Nepal- the food edition

What did we expect of the food in Nepal? Dal...lots of dal. As part of our "training" we were eating dal at least weekly (although admittedly it was nothing like the dal we got there). We also expected to be inundated by yak milk butter tea, a drink that is said to be as grim as it sounds. Being the forward thinker I am I packed Milo (a chocolate drink powder) to surreptitiously add to the tea to make it more palatable. It turns out you don't actually encounter the stuff until higher elevations (because yaks don't live in the low territories). Unfortunately no yak tea was had on this trip. I spent my time at the highest elevation we reached communing with the squat toilet. I'm not sure what Brendan's excuse is.

The biggest food surprise in Nepal was that, like the country itself, it is a blend of the influences of the two major countries on either side of it: India and China. There were lots of curries and chapatis and the like right alongside chow mein and chop suey. Add in a little Tibetan flair and the continental food that pandered to the tourists and it was quite the food fest. Here are the highlights.

Momos (Tibetan dumplings). Really delicious. 

Thukpa (Tibetan noodle soup). Also really delicious. 

The one, the only dal bhat. Lunch of trekking champions. There are many awesome things about this dish, two of which are that a) it is one of the only ways to get a pretty balanced meal given the menu offerings along the trekking route and b) you keep getting refills of rice, dal, and/or curried veg until you cry for mercy (or just say that you're done). Now that is value for money!

Apple pancakes, black tea, and fresh mint tea. Our typical trekking breakfast.

Roadside pastries (and by "road" I mean dirt path). The Nepalis have clued into the fact that lots of their visitors have a soft spot for baked goods and there are now many German bakeries along the trekking route. I have no idea what makes them German, though, as there was nary a strudel in sight. Brendan is showing off his cinnamon bun here. This is definitely the prettiest dang place I ever ate a cinnibun.

Clearly not cutthroat business people.

Everest beer. This is the special Sherpa Nimbu Gombu edition dedicated to the man who summited Everest 12 times. Clearly a beer of champions. 

cuties

Not only were we lucky enough to have my entire family here for the holidays, but Ant, Kate, James & Matt also came to Cape Town for a visit. We were thrilled to get quite a bit of catch up time with them. It was particularly fantastic to see our newest nephew Matt again. He was only 7 weeks old when we first met, and was largely sleeping/feeding/pooping in those fresh-out-of-the-oven days. Now he is a proper little boy full of smiles and hugs (although he is still known to sleep, eat, and poop).

We went out for milkshakes on one of the swelteringly hot days last week and James seemed to particularly enjoy his.

On another of the hot evenings during last week's heat wave we took a picnic dinner to Camps Bay beach. It was our first sunset on the beach for 2011 and it was lovely. Matt had a particularly good time with his carob rice cake.

Can you handle the cuteness? I can't. I love these boys.

soccer, mustache, eggnog

You were sold on this post as soon as you read the title, right? What do these three things have in common? They were part of our life in the past week (or, in the case of the 'stache, the past month).

Last Wednesday we went to the absolutely lovely new stadium in Cape Town to watch the USA soccer team play South Africa for the Mandela Cup. Big B and I got totally decked out.

Our seats were *incredible*...and this is coming from the world's least sports fanatical person. I enjoyed my status as the odd one out in red, white, and blue while the other 59,999 people around me were in green and yellow. The USA won- go figure. I also had a quote on the front page of the Cape Times the next morning where I was blabbering on about how the USA was going to win. Clearly I missed my calling in high stakes sports gambling.

For more pictures of our dress up silliness click here.

It is now the fourth week of Movember, and thus time for your latest 'stache update. In a show of solidarity, I decided to participate myself. That's the kind of wife I am.

All this in one week! I continue to amaze myself.

And finally, I've been thoroughly and completely bitten by the holiday spirit bug. I am out-of-my gourd excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow (my absolute most favorite holiday of all time). The Elf soundtrack has made it's first (and second, and third) appearance. And I made homemade eggnog. I have very wonderful memories of my Grammy making eggnog for the family at Christmas time. She and my grandpa would get milk delivered to their house in glass bottles, and she would save up these bottles and fill them with the goodstuff. It was just heavenly. So I dug deep into my Schrier genes and made some pretty good eggnog myself.

Eggnog

serves 2 generously

2 cups milk

2 eggs, well beaten

2 tablespoons honey or confectioners sugar

a splash of vanilla extract

a few good shakes of cinnamon

one shake of nutmeg

a healthy glug of whiskey, bourbon, or brandy (if you are into that sort of thing, which I am. besides, i reckon it offsets the raw egg)

Mix all these fine ingredients together. After vigorously whisking in a bowl, I poured it into a milk jug and shook the living daylights of out it just to be sure it was properly mixed.

Enjoy by the glass, or on top of your morning oatmeal as I did this morning (pointedly ignoring the fact that there is whiskey in it). What's better than that?

first days in Cape Town

We have been living a very charmed life during our first few days in Cape Town, and this charmed life has not been conducive to blog posts. We've enjoyed settling in, eating all our favorite South African treats, seeing friends, and waking up to views of Table Mountain and Lion's Head each morning.

But let's start at the beginning...

My parents met us at JFK to see us off. We arrived at the airport hotel after a bit of a fistfight with our car battery. It decided to be difficult and stop working the day we were leaving. The nice AAA man who replaced it got a big hug and a tip from me.

Away we went. This photo was taken approximately two hours before the nasty man in the seat behind me decided to shove my seat as hard as he could (causing my forehead to nearly collide with the seat in front of me). When I spun around to ask him what the heck his problem was, he informed me that I could not put my seat back because he did not have enough room. I gave him an earful, with some backup from the South African Airways flight attendant. I also tried to plead my way into an upgrade. Sadly, those efforts bore no fruit. 18 hours, 2 inflight movies, and a complimentary mini-bottle of sparking wine later we were in Cape Town. 

Two hours after our arrival we returned to the airport to fetch Parker. He was delayed, so we went and got a red latte to share. They are lattes made with a rooibus tea "espresso" and are just fabulous. We thought it was a bit of a good omen that the barista used the foam and honey to draw a cat face on ours. 

These are our views from our bedroom windows each morning. It isn't possible to wake up and see Table Mountain and Lion's Head and not feel happy to be alive and in Cape Town. 

Our darling cat had perhaps the most harrowing of all our trips. Thankfully he is settling in wonderfully, even if he is a little bewildered by the new view. I took him out onto Candice's balcony to scope out his new hood. 

Here is evidence of Parker's happy state. Candice's work seat is his new favorite spot to sun himself. It is a race to see who gets their bum into the chair to claim it first for the day. 

This past Sunday we went to Kalk Bay, a lovely bohemian little town on the sea. We went with a singular vision: breakfast at Olympia Cafe. My word, this place is like Cape Town's version of the lovely Tartine in San Francisco. We shared a mushroom and mozzarella croissant with some scrambled eggs, and then another croissant with jam for dessert. 

Swoon. It was too good for words. My face hurt when we left because I was smiling so much. 

After breakfast, we walked down the main road and window shopped. We ended with a walk along the pier, looking at the boats and chatting to a fisherman here and there. 

And this little house? This place, dear friends, is the the result of good fortune smiling upon us once more, because this is the house we are moving into next week. A colleague of Brendan's at the University has to leave suddenly for England to care for an ailing family member and has offered to rent her darling Victorian house to us. It has a wonderful sunny courtyard, a spare bedroom (book your tickets, folks), and a new kitchen. And there is a bathtub!! We haven't had one of those for 3 years. We are feeling so happy and fortunate and thrilled. Update addresses and such will follow, along with a virtual tour next week.

So life is great. We are embracing life in the Mother City in a big way, and there is no sight of decreased excitement in the near future. The weeks ahead will bring driving lessons for me (should be good for a comical blog post), settling into work life, a new sweet little baby niece, a visit from Brendan's parents, and lots and lots more guava yogurt for yours truly. Man, I just can't get enough of the stuff. 

Miya's

As promised, here is the full recap of the deliciousness that is Miya's. If you are in and around the New Haven area, check it out at 68 Howe Street. If you go within the next 12 days, invite me. If not, express mail me something. I'm sure Customs doesn't have any rules about intercontinental transfers of sushi.

One of the things I loved straight away was that it is rated one of the top 10 most sustainable restaurants in America. Sushi is delicious, but I always have a bit of a guilty conscience when eating it as most of the yummies I am partaking in aren't doing the environment any favors. Miya's uses eco-friendly fish options and has many vegetarian rolls. Sushi + no guilt = the best sushi ever.

What else is there to love? This:

We started with their pumpkin miso (!!) and huge green salad. The greens come from the farm associated with the Yale Sustainable Food Project. You get a heap of what's fresh and in season. I think I taste a hint of wasabi in the dressing, which thrills me to no end. 

With that we each had a glass of sake. Their sake selection is highly unusual. Brendan had the spicy Firecracker sake, and I had the gingery Dragon Lady sake. 

For the main event, we forced ourselves to only choose five options from their really extensive menu. This is no small feat as basically everything sounds delicious and you want seven of them. From left to right you'll see the edibaba, hot-headed cowgirl (front), water piglet (back), japafrican queen (back), and your standard spicy tuna (front). The descriptions are part of the fun:

Edibaba- great. Who has hot sushi wrapped in potato?! The sauce is so delicious you'll want to lick the plate. Anything with coconut is fine by me, so the hot-headed cowgirl was also a serious winner. Perhaps what I love the most about the water piglet is that there is, in fact, no pig involved. I don't know why but that really tickles me. The Japafrican queen, however, was hands down our favorite. The flavors are out of this world and it is just so stinkin' innovative. Plus the hilarious description doesn't hurt. 

b&b signing off

birthday celebrations, part 1

Our birthdays are 3 days apart, so each year brings a bundle of joint festivities and this year was no exception. Let's begin at the beginning...

Wednesday was my birthday, and I woke up to tea in bed and loads of fab pressies. I was seriously spoilt by the wonderful people in my life...and I just love it! Later that morning was the USA vs Algeria game, and I am happy to report that the anniversary of my birth brought the boys some good luck.

After the game, we returned to my office to share some coconut custard birthday pie (my fav) with the work friends. Yum.

The day ended splendidly with a great meal at home. I'm much more apt to want to cook a really decadent meal at home than go out, and we had a fun time cooking, singing, and dancing around the kitchen together. Being the mildly food-obsessed person that I am, I planned a menu a few weeks ago that included some of my favorite ingredients and dishes. 

We started with rosemary peach champagne cocktails (recipe at the end of the post). Nothing tastes more celebratory than champagne. 

prosciutto and melon for a starter

veggie and shrimp paella for the main course

and berries and cream for dessert

The courses fit wonderfully together, were really scrumptious, and provided some tasty leftovers. All in all, it was a great start to the end of my 20s!

Rosemary peach champagne cocktails

(adapted from Cooking Light magazine)

1 bottle champagne or sparkling wine

2 peaches, diced to 1 inch pieces

1 spring rosemary

honey

1 cup water

Put water, rosemary, and honey (I eyeballed this, but estimate I used about 1/4 cup) into a small pot and bring to boil. Let boil for roughly 5 minutes, then remove from heat and cool to room temp. Remove rosemary. Place peaches and rosemary simply syrup into blender and blend until smooth. Pass through sieve to remove any pulpy bits (and use this pulp in a smoothie- it's delish!), and then let this rosemary peach puree sit in your fridge for 4 hours (better if overnight). I made these up by putting 4 Tbs of the peach mixture into a glass and then topping with champagne, but the champs really reacts with the peach and gets very foamy and hard to pour. Instead, mix half the peach mixture with a bottle of champs in a pitcher, taste, and add more peach as necessary. Garnish glasses with a rosemary spring, and enjoy!