Hi everyone! We have an exciting announcement to make – our own real food business! After many years of excitedly eating our way around the world, we’ve finally settled in Boston (at least for the time being) to work on a new project:  Mei Mei Street Kitchen!

Named by our amazing brother Andy for us (Mei Mei means little sister in Chinese), this family business will start off as a Chinese and American-influenced, farm-sourced, community-oriented food truck serving up dumplings and other deliciousness.   We’ll serve only humanely raised meat and work with local growers to serve great tasting food produced in the best way possible.

Some day, we hope to have a larger business that encompasses multiple exciting food projects that celebrate delicious food, friends & family, sustainable farming and eating, social entrepreneurship, pop-up events, producer partnerships, exciting spaces, and other fun things we love.   It will probably involve buns…

and will most definitely involve crispy, fatty, spiced pork belly.

Since we’re spending tons of time on this project, we’ll no longer be blogging here at Family Styles. We want to thank all of you for putting up with our food porn raves and sustainable food rants over the past three years – we’ve loved sharing our food with you.  If you want to keep up with our antics, we’ll be doing some blogging on our Mei Mei Street Kitchen website and you can also follow our journey across the interwebs on Twitter and Facebook.

Even better, come visit us in Boston! There’s a slight chance you might be able to get in on some bun & pork belly action that might look something like this:

If you’re still looking for any of the recipes or links we’ve posted, we’ll try to archive all these old posts on our old WordPress site once we get a chance.  Thanks again to you all for reading and as always, happy eating.

Much love,

Mei & Irene

Until then, I’m spending my final few weeks in London eating everything I’ve always wanted to eat and haven’t or what I know I’ll miss when I leave.

An obvious first move on the bucket list: fish&chips! Specifically from George’s on Portobello – Jamie Oliver’s favourite. Wrapped up in a cone of newspaper and sprinkled with salt and vinegar, it’s a beautiful flower bouquet of battered deliciousness.

I’ll miss the delights of the chippie for sure….

It’s only been 3 days since I got to Tel Aviv and I’m sunburnt and footsore and absolutely stuffed full of hummus and pita. I’m visiting my friend Dan in TLV and we’ve walked from Center City to Jaffa to Neve Tzedek and back, all in the name of seeing and eating the best the city has to offer.  And sample the best we certainly did, starting with a morning pilgrimage to what is generally acknowledged to be the best hummus place in Tel Aviv if not Israel or the entire world, Abu Hassan. You might think your hummus or your friend’s hummus is the best in the world but take a look at the picture above for some visual proof – can’t really argue with that, can you?

However, we went on an Indiana Jones-style adventure trek through the city to get there, starting with a fantastic coffee affuk (upside down cappucino) from a cute shop called Boutique Central which I’ve seen dotted all over the city.  They also have amazing pastries…

or rather amazing looking pastries, because Dan wouldn’t let me ruin my appetite for hummus.

This face says: ‘NO CROISSANTS BEFORE HUMMUS!’ I bet that’s what the sign says too.

We wandered all over the city, along the beach and through the winding streets of Old Jaffa and past the port and up and down some streets that didn’t exist on the map and past other streets that didn’t seem to exist in real life and finally ended up on a tiny street with a tiny storefront packed full of people.  We expected to do the classic eat-your-takeout-hummus-on-the-street-overlooking-Jaffa-port-and-the-Mediterranean move, but got lucky when a table for two emptied right in front of us.

You’ve already seen the amazingly fresh and creamy hummus and masabacha mixture (hummus with whole chickpeas and hardboiled egg), which we rapidly downed with fluffy thick pita and the classic accompaniment of chunks of raw onion with hot pepper sauce and a malta, or black beer.

According to an Israeli friend who hosted us for an incredibly delicious shabbat dinner later that night, the onions are soaked in some sort of salt mixture rather than completely raw, which might explain how they were so incredibly delicious and not the painful experience one might assume.  The malta? It tastes like coke. And beer. At the same time.

The atmosphere? Bustling, loud, fast-moving, full of rich smells and the clink of plates and hot wafts of steam, yells for hummus orders and people reaching over your head and jostling your table for bags of pita and raw onions.  Seated right next to the kitchen and the takeout counter, we got to enjoy the madness at its finest.

Main lessons learned:

1. Hummus is a meal and an art form unto itself. Rather than a side dip or an afterthought, in Israel it is very much the main attraction.  No falafel, no salad, no nothing besides the basic and the best.

2. When visiting Abu Hassan, get there early. When the pot of hummus is gone, they close up shop for the day and it’s all over.

3. Big bowls of hummus and chunky rounds of pita bread are seriously filling.  We were full after about 10 bites, but continued on for about 1oo more.

After stuffing our faces, we waddled on past the Jaffa port and on to the famous Carmel market…photos to come soon!

]]> http://eatfamilystyles.com/2011/07/27/a-hummus-pilgrimage-in-tel-aviv/feed/ 3 http://eatfamilystyles.com/2011/07/09/pizza-night-at-orange-peel-its-as-much-about-the-people-as-it-is-about-the-pizza/ http://eatfamilystyles.com/2011/07/09/pizza-night-at-orange-peel-its-as-much-about-the-people-as-it-is-about-the-pizza/#comments Sat, 09 Jul 2011 10:29:21 +0000 irene http://eatfamilystyles.com/?p=3704

When the Li-Bruynell-Hull vacation team pulled up for Pizza Night at the Orange Peel Bakery on Martha’s Vineyard, the sun was so bright that I forgave the weather for the past three days of rain, the stone oven so beautiful that I snapped pictures unabashedly, and the people so friendly that I wondered if I’d somehow teleported to the West Coast. In a word, it was heavenly. Special thanks to Amanda for the recommendation!

Here’s how it works:

During the rest of the week, Juli and the folks at Orange Peel can be found reaching into their stone hearth for treats like ciabatta bread, sweet and savory scones, and the amazing amazing amazing baking powder biscuits. Day-old goods can be found inside the kitchen while freshly baked items rest outside. Shelves brim with ingredients and possibility! Looking around in a small but organized kitchen like this (and unlike my large but very disorganized kitchen), all I can do is sigh.

On pizza night, though, things work a little differently. Drinks and special toppings are BYO to share, while the Orange Peel provides dough, sauce, shredded mozzarella, and hands highly experienced with roaring-hot-oven-pizza-cookery. The recommended donation per person is $10. It’s a great expression of what it means to cook and eat family style.

We always read through the recipe before we start cooking!

There were other first timers, like us, and plenty of regulars, many of whom helped out with prep and cooking. We brought fresh mozzarella, locally grown basil, portobello and white mushrooms, and some leftover salsa for the topping table.

The lovely volunteers presented us with dough, which we topped with our own and others’ toppings, and then returned for bake-ification.

We started things out with a simple basil-mozzarella pizza:

Minutes later, the pizzas emerged from the oven, hot, crispy, bubbling, and slightly charred, just the way I like it.

The Orange Peel folks sliced the pizzas and served slices up to any guest who wanted a taste. We got to try pizzas with pesto, pepperoni, fresh herbs, ground buffalo meat, and raw cheese! Sharing is so badass. We were stuffed!

Community vibes and teamwork can make good food great.  If you’re on the Vineyard on a Wednesday, don’t miss Pizza Night!

Thank you, Orange Peel, for a fun and delicious experience. We loved meeting you and hanging out with all the other people and families there. The community/family atmosphere was awesome and the pizza was great. Thanks for letting us have a taste.

Here’s hoping that heaven has a Pizza Night!

I’m in a bit of a yogurt obsession.

I’ve never been a huge breakfast person (eggs Benedict on the weekends doesn’t count, that’s BRUNCH), nor much of a routine person and yet, every morning like clockwork for the past month or so, I’ve been waking up early and eating yogurt. Who is this new me? Usually sprinkled with blueberries and muesli, maybe granola, almonds or walnuts,  sometimes bananas, apples or strawberries, sometimes even dates, and ideally a spoonful of flaxseed.  I’ve tried Greek and probiotic, everything from whole milk to low fat to fat free, and multiple brands from Rachel’s Organic to Yeo Valley to Total, almost always plain or natural because I don’t like it too sugary. It’s delicious, healthy, and oh so easy –  no porridge pots or eggy pans to wash in the morning rush and all is good.

So yes. Yogurt. I’m into it. That’s why I was particularly excited to be invited to a breakfast event at The Modern Pantry in Clerkenwell to mark the launch of The Collective Dairy and what they’re calling their gourmet probiotic yoghurts (with an ‘h’).  A chance to eat more yogurt? At a restaurant that I’ve always cycled past and thought, ‘I bet I’d like that place’?  Yes please, and thank you very much.

And so I went and so I was delighted, not only by the creaminess of the yogurt…

but also by the gorgeousness of The Modern Pantry…

and the sheer volume of food they stuffed us with, including yogurt smoothies…

as well as my personal Brunch Kryptonite of eggs Benedict with a superb tea smoked salmon…

but especially by the friendliness of all the people there and what seemed to be Mike and Amelia of the Collective Dairy’s genuine passion for things that taste really really good.

They both used to work for Gu and they’re clearly very good with their business sense and their branding and their PR, but none of that would matter at all if the yogurt was terrible. And in fact, despite my general propensity towards natural flavors, I loved the subtle tartness of the Luscious Lemon, the vague sweet pucker and the crunchy little seeds in the Passionfruit, and the just-a-touch-of-indulgence Russian Fudge – a bit like if someone melted pieces of Scottish tablet into your yogurt. At first try, I thought the Apple & Spice was too sweet  - a bit like cream with apple pie filling stirred in and too syrupy  for my taste.

But then I took some home and crumbled a Modern Pantry brownie into it….and it was a fabulous dessert that’s just maybe one tiny little iota better for you than a typical brownie sundae.  Okay, so any health claims are up for debate – a Harvard study did say recently that people who eat yogurt tend to lose more weight, but let’s be clear here, a brownie-topped anything is never going to melt off the pounds.  It’s still a bit sweet for breakfast, so I’ll probably stick with my natural taste or maybe the passionfruit in the early morning hours. But as a snack or a dessert or every so often when I’m craving something a bit more indulgent? The apple & spice yogurt and brownie sundae tasted damn good and I had to fight off both a boyfriend and a visiting friend for the last bites.

Obviously, I won. I am adept at defending my turf with a well-placed cutlery jab. So stay away from my yogurt…got it? I’ve got a dessert spoon, and I’m not afraid to use it.

1. Beets are some of the most delightful, sweet, tender and beautiful veggies out there. Buy them small and from the farmer’s market if you can.

2. Roast whole with a little olive oil in a foil pocket in a 400 degree (F) oven. They should be forkable, but not soft or mushy. Rub/peel with a paper towel. Enjoy the colors on your hands!

3. Dip in Diamond-brand kosher salt. It’s the perfect texture – doesn’t dissolve on contact with your food or tongue, but doesn’t feel like eating tiny pebbles either. Eat like candy. Salty, delicious, roasted candy.

I enjoy seeing different food innovations, like this shop called Kochhaus which sprung up on my friend Thom’s old block in the year since I last visited. Although I couldn’t read any of the signage, it’s a shop that encourages and educates on cooking and ingredients and how to put together a meal.  Inspiring ingredient and recipe displays are dotted around the open and airy shop with step-by-step instructions and visuals with each recipe.  I’m curious how the shop is doing and whether it’s getting more people cooking. Genius, I say.

I don’t read German, but I can decipher enough to know that  Tomato Bread Salad with Arugula and Passionfruit Vinaigrette sounds absolutely delicious, and I certainly wouldn’t turn down a Rinderfilet with Provencal Ratatouille and Thyme Polenta.  I’m sure Rinderfilet is excellent, whatever it is.

Although pictures of good food transcend language, I still never fail to be childishly amused by certain things.

I perused the amazing photos in this German food magazine while perched on a chair outside Il Syndicato – a fantastic coffee shop in the Mitte area of Berlin. I love how just about every eating establishment in the city has some sort of outdoor dining area whether it’s an elaborate al fresco setup with blankets, coordinated cushions and umbrellas or a few battered chairs from someone’s grandmother’s attic placed by the side of the road.

I also enjoyed seeing the number of bicycles and the number of stylishly dressed small children in Berlin, both captured in the photo above. Peering around for unusual bits of the urban landscape while scouting for The Go Game, I noticed a sign for Slayer Espresso, indicating that Il Syndicato is home to a highly touted $18,000 Slayer Espresso machine. STOP. DO NOT PASS GO BEFORE CONSUMING SAID ESPRESSO.

I chatted with the nice guy behind the counter a bit about their exciting  handbuilt machine and he showed me the wooden paddles that allow the barista to adjust the pressure while pulling the shot to play with the different flavors.  They made this cool little video to celebrate their new toy.

SYNDICATO CELEBRATES SLAYER ESPRESSO from STEX on Vimeo.

The espresso – one of many I had over the next few days – was phenomenally smooth as it hit your mouth for a really pure experience of the underlying flavors. Gorgeous.

***

It’s been more than a few weeks now since that Berlin trip, but I’m still thinking about a few fascinating food things from the trip. First of all, the incredible, steaming, meaty, excitingly-textured ramen perfection from Cocolo.

It’s basically a hole-in-the-wall with about 15 seats, and man, is it good. Feast your eyes upon the tonkasu ramen with beautifully fatty pork belly and just the right level of soft boiled egg.

I polished off my own  enormous bowl of ramen and then ate about half of my friend Elynor’s, cause she’s awesome like that.  Elynor is an excellent eating partner and translator, and also joined me at Papa Pane, a recommendation from my friend Jessica, where  we ate this exciting platter. Berlin does platters well, no doubt about it.

Another highlight of Berlin for foodies is the Kollwitzplatz market, right near where a bunch of friends used to live. Breads, meats, fresh fruits and vegetables, freshly grilled borek, tables piled with spices, adorable marketing baskets, and my personal highlight, a truck that appears to be called Lust For Cheese. I certainly did.

Another mandatory stop on my Berlin food tour is the shop Goldhahn & Sampson, which I stumbled upon while wandering my first time in the city, and have returned to every time since.  Cookbooks and fine foods galore, obscure spices and quality chocolate and great wines stacked along every wall. Plus cooking classes and tasty snacks. It’s basically my ideal hangout. Too bad most of the cookbooks are in another language.

Next stop on my food and design tour: I’m a sucker for tea towels and adorable home goods, so obviously this design shop called Pomeranza forced me to empty my wallet in exchange for really cute egg cups and beautifully patterned dishcloths. You can never have enough tea towels. Right?

Also beautifully designed is Oberholz Cafe, which features good snacks, attractive people, and most importantly, free WiFi.

I hope to someday inhabit a house or own a restaurant with such high ceilings and a sweeping staircase from which I took this photo. Berlin has amazing restaurant design, from the more posh and trendy to the quite simple yet charming.

Berlin is really a wonderful city, with a wealth of delicious food options and examples of excellent design. Plus, you can be seduced by the late-night, Jagermeister-influenced neon glare of Das Chicken Temptation. Why did I ever leave?

]]> http://eatfamilystyles.com/2011/05/10/edible-adventures-in-berlin-slayer-espresso-kick-ass-ramen-and-das-chicken-temptation/feed/ 2 http://eatfamilystyles.com/2011/03/29/squat-lobsters-clootie-dumplings-and-muppet-cows-the-highlights-of-the-highlands/ http://eatfamilystyles.com/2011/03/29/squat-lobsters-clootie-dumplings-and-muppet-cows-the-highlights-of-the-highlands/#comments Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:19:47 +0000 mei http://eatfamilystyles.com/?p=3497 The Highlands of Scotland!  I just got back from Applecross Bay up at the top west end of Scotland, right across from the Isle of Skye. Accessible only through the vertiginous Pass of the Cattle where you can drive through the clouds, Applecross is amazing for its incredible seafood, the spectacular sky above Skye, the undulating mountain walks over spongy marshes and sheer rock faces, the abundant sheep and wild-roaming deer and ridiculous-looking hairy cows like Jim Henson’s Muppets roaming outside your house and in front of your car.

Yup, that’s a highland cow.  And that’s our house (or rather, country mansion) in the background. Coming up just at the end of the off-season, we got a great deal on the Bramble Lodge in the west wing of the Applecross Trust estate which, most importantly came with a massive kitchen complete with enormous farmhouse table and TWO stoves.  Perfect for sitting and eating hot Oak Smoked salmon from nearby Torridon…

After flying from London to Inverness, we hopped a train towards Kyle of Lochalsh where I entertained myself greatly by watching sheep gallop galumphingly alongside us. Once picked up by friends Mark and Jacq in Strathcarron, we immediately made a beeline to the family butcher in Lochcarron to buy local smoked salmon, venison sausages, black pudding and square sausage.  What is square sausage, you ask?

Bet you couldn’t figure that out.  Proudly made by the Mrs. Butcher herself, sliced almost as thick as her bulging, cleaver-wielding, leg-of-lamb-sized arms, square sausage is designed for optimum eating when fried up with onions on top of a tattie scone and sandwiched into a morning roll.

Tattie scones (potato, for those of you uninitiated into the magic) are one of my favorite Scottish food discoveries.  Soft and smooth like the best mashed potatoes on the inside, a little crisp and browned on the outside when slipped onto the old school always-on Rayburn stove as soon as you wander into the kitchen in the morning, bleary-eyed from a bit too much whiskey.  Nothing like a double-carb and onion-fried meat bonanza to soothe your hangover.

As fun as it was cooking and hanging around the warm and whiskey-filled kitchen, we had to venture out to taste the as-fresh-as-it-gets seafood straight from the nearby bay. Our destination of choice most nights was the excellent Applecross Inn a short walk around the bay from the house, a gorgeously scenic walk during the day and at sunset, a mildly terrifying pitch-black Blair Witch-style horrorfest on the way back.

Applecross is justly famous for their Applecross bay prawns (like little hard-shelled langoustines) …

and their hot and cold smoked salmon…

…and most definitely the squat lobsters (just like regular lobsters, except about the size of the tip of your pinky finger and swimming in an I-want-to-paint-this-on-my-face-level-of-delicious garlic butter sauce). They also have a dangerously good whiskey selection and an even more lethal sticky toffee pudding drowning a happy death in a pitcher full of warm custard.

Our other amazing food stop was the Shieldaig Bar & Coastal Kitchen for ridiculously good fish & chips, smoked haddock omelettes, seafood chowder, and a cheesy toasty amazing  fisherman’s pie.

Of course we had to try the haggis, neeps, and tatties, which I still really like despite a near-emotionally-scarring but eventually rewarding experience making haggis with foodrambler last year.   Not as scary as you might think considering it contains the grossest of the innards  of those happily galumphing sheep.

The clootie dumpling dessert, a heavy lump of fruit and suet and doughiness, was a bit disappointing compared to the sticky toffee pudding, so it’s not actually a highlight. But I find the name greatly amusing, so I included it anyway.  A great meal nonethless. Happy times.

The real highlights of the jaunt to Shieldaig?  First, we stopped off at the roadside stand in the mountains selling lovely bluish-green eggs and chunky hand-knitted hats, gloves, scarves, and kilt socks – essentially a serve-yourself filing cabinet with an honesty box just up the path from a farmhouse where you could just see a few chickens bopping about.   Here’s our crew decked out in finery before we waltzed off with our dozen eggs and brand new hats.

As if things couldn’t get any more exciting, we then continue down the one-lane highway snaking around the peninsula,  only to get beckoned off by a nice old lady who ‘just stopped to warn us that there’s a big herd of Highland cattle in the road.’ AWESOME.

If this cow could talk, it would be saying DUUUUUUDE.

We enjoyed our homegrown eggs softboiled in exciting little egg cups with focaccia soldiers and noshed on Scottish goat cheese drizzled in Struan heather honey.

Lest you think we spent the entire holiday stuffing our faces with prawns and pudding and lolling in front of the fire with a glass of Macallan, I’ll have you know we did a fair amount of tramping through fields and soaking our shoes in the marshes.

Definitely the best way to encounter future venison sausages. I mean, the local wildlife.

Actually, one of the great things about the area is the attention paid to sustainability and good food sourcing.  The fishermen, farmers and gamekeepers know they’d be putting themselves out of business if they overfished the bay or decimated the local deer herd, so they use traditional methods of fishing like special traps called creels that keep only the appropriately large prawns and let the undersized and pregnant mum prawns go.  They slaughter the deer that wouldn’t have made it through the winter anyway to keep the majority of the herds free to wander over the hills and through the Bramble Lodge backyard.  Or so you hear from the gamekeeper when you run into him down at the pub.

Basically, it doesn’t get better than Applecross.  I’m already planning a trip back, during which my main goals are:

1. Visit the Potting Shed and Applecross Walled Garden where Mark and Jacq got married. Check out the fantastic website – they grow their own fruit and veg, do their own fishing, tend their own happy piggies, and slaughter the deer from the estate on the premises.  As they say, the food miles ‘could be better measured in yards.’ They open for the season today and I can’t wait to go back.

2. Eat the seafood pizza at the Coastal Kitchen.

And most importantly….

3. Hug a Highland Cow.

I certainly don’t think that’s too much to ask.  Applecross, I’m coming back for you…

Recently, I had meat and fruit for dinner.  To be precise, I had meat fruit at Dinner, the new London restaurant from insanely inventive culinary evil genius, Heston Blumenthal.  Look at my appetizer: it’s fruit!

Or so you think…

Just kidding…IT’S MEAT.

It’s chicken liver parfait in a thin jelly casing and it’s absolutely, mind-bogglingly phenomenal.

Here’s where the magic happens at Heston’s ‘historical British’ dining establishment…

I find Heston massively entertaining. I just watched an episode of Heston’s Mission Impossible, a piece on revamping airline food which featured a gem of a line that went something like, ‘Please begin the high altitude bento box experience with a nasal douche.’

Our Dinner experience was fantastic and involved no nasal douching.  And that’s all I have to say about that.

————————————–

I’m a big believer in the fact that meals don’t have to be fancy or expensive to be smack-you-in-the-face-amazing. Sometimes the best dishes come from handing 2 bucks to a taco truck parked on a side street of San Francisco, or wrapped in paper with no forks from a fiery pit in the Middle of Nowhere, Texas.   But every so often, a magical meal comes along that is schmancy-fancy and uber-expensive and draped with foams and reductions and molecules and essences. And instead of being horribly pretentious and self-important, it’s pure perfection and worth every penny. Or rather, every Euro cent. And that’s what I got at the phenomenal Helene Darroze in Paris, thanks to my foodie mom Elaine and her desire to try a fabulous French restaurant on our trip there last month.

You know your meal is going to be spectacular when it starts off with a plate of black acorn-fed jambon, sliced at the table with your own special jambon-slicing machine.  And when the salt & pepper offer themselves to you from webbed feet.

Gorgeously light and nutty, the jambon melted in my mouth and I could have gnawed at a leg of it for an entire meal. Except I had about 10 courses to come, so I’m quite glad I didn’t. Since it was over a month ago and I drank quite a lot of wine, I can’t remember the exact order of dishes. Plus, they were all written in French. But here’s a slightly blurry, ecstatically happy, poorly translated overview of one of the best meals of my life…

We started with richly grilled lamb sweetbreads in a frothy fava bean puree, more delicious than any thymus has a right to be…

moved on to wild salmon on potato waffles with caviar dotted cream for the most luxurious version of a bagel & lox brunch I could possibly imagine.

The ‘I-almost-can’t-eat-you-because-you’re-so-beautiful-but-who-am-I-kidding-you’re-insanely-tasty-and-thus-will-swiftly-be-destroyed’ award goes to the red mulletfish with baba ghanoush, strewn with edible flowers and sprinkled with fairy dust of deliciousness.

I absolutely adored the next dish, which consisted of a devastating combination of squid, chorizo, tomato confit, black risotto and parmesan cream. My mom found the squid a bit rubbery, but I loved the surprising textures and contrasting flavors  of spice and smoothness and jolts of color.

Five courses down and we’re just getting started.  Up next, ‘mother of pearl’ lobster with a thick stalk of white asparagus and a slender stalk of baby green asparagus, just like I had seen in the market earlier that day. Garnished with a sprig of what I think was cilantro flower, the lobster gleamed on the plate like an ostentatiously shiny gemstone and tasted just as decadent.

Take a deep breath, it’s time for ‘bloody’ forest wood cooked pigeon with one of the most breathtaking bites ever to hit my mouth – a half Snickers bar-sized slab of intensely, extravagantly perfect foie gras.

—-

It’s now a good 6 months later, and my memory of this magical meal consists mostly of dreamy wine-soaked memories. We spent the night sampling fantastic French wines thanks to Flo, my au pair from age 6, and her husband Paul seen through what seems to be a Burgundy-induced haze. Although we see them altogether too rarely, they’re family in the very best sense and it’s wonderful to spend time with them and their kids. Especially because it involves eating in Paris.  But the rest of the country is not to be ignored…

There was an incredible selection of local cheeses of Southwest France in gorgeous glass bell jars that I’d like to steal for my house…

…that you could choose for your very own cheese plate.  All I remember is a spoonful of creamy perfection.

For the first dessert because of course there were multiple desserts – Trinidadian chocolate with citron gel and lemon paper.

Up next was a shot glass full of wild forest strawberries with pannacotta and greek yogurt and almond biscuits, followed by what just might be my last-mouthful-on-earth-before-I-go: salted caramel macarons filled with blackcurrant puree, lightly dusted with the molten gold of the gods. Or something like that.

And here’s to my amazing mother, who made it all happen. Love you Mom, and thanks for the deliciousness.

Now enough with the food porn, I’m getting seriously hungry.  Because I’m starving myself for the day in anticipation of dinner….at Dinner! I know, I’m disgustingly blessed to be eating at all these phenomenal places.  Photos and drooling to come….