La Paradeta in Barcelona

Man, just when I was boasting about how good the weather was last Saturday, this week I'm blessed with the irony of heavy rain throughout ... and Barcelona just lost to Man U in the Champions League too!

Ah well, let's forget about the football for a moment and cheer ourselves up with a bit with some more good foodie pictures in the Barcelona dining scene :P In Barcelona, seafood is the thing to go for, period. In a land deprived of fresh and reasonably priced seafood (Britain, fyi), La Paradeta, located at the heart of the trendy La Ribera area, is the place worth queuing for , for the marisco lovers out there.

This seafood restaurant has a unique fish market concept to it, in the sense that the crabs, squids, prawns, etc are all displayed in huge plastic tubs as below. In the true market style, you order your seafood by weight, and then simply select from a few simply styles of cooking: deep fried, grilled, steamed etc. What's great that you don't often get the unpleasant fishy smell of markets, which is a good sign as it means the ingredients are TRULY FRESH.

I was brought there by K, who has roamed Barcelona so many times that he's as good as a local. We had to queue outside before it opened at 8pm, and there was already a little queue outside of enthusiastic fans of the place. Never a bad sign! :) So there you go, we chose some mussels, prawns, squids and many other interesting stuff that I never knew roamed in the sea :P

And when the dishes came, I knew we, or rather I, had overdone the ordering since I was so excited to try so many things! Look at this gigantic plate of fried goodies! Haha, starting from the left, its fried baby anchovies, then fried baby squids and fried calamari. My favorite was the baby squid, though it was a pity that the calamari was a little too rubbery for my liking. Could have been better grilled, or I've just been eating them from left to right and just got tired of them. Despite best efforts, 3 of us couldn't finish that platter, whole heartedly agreed that there was way too much fried stuff. :P

And of course we had salad, artichoke heart salad to be specific. It was definitely great to do something towards the 5 a day intake, and it's probably a hit or miss for some on the bitter/sourish artichoke hearts, but I do like them, feels like sauerkraut and its very appetizing.

Mussels in tomato sauce was good too! Never was much of a mussels fan, but the sauce was great with some crusty bread ...

Highlight of the meal was definitely the grilled dishes. The giant succulent prawns and long bamboo clams, lightly grilled with salt, pepper and a little gentle squeeze of lemon juice ---> heavenly! Cannot emphasize enough how easy cooking is as long as you have fresh ingredients, the simplest methods will suffice for an amazing meal. So its not about the fancy kitchen gadgets at all, and cooking only becomes necessarily complicated mask poor quality ingredients really.

Always a good idea to end the meal with some funky desserts too! K brought us to this little shop (forgot the name unfortunately) nearby for some designer desserts. All I remember was both were chocolate and nuts based mousse (almond and hazelnut) as everything was in Spanish and it was simply just looks based choices, :D

So if you're a big seafood fan visiting Barcelona, do pay La Paradeta a visit - they do seafood good justice. Enough said.

La Paradeta
Comercial 7
El Born, Ciutat Vella
La Ribera

Nearest metro: Arc de Triomf
Opening times: 8-11.30pm Tue-Fri;
1-4pm, 8pm-midnight Sat;
1-4pm Sun

My favourite city

Here comes the sun finally! After having heavy snow on a Sunday in March, I kid you not when people say the phrase 'as unpredictable as British weather' :P You just get paranoid and bring umbrella everywhere since you really do have millions of weather predictions/symbols in BBC going like this!

Hence, Spain is easily one of my favorite countries in Europe. Reasons? Pretty easy - Excellent weather, friendly culture and amazing cuisine all year round :) And the first Spanish city I visited was Barcelona about 2 years ago ... I couldn't get enough of it, hence I went back earlier this year for a short weekend! And man, it was was a gourmet trip for sure since I could pay more attention to the food having done all the touristy stuff previously. Now I understand what people say about visiting a place the second time ... it's a different experience all together...

In the day, you get a good contrast of modern day shopping activities vis-à-vis the various cultural offerings (art museum, La Sagrada Familia etc). At night, the restaurant and bar scene comes alive especially in La Ramblas with many Spaniards and tourists having tapas tastings from pub to pub, accompanied with a good excuse to drink and be merry :)

Besides, you have the beaches just 5-6km away from city center for a good relaxing stroll. What more can you ask for in a city? I went to Platja de la Barceloneta, one of the older beaches near Barcelona for some yummy fresh seafoood. What I love most about the contemporary Catalan cuisine of Barcelona is its simplicity - fresh, satisfying and uncomplicated - maximising the flavors of regional offerings. These are some of my samplings there and then:

K ordered ham for appetizers, sorry I didn't remember the name of the ham, but it must be some sort of local Spanish jambon. But it was really nice with bread, balancing the hint of saltiness nicely ...

The restaurant was by the port, and with clear blue skies and sun shining on a early January afternoon, how can you not love Spain given that Britain is cold and rainy until end of April?!

Seafood paella was on the menu for sure, since we were by the sea. Comes in those huge paella pan that I love (not to wash though!), with crusty crispy bits at the bottom: basically a wholesome dish consisting of tomato and saffron-infused short grained Paella rice with lots of fresh seafood.

More importantly, I tried a new Spanish dish second time around, something recommended by the locals called Dorada a la sal, a fresh sea bream baked in a salt crust. Kind of the same concept like the Yim Kuk Kai (Chicken baked in salt crust) dish in Malaysia, commonly found in Ipoh. Anyways, the fish is baked whole, with its scales still intact, covered by a whole mountain of sea salt. When the salt is brushed away, the fish is filleted and served with just some freshly steam carrots, broccoli and asparagus.

I've never eaten something as ... pure as this before! The quality of the fish definitely plays a role, as there is not a hint of the fishy smell at all and all you taste is the lightly salted springy/elastic flakes of the sea bream ... Something that I'd love to try again and again

Now that Greece is up for the summer plans, I can hardly wait to explore the beaches and Mediterranean cuisine :)

Of Portobello Market and Permutation

Working life is miles different from being a student. Somehow part of me is really glad to move on and do something different instead of studying, yet there are perks of being a student in a beautiful place like Cambridge (except the silly workload). There are endless activities to get involved in, I definitely do miss the cookouts, formals, and the proximity of everything/friends whilst belonging in a quaint university town.

Working is not all bad either, you get to switch off after working, take a break/chill out, and finally make things happen and execute deals. But its a different ball game in a way that your colleagues are not really your real/close friends, so that takes time to get used to, although having fun/nice people to work with is one of the biggest plus point that'll probably make you hate/love your job :)

Anyways, you all probably know my fascination with markets whether its pasar pagi (morning markets) in Malaysia, or Christmas ones in Germany. All is good and I love it when people congregate in one place and display whatever random things they'd like to interest people to buy. I've been to Portobello Market (near Nottinghill Gate tube station) before, but it's nice to take a stroll in it on a Saturday as it has the widest array of stalls that day, despite being a bit too touristy.

I'd like to highlight this stall I spotted, unfortunately, after I had my lunch. Probably spotted it more through my nose that sight, but it has the most amazing looking/smelling Paella! The pan was lifesize too, and pretty good value for money too for the generous portions ...

Here's a close up of the Seafood Paella, I suspect that will trigger a Paella cooking session again pretty soon!

Meanwhile, I haven't forgot to cook, my dear readers :P Life's a bit too hectic at the moment settling down with so many changes and transition, but yeap, I haven't forgot about cooking for sure. This is what I conjured up in my kitchen, first cooked meal in the flat I must say. This is the time where you open your fridge and see what you've got, do some simple permutation and see what you can come up with.

So in my fridge I had some minced pork, chopped vegetables, eggs, noodles, garlic, soy sauce, chili sauce. Hence its fried noodles with those things, predictable. First, fried the chopped garlic, whilst boiling some water in a saucepan for the noodles. Then add the minced pork and fry till half cooked. The vegetables can be added then. By this time, the noodles should have been soft, drained, and add these to the wok. Finally, season with soy sauce to taste, then add the egg in the middle of the wok and let it set a little before scrambling it up with the noodles. The extra thing I added was a dash of sesame oil for a smoother, silkier taste, and of course a naughty scoop of chili to spice things up a little. Turns out pretty good, reminds me how long (2 months!) since I ate home cooked food :)

Paella Party!

Another post exam (rare) cookout. Promised R on this since last term so it's the perfect opportunity for a Spanish themed party coupled with a few jugs of ice cool Sangria after exams. I made Seafood Paella this time, and probably one of the easiest Seafood Paella recipe ever, so here it is to share with you guys to impress your friends during parties!

It's really easy, I presume this recipe is with minimal, essential, and easily available ingredients with maximum taste, speed and authenticity. :) Spoken like a true blue economist yea!

Seafood Paella

Ingredients

2 lemons, quartered
1-2 onions, diced into cubes
Two packs (200g) of mixed seafood (mussels, crayfish, prawns etc)
500g of Paella rice (or using Italian arborio rice is a good substitute)
A pack of frozen mixed vegetables (peppers, corns, peas etc)
1 can of chopped tomatoes with tomato juice
1-2 cubes of chicken/seafood stock
Salt to taste

Steps

First, heat up the pan with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil. Then add in the onions to stirfry till soft.

Then, add in the Paella rice, and swirl it around for a bit. Next up put in the whole can of chopped tomatoes. This gives the rice the red/orange-y color. Add 2-3 cups of hot boiling water to the whole mixture and let it boil.

As the frozen vege and mixed seafood are partially cooked already, you only add them last when the rice is almost ready.

It's important to check the consistency of the rice, you won't want it over mushy or too hard. You want it al dente and slightly hard in the middle for the 'bite'. So watch over your rice carefully, stir it around occasionally to prevent it sticking to the pan, add water bit by bit so that it does not overcook.

Meanwhile you can add the stock cubes for some taste. Add salt as well to adjust the taste of the rice. The rice probably takes about 30-40 minutes to cook to the right consistency.

Now when the rice is almost ready, add the frozen vege and mixed seafood into the mixture and mix thoroughly.

(*) Once that is done, you can turn the heat to maximum and leave the pan there for about 3 minutes to hopefully get the crispy, caramelized, toasted bottom found in traditional paella (called socarrat in Valencian). Once the aroma of toasted rice comes from the pan, remove it immediately, take the pan aside to let it cool.

Note that even though your paella may seem a little wet, it will absorb the excess broth when cooler, so not to worry, you'd want it slight wet when done. :)

Finally, just add the sliced lemon for decoration on top. Make sure your guests remember to squeeze the lemon on top of their rice before eating! It gives the paella an added dimension :)

There you go, the easiest, no frills paella you've ever eaten! Just like the theme of this site, we go for simple, do-able and speed, without sacrificing quality, taste and authenticity.

I'm in the process of reorganizing the site, so not only you all can refer for emergency recipes like these, there are also slightly more complicated and time consuming ones to come, for those who love a greater challenge in the kitchen :)

Comments and suggestions are definitely welcomed! :D

Michelin Star Spanish Food

Hey all!

Yesh, I know, the word 'FINALLY!' should be amongst the first few words uttered, but I'm glad you all miss my random posts :P

Internship finally ended, officially back for a week and holidays have been great so far! Now for the long promised 2nd part of the Madrid trip... Nopes, I didn't forget =)

My previous trip to Valencia and Barcelona taught me that besides Sangria, another not to be missed must-eat is churros. It's simply a Westernized version of yau char kuay (a.k.a. Chinese crullers), but then later DIPPED IN CHOCOLATE SAUCE :P One of life's 7 deadly sins ...


We had these too for lunch one day, seafood medley salad and salami with bread


And don't forget the 100% freshly squeezed Valencia orange juice, zumo de naraja...

However, the highlight of the trip would be the visit to a Michelin star equivalent restaurant, for my beloved paellas, and yes that would be arros negros, the squid ink paella. The place is called La Baraca, and we booked it the day before due to queues


Didn't get to take a pic of the LARGE paella pan which they presented us with, as the waiter hurriedly scoop it on our plates ... YUMS


Best part was the price was really reasonable too, for food of that superior quality, think we paid about 15-20 euros only :)

Next morning, we had calimari sandwich for breakfast, which was quite heavenly. But I was starting to feel a little queasy after too much 'good' food for the past few days

All these dishes are commonly found in other cities of Spain, but one thing uniquely Madrid would be their cucido a la Madrid, which is a Madrid style stew = must try. I felt that the guide book Yan Lin uses (Yan, whats the name of it again?) is a really good alternative to the wordy Lonely Planet versions, and more informative about local culture. Hui Li and I ventured some distance to locate the best shop for this dish, called La Bola (they even have a website for it, try googling)

We achieved star celebrity status for Asian tourists who managed to find out about this special place, as all eyes awed upon us when we entered. One of the key features of good places to eat, is where all locals do ;)

The cucido is a dish containing meat, lots of chickpeas, cabbage, Spanish sausages and some spices, stewed for a long time to produce a lovely 2 course meal, with a soup starter formed by adding spaghetti-like noodles with the soup from the stew...

And then 2nd course is the fillings and ingredients themselves. You don't eat it like normal stews with the soup and ingredients together.

It was great and super authentic, and the waiter was teaching us how to eat the stew properly, explaning some history along the way :) With tourists with lousy Spanish, and a waiter with lousy English, it was pretty comical trying to communicate, but all the more fun!

So that's all for the Madrid part 2, hope you all are enjoying the hols, and let me know if you're up for a visit/drink/shopping/movie!

Bon Jovi Concert! and etc

Finally, a long awaited update!!!

Loads, or rather way TOO much had happened last week. Trying to balance fun, and the dreaded packing all in one go before going off to London for summer...

Let's backtrack a little here, back to MY Bon Jovi concert :P
Will let pictures do the talking :)

It was a blazing hot day and we were pretty much sun burnt that day, despite layers of sun block. Crowd was about 70K people apparently, and this was only one angle of the random shots I took to remind me of the crowd :


Bibi took a photo of all of us, while still waiting for Bon Jovi to play later in the late afternoon...
Finally, he came in style in a heli, captivating the audience with his charming smile, oh and of course his voice and dance antics LOL
Next up was Madrid for me, and it was a very artsy/cultural experience, visiting so many art galleries with artworks from Picasso, Goya etc. Did visit a Hyde Park sized park called Retiro Park and really enjoyed myself there! The food scene was especially good, and luckily (maybe?) for some of you, my camera was focused in taking pics of food, whilst Huili was responsible for other 'human' posing with scenery ones LOL. She has yet to send me the pics, so I shall be enticing you with some spanish food pics then!

What's Spain without the beloved Sangria? :P
It's basically a drink consisting of red wine and lemonade, some fruit juice. Slightly sweet, hence deceiving, this one was particularly potent too, but nice all the same :)


This is a tapas we ordered, spanish omelette, forgot the spanish name for it, (Yan Lin maybe u can help me out here?), typical omelette but with chopped potatoes, nothing special really, and it's cold .
Gazpancho, a really refreshing tomato based soup with minty cucumber and croutons, like it.
Forgot what we ordered again, really looks like typical British stew isn't it? But this was really good, like the ultimate comfort food, haha.
We tried everything possibly Spanish in the menu, and I introduced this to Yan Lin and Huili, which they totally love and I'm glad they share the same craze as I do with this dish with baby squids and blank ink! Yumz
Apologies for the bad lighting in this pics, it was already dark at that time. Will post up the 2nd episode of the Madrid trip soon, where we go more in depth into blank ink madness!

Casanova

What a great weekend with all play and no work! hehe

Saturday was a sunny and warm day, hence I rebelled and did "Operation Spring Cleaning" to my room and tidied things up :) And then cycled to the University Botanical Gardens for a good walk to soak up the sun... Very theurapeutic day which reminds me how much I miss the countryside sometimes (college days with cows, sheeps and endless trees) and cycling. :D
At night, I went to watch Casanova with a few friends, and it was good if you want a romantic no brainer chick flick comedy! I think its a crossover between "A Knight's Tale" and "Pirates of the Carribean", so do watch it if you can. It features Heath Ledger (10 Things I Hate About You) and Sienna Miller in a medieval setting in Venice. Won't say anything more to avoid spoilers ;)

On another interesting note, I realized my blog had deviated from the food theme for quite a while. Hence, last Saturday I tried making Seafood Paella, with significant improvement this time! :D Managed to find the specific Paella rice and it made ALL the difference...

Yikes, noticed that my wooden spatula on the top left spoilt the picture LOL! Will post on Malaysian Night soon!

Food for the Mood

Ahhh, I feel like Spanish food today.

This post was inspired by Yan, whom reminded me of the glorious week in Barcelona and Valencia last year. I think I took too many pictures of food rather than scenery/people that time, but then I probably do everywhere. Just can't seem to perfect the technique, LoL

Anyways, here are some to share with you guys. Be warned: do not proceed if you're hungry! :P Your first thought about Spanish food is probably just Paella or Tapas.

Paella, the ultimate comfort food, is probably a risotto to an Italian or a 'chow fan' (fried rice) to a Chinese. Very versatile and goes with most ingredients. Authentic method of making it requires some time or effort though, by cooking the rice with flavorful stock in a big wide flat pan and constantly keep a watchful eye over it. Sadly due to time constraints, many restaurants just use ovens or even pressure cooker to do it. The squeeze of lemon right before you eat gives the punch ;)

The first one is just a normal seafood paella. The second one is interesting, hehe. No, its not a 'chao tarh' (i.e. burnt) version of the first. It's not carsinogenic either for the health conscious amongst you all out there. It's Paella Negro, which is Squid Ink Paella, hence where it gets its color. It's my favourite kind of paella I must say, noticed some people eating it in restaurants and decided to try it. Cooking with squid ink is just adds a different unexplainable aroma and dimension to it, have to try it for yourself when you're in Spain, highly recommended! But make sure you wipe your lips after eating it to avoid looking like a dracula! Will do a Paella post when I cook it :) (soon hopefully...)

On another interesting note, Tapas to me is like the Spanish version of sushi. It's a westernized version with bread/baguette instead of rice in sushis. Ok, maybe not ALL, but I did see some with salmon, and a crabmeat mayo one on top of bread.

Tapas from top-bottom: Blood sausage, salmon mousse and grilled pepper with mozarella tapas. Quite artsy, just like sushis. Hmm.. I think I still prefer sushi, hehe. But these are different story ...

(First picture) Tomato and garlic mussels and grilled baby squids. The next one is deep fried calimari and baby squids. Mwahaha, seems like a total seafood feast! But its all right coz its very fresh over there and not too expensive anyways compared to the UK.

Time for the highlight of the trip. I'd been reading up on what special stuff to try and finally landed my hands (or rather mouth) to these devilish desserts/snacks:

This is Buñuelos (Boon-way-loos). They are a Spanish favourite snack or dessert, basically crunchy flour tortillas coated with cinnamon sugar, dipped in DARK CHOCOLATE *swoon* :P

This is Churros. Churros are fried strips of dough typically served hot and sprinkled with powdered sugar, cinnamon and sugar or dipped in chocolate (again!). Sounds equally sinful, hehe, but I had it for breakfast anyway a few days in a row! It's only a westernized version of 'Yau Char Kwai' (a.k.a) Chinese crullers, typically a breakfast item which probably originated from Hongkong. :P And I eat it with chocolate milk (though Chinese crullers normally goes with soya milk or even dipped in coffee :) ) Choosing between the two? Tough choice.. *think think, scratches head*.......... I think I prefer ....Ch.. Bh.. Chhu.. Bhhu.. CHuRRoS!! gargh

Haha, I think I went overboard again and ended up posting 80% of my food pics taken during my trip last year to Barcelona and Valencia. For souvenir? Yesh, I bought myself a Paella pan :P

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!