Eating on Adventure: London, Dublin, Edinburgh

London!

Thanks to an awesome friend working in London, I recently returned from a 10-day UK adventure through London, Scotland, and Ireland. (It was incredible!) In addition to 14 powerbars, a bag of almonds, some prunes, a handful of fruit leather strips, a batch of chocolate almond butter cookies, some fruit, and a bag of protein shake, I was lucky enough to run into some pretty decent whole food restaurants abroad.  In particular, I ate at one raw restaurant (SAF London), one deli/bakery (Blazing Salads, Dublin), and munched a lot of wild blackberries along the road!  Otherwise, I only actually bought two additional meals- one grilled-fish and chips meal, and one potatoes and vegetables meal-- both in Ireland during day tours.

My thoughts on the food that I did find--


 1. SAF Shoreditch - City of London - http://www.safrestaurant.co.uk/
     my score: 4 / 5 stars

This is not aubergine manicotti. I found it online when I googled SAF. But it does look like the raw tacos that my companion ate!

I ordered the Aubergine Manicotti (£14.45): "Mixed herb cheese wrapped in marinated aubergine strips, dehydrated and served with putanesca, olive relish and semi-dried tomato."

It was good! Not the best raw food I've ever eaten (which would be the Present Moment Cafe in St. Augustine, FL), but still very much worth it. Even more telling, SAF passed the ultimate test: my sugar-and-meat-and-all-things-normal eating friend even enjoyed his raw tacos. Not bad!  The biggest downside to SAF was its distance from where I was staying in Central London. (It was about a 20 minute walk)

Oh- oh- and for DESSERT, I ordered a orange chocolate tart. It was also fair. A little too cacao-nib-y for my taste, but what redeemed it was the little orange-flavored spheres that topped it. Very molecular-gastronomy-y, and I don't remember what they're actually called... but cool!


2. Blazing Salads: Dublin, Ireland
    5 / 5 stars

Image from The Vegan Post.

 This place was possibly the highlight of Dublin for me! It is a small family-owned deli, with a salad bar and bakery. The bakery was full of sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free concoctions! I stocked up for the next few days worth of meals/snacks and purchased: a brown rice ball stuffed with beans, a phyllo-esque wrap stuffed with nori/seaweed, an orange-date bar, and a cardamom-fig pastry roll. And then I figured what-the-heck, and added some Natasha's raw chocolate truffles for 1 euro each.  Everything that I had there was unique and delicious-- 100% worth the experience!  And of course it was a great way to blow my last euros before returning to London.


I was even so happy to find delicious, edible Dublin food, that missing my flight back to London didn't even upset me too much that evening. Because yes, that happened... silly AM vs PM confusion. But, 200e later, I was on a different flight nonetheless.


So, in summary- there exist places to eat abroad on a gluten free, sugar free, dairy free diet-- you just have to do your homework and know where to go. And if ever you are in Dublin, be sure to hit up Blazing Salads, on Wicklow St.

Tapas Espanolas

Mmm Tapas! What are tapas, you may ask? Well. Let me tell you a little story.

Once upon a time, I spent a summer abroad in Granada, Spain. I stayed with a Senora who made the most delicious crepes; walked two miles a day in dizzying heat, skinnydipped in Nerja, hiked los Cachorros, tasted chocolate croissants from every pasteleria in town, watched the sun rise over the Alhambra from club Camborio, tried late-nite shawarma post-Chupiteria 69, learned the difference between "de puta madre" and "puta madre," and of course, went for tapas (or, "tapateando").

Tapas are snacks sold at bars in Spain, and usually of the deliciously greasy bar food variety. One of the highlights of Granada was that at most bars, with your first drink you got a free tapa. To go "tapateando" takes advantage of this-- we'd go out for tapas instead of dinner, bar-hopping from place to place, ordering a drink at each one and getting the free tapa that comes with it. The fun part, of course, is that one generally ends up getting drunk before getting full in the process.  (Did I mention I first got really sick after returning from Spain that summer? Wonder why.)

Some notable tapas that I encountered in my journeys:

Tortilla - the Spanish tortilla is a thick, dense omelet with potatoes and onions mixed in
Croquetes - Fried blobs filled with mystery ingredients! (cheese? meat? who knows!)
Berenjena Frita con Miel de Cana - fried eggplant with sugarcane molasses

Espinacas con Garbanzos - sauteed spinach with garbanzo beans; I think I first encountered this in Sevilla last year, and it was a nice "healthier" alternative at the time.

and, on the other hand, I once received little bread slices topped with an inch of may, sprinkled with bacon bits. TAPA FRACASO! (= tapa fail!)

 And, what to drink with said tapas? My personal favorite was the Shandy- beer mixed with lemon soda. If the place didn't have Shandys, then tinto de verano (red wine mixed with lemon soda) was the way to go-- or, a good old sangria. (Or there was that one bar that had their specialty "orgasmo" mystery drink...)

But alas, the days of Shandys and shawarma and guitar-clapping, sangria-sharing are over.
But that doesn't mean I can't make my own healthy tapas!

Here are the (only slightly gringo-ified) diet-acceptable versions of three of my favorite tapas:
(and sorry for inexact (/nonexistant) measurements 0:)

Espinacas sin Garbanzos  (make it "con" garbanzos by throwing some in- I was lazy!)

Spinach!
Paprika!
Salt, white pepper!


Tortilla Espanola -- here, the idea is that you want enough egg to nearly fill whatever pan you're using. This time I made a tortilla-for-one and used a little baby 6-inch(?) "one-egg" pan:

2 eggs
1/4 - 1/2 boiled potato, thinly sliced -- officially these slices would be fried first with some chopped white onions -- or use leftover french fries. (I used leftover baked home-fries)
dash of onion powder (or chopped, sauteed white onion)
salt
white pepper
little dump of Spanish olive oil (/EVOO)

Mix all ingredients in a measuring cup. Heat pan with a dash of olive oil. Pour in mixture and cook until set. (To be honest, I haven't mastered the art of cooking a perfect tortilla... mine has ended up a bit mishapen!) Cook until set and slice into wedges.

Berenjena Frita con Miel de Agave
eggplant, sliced into ~1cm rounds
almond meal / flaxseed meal
salt, pepper, coconut sugar
agave


Slice eggplant; coat each slice in almond meal (or just sprinkle it on top). Arrange slices on a cookie sheet. Spray with olive oil cooking spray, sprinkle on salt and pepper to season, and optional coconut sugar, if desired. To serve, drizzle agave nectar on top.

French Macarons Fail

Apparently, Macarons are all the rage in Paris. I, however, have never eaten one. Yet, I did help make a real-person version of them while visiting friends in Charlottesville for the weekend. Which of course inspired me to subsequently attempt my own ACD version.

...which went pretty far-off.

Cool lookin' cookies, but certainly not macarons.

Macarons are supposed to be light merengue cookies, perfectly smooth and gorgeous, filled with a smooth and delectable creme/caramel/jam filling.

Mine were pretty much none of the above. My cookies turned out dense and chewy, which was a result of several fundamental issues:

Issue #1: Eggs did not creme properly. AKA I did not creme them long enough to achieve truly stiff peaks before adding flour. Then, I probably added too much flower, which resulted in a dough, instead of a ribbony, lava-flow meringue. Problem, indeed. Also: I did not have the traditional almond flour, so I used brown rice flower. Which is ironic, that for once a recipe calls for an ACD friendly flour, and I have to substitute for a less-healthy one.

Issue with egg creaming leads me to ask: Can eggs creme properly, and remain stable that way (aka make a successful meringue) without the addition of granular sugar? (I did add cream of tartar to assist with this). Answer TBD...

Issue #2: Salted caramel agave sauce did not thicken. Ghee added to it separated to top of jar in fridge. Not good. Filled cookies with jam instead. Lame.


So yes, these cookies were quite sub-par.

BUT

1) Sometimes I like a challenge:

(as clearly stated by this lolcat, and exemplified by my Freshman year spring )

AND


2) Everybody Makes Mistakes

(as expressively-danced by good ol' doglover 19970, youtube sensation)

Watch this Now!


thanks doglover, for providing a whole lot of college procrastination...

~~~

So, yes. STAY TUNED for updates on macaron attempts, AND popover attempts- I still haven't forgotten about those! And, of course, the dreaded white frosting. And hopefully no more obscure lolcat/youtube/unidentifiable internet references.

LASIK

And the blindness is over!

Contacts? Never again! Glasses? Good riddance!

Today I got LASIK surgery. Shoutout to my friend the Nemo stuffed animal that I got to hold during the procedure! Did it make me feel like a 5-year old? Yeup. Was it highly necessary? Yeup.

Besides the hold-your-eyelid-open ring popping off of my left eye at one point, everything went according to plan. More-than-slight discomfort while the corneal flap was being cut (the doctor literally described it as feeling like someone squeezing their thumb into my eye for half a minute. ...that's supposed to reassure me?), plus some stinging while the laser zapped the corneal flesh (definitely wasn't supposed to be feeling it then... MST to the girl who didn't get a full numbing drop into my right eye)... but then it was over! I mighta been a little giddy-traumetized, but I sure could see better!

As instructed, I went home and took a big nap. Unfortunately it was not big enough, because I didn't take the full dose of Xanax that the docs highly recommended. So, some severe "omg what if my flap came loose" pain pushed me awake. Never fear, some eye drops got me comfy and snoozing again in no time.

Now, I'm feeling nostalgia for thesis lab* as I'm wearing lab goggles around everywhere. Flying polymers, splashing acetone, boiling-over popover oil... BRING IT ON! You can't get my corneal flap, suckers....

* I think I could devote an entire post in itself to this image.... DANG all those polymer folk look good. Can we just examine the smiles, the hair, the huUUuuuGe awkward? It's not even the people, it's the photo-- I love it. I really do. I really really do. heyooo P(S-r-MMA-r-HEMA)!

anyway, I have eyes now. GREAT!

Cape Cod

10 hour drive to Dennisport, Massachusetts?

Noooo problem. Special thanks to my little car, for making this possible, and not breaking down or exploding.

Three days with THE AZEOTROPE and ARGENTINA gave me a bad sunburn, some great(?) surfing, and lots of quality TV-watching. Also, I found a live whelk, which moved when poked and was fondly named "FIFA."

A solo drive for 1200 miles in total certainly qualifies as an adventure. Yay! Also, special thanks to Garmin, my new GPS, donated by my loving sister.