Summering in Europe - Round 3

And last but not least, I visited Copenhagen.  I met Sanjay and his brother Rishi (who are on their own Euro-Trip).  You might remember Sanjay from here.

I was excited for Copenhagen, as I had heard many great things. And it certainly did live up to its expectations! Sanjay had asked a few friends for recommendations in the city.  One friend adamently suggested that we avoid Indian food at all costs.  Well, I can't say that I would travel over 5,000 miles to eat...Indian food? But we heeded her advice.  Copenhagen is filled with Michelin starred restauarants, and we tried to get a table at Noma or Formel B (recommended by my Danish boss).  No luck there, but we did enjoy some Danish/Danish-fusion cuisine along the way.

Happy Summer!

One of my favorite parts of summer is bbq-ing.  Nothing is quite as relaxing as sitting outside, sipping lemonade, and waiting for your food to cook.  Also, for me, most times, bbq-ing is synonymous with carefree times with family and/or friends.  I have been lucky to do both, on both coasts! The first BBQ of the 2011 season was with Becca, Michael and Alyx at their rooftop.  The other BBQ's were while I was visiting California for Memorial Day Weekend.  For a nanosecond I could see my grownup self in suburbia with a huge grill area and pool throwing fun themed parties.  On second thought, maybe when I grow up I'll have an apartment with a patio large enough to do so.

{See that down there? That is my future backyard}

Summering in Europe - Round 2

I decided to take advantage of the fact that I was already near LHR for work, and decided to visit Stockholm my first weekend.  Brent and Rebecka (also featured here) offered to let me stay with them - how nice!

We started the morning off with a fresh baguette, cheese, avocados, tomatoes, coffee and juice.  Rebecka also introduced me to a vegetable spread - and it was quite tasty with all the other fixings we had.  Brent made some coffee with his US coffee maker.  He showed me a bin he had filled with all kinds of convertors for all things US. I couldn't have asked for a better cup of coffee to wake up to!

{A lovely breakfast!}

{Brent's mom sent over a US coffee maker - so nice of her!}

{Berries on the porch}

Since it was a beautiful day out, we trekked to Vaxholm, an island in the archipelago. We had a lovely picnic lunch, complete with rose, cheese, and crackers.

After walking around Vaxholm for a bit, we stopped for some ice cream.  I decided to try the Daim flavored ice cream.  I've also decided that this will be added to my Princess Ice Cream party, to honor Crown Princess Victoria.

{Perfect for a sunny Swedish day}

We stopped for a few drinks at Katerina Hiss.  I sampled some Swedish beer - I was impressed! 

For dinner, we went to a newly opened Storstad. As an appetizer, we ordered the Toast Pelle Janzon.  This is basically beef carpaccio, topped with an egg yolk, some roe, and onions, all on top of a piece of bread.  The carpaccio was melt in your mouth perfect, especially when paired with the toast. This photo doesn't do the dish justice! The flavor was significantly enhanced by squeezing some lemon all over it.  

Rebecka ordered an interesting white asparagus dish.  I wasn't expecting much from the dish, but this was equally good.  The crisp stalks of asparagus were accompanied by a hollandaise sauce with roe.  Stay tuned for asparagus as it will be a recurring theme in my Scandinavian adventures! 

{Örtmarinerad lammrack med chevre- 

och grönsaksterrin, rödvinsås samt 

tapenadepotati}

 {Salad}

{Pork!}

The next morning, Brent and Rebecka took me to a brunch that rivaled brunch in NYC. It included traditional Swedish fare, but also the standard brunch fare such as Eggs Benedict.  I enjoyed a waffle (below) and an apple crisp with a type of creme anglaise on the top.  I will definitely be making that dish at some point in the future!

{Heart waffle with whip cream and sauce!}

And now to the candies.  I picked up a dajm bar (okay more than one...a few...but I need some to make ice cream!), some circle shaped chocolate balls that have something similar to marshmallows in the middle, and something covered in milk chocolate with caramel on the inside.  

My last meal in Stockholm was at the airport (can you see a trend here?).  I decided to eat at Andersson's.  There was no Sbarro...But I did enjoy the light yet filling canapes I picked up.  

{Skagen Canape, Salmon Canape,Wild Game Canape, 

and Smoked Salmon Canape}

Farewell Sweden! Till we meet again! (Or till I go to Ikea).  

Summering in Europe - Round 1

Okay that title might be misleading totally inaccurate.  Summering in Europe conjures up images of 81' yachts filled with attractive sun-seekers in different Missoni bikinis for each day of the week, sipping vintage bottles of champagne.  I wasn't quite doing that.  Actually, I wasn't anywhere close to doing that at all.

As luck would have it, I got to travel to the U.K. for work.  Don't get too excited - I was not heading to the bustling metropolis that is London.  No no, I was off to even more exotic Milton Keynes.  According to my UK friend, Ed, Milton Keynes is a fairly new city.  I thought he meant it was incorporated in 2001 or something.  Apparently, in the UK, "new" means anytime after WWII.

I was staying at company facilities for 2 weeks.  The food was generally lackluster.  Believe it or not, I was also repulsed by the extensive dessert selection so I did not eat dessert a single night at the center. There were few highlights: brownies during snack time, an attempt at chicken korma, and the croissants that were left in a warming oven enough to make them crispy (as they should be).

Guest Post: Champagne Mojitos

Today we have a guest post by my college roommate, Lavina. Lavina hails from Miami, and she introduced me to mojitos.  I'm not sure where I had my first mojito, probably at 33 in Boston, but my most memorable one was at Nikki Beach in Marbella.  Lavina and I had spent the semester studying abroad in London and after we finished in May, we decided to beach hop through Spain and Greece for 2 weeks. Marbella was our 2nd stop. Also a memorable experience on this trip: I believe it was at the Malaga airport in Spain where I first realized I was totally in love with getting my passport stamped.  I can still clearly remember the excitement I felt going through the customs line and proudly smiling at what was probably the 5th stamp in my then shiny and new passport. 


To celebrate Hom Nom's first year anniversary, Lavina prepared delicious Champagne Mojitos. Welcome, Lavina! 

Lime Cardamom Yogurt

One goal for the 1st year anniversary brunch I hosted was to use Mai's new ramekins.  Mission accomplished. The second goal was to make some kind of ice cream, as that was my very first blog post.  In fact, for a good 3 months I think the only thing on my food blog might have been various ice cream recipes.

Given that most of the other dishes at brunch were heavy and filled with eggs, I wanted to serve something light to offset the food coma everyone would likely be in.

Guest Blog Post: Pizza pizza! (Round Two)

Today we have another treat from Asmi, who has blogged about our culinary undertakings on Hom Nom before.  We met again for more pizza experimentation.  Welcome back, Asmi! Good to see you here again. 


When we decided to do Naan Pizza Round 2 Lavi suggested we mix it up by trying some Indian Chinese recipes.  All 3 of us being cheese lovers, chilli paneer was an obvious choice.  We were initially thinking of doing gobi manchurian for the other dish, but I thought the sauce was too similar to chilli paneer.  When did I decide this?  After I had fried the cauliflower and only had a few hours before the girls were coming over, with no other readily available ingredients in the kitchen.  Whatever is girl to do last minute?  MacGuyver a sauce, that's what! See below for the special secret creation!