Fig and chèvre toastie

An über-schnell sweet & savoury snack which saved me from just-got-home-from-a-long-day hunger pangs. 

Fig and chevre toastie

Serves 2 for pre-dinner snack

Ingredients

About 2 tablespoons of chèvre (goats cheese)

2 slices of crusty bread, slightly toasted

2-3 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 large fig, quartered

ground black pepper to taste

Method

Lightly toast the slices of crusty bread in an oven. Spread the goats cheese on top and put back in the oven until the cheese has slightly melted (about 2 minutes). Take the cheesy toasties out of the oven and sprinkle black pepper liberally. Top with figs, cherry tomatoes and whatever green salad leaves you have.

Devour. 

Rendang: world's most delicious food

It's totally true! Beef rendang took the top spot in CNN GO's list of best food in the world. OK, so Facebook polling isn't exactly scientific. But whatevs, a dish that takes hours to labour over definitely deserves to be named the best food in the world.


This the second installment to my (seemingly ridiculous) journey to cooking the Top 40 Indonesian food. This version of rendang slightly omits some spices which I couldn't find in Swiss supermarkets. It's probably not the most traditional way to cook it, but for me it worked. And I figured it still tastes pretty good, since I made this at a dinner party last weekend and not a scrape of rendang sauce was left on the plate :) 

40 of Indonesia's best dishes

The best Indonesian foods are hands down the old school, simple, traditional ones that you get from kaki limas. Kaki lima (meaning five legs) is a terminology for an Indonesian food cart (3 wooden 'legs' and 1 front wheel) which is rolled down the city streets by a seller (the 2 legs). OK, so of course if you're not used to 'street food' you risk catching some variation of Bali belly. But I'm sure that 7.5 out of 10 times you will probably be fine... Here is the complete list of the best 40 Indonesian dishes compiled by CNN. My goal is to attempt to cook every single one of them at some point while living in Europe, and where possible substituting the tropical ingredients with local produce I can find here. A bit of a Euro-Indo fusion ;) 

Meatless Mondays: Caprese Polenta Pizza

These days I am constantly running between my master thesis work and my (paid) work. I should really get a bike... So when I get home starving, express cooking is the way to go. That, and when even takeaway Chinese costs 20 bucks, there is just no option but to home cook all the time.

So, I am super happy to have found out about polenta. It cooks so quickly and is ready in minutes. This vegetarian version of the polenta pizza I made last week makes a super speedy and colourful dinner!

(Vegan) Chocolatey Strawberry Tart: erdbeer pfluecken in Urdorf

It’s the first sunny weekend in a while and I am dying to go do outdoorsy stuff. I have a slightly embarrassing confession. Instead of opting for erm… more respectable/strenuous Swiss activities along the lines of hiking and biking, I decided to have a ‘domesticated Saturday morning’ and (very nicely) dragged Mark to this strawberry farm in Urdorf, just 20 minutes outside of Zurich.

Terong Balado (Spicy eggplant): Being Indonesian means – part 2

... continued from here

Being Indonesian means…

You can never make up your mind when ordering in restaurants, so you just order everything and end up with too much food.

See, what people don’t understand is when one grows up having a rijsttafel (rice table) at every meal, it’s hard to pick ONE main dish per meal. A rice table is when you eat rice with multiple options of side dishes (‘lauk pauk’), anywhere between 3 (typical lunch) to 40 (a feast).

Cah Kangkung (stir fried spinach): Being Indonesian means - part 1

Cah Kangkung (Stir fried spinach)

I was just thinking about this today and decided to write it down... Of course it's nothing serious, just a small reflection :) 

Being Indonesian means…

You need a hint of chilli in every single dish you eat, no matter where you are. This may lead to (erm, interesting) habits such as:

• Having packets of chilli sauce (the stock standard sambal ABC) in your handbag ready to whip out and pour on any meals from street food to Michelin star food. 
• Knowing the word for chilli sauce options in many cuisines. I can count the words sambal, togarashi, aji, tabasco, chipotle, la jiao you, piri piri, and harissa in my vocabulary. I thank my mum for teaching me most of these (she is completely obsessed with chili).

Smoked Trout and Carpione Polenta Pizza: I Heart Como

After living in Zurich for the past 18 months, we finally decided to see what the fuss is about with Lake Como. You see, everyone raves about Lake Como. It’s the perfect weekend break from Zurich (only 3 hours by train), amazingly picturesque train ride through the Alps, the impossibly regal named villages (Bellagio, Menaggio, Cernobbio), and the offensively humongous lakeside villas (including the one that belongs to George Clooney, of course).

(Vegan) banana and speculoos muffin: un weekend en Belgique

Road tripping in Belgium: Brugge (left), way-too-picturesque countryside (top right), hanging out by the beach in Knock - Belgium's take on Cannes (bottom right)

I've come to the conclusion that Belgium is probably the most underrated travel destination in Western Europe. Before our little visit to Belgium, I have always associated Belgium (yes I just assumed the entire country), with Canberra - a sleepy capital country town with government officials in suits everywhere, talking politics and spy-stuff like in Bourne Identity. I know that's pretty weird.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see a very different place than I expected: high end designer stores doting the streets of Antwerp, trendy-but-non-pretentious restaurants, fresh + cheap seafood, good wines and of course the standard European cobbled-stoned Old Town thing.

Lapin à l'orange (rabbit with orange and ginger sauce): skiing in Chamonix

As I just realized, the past winter (despite my injuries) I managed to have squeezed in double digits of skiing days. This is a massive achievement for an ultra non-sporty person with minimal skiing experience! A lot of it was due to some impromptu skiing weekends in places close to Zurich (the benefits of being in Central Europe!)

Meatless Mondays - Swiss Chard (Krautstiel) Pesto

I just realised recently that I’ve been pretty ignorant when it comes to vegetable shopping. When I first started cooking (fresh out of college and finally got a real kitchen in a share house), my champion dish was always the Mie Goreng. From all the vegetable choices out there, for some reason I have always stuck to zucchinis, capsicum and mushrooms which I always put in my Mie Goreng. This became a habit and for a long time these were the only three veggies I would even think of buying!

Cooking up a feast at Paon Bali in Ubud, Indonesia

I've been going to Bali pretty much every year since I was 4 years old. When we go, we normally keep our holiday plans to pretty much a minimum so that we can spend as much time as possible between our place and the beach. OK, except one time when M and I decided to get married in Bali. The only time I actually set foot on the beach during that trip was seriously only during our wedding ceremony! But that's another story ;)

Anyway, every so often we venture out and try to discover new touristy things. Last December, we found the Paon Bali and absolutely loved it. It's a cooking class located in serene Ubud in the north of Bali, run by a husband and wife team, the funny Ibu Puspa and Pak Wayan.

Welcoming the Saka New Year in Silence (Nyepi in Bali)

The Balinese celebrate the end of the Hindi Saka calendar with the epic Ogoh-Ogoh parade.

Last month I managed to squeeze in a 3 day vacation amid the hecticness that is my research roject in Indonesia. Escaping the craziness of Jakarta, I went away to stay at my parent's little piece of heaven for the long weekend of Nyepi in Bali. Nyepi Day (Silence Day) commemorates the New Year in the Saka (Hindu) calendar. This was actually my first time being in Bali for Nyepi and it was such a treat!

Meatless Mondays - Three Bean Shepherd's Pie with Baked Celeriac Mash

Celeriac: possibly the ugliest vegetable around but so much goodness and a guilt-free substitute for potatoes.

I just heard about this thing called Meatless Mondays. It’s a great American initiative that started in 2003 to get people to give up meat one day a week. As we know (and often ignore!), animal products in our food chain contributes to a third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. That’s because the meat industry uses masses of energy to raise the livestock and poultry. Additionally, grazing livestock also add to the problem of land degradation. According to the good guys at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, simply turning your meal into a vegetarian one already reduces the carbon footprint of your meal by 70%.

Greek-Inspired Olive Crusted Roast Beef with Potatoes and Homemade Tzakiki

Tzakiki dip made from homemade yogurt (top) with olive-crusted roast beef (bottom)

This year Easter came twice. One weekend after the Anglo Easter weekend, it’s now the Greek’s turn to celebrate Orthodox Easter.

Now, if I didn’t have my little accident and hadn’t hurt my ankle, we were supposed to be watching the madness of Orthodox Easter festivities in a small island in Chios, Greece. We would have seen this insane festival called Rouketopolemos. The festival goes between Easter eve until Easter day, this year it is held between April 15 - 16. It involves the congregation of two (traditionally) neighbouring rival churches of St Mark’s and Panaghia Ereithiani, shooting makeshift firecrackers made out of wooden sticks stuck to a whole heap of gun powder. Hence the term “Rocket War”! The goal of the game is to hit the bell tower of the rival church using these rockets. Coming from Australia, where the sale of firecrackers are strictly prohibited in most states, the idea of Rouketopolemos is totally amusing!

Hot Cross Buns - Happy White Easter!

The universe is telling me to slow down. After the busy whirlwind trip to Indonesia, I was so ready to come back for a mini Easter weekend a way to Turkey with M. But unfortunately, not even 24 hours after my return to Switzerland I managed to sprain my ankle walking down the stairs. A 4 hour emergency room wait, followed by my first German-speaking hospital encounter, I was finally told it was a damaged ligament. So it’s crutches for a week, cast for a month, no flying for a while (what is this DVT business…) which means… no Turkey for the Easter break and no skiing until next season! Boo hoo.. whinge whinge whinge… Who knew not watching where you’re going has such dire consequences.

So this Easter weekend I’m sitting tightly at home in Zurich. And it was a white Easter, can you believe it snowed in April? We ended up having a nice Easter lunch with a group of friends in Zurich, and stuffed ourselves silly with too much food. For dessert I served my favourite Easter treat, fresh out-of-the-oven hot cross buns. These little treats are sold everywhere in England and Australia during Easter. It’s traditionally eaten on Good Friday, with the cross symbolizing Christ’s crucifixion.

Siomay Bandung Dumplings – a fleeting visit to Paris van Java

Mt. Tangkuban Perahu, Bandung

Jump to recipe

I’m spending the next three weeks in Indonesia to do some work for my research project. This is possibly the longest time I have spent in my home country in my entire adult life. In the next 3 weeks, I’ll be doing some island hopping and am looking forward to adding at least another three Indonesian cities to my travel list.

The first stop is a fleeting day trip to Bandung, about 3 hours south east of Jakarta, which is also the capital of West Java province. Leaving the craziness of Jakarta at the crack of dawn, I finally reached Bandung at 9am. As soon as I arrived, I was instantly reminded of the Jakarta I grew up in… the fresher air, the cooler climate, the (slightly) slower pace of life, the becaks (cycle rickshaw), and generally nicer people.

Peanut Sauce (Sambal Kacang)

Peanut sauce (Sambal Kacang) is a star condiment of Indonesian cooking. OK, so every country in South East Asia always tries to claim it as one of theirs. But who wouldn’t? There’s nothing not to love about peanut sauce. It’s so yummy, easy to make, and so versatile. We eat it with pretty much everything, from satay (sate), dumplings (siomay), salad (gado-gado or ketroprak), to rice and any meat dishes.

Huevos Rancheros - Brunching in Sydney's Northern Beaches

Checking the surf

Last Christmas we went back to Sydney for a summer wedding of two of our close friends. We stayed for two amazing weeks of beaches, surfing, brunching and grazing over long coffees. Sometimes I really wondered why I left for Europe in the first place…

In Sydney, we used to live up in the Northern Beaches, in a beautiful small suburb called Fairlight just up the road from the famous Manly beach. Our place was about 5 minute walk down to the local Fairlight beach.

Carciofi alla Romana (Roman Stuffed Artichokes) - Seasonal Eating

Artichokes from Oerlikon Markt

Cooking with in-season vegetables is a pretty easy and cheap way to practice sustainable eating. It minimises the emissions generated from transporting these vegetables from far away farms. Plus, you keep your local farmers happy and it’s a good opportunity to put on your experimental masterchef hat.

Unlike in Australia where we could generally get vegetables at any time of the year for pretty cheap, eating seasonally is anyway something that Europeans have already been doing for a very long time. I guess when the climate is harsher you’re left with no choice but to be resourceful!

Red velvet cupcake with Bailey's cream cheese frosting: Happy Valentine's Day from Zurich!

I caved in and decided to do Valentine's baking after a boring day of doing admin work for my thesis. I was initially going to do macarons but that failed miserably so ended up with a red velvet cupcake instead. For a first try I thought it was ok, nothing like Magnolia Bakery's version of course  (I don't have enough butter in the fridge to do that).... As for the Bailey's, well any excuse for booze on Valentine's right? 

Yankee crab cakes with tartare sauce: a week of loving New York, New York (part 1)

(Clockwise from top left): Ballet at the Lincoln Centre; Waiting for the show; Runners at Central Park (very Juno); Manhattan skyline from Brooklyn

NYC came calling the week after my Paris winter school, which came as a nice break. M’s brother and his beautiful family (which includes the most beautiful blonde baby boy in the world) have recently relocated to New York for a couple of years. As this was the first time we were finally in the same hemisphere for a while, of course we couldn’t pass an opportunity to visit!

This was our second NYC trip this year and I thought our autumn visit was much nicer. The only hordes of tourists that we saw were the runners who were in town for the NYC marathon. It’s a mega-sell out event and people come from all over the world… to run 42km across NYC. Clearly, I have yet to discover the joys of long distance running... Anyway, all NYC marathon finishers get this really big medal and it was quite cute to see people still wearing them even in the days after the race.

Galettes: cheap eats in Paris!

Montmartre at dusk.
Sacre Coeur (L), throngs of tourist trying to take arty photos of that pointy tower at sunset (M), an artist hard at work (R)

The past couple of months have been full of hectic travelling for both work and fun, going from super-hot to super-freezing weather! But this also meant lots of feasting in between, which has unfortunately resulted in coming home to Switzerland with an extra 3 kilos of food baby… (detox starts next week).