In my kitchen: November 2019

I have been on the road since last month's IMK! What a journey it has been.

First, I flew to Shanghai to visit my grandma who is still in hospital with her broken leg. It was a short stopover but of course my father threw a huge party and we ate these absolutely delightful fried dumplings.

There's something so anticipatory about rising dough and making little plump pockets to be fried.

My dad grows baby bok choy everywhere so he can add a bit of green to soups. Here it is doing very well in Shanghai.

We also had these 菱角 - apparently a type of water chestnut which come in a gorgeous star shape. The texture is a little like chestnut, soft and floury once they are boiled in a stock.

Then it was off to Paris to play music with Emily and her Italian friend who lives in such a trendy area - the Latin Quartier of Paris.

The fresh produce at the market on Place Monge was incredible. Everything had such vibrant colours and smelled like the real deal.

For some reason I am drawn to artichokes and our little trio rebranded ourselves Le Trio de Artichauts. We particularly enjoyed playing the rare combination of 2 violins + viola trio - Dvorak's Terzetto (a really wonderful and rich piece, rarely played), and his Miniatures (even less played!); and the string trio by Taneyev, a little known Russian composers.
 

How I adore the rustic baguettes in Paris, burnished with a crackly crust, but meltingly soft on the inside.

We had a selection of four cheeses from the market also, a fresh soft cheese, a small goat cheese and two orange smelly cheeses. We also met another friend's son to play string quartets and for his inaugural string quartet debut we rather bit off more than we could chew with a little Haydn, then Mozart's Dissonance, the Beethoven Razumovsky 1st quartet, and a little of the first Brahms string quartet.

Then it was off to Essaouira, a little town by the sea where we loved the fresh food market.

Look at all this glorious mint!

Beautiful orange pomegranates with tendrils that fall straight off and seeds that are so soft they are digestible.

We loved the fresh fruit & vegetables, all reminiscent of the earth.

Of course we ate so much tagine. I never knew it was so easy to cook in one - just layer the bottom with onions, a splash of oil and the spices, then arrange the vegetables on top to cook slowly.

We had a wonderful piano in our airbnb so we played lots of piano duets this time, including my old favourite Schubert's Fantasie in F minor. Other highlights included Chaminade's Romantic pieces, Arensky's 6 pieces enfantines, and a few great transcriptions (Beethoven's 7th symphony, the Raz 1 that we played in Paris, the Brahms piano quintet, the Mendelssohn Octet).

Traditional Khobz bread dusted with a coarse bran or semolina, eaten with every meal.

A lavish breakfast including Moroccan pancakes and the best freshest orange juice.

Then it was off to Berlin, where we attended the concert of a lifetime - three megastars Daniel Barenboim, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yo-yo Ma playing the Beethoven triple concerto along with the East-West divan orchestra. What an experience that was!

We also ate some excellent baked products including this cherry streusel. My favourite bakery (possibly ever) was Brot ist Gold, a new bakery in the Schonberg area featuring some of the best bread I've ever eaten.

A breakfast of rye bread and cheese, with fruit and Speisequark, a thick extra creamy yoghurt. In Berlin we explored the music of Robert Fuchs, a basically unknown composer who was apparently respected by Brahms but hated the public eye. We played his string duets for violin & viola which were great fun then even discovered his super difficult viola sonata

So much bread in Germany. I wonder how they got this nutty loaf into this peculiar shape?

I stopped briefly in Paris on the way home, enough time to have a magnificent croissant from Le Maison d'Isabelle, which had won the best croissant in Paris award of 2018 - a pretty spectacular award!

Second stopover in Shanghai with my viola and baguette. Who knew that the baguette fits perfectly into the straps of the viola?

So much cooking in foreign kitchens this month. I'm sending this to Sherry who hosts IMK, thanks Sherry!