Crumbs to Crunch

Guest post by Read_and_dream The Southbank in London is good at fun and food. At the moment it's got a "Festival of love" going on, to celebrate the Same Sex Couple Act, and yesterday I unknowingly stumbled into this while heading for the food market. The festival involves fun installations, pop-ups and performances celebrating seven different kinds of love, from "agape" (the love of humanity) to "ludus" (flirting, playful affection) and will be on for the next two months. Among all this there lies the delightful-as-ever Real Food Market (open Fri-Sun), with an amazing range of street food and gourmet delicacies from a wide range of cultures and backgrounds...Indian, Italian, Egyptian, Ethiopian...you name it, it's there!    Studying near London as I do, I've visited the Real Food Market quite a few times before, (including one amazing time where I and one of the Crumbs to Crunch sisters literally sang for our supper...

Macaroons are my baking Everest. Despite numerous attempts at home, I can't quite make them work. They tend to be ugly and the texture is completely wrong. I decided that the only way I could create the perfect Macaroon would be to seek some help. Luckily, I stumbled upon Atelier Gourmand in Chartres. This lovely little business gives cookery classes, so I signed myself up for the Macaroon class. The set up is really good fun. Everyone is given their own little station to cook at, so yes I did pretend that I was on Bake Off or Masterchef! The lovely teacher then takes you through everything step by step, telling you when exactly to do anything and giving little tips and tricks. The recipe was also far easier than ones I have tried in the past- no need for any sugar thermometers! So two hours later, I had finally produced two rather fine sets of macaroons! What do you think? I feel like to publish the recipe would be giving away the trade secrets of Atelier Gourmand, bu...

I may have to start a campaign fighting for the introduction of the Café Gourmand to the British café scene.  Common place in France, the Café Gourmand is the perfect compromise for the indecisive. For normally about six euros, you get a cup of coffee and a selection of mini desserts.  Two of my favourite cafés in Le Mans do excellent Café Gourmands. The first is Instant T, a very fancy (seriously, they take your coat and everything!) yet reasonable priced Salon de Thé with a view overlooking Le Man's impressive Gothic Cathedral. In this refined atmosphere, I enjoyed a delicious Chocolat Gourmand with a choice of 3 mini desserts from the menu. I chose a salted caramel rice pudding, a beautifully tart rhubarb crumble and a chocolate and salted butter tart. Delicious! I would also recommend the lemon meringue pie, which my Dad had, and I stole sneaky spoonfuls of. The other good thing about Instant T's chocolat Gourmand is that you get a jug with "top up" hot c...

No visit to the sea side would be complete without ice cream, which is why I was thrilled to discover Fennochio, an Italian-style gelateria in Nice. The first thing that you notice is the sheer number of flavours. We counted about 80! Not to mention, there are flavours that I'm not sure I've ever seen outside of Italy before. Fennochio likes to dabble in the more unusual flavours. We were feeling brave and tried the tomato and basil flavour. It is without a doubt the strangest thing that I have ever tasted. The flavour is spot-on, it tasted exactly like tomatoes! Paired with the cold creaminess of ice cream it was really strange, and I have to admit not to my taste. That said, I'm really impressed by their creativity! Luckily, the more traditional flavours were absolutely delicious, the texture was perfectly creamy and we were given a cialda cone (yes, there are different types of ice cream cone, and yes it does make a difference!). All in all, it's the b...

I realise that I am very late with this blog post, but the sheer quintessential Englishness of Reach Fair needs to be recounted- it really is something else! Reach is a small town near Cambridge where every May day they hold a traditional Fair. This is Tradition in all its bizarre, nonsensical wonderfulness.  The fair opens with a town crier doing the traditional "Hear yea, hear yea!" spiel whilst warning everyone that they will be thrown into prison if they interrupt the speeches. The Mayor then gives a speech (the subject of which I have no idea as she unfortunately forgot to turn the microphone on...) before throwing shiny once pence pieces into the crowd. I am slightly surprised that health and safety still allows this, it turns out that being hit by flying coins kind of hurts. But hey, I'm not going to complain if they want to literally shower me in money, I made a whole 3p out of that! After the money throwing, the fun really begins with Morris danc...

I'm going to make a controversial statement now: I think I might have found the best hot chocolate in the world.  I originally stumbled across À Chacun sa Tasse whilst wandering round Lyon during the Fête des Lumières- the annual light festival. It was about midnight in December, it was freezing cold and we had been walking about in a crush of people for about 4 hours. I needed a hot chocolate pick-me-up! As soon as I walked into the café, I knew that I had struck gold. It's painted warm colours and has a cool decor that makes it feel cosy. I particularly like how the glass tables are filled with different types of loose leaf tea.  The menu proved to be another success. There were pages upon pages of tea- always a good sign! And then I found it: a whole page dedicated to hot chocolate. There were so many fantastic flavours, including ginger, hazelnut, gingerbread, caramel, Inca (spicy)... I got myself a ginger hot chocolate and was not disappointed. The ...

Apple crumble is one of my favourite desserts so I thought that apple crumble ice cream would be perfect for the summer. I adapted a vanilla gelato recipe that I found on the Chiappa Sisters' website to create apple crumble ice cream. Ingredients: 500ml double cream 1 x 395g tin of condensed milk 2 tsp vanilla extract 1 bramley apple 2 tbsp cinnamon for the ice cream mixture 1 tsp cinnamon for the apple 3 tbsp of light brown sugar A handful of biscuits such as Speculoos or Digestives Dice the bramley apple.  Melt a knob of butter in a pan. Toss the apple pieces in the butter with 1tsp cinnamon and 3tbsp of light brown sugar.  Leave the apple to soften which will take 5-10 minutes. Once the apple is soft, leave to cool. In the meantime, follow the instructions from the Chiappa sisters'  ice cream recipe Fold in 2 tbsp of cinnamon into the ice cream mixture and then fold in the apple. Put the ice cream mixture in a tub. Grab a handful of biscuits...

Portmeirion is one of the strangest places I've ever been to! It is an italian style tourist village built between 1925 and 1975 by Sir Clough William-Ellis. He took parts of from old buildings and brought them to Portmeirion to fashion them into the ecentric pop coloured Italian buildings that you can see today.  Italian style Campanile I went on a rainy day so it was absolutely bizarre to step into a multicoloured Italian village set in the coast of North Wales! You can visit for just the day or even spend a holiday there as there are holiday cottages, hotels, a spa and places to eat. In keeping with the italian theme, there is an onsite gelateria where the ice cream is kept in a spinning freezer. As the tourist village is by the seaside, you can do some lovely walks along the beach to see the lighthouse and also a garden that resembles the bridge and the lillies in Monet's paintings. The Hotel at Portmeirion This was the final stop of my mi...

Tea and steam trains are a good combination! I was lucky enough to go on the Ffestiniog Railway which starts in Porthmadog and heads to Blaenau Ffestiniog. My great-uncle actually built some of the line when they were looking for volunteers to reroute the line as it ran along a reservoir. The railway was worried that the track would get flooded so many volunteers, including my great-uncle, built a complete spiral in the line so the train would gain height. Before I got on the train, I of course stopped off in the station café Spooner's for a quick cuppa and some bara brith. I would definitely recommend the Ffestiniog Railway as it feels like you have been transported back in time. Some of the engines are around 150 years old and there is some fantastic scenery from mountains to forest to lakes. Come back tomorrow for the final part of my mini welsh tour. For information on the Ffestiniog Railway:  http://www.festrail.co.uk/index.htm

Tearooms can be found in the nicest places such as in the regency town of Aberaeron.  Aberaeron By the pretty little quay, I had morning tea at Naturally Scrumptious Deli and Café. They had a great selection of tea and I particularly enjoyed the Spiced Winter which is rooibos with orange, cloves and cinnamon. I also had a very fudgey brownie.   http://www.naturallyscrumptious.co.uk/ I then headed to Aberystwyth to go on the steam train to Devil's Bridge. You may recognise Devil's Bridge if you have been watching the welsh crime drama, Hinterland on BBC Four. According to the legend, the devil came to Wales and met an old woman whose cow had crossed the river. She was unable to get the cow back so the devil built a bridge on condition that the old woman gave him the first living thing that crossed the bridge. The old woman tricked the devil by sending her dog over the bridge. The devil was outraged that he had been outwitted by an old woman, he never came...

Even though I have been living in Wales for several years, I have seen surprisingly little of the country so last weekend I went on a mini tour of Wales. Naturally, I visited a couple of tea rooms during my trip so I thought I would do a series of blogs about the tearooms and the beautiful places I visited.  My first stop was the lovely village Manorbier in Pembrokeshire. I headed straight to the Beach Break Tearooms for a spot of lunch. They do the most amazing Pavlova with fresh fruit and cream and I really liked the sea themed decor. The tearoom is just minutes away from the castle and the beach. Unfortunately I did not have time to go into the castle but I did go paddling in the sea and I enjoyed walking along the spectacular cliff tops. Manorbier After Manorbier, I headed off to Tenby which reminded me of a Welsh version of Balamory as there are many colourful houses clustered around the harbour.  Tenby This trip has made me realise that you ...