On this particular Saturday afternoon, I went out with the family (my 3 housemates) for brunch at fish! Kitchen, a delightful little seafood place not too far from our house. The cozy restaurant is right next to Jarvis, the local fishmonger, so it is guaranteed that the food will be fresh.

Our sole purpose in going to fish! Kitchen was to eat the Mussels Mariniere (£7.95 for starter, £12.95 for main), which lived up to its reputation (practically every table ordered this dish). The bowl came heaped with plump mussels and creamy white wine sauce, which we mopped up with rustic bread until not a drop was left.

Tempted by the other scrumptious dishes on offer, we also ordered the Calamari with Rocket and Lemon Mayonnaise (£6.95). The calamari was crispy but nothing that you can’t get from other places; I did like the idea of rocket with calamari though.

Since England is so famous for fish and chips, of course fish! Kitchen offered a variety of fish to have with their chips and mushy peas. We went with the plaice (£12.95), which was fleshy and fresh, and the batter was extremely light and crunchy. If you want, you can choose your own fresh fish from Jarvis and have it cooked at fish! Kitchen as well.

Although the fish & chips were good, I preferred the Grilled Sea Bream with Spicy Salsa (£11.95), which was one of the daily specials. The sea bream had crispy skin and was lightly salted (by Thai standards, which means it was heavily seasoned by British standards), which provided a complementary contrast with the spicy salsa (which was not spicy at all for a Thai, but still delicious nonetheless).

All in all, we had a satisfying meal and a great time, which amounted to a terrific experience. Oh, and did I mention that our waiter looked like a cross between Robert Pattinson and Orlando Bloom?? That just made our dining experience THIS MUCH more pleasant!

fish! Kitchen
58 Coombe Road
Kingston, Surrey
KT2 7AF
United Kingdom
Tel: +44(0)20-8546-2886
Open: Tue-Sat 12:00pm-10:00pm

I’m sharing the new house with 3 other friends who all love to eat, so planning what to cook for dinner each night is a very big deal for us. The spacious kitchen at the new house presents us with limitless options on what we can possibly conjure up, and each night brings a whole new challenge as we try to create dishes from ingredients that are available in the fridge (this is the problem with not planning a menu in advance…we end up buying random ingredients when we go grocery shopping and then have difficulties trying to put together a dish).

Fried salmon in fish sauce is one dish that doesn’t require a lot of ingredients and is very simple to make. All you have to do is toss the ingredients together, leave the fish to marinate while you go off to do your thing and just come back and fry it!

Fried Salmon in Fish Sauce
(Makes 2 servings)

• 2 fillets of salmon
• 2 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 4 large garlic cloves, sliced thinly
• black pepper to taste

Clean the salmon fillets and cut into bite-sized cubes.

Toss all the ingredients together in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

In a large wok, heat some peanut oil or vegetable oil on high heat. Once the oil starts to smoke, add the marinated salmon cubes. *Note: Be careful not to let the garlic slices burn!

Once the salmon cubes start to brown on one side, turn and brown on all sides before serving.

York is a city rich with history and traditions. I’m not going to go into details of each landmark we visited (you can read it in your own time by clicking on the links I’ve provided) but two days in York was too little to see everything, especially on a mellow trip such as ours.

After checking in at Hill Crest B&B, we walked to Clifford’s Tower, an ancient monument for the city of York. Our fingers nearly froze as we snapped pictures after pictures of the old keep (the temperature was around -5°C). Located in the same parameters is the York Castle Museum which unfortunately, we didn’t get to go inside because it was closed by the time we arrived.

We then made our way into town, where we wandered into The Shambles, an old narrow alley with odd-looking buildings selling all sorts of goodies. I felt like someone plonked me down into a Harry Potter movie, particularly after one friend mentioned that The Shambles reminded him of Diagon Alley (even the name sounds like something out of a Harry Potter movie).

The next morning, we set out for York Minster but the view along the River Ouse was so breathtakingly picturesque we had to make many stops to take photos before we got to our destination.

We finally got to York Minster about an hour later, and after walking around the grounds of the cathedral, we climbed the 275 steps that took us up the Tower. The view from the top was spectacular, with snow-covered roofs everywhere and the sun shining weakly in the winter sky.

The climb left us exhausted and starving, so off to Bettys we went for a little afternoon tea. This was my first proper afternoon tea and I couldn’t contain my excitement as I sat in the  luxurious tea room with all the lavish surroundings. I shared the Bettys Speciality Afternoon Tea (£17.75 per set) with a friend, which came with a pot of tea (we chose Chinese Rose Petal Tea), a choice of two sandwiches (we had Oak-Smoked Salmon & Prawn and Roast Yorkshire Ham & Mustard), a sultana scone with strawberry preserves and Yorkshire clotted cream, and a fresh fruit tartlet from the cake trolley. The set was meant for one so we had to order another pot of tea (£3.80 for Yu Luo White Tea), which didn’t really make sense to me because one pot was big enough to share among two.

The Yu Luo White Tea was too mild for me; I preferred the Chinese Rose Petal Tea with its rose essence, which complemented the crumbly light scone. I’ve never had scones before and I’m normally not a fan of pastries but the scone here, with juicy sultanas, fresh cool clotted cream and sweet strawberry preserves, had me oohing and aahing for more. The fresh fruit tartlet was another delicious tidbit although the finger sandwiches were dry and mediocre, which was a shame, since I was looking forward to it the most.

With stomachs full, we ended the day with a brief shopping trip to the York Designer Outlet Shopping Mall and a long walk to the train station to catch our train (which was delayed).

—

For Christmas Eve, my friends and I spent a somewhat quiet evening together roasting ready-stuffed chickens and served them with roasted carrots and tomatoes. We also had baked broccoli and cheese, and Parma ham with cantaloupe. Hmm…yummy!

Christmas Day was spent lying around doing nothing and we went over to another friend’s house for dinner. Since all the shops were closed for Christmas, the town was literally deserted, reminding me eerily of a scene from I am Legend. I half expected zombies to pop out any minute but of course, there were none.

Now that Christmas has come and gone, life has been less hectic – until New Year’s anyway. Hope you all have a great and safe celebration and Happy New Year’s!!

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned before that Christmas is my favorite holiday, even though I’m not Christian. The twinkling fairy lights and shiny tinsel just gets me in the festive mood every time.  And this year, I get to (hopefully…*fingers crossed*) enjoy a white Christmas!! I’m really looking forward to that! (And Boxing Day the next day…)

To get into the Christmas spirit, we have our own little German Market in Kingston Town Center selling delicious grilled German sausages in a bun, steak in a bun, chipstix (fried potato slices on a stick), mulled wine, a candy stall and souvenir booths. In addition to the German Market, which was set up in late November, there is also a Christmas Gift Fair nearby.

So here’s a peek into what’s going on in our little German Market:

The mulled wine came in these cute little Christmas mugs, which you can keep for an additional £2.

Ms. Christmas Pudding was skating all around town greeting everyone!

So, I wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas! (As they say in England! )

]]> http://www.jupspintoh.com/2009/12/counting-down-to-christmas/feed/ 1 http://www.jupspintoh.com/2009/12/a-taste-of-thai/ http://www.jupspintoh.com/2009/12/a-taste-of-thai/#comments Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:03:37 +0000 Jup http://www.jupspintoh.com/?p=815 One of the things Mom said to me before I came to England was, “Don’t come back fat”. Knowing how much I love to eat and seeing me stuff my face with food when I was back home, she was probably afraid that I would literally go rolling back to Thailand. Well Mom, you have nothing to be worried about. The food in England sucks is so bland I’ve actually lost weight.

To be fair, I’m sure there are restaurants here that make great food; I just haven’t discovered them yet. That shall be my mission for the next 10 months that I’ll be here. In the meantime, I will be experimenting with Thai cooking…something I should’ve done when I was back in Bangkok, but it was so easy to find great Thai food that I just never bothered learning!

So far, my star Thai dish is probably Tom Yum Fried Rice – it’s packed with flavor and will certainly kill that craving for something tasty!

Tom Yum Fried Rice
(Makes 2-3 servings)

• 180 g. jumbo king prawns
• 2 bird’s eye chilies, sliced thinly (add more if you like it spicy!)
• juice of 1 large lime
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 2 tsp. fish sauce
• 1 tsp. distilled vinegar
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. chili paste
• 3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 lemongrass, sliced thinly
• 3 spring onions, chopped
• 4 shallots, sliced thinly
• 6 button mushrooms, sliced (you can also use straw mushrooms)
• 2 cups cooked rice
• thumb-sized galangal, peeled and cut into thick slices
• 3 kaffir lime leaves, cut into thin slivers (I wasn’t able to find any kaffir lime leaves this time but it will be a great addition)
• coriander sprigs and lime wedges for garnish

If you are using fresh prawns, peel and devein the prawns. Parboil the prawns and set aside. If your prawns are precooked or frozen, you can also parboil them to heat them up. Reserve the cooking water.

In a large wok, heat some peanut oil on high heat. Once the oil starts to smoke, add in the shallots, lemongrass, garlic, galangal and kaffir lime leaves.

Sauté the herbs until fragrant. Add the chili paste and stir. If the mixture looks too dry, add some cooking liquid from the prawns.

Add the chili, mushrooms and prawns and sauté quickly until the herb mixture coats the prawns.

Add the spring onion and rice and stir-fry. Season with fish sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar and lime juice. Adjust the seasoning to your taste. *Note: tom yum fried rice is meant to be sour!

Serve the rice and garnish with some coriander sprigs and lime wedges.

Mom, if I keep making this dish, I might grow so big I’ll really roll across the sea back to Thailand!

The second bit of news is actually more exciting – I am now doing a Masters program in England! My university is perched on top of a hill in a quaint little town called Kingston upon Thames (I’m still getting used to how British everything sounds!), a peaceful and safe community in Surrey. I arrived here 2 months ago but I’m still undecided on whether I like it here or not although I do appreciate the experience of it all. One thing I do love is how there are still patches of nature that hasn’t been destroyed by mankind. I often see fat furry squirrels scampering around on the big maple tree outside my window, and the Thames River in the town center is filled with ducks, swans, geese and other kinds of feathered creatures.

To be honest, I haven’t done a lot of exploring in Central London yet but I do have a long list of places to visit, thanks to the London guide that n’Petch gave me before I left. Oh, and I did get a chance to have a full English breakfast even if it was missing black pudding and the bacon wasn’t as streaky as the American variation.

I haven’t done a lot of drinking either (not that I normally drink a lot or anything), considering the drinking culture here. I guess I’m just too busy being a nerd studious…although I did visit a cozy little pub/bar right next to the river and had a fantastic time there (sans alcohol).

Unfortunately for my wallet and my diet, I usually buy the fattiest, meatiest treats that will leave my stomach sated but conscience laced with guilt. I had promised myself ages ago that I would stop snacking in between meals in order to cut down on excessive food-related expenses and to stop the needle on the scale from going any further to the right.

What I was mostly concerned about though, was the speed at which I was putting on the pounds (or kilos, in my case). I’m not usually one to go on a diet but I must have gained close to 4 kilos over the past 2 years (it feels like once I hit my mid-twenties, my metabolism just went downhill from there).

My new vow is to start bringing fresh fruits and vegetables to work so I can munch on them instead when one of my hunger pangs strike. To go with the vegetable sticks, I present to you:

Really Easy Onion Dip
(Makes 1 big bowl)

• 2 large onions, diced finely
• 2 Tbsp. corn oil or olive oil
• 290 ml. sour cream
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. low fat mayonnaise
• 1/2 tsp. garlic salt
• salt and white pepper to taste
• 2 dashes Worcestershire sauce (optional)

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the diced onions and season to taste with salt. Sauté for about 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft and brown. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine the sour cream, low fat mayonnaise, garlic salt and the cooled onions. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add 2 dashes of Worcestershire sauce for color if you like. Serve chilled with fresh vegetables or chips.

Okay, so an onion dip might not be ideal in losing weight but it sure makes eating veggie sticks a lot more interesting. Plus, it’s really easy to make and still tastes great after keeping in the fridge for a few days.

Every Monday, there will be a booth selling toys at a flea market near our office and you can be sure to find her rummaging around for trinkets to add to her collection during lunch break. It was during this time one week that we found Re-ment miniature sushi sets and at my urging, she started collecting the sets. (Each of the sets were sold separately and we’re still missing one set because we decided too late that we wanted the whole 10 sets.)

The miniature sushi sets are so adorable and they are extremely detailed as well. There are even mini wasabi and gari containers and tiny tweezers that you can use to remove a lump of gari!

Now, one thing you need to know about p’Kaew: she does not have the tidiest desk in the world and as her collection expanded, so did the mess on her desk. It got to the point where it was common to find one sushi bite hiding behind her monitor while its partner (because sushi comes in pairs!) would be on the other side of the desk. Not being able to bear the thought of those precious gems getting lost, I built her a sushi bar out of balsa wood complete with a shelf for storing extra green tea mugs.

A sushi bar wouldn’t be complete without a sushi chef, and she brought her Itoshiki Nozomu figure and Nijihara Ink on a chair as a finishing touch. The overall effect is one smashing sushi bar that would make you squeal with delight (and several people have done this at the office, guys included) and whip out your iphones to snap pictures.

One common dish for Thais is kraphao kai khai dao (chicken stir-fried with holy basil leaves and fried eggs), which never fails to bring about a sneeze or two if you happen to be near the kitchen when the dish is being prepared. It also happens to be my dad’s favorite dish and he makes a killer version of it.

Dad just follows his instincts when he cooks so the following recipe is my approximation of each ingredients. You can adjust the sauces and ingredients according to what suits you and how spicy you want your kraphao to be.

Kraphao Kai Khai Dao
(Makes 6 servings)

• 600 g. chicken thighs
• 3 large garlic cloves, peeled
• 20 bird’s eye chillies (we were cooking a big batch and Dad loves his food super spicy! The spiciness also depends on the type of chilli you are using.)
• 3 big handfuls of holy basil leaves
• 2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 2 Tbsp. mushroom soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. palm sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• fish sauce to taste
• 10 Tbsp. vegetable oil or peanut oil
• 6 eggs

Remove the bones from the chicken thighs and chop up the meat into small cubes. Marinate with the oyster sauce for about 10 minutes.

Using a mortar and pestle, crush together the garlic and chillies. Set aside.

In a small bowl, dissolve the palm sugar in water.

Heat half the oil in a wok over high heat until smoking hot. Put the chilli and garlic mixture into the wok and sauté.

Add the chicken pieces and stir-fry quickly. Season with fish sauce and mushroom soy sauce to your taste. (Dad used about 2 dashes of fish sauce.) Add the palm sugar water.

Add holy basil leaves and stir-fry quickly, just until the leaves start to wilt. Serve on a plate.

For the fried eggs, heat the remaining oil in a hot wok. Once the oil is smoking hot, fry the eggs one at a time until the whites turn crispy but the yolk is still runny. This will take about 2-3 minutes. Be careful, as the oil will splatter.

Serve the kraphao kai with jasmine rice and fried egg.

You can also make kraphao with minced pork, beef or even seafood. To make the dish more colorful, you can use different colors and sizes of chillies. (Usually, the bigger they are, the less spicy they are.) Slice the big ones at an angle and sauté with the chilli and garlic mixture…they make for a nice presentation.

If you have an outdoors kitchen, I suggest you make this outdoors so it won’t stink up your whole house. Otherwise, just be prepared to have an explanation ready if the cops show up at your house, accusing you of trying to poison the whole neighborhood!

What I made today doesn’t require a lot of effort to make but it’s a great way to use fresh summer vegetables that comes with the season. The recipe I used is an adaptation from Keiko’s Summer Vegetable Pasta Salad with Anglaise Sauce and I love that it’s so versatile – it can be served cold or hot depending on the weather, and you can use whatever vegetables you happen to have on hand.

Summertime Spaghetti with Cream Sauce
(Makes 5-6 servings)

• 400 g. spaghetti
• 1 medium head broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 small pack of asparagus, cut at an angle
• 1 handful of fresh shitake mushrooms, cut into slivers
• 100 g. bacon
• 1 tsp. olive oil

For the cream sauce:

• 4 egg yolks
• 250 ml. milk
• 150 ml. cream
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

 Cut the bacon into slivers and fry until crispy. Set aside.

 Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the spaghetti until al dente. Drain and plunge into ice-cold water. Drain again and drizzle with the olive oil so the pasta doesn’t stick together. Set aside.

 Parboil the vegetables for a few minutes and blanch them in ice-cold water. Set aside.

 For the sauce, put the egg yolks in a bowl. Heat the milk and cream in a saucepan and slowly pour over the egg yolks, stirring constantly.

 Return the mixture to the saucepan over very low heat and stir until the sauce thickens. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Leave to cool and chill if serving cold.

 Serve the pasta with vegetables and cream, and sprinkle with bacon bits. Give the dish a final touch with some sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper. 

Just a little note – when you return the egg mixture to the flame, it is crucial that you keep stirring the sauce at all times to prevent the eggs from curdling and turning into watery scrambled eggs!