My Favourite Type of Friday...

...or any day for that matter!

At the beginning of my Food for Thought blog I began to discuss my love for antipasto platters. This love grew from a young age at family gatherings in New Zealand where we would always start with h'orderves, which usually consisted of what I feel a traditional Kiwi antipasto platter should entail: cheese (often a few types), olives, sundried tomatoes, gherkins, a dip of some sort usually hummus or a pesto inspired concoction, salami crackers and / or sliced French bread.

This love for antipasto platters has never wilted, however there seems to be a severe lack of antipasto options on many menus over here in the UK, hence the lack of posts and ratings on the blog!  More so they seem to call them a 'chacuterie board' which they have inherited from their French neighbours. Which is all good and all when they actually have it on the menu. You tend to have to go to a particular delicatessen or charcuterie to actually get a proper selection of meats and cheese for example Gordon's Wine Bar, one of London's oldest wine bars (definitely recommend!!). However, pubs and restaurants are catching on with a selection of cheeses to have after your meal. The English tend to save cheese for a post dinner and dessert snack usually consumed with a glass of port or whiskey. This does seem to make sense to me considering when we have antipasto platters as h'orderves they tend to fill us up so much that we then are either too full to have a proper meal or for those of you like me, tend to still fill up the dinner plate and overeat!

Sharing platters are also common over here, usually consisting of a selection of deep fried seafood, a Greek mix of tzatziki, koftas, olives and pita or a meat platter with an assortment of sausages and processed meats.  Despite these great efforts to catch on over here I have missed a good ole classic Kiwi antipasto platter. So recently on one snowy Friday night in London, I decided to make my own. One that would conjure good memories of back home with the family, one that would make them proud and one that would certainly be jam-packed with all the goodness of what I truly consider to be the ultimate antipasto platter.  Of course consumed with a bottle of red... Voila!

 

One thing to note: There can never be enough cheese... I have a love for cheese that can be satisfied at any hour before during or after dinner - There is always time for cheese! However I do consider myself more on the English side here that cheese after a meal served with a glass of red or port is one true delicacy that will never fail to delight me.

Kiwi Crew Christmas and New Year 2012: Prague and Budapest

Over the Christmas and New Year period of 2012 a group of us Kiwi Expats descended upon Prague in the Czech Republic and Budapest, Hungary for the festive celebrations.

 

Amongst the excitement of embracing these two European cities for the magnificent architecture, culture and history, (and to be away from work for ten days!) I was certainly eager to see what each country's cuisines would have on offer.

Both countries cuisines involved a lot of pork, stews, sausages, dumplings, and cabbage. We devoured two traditional Czech meals when in Prague, plus various treats from the local Christmas markets. Our first meal consisted of plenty of meat and a varied range of potato / bread / doughy-like dumplings. These dumplings were much larger than I had experienced before (compared to those in Poland) and were very stodgy and did not come with a gravy or sauce much to Adam's disappointment. Others came with different fillings and looked more-so like cakes rather than traditional 'dumplings'.

As mentioned previously pork took up a lot of the menu.... Pork knuckles, pork schnitzel, pork tenderloins, pork stew and so forth. Three of our team members gorged into the pork knuckles which in each plateful there was enough for two or more. These knuckles came bone still in-tact and with assorted condiments, chili (which got the better of Newdick) gherkins, and cabbage and peppers. The first night we ate out in Prague I tried one of the weirdest flavour combinations I would have thought possible; pork tenderloins stuffed with smoked salmon on a bed of spinach in a blue cheese sauce. Whilst the waiters were too busy providing enough beers to cater for the table they managed to forget the blue cheese sauce for my meal. After almost finishing my plateful one of the waiter's finally realised what we were asking for and brought the sauce over. The interesting mix of flavours of this dish really worked well together. The salmon complimented the pork and the blue cheese sauce moistened each mouthful, it really was a surprisingly tasty dish!

 

The Czech food tended to be stodgy and very hearty. Washed down with numerous beers or beautiful Argentinian Malbec's we eagerly ate ourselves silly.  The Christmas Markets in the Prague town square enlightened our palettes even further with a mixture of sweet and savoury treats. We snacked on deep fried dough covered in a garlic and tomato sauce smothered in cheese, doughnut styled coils, spiralled around a stick covered in cinnamon sugar, and of course spicy hot dogs and lots of mulled wine.

 

Speaking of Christmas Markets this must bring me to discuss Budapest! They had hands down the best food options at the Markets in the Vörösmarty Square. This was one of the highlights of the trip for me. I love a market atmosphere, people wandering around, tasting what is on offer, lines of people waiting to get their hands on some of the best snacks cooked before your eyes, it just presents some of the fun of take away food. Especially when its crispy cold outside and you settle into a nice warm stew followed by some hot wine whilst you are bundled up in a woolly hat, scarf, gloves and embracing the winter air. We almost ate in these markets everyday because the options were so good! From slow cooked beef stew served in a soft wholemeal bowl of bread, to straight out of the oven pizza, to the mouthwatering hot dogs served with gherkins and cabbage which you had to wait at least twenty minutes to get. Even at 3am on the way home on New Years Day Adam and I tucked into a hot dog from a closing market stall, this place definitely rocked!

Apart from gorging on the Christmas Markets every day we also experienced some other goodies that Budapest had to offer, Ring Burger being one of them. Whist burgers aren't a traditional Hungarian food the burgers at this place do deserve a proper mention. They were slightly smaller than expected but with a good variety of options all served with a side of fries and the juiciest meat pattie on offer I would definitely recommend this place to others.  We also dined out on other non traditional feasts, the Hummus Bar which was extremely tasty and felt a lot healthier than what we had been eating that we almost went twice! And on our last night Eataliano also hit the nail on the head with a brilliant Italian pizza and pasta menu.

 Whilst the Central European adventure had to come to a close at some point, I have to say I was ready to get back to a meal of lots of vegetables and less stodge.  The food experience of these two beautiful cities was definitely going to be missed but I fear the size of my waistline would not be so forgiving if I lived on these cuisines all year round! I will however definitely be dreaming of those delicious treats that the Budapest Christmas Markets had to offer until I can get back there again!