Xan: Linden and Chris Wedding!

We had a great week in England for Linden and Chris' wedding in June!

I've been going to a lot of weddings lately, but this was a unique wedding for me. The microscopic size -- 14 of us in all -- meant that, much like Antman, we could do some amazing things that have never been physically possible at larger scales. We all spent the week at Middleton Hall and cooked our own food and went on day trips to interesting places. As every cook knows, it's three times as hard to cook for twice as many people in a foreign kitchen, and four times as hard to clean up after them. But we just about managed it, and had a great time. We pulled off some real upscale dining, at least in the sense that the numbers on our bathroom scales have moved in the general direction of up!

You will not find any pictures from the ceremony here, because this is a food blog, and because Linden asked us not to eat during the wedding ceremony. Sorry to rain on your parade, but you can't very well expect sunshine from a wedding in northern England, can you?

Even so, I will include a few pictures that could plausibly be considered food pictures from some perspective. For instance, from a puffin's perspective, a beak full of minnows is a hearty lunch:

Puffin on Farne Islands, captured in flight by holding binoculars to the lens of a camera phone.

Furthermore, it must be said that from an Icelander's perspective, the puffin itself is lunch:

We did visit Iceland on the way home, and yes, when in Rome...

And from a French perspective, the walls of Bamburgh castle are lined with escargot:

I just like this photo.

You know what, I'm just going to post my favorite photos and I'll be damned if they don't have something to do with food.

Here's a sheep -- eating!

"Sheep in Sheep's Clothing"

Here's a mushroom -- calling all hobbits!

Moosh-roooms!

Here's a delicious Arctic tern-over!

Photo credit: Dad.

You see how it goes. Just you try and stop me! I spent just about 30 years mastering the English language and it will damn well say what I say it says! We actually have to discuss the matter of the terns on the food blog, because if I had to pick one word in the entire English language to describe terns, it would be PECKISH!

If I had to pick a second word in the English language to describe terns, it would be graceful. If I had to pick a third, it would be misanthropic -- they hate people. But English lacks the word I'm really looking for, which is a searing hatred for all multicellular lifeforms not currently involved in the raising of their young.

Calling all peckish graceful misanthropes! Anthropos sighted! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!

The incredible thing is that terns seem to seek out opportunities to take offense, in much the same way that squirrels seek out opportunities to make you feel guilty for turning them into roadkill. Unlike other birds, terns build their nests right along human walkways, and then they go ballistic and dive-bomb anyone who walks by*. There will be pecks, so be sure to wear a hat.

[*Actually, a better theory is that while terns hate humans, they hate other birds even more. So they nest inches from the humans because at least the seagulls won't bother them there.]

And it's not just pecks. Before we visited the Farne Islands, we were told to abandon all hope -- everyone gets pooped on. Indeed, the ranger sported a convincingly white-streaked hat. However, this hardly being my first rodeo, I immediately reassured everyone that only Dad would be pooped on. I can't say why birds always go for him, but I am pleased to say that my preregistered prediction proved 100% correct as usual. The "streak" continues!

O tern of terns, I shall name thee Peckin-Pa.

As you can see, the Farne Islands were a highlight for me. There were also some nice castles, and Grandma enjoyed a round of Skittles:

Do you really want to be the one arguing that Skittles aren't a food?

Rehearsal Dinner

The wedding week activities were fun, but at some point we really do need to get cooking. Linden asked me to handle the rehearsal dinner. This was to be the big meal of the wedding, and since I like constrained optimization problems, I gladly accepted. I needed a menu of foods that (a) scale well to 14 people, (b) are robust to an arbitrarily lousy kitchen, (c) could be cooked in a 3-hour window, and (d) satisfied an extensive list of dietary restrictions.

Empirically, it is pretty clear to me that constraints in the kitchen generally enhance creativity. But before I even got cooking, I faced a more significant constraint: the dress code was formal, yet I couldn't very well cook in a suit! I solved this problem by purchasing Genuine Chef Clothes, which are surprisingly cheap on Amazon:

Photo by Chris Day

It was a good call, too.  I got carrot soup all over myself! (Honestly, who designs an immersion blender without a splash guard? The British, that's who! Soup is done when it sticks to the walls!)

I will be wearing my chef clothes ironically at all future dinner parties.

Anyway, we started with a first course of pressure-caramelized carrot soup, forged in the fires of Mt. Doom:

Linden and Chris each got one-carrot rings in their soups.

This is an easy soup, provided you have access to the high pressures found in the heart of Mt. Doom, which, at Vongsafood, we do. Caramelization reactions ordinarily begin at upwards of 300 F, well above the boiling point of water. If you want to caramelize carrots in a skillet, you must first boil off the surface moisture before the carrots start to brown -- and even then, only on the exterior. But if you double the pressure, the boiling point rises to 250. And if you add a bit of baking soda to create an alkaline environment, the caramelization point drops to 230, below the new boiling point! The upshot of this is that you can now caramelize your carrots in a wet environment. The pressure forces baking soda inside the carrots, which end up brown on the inside. We are talking about perhaps a 50-fold increase in the concentration of delicious caramelization reaction byproducts. Then all that's left is to carefully puree the carrots, thin with carrot juice and garnish.

For the main course, we roasted a couple of chickens and some leg of lamb:

I didn't take enough pictures. But if you want my opinion, the soup and the chicken were pretty good. The lamb was probably in my bottom quartile, but that's an unfair comparison since normally there is a lot of technology involved.

I was let off the hook for dessert. Yuandi made a lemon tart, which was really good!

Parade of yellows: Lemon tart with mango sorbet

I have a theory that yellow foods are the best on average. There aren't many of them, but they really are an amazing group. Anyway, you should all be very impressed with this lemon tart. In the grand scheme of things, meat is pretty forgiving. Roast lamb will always be okay, even if the oven is off by 50 F. But baking in an unfamiliar oven? Good luck!

Hungry for more?

Here are some other yummy foods we ate over the week.

Linden's pork ragout

"Who Kippers the Kippers?"

Fish and chips

"Now you salmon, now you don't..."

Duck Egg McMuffin

Inadvertently pulled chicken tikka masala

Unnecessary Miscellany

I will never forget...

Were-rabbit sighting! Dear Linden, I'm definitely NOT implying that rabbits could ever be a food.

Chris VA with trusty pun whisk

"Cayenne, Cayenne, wherefore art thou Cayenne? A pepper by any other name would taste as spicy..."

Photo by Dad "It Was Worth a Bit of Tern Poop" McPapagrumps

Conclusion

Linden and Chris are married!!!

...

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Xan: Iceland and England (Part 5): Iceland or England?

Where are we, Iceland or England?  Put on your Sherlock Holmes hats to find out!

The game is afoot!

Clue!

Clue!

Clue!

Clue!

Obvious, isn't it?  As we can see, Catherine is soaked, most likely due to rain.  England is quite rainy, but it rains almost daily in Iceland as well.  However, judging by the dark patches on her bag, I'd say she's been in the rain for over 5 minutes, which rules out Iceland.  So England it is.  Elementary!

You might think that Paddington bear made it obvious, but much like Waldo, he is an international traveler and has been popping up around the world, albeit sometimes hidden quite well. A handful of recent spottings, courtesy of Linden and Chris:

I suppose the fat one and the metal one may have some trouble making it out of Paddington station, but that is merely improbable, not impossible.  Of course there is also the very fact that I am standing at 221B Baker Street wearing a Sherlock Holmes hat.

(not me)

Anyway, we're not done with Iceland, but we're taking a break to talk about England because I feel like it.  I'm pretty sure I've already ruined any hope of these posts having a logical structure anyway, so why not?

In particular, it seems that we're in London right now.  So let's meet the hosts!

Linden and Chris and, for all I know, Paddington bear

We were also hosted by this guy:

"Gromit! I'm wearing the wrong trousers!" <-- Exclaymation

So obviously we had a wonderful, albeit brief, visit to London.  But I'm not going to waste time telling you about all the touristy things everyone has already done.  Instead I will just tell you about the people we saw and foods we ate and rabid squirrels that befriended our pant legs.

Unlike my siblings or the European swallow, I am non-migratory.  Despite possessing British citizenship, it's been over 10 (!) years since I visited England, so I was glad for the opportunity to see some of the funny-talking side of the family.  (Kathleen does occasionally slip into her affectations, and even Linden has started using some funny words, but of course I mean the real funny-talkers).

To that end, we had a lovely dinner with Cynthia and Jane at the Cote restaurant.  Here we are:

This is actually the husband-friendly version of the photo.  In truth, they arrived at the restaurant fully laden with the fruits of a good old-fashioned London shopping spree:

(If you must know, there are more bags in Jane's other hand)

We meant to bring them chocolates but accidentally left them in the care of the giant Paddington bear pictured above.   That said, it was Ghirardelli, not See's, so Cynthia was not too sad.  Maybe even a little glad?  As everyone knows, Cynthia's motto is: Seize the See's overseas!  (Compare this to Catherine's motto, Ghirardelli in my belly!)

Despite the lack of chocolate, though, dinner was very good.  For my part I ordered the rillettes (duck and pork pate) and a brace of quail wrapped in bacon...

Pate in jar.

THIS QUAIL IS EITHER GIANT OR REALLY CLOSE

Despite some encouragement (cajoling?) to order chips like everyone else, I chose glazed carrots as my side.  You can decide whether that's because I am a healthy eater or because I knew I would get to eat all of Catherine's chips anyway.  Whatever the reason, it was a good choice.

So, in keeping with the general spirit of the trip, I managed to kill 3 birds (and at least 1 pig) with one meal.  I don't know if they have snowmen in England, but if so it's entirely possible that I also killed 6 snowmen to bring me those carrots.  (Out of concern for mom, though, I will refrain from making any Mr. Potatohead jokes.  Sometimes a potato is just a potato).

Anyway, I think everyone had a good time.  

Thank you to Jane and Cynthia for making time to come see us on such short notice!  Glad we could get together.

---- COMMERCIAL BREAK ----

I don't always bawl uncontrollably, but when I do, I prefer Kleenex Mansize Tissues.

STAY WEEPY, MY FRIENDS.

It must be a British thing.

We now return to our usual programming.  Note that I didn't get to the rabid squirrel yet, so the post is not over. 

Chris and Linden took us to a butcher where we picked up...some duck breasts!  That has been sitting on my todo list for a while.  I decided to cook them with thyme and orange, which is a good combo.

Here I have scored the skin to help the fat render.  And my did it render.  These things release an ungodly amount of fat.  I knew that and I was still surprised.

We put (a small fraction of) that rendered fat to good use on the spot.  It went in the mashed potatoes and the vegetables.

Except, oops, I put way too much in the vegetables.  They were braising so I couldn't really tell how much of the liquid was fat and how much was water.  I mean, not that I really mind an abundance of duck fat.  But that was not right.  Oh well, life goes on.

As for the duck breasts, hey hey:

I squeezed some juice and reduced it to a sticky glaze.  But we used clementines instead of oranges, and for the second time now I was disappointed with the substitution.  I'm coming to think that clementines just shouldn't be used here.  Sigh.  Also the duck breasts were slightly overcooked, mainly because I am stupid.  Though I'm sure Catherine would disagree with me.  (About them being overcooked, not about me being stupid).

All of that said, overall it was a good meal and a great experiment.

Maybe Linden will post about the panang noodle fusion dish they made for us.  It was yummy but I don't have the pics.

*

This post is getting way too long, so let's skip to the walk in the park.  But I'm warning you, our walk in the park was no walk in the park.  We were attacked by an evil squirrel!

At first glance an ordinary squirrel, but for the glowing red eyes. Make no mistake, this is no creature to be trifled with.  The beast approaches!

That is my shoe.

Sensing the danger, I tried to appease him with bread, but he was not remotely interested.  He was after something more.  He was after me.  Without warning, evil squirrel flew threw the air, latched on to my pant leg, and began to scurry up.  Unfortunately I was too shocked to get a picture of evil squirrel in action, but as luck would have it, Monty Python has already dramatized the exact scene:

The horror!  I mean, look at the bones!

Brace of quail devoured by evil squirrel at Cote restaurant.

I escaped with just a flesh wound.