New Taste - Hawthorn Berries From China

Hawthorn berries bought from Fairprice supermarket in Bukit Panjang, Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

 I am always on the lookout for new foods and drinks to try. In a supermarket called Fairprice in Singapore I was looking for reasonably priced in season fruit when I saw Hawthorn Berries.

My first thought was that they could be eaten raw, like strawberries, and I bought them. A handy snack. A new experience.

When I got them back home, I opened the pack eagerly. I felt them. They were rock hard!

What were you supposed to do with them? I hunted all over the internet. No help. They could be used in jams. But the seeds were poisonous, like apple seeds. (All these years and nobody told me that. fortunately I always remove apple pips when cooking apples, ainly to get rid of the sharp bits in the core.

Anyway, back to the hawthorn berries. I belong to a Whatsapp group called cooking and gardening in Singapore. They didn't know anything. My family in London reckoned that you could probably cook them in boiling water with sugar.

I appealed on the supermarket page in Facebook. No answer as of yet.

I finally decided that I was not going to return them, nor throw them away. I would have to cook them. 

I prepared with a smallish non-stick saucepan. I washed the fruit.

Now what? Remove the seeds. 

I gingerly cut open one of the small fruits. To my amazement, it was soft, easy to cut.  The skin was taut but thin, like the skin of an unripe apple or pear.

What of the seeds. Inside were not a cluster of pips like in an apple. Nor a lot of seeds like a berry, or passion fruit. Instead the centre had one large stone - like a cherry.

Hawthorn berries cut. Photo by Angela Lansbury. copyright.

I gingerly cut off a slice with a sharp fruit knife. Easy to cut. Not hard at all. I looked, and tasted. The inside was soft, like a ripe avocado, like an old apple. But, disappointingly. Very little flavour.

Was it safe to eat the skin? What would the skin taste like? I ate the skin. The tiny, sharp pieces but in the back of my throat and made me choke. Be careful to bite and chew before swallowing. What if I were allergic to it?

After that I lost interest for an hour or so. Until I felt hungry again.

I tried again. This time I decided to gnaw with my teeth. A surprising difference. More flavour. 

However, more risk of grinding off the surface of my teeth.  

I went back online, this time with more success. I added the word China. Up popped a website about make juice and eating the berries.

The juice can be made by cooking the berries with rock sugar, or, if that is not available, with granulated sugar. 

First, the Chinese cook washes them with salt. Hm.

Now I am wondering whether a plant will grow if I plant the seed.

Useful Websites

https://omnivorescookbook.com/recipes/hawthorn-berry-juice

Please share links to your favourite posts.

See Update added Saturday Oct 14th.

Dried Hawthorn Slices

https://www.fairprice.com.sg/product/one-sunny-dried-hawthorn-slices-500-g-90054995

Hawthorn Tea

https://www.fairprice.com.sg/product/planet-organic-hawthorn-berry-loose-herbal-tea-100-g-90143381?gclid=CjwKCAjwkaSaBhA4EiwALBgQaKVmMmHvCzYRYLDUvTG2D-dEpbFtZ8M3dU19skL8c9iOi4MoFtGlkRoC9IMQAvD_BwE

Hawthorn gin - at 99 Singapore dollars

https://www.fairprice.com.sg/product/hepple-sloe-hawthorn-gin-1-x-500ml-90061111

4.90 Sing dollars - that's my sort of price for a novelty and a snack. Hawthorn with salt and sugar, okay, plus added locrice and plum powder

https://www.fairprice.com.sg/product/green-earth-dried-hawthorn-130-g-90031475

After Easter Online bargains

Problem
What can I buy online after Easter? Given the relentless rain! I'll let my fingers do the travelling. The goods can travel to me.

Answers
Waitrose is offering not just plain hot cross buns but: berry and cherry; cinnamon; lemon; orange; wholemeal.

Tesco had a whole range of interesting items. Some were only available for delivery during the Easter period. But the pictures were still up.

Others appeared to be still available. I like the Easter cheesecake with the silhouette of a rabbit in connamon, with a white chocolate button for the tail.

You could also buy a white iced decorate it yourself cake and make this sort of design or anything else you fancy, using a paper cut out to create your own simple decoration scattering any contrasting colour on top. It would need to stick and not blow away. If you had a white icing top, with no marzipan underneath, you could compensate by buying yellow marzipan, rolling it out and cutting your own design. Add seasonal decorations, simple flowers or leaves, or order an edible photo - the cheapest ones deigned for cupcakes are small, but stick one in the middle of a round cake, or make a repeating pattern of the photo.

Useful Websites
https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/shop/search?&searchTerm=easter 

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/300474423

To visit the UK and book attractions:
visitbritainshop.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

The Don restaurant's Delicious Food and Delightful Drinks

Three dessert wines, matched with desserts, at The Don restaurant in the City of London, England. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
What to drink and eat at The Don restaurant which has a new chef?

Answers
The menu of the day, two courses or three for a set price or a la carte? With a new chef and a new menu we chose different items from the a la carte menu.

Water
Water? Whilst waiting for an old friend (old in both senses, he is in his eighties), we asked for tap water. The jug came up immediately.

Waiters And Service Charges
I would have liked what I got when I lived in America years ago, (in the nineteen eighties) a jug of water with lemon already on the table. Also menus immediately. Wine and food menus. Why do I have to wait or negotiate? Menus should be either on the table or transported with us by a waiter.

In the good old days in America and England a waiter would pull out your chair, The folded napkin would be unfolded with a flourish. The waiter then drops the linen serviette into your lap.

The waiter would set the conversation rolling by asking, "Have you come far today?" That would allow you to speak neutrally about the traffic and transport, or reveal every detail of your home and work and holidays, family and friends.

Wine
With not just Great Britain's standard ten per cent service charge but twelve and a half per cent added for service (at The Don restaurant) I expect somebody to smile, given me lemon slices and menus, another big smile, and listen to my life story. Also tell me I've made a great choice of food. And explain the ingredients of the food and the label of the wine bottle. Plus guide me on my life's journey, telling me everything to see in this restaurant, the street, the city, his or her home town, and the world.

But I am the only woman in the room. I think at these menu prices all the business men in the room are more interested in important matters they are discussing. I suspect they are doing deals with each other, not as keen as I am to exchange banter with a well-trained waiter or two who glide silently and almost invisibly and discreetly out of earshot until we signal, that we want service, with a slow royal wave.

The men are discussing red wine, or white - depending on the food menu.

I make a lengthy search for a modestly priced Prosecco, which I cannot find. The menu has bottles of champagne at prices which would be rejected by a credit card, would require checking my bank balance and getting a divorce. Not uncommon nowadays on restaurant menus.

However, I locate three sweet wines under ten pounds on the dessert menu. But, of course, small sizes. I ask for the dessert menu and see that those wines are matched with the desserts so I shall wait. Back to the main menu.

Then I spot an English rose wine, a brand I have never heard of and never tried. Original. A new experience. The latest novelty, the latest development, news to us in England and most people worldwide, is English wine. English wine is also suitable because and I am sitting in an Olde English restaurant. The price is pleasingly modest.  Nearer five pounds then ten. Wonderful! And the result is perfect. Pleasantly pink. The taste? Not over dry. Just right.

FOOD
Bread
Two sorts of bread. Great. I choose the white with pieces of olive. The olive is perfect. It adds visual interest and flavour. The taste is not overpowering.

The butter is salty. (My companion, Mr anti-salt, objects.) I love salty butter. So flavoursome. Livens up the bread. Gets you salivating before you start eating. We have water as well as wine. No problem.

Oddly, the butter is melting in the dish, but the bread rolls are not hot. Why not?

Never mind. That's the mark of a good place. Whatever is not quite right you forgive them because everything else is so tip top perfect. The so-so is eclipsed by the stunning. If you had a balance, the see saw would tip down on the side of bad but the other side would rise up and hit the good bell.

Starters
My starter of salmon with contrasting orange with the green avoid was the most visually appealing.

However, I recommend the duck starter for top taste. Oh I must have more, must have that next time.

Main Courses
I liked my dish of chicken. Very tasty. Somebody else thought it was too salty. I thought it was just right.

However, I recommend the belly of pork with with scallop. Although I'm allergic to shellfish the sections seemed separate on the plate. So I risked trying part of this delicious dish. Um. Yum! Worth a special trip, or return visit to try it.


Dessert Drinks
The dessert drinks came up before the desserts. I thought that was odd. However, it turned out to suit me well. I found that the sweet drinks tasted sweet, deliciously sweet, before the desserts appeared. It was also good to see the three drinks together on the tray and appreciate the contrasting colours. The palest was the sauterne.

Dessert matched with Sauterne. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

My darker red was just right for me.

To my surprise, I should have anticipated, the sweet wines were not so sweet when tasted alongside the sweet desserts.

Desserts
I chose the chocolate and cherry dessert which had great flavour. The matching of the cherries and the bed wine was also a delight for the eye.

Chocolate and cherry dessert with matching wine. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

My fellow diners had two different desserts, both of which I tried. All good.

But if I had to choose or recommend one, it was the mango and passionfruit. Worth a special trip to try it.

Mango and passion fruit dessert, with matched wine. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Espresso coffee cup at The Don. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Finally, Free Sweet Tastes.
One person ordered espresso coffee which came up in a pretty cup.

Sweets at The Don. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The free sweets at the end were matched to the number of diners, the people paying the final bill, not those who had ordered coffee. We received one square of 'marzipan' each. I thought it was more like fudge, sugary, smooth with hardly any taste of almond. Please add more almond next time. However, we universally agreed the 'marzipan' - did they make a mistake - it was fudge - was just right.

The teeny coconut cake, in a boat shape was also just right. Not overwhelming good but just right. I ate it first and finished with my 'fudge'.

We'd been emailed a prior notice about the new chef, Brixton born Frederick Forster, which we printed. He won the Roux scholarship for young chefs. So I recognised a familiar face when I saw him.

I asked, "Are you the chef?" He replied, "one of the chefs". From what I've read before, sometimes a big restaurant has an overall chef, a specialist in starters, and a specialist in desserts.

Special Summer Offer For 2017
Note to myself and you. Our fifty per cent offer was for the a la carte food, not the set meal nor the wine. The offer I received was for the summer menu and began July 4th and ends August 31st 2017. If you are hoping to get it, make sure you ask and tell them when booking.

Regular Wine Dinners and Tastings
Their next wine dinner is Tuesday July 11, 2017, today! Featuring Domaine Ott.

For reservations call 020 7626 2606.

Get on their mailing list for invitations to future events.

Verdict
Great restaurant for enjoying food, drink history and sitting with friends, for business, entertaining, events and special occasions.

Location
The restaurant is indoors on a day when it is raining, overcast, or too hot. But if you want to walk off the calories, see the outdoors, see more of London, after your meal go back down the lane, cross the road and you can see the river Thames at the end of the street with bridges such as Tower Bridge. (See next post.)

The Don restaurant
The Courtyard
20 St Swithins Lane
EC4N 8AD
Tel: 020 7626 606
www.thedonrestaurant.com
www.thesignofthedon.com

TOURIST INFORMATION
USEFUL WEBSITES
https://tfl.gov.uk
https://art.tfl.gov.uk/projects/permanent-commission-by-daniel-buren/
www.visitlondon.com
www.londonpass.com
www.visitbritain.org

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. If you need a write, speaker, or teacher of languages please contact me. If not, simply read on. I have more posts on The Don and London restaurants and restaurants and attractions worldwide, everywhere from London to Cambodia and Romania.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Identifying Trees - Red bark, Japanese cherry

This tree is in London.

I tried googling red bark and my first foray was through the website of the Royal Horticultural Society. I was progressing through the leaves and got as far as leaves alternating.

I eventually found a picture of the bark on a Natural History Museum website.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/files/urban-tree-survey-key-69444.pdf