A Few of My Favourite Things !

Melbourne has certainly been churning out the festivals & events while the Commonwealth Games are on. On the weekend, mum & I strolled up to Carlton Gardens where the Victorian Producers Market had been set up, next to the heritage-listed Royal Exhibition Building.

There were lots of local produce on show and on sale but we didn’t pick up much as most of these stalls are the same ones that participate at the farmers markets around town but it was a beautiful day for wandering through, sampling and smelling and chatting.

There were even some prehistoric creatures keeping us company as we checked out what they were cooking on stage:

Obviously, I was not the only one who thought that it was a good idea to check out this event.

On Monday, I also popped down to the Culinary Pro Am competition they are holding. Kind of like Iron Chef without the quirky host and the terribly bad but hlarious voiceovers. I watched one of my hero-chefs, George Calombaris, who is about to open his new restaurant The Press Club in a few months, take on and defeat Teage Ezard with his Cypriot-inspired dishes. Check it out if you are in the city area - the finals are coming up on Saturday.

The Bredel Market in Strasbourg consisted of a number of undercover stalls that sold bredel, bredel and more bredel. This stall was an exception as they were demonstrating how to bake kugelhopf, a light yeasted bread that usually contain raisins and lemon peel and is topped with almonds. The ones they were making on this day contained chocolate chips.

Our compact digital camera broke down while we were in Prague. Although A. was finally able to fix it so that we could take some photos with it at a later stage (ie. I had to place my hand under the lens as I turned on the camera in case in it fell off, then soom to a certain point in order to focus), at this point we were shooting with a Kodak disposable camera (gasp!). When I took photos of the white-haired gentleman who was shaping the bread, he couldn’t believe that I was using a disposable camera because he hadn’t seen one in ages!

Strasbourg, a city that used to belong to Germany but is now part of France, is well known for its French-German cuisine. In addition to hosting France’s oldest Christmas market, this lovely city is also the birth place of Christmas trees, the tradition of cutting and decorating of which began in the 1600s.

Having heard about the beauty of their hometown from P & S, who are themselves currently living in Australia, we decided to spend the week before Christmas here. We stayed in a quaint and extremely pretty section known as La Petite France, whose timbered houses could have come straight out of a fairy tale. I felt like Gretel (of Hansel & Gretel fame) and was mightily tempted to try breaking off bits of the gingerbread-like houses to see how they would taste! La Petite France can be accessed by any one of the many bridges that cross the Ill River. In the photo below, you will see the pedestrian bridge that has been roped off and rotated 90 degrees to allow the boat through:

The most well-known Christmas market in Strasbourg is probably the one held under the imposing gaze of St Nicholas cathedral, but it is by no means the only one. We visited at least five other markets around the city area, some small and others large and one, the Bredel Market, which sold nothing but bredel (cookies), kugelhopf and pain d’epice.

We spent our time in Strasbourg wandering the streets, especially the elaborately decorated ones around St Nicholas (one had Baccarat chandeliers hanging overhead for the length of it). We drank vin chaud, pomme d’epice or jus d’orange chaud and ate crepes, the most delicious of which was the one served with lashings of caramel made with salted butter. Here’s a picture of the Raclette Crepe that A had for lunch:

We also had to try the Alsatian Tarte Flambee, also known as Flammekueche, a thin crust pizza topped with with bacon, onion and a creamy fromage blanc that is baked in a wood-fire oven (thanks for the suggestion, Fab!):

At the other end of the market, we spotted rows and rows of Christmas trees that were being sold to residents to put up at home & to decorate:

One of my favourite sights was of the men capturing the trees and trussing them up like prisoners:

We also spotted another type of Christmas tree but unfortunately we didn’t think one would make it home whole:

Gingerbread decorations and other goodies:

When we were in Belgium on our last trip, we missed out on trying waffles even though they were being sold on every street corner. Since returning home, we have heard from friends that Belgian waffles are pretty amazing.

Recently, an article on Belgian waffles appeared in our local paper and it included a list of the best places in Melbourne for these sweet, buttery delights. We have yet to check out these places back home, but seeing this Belgian-owned stand at Staromestke Namesti in Prague reminded me of the experience that we did not have.

These particular waffles are like giant versions of the Dutch stroopwaffles - thin, crispy waffles biscuits (cookies) with a caramel filling. The closely-guarded recipe for both the waffle dough and the buttery caramel was perfected by the guy’s grandfather, who passed it onto his father, who then passed it onto him. He hopes to pass the tradition onto his own children in the future.

The waffle is made by pressing the dough into the waffle iron and cooking until done. The waffle then gets lifted out and carefully sliced horizontally through the middle in preparation for the caramel (this needs a light hand and some practice!). After spreading the caramel onto one half of the waffle, the top half is quickly slapped back on.

These waffles were so delicious when eaten immediately while still warm with the caramel oozing out with every bite. Perfect for a cold and snowy winter’s night.

The captivatingly smoky aroma from this roast pork stopped us dead in our tracks and had us watching the guy hacking chunks of meat off the roast to serve hungry passers-by. We had spotted this stall the day before but had been lured away by the the scent of cinnamon and almonds wafting through the market. Judging by the number of people having dinner here, however, we figured that we could not pass it by a second time.

So, a hunk was carved out for us and served with the ubiquitous Prague sourdough and a dollop of mustard and ketchup. The meat was moist and tender and oh-so-delicious in its saltiness. This was definitely better quality meat than the stuffed old bohemian piglet (although that was fun to eat) and really easy to cut into bite-sized pieces after having been roasted for such a length of time.

Well, the Praguers certainly seem to like their pork! Most of the meat we came across at the market stalls were some form or other of pig. This Stuffed Old Bohemian Piglet (an oxymoron, right?) sounded and looked interesting. The meat was already shredded and was being cooked on the grill. And just to prove that it really was pork, they had the top half of the piglet sitting on the chopping board beside the grill - how attractive! The shredded meat was stuffed into a hotdog roll and we squirted mayonnaise on top (as recommended by the stallholder). The verdict? Delicious!

After our snack, we wandered to the Old Town Square in the heart of the city where the biggest Christmas Market in town is held. The atmosphere here feels so much celebratory than home with stalls selling gingerbread, Christmas decorations, roasted chesnuts, candied almonds and so on. There is a large Christmas tree in the middle of the square and a nativity scene in front of it. Everyone is rugged up in thick jackets and scarves, wandering around with paper cups of mulled wine or grog (hot rum) in their mittened hands.

We came across an unusual-looking traditional Czech pastry called Trdlo. The stallholder told us that the word ‘trdlo’ means crazy - I guess because the bread is loopy? Any other ideas?

Anyway, the dough is wrapped around a steel rolling pin, baked over open flames then rolled in sugar, vanilla, rushed almonds and cinnamon while it’s stil hot. Deliciously warm and fragrant but the bread is just a tad on the doughy side for us (as with most of the bread here, we find). It seems very popular here though - I wonder if you can only find it at this time of year?

Just several hundred metres out of our hotel, we came by a very tiny Christmas market consisting of about 6 stalls. We were particularly drawn to this one by the wafting aroma of sausages being barbequed. We noticed that several Czechs, who appeared to be on their way home from work, were stopping by this stall to pick up a sausage and two pieces of sourdough bread as a snack. We figured that this couldn’t be a bad idea and, in fact, it turned out to be quite a good one. The sausage skin was so crispy and you could feel the globules of fat bursting in your mouth as you chewed.