Bucket list: food markets

Rotterdamm/Helsinki

I don't really like to go grocerie shopping in a supermaket, because it is not adventurous, it is often not super fresh and you can't ask anybody about the products. For me - and I'm sure for everyone else out there - it is super fun to go to a market square or a market hall where you get fresh products and also in such a variety. It smells good and it is just a more intense experience to go shopping. You can ask the vendors about the products and you get more connected to them. There is also more of an appreciation for the food than in a supermaket. I read about these two market places. The new market hall in Rotterdam and about Finland's oldest market hall which re-opened for business this summer.

So clearly it has to be on my bucket list!

I.

Rotterdamm (Netherlands)

The opening of the new market hall was on 1. October 2014. There are a lot of vendors, delicatessen, restaurants and apparently a culinary school.

https://www.markthal.nl/het-verhaal-van-het-gebouw/

vendors:

https://www.markthal.nl/aanbieders/

https://www.markthal.nl/magazine/instagrammers-in-de-markthal

II.

Helsinki (Finland)

I found this great gide about Helsinki on the internet!

http://helyeah.visithelsinki.fi/en

http://www.visithelsinki.fi/sites/visithelsinki.fi/files/files/Liitteet/food_helsinki_hel_yeah_map.pdf

market squares and halls:

http://www.visithelsinki.fi/en/see-and-experience/shopping-in-helsinki/markets-and-market-halls-in-helsinki

3 events coming up in November

in Solingen/Kühlungsborn/Köln

I.
Solingen (Nordrhein-Westfalen) 8. and 9. November

"Knife-fork-scissors-market"

http://www.messer-gabel-scherenmarkt.de/


II.
Kühlungsborn (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) 7.-30. November

"gourmet days"

http://www.kuehlungsborn.de/events/hoehepunkte/gourmet-tage.html
http://www.gourmettage.com/


III.
Köln (Nordrhein-Westfalen) 14.-16. November

 "Salon du chocolat"

http://www.salonduchocolat.de/accueil.aspx
http://www.salonduchocolat.de/animation.aspx?catanimation_id=91

Bookstores

especially where you can find a lot of cookbooks

Vienna/New York/London/Berlin

I loooove bookstores. They are one of my favorite places to be. I love to open a new book - the feeling and the smell of it. I really appreciate the written word on actual paper, because it gives you that extra good felling that you get when you hold a book or a magazine in your hands.

Usually one can find me in the bookstore in the cookbook section, where I definately spend most of the time. Other sections can be history, economy, culture and design!

Sadly the number of bookstores with a huge range of books is decreasing, because nowadays you can buy everything online. The problem is that I hate to order books online, unless you already know exactly what you want. I want to look into the book and just hold it in my hands and really turn the pages. So I am really excited to visit these shops or more specific cookbook shops, where you can find a huge selection of books. There are also special (culinary) events or workshops that you can look up on their website.

I.

Babette's in Vienna

http://www.babettes.at/de

http://www.babettes.at/de/unsere-geschaefte/impressionen-1040

II.

Kitchen Arts & Letters in New York

http://kitchenartsandletters.com/bookstore/

III.

Foyles in London

http://www.foyles.co.uk/

IV.

Dussmann das KulturKaufhaus in Berlin

http://www.kulturkaufhaus.de/de/

Recipe

Lambfilet with pomegranate-cherry-sauce

and pistachio-rice

As I told you I am currently obsessed with oriental cooking. This recipe is a lebanese one. 

In the picture you can see that this is not lambfilet, but a rack of lamb. I actually cooked this dish twice and the first time I had a filet, but didn't make a photo. So I had to cook it again to make a photo for my blog, but this time the butchery had no filet, so I went with the rack of lamb. 

Personally I like a filet better.

Also I have to say that due to my bad phone camera the meat looks redder as it actually is...it is more of a fine pink color on the inside. But that is the problem with the camera in your phone when it is night time - you can't get a good picture! So sorry for that!

Now for the ingredients:

4 lambfilets
1 teaspoon ground green pepper
fresh thymine
some pine nuts

1/2 pomegranate
200 ml cherry juice
1 tablespoon starch
1 teaspoon oregano
2 tablespoons pomegranatesirup
1/2 - 1 teaspoon sugar


instruction:

1) Marinade the filets in some fine chopped thymine, 1/2 teaspoon of ground green pepper and 1 tablespoon of oil for max. 30 minutes.

2) Mix 3 tablespoons of cherry juice with the starch and put it aside. Mix the rest of the cherry juice, the pomegranatesirup, 1/2 teaspoon of the ground green pepper and oregano together and heat it up. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. Then pour the starch-juice-mixture into the pot and let it simmer for 2 minutes. If you think that the sauce is still too runny let it simmer a bit longer. After that strain the sauce through a strainer. Season the sauce with sugar adn add pomegranate seeds and thymine. Just taste it.

3) Roast the filets from every side in oil for 2 minutes. Then let them rest shortly. Cut them at an angle and season them. Arrange it on the plate with the sauce and add some roasted pine nuts.


For the rice you need:

150 gramms of basmati rice
60 gramm pistachios
220 ml vegetable broth
2 tablespoons butter
1 bayleaf


instructions:

1) Put 1 tablespoon of pistachios aside. Grind up the rest of the pistachios.

2) Heat up the butter till it foams, then add the rice and braise it lightly. Pour the vegetable broth into the pot and add half of the grind up pistachios with one bayleaf (break it before you add it!)

3) When the rice is ready remove the bayleaf and add the rest of the pistachios.

Vintage store

Düsseldorf 

I read a small article about this store and have a visit already on my bucket list. It was meant to be a shabby-chic store. Because of the passion for vintage clothes the store owner sells dresses from the 40's and 50's. But you can also find a lot of handbags, tableware, chairs and desks.

From the pictures on the website the store looks like a perfect place to find some hidden vintage treasures and just rummage around. I definately want to check this place out when I'm in Düsseldorf!

http://www.villa-oliva.de/Villa_Oliva/Start.html

http://www.villa-oliva.de/Villa_Oliva/Wohnaccessoires.html#8

http://www.villa-oliva.de/Villa_Oliva/50er_Design.html

http://www.villa-oliva.de/Villa_Oliva/Info.html

Bucket list - "TTCCH"

Vegetarian Slow Food

Berlin

"TTCCH" = Till the cows come home. As we all know restaurants don't always have to be big, like "TTCCH". It is a rebuilt container and has a wooden patio.
 It is a vegetarian restaurant that is participating in the slow food movement.
The "Slow-food-movement" is connected to appreciated, concious eating and local ingredients. It is a countermotion to globalized fastfood.
The "TTCCH"-food is made of organic and local groceries.
The founder Natalie Viaux wants to combine local products with mediterranean flavors and good taste with healthy food. The solang is "Slow, healthy, fuckin' yummy food".

http://www.ttcch.de/

Location:
 SCHÖNHAUSER ALLEE 9
10119 BERLIN

Hours:
Mo-Su 10:00 - 16:00

Bucket list - foodXchange

Berlin

Cathrin Brandes is a lawyer, cookbook author, food blogger and event manager. She founded a private food exchange club, where people can bring their homemade or hand picked food and trade it.

foodXchange website

 

http://foodxchangeberlin.wordpress.com/

the rules for "foodXchange"

The private food exchange club is about every last wednesday of the month. The location is the "market hall nine" in Kreuzberg (http://www.markthalleneun.de/) but it can also vary for special occasions.

It is a prive club for a reason. Nobody is conducting a trade or a store. Everybody is participating just for fun and has a passion for cooking, baking, gardening etc. and not because of financial purposes. It is not a public marketplace because otherwise you would have to follow strict public laws and needed a business registration.

To participate in this food exchange club you have to register under foodxchange@web.de and you will automatically become a member of the club. In addition you just have to pay an amount of 2 € as a contribution towards costs.

http://foodxchangeberlin.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/foodxchange-berlin-the-golden-rules/

you can find also more information on facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/foodxchangeberlin

Cathrin Brandes' food blog

http://berlintidbits.wordpress.com/

Bizzare Foods

Andrew Zimmern

Andrew Zimmern is a cook, journalist and culinary explorer, who travels the world to experience all the different foods and flavors out there, especially the bizzare ones.

This show is just hilarious and so interesting. Andrew is just a fearless eater. Whatever lands on his plate he eats it! It is really disgusting sometimes. I think he has eaten every bits and pieces of almost every animal. But it is a very entertaining show and I love to watch it because I think it is very intense. He has traveled so many countries and really gets so close into the foreign cooking and all the backyards where he can learn more about the preparation of the food and also the background of the culture. I agree with him when he says it is a great way to get to know different culture through their food and eating habits.

 Movie Trailer

"Der Koch"

A new film is coming out in Germany on the 27. of Novemer. It is called "The Cook" and based on the bestseller book of  Martin Suters. It is about a tamil applicant for asylum called Maravan, who happens to be a phenomenal cook. Especially he knows about aphrodisiac cooking, which brings him success but also a lot of trouble.
I haven't read the book but to me the trailer looks interesting, especially with this other cultural background of the main character. I hope you learn more about this in the movie.
And of course it always gives me goose bumps when I see close up cooking and hear this beautiful sizzling noise, which i love.

CHiC

2005-2009 on arte TV

"CHiC" was a televison lifestyle show, which was all about fashion, architecture, gastronomy and design. It was aired from 2005 till 2009 in France and Germany. I think it was my first show on arte I watched religiously! The show was dealing with all the subjects I was (and still am) interested in. One episode was about 26 minutes long. It had so many interesting issues, stories and discoveries. Because of this huge span of time it is hard to remember everything. What I can remember though is that there was always a report about the history of a special item, which was always interesting to learn about. I was especially looking forward to fridays (at least I think it was a friday), because on that day they had one grocerie they introduced and had some chef cook with it. You could download the recipes on the arte website, which I did of course!

I loved the show and I am still looking for something that is similar to that one, but to this day I haven't. Maybe it is out there in some other country and I haven't found it yet.

I tried to find old reports on youtube, but sadly there is a very small selection. I will put some down below though, so you get a bit of an impression what it was like. Or maybe you also used to watch it and have great memories about this show.

in french

 in french

in french

 in french

  

in german

Food Documentaries

 Iran and India

As you already know I love to watch food documentaries! So I just want to share these two with you. I am currently super interested in asian and oriental cooking. So I really enjoyed watching these series. I am just so fascinated with the different combinations and ways of preparing the food. There are so many foreign and interesting spices. I am obsessed with these spices that give the food such a great flavor and lush color. I could watch them make these delicious dishes all day. To watch how somebody is cooking and seeing the passion they put into it is so delightful and you can always pick up things.

Iran

watch also episode 2-4

India

watch also episode 2-5

Music

Shannon Saunders 

I already mentioned her in an earlier post and recommended the song "Sheets". Here are new uploads of two of her songs from her album. I think she is such a talended musician. I have the feeling that her music is somehow delicate but also playful and adventurous. I really like this soft-edgyness.

I will also put the first video of "shed session" down below where she is performing beautifully an accoustic version of her song "Creatures".

http://instagram.com/saundersshannon

http://www.shannonsaundersofficial.com/

Shoes Shoes Shoes

Bucket list - Boating
in Copenhagen

http://www.goboat.dk/#home

Lately I have a huge desire to visit the nordic countries like Denkmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden ( I just went to Stockholm a few years ago, but that trip was just  too short!).

When I discovered this website, where you can rent boats to have a picnic on and explore copenhagen from the water, I had to put it on my bucket list! For one thing I love water and boats and for another thing I am crazy about picnics!!!! It is just one of the best things to share home made food, the companionship of others and sitting in nature or enjoying a part of nature. It is more of an experience than a normal meal at home or in a restaurant.

There is also a menu you can order from: http://www.goboat.dk/menu

Accessories

leather bags from spain

While looking through a magazine, I discovered this great bag label "Iriarte Iriate". As a bag-addicted person, I fell in love with these beautiful leather designs.

"Iriarte Iriarte" is a small and delicate label, founded by to sisters from Argentina. The manufacture is located in Barcelona. Carolina Iriarte does all the traditional handcraft by herself. She loves and prefers vintage bags. She values things that last for a long time due to their great quality and careful making. That is why she uses just the best materials for her bag production.

http://iriarteiriarte.com/studio/gotico

http://iriarteiriarte.com/collection/in-my-garden

http://iriarteiriarte.com/collection/

Movies

I recently enjoyed!

I am very particular with movies, especially with the ones that claim to be super funny, because most movies have all funny scenes in the trailer, so it is a waste of time to see the whole movie!

I really have to say that "What's in a name" and "The grand budapest hotel" are both very funny movies, but the first one is the one I laughed the most. You wouldn't expect "What's ina name" to be that hilarious just by watching the trailer, because the trailer isn't that funny; so I hesitated a long time to see this movie.

"The grand budapest hotel" was more unique though!

I haven't seen such good movies in a long time. I really recommend to see them!

I recommend "The hundred foot journey"  if you want to have a nice and relaxing movie night. The pictures are amazing and the story is told very nicely! If you have a passion for cooking then it is definately a nice movie to watch.

Flea market

Karlsruhe

A few weeks ago I had a stand at a flea market together with two other friends. We wanted to sell clothes, shoes, jewelry and books. 

When I had the chance to stroll and browse through the other stands, two things really caught my eye. Ten super nice ice cream bowls - for my imagniary café :D - and the beautiful vase. Of course I prefer to put fresh flowers into the vase but I do not always have the time to get fresh ones and I had some fake flowers left - because a few days ago I did some handicraft - and just put them in there.

Ice cream bowl

vase

Osiander Bookstore - Greenbooks

Germany

Driven by the well-known goal to cut emissions the Osiander bookstore in Tübingen decided to think about their contribution in this matter. They wanted to find out whether students were keen on delivering books ordered online by bicycle. A couple weeks later students had founded a firm called Greensbooks. Now 80 students deliver books to the customers just as quickly as amazon, but with the positiv side effect that there are no emissions.

You can find this courier service not only in Tübingen, but also in Heilbronn, Stuttgart, Reutlingen and Frankfurt am Main. In 2011 Osiander was honored for this project with the future award of Baden-Württemberg.

Documentary: "Eye candy"

arte plus 7

Based on a painting or art piece - which shows the cooking of a particular time/age - art historians, chefs and other specialists analyze the gastronomy of this time.

Inspired by this painting the chef prepares a special dinner.

What I really like about this documentary is that they not only show the cooking, but also talk a lot about the products used at this time, the production, what was common for this time and the historical and cultural backround in general.

http://www.arte.tv/guide/de/suchergebnisse?keyword=augenschmaus

Jewelry

Hamburg

Last year I was in Hamburg, I discovered this nice jewelry-shop while walking through the Schanzenviertel.
If you are looking for dainty jewelry that is where you have to go!

http://www.jewelberry.de/shop/index.php

http://www.jewelberry.de/shop/index.php

http://www.jewelberry.de/shop/index.php

1. Asian inspired dish

At the moment I am totally into asian cooking. It is super delicious and super easy. Here I made sticky rice, browned mushrooms, eggplant, garlic, ginger and deglazed it with some rice wine and light soy-sauce. Then I topped it with fresh coriander and crispy seasoned seaweed. So simple and quick!

 

2. Fettuccine with basil, sundried tomato, pistachio

This dish is also super quick and easy! 

Mix shredded basil with ground almonds and pistachios.

Put oil, onion and garlic in a pan and sauté until translucent. Toss in the sun-dried tomatoes and cook, stirring frequently for 2-3 minutes. Add the basil and nut mixture and stir for 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.

I took fettucine mixed them with the "sauce". Then you just add grated parmesan and drizzle with lemon juice.

3. Aubergine with Chermoula Bulgur & Joghurt

recipe out of

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/3831023336/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=479289147&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1607743949&pf_rd_m=A3JWKAKR8XB7XF&pf_rd_r=1B795PE0XH3JD0FZWDVN

 4. Beef curry

recipe out of

http://www.amazon.de/Mighty-Spice-Express-Cookbook-Full-/dp/1848991142/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1413473970&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=mighty+spice+express

 5. Mashed potatoes with rack of lamb

We didn't have any recipes, we just whipped up marinades for the meat.

6. Haunch of venison (oriental style)

with couscous, pomegranate, coriander, pistachios and figs. (We rubbed the meat with spices)

Music 

records I like

 

I love my record player...it is so beautiful with the wooden sides! :)

The reason why I wanted to have a record player was ONE man i fell madly in love with! It's the brazilian guitar player, singer and composer "Joao Gilberto"!

It struck me one day when I walked into a record store that had also CDs. I was browsing through the CDs when the music of Joao Gilberto came up and I instantly fell in love with this music. The guy told me that there are only records of his music, so I just had to get a record player!

His music is perfect for chill-out-times (that's why Gilberto got the name "Chillberto") or any moments you just want to have soft music in the backround. 

I also listen to other music, but I really love brazilian music!