The Most Versatile Blogger Award

This post has been way overdue..

So once again, I would like to thank richardmcgary of REMCooks for having my blog nominated for the most versatile blogger award.

As for the rules for this award, I will have to…

• thank the person who has nominated my blog and link them back to my post.

I really appreciate the nomination for this award, richardmcgary. Thank you!

• share seven things about myself..

* I hate writing essays, reports or any type of writing including letters for that matter, which is why I am surprised that I am actually blogging 😉

* I work in the hotel and hospitality industry.. As much as exciting as it can get, I still find its working schedule horrendous.

* I’ve lived half of my life in the middle east and I only learned to cook couscous the day before yesterday.

* Culture-wise, I think I am confused… Born and raised in the Philippines, spent my adolescence in the Middle East, and my adulthood in Europe.. Hmm yeah, I’m hella confused!

* Ironically, out of all the countries I’ve lived in, Iran has always been my favorite.

* Kit who prefers to be behind the limelight is actually the one who has inspired me and encouraged me to start blogging.

* Kit and I are a sucker for cheese, good wines and gastronomique food.

• pass the award on to 15 other bloggers that I enjoy..

Quite difficult since there’s quite a lot of them that I really enjoy.. But anyhow, after days of thinking I’ve finally got my pick.. So here they are, in no particular order:

– Going Dutch

– Victor Travel Blog

– domestic diva, MD

– Domestic Urbanite

– Bucket List Publications

– Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Foodiness

– Off the Beten Path: Hikes, Backpacks, and Travels

– An Irish Village Pantry

– Echoes and Mementos

– Homemade Delish

– great hungarian plain

– Josef’s Blog

– gallette

– I dip my toes on water

– Mymindfeeds’s Blog

To everyone who take some time to drop by and read this blog, thank you!

To my beloved Kit who has always been there for me, thanks for all the love and inspiration.

To richardmcgary , I really feel honoured, Thank you!

 

What a wonderful surprise

I am really surprised to have found out that I have been nominated for The Versatile Blogger Award by richardmcgary of REMCooks.

It is my first time to receive a blogger award and it has truly touched my heart to know that fellow bloggers actually appreciate the things I share.

Since I am currently running late for work, I will not be able to nominate 15 bloggers and share something about myself for now, but I will definitely write about it later.

In the meantime, I would like to take this moment to thank Richard and his lovely spouse, Baby Lady, whose blog I enjoy so much. Thank you so much for sharing your love and passion in food and cooking. You have been an inspiration. 🙂

 

Updates updates

I have been completely inactive during the past few weeks and I put the blame on these books 😀 ..

Ouiiiii, I have started reading novels in French!!! Yeeeeyyy! As soon as I realised I could read novels in French, I got really excited. Thanks to Kit’s aunt for giving me a kiddie book in French as a xmas present or I wouldn’t have discovered that I was already capable of reading and understanding such texts otherwise. 🙂 Feels good that I am making progress!

And while I really enjoyed reading the books I just bought and could barely put ’em down, I knew I just couldn’t spend the whole weekend with ’em.. Yesterday was my future mother-in-law’s birthday and we had lunch at restaurant Mont Vully in the “land of the three lakes”. I was so exhausted that I could hardly remember the name of the region. All I could remember was people in this region spoke both French and German.
We all had a great time and the food was delicious. I had monkfish wrapped in parma ham with mushroom risotto. Unfortunately, I have no pics to show.. For some reason, I did not feel comfortable taking photos of the food in front of my in-laws. 😀
However, the restaurant has a good view of the lake and I managed to take a photo of that.

The restaurant has a huge terrasse.. Would be nice to hang out there during spring and summer. It is also located up the hill, suitable for peeps who enjoy trekking.

And for today, I wanted to make beef steak paired with gratin savoyard for dinner.. we ended up eating just the steak instead!
Thanks to my durable pyrex dishes for exploding that my gratin went directly to the trash. 😦
Yeah, after having 2 of my pyrex dishes explode tonight ( the first exploded while it was in the oven, the second as soon as I took it out of the oven), I did not dare to make a
3rd attempt. I was really lucky it did not
blow up in my face nor the broken pieces of glass fell on my feet. And from now on, I swear not to use pyrex dish in the oven anymore.

 

Chinese Hot Pot

After having finished grad school, my girl friends from school and I had to part ways. Some found jobs in the South East, some in the Middle East, others in the US. Only a few of us stayed in Europe. Luckily, my very close friend Vanessa has found a job in Basel and stayed with me in the land of chocolate and cheese.

Unfortunately, our hectic working schedules barely permit us to see each other. Despite the crazy workload and the distance (we live in different cantons), Vannie insisted that we meet on my birthday and told me that she was planning to prepare something “typiquement Asiatique”.
And by that, she meant Chinese Hot Pot! Yeeeeyyy!!!

Vannie and I are originally from South East Asia and it is not everyday that we can have hot pot. I was really happy, it was like a feast. 🙂

It was just perfect for the cold weather.
And look, she baked a cake for me, as well. 🙂

We had a blast! Thanks again, Van!

 

Gruyères

Gruyères is where the well-known cheese Gruyere has come from and it is by far our favorite town in the canton of Fribourg.

Its castle and cheese factory, where they give demonstration on how to make Gruyere attract many tourists, too. There is also the HR Giger museum, Giger is the guy who designed the special effects for the movie Alien. I personally find it weird to have an alien museum in this medieval town, not too far from its castle that was built in the 12th century.
Oh well, I guess it’s okay.. as long as I don’t find any aliens in my Gruyere cheese! 🙂

 

La Maison du Prussien

November 19, I had to pass by the office that saturday morning to submit a report that had caused me not to sleep the night before.

As soon as I arrived home, I went straight to bed. After having x amount of caffeine, I felt like I had a hangover, only not from alcohol, and it was even worse. I just wanted to get some sleep!

I woke up at about half past 16. The first thing I thought about was, “Has Kit had lunch yet?, I need to go to the grocery!, What do I cook for dinner?”. At that same moment, Kit came into the bedroom and said, “Hello, sleepyhead! Feeling better?”. I told him what I was thinking about and he replied, “how about you don’t cook dinner tonight? Let’s eat out.. Say La Table d’Edgar or this or that?“. I smiled and thought to myself, “whoa, somebody’s craving for some fancy food and wants to be pampered.”

Kit and I like going to Michelin-starred restaurants, but we normally plan it ahead of time and see if we can afford it (they’re really quite expensive), so I was quite surprised that he wanted to go to fancy restaurants all of a sudden. I was not expecting to get a table at any of those restaurants.. It was already almost 17:00, on a saturday… quite too late to make a reservation. Kit telephoned a couple of restaurants, but had no luck.. Eventually he got lucky and was given a table for 19:00 at a gastronomique restaurant ( no Michelin star ) in the neighbouring canton of Neuchatel.

The restaurant is called La Maison du Prussien. It was our first time at this restaurant. We liked the interior decor of the restaurant; the wide glass windows made it look spacious, its shade of beige and brown went well with the blue glasses on the tables. It was elegant and cozy!

We took chasselas wine for apéritif and the waiter gave us something to nibble with our wine while looking at the menu..

Finally, we settled for their Menu au truffe.. About 4 plates in which black truffles were incorporated in each plate. As usual, I do not remember the names of the plates anymore, so I’ll just let you have a glimpse of what we had..

This dish was a winner; mashed potatoes with foie gras and black truffles. Super delicious!

Camembert cheese; we thought the texture was weird, but it was fine.

The food was awesome and the service was impeccable.. Not much of a difference compared to Michelin-starred restaurants.. We actually thought it deserved at least 1 star.

So, we returned home stuffed and happy. But earlier, while we were having dinner, Kit kept on looking at me in a weird way.. I could not figure out what it was until we were already in bed; I was half asleep when he called out “Hun?” I murmured, “yeah?”, and then he asked, “Will you marry me??”

I was shocked (in a good way).. I thought I was dreaming, it seemed surreal. I realised he was acting strange the whole evening, but it did not
occur to me he’d pop that question. The last time I remember he did not want to get married, at least not
in the near future. Teary eyed and all smiles, I said “Yes!!!”

And that’s what makes the restaurant La Maison du Prussien special and memorable to us.

La Maison du Prussien
Rue des Tunnels 11
2000 Neuchâtel
Tel: +41 32 730 54 54

 

On Sushis and Sashimis

Sushis and sashimis are on top of our favorite foods to eat.. I have to say Kit and I are a huge fan of this Japanese creation.

Kit and I had sushi during our first date at this Japanese restaurant, Myo, in Lausanne. The food was okay, it just was not to our liking.

Anyway, when it comes to sushis and sashimis, there are three Japanese restaurants in the Suisse Romande region that we often visit:

1.) Restaurant St-Roch, Yverdon Les Bains

This restaurant may not be as fancy and classy as you’d want, but they make really good sushis and serve fresh sashimis. Funny thing is that this restaurant is owned and run by a Chinese family, so you might think it’s not authentic Japanese, right? We can assure you though that they make the food just as authentic as any Jap resto does in the region.

The service is good, not perfect; the staff is friendly and accommodating. What we like most about this restaurant is their flexibility; we can order something that is not in the menu and they make it for us. They also have the best seaweed salad and the prices are very affordable, too.

The dragon and rainbow roll that we ordered (not listed in the menu)

mixed sashimi

If you’re in the region, want some Japanese food, and want value for money, we definitely recommend this place.

St-Roch
Rue de Pêcheurs 8
1400 Yverdon Les Bains
Tel: +41 24 425 30 87

2.) Ichi-ban, Lausanne

If you are also an Unagi (eel), Tamago (japanese omelette), and Toro (tuna belly) lover like us, then this is the place to go.

The manager who is also the sushi chef is very nice and friendly. The restaurant has a cozy and romantic atmosphere. It is better to reserve a table especially during the weekends. The restaurant is quite small and can only accommodate a certain number of guests (definitely not more than 20 on the first floor).
Yes, this restaurant has a second floor which we believe is alloted for guests who prefer to have hot plates. We haven’t tried it yet, though.

The downside, it is more expensive than St-Roch, probably because it is situated in Lausanne. They also run out of stock (fish, crab, etc.) most of the time, so even if they have the best Toro, they might not have it when you want it.
In spite of that, we still keep on coming back.

Ichi-ban
Avenue d’Ouchy 58
1006 Lausanne
Tel: +41 21 601 31 68

3.) Miyako, Lausanne

Miyako being one of the restaurants of Beau Rivage Palace in Lausanne is the fanciest and the most expensive out of the three. But that doesn’t mean they serve the best food, although we can say that they have the best service compared to St-Roch and Ichiban.
Miyako is the place to go if you feel like having japanese food and pampering yourself at the same time. Reservation is advised, this restaurant is much smaller than Ichiban.

Miyako
Beau Rivage Palace
Place du Port 17-19
1000 Lausanne
Tel: +41 21 613 33 33

 

Lucerne

Kit plays hockey once every year with his friends in Lucerne.. Luckily, I was able to accompany him last year and was able to take a glimpse of this famous city.

Lucerne is in the German speaking part (north-central) of Switzerland. Thanks to Kit’s ability to speak German, we never had problems communicating with people in local areas like restaurants. 🙂

Here are some of the photos:

The Chapel Bridge: built in the 14th century.

The Lion Monumentwas built to commemorate the Swiss guards who were massacred during the French revolution in the 17th century.

Pity, I did not get to see much of this beautiful city due to time constraints, but I would definitely go back to visit if
given a chance.

 

Fondant au Chocolat

Kit has such a sweet tooth and since it is only during the weekends that I can spend some decent time in the kitchen, I try to make desserts to satisfy his cravings for sweets.

Not wanting to slave myself much in the kitchen (Weekends are my “faire de ménage” and rest days too, ya know! ) I normally opt for simple, easy to make desserts, yet delicious..

So yesterday, while I was trying to get rid of unwanted papers, I came across this recipe of fondant au chocolat, which my friend gave me..

It was incredibly easy to make and not time consuming either..
Et voila, le resultat:

Kit really liked it. 🙂

 

Chicken and Shrimp Dumplings

Last saturday, I passed by the Japanese store, Uchitomi, in Geneva.

I was actually looking for Japanese nuts, but I came across this bamboo steamer and ended up buying it instead, as well as a pack of dumpling wrapper.

I couldn’t wait to try my new bamboo steamer out, so I went straight to the kitchen as soon as I got home and started cooking.

I used about twelve pieces of prawns (minced), 1 boneless chicken breast (ground), 1 medium carrots (shredded), 1 medium sized shallots (finely chopped).. I mixed them all together, seasoned with salt and pepper et voila.. I started wrapping…

And steaming..

Since the steamer is quite small, I was able to steam only 6 pieces per batch. I made about 24 pieces.
Light but filling saturday lunch. 🙂