Ok, we blew it, let our blog down. We had plans for our fifth blog birthday in March, big plans. We had talked about a major redesign, threw initial ideas and concepts in the air, hoping to see them fall on fertile ground, but somehow there was always something more important to do. A photography job, some design projects, and of course the new book. Yet, – bad conscience omnipresent – each time I visited our little foodblog, I could feel an increasing urge to revamp it from the ground up, to give it an opposite and distinct new look.
So odd. Despite this historical heatwave consuming us all alive, all I can think of is Tiramisu? Ssshh, I hate to know what that says about my personal craving profile. It was Sunday morning and neither the luscious cherries nor strawberries chilling in our fridge had a real chance of changing my mind. Tiramisu. Ahhhh, a small sound of relief, as I finally found the big cup of mascarpone, I had bought a week ago, buried behind half a dozen semi-emptied glasses of homemade jam (major recipe testing underway…). I had farm-fresh eggs and some ladyfingers in the pantry…, so I thought. But wait, didn’t I use them all up for a trifle?
What is the deal with Caesar salad?? I’ve ordered it in many different places from neighborhood cafes here in Munich, to stylish places in California or Budapest. If there’s no dish on a restaurant’s menu that coaxes me instantly AND the place happens to offers Caesar salad – plan B is an easy one. That, however, doesn’t automatically mean that all of my Caesar salad endeavors have been pleasurable ones. Quite the contrary, in fact I’ve had really bad ones. Either my expectations towards this very salad are way out of reach for most restaurants or serving this classic gives chefs a good excuse to put a perfectly good label on mediocre food quality delivered. Limp leaves, drowned in way too much dressing, over the top garlicy or Parmesan cluttered – all these things can quickly ruin an otherwise beautifully balanced mix.
One of the very few things I regret during our last trip to California was bad timing. We had read about Humphry Slocombe’s prosciutto ice cream (among many other unusual flavors) and it quickly made it to the top of our list. However the day we went, we were told -by the the friendly girl behind the counter- that it was in the making and would take another day – the day we’d already be on our way to Los Angeles. Of course we returned to the Mission District as soon as we returned to San Francisco, yet were out of luck again. We tried. But no prosciutto ice cream for us. Sure, the other flavors available gave their best shot at making up for this (tiny) letdown and their Secret Breakfast was especially successful. My favorite! And of course not to miss their Boccolone Lard Caramels. Come on, how can you not love an ice cream shop, where they offer you to sample almost all of their available flavors?
