Australian TimTam Chocolate Biscuits Reach England

 

TimTam in Tesco. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Australian TimTam biscuits have reached England.

What are they? Little square sandwiches of two biscuits with a cream chocolate filling, covered in solid chocolate. The smaller size biscuits therefore seem to have a generous amount of chocolate. Very more-ish.

I had them in Singapore at a wine tasting a few years ago. The person introducing them made such a fuss about them that I was expecting something unusual. What was the fuss about? They were just chocolate biscuits.

I had them at a Toastmasters club meeting last week. I had one. Two. I went back for a third. I had to walk away.

This week I saw them in Tesco. Surprise. White chocolate. I love white chocolate.

Today I looked at the photo. I thought, that's what I want. Timtam biscuits.

Regarding the spelling, the packets seem to run the two syllables together, as you would say them. However, websites list the word as two syllables.

The biscuits were invented by a man who saw Penguin biscuits in Britain and thought he could make something even better. He named his biscuit after Tim Tam, a  prize winning race horse in America. If you go to America, you can see Tim Tam listed in the Hall of Fame of racehorses in the National Museum of Racing.

National Museum of Racing. Photo from Wikipedia. 

The National Museum of Racing has an online shop selling books, tee-shirts, caps, a key ring, assorted bottles and glasses, but no TimTams. Maybe somebody should suggest it.

Useful Websites

Tesco online ordering

Tesco Shops locations

ebay Tim Tams

Wiki on Tim Tam history and flavours

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Tam

Tim Tim official website

https://www.arnotts.com/brands/tim-tam

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Racing_and_Hall_of_Fame

https://www.racingmuseum.org/

https://racingmuseum.mybigcommerce.com/shop

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Panettone All Year, and Seasonal cakes and desserts

Last Christmas in UK supermarkets we could buy Christmas pudding and Christmas cake, French yule logs, the seasonal favourites, plus year round scones and crumpets. From Europe, German stollen and Italian Panettone. The UK now has an outlet devoted to Panettone. Supermarkets, from upmarket department stores to Waitrose, middle market Tesco and Morrisons, and budget friendly German Lidl and Aldi, stock a variety of European and worldwide specialities. Amazon and ebay also have links to lovely food specialities. These include

Italian Panettone

Panettone - Italian, popular in the run up to Christmas, but also increasingly Easter. The spelling is only one double letter, double t, I remember tut tut.

Panettone. Picture from Wikipedia.

Wiki explains

In Italy, historical accounts of panettone invariably state that it originated in Milan. The word panettone derives from panetto, a small loaf of bread. The augmentative suffix -one changes the meaning to 'large bread'

A one word oxymoron, small large bread. The popular size is the large one which can last in its tin all year, going gradually drier and losing flavour and aroma. It can be used up as bread pudding, bread and butter pudding.

We used to be given Panettone when we visited an Italian restaurant in Hatch End. The tinned panettone came packed inside a circular zip up bag.

Now many Italian cafe outlets before Christmas sell a few choices of Panettone on the counter beside the cashier to tempt you to make a last minute purchase of a gift for others or yourself.

The Panettone Store sells panettone from small stocking fillers to extra large. Also preserved fruit, and Italian soft nougat.

What about the rest of the world. Wiki helpfully says

Turron

Soft nougat. 

Torrone

Italian soft nougat

Nougat

Usually white chewy bars which might contain nuts, and sometimes fruit. Could be wrapped in foil for freshness and then a soft card cover.

Useful Websites On Panettone And Seasonal Food

https://thepanettonestore.co.uk/

https://thepanettonestore.co.uk/stocking-fillers/

https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/spaniards-fear-italian-invasion-of-panettone-replace-roscon-bread-6mcwbv5f9

Please follow my blogs and share links to your favourite posts.

Prosecco, Tesco's tipple with a tickle

My favoutie drink with dinner in a restaurant, or home, is Prosecco.A sparkling white wine from Italy. A cheaper alternative to Champagne which I like on special occasions. 

Extra dry is misleading. Marketing which muddles the newcomers consumers. Extra dry is slightly sweet.

I like sweet wines and the extra dry is just right for me. The tipple with the tickle from Tesco. You can also buy in small bottles, one person sizes, which you often get if you order for one person in a restaurant.

 Useful Websites

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/shop/drinks/wine/prosecco-champagne-and-sparkling-wine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecco

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Travelling to London - Try the Fresh Fruit

Summer time, especially July and August, is the best time of year for fresh fruit in London.

Every supermarket has fresh fruit. Try Tescao, Marks && Spencer, Waitrose, or budget friendly Lidl and Asda.

I wrote a poem about the fresh fruit and added photos which I shall show you here.

Fruit salad. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. 

Early breakfast in pyjamas

Orange orange on a white saucer. Photo by Angela Lansbury.  Copyright. 

Oranges, and bananas

Yellow banana. Photo by Angela Lansbury.  Copyright. 

In the fridge what do I see?

Strawberries we save for tea 

What shall we have for our tea?

For our tea, for our tea

What shall we have for our tea?

Not today, On Sunday

I see big red strawberries

Strawberries, strawberries

I bit big red straberries

For my tea on Sunday.

Ripe red fresh fruit. Finest flavour in August in London. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. 

What shall we have for our tea?

Not today. On Monday

We can have big raspberries

Raspberries Raspberries

Not for tea on Sunday

For our tea on Monday

What do you like? What do you say?

For our tea on Monday.

Big blueberries. Photo  by Angela Lansbury.  Copyright. 

Blueberries, blueberries

I love to see big blueberries

I'd like to eat big blueberries

For our tea on Tuesday

 Blackberries, blackberries

I see big blackberries

I would like big blackberries

For our tea on Wednesday

Red currants, red currants

I can see big red currants

Red currants on Thursday

For our tea on Thursday

.

Black currants, black currants

I can see big black currants

Black currants on Friday.

For our tea on Friday

Pitted Dates. Photo by Angela Lansbury.  Copyright. 

Figs and dates, on the plates

On the plates, By the grapes

Red grapes from La Fromagerie in London

. Photo by Angela Lansbury.  Copyright. 

I think we shall have to wait

For our tea on Saturday.

Cream from top of Jersey whole milk. Sold by Tesco in London. Photo by Angela Lansbury.  Copyright. 

On our birthday we add cream

Thickest cream you've ever seen

That is such a lovely dream

On next birthday we'll have cream

Toys' food's ready every dawn

For yellow teddy bears and a blue unicorn

Well give food them which gives them joy 

All the wooden and soft toys

For toy kittens and a puppy

Serve whatever makes them happy

Healthy food which does them good

On plastic plates, fruit made from wood

Artificial fruit. Fridge magnets. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. 

For my breakfast what do I see?

I see big red strwberries

Maybe we should save them for tea

Big and small red strwberries.

We went out to pick the fruit

Green and red apples on the tree

Green apples on tree in garden. Photo by Trevor Sharot.  Copyright. 

In supermarkets and small shops

Bananas and raspberries - not chocolate drops

Durian is served in season

Banned on buses for a reason

They smell bad to somebody

Never mind, there's more for me.

I see figs and I see dates

In the bowls and on the plates

We will have fruit salad soon

On the table, served with spoons.

On my birthday I will choose

Fruit that's red or pink or blue

On my birthday I can choose

To share it with my friends and you 

I imagine thick white cream

What a lovely coloured dream

I imagine thick white cream

What a lovely coloured dream.

I will share it all with you

Green and yellow, red and blue

I will share it all with you

It's a dream which could come true.

I thought I'd share my thoughts with you

It's a dream, let's make it true.

Coloured fruit, in red and blue

It's a dream, let's make it true.

-ends-

This can be sung as a round for children, at a birthday party, in a classroom.

My husband and I have found that Lidl is our cheapest supermarket. This was confirmed by a recent survey by an independent body. For concenience you might look for the nyumerous smaller more central stores, such as Tesco Express which is often near a railway station.

Please share links to your favourite poems on this blog.

 

White feather fun at London Wine Fair With Traces Wines

 Two dancers in white ballet dresses giving out white feathers. Inviting everybody to their stand at the London Wine Fair.

Traces.C81 stand at the London Wine Fair.

What is light about their bottle of wine? First of all, the bottle itself. It's lighter, 33% lighter, than most wine bottles.

Traces is a UK brand, based in Manchester, using French wine, selling online.

Traces.com

Sold in Tesco in Ireland.

The prosecco from Italy.

First consumer friendly label telling you the alcohol level and calorie count.per 100ml.

A small glass is 125 ml. Helping you to become lighter.

The can of Hugo Spritz, Hugo meaning elderflower, has 80 calories per can of 250 ml. It will be launched online, and at Beyond the Pale Music festival, 3 days in June, 1th-15th, 2025, in county Wicklow, Eire, about an hour's drive from Dublin. You need to buy tickets. The Festival webside tells you that Traces is one of the sponsors

Useful Websites

traces.com

https://www.facebook.com/BeyondThePaleIE/

Please share links to this post.

 

Double Chocolate Muffins For Hosts & Guests, or Grapes

 I bought double chocolate muffins from Lidl around Christmas 2004. They were kept in a cold garage, and still edible in mid-March 2025, and delicicious, a quick pick me up.

I checked current prices. For hosts of meetings, club meetings, committee meetings, hosts and guests. 

You can get six chocolate muffins for one pounds from Poundland. So two of you, spending only one pound each could supply 12 muffins. 

Mini muffins and quite filling and even cheaper.  My pack of 16 came from Lidl. Similare are available from Asda and Tesco.

For the budget conscious, or more guests than expected, cut all of half of the muffins in half with a sharp knife. Or failing all else,  use the blade of a sterlised Swiss army knife or penknife. (Sterilise in boiling water, dried with a clean paper towel/tissue Swiss army knife or penknife. Then everybody can have just a bite with their coffee, tea, milk, or water. 

Grapes

If you are interested in supplying fresh fruit for dieters, health followers, anybody who wants to avoid meat products such as those who are Hindu, Moslem or Jewish, consider grapes. Wash the bunch and with washed hand detach all the grapes so nobody has to hold other grapes to pull off one or two. .

Small madarin oranged, tangerines, can be separated into segments. Two or three pieces of fruit make lots of segments. 

Holocaust Memorial Day

 

The Holocaust Memorial Day in England was a commemoration bringing together the ever diminishing number of Holocaust survivors with the future king of England, William, whose Greek ancestor hid a Jewish family during WW2.

A picture showed all the holocaust survivors together, with members of the royal family, William and Kate, with British ministers.

People sometimes ask why we see so little of the other groups who suffered. I looked online and learned that unfortunately there is only one UK survivor of the Sinta-Roma group. 

1 Hidden Jewish Survivors in London.

Some survivors kept very quiet, private, after their experiences in WW2. Anne Frank's father lived in Edgware, near where I lived, but he was not known about for decades. 

A second holocaust survivor, from his family, his step-daughter, started visiting schools and wrote a book only when she became much older.

Why is a commemoration held in London? What has London got to do with the Holocaust?

1 The Kindertransport. 

Many Jewish orphans and young children were brought on trains to London, to safety, after Kristallnacht, just before WW2, in the expectation that they would go back to  their parents later. But after the war they had no parents nor homes to go back to.

2 Well-known Holocaust Survivors

Probably the best known is Sigmund Freud, who left Austria to live out the rest of his life in London. (His sisters were killed in the Holocaust.) You can visit the Freud Museum in London.

3 Well-known Jews from Before the Holocaust Who Contributed to Modern Britain

Ann Pavolva, whose golden statue is above the dome facing Victoria train and bus station. You can see it far above, shining in the sunlight, if you look up. Her house is a museum which can be visited.

Moses who founded Moss Bros the tailors.

Marks of Marks and Spencer.

4 Well-known Jews Of A New Generation in the UK

Alma Cogan. Helen Shapiro. Amy Winehouse. 

London has a variety of cultures. We now have former Jewish delis serving Jewish style food run by a Christian Greek family in Edgware and Hatch End.  Kosher festival food is sold at a Jewish supermarket in Golders Green - the shop is run by Indians. 

Tesco and Marks & Spencer started in England, but are now in countries as far away as Singapore.

If you want to know about other groups, and the holocaust, you will find them mentioned on websites about the holocaust and about Anne Frank House and the Anne Frank Foundation.

Useful Websites

Holocaust Memorial Day Trust

https://hmd.org.uk/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Holocaust_memorials_and_museums

Chinese New Year Celebrations In England and Lunar New Year Worldwide

 Chinese New Year is Wednesday 29th January, 2025, in case you hadn't noticed, or had forgotten.

If you are in the UK you can stock up on goodies for your own celebrations in supermarkets such as Tesco. They stock paper plates and serviettes showing orange lanterns, chopsticks, and Chinese fortune cookies.

Look for celebrations at local Chinese restaurants in many UK high streets. Also in the Chinatown areas of London and Manchester.

In London there are celebrations the following weekend, Saturday February 1st and Sunday February 2nd. Expect a parade, and a stage at Trafalgar Square.

Useful Websites

https://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/event/4733685-chinese-new-year-in-london

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/buylists/lunar-new-year/top-picks?

Please share links to your favourite posts. I have another post on years of your birth sign in the Chinese zodiac, post called New Year Celebrations Continue

Easter Eggs in England and Cadbury Chocolate Visits

 

Easter eggs in Tesco.  Photo by Angela Lansbury.

You have plenty of time to shop and prepare for Easter. Good Friday is April 18th. Easter Sunday is the 20th. (In 2025, since Easter is a movable feast.)

Cadbury's is one of England's favourite brands. Milk chocolate and plain chocolate, and dark chocolate. Chocolate bars, and Easter Eggs, covered in chocolate, and filled with white and yellow cream. 

A chocolate egg the size of a real egg, a hen's egg, has an alarming number of calories. When I read this after eating one, I was so upset, I felt so low, that I needed to cheer up by eating another egg. The moral is, read the label before buying, not after eating.

Chocolate prices and novelty egg prices normally come down immediately after Easter. In Tesco, you get reductions on some items if you have a club card. It is worthwhile signing up for the clubcard in advance. 

As with many loyalty cards, if you decide to join at the last minute, you have the stress of not being sure that when you try to fill in the form later, you have credited your first spend after deciding to join.

But before we reach Easter, we have Valentine's Day on February 14th, and Chinese New Year.

I have fond memories of visiting the Cadbury Factory site in England. You need to check the opening hours, the days of opening, and whether you can book a ticket. 

If you cannot take a tour, but you are a chocolate lover, you will probably be satisfied with a stop at the big factory shop.

Useful Websites

tesco.com

https://www.tesco.com/account/register/en-GB

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/buylists/easter-treats/easter-eggs

Cadbury 

https://www.cadburyworld.co.uk/plan-your-visit/information/offers/adult-toddler-ticket/

Restaurants and Food More About Kafe Ador, Izgara, Tesco

 

Kafe Ador drinks.

As you see, they have coffees, teas and infusions, smoothies, sodas and soft drinks.

Cafe Ador main menu.

Kafe Ador cute kids' menu.

Bring along your own washable crayons. Or use a pencil and pen and ask if your child can take it home to finish colouring it in later.

Kafe Ador is open early, from 8.30 am for breakfast. That's handy for people working nearby. Or a working breakfast.

Apart from the fabulous decor, what do I remember about my first visit to Kafe Ador? The tasty spinach in puff pastry tart. The huge croissant. 

Walking along The Broadway, to Tesco for yogurt, I pass the Izgara sign.

By lunch time you can find deals at sister restaurant Izgara, meaning grill, which has Turkish dishes, which runs lunch time fixed price deals in Hatch End. They have another branch in Edgware.v.

Izgara in Hatch End, showing board with lunch time deal. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Tesco

After five, when Kafe Ador is shut, Tesco express has half price deals on some of their bakery (not bread) to tide you over until you are ready for evening dinner at Izgara which is brightly lit at night. Izgara is owned by the same person as Kafe Ador. 

A Tesco almond croissant.

As I write this on December 20th I am thinking that here's the winter solstice, meaning the longest night, and winter dark evening in nroth west London when it is a pleasure to see lights in the restaurants along Hatch End as well as the street lights up the lamp posts.

Toast and fruit at Kafe Ador. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Hatch End was described in a local paper as the restaurant capital of north west London. 

Bus H12 from Stanmore to South Harrow stops a few steps from Kafe Ador and Izgara going towards Stanmore. Or the H14 to Northwick Park.

A pedestrian crossing takes you to the other side of the road for the H12 bus going towards South Harrow via Pinner.. And the H14 via Harrow on the Hill bus garage and railway station from Northwick Park Hospital.  

Walking back from Kafe Ador, passing Izgara, beyond the end of the shops in Hatch End rilway station. 

Bus Announcements

Outside the station is another bus stop for both buses - handy for getting off if you accidentally got the H12 bus going the wrong way, as I did yesterday on my way to a Toastmasters International meeting in South Harrow. Fortunately, there was a verbal anouncement, as I was in a seat at the front and could not see the direction board announcements.)

 Useful Websites

Transport and Transport For London

TFL

https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

https://tfl.gov.uk/bus/route/h12/

https://tfl.gov.uk/bus/route/h14/

https://tfl.gov.uk/overground/route/lioness/

https://www.mylondon.news/news/transport/tfl-confirms-london-underground-trains-30612817

https://www.mylondon.news/news/transport/tfl-making-huge-change-london-30618454?int_source=nba

https://harrowonline.org/2024/12/20/festive-travel-and-roadworks-update-for-harrow-residents/

Kafe Ador

https://www.kafeador.co.uk/

Izgara

https://www.izgara.co.uk/

Tesco

https://www.tesco.com/store-locator/pinner/tesco-express

Please follow this blog and share links to your favourite posts.

Halloween goods in Tesco, London & Waddesdon Spooky tea

 Halloween goods in Tesco supermarkets in London include lots of goods in black and orange including a broomstick.

Display in Tesco Express, Hatch End, London, England, UK. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

More in Tesco.

Update Friday 4th October

If you'd rather let somebody else do the work and have a surprise, Waddesdon is offering a spooky tea. You might admire the ghostly meringue. This is the weekend of October 26th and 27th, coming up to Halloween.

Useful Websites

Tesco

Waddesdon

https://waddesdon.org.uk/whats-on/spooky-afternoon-teas/

Please share links to your favourite possts.

 

Almond Cakes Around Europe - England, France, Spain & Portugal

Spanish Almond Tart

 In Spain we had almond cake for evening dinner dessert, at the Parador de Fuent De in the Picos de Europa (European Peaks) in the north of Spain.  I loved the almond filling. The same item appeared again at breakfast.

French Almond Tart

Just across the border is France. The French call their marzipan tart frangipane.

Another Spanish Almond Tart

We travelled west through northern Spain to Santiago de Compostelo, the city whose cathedral is the end of a hiking pilgrimage. The city's classic dish is the Tarta De Santiago.

We crossed the border to Spain, off to Oporto and the port wine region of the Douro.

Portuguese Almond Tart (Tarte de amendoa)

As we travelled onwards, west into Portugal I had a pleasant surprise. My favourite almond tart appeared again.

English Almond Tarts

Back in London, England, I noticed Bakewell tart or almond tart in Tesco Express. We once stopped in Bakewell to try tart from a shop claiming to be the original site of the recipe. But their tart seemed to me no better nor different than others I had tried. I was quite happy with locally bought Bakewell tart down south in London.

Bakewell tart picture by Brynn in Wikipedia under Bakewell Tart. Notice the red fruit jam (Americans say jelly) on the pastry base of the tart. Flaked almonds and icing sugar (Americans say powdered sugar) on the top of the tart.

Costa's Almonds

Across the road, in Costa in Hatch End, I was able to indulge myself in part of a slice of almond cake, shared with my husband. Costa is Italian. 

Costa Exterior with pavement seating for summer. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. 

Costa interior with indoor seating in the light by the window. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Almond bake on display (lower center) at Costa in Hatch End, London. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

It is very fattening. All that almond cake in Spain had fattened me up. After all that cake and hotel and restaurant meals in Spain and Portugal I needed to go on a diet. But, who can resist cake. 

I ate a third.

Almond tart, divided, in Costa. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Tesco Almond Cake

Tesco in London also had croissants, hot every morning, with almond fillings. (We also saw these in Singapore last year, 2023). I looked up the calorie count for almond filled croissants and was horrified.

Today I went online looking for recipes and found a few. Almond cake or rather tart, seems more easy to make than cheesecake.

You have a shortcrust pastry base. You can buy this from the supermarkets in rolls unbaked and roll it out. Then three equal amounts, 180 grams, of ground almonds which American call almond flour), granulated sugar, and butter. Add three eggs. 

Either mix the eggs and sugar, then the almonds, or mix the dry sugar and almonds, then add the eggs.

You may have to pre-cook the base so it doesn't go soggy

How high and long do you cook it?  170 degrees for 45 minutes.

Optional extras are lemon juice and/or cinnamon.

On top you can put almond flakes (also called sliced almonds), or confectioners' sugar (icing sugar(, or raspberries. If you think fruit is healthier than sugar this would be a good idea. Adding flour is optional, and some recipes without it or tars without it are promoted as gluten free. Almond essence is added by some books to enhance the almond flavour.

Another variation is individual cupcakes with white icing on top and a cherry in the middle, recently revived from an old recipe book promoted as Gloucester tarts which were given away free at the city's museums as a promotion. The distinctive ingredients were ground rice and raspberry jam.

Gloucester tart from Wikipedia.

Gloucester is a cathedral city in southwest England on the way to Wales, near Monmouth. 

I must admit I was familiar with this kind of cake or tart. I remember clearly trying both this one which was cheaper and an almond tart I decided that the almonds were lost under the sugar icing, which seemed to me a way of giving you a layer of sugar without almonds, which looked pretty. An economy for mass production. But for pure almond taste, I preferred an almond cake.

I am now thinking of making an almond tart at home, with and without the almond essence. I shall read the label to check if it is really intensified flavour from real or roasted almonds, or a chemical. But since I am already over-indulging in the delights of a tart made by mixing sugar with almonds, admittedly with added egg. maybe I should be less prim and proper and just enjoy.

Please save and share links to your favourite posts.

Useful Websites

The Shop and Cafe in Bakewell, Derbyshire, Peak District, England

https://www.bakewelltarts.co.uk/

English Almond Tart Recipe - Waitrose supermarket video on making Bakewell Tart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R8V_yooAEc

Spanish Almond Tart Recipe

https://www.carolinescooking.com/tarta-de-santiago/

Portuguese Almond Tart Recipe Video

https://honestcooking.com/tarte-de-amendoa-portuguese-almond-tart-recipe/

Italian Almond Tart Sbrisolona

https://www.bing.com/search?q=ialian+almond+tart&pc=GD03&form=GDAVG1&ptag=7301&showconv=1

French Frangipane Almond Tart

https://thecafesucrefarine.com/ridiculously-easy-french-almond-frangipane-tart/

See my next post on Italian almond cake.

Please follow my bog and save and share links to your favourite posts.

Cheapest Croissant in London? Breakfast deal?

Half a high calorie low price croissant from Lidl. In London. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Lidl. 79 pence. In central London you would pay a pound or more likely two pounds. 

A joke candidate for mayor has the slogan, croissants for a pound.

Put it in your oven or microwave in your home or serviced apartment. Soft and munchy and sticky and sucky inside. Crisp on the outside.

Also check for multi packs in Sainsbury's, at 99p, Tesco half price from over a pound to fifty pence late at night (if there are any left), Costco, Amazon, and frozen dough to cook yourself.

Tesco Express often have them hot from the oven first thing in the morning.

Wetherspoons pub do a breakfast deal, coffee (or tea or small orange juice), croissant and preserve (jam) until noon, at three pounds fifty five pence.

Morrisons supermarket also do multipacks.

In London you can find cafes serving meals all day, but the croissants will probably only be at breakfast time. Look for cafes in places such as Morrisons in Hatch End. Waitrose in South Harrow near Harrow on the Hill.

Tesco online sells six Pret a manger croissants in a pack for £3.50.

I just discovered a new trick. If your laptop doesn't have a pound sign, only dollars. copy the price from a website. But then you get their size font like this. You have to change it like this. From bold to normal and then large to normal. But it changes itself back again!

I looked up Pret and found this in Sainsbury. Try Paul, three bite size pieces, one in Baker St, one Marylebone High Street, and others. Richard Pull, a Londoner , who used to write restaurant reviews for Harden's restaurant guide in the eighties, still he is a gastronome, passionate about food, says, You cannot eat a decent croissant tidily. In France the businessmen would dunk their croissants into their cafe au last. Nowadays everybody drinks cappuccino or flat white. PAUL'S is a famous French Baker, but now available in London. Notches but very good.

Secrets of Sake - the advantages, the best temperature, and matching food

Sake  contains no sulphites.

Sake to match with Peking duck - Muriko No Sake Tokubetsu.

At the ProWine show at Expo in Singapore a Masterclass enabled us to try three flavours of Sake and to learn about Sake. I loved the Sake, all three of them. Yes, I like Sake.

I wasn't just saying I liked them because I got a free drink or because I was inebriated. I really liked them. One of them was 14% alcohol and one was 16%.  I don't like spirits, and whisky is not my thing, I like sweet sherry such as Harveys Bristol Cream, well, I would, because I am British, but I love sake. I am not Japanese, but I love sake. 

Sake, naturally goes with Japanese food, if you eat a meal in a Japanese restaurant. I had not of having Sake to go with Sushi which is widely available from the Sushi counter at Fairprice supermarket in Singapore  much more sushi than at Tesco in London.  

Our educator also recommended sake to be drunk with, matched with, Indian food.

What did I learn about Sake?

1 Sake has three ingredients. The main two are rice and water.  We watched a video of the rice being prepared. The rice is polished. More polishing means a different flavour. 

What do you say when you raise a glass of sake to your host or guest at dinner? You say, 'Kampai!' That means cheers. Literally, dry cup. In effect, empty the cup. 

That's not hard to do, because Sake cups are small.

Platinum Pudding or Platinum Jubilee Pudding, British Summer Pudding, Rhubarb Crumble and Rice Pudding

 

The Union Jack flags are flying in Oxford Street and the streets of London, England, very jolly. To celebrate the Jubilee people all over the world will be making the Jubilee pudding. This follows the tradition of creating dishes for VIP occasions. Victoria sponge was invented for Queen Victoria. Coronation chicken was created for the coronation. Windsor soup is another great British recipe.

Platinum Pudding is shorter and neatly alliterative. The full name is Platinum Jubilee Pudding.

The ingredients include lemon Swiss roll and amaretti biscuits. (Amaretti biscuits are Italian biscuit, small, crunchy, with almonds.)

(More shortly. I'm saving this because some of yesterday's posts have disappeared.)

Summer Pudding

Another great British pudding to look for is summer pudding. It has a casing of white bread turned red by the ingredients. The stuffing is mixed red fruits .

Summer pudding ingredients from Wikipedia.

Apple crumble is an easy pudding. Crumble is so easy. You don't even need to roll out the pastry. Just spread tiny lumps all over the top of the fruit. You might need to stew the fruit first.

If you want to buy from supermarkets in the UK, popular summer puddings are apple crumble, rhubarb crumble, and rice pudding.

Rhubarb crumble from Tesco. Two pounds ninety.

Perfect Puddings

To sum up, for a celebratory meal you could have Windsor soup, coronation chicken, and Platinum pudding. Alternative British desserts are Summer pudding, rice pudding, bread and butter pudding, rhubarb crumble, apple and blackberry crumble, from supermarkets. A simple old favourite you can make is trifle. For something more unusual, my family's favourite, Queen of puddings, which has meringue on top. 

For tea time, the Australian and New Zealand favourite is Pavlova. Named after the dancer who visited Australasia, this dessert is a hard circular plate size white meringue with a raised edge and sunken centre making a base or bowl for summer fruit such as red strawberries. 

By the way, the Marks and Spencers strawberries in London, England are at their best already. Red, juicy, flavoursome. The traditional English way of serving strawberries is with cream. 

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum_Pudding

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:British_puddings

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/shop/fresh-food/chilled-desserts/puddings-crumbles-and-pies

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Queen_of_Puddings