Category: foooood

butterfly pea tea

this is a very funky tea that we first learnt about on a cooking class in chiang mai. the class itself was conducted on a farm, and included a tour of the gardens. our very nice teacher showed us a bush of butterfly pea with its blueish/purple flowers in bloom, and instructed us to collect 3 each:

back in the kitchen, we put the flowers in a cup and drowned them in hot water…

…and after a moment, voilá! blue tea! :D

everyone was mesmerized by the color slowly leeching from the flower.

just this would be enough to delight me, but then we discovered that lowering the pH of the drink makes it change color to purple… so add some lime juice and voilá! :D

i’m hoping to bring back some seeds, to see if we can grow the bush at home and impress our guests with this concoction. wouldn’t that be fun!

foooood in thailand

malkist

we’re in thailand at the moment, and this might be the “snackiest” country we’ve ever been in. everywhere there are salty and sweet bites to be had — it feels practically obligatory to carry around some form of sustenance for the idle time.

we found malkist at the breakfast table of our guesthouse in chiang mai, and became fans of this chocolaty cookie.

it looks deceptively normal, like a butter cookie with a chocolate stuffing, but when you bite into it, the cookie dissolves into flakes (that fall everywhere if you’re not careful). chocolate is chocolate, but the cookie tastes slightly “malty”, which is nice for a change.

i approve!

Post author By ana
Post date January 8, 2019
No Comments on malkist

algarving foooood

bolinhas do carlos

and since the theme of the moment seems to be sweet stuff, i’m going to mention the typical beach snack in portugal too: bolas de berlim! they’re a different species from their german or slovenian counterparts, in that they’re not filled with jam or covered with a thin layer of chocolate. these balls are serious business, cut in half and properly filled with “creme pasteleiro”, a kind of thick egg cream.

as a rule, they’re outstanding everywhere in portugal, but somehow they seem to taste better at the beach… maybe something about all that sea breeze opening one’s appetite? :D men carry them around the beach in styrofoam boxes, shouting out loud “booooooliiiinha!” so that everyone can hear and come to them for their sweet craving.

we like them a lot but truth be told, we don’t go to the beach all that often… so when a friend told us they could be purchased straight from the source, we drove to the factory in olhão and got some!

i have to say, i was a bit skeptical but they were a-ma-zing! still warm from the frying and filled with the freshest egg cream, not too lemony or otherwise weird — just as i like them. what a treat!

sadly, the factory closes over winter, and we’re already counting the days until they’re back in business. see you soon, dear bolinhas!

foooood

scho-ka-kola

and since we’re on a chocolate bend, i’m long overdue in mentioning a very cute german chocolate which our friends showed us last year. isn’t the tin precious?

the secret is in the name: scho-ka-kola = chocolate (schokolade) + coffee (kaffee) cola nuts (kolanuss)!

apparently it used to be given to german troops on ww2, to keep them awake during long flights or cheer them up after defeats, and works like an energy drink… but better, because it has chocolate! the wavy triangles deliver a kick of caffeine in each bite — a very practical and welcome energy injection while hiking or going about one’s day.

i love the bitterness of coffee by itself, but the combination of the two is pretty ~~cool~~ sweet as well. :)

foooood

melkehjerter

what about those milk hearts? we were acquainted with them a couple of years ago in finland, when our norwegian friends brought some to a postcrossing meetup just to tempt us. they wrote this on the box:

it reads: “norwegian chocolate! want more? come to the international meetup in oslo…” so sneaky and clever!

alas, we didn’t make it that meeting in oslo, but luckily, in the meantime more freia chocolate hearts have made it to our mouths, as we were the recipients of a couple of boxes in a lottery gift last year — jackpot!

there are those storks again, and underneath them, a neat matrix of chocolate hearts!

the chocolate is creamy and mellow, and they are so thin that they immediately melt in your mouth once they land there. i like them like that: just an itsy-bitsy sweet indulgence with coffee or as dessert.

sounds like there are some pretty sweet reasons to visit norway soon… :P