Fuck the Tories
Sticking with A’s, we board an Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-76 and continue our culinary journey with an 18-hour, 15,668 km, direct flight to Argentina (in-flight movie – ‘Taken 3’, vegetarian option – chicken). Touching down at Buenos Aires International Airport, we take a cab to the tiny unspoilt fishing village of Mar del Plata where, overlooking the deserted picturesque bay, we …
If, as Yumblog, you like the idea of gnocchi but in reality find them a tad disappointing after all the faff they take to make, then perhaps you should try their lesser known but more interesting cousin, gnudi.
After the media sensation and critical acclaim of our ‘Celebration of Europe’ culinary road trip (‘A timely reminder of the beauty of cultural diversity’ – The Daily Mail), we thought we’d further defy the lockdown and travel the globe alphabetically in search of exotic treats and exciting flavours. Afghanistan seemed the obvious place to start as a, it starts with …
Saint Valentine visited Yumblog Villas on Sunday bearing Philosophy Football gifts, homemade cards and 650g of wet fish. All were welcome and put to good use. If you fancy cooking the delicious looking burger above/below, be forewarned this recipe requires around 3 hours put aside for salting and chilling … that said, it’s not as if you have people to …
These stuffed flatbreads are fairly substantial and so are traditionally simply served with yoghurt and/or chutney. However it had been a long and punishing trek up the Hindu Kush and by the time we made camp we were famished, so we ate ours accompanied by the braised aubergines below.
Having acquired a taste for lockdown travel we thought we’d take a relaxing last-minute weekend break to Afghanistan. Along with the Speedos, flip flops and factor 50, we packed Parwana – Recipes and stories from an Afgan kitchen – the latest addition to the culinary wing of the Yumblog library. Banjaan borani is the first recipe taken from this book, …
You’re very unlikely to have wholemeal self-raising flour unless, like us, you bought some by mistake. Worry not dear reader(s), the conventional white version will serve just as well.
Tis the season to be marmalading and what better a way of spending your locked-down hours than preparing a two-stage chunky dark marmalade? Imagine your friends’ delight when you deliver to them a jar of this delicious breakfast fodder. Imagine.
So after queueing for only ten hours at Passport Control, here we are back in Blighty (108,013 mainly avoidable Covid deaths and counting). We had filled our suitcases with all sorts of tasty European goodies gathered on our tour but regrettably, after negotiating the barbed wire and daisy cutters of no-man’s land, all were confiscated by a UK border guard …
And so ends our travels. After the longest journey of this adventure so far we arrive at a snow covered twilit Sweden. As the Disunited Kingdom slowly bleeds out from the self-inflicted wound of Brexit we spend our last night dining beneath the aurora borealis pondering our future and planning possible escape routes from a country that is feeling ever …
Boarding the train we have a long journey west through Italy and France to Spain, followed by a ferry trip out into the Atlantic ocean to the Canary Islands where this recipe originates.
What better accompaniment to the Sauerkraut and bean stew below than this cumin and salt encrusted bread. This recipe is taken from the approved specification for Belokranjska pogaca with the recognised designation traditional speciality by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food of the Republic of Slovenia of 28 October 2004 (324-25 / 01).
A short borderless drive south-west through Hungary we arrive in Slovenia, famished and in search of a hearty stew. With thanks to Louise for the tip, borne of many trips to her parents’ home country accompanied by Greg, the avowed eschewer of meat. The original Jota contains pork. No really.
Sorry Greece, we didn’t forget you, just somewhere along the journey we forgot to write you up. And to add a dash of insult to injury, for authenticity we consulted that Athens-born Hellenic super chef, Jamie Oliver. Asos, Greece.
Deciding to stay in the east, today we are off to the small mountainous landlocked Republic of Slovakia which, according to Wikipedia, is the world’s largest car producer per-capita. Given our location and unwritten brief to avoid porcine products, this is necessarily a potato based recipe.
We had a long train journey today, travelling from Europe’s most westerly country to its most eastern. That said, the scenery was beautiful, the trains modern and punctual, and the buffet car well stocked with cheese toasties. I would take the description ‘stew’ with a pinch of salt (and possibly a twist of black pepper), as this recipe is essentially …
What better way to round up a Saturday than to head south west and spend the evening eating in Portugal, specifically the Algarve. We’ll assume that if you have come here in search of Cataplana (the recipe), you won’t be in possession of a Cataplana (a copper lidded pan traditionally used to cook said recipe). Worry not, you can easily …
And so we reached Friday night, traditional domain of a trip to the pub, chips for the child and a couple of jars of finest pilsner for her and him. That was in the olden days. Now we make our own entertainment; following a conversation on our walk to see the murmuration, it became apparent that the child was interested …
It’s Thursday night, so time to visit the fifth happiest country in the world, The Netherlands. Incidentally, as I write this the entire Dutch government has just resigned because, as their PM stated, they were not up to standard. Admittedly they had wrongly accused 20,000 families of tax fraud, but step back for a moment and try to imagine Johnson …
Heading south to the Mediterranean we are off to Malta. It’s refreshing to be in a country with a coastline as now we can have a break from the root vegetables of the East and enjoy something altogether more fishy, or in this case, tentically. And on the subject of Brexit (who mentioned Brexit – Ed), please read the beautifully …
In contrast to yesterday’s simple snack, today we’re heading to Luxembourg for something a little more refined. Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France to the south. As of 2020, Luxembourg citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access …
To be fair this ridiculously simple starter/bar snack may not be the best showcase for Lithuanian cuisine but apparently it’s a national institution and turns out to be very tasty to boot. Lithuania is a developed country with an advanced, high-income economy, a very high Human Development Index, a very high standard of living and favourable performance in metrics of …
Obviously unless you have an allotment, sorrel is going to be a tricky ingredient to source. If this is the case, substitute with spinach and a squeeze of lemon juice. Latvia is a developed country with an advanced, high-income economy and ranks 39th in the Human Development Index. It performs favourably in measurements of civil liberties, press freedom, internet freedom, …
Arguably an obvious choice. Undeniably a tasty one. There was mild panic when a trip to Sainsburys was met with an empty shelf where the Mozzarella should have been. Hopefully this was down to an oversight by the manager rather than a consequence of Brexit, but it is too dismal to speculate. On the fruitless walk back along London Road …
Friday evening was spent with our nearest EU neighbour, the Republic of Ireland. As a rule the week ends with a dinner which is quick and easy to make and has sufficient heft to soak up the evening’s drinking. Boxty ticks all those boxties.
Bags packed, we’re off to Hungary for a bowl of noodled soup. For a relatively small country Hungary has many largest things: largest thermal water cave system and (second) largest thermal lake in the world, not forgetting the largest lake and largest natural grasslands in Europe. Budapest, Hungary
And so to our spiritual home, Germany. A country that seems to get most things right in the same way we don’t anymore. In 2018 on a visit to Berlin we saw Scritti Politti at an event called ‘Goodbye UK – and Thank You for the Music‘, a celebration paying ‘homage to the extraordinary musical creativity that made the United …
What better way to start a new year than a visit to France, specifically the heavily German influenced region of Alsace. Colmar, Alsace, France.
And what better to soak up your Lohikeitto than this robust (and novelty shaped) rye bread. Putkilahti, Finland
From Estonia we head north a little bit to Finland, a Nordic country located in Northern Europe. Finland shares land borders with Sweden to the west, Russia to the east, and Norway to the north. Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life and human development. In 2015, …
Today we are eating pie in Estonia, a country in Northern Europe which borders the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland. Including more than 1,500 islands, its diverse terrain spans rocky beaches, old-growth forest and many lakes. Estonian citizens receive universal health care, free education and the longest paid maternity leave in the OECD. It is one of the world’s …
Denmark is a Scandinavian country comprising the Jutland Peninsula and numerous islands. It’s linked to nearby Sweden via the Öresund bridge. Denmark is considered to be one of the most economically and socially developed countries in the world. The country ranks as having the world’s highest social mobility, a high level of income equality and the lowest perceived level of …
The challenge Yumblog faces as a vegetarian/fish/seafood blog, is that many countries in Project EU lean towards a meat-centric and essentially pig-based diet. Added to this, fish dishes from landlocked countries invariably feature carp – a best-avoided flaccid, grainy creature which tastes of mud and has a texture not dissimilar to tripe. On a 2009 visit to Prague (some photos …
After the main course, where better to have puds than 1,898 km away on the sun drenched Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Officially called the Republic of Cyprus (this is probably not the best forum for discussion of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus), it is the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean. On 1 January 2008 …
Our New Year’s Eve dinner found us straddling the 1,898 km between Croatia and Cyprus. Croatia served us the main course of these tasty prawns accompanied by a flat bread called Lepinja, and Cyprus a dessert of light and zesty rice pudding. Croatia is classified by the World Bank as a high-income economy and ranks very high on the Human …