2007 has been a pretty good year for me. A busy one? A-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y, but it held many wonderful surprises, leaving me both astounded and filled with happiness to the brim. How can you possibly beat a great chance to turn your passion into profession? So after all I’m not really complaining about the additional workload, although I am struggling a bit to meet the set deadlines concerning my book’s layout. My belly is still somewhat tired after all the Christmas feasting, the next recipe post will have to wait a few more days. Instead… how about some tidbits about my very personal 2007? Mostly food, of course :)
Best food moment – restaurant (Munich)
Surprise lunch with a dear friend at Tantris, Munich
Best food moment – restaurant (Europe)
Serendipity led us to Le Clos Saint Pierre, Le Rouret, France
Best food moment – restaurant (USA)
No, it was not The French Laundry, all in all we had the most perfect evening (company+food+atmosphere) at Fruition, Denver
Best food moments – street food
Socca in Nice, France
Pizza on the median in front of the The Cheeseboard Pizza Collective, Berkeley
Still warm Tiropita from a small bakery in Amouliani, Greece
Best food moments – private
Sebastian’s cheese fondue at a photo shooting at Coco’s atelier
A wonderfully tasty salad served in the fabulous garden of our friends Sherry and Bob, overlooking the glistening skyline of San Francisco
Most daring food moment
Steak & kidney pudding prepared by one-and-only Kaltmamsell and goose stomach served by my dad – both delicious! (Skipping the oyster part that didn’t convince me.)
Biggest kitchen challenge
Pork filet sous-vide at 60 °C (140 °F) – keeping the exact temperature with a standard stove is a real challenge. Takes forever and was not amazing enough to justify the effort.
Best new kitchen gadget
Gaggia ice cream maker. Or does this qualify as “kitchen gadget”, too?
Best news
Bavaria bans smoking in restaurants from January 2008 and onward.
Favorite food blogs
Smitten Kitchen, The Pioneer Woman Cooks!
Favorite recipes from other food blogs
Petra’s Heringssalat
Ree’s Olive Cheese Bread
Favorite recipes from delicious:days
Salsa finta & polpette di ricotta
Apfel-Griebenschmalz (apple greaves dripping)
Curd mousse
Sunny egg ravioli
Rahmfleckerl
Pancake soup
Grandma Salazar’s tamales
Chicory gratin with bacon
Mikado salad
Mini bagels
Favorite online-shop
ETSY of course. Try this one or this one…
Favorite cookbooks
The Art of Simple Food – Alice Waters
Beaneaters & Bread Soup – Lori DeMori
The Herbal Kitchen – Jerry Traunfeld
Good Food – Neil Perry
Die Zuckerseiten Österreichs – Rudolf Kotschever
Most treasured CDs
RóisÃn Murphy – Overpowered (fab, fab, fab!)
People Press Play – People Press Play
James Morrison – Undiscovered
Favorite food related projects
No surprises here.
We wish you a very happy 2008 and thank you for stopping by delicious:days every now and then – we’re always happy to see you around :)
Dec 31st,
2007
Happy New Year to you too! I've enjoyed reading about all your delicious adventures and look forward to more in 2008!