The French Foodie

I find it quite impressive and funny at the same time how wine makers and brewers use their creativities in naming their labels. I have found some strangest names for wine over the internet that is actually for sale and people actually drink. One of the most popular sparkling wines for sale is the Fat Bastard Chardonnay from Southern France citizens Guy Anderson and Thierry Boudinard. Another quite intriguing name that I found was the Unpronounceable Grape. It is a Hungarian mixing of Gewurtztraminer and Irsai Oliver, made at the Neszmely winery, which is a spicy fruit-filled wine that will make anyone see and smell it want to drink it. Next is the French red wine called Frog’s Piss and no, it doesn’t have a frog’s juice mixed all over it, but it is a fruity kind of drink. Another one for the big guys is the Cleavage Creek where it is stated on the label itself “Premium grapes grown in the cleavage of some of the most beautiful California hills are then handcrafted into an elegant complex wine that is full bodied yet vivacious”. There are a lot more crazy wine names out there but don’t let the names fool you, because most of them are the best tasting wines in the world.

My boyfriend and I always make sure that we enjoy our weekend being together, Aside from short travels in case of holidays, we also go for fine dining, movies and coffee. This time since we just celebrated our first year anniversary, we are planning to go on a summer getaway. We were delighted to find out that vacationrentals.com is offering a one of a kind promotion at the moment until August 4, 2009 only. They are giving away three fantastic vacations plus “Win a Celebrity Weekend” promo. You can have a chance to win A Chef Bonnie Weekend Getaway wherein you can experience gourmet cooking by Hell’s Kitchen Chef Bonnie herself. Since both of us have an undying love for food, we decided to take the deal. The package will be a three days two nights in Kohali Ranch, Hawaii. The rate isn’t really that high and beside we can cook our own food at the vacation homes if ever we don’t get the chance to win the celebrity weekend promo. My boyfriend is a good cook because he took culinary in college and he’s got his Hawaiian cookbook with him in case we’ve run out of budget but we’ll make sure that we’ll try all those famous Hawaiian dishes that they have.

I think the current weather condition is making me more dependent on coffee. I can’t understand why my workplace has always a soporific effect on me. The moment I step in my work station the yawning seems inevitable. It’s not actually new because my officemate even asked me if smelling the whole coffee grains could wake her up. She doesn’t really drink coffee so it was an honest mistake; it kept me in stitches though. In my case I need at least some dose of caffeine to stay awake in the early morning of work and some more to perk me up in the afternoon. If not the coffee machines in the building I always find myself in my favorite coffee shop, Krispy Kreme. My boyfriend said it’s high time I chose from those coffee makers in the department store or I would soon be spending more. I agree with him in some point but of course I will not be bringing any coffee machines at work. If I do, either my officemates will thank me for such an act of charity or they would think I’m just nuts for bringing such. I tried to compare coffee machines prices so I could check which ones are the best to get. I found that Delonghi coffee makers and Gaggia coffee machines are actually good espresso makers and are actually used by some coffee shops around the country, which brings me to the problem of which coffee maker do I get…

I just quit my last job last month because I couldn’t stand seeing my Korean manager anymore. My sister, a six month old pregnant wouldn’t want any company but me. She let me stay in their new house and have an access to their state of the art kitchen appliance because my brother in law is a chef in a cruise ship. I just found out that he is planning to make his own cookbook. He wanted me to be his personal encoder and a secretary. I agreed because I’m between jobs and I beside I want to know more about food and cooking. I’m even considering of having my own restaurant business in the future. The cookbook is about European cuisine because my brother in law happens to be German. While doing some Russian recipes I came across some food that I think are easy to prepare. I was not just satisfied by the recipe that I was encoding so I tried to Google it. Upon looking for some Russian cuisine and delicacy I accidentally clicked on a link that directed me to some Russian adventure tours. In that package you can experience to fly a mig-29, a military aircraft used by Russians in previous wars. The food is maybe good but I guess the adventure is even better.

My favorite cousin Ron is coming this weekend and I checked out the yapp brothers web site so I could get some of the finest wines for sale because my cousin loves to drink wine after every meal. I always go to their site to check the wine list and see if they have something new, which more often they have, in their menu. I have learned to love their service because they always have the best wines deliver to my house and I never ever had a problem when it comes to delivery of my drinks, especially when there is a special occasion such as what we will be having this coming weekend. I am pretty sure that this one will be no exception because they always deliver and I know in my heart that I will get all of my money’s worth for going with them again. My cousin should be coming straight from his Asian tour. He loves backpacking and usually, whenever he’s able to complete his trips, he goes directly to the house with all sorts of ingredients and he cooks for us with whatever delicacy he was able to get from wherever he was able to go.

Masala chai is a drink from the Indian subcontinent made by brewing tea with a combination of sweet smelling Indian spices and herbs. By itself, chai is merely the generic word for tea in much of the world, but for many English speakers outside those regions, “chai” is always construed as “masala chai”, while still for some, they like calling it chai tea. This reminds me of a story when my sister decided to buy some tea kettles because she said she wanted to try brewing tea, more specifically the Masala chai because she said she was able to have a taste of it when they went to an Indian restaurant to eat dinner one time. When she got home, she immediately brought out her kettles and chai ingredients and said she will brew a very tasty Indian delicacy for all of us in there. We were all enjoying a game of basketball that time showing on TV that we just said yes to what she was talking about and then by halftime, she went out with cups of tea that was has been talking about that she brewed. We were all skeptical about it because we all know that my sister never cooks and she doesn’t know a thing about cooking. When she sensed that no one wanted to drink the tea, she took a cup and said to watch her enjoy the tea that she made. After taking a sip, she immediately spit it out. She then figured out that she put a lot of spices in her tea and it is basically undrinkable.

There are a lot of unacceptable things that happen every day that I usually just let go since my family and I am not directly affected by them, but when it comes to food that we eat, everything should always fall in to place and properly be given to us, otherwise, expect that there would be a ton of complaints coming from me and my family. This has actually happened already when I decided to make a complaint on a certain restaurant that served us with bad food… bad not because the food tasted awful, but because they have given us food that has passed its expiration date. I remember that day when almost all of us had food poisoning cases right after eating the spoiled food that they decided to feed us, and the worst part is, they charged us for them to do it to us! I’ve checked the company’s record and I saw that there have been some small claims against them already. At that point, I decided to turn those small claims in to something big. I decided to call several organizations that deals with this kind of situation and made sure that they get what they deserved for feeding us spoiled food.

Tomatoes have been one of those food products that have seemingly worked its way in to the everyday lives of the people around the world. It’s almost like a universal food now because a lot of food in every delicacy has tomatoes in their ingredients. In Italy, most of their famous delicacies contain tomatoes. Food like spaghetti, pizza, soups, some rice dishes and a lot more. Even in the United States, people love eating food with tomatoes in it. They put it in all kinds of food and sauces.

With the above being said, it is safe to say that tomato sell really big and if you have a vegetable farm, it is recommended to grow tomatoes in there since it is easy to maintain and easy to sell. And once you get to have a partnership with some big companies around the country, it’s like finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow because it will surely have your money income flow like a river since the raw materials for this kind of business is really cheap. Personally, I love tomatoes and always love to have it in my meals. And with its nutritional value being one of the best, I’m sure that I’ll continually have a yummy and healthy life.

I was only new in Devon and didn’t know much about the place just yet. Yesterday, I was in dire need of a place to eat and if it wasn’t for a friend, I wouldn’t know that there is a nightclub in Torquay that serves great food! For the first time, I was able to finally sink my teeth in to some good food after a few days of just eating processed meat and noodles. Early today, I was able to get a taste of the Devonshire cream tea with some scones, jam and clotted cream for my breakfast and it was great! It was something that I’ve been looking for ever since I moved here and the breakfast that I had today was the culmination of the particular craving, and it turned out to be something that lived up to its hype. I am looking forward in to eating a few more that this place is famous for and hopefully, I’d be able to have them in a short period of time because quite honestly, it was one of the main reasons why I decided to accept the job that was offered to me by my company that made me move in the first place.

I already got my Leeds Festival Seatwave and T in the park festival tickets from the seat wave web site and among the two, I am much more excited to get to the T in the park festival because of one thing and one thing only… FOOD…

I am looking forward to see what else can I get in there because the last time I visited the place, I was able to eat a lot of their delicacies like Arbroath Smokie, Bannocks and Scottish Beef. I am looking forward to have me some Scotch Broth or Hotch-Potch, which is a rich stock that is traditionally made by boiling mutton (the neck is best), beef, marrow-bone or chicken (for a chicken broth). There is also freedom over the choice of vegetables, which should be diced. Carrots, garden peas, leeks, cabbage, turnips and a stick of celery can all be used. The hard vegetables should be added first to the boiling stock, with a handful of barley, with the softer vegetables being added later, at least that’s what the cooking web site has told me. That’s the very first thing that I’ll do once I get to Scotland.