Happy new year, everyone! Thanks for reading, commenting, emailing and being nothing but fantastic.
2010 has been all kinds of delicious and I noticed some peculiar developments in terms of how my palate has changed, or as I’d like to think, evolved. Milk chocolate was always my preferred chocolate, but now I can’t get enough of 70% dark chocolate. I LOVED white chocolate – but (sadly) not anymore. I was never a fan of anything coconut-y in my food, but lo and behold, I’ve eaten more South Indian and Thai food in 2010 than ever before. And oranges! I never really understood the fuss about candied oranges, but one wedge of candied orange from Madrid made my taste buds sing in delight. These were some things I could think of impulsively, but what I’m going to do in 2011 is diligently maintain a record of such palate milestones.
And of course, like I did last year, I made a list of food resolutions for 2011 that I hope to achieve. But let’s look back at last year’s list for a moment. Out of the twenty things I set out to complete as a part of my foodie resolutions in 2010, I’m thrilled to have checked most of them off. Go look!
My New Year’s Food Resolutions for 2011:
- Make croissants from scratch – don’t think I *need* to because I’m in Paris now. =)
- Compile all my grandmom’s recipes for a family cookbook – work in progress.
- Try two new meats without making a queasy face – deer,
- Learn how to cook an artichoke the right way (somehow, they’re never tender when I make them) – pretty sure I’m going to get it right after watching how they trim artichokes in Rome. (video soon!)
- Make the perfect candied oranges – Done!
- Make Burmese Khowsuey – got the recipe from my aunt who makes the best one I’ve eaten, now to make it.
- Create a dish with rice and beef – Done!
- Make my own mayonnaise – Done! Somehow, I wasn’t overwhelmed or weepy eyed with it.
- Give melons and papayas another chance – Melons in Europe? The best. Melon and prosciutto – how can anyone not love it.
- Grow my own starter culture for sourdough bread. Name suggestions for my new pet, anyone? – Again, living in the land of bread, so the sourdough culture can wait.
- Get a hand-cranked pasta machine and make the red wine and roast vegetable fettucine I photographed. Still need to get that pasta maker. :(
- Learn to clean and scale a fish – March 2012 – Le Cordon Bleu!
- Make Nigel Slater’s apple shortcake had to leave the book behind when I moved to France, but I made the fantastic apple updside down cake from Falling Cloudberries and I’ve got to make it again just to blog about it.)
- Make tiramisu from scratch – Done! The homemade tiramisu is one of the best things that happened to me in 2011.
- Taste fresh olives – I stole olives from the neighbour’s tree in Verona. The purple stains from the olives were gorgeous, the taste and texture is nothing to write home about. I took the tiniest little bite because of all the horror stories I had heard.
- Try pomegranate molasses – not yet.
- Pickle some ginger – didn’t.
What are your food resolutions for 2011?