The best calamari by Alison
Day
© Alison Day
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Tuesday 21 July 2015
Sunday 26 April 2015
Primavera Prosecco
Lunch on a balcony, in the little restaurant: Dietro L'Angolo. Overlooking the town of Monreale (Sicily), with its lemon groves and the hazy blue of the sea.
Glorious! — Sun, Prosecco aperitif, wine, fresh fish and olives.
by Alison
Day
© Alison Day
Saturday 19 July 2014
Cretan Magic
Sitting in a lovely little restaurant, in the old town of Rethymnon, under the hanging strands of flowering bougainvillea, its blooms in variegated and intense pinks.
Our waiter arrives. With our meal I order a glass of white wine—the local krasí—the waiter bobs a pony-tailed head and disappears into the restaurant. When the Cressi arrives, instead of a glass of white, it's an enormous glass of red.
'I didn't order red,' I say politely, 'I want white.'
From behind a bohemian moustache, he regards me with mild suspicion, as though I must be mistaken and then says bruesquely:
'I will change it.'
He returns a couple of minutes later with the desired glass of white Cressi - an equally enormous glass - generously filled. Depositing it demonstratively and without slowing his stride - to take the order from the next table—he places it on the table in front of me and says quite seriously:
'There—I painted it!'
Sunday 13 July 2014
Rusty Inside
Today, a light lunch at the restaurant across the road from the hotel of Mezzes: calamari, Greek salad and taramasalata accompanied by crusty bread in a wicker basket. Fanta, a glass of the local Cressi and ice cold bottled water.
Our waiter—dark haired with silvered edges, deposits the bottled water with a glass on the table and says:
'Nero' (water), then he adds with a warning tone, 'but not too much, otherwise you will become rusty inside.'
Amused, I laugh and reply:
'Yes, too much and I will need some olive oil to move again.'
He pauses to take in what I said. Then comprehension slowly crosses his darkly tanned face. With a broad grin—revealing an assortment of teeth and a twinkle in his eye, he wanders off to serve another table tray on hand.
Posted with BlogsyTuesday 18 December 2012
Beautiful Burger
As a follow up to my last post on edible packaging, it seems that Brazilian-based fast-food chain Bob's has replaced its plastic burger wrappings with edible ones - Way to go! - I wonder what it tastes like?
Via: DesignTaxi
Sunday 16 October 2011
Connections Cover Autumn issue #33, 2011
Monday 31 January 2011
Zorre Mexican Restaurant Review
Quickly locking our bikes, Sam and I ran full pelt
under heavy fire from a heaven-flung load of hailstones, through the doors of
Zorre and into the cosy, calm warmth of the restaurant. We had been invited to
come and try their Mexican food and give our opinions about it.
Zorre may be familiar to you under the old name of
Tacos and was set up in 2004, in the Westerhaven, by the brother and sister
team of Petroeska and Rogier Lankhorst.
Since then, with the advent of a new name it has
undergone a makeover, which is a success and pleasing to the eye. The orange
interior has a feature wall, decorated by an enlarged Mexican street scene, in
varying hues of orange and a complement to the chocolate coloured walls.
Dependant on your mood or party, you can choose between various seating
arrangements. There is the family arrangement, of a large round wooden table
and chairs (including baby seat), the café style with metal table and chairs
opposite a wide wooden wall bench, or high wooden bar tables with aluminium bar
stools to perch upon. With tiny flickering tea light candles and atmospheric
background music, one feels welcome.
The name Zorre comes from the local dialect
(Gronings) for a graspol, literally ‘a clump of grass’ and sounds Spanish at
the same time; a little bit of Mexico in Groningen. The grass also reflects
their ethos in only producing food that is freshly made. They use only the best
ingredients and wherever possible, organic.
Petroeska greeted us with a bright friendly smile, and our table was quickly covered with a starter of fresh crispy tortillas and guacamole dip, a cola and Mexican, Corona beer. From the menu we could choose between Taco’s, Tostada’s and Torta’s either separately or in combination with each other and side dishes. Every Taco on the menu comes from a different region in Mexico and its toppings are decided by what is prevalent in that area. Not knowing the sizes of the dishes we asked Petroeska’s advice and came up with a selection that we could share.
Sam’s choice
was a Quesadilla taco filled with cheese and paprika and a portion of Galletas
de papas, fried croquettes filled with potato, cheese, egg, jalapeno peppers
and coriander. When asking his opinion about the food I got a general thumbs
up. The cheese on his tortilla was ‘holy,’ and of the Galletas de papas he
said, ‘it’s real, not like the McDonalds,’ a big compliment coming from an
11-year-old boy!
I chose a Tostada Fajitas, a
fried corn tortilla, filled with frijoles (refried beans), strips of marinated
chicken and paprika with fresh coriander hidden under a hat of melted cheese.
Absolutely delicious! Tostada’s are easier to eat with the hands due to their
crispiness. I also chose a Taco, Papas y chorizo, filled with potato, chorizo
cheese, and green peppers, also a very tasty combination. The dishes are well
thought out so that you are able to taste the ingredients independently and as
a whole. All dishes are colourfully and beautifully presented and come
accompanied by little side dishes of sour cream, guacamole and a chopped
tomatoes and onion combination. To share, Sam and I had a Caesar salad
(invented by Caesar Cardini, an Italian-born Mexican who, when a 4th of July
1924 rush depleted the kitchen's supplies, made do with what he had left,
resulting in the birth of the Caesar Salad).
In Zorre you
can eat as much or as little as your appetite demands. Every week there is a
Quesadilla (tortilla) of the week on offer; when we visited the special was
salmon and cream cheese. When trying to decide how hungry you are, their guide
is:
1 Taco = a snack, 2 Taco’s = Lunch and 3 Taco’s = a
meal.
They have a kid’s menu and if you are short of time, they
also do take away. Zorre provides a catering service as well as workshops, for
if you’d like to learn more about making your own Mexican food. For more
information their website is: www.zorre.nl.
After the first courses, being curious and still having enough room for a dessert, I decided to try a typical Mexican pudding, Pay de Quesos, literally ‘tart of cheese,’ which was light and tasty.
Whether Zorre is new to you or not, why not cut out the voucher on this page and take it along to Zorre (before 31st March 2011), to sample one of their freshly made Quesadilla’s absolutely free!
© Alison Day
Alison Day Design
Alison Day Design
First published in
the Connections magazine #30 Winter
2011
Thursday 10 June 2010
Intelligent Fridges
Are the new
‘must have’ techno inventions of today really necessary or are we just being
manipulated into believing that we need all this?
I remember
the uproar when the old vinyl disc was replaced by the compact disc, and the
perturbed few who realized that they could never ‘not be at home’, any more
with the introduction of the mobile phone. But what seems to have followed is a
conveyor belt of new inventions, which I doubt the necessity of. Added to the
blackberry, iPod, Mp3 player and iPhone there is also an intelligent fridge!
Well I
suppose it could well be true. This mammoth fridge, not only keeps your food
cool, makes ice cubes, is self-cleaning, and due to a cunning little strip
underneath each product knows how much milk is left. It then tells you when to
buy a new pack. Pretty handy, one may never have to write another shopping list
again. It also has a built-in screen for TV and Internet—Hooray! I may never
have to leave my kitchen again.
Don’t worry
about not having ever to think again, this will be compensated for by the fact
that one regularly trains ones brain with the brain trainer programmes offered
by a Nintendo DS Lite.
For those of you as cynical as me there’s a super short story called ‘The Machine Stops’ by E. M. Forster, which shows what could happen to the human race if we continue along this tack. But having said that, in a couple of years I will probably be the proud owner of one, once I’ve bought a bigger house of course.
The Noorderzon Festival
If you
haven’t been to the Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival yet you should do so.
Every year for ten days in August this festival takes over the Noorderplansoen
(park), is in various theatres and other venues in the inner city of Groningen
and provides a varied and entertaining crossover theatre festival.
This year the
festival celebrated its 18th year. Each year it grows in popularity and
with a diversity of things on offer to do or see, and appeals to a wide
audience.
Entrance to
the part is free. There is a mixture of free and ticketed things to see. It
seems that this year two thirds of the program comes from abroad, and dues to
limitations the inner city location have more on offer this year.
The
diversity of the program includes theatre, dance, multimedia, film, video and
circus to name but a few.
The Romeo
and Juliet tents house bigger acts such as circuses or thought-provoking
theatre. Then there are the metal containers that house anything from quirky
little acts, to artists and designers. This year’s theme seemed to be more than
ever before about re-cycling, with some amazing results. Old pliers and iron
welded together became an unusual lampshade, or a small dog sitting patiently
waiting for its owner. Elsewhere, you could bring any article of your clothing
to one stall to have it ‘pimped’ with an original silkscreen design.
One
attraction I particularly liked was the ‘Pocket Garden’. A caravan had been
turned into a small garden and filled with plants and flowers. The outside of
it was pretty funky too!
As always
there is world food and drink available in tents and terraces to suit every
palate. In the evening the whole place is lit up with bulbs and trees are
illuminated by green lamps, whilst videos are projected onto a three-screened
object, which floats on one of the areas of water in the park.
For children
there is always loads to do, painting activities are on offer and this year
large paintings with cut outs where the heads should be were great for photo
opportunities.
For more on the festival, visit their website – Noorderzon
Tuesday 20 April 2010
Wagamama
Wagamama started out at Streatham
Street, London, England in 1992, and has since then grown into a chain with shops the world over.
The interior of the Groningen branch, is sharp and clean as far as interior design and colour goes. The walls are neutral, the visible kitchen area (where one can watch the chefs hard at work) is silver and the back wall has a large red and yellow graphic mural design painted on it showing a figure eating hungrily from a bowl. We were greeted by friendly staff, dressed in red and black, with the Wagamama logo on a red T-shirt.
This is fast food with a twist. The
philosophy behind the food is ‘positive eating and positive living’, where
preparation times range from 5-10 minutes without detracting from the
freshness, quality and taste of the food.
I tried Duck Gyoza, a side dish of
fried dumplings filled with duck and leek with a Hoi Sin sauce and accompanied
by a glass of wine. The simplicity of this delicious dish was pleasantly
surprising, as was the presentation. The menu included a variety of dishes with
noodles (their speciality) and some very healthy fresh juice combinations.
More
about Wagamama can be found here
https://www.wagamama.com/
©
Alison Day
First
published in the Connections magazine #11
Spring 2006
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