Yeah Baby I like it Raw

A beloved child has many names as we say in Finland. Raw beef meat eaten as such  – raw – is called in various ways depending on the country and the way of preparation, the cutting and the way of serving. Whether you eat beef carpaccio, tartar steak, råbiff, carne cruda, crudos kibbe nayyeh or çiğ köfte, you’ll find yourself lusting for beautiful, red, raw meat. I don’t know about you but it sure awakes the barbarian in me.

Raw meat is one of those things that people usually either have a mad obsession for or then avoid totally. I’ve never really understood the ones who spoil perfectly good meat by overcooking it into a hard and dry gum-like thing. I belong to the ones who order a steak as raw as possible. As a matter of fact, my obsession for raw meat is quite compelling from time to time. However, I haven’t always enjoyed sinking my teeth into raw, bloody meat. It’s a love that hit me only four five years ago but has since then only grown on me.

I started thinking about my lust for raw meat. Sometimes, I swear that I can feel that my body needs just that. Probably some of you have already heard about the blood group diets. It’s nothing new and I’m sure some scientists have already proven it completely bogus. But still, in a nutshell, what your system needs, craves for and digests the best depends on your blood type. It’s pretty straightforward and follows the general course of human evolution. Why this is connected to raw meat and red meat especially, is because according to the philosophy behind this diet, the most ancient blood group – the 0 blood – is most adapted to red (raw) meat and least adapted to agrarian products, such as cereals and white sugar for example.  My blood type is 0. No wonder I like my steak “blue” like they call it in France.

On a warm and sunny day not so long ago, my Belgian friend Caroline hosted me for a few days. Caroline is one of those people who don’t think much of their cooking skills, even though they manage to make perfectly tasty food. She might not be an enthusiastic foodie, but she sure knows how to please my stomach. Any way, I had heard her talk about one of her favorite Belgian dishes, fillet Américan. This was something she missed while studying abroad, this and real Belgian fries, of course. Not necessarily eaten together though. I wasn’t familiar with the dish so I asked her to enlighten me. She started by explaining that it’s some type of marinated meat and that it’s usually eaten in the summer time. A special mixture of spices and some sauce is used in preparation. Of some reason she left out the part of it being uncooked meat. Or maybe she mentioned it, but this essential detail just slipped my mind completely. She was happy explaining it because she had just received a package containing all the needed ingredients (minus the meat of course) from her boyfriend in Belgium.

A couple of days later Caroline invited me for lunch. She was going to make fillet Américan! Finally I’d get to try this mystery dish. I arrived to her house and she started cooking. All ingredients were set on the table: Capers, mustard, onion, Worchester sauce and egg yoke. It looked awfully familiar and I got excited immediately. There might just be raw meat on the menu for lunch! I asked Caroline whether this Belgian dish could possibly be anything like tartar steak. “That’s the other name for it that I was looking for the other day!” she answered. Yes! Caroline told me that in Belgium it’s also common to eat fillet Américan as a spread on bread. Gotta try that sometime.

A thing that I love about raw meat dishes what ever you want to call it, is that it’s super easy to make and it always tastes amazing. The only thing that can go wrong is that you buy crappy meat. What comes to seasoning and serving, you can basically do whatever you feel like. Use lemon, lime, onion, mustard, mustard seeds, salt, pepper, paprika, cinnamon, herbs… simply listen to your taste and trust your imagination.

The Belgian version was delicious indeed. The Worchester sauce was a first one for me. I usually call my raw meat dish “carne cruda”, literally “raw meat”. It’s the (north) Italian version most often made of minced beef meat and seasoned with salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon, chopped celery and topped with parmiggiano cheese. That’s the version that I fell for five years ago and it’s still the one I prefer.

Some of you might have guessed which song inspired me for the title of this post. Shimmy Shimmy Ya by Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Good memories, thanks to both the dish and the song.

P.S. Forget about getting sick or catching a nasty worm when eating raw beef meat. As long as the meat is fresh, you’re good to go!

Epicurean Flashbacks

We all know how it feels to have a flashback when hearing a particular song. For a brief instant the melody combined with the lyrics make you travel back in time to a precious place. You stay there for a minute or two, recall the beautiful moment and smile. Memories connected to music are extremely moving; even the coldest hearts heat up reminiscing about good old times. For some people, smells and tastes work the same way.  A perfume, a shampoo, a detergent, or particular food can take you on a trip down memory lane reminding you about a person, a summer vacation or even a period in your life.

Personally speaking, both sounds and smells have huge impact on me, but the latter even more so. It’s almost a bit freaky but yet so lovely. A smell can teleport me to a very specific place in my mind, making me remember precisely how I felt when I first encountered it. In fact, I often find myself seeking distinctive smells that I can later use as points of reference in order to relive a particular moment over and over again.

I witnessed such an amazing flashback the other day, no thanks to a smell rather a specific sound when cooking. Maybe it was the combination of the smell and the sound, but it was certainly the sound that moved me the most. Let me elaborate.

I never considered myself as someone who’d enjoy camping. My idea of the activity is not very good; hubs of caravans, drunken people stuffing their faces with bad food, mosquito bites, dreadful public toilets and showers… no thank you. Luckily, a good old friend proved me wrong and introduced me to a whole new way of camping. Obviously, this story has a twist – the part related to cooking and I’ll get to it in a second.

A week ago, my Spanish friend Cami picked me up at Barcelona airport. We hadn’t seen each other for five whole years and the reunions was ebullient! After the tenth “Is that really you!?” we crammed my huge back pack into the trunk of Cami’s car. I had no idea what to expect of the trip ahead. Cami had planned a whole week of outdoor food and sport related activities, but refused to reveal the details. I was psyched. I love surprises. However, I’m incurably curious and I simply couldn’t resist having a sneak peak into the big box I saw in the trunk. I didn’t see much of it's content but what I did see pleased me very much: a bottle of Rioja Reserva 2007, a big fat chorizo, Spanish goat’s cheese and, as a cherry on top, gluten free bread just for me. I didn’t need to see more. I had full faith that my dear friend had the situation fully under control. While Cami was busy arranging stuff in the car, I performed a short and silent happy dance.

Now back to my story on sounds. It was the second day of my Spanish surprise vacation when Cami informed me at breakfast that we’d head up to the Spanish Pyrenees. In addition to being a passionate foodie like myself, Cami loves climbing, hiking, canyoning and other such mountain related activities. Direction: wilderness. Even though I’m a total rookie in this domain, I was very excited. And my excitement only grew while Cami was preparing the little “survival kit” that contained yummy treats.

Before I knew it, I was walking up a mountain with no people or civilization in sight. With sweat dripping down my forehead, I started feeling the vertigo kick in, but I remained focused. I inhaled the hot air that smelled of thyme and rosemary and kept my eyes on the narrow rocky path. “We’ll definitely earn our lunch today” Cami said with a smile and passed me the bottle of ice-cold spring water. I swear it was the most delicious water ever. ¡Vamos! Two hours later, I was starving. I had been so consumed by the breathtaking view over the Rodellar that I hadn’t felt the hunger before. “Are you hungry?” Cami read my mind right on time. I answer with my favorite Spanish sentence: “¡Claro que si hombre!”

We made camp in a canyon with the river flowing a meter away. Cami opened his backpack. The moment I had been waiting for had come. My mouth was watering. I was ready to dig in to whatever he had in there. As I was reaching for the food, Cami stopped me; “First we need to get refreshed” and jumped into the crystal clear water. I followed the leader. It was perfect.

After the dip I was totally awake. By now my hunger had taken a life of its own, I had to feed it or else… But in no time Cami set up a whole camping kitchen! Aluminum plates that also work as frying pans, aluminum cups, fork/spoons, pocketknives, a butane cooker… the whole deal. I was impressed. As he was preparing our lunch, he made a sound that instantly transported me to my childhood. It felt like one specific sound combined with all the other surrounding elements creating a very familiar whole. The sound was the fork against the aluminum plate! Yes! That was it! For me, that sound makes my mouth water. It’s like whatever's cooking can only be delicious, something “stewy”, rich and scrumptious. It reminded me of times when we used to go on boat trips to the Finnish archipelago in the summer with my parents. On the boat we only had a little camping kitchenette and all kitchenware were made of aluminum. My favorite dish back then was white beans in tomato sauce with grilled sausages and boiled Finnish new potatoes!

“Edith where are you? Earth calling. It’s time to eat.” Cami handed me the hot aluminum plate with steaming food on it. I’m sure I looked like I was having a spiritual connection with some high and mighty force or something.

I took the plate in my hands and gently scraped the plate with the fork. There it was again, that sound! I burst into laughter! What a moment of sheer happiness. There I was, in the heart of the Spanish Pyrenees with a good old friend, but at the same time I was back in the early 90’s on an island in the Gulf of Finland. I was deeply touched. A flashback of my very first epicurean memory! I couldn’t resist licking the plate clean.

Dinner in Brazil

When speaking about food, there are always new things to discover and endless possibilities. Just when you think you pretty much know it all, nothing no longer surprises you and you even think that you've tried just about everything considered edible in your understanding of the term, new tastes and new ways of cooking appear. Sometimes simply combining raw materials in an unusual way is enough to make your taste palate go wild. As for myself, I recently experienced a very lovely surprise. I went on a scrumptious culinary trip to the Brazilian world of tastes.  Unfortunately, my private jet was out of order so I didn't get to travel across the Atlantic Ocean, but in my mind my taste buds and I had a very pleasant holiday indeed.

Two days ago I arrived to Strasbourg to visit my former flatmates Tif and Sophie. If you read my post on cheese in January you might remember them. Any way, all three of us love eating, love food and love cooking. All three of us also got graduated this week! Needless to say, we needed to do some serious celebrating. As I stuck the corkscrew into the first bottle of Bordeaux the girls had reserved for the occasion, there were some serious decisions to be made. A glass of wine is always good before making any major decisions by the way. And boy did we have a major decision to make. Where to eat and what to eat for on this very special day. "I don't fee like cooking today" Tif said whisking a cake dough with one hand and holding a wine glass in the other. We just can't help the cooking urge, it's probably genetic.

The cake was all I was willing to let her do though. The evening would be kitchen free. Tif had a suggestion and told us about this little Brazilian restaurant. The only problem was that she had eaten there already a couple of times this week. Still, the more she talked about it the more I seriously wanted to try it. She sold her idea to us without an effort and the decision was unanimous. Brazil here we come!

We arrived to the restaurant and got the warmest welcome. A gorgeous Brazilian man with a beautiful smile showed us to our table. I was fond of Brazil immediately. I couldn't wait to get my hands on...the menu. As I opened the menu a second later a whole new culinary world of opened up in front my eyes. The menu was full of new and exciting dishes I had never heard of before: caruru, feijoada, moqueca capixaba, salgadinho just to name a few. What on earth was I about to experience!? What became clear was that dried shrimp, toasted nuts, palm oil, bean pastes, cassava/manioc flour, fresh cilantro and mildly spiced sauces were essential. The ingredients all rang a bell, but the way they were combined to form a dish was unknown and new to me. I was thrilled! A detail that particularly enchanted me was the grilled plantains. My love for bananas of any kind is somewhat exaggerated, I do admit...

We wanted to try everything and choosing seemed impossible. In the end we managed to make up our minds. Xinxim de carne with a side of grilled plantain for me please. This creamy beef stew with ginger, peanuts, coconut milk and spices was served with beautiful rice spiced with cumin. On the side, my beloved plantain and a little spicy sauce made of cilantro, onions, green peppers and tomatos. I think I forgot to breathe for a while. Only the smell of the dish got me high. I decided to wait and observe my friends' faces when they had the first bite. Man was I happy to have my camera! I had to film it. The power good and delicious food has will never cease to amaze me. My goodness! It was a perfect moment. Just perfect. A warm summer night, amazing friends, good vibes and explosions of deliciouness Brazilian style.

Restaurant Acerola - 8, rue du Renard Préchant - 67000 Strasbourg - France.

A Hole of Deliciousness

It has been a while since I’ve been this delighted to praise a restaurant. Unfortunately often the experience of eating out in my city leaves me lukewarm. Boy do I hate to say “I could’ve done that so much better myself” after having eaten a mediocre meal and paid a fortune for it.

This time though, I wanted to French kiss the chef! The restaurant called Kolo is a relatively new addition to the current, ever so vibrant restaurant scene in Helsinki. Literally, “The Hole” is worthy of its name. It’s a tiny joint with only five tables or so and ‘cosy’ just wouldn’t be enough to describe the lovely atmosphere. It’s well planned to be unorganized and spontaneous; nothing in the décor really matches but still the idea it seems so natural and perfect. From old school cotton napkins all in different styles, to delicate vintage porcelain coffee cups sets… The only thing that rubbed my circles was the African style masques that stared at me the whole time.

On a Friday, at lunchtime only one table was free – we got lucky. “It’s a slow day today”, said the waiter. I could only imagine. Hyped small places like Kolo are usually always packed and you end up asking yourself how it’s possible, where do all the people come from? And it doesn’t matter what day of the week or at which hour it is… Personally, I think it’s a big turn off, as waiting and breathing in other diners’ necks, sighing of discomfort is not my idea of a nice start to a delicious meal.

Like I said, this time my Mother and I got lucky. As the purpose of the treat was to celebrate me handing in the draft of the final version of my thesis, it would’ve been a bummer to be rejected with a “Sorry, we’re full”.  Since I had done four months worth of research on Finnish culinary culture, I was particularly excited to try the food in Kolo. I must admit that there were notable expectations and a certain intuition guiding my judgement. I was about to be reassured regarding the conclusion I made for the purpose of my thesis of Helsinki being the hot spot for new exiting culinary experiences, I just didn’t know it yet.

Helsinki, being a small capital on a European scale, can’t seem to keep secrets when it comes to new bars, cafés, restaurants and other trendy hangouts. Even though many businesses pop up in total silence without any fuss around them, people talk. And when people talk, people like. It’s just a matter of seconds before the hype is unleashed. The funniest thing is that many people simply go on repeating what they hear from a friend of a friend without making sure the rumours have a solid basis. That’s Helsinki for you. When it’s hot, it’s hot, even if it’s not.

Kolo is one of these places. I don’t even remember how many people assured me: “I’ve heard it’s awesome”. I happen to be very critical when it comes to such claims, especially when they’re about new restaurants and food related happenings.  Also, I’m not the easiest person to impress when it comes to restaurant food, even though I love all kind of food and tastes. I consider myself extremely lucky to be surrounded by so many amazing kitchen-talents that most often the best food is made in a group of food loving friends sipping on some nice wine. It’s just not worth it to pay for mediocrity. When it comes to food, I hate to be disappointed. What I hate even more is ending up paying for it. So in order to avoid bad mood, I usually play it safe and cook at home. Then again, I do love to be catered for and do nothing else than relish in flavours brought to me by a lovely waiter. What is more heavenly than taking the first bite of a dish prepared with care, love, know-how and good judgement all in accordance to your choice?!

Kolo’s lunch menu was simple but luring, at least to my taste: Three choices among which I found the one that tingled my taste buds the most – a risotto verde and  blue mussels. Actually, I took a risk. I think I’ve never had such perfect risotto as I had during my three month stay in Italy a while ago. So let’s say that the stakes were high. I wanted to see if the claims about Kolo were true. If the kitchen was to wow me with a risotto, I’d be extremely enchanted. You got to bet high to win high.

The thing about a risotto is that it’s a relatively simple dish. It’s pretty easy to make a decent risotto. The problem is that too many ignorant chefs rely on the simplicity and end up ruining the whole thing thinking who could possibly mess up a risotto. Well, most performances are poor. It’s always either too solid or too liquid, either tasteless or tasting only wine. And don’t even get me started on the right meaning of “risotto all’onda”! (When talking about risotto, one shouldn’t say ‘al dente’ but ‘all’onda’. The first one is reserved for arguments over cooking pasta  )

Any way… to my surprise the risotto verde at Kolo was close to perfection! I’m pretty sure I heard angels singing as I was licking the fork after the first mouth full. Simply delicious! And the foodgasm just got better when I tasted the blue mussels… I wanted to bathe in the plate. When I washed it all down with a sip of white wine from the culinary region of Langhe, I found myself in the most divine state of mind.

I rest my case. Helsinki indeed is blooming when it comes to culinary experiences. You just have to know what you want and be lucky enough to find a free table. I can certainly recommend Kolo with a clean consciousness when saying I KNOW it’s good. And you know what, it's even totally affordable!

Back to Basics

 – the missing link

I made pea soup and Karelian pies. Delicious!

After four months of writing a Master thesis on my native country’s culinary culture, I think I’ve finally found the source of the culinary “problem” in Finland. Ironically, the “problem” is the problem, as most people don’t even consider it a problem. So is there a problem?

Yes and no. Let me break it down to you.

Heard over and over again at home and abroad: “But there is no food culture in Finland!”. Of some reason, however, some of the best chefs from the Nordic region come from Finland and shine even internationally with their savoir-faire, their cutting-edge cuisine techniques and highly developed culinary philosophy. Hold on, aren’t we talking about Denmark here? By no means. I haven’t been away for that long to make the common mistake of mixing up the different Nordic countries or maybe even worse, labelling them all under the rather convenient “Nordic” label.

So if the problem doesn’t lie in the professional culinary expertise or the Finnish culinary culture, where then? After an amazingly inspiring chat with one of my country’s finest chefs following the “New Finnish Cuisine” philosophy as he calls it, I think I’m seeing it clearer than ever. Even though a rapidly growing amount of “average people” have already started opening their eyes to the exquisite abundance of our domestic and natural raw materials embracing them in a rightful way, top chefs, food critics and gastronomic elites still have a vast majority of people to convert and convince in favour of the newest trend in Finnish food culture. How can it be so hard? The recipe is easy: Back to basics. And it’s not like the Finns don’t get it. I mean if you ask a Finn about his/her most delicious Finnish food memory, the person will most certainly start praising his/her grand mother’s home cooking, the so called comfort food – the most basic Finnish food there is. Bingo!

But somehow the link between our grandparents’ food mentality and the contemporary culinary reality is missing. Born in the mid 80s, I can remember “home food” being unworthy of serving even to the kid next door. What to cook that would be special, tasty and interesting enough was my Mum’s biggest problem, as the normal and average, basic home food was problematic to serve. But why, for Heaven’s sake?

I must admit that for long I wasn’t any better myself. It took some radical auto-convincing even for me to be able to proudly serve an honest, rather rustic traditional Finnish dish to my food loving French friends for example. And when I finally got over the fear of it not being a “good enough”, I really had to put grand restraints on myself to not ruin the delicate flavours with “unnatural” and/or foreign flavour elements. I can tell you that it takes great courage to add nothing but salt (and maybe, only maybe, in some cases, some ground black pepper). Respect to those who do it all the time!

Okay, I have to let you all in on a secret, the secret of the “New Finnish Cuisine” in fact. It’s also very simple in the end. It's about turning so-called problem to your advantage. Look at it this way: Instead of spending loads of money on rare and costly foreign ingredients, then using hours and hours on trying to find special, new recipes that you’re hardly able to understand, you should invest in high quality, super fresh, locally produced raw materials and call your granny for inspiration. There. Now you know it.

To sum it up for you, the problem is two-fold. One: The lack of balls and self-confidence in our own Finnish culinary simplicity and raw material capacity. Two: The misunderstanding for “good quality” and “bon goût”. Whether you like to call it “beautification”, “a culinary revolution”, “an elitist project” or “culinary fascism” at its harshest, we need to go back to basics. Don’t get me wrong though, we shouldn’t toss contemporary evolution, technical know-how and avant-garde culinary ethics out the window. We just have to take a step back without taking a step back.

"Mangiare e Fare l’Amore"

Photo by egle

Yesterday I had the immense honor to listen to a great man. The founder and president of the Slow Food movement Carlo Petrini addressed a full house in Helsinki last night. Being the overly emotional person that I am, I found myself applauding this charming and charismatic man from the town of Bra, Italy with tears of joy in my eyes. Dear readers, if you still haven’t heard about Slow Food you should correct that with the speed of lightening! In a nutshell, Slow Food is all about preserving and fighting for good quality food worldwide. The ingredients of good quality food according to Slow Food are good/tasty food, clean food and fair food. “If one of these criteria is missing, there’s no quality at all”, Signor Petrini explained with a determined face.

Food has people talking and the masses are (Thank God) opening their eyes more and more. But why do we need all this fuss around food? Isn’t it just a trend? Well, the answer to that question will certainly divide people’s opinions, but if you ask me, or Signor Petrini for that matter, we need to talk about food now more than ever before. And trends have nothing to do with it.

In the past, food didn’t travel the four corners of the world to get on our plats. Seasonality was embraced, respected and followed. It created natural diversity in accordance with Mother Earth. Then came the wave of capitalism and with it also the contemporary plague – consumerism. On top of that, people started traveling long distances for leisure. Soon it wasn’t enough to savor a beautifully ripe mango somewhere in in Africa or South-East Asia, no, the mango had to come to us to any cost. Neither was it enough that the poor little mango travelled halfway across the world to make us happy, no, it had to be of perfect shape and size, the prettiest mango of all. Paying customers started having improbable demands on availability and accessibility. And that’s when it all turned upside down.

Signor Petrini pointed out that at a first glance it seems that food today is all about recipes, sharing them, comparing them, getting ahold of the best ones… But brace yourselves; recipes make up for only 10–15% of gastronomy! Gastronomy – the practice of choosing, eating and cooking good quality food – is a multidisciplinary domain. It’s equally about history and anthropology as it is about economy and medicine for example, and the list goes on and on. This is precisely the reason why I get so disappointed when I hear someone saying they write a food blog and when I check it out it’s overloaded with recipes, one after the other. Why don’t we talk about food like we talk about the next presidential elections or the economical crisis? Without food there wouldn’t even be a next president to talk about, let alone an economy for us to fuck up.

Signor Petrini revealed himself to be a non-believer, “but if I believed in God”, he said, “I’d thank Him for making the two most vital acts of human kind – eating and making love – so immensely pleasant and enjoyable”. In my country, if you ask me, a frighteningly big amount of the people have forgotten both how to relish in food and take ecstatic pleasure of two bodies becoming one. All that matters is safety and whether it’s healthy or not. Everything is restricted and socioculturally controlled. Limits, limits and more limits. I really hope the people listening yesterday went home hungry and lusting… I sure wouldn’t have minded getting acquainted with one of the many Italian chefs present at the lecture ;)

We have come such a long way from Nature. Nature has become so unnatural that we need to add the word ‘nature’ or ‘natural’ everywhere, especially when talking about food (or making love love for that matte). But it should all be natural – NATURALLY! Unfortunately, it is no longer so and that makes my very sad indeed. Signor Petrini said something that really shocked me. He rattled the crowd by actually thanking McDonald’s! At first it was like he had pronounced the name of the Devil, but then he explained to the audience that without McDonald’s and fast food there might not be Slow Food either. And he’s right. The human kind always seems to only learn the hard way…

As a conclusion I’d like you to ponder over something Signor Petrini said. He said that what is absolutely insane in today’s world is that people spend more money on loosing weight than on they do on eating! At first I gasped for air, that’s how astonished I was. But come to think about it, it might actually be true. I have to admit that even I felt a bit guilty. When I first started studying and moved away from home, the content of my fridge was most of the time composed of nothing more than the little lamp and some dry old potatoes. Somehow I still managed to purchase a gym card with a membership fee too expensive to even say out loud, shame on me! But I was vain, young and foolish, what can I say. Nowadays, I’m proud to inform you that it’s quite the opposite and I can't even see the little lamp. A good friend of mine came to my place a few days ago and got very surprised when opening my fridge: “It’s full, you’ve got so much food!”. Yes indeed! I don’t know about the other vital act of human kind, but I surely eat good every single day!

The value of food is so much more than its price. Next time you have to choose between some magic diet pills and good quality food according to Slow Food standards, do yourself and your environment a favor and go for the latter. Be aware of the pleasure good quality food gives you.

Grazie dal cuore Signor Petrini!

Special Delivery

Almost all people appreciate a special home made gift. If it’s something edible, it’s even better. I love preparing something special for someone special. But for me it’s not quite enough to cook or bake a dish that tastes goods in general. Pleasing someone with food can be rather challenging if the aim is to satisfy that one particular person’s taste to the point. How awfully embarrassing isn’t to be invited for dinner and to discover that what’s on the menu is something you simply can’t bear?! Or even worse, something you’re horribly allergic to! What a disaster. I think that a well-chosen and well-prepared dish is the perfect way to prove that you really know and care about a person dear to you. Who wouldn’t be flattered of a custom-made meal?

Not long ago I certainly outdid myself in customizing food. A dear friend of mine who has a minor fetish with Hello Kitty decided to throw a party at his place. Well of course it wasn’t just any party, it was a Hello Kitty party. Fearing that he would ask all invited guests to come dressed up as big headed pink kitty-cats, I discretely asked him for more details. I must say he had me for a second and I started inventing ways to get out of the situation. But I guess he judged by my face that I was slightly horrified so he was kind enough to correct himself. Finally all he wanted was for all guests to bring something Hello Kitty related with them to the party. I was relieved. I really couldn’t see myself dressed up as a Japanese cartoon figure.

For me it meant just another culinary challenge and I was game! Obviously the end result had to look like Kitty. That was certain. The twist was to make her taste perfectly exquisite in my friend’s mouth. After structuring a list of five main ingredients that would both fit together in general and do the trick considering my friend’s taste, I had it nailed

Making a culinary profile of someone you think you in depth is probably harder than you might think. Sweet or savory, creamy or fruity, light or heavy, simple or complex, warm or cold…are just the first criteria that come in mind. If the person in question follows a specific diet, has fully excluding dislikes or suffers of an allergy or an intolerance, the recipe search immediately turns into a much more demanding mission.

The way I see it is that choosing to make the most suitable dish according to someone’s particular taste and to serve a specific purpose is like choosing the right dress-code/outfit for a given occasion. Since one usually doesn’t wear a pyjama to the opera, why should one serve convenience food to someone only eating organic food? It seems ridiculously straightforward and simply, but it’s a very common gaffe I must say. If you don’t know whom you’re really cooking for you better get to know the essential dos and don’ts. If it’s impossible than don’t go for something too special or too complicated. I know, easier said than done. Most of the time I can’t even take my own advice to be honest. Like tonight, I decided to bake something that I could bring to an important appointment I have tomorrow morning. I told myself a thousand times to keep it simple and do it good. Try guessing whether I follow my own advice?

No, I didn’t. Anyway, my creation is now done and waiting to be eaten. One special delivery coming your way! I hope it won’t be a complete flop. Fingers crossed!