belly was starting to grumble and although the sweet treats on offer at Passion Ate looked quite tempting, I really needed some savoury action. Just as well the next stall was Diablos Oven. On the menu today were two types of calzone - "Porky Pig" of organic pork sausage with fresh tomato, feta and fresh herbs or "Garden Gnome" of organic portabello mushrooms, roasted pine nuts, fresh spinach and feta. We ordered a Garden Gnome and waited as patiently as we could, distracting our hungry selves by looking again at the Passion Ate products, including some giant avocados they were selling. These were massive. You could kill someone with one. Luckily for the unsuspecting public our calzone was soon ready and my mind was taken off such thoughts.

The calzone was piping hot but luckily had been cut up for us so was soon ready to get stuck into. It was a little messy to eat, as the spinach and mushrooms had released a lot of moisture out and my napkin was soon soaked through, but it tasted good and I managed not to spill anything on myself so I was happy.

Spirals Cinnamon Buns

Luke and Pat's Coffee Shack

Although my hungry tummy wasn't entirely satiated by my calzone half, I resisted the cinnamon buns at Spirals to make sure I had plenty of room for more tastings. I did however complete phase one of my breakfast with a long black made by Luke or possibly Pat at Luke & Pat's Coffee Shack, and then we continued on our merry perusal.

Spot the happy cupcake girl!

I didn't notice this girl when I was taking this photo. Man she looks chuffed with her cupcake purchase.

Sophistibakes Gluten Free Bakery goods

I like beetroot, and apparently I also like chocolate beetroot cake. Thank you Sophistibakes for enlightening me. I asked if they grated it to use in the cake, like a carrot cake, but they cook it and puree it before adding it to the mix, similar to adding pumpkin puree I guess.

Fudge Fusion, and some incriminating teeth marks

After being reminded of the great fudge I had in Niagara-on-the-Lake last year after reading a couple of fudgey posts recently on Iron Chef Shellie, I was happy and a little scared to next find myself in front of Fudge Fusion. They had sealed little samples (good for the swine flu conscious sampler) of both their soft fudge and their crumbly fudge, and I discovered I'm more of your soft fudge kind of girl. Take from that what you will. Although tempted by the Mint Chocolate fudge, I decided on the Cherry, Chocolate and Coconut fudge and after getting stuck into it at home about 5 seconds after walking through the door I was overjoyed to discover it packed a great coconut punch in the face. I tasted each layer on its own, and found the chocolate and cherry flavours to be quite subtle in comparison to the coconut layer which also contained little bits of coconut within it.

I didn't think I liked fudge until I tried it in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The fudge stores there are all open plan, so you can see the (generally older men) making the fudge and be horrified at the amount of sugar and evaporated milk that you will soon be ingesting as you fail to resist temptation after trying the little samples. I wish now that I still thought I didn't like fudge.

Necessiteas

After smelling one tea at this stall I instantly knew it had to be mine. I also bought some of it for a friend, who I'm yet to give it to, so I'll be coy and not tell you which one it is.

Deep Creek Olives

I also bought something at the Deep Creek Olives stall as s gift for someone, so my coyness will continue.

How could you resist these asparagus spears?

Awesome. I just remembered I bought some of this asparagus and it's still sitting in the fridge waiting for me.

Turban Chopsticks

I've seen the Turban Chopsticks retail store on Bulwer Street in Northbridge before and been puzzled by the identity crisis of a name. I now know it sells a range of sauces, marinades, pastes, spices etc and the name appears to be due to their coverage of Indian style and Asian style flavours. Actually, it's funny how in Australia we don't seem to mean India when we say "Asian", which I assume is due to our closer proximity to south east Asian countries. I have noticed in the UK however (which you may particularly notice if you happen to be a fan of The Bill) that when they refer to an Asian person they often mean someone of Indian descent. Interesting.

Anyway, Turban Chopsticks products look like they'd come in very handy to whip up something tasty when you're time poor or just can't be arsed doing something completely from scratch. The meal packs in the left of the photo above looked particularly good, containing all the nonperishable things you need to make a range of dishes like "Royal Festival Briyani" and "Puy Lentil Stew". I didn't take note of how much the packs cost though, so I can't comment on value for money in comparison to just buying the components yourself.

Koeksisters

I didn't try or buy anything from this stall but wanted to include the photo as it looks like the stallholder is wearing leopard print pants. He wasn't, but I think he should.

Simplee Yummy

Again, I didn't try or buy anything from these guys but I like the action shots. Chop chop chop! Scoop scoop scoop!

The Raw Kitchen

No room for a Raw Kitchen smoothie this time, but next time I'm keen. Maybe to wash down some Simplee Yummy turnip. Also, is it just me or does it look like there's a little boy up in the background doing a wee in the bushes?

Well, I didn't actually manage to check out every single stall as I ran out of time and needed to get myself to the gym in time for a class, but I was pretty impressed with what I did check out. Seems like more stalls are on their way too. Conclusion: Subi Farmers Markets are well worth a visit and I'd recommend going with an empty tummy. And possibly a trolley.

Cakey La-Rhu

And so continues my week of cooking with my friend's garden produce. Next up: rhubarb!

I eat a lot of rhubarb, having it every morning on my porridge and sometimes for a snack with some fruit and yoghurt or ice cream, and I pretty much always have some stewed rhubarb sitting in the fridge. I figured this rhubarb deserved a little more special treatment than sitting in my fridge and getting plopped on my porridge, as glamorous as that sounds, so I figured a cake would be in order. As luck would have it, today was my fortnightly research group meeting, and also our department's postgrad meeting, so I wouldn't be forced to eat it all myself. Mind you, as I type this it is afternoon tea o'clock, and I have no cake left. Hmmm.

To find my rhubarb cake recipe I consulted the ever trusty Taste.com.au and although I was tempted by the "Rhubarb Croissant Cake" that involves chopping day-old croissants into pieces and making a cake out of them with stewed rhubarb and thickened cream, I settled on a more standard cake that was rated lots of 5 stars and had comments like "I'm off to buy more rhubarb so I can make it again" whilst 'paddles' declared "abolsutely delicious - this will become a favourite." I guess paddles needs some tasty cake to sustain him after a big kayaking session. Or perhaps some S&M action. I'm not going to judge you, paddles. I was slightly put off by adan119 saying "everyone loved it including the 13 month old" followed up with timmytony's comment that "my whole family love this cake, even the almost 1year old" as I'm not so sure I want to be eating food that very small children find enjoyable, but I decided to take a punt.

After making this cake, I don't think I'd be wasting any on very small children. They can make do with Milk Arrowroots. I really enjoyed the cake, and it went down very well with all tasters this morning! It's quite moist and has a nice denseness to it without being heavy. The batter is thick, so the rhubarb stays well distributed through the cake and the flavours all balance really well. Also great is that you don't need to do anything to the rhubarb before baking it, so it's also quite an easy recipe to follow. Follow in paddles' footsteps, make one today!


Rhubarb Cake
Recipe from taste.com.au

Ingredients
60g butter, softened
1 1/2 cups (300g) brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
2 eggs
1 cup (150g) plain flour
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour
1 tsp cinnamon
300g sour cream
350g trimmed rhubarb, cut into 2cm lengths
1/4 cup (55g) brown sugar, extra
1 tsp cinnamon, extra

Method
1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Lightly grease a 24cm springform pan. Line base and sides with paper, extending paper 3cm above top of pan.
2. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla and zest with an electric mixer until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in sifted dry ingredients and cream in two batches. 3. Fold in rhubarb. Spread mixture into prepared pan and sprinkle evenly with combined extra sugar and cinnamon.
4. Cook for about 1 hour 15 minutes, or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cover top with foil if sugar starts to over brown.
5. Remove cake from pan and cool on wire rack. Cake is delicious served warm or cold with custard or cream ( I didn't bother with this, it was great enough on its own!).

"Help, I'm trapped in a cake and I can't get out" say the funny rhubarby lips

Pork and fennel are BFF

So, I had a nice big hairy fennel bulb sitting in the fridge, waiting to meet that special someone. This particular fennel bulb was pretty special, having been brought all the way to me from my friend's garden far, far away, so I wouldn't be happy with it settling for just anyone. Luckily I had some nice pork loin steaks sitting in the freezer just waiting to come out and play. I'm not a huge fan of aniseed, thus I didn't want the fennel to take over the relationship so I decided to throw a few other ingredients into the mix to keep the fennel on its toes. It's hairy toes.

The result was a beautiful open romance of a really delicious dinner that I shall be making again for sure!


Warm Pork and Fennel Pasta Salad

Serves 2-3

Ingredients
2 pork loin steaks
1 fennel bulb, sliced thinly
1/4 small red cabbage, sliced thinly
Good handful of baby spinach leaves (sliced in half if big ones)
1 small red onion, sliced thinly
1/2 red capsicum
1 orange
Handful of shelled broad beans
Few capers
Good handful of bowtie pasta
30 mL orange juice
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 Tb wholegrain mustard
salt and pepper

Method
1. Roast the red capsicum, remove the skin, slice into strips and set aside.
2. Segment the orange, set aside.
3. Cook the pasta until al dente, refresh under cold water and set aside.
4. Fry the pork steaks until done to your liking, then allow to rest before slicing into strips.
5. Make the dressing by combining the orange juice, olive oil, mustard and some salt and pepper to taste in a small bowl.
6. Add some olive oil to a hot frying pan, and sauté the red onion until soft. Add the fennel and broad beans. Once all softened, add the red cabbage. Saute all until done to your liking. I like to have my cabbage softened a little, and some colour to everything else. If you want, add the pasta and pork back into the pan to warm them back up a little.
7. In a large bowl, combine the pork, fennel, onion, cabbage, spinach leaves, capsicum slices, orange segments, pasta and capers. Toss gently.
8. Add your dressing to the bowl, or serve the salad and then drizzle the dressing over the top. Garnish with a few little fennel hairs.

Oxford St Market + Generous Friend = Tasty Dinner

The Oxford St Market in Leederville has been in existence for a few months now, and I finally got around to checking it out on Sunday with my friend C. After arriving, finding parks and beginning our perusal, we both realised that we'd spent all our cash at the pub the previous night and so had to immediately turn around and leave to address this situation. I then discovered that my usual Westpac ATM on Oxford St has apparently been removed, and no amount of standing around looking confused seemed to change this fact so I had to pay a fee to get my money out by using an ANZ ATM. All of this before breakfast too, it was enough to give a girl a headache. If perhaps she didn't already have one for reasons mysterious and unknown.

Rob's Meats

The Oxford St Market is quite small, but has a few good stalls. First up was Rob's Meats, enticing us with their advertised "Sexy Italian sausages". They sell a range of meats and seafoods, and also were selling sausages in a bun! We declined the sausages in a bun, but C bought some of the award winning Lamb & Rosemary sausages. She also wanted a lamb roast but they had sold out. Boo.

Guinea Grove Farm

Next on our journey was the Guinea Grove Farm stall, selling four types of olive oils. Luckily they had them out for tasting with bread, and we made our way through all four. The lemon pressed olive oil was particularly delicious, and would go perfectly with some lightly grilled asparagus or as a simple salad dressing. I wanted to buy some, but as they offer a good discount if you bring your own container I will be going back at a later stage to take advantage of this offer. They also had guinea fowl eggs to sell, which the nice woman running the stall explained is due to them having far too many to eat themselves. They have guinea fowl in amongst the olive trees to keep down pests, and they leave little eggy presents in their wake.

from the pot

We lingered at the 'from the pot' stall for some time, trying out many of their jams, preserves, chutneys, pickles and spice mixes. Both of us had to buy the Fig & Ginger Preserve after trying it.. the combination worked beautifully and it was both chunky and not too sweet. I also got the aubergine pickle, which has a good kick to it, and some Chilli Garlic & Herb rub.

A cupcake seller

There was a woman selling cupcakes, which looked mildly enticing, but I was in no state to eat cupcakes. I did notice however that one of the types of cupcakes was the exact image of the Crabapple Bakery Orange & Poppyseed cupcakes. Controversial!

Juice and cheese sellers

Crepe makers

Can you see the empty board at the crepe makers stand? That was where they were advertising their savoury crepes before we realised we had no money. When we returned... they had sold out! Disaster! I was unable to face a sweet breakfast so we ended up going down into the heart of Leederville and having breakfast at Sayers. A fine breakfast. I really should get around to reviewing Sayers.

Other stalls at the Oxford St Market included a florist, organic skin products, organic fruit & veges and a coffee maker. Please forgive my somewhat half-arsed review of the markets, I was not in my most energetic state of mind. I must've eaten a dodgy prawn the previous night.

Err.. not the best segue but now onto tonight's dinner!

I was lucky enough to be visited by a good friend who I had not seen for some time this morning, and she came bearing gifts! From her garden! Edible gifts! I scored a huge bunch of rhubarb, a big fennel bulb, a bag of artichokes and a bag of broad beans. Woo!

My housemate had a few lamb steaks in the fridge that needed eating, so I decided to make a warm salad with some of my newfound produce, the spice rub I'd bought at the markets, and the lamb.


Artichoke, beetroot and bean salad with spiced lamb
Adapted from a taste.com.au recipe

Serves 2 very hungry post-gym girls

Ingredients
3 small lamb steaks
Spice rub of your choice
3 small or two larger beetroot, washed and stalks removed
4 artichokes
Juice of one lemon
250 g shelled broad beans
180 g green beans, topped & tailed and chopped up a little if they're big
30 mL olive oil
1 Tb fresh lemon juice
0.5 Tb tahini
1 garlic clove, crushed
Salt & black pepper
100g feta

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Wrap the beetroot in foil and roast in the oven until tender (I did mine for around 1.5 hours).
3. Allow to cool slightly then rub off the skins and set aside.
4. Peel off the first couple of layers of leaves from the artichokes, and trim the stems. Cut each one in half and remove the hairy choke (tee hee! Hairy choke!) using a teaspoon. Place the halves in a large bowl filled with water and the juice of the lemon.
5. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, and then add the broad beans and green beans, cooking until tender (around 5 minutes). Remove from water and refresh under cold water. Drain very well and set aside.
6. Remove the artichokes from the lemony water and cook in the salted boiling water until tender (when you stick a skewer in the stem), around 10 minutes. Remove from the water and refresh until cold water. Drain very well and set aside.
7. Combine the olive oil, Tb lemon juice, tahini and garlic in a bowl. Mix well and taste, adding more lemon juice if necessary and also salt and pepper.
8. Cut the beetroot into wedges.
9. Serve the salad with the artichokes, beetroot and beans on your plates. Crumble the feta over the top.

Undressed salad

10. Heat your griddle or frying pan until quite hot, and while it is heating rub the lamb with your spice rub (you can also do this earlier).

Lamb all dressed up and ready for a hot night out

11. Oil up your pan and cook the lamb until done to your liking. Remove from heat and allow to rest for a little before slicing up.
12. Dress the salad with the tahini dressing, and place the lamb on top.
Enjoy!

Delving even further back...

Oh yeah, I also used to live in Sweden. I was on exchange there for a semester during my undergraduate degree, and lived in a 'Flogsta corridor' with 11 other students. I'll spare you the tales of cleaning rosters, people waking me consistently in the wee hours by rocking out to Tina Turner and Rod Stewart, and making the most of our rooftop sauna. Mine was not a typical Flogsta corridor, that usually only has a couple of foreign students, as we had three Italians (one who lived in the next corridor over but would visit a lot), one German, one Greek Cypriot, myself and 7 Swedes. We often ate together, and started this off by having a typical kräftskiva or Crayfish Party.

Svenska kräftor and some little prawns too

Tomas' super impressive balloon kräftor

A recurring event was the corridor pizza night, where we would all chip in a few kroner, someone would head down to the nearby ICA for supplies, and we would get covered in flour and dine on delicious homemade pizzas for dinner.

One of many, many corridor pizzas

One night we all felt like doing something, and many phonecalls were made to see what was going on in town and whether it was worth walking in to go to one of the student bars for some booze and dancing. Half of us were psyched up to go out, and half weren't, and in the end we all just decided to stay home and make waffles instead. As you do. There were a few of us, so we thought we'd better triple the usual waffle mix quantities. We uhh, might've overdone it a little.

Mixing up way too much waffle batter

The remnants, after many a waffle was consumed with cream, ice cream and jam. And possibly champagne.

The leftover mix after everyone was completely stuffed. We were eating waffles for days.

One of our Corridor Dinners had a theme - Homeland Food. Oh it was a delicious theme. I was torn about what to make, and although I toyed with making meat pies, vanilla sliceeventually decided on making sushi as I figured I was representing the entire Asian/Oceanic region.

Organising the deliciousness

Everyone getting stuck into Round One of the Homeland Dinner

Someone's first round of homeland chow

What a sight! This is a smörgåstårta which is essentially a Swedish sandwich cake, made with bread and various fillings and layers.

We also held a Corridor Christmas dinner so that we could all celebrate together before we all headed off to spend Christmas elsewhere (the UK for me). This dinner involved the imbibing of much glögg, which I miss in Australia. There's a lot to be said for mulled wine in cold weather, especially when it is served with raisins and almonds. In glasses with little red hearts on them.

Serving delicious warming glögg to all and sundry

Christmas dinner, corridor style, complete with red wine and Julmust

Christmas dessert - my choc berry meringue, lussebulle and tiramisu

More lussebulle....mmmmmmmm I can smell the saffron from here (please ignore the dirty sink)

Christmas markets in Sweden are worth braving any dreary weather to check out. Chances are you might have some angels, sockervadd or hot hot nuts to see you through the cold. Hot hot nuts.

Making some cash before hitting the club?

Father Christmas keeping himself busy before the big day, selling sockervadd (fairy floss/cotton candy)

Hot nuts! Hot nuts! Get your hot nuts here!

During my semester in Sweden I was lucky enough to be invited to a soiree at the Australian Ambassador's residence in Stockholm. We felt right at home, with a selection of (Swedish) beers, Vegemite sandwiches, sausage rolls, party pies, ANZAC biccies and lamingtons. I was surprised to learn that one of his daughters is a barmaid at one of the Australiana bars in the city, which I never got around to visiting. No great loss, I'm sure.

Classy Aussie fare at the Australian Ambassador's residence in Stockholm

While living in Sweden I had the opportunity to head over to St Petersburg for a few days on an organised tour with other students. I didn't take many food photos there, probably because I didn't really want to remember the food. I did however take a photo of the boot of the car of a man who pulled up when our bus stopped for petrol, kindly offering to sell us any manner of drinks to sustain us for the remainder of the bus trip to our hotel.

A typical Russian boot?

One of our nights there was spent on a river cruise down the Neva River, including singing and dancing and drinking and... not much eating. Sadly the only food we were given to line our stomachs against the vast amounts of champanski and vodka was a little plate of white bread and caviar, and a little bowl of fruit.

Dinner on a river cruise down the Neva River, St Petersburg

I also spent a few weeks in Italy with my newfound Italian friends on my way home to Australia, and was absolutely spoilt by their mothers' cooking. Every meal was a feast, but of course you'll just have to take my word for it. I did however manage to take a few window shopping photos. Anyone for pasta fresca?

No? Hmmm, well how about a chocolate spanner, or mobile phone?


I can't for the life of me remember where the next two photos were taken - somewhere on the Italian coast during a day of much driving and sightseeing. I do however remember how tasty the farinata was.

Hard at work making farinata

Slicing up the farinata ready to be taken to a table of hungry girls

Now I think I really have exhausted the depths of my foodie photos, and really that's probably for the best as I don't want this to turn into one of those slide show nights where everyone is looking at their watches and thinking of ways to make good their escape.

Hej då, до свидания and arrivederci!