Friends who drink coffee together, stay together

Well, well, well, how are you dear friends? After a brief hiatus due to long-haul flights and ever changing time zones we are back! And back with a  vengeance might we add. We knew we had to plan something extra special for our return post, and that, we did.

After some serious and stealthy planning on Ale's part, the three of us returned to our natural habitat - drinking coffee in a café together, almost... Clever Ale managed to buy both myself and Philly Willy (apologies for the nick name Philippa) a coffee in the countries he knew we would be in; Philippa's in NYC of course, and mine in beautiful Oslo, where I missed my dearest Ale by the skin of his teeth (roughly two days in non metaphorical terms). Ale is currently enjoying the cultural and foodie delights of Vietnam on his travels, but only after popping to America and Norway to fix his friends up with a caffeine hit - some serious competition now for the next grand gesture of friendship within this threesome...

Below is each of our personal accounts of the country-spanning-coffee-rendez-vous!

Ale

Oh Norway, home of beautiful fjords, Vikings, reindeers, the midnight sun and (allegedly) trolls. Norway, Norway, Norway, you beautiful, overly expensive Scandinavian country.

I recently spent 20h in its capital, Oslo, and I somehow made sure to miss every single one of the things mentioned above. The reason why my trip there was so short? I flew there from Dublin to catch a flight to Thailand. Super random, right? Well, it turns out that besides selling falafels for NOK100 (around €12), Norway is also home of Norwegian Airlines and its super cheap flights to the rest of the world.

I booked my flight to Oslo without knowing that, coincidentally, Emma was also going there on a skiing trip. Unfortunately she would only arrive a day after I had already left. It didn't seem fair that we would be on the same city and miss each other by a matter of only a couple of days. To compensate, I decided to prepare a little surprise.

I spent most of my time there snapping pictures of every building that I could (gotta please my Instagram followers) and searching for places to have a decent bite and a cup of coffee that wouldn't break the bank. After walking for one and a half minutes (I'm the worst person when I'm hungry, I completely loose my ability to make good decisions and literally will stop in the first place that serves food without coriander in it), I managed to find a cute little place to put in practice the second part of my plan before I headed to the Far East. You can read all about it in the girl's tales about how great of a friend I am!

Ale's current position in Kuang Si Waterfall - I'll take a coffee instead thanks..

Emma

Shlurp, shlurp, shluuurp. That was the sound of me drinking my delicious (and free!) coffee in one of the darn right coolest cafes in Oslo (have bought beans and a book from the coffee owner to testify to this fact.) All thanks to the wonderful, bearded and Brazilian beauty that is our Ale.

Now, not only is consuming free beverages a delightful pastime, but consuming a free beverage in Oslo is a little bit more special. Why, you may ask. Well, let me tell you a little Norwegian secret. Norway is BLOODY EXPENSIVE. A free coffee saved me approximately half of my college fees. Well, sliiight exaggeration, but the point needs to be taken seriously. Norway is not a place for the euro-saver youths of today. Sure, whilst trying to steal free wifi in Mcds over there, the cheapest thing on the menu was 35NOK, that's a mere €4 for half an hour of wifi. Sign me up! Not.

Besides the expense of the trip, which I realise I have harped on about for half of this post (feelings are feelings, and if I feel strongly about something you must read about it.) Norway is b-e-a-u-tiful! I spent about 4 days there travelling from the west coast of Bergen (original capital of the country, there ya go now) to Oslo (current capital, but sure you knew that..). I biked, boated, trained and hiked from coast to coast all in the pouring rain so common to the Scandinavian Isles, only to fall madly in love with the country and with its people. They speak better English than me! Intelligent folk up there. Seriously though, if anyone ever wants to go to Norway, pleeease let me know as I will sell everything I own just to afford the weekend over there. I love it!

Also, a quick end note and correction to Ale's post - I was not in fact skiing in Norway, that was for my next trip to the Czech Republic which my boyfriend planned as a 'surprise' for my birthday. Some fun facts about the Czech Republic before I leave you:

1) The Czech Republic is about a gazillion times cheaper than Norway, we lived like kings

2) The people of the Czech Republic do not have as high a proficiency of English speaking as the Norwegians

3) Taken both former points into consideration, I spent my 22nd birthday, in the middle of nowhere on a snowy mountain in the Czech Republic (the more 'middle-of-nowhere' you go, the cheaper it gets) attempting to learn to snowboard, with an instructor that didn't speak English surrounded by about 1000 inhabitants of the town, who also spoke no word of English. One word, hilarious.

Ale's present #1

Philippa

Not only did Ale prepare a surprise for Emma but the thoughtful and chivalrous stede did the same for his NY counterpart (me).
On the day of his departure from New York, with tears in his eyes (and yeah, tears in mine too, I guess) he handed me an envelope with a short message scribed on the front : don't open until the 27th of February. It took all my willpower not to tear it open on the spot. The date came around and alas, inside I found another cryptic message : go to your favourite coffee shop where you will find a coffee waiting for you which is on me. You're right,this one is pretty self explanatory. One thing troubled my mind however : how did he pull off this elaborate ruse when I was with him every waking second of his trip here? Or so I thought. Some of you may be aware,  and some not so much,  of the fact that I need to pee approximately 90% of the time. So Ale aka Mr. Stealth waited until the inevitable opportunity arose and set up this glorious surprise so that all three of us could share a cup of coffee in three completely different places on earth, yet again proving two theorems:
1) He is the world's greatest (sorry, R Kelly)
2) We are always only ever...A Mouthful Apart.

Ale's present #2

Tis the season!

With the holiday season already happaning we can now reveal that next month's theme is December Days where each blogger looks at a traditional holiday in their location and sheds light on the festivities. This months challenge will be called This little piggy went to market  which will involve going to a Christmas Market  and finding the most tantalizing treat we can.

Week 1: Philippa

Week 2: This little piggy went to market
Week 3: Emma
Week 4: Ale

To tide you over until then and get you in the spirit of all things festive, here are three photos of us in all our youthful and well behaved glory!
Happy holidays!

Having the time of my life

Too young for eyeliner

If Superman and Elton John had a baby

Les Petits Champignons

So, I have been living in the South of France for the better part of a month now and what have I learned? Besides how to order an Americano (with OR without a drop of milk) nearly like a native…until they throw curve balls at me, like “milk on the side or in the coffee” where my limitations in speaking the French language begin to slip through, I have learned a lot about the cuisine of Nice; the niçoise cuisine if you will.

Cuisines of the Côte d'Azur area (the south east region of France) differ to typical French gastronomy in their excessive use of olive oil (gone through 2 bottles already!) and the heavy Mediterranean influences in the cooking; seafood and big vibrant vegetables often being the stars of the dish. Oh and the herbs, the herbs!! The provençal flavours in the niçoise dishes owe a lot to the use of specific herbs… so often used, they have their own mix “Herbs de Provence” which typically contain thyme, marjoram, savory, rosemary and oregano.

 

A speciality dish of the region, and the one I have chosen to recreate for our mushroom challenge is called “Farcis” or “Petit Farcis”, depending on the petiteness of said farcis. Petits Farcis are a classic specialty of Nice, they are hollowed out vegetables, usually tomatoes, courgettes or aubergines which are stuffed with a delicious pork meat mixed with herbs, parmesan and breadcrumbs. I see them as a type of street food, but as we’re in France, everything is classier and this street food is usually accompanied with a lovely glass (or pichet if it’s a weekend) of rosé.

 

Apologies, whilst enjoying our petit farcis we

opted out of the traditional rose and instead opted in for a glass of “Vin Chaud” another tasty niçoise treat. My lovely friend Chloe, who knows these parts like a local insisted we have to have Vin Chaud as it only comes available this time of year. I’ll let you off this time Chloe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As it is mushroom challenge, I replaced the usual vegetables used in petit farcis with, you guessed it, mushrooms!

 

First things first, learning about French cuisine does not just mean being able to make the dishes. It’s so much more than that. Every dish here starts with the morning at the market. I live about 3 minutes away from the “Marche aux Fleurs Cours Saleya”, which has been ranked by France’s National Council for the Culinary Arts as being one of France’s special markets. It. Is. Amazing. Just take a look!

 

As I fought off the urge pick up any one of the crates of mushrooms pictured below and run away, I was faced with a choice, what mushroom will I use? This was difficult for me, as I knew I had to be practical in my decision. I needed a mushroom that would be quite hollow on the inside so the stuffing could go in, but all I wanted was those gorgeous chanterelles or shitakes in my belly. I battled with myself, and eventually my tummy and my head reached a compromise. BUY THEM ALL. And I did. I bought the chanterelles and shitakes for my own personal enjoyment (currently writing this whilst eating my shitake laden ramen) and the biggest white mushrooms for stuffin’.

 

 

After the morning market, it was afternoon butcher time (quite aware there is no ring to the latter). I went to my local butchers around the corner from my house “Chez Francis” where I attempted to order 4 of their finest pork sausages in French. There were a few discrepancies during the interaction and a lot of vigorous pointing, but he did put four pork sausages into a bag for me, so I’m seeing it as a success.

 

Man Wearing Trackie

Okay, so we have the backround on the dish and the ingredients for the dish, now let’s get cooking!

Firstly, we need alongside our meat and mushrooms, lots of garlic, grated parmesan, bread crumbs (warning, it is very difficult to crumb bread by hand), basil, parsley, tomato puree, onions and copious amounts of olive oil. Add a few nice books on the region for added pleasure. Preheat your oven to 180C and you’re all set.

 

Step 1: Chop the garlic and onions. Clean all the mushrooms with a paper towel and take the stems out of each one (or get your friends to do this part mwahaha). Place the mushrooms on an oiled baking tray.

Step 2: Remove the sausage meat from the coating, you will either enjoy this or not. I enjoyed it.

Step 3: Throw the onions and garlic into a hot pan, drenched in olive oil and add all the herbs and salt and pepper. After 7 minutes, add the sausage meat making sure it’s broken up.

Step 4: After meat is browned add the tomato puree and cook for a further 5 minutes. Remember to keep tasting, adding seasonings as you please. Salt, yum.

Step 5: Remove from the heat and stir in the parmesan and bread crumbs

Step 6: Scoop the mixture into the mushrooms, be generous, and then drizzle a little olive oil around the mushrooms and pour some of the white wine in.

Step 7: Pop them in the oven for 45 minutes and you’re laughing!

Enjoy once again with a glass of rosé (we had already opened the white wine for the drizzling so we just kept going with that..) and some bay leaves for the photo.

 

And it's as easy as that, minus the waiting for the food...that bit is hard.

Now, as we say in France, bon appetite!

Up next is our lovely NY city slicker Philippa. I’m sure she’ll make your mouths water and tummies grumble like ferocious hungry beasts for whatever she’s a cooking!

Challenge #01 - Mushrooms

So this month's challenge (which our loyal and plentiful followers will already have read about in our previous post) is mushrooms!  All three of us (and several mushrooms) went to a well known land mark in each of our locations. All is revealed below! 

Nice, Nice, Nice – so nice I say it thrice.

Here I am after climbing the thigh-burning steps of the “Colline du Chateau” (hill of the castle) which, to my surprise does not play host to an actual castle, not since 1706 anyway. Was I disappointed with the lack of chateau-ness as I reached the summit? Absolutely not, the view from the top was worth every sweat particle shed.  Not only are there views from this height, but also a waterfall, park and roman ruins – I like to think of it as my "Colline du Bliss". You would almost skip a meal if it meant making it up here for sunset…almost. I am so happy to say that I live a mere 5 minute walk from this breath-taking viewpoint and I feel a lot of my blogging inspiration might come this year from sitting in that very place, overlooking the beauty that is my new home.

I awoke on a crisp wintery morning with mushrooms on the brain, wrapped myself in my dad's tartan scarf and wax jacket (thanks, pops!) and ventured to the nearest "bodega" (I have plenty more slang where that came from!) I chose a Portobello mushroom as a throwback to my last day spent in Dublin redeeming a free pint in a pub on the canal called "The Portobello" (the actual reason: it looked like the sturdiest of the bunch and would survive a bumpy trip stuffed into my bag on the subway). My chosen destination was Times Square. With over 360,000 visitors daily, lights that dazzle and shine and a resident Naked Cowboy nobody batted an eyelid at my humble Portobello mushroom. A stalwart and brave travel companion (and a delicious addition to my dinner later that day!)

My inspiration for this month's challenge was the 2001 academy-award nominated film Amélie. At one point the aforementioned main character places 5 raspberries on her fingers and eats them one by one, savouring every bite. Needless to say I tried doing the same with the mushrooms and as a result I am writing this while simultaneously having to google: "can you die by eating raw mushrooms?".

The pretty little lady behind me goes by the name of Ha'Penny Bridge and it's Dublin's answer to the Pont des Arts in Paris. Except it's not. So, if you are reading this while on your way there and you have a padlock in your possession, please stop immediately and turn the other way around. You are destroying the bridge. Love, Ale.

Next week our Alpha (and only) male will showcase his individual blogging talents and write a piece on a meal he had/made containing (you guessed it!) MUSHROOMS. Emma will take to the stage the week after and Philippa will do her worst the week after that. Got it? Great!
Til next time, feast your eyes on these fungus based pictures!

The Inaugural Toast

Here we go, kids! Emma has flown the coop, the wheels of motion are in full swing for Philippa's departure and Ale's travel adventure will commence in early December. We have staggered our departures. We shall take our blogging bull by the horns. Our legs shall wander. Our hearts shall yearn. Our tummies shall grumble. Our mouths shall chew. And our hands shall put pen to paper to record our diverse experiences and various aspirations. 

Post one is upon us and we aim to start as we mean to go on: like champignons. 

November theme: Mushrooms. 

Each individual blogger will write a post on a delicious meal they had containing mushrooms. 

This month's challenge: Take a creative photo of a mushroom in front of an important landmark in each city.

Aaaaaaaaaand we're off!