Bre & Jairo in London

Our Paris Trip

2008-03-08T13:55:00.000Z

What a week! I cannot believe it went by so quickly. Jairo and I are so unbelievably stuffed with pate, cheese, crepes, croissants, ham, and wine...and yet we just never can seem to get enough. Our trip was wonderful, save for a few rude people, and we managed to do almost everything that we had hoped. We went to the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, the Arc de Triomphe, the Marais, Centre George Pompidou, the Jardin de Luxembourg, Notre Dame, the Jewish History and Art Museum, and of course, the Eiffel Tower. Each place was picturesque and it felt as if I was living inside the guide books that I religiously poured over the week before we left. Our time spent there was incredible, and although Paris is a much more beautiful city, I must admit, I am so glad to be back in London.

The travel guides warn you of all the posh ladies with their little dogs and of the raging cafe scene, but until you are avoiding the doggie poop mine field sidewalks and find yourself stopping in cafes three times a day, you really cannot say your have experienced Paris. Coffee, wine, chocolate, and cheese seems to be oozing out of every crevasse, and if you are not carrying a baguette, you might as well wear a huge crown stating "tourist." (OR, if you are an american, the traditional fanny pack which I saw entirely too many of this week. OH and by the way, dont EVER say fanny pack in the UK...a fanny pack is a womans privates, which always makes for awkward stares). Sorry, got a little off track there.

Back to Paris. What else more can I say that we enjoyed ourselves and take a look at the pictures. I bought my first copper pan in a commercial cookery store, but other than that, as usual, all of our money was spent on food and wine.

Christine, thank you again for all your help with transportation and arranging an amazing lunch with your sister and mother. It was the only time that we actually had a translator for the menu and the company and the meal were perfect.

Here are the pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2214675&l=2654b&id=2722563

With lots of love,
Jairo and Bre

Uncertain Travels

2008-02-27T09:29:00.004Z

Updating the blog is always an interesting task. On one hand, the days have been slipping by extremely fast, yet when I come to write, I am not sure what to say. It would be very easy to fill the blog with superficial events (we went here, we did this) but now when I start typing, I want to tell everyone exactly what I am feeling, a trait that I feel like I have developed in the last two weeks. In order to keep you interested and yet fulfill my strange need to share (I thought I was an only child!), I think we will have to meet somewhere in the middle.

Jairo has been madly working away at school while also battling a little infection. He just yesterday found out that he passed all of his exams, which from listening to all of his friends talk, was no small feat and he was ecstatic. His school, much like many of the other London schools, has this interesting way of communicating to their students...a technique that mainly requires the utmost lack of organization. By this I mean that Jairo never knows when he could potentially get a call/text, the night before a day he is supposed to have off, telling him that he has class the following day. Or how they give a schedule at the beginning of the year, including weeks/days off when it would be possible for us to travel, only to find that a teacher had been sick once, so they are rescheduling to that previously given week off. This would be fine if they told him directly after a professor was absent, but instead, they wait (and I am not exaggerating) until two days before the class is rescheduled to tell anyone. I also have to mention that when we first moved to London and I was the only one with a cell phone, we gave his school my mobile number. Even though Jairo has repeatedly put in requests to have to number changed to his, I still receive all of the scheduling/sick teacher/conference notices on my phone, which I then have to relay back to Jairo. Did I mention this happens at least once a week?

Planning trips thus becomes a gander. For example, next week was reserved for exam re-takes, meaning if Jairo failed any of his exams then he would have to re-sit them next week but if he passed all of them, we had an entire week to travel. Believing that Jairo could and would pass his exams (he studied more in this week than I have EVER seen him study...even more than when he was trying to spend time with me at Fosters before he realized he liked me) we booked plane tickets to Paris Saturday, March 1st, to Thursday, March 6th. I also reserved rooms at two hotels and made plans to meet with our family friend Christine's mom and sister.

So as we were doing work yesterday in our favorite cafe, Jairo's friend Jorge calls him to ask how he did on his Financial Accounting exam. First of all, I thought Jairo had received his last exam grade last week...in time for us to cancel any reservations if need be. But no, there was one more exam to go, so Jairo and I moved from table to table (separately on our respective computers...it was the IBM vs. the mac) at Caffe Caldesi trying to get internet in order to know if we were actually going to Paris on Saturday. You should have seen Jairo jump for joy when he found out he passed (easily I might add). Long story short, we are going to Paris next week.

As for me, I have been spending my days going back to gym and beginning to lift again (I am sore EVERYWHERE) and improving my Portuguese. I have been reading a ton and because my hands have finally healed, cooking at home, which strangely I hadnt been able to do at all when I was in culinary school! I have enrolled in wine and event management courses and have been looking for jobs in NYC. NYC is the current plan for Jairo and I next year, that is, if we both can find something to do while we are up there. After living in London, I just cannot imagine not living in a city...not quite yet. Eventually, we both want to go back to Chapel Hill, but not until we have experienced enough of city life. This year in London is going by so quickly and I am just not ready to give up my butcher, cafe, restaurants, nightlife, and the utmost joy of being able to walk to and from dinner.

Do you want to know my favorite thing about living in London? Good, because I am going to tell you. Its the culture that you come in contact with. No where else in the world is there this extreme melting pot of races and cultures from all over the world. The creation of the EU has allowed people of all ages all over Europe to cross borders and stay without the need for a visa, thus promoting the infux of europeans to London for the prospects of work. We meet more Poles, Romanians, Hungarians, Italians, etc, who have all come here temporarily to earn pounds, which then convert so generously to euros. And this is not just for the Europeans, the Indians, Brazilians, Middle Easterners, Nigerians, etc, are all taking up this same mindset. Every day I hear languages that I cannot decipher and I love it.

Traveling from London, with its four airports, allows anyone to go anywhere in the world from one city. Before we head back to the states at the end of June, we are trying to travel as much as possible. Just in March we are going for a week in Paris and a week in Italy. I have realized how little of the world I have seen and how much more I want to see.

So now if I could just find a job that sends me to different countries...okay okay, I know, I need to just find a job period. I'm working on it.

Enough rambling!

Breana

P.S. If anyone has any Paris suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated!

New Look for Blog, New Outlook for Bre

2008-02-16T09:34:00.002Z

How do you like the new look of the blog? Let me know if you prefer the old look. I just felt like switching things around.

First, I want to say thanks to Trish. Your note was extremely uplifting, one, because its nice to know there are a few people reading this, and two, because being inspiring to anyone is truly the best gift. I really appreciate that you take a little time to read whats going on in chilly, freezing London.

Yes, its cold. A week ago, London had its first glimpse of spring. The cherry blossoms were blooming, the outdoor tables and sunglasses made an appearance, and then, it got COLD. This Saturday morning, its barely above freezing (about 34 degrees F) though it is nice and sunny. Too bad Jairo has class, my dad (who has been in town for the week) has a crippling virus, and Lina has french class.

Overall, this week was really nice. My dad and Jairo got back Tuesday morning and Tuesday night we went to the one-Michelin starred Japanese restaurant Umu. I want to say that we had a great time because the food and decor were fabulous, but the service was scarily bad that we all left with a very bad taste in our mouths. First, within the first 15 minutes, my dad had all his water and sake spilled all over him. We had decided to do the Sushi tasting menu, which included 7 courses. The 4th course was seared duck with mushrooms and the chef, thinking he/she was being clever, gave us little charcoal grills to cook our own meat. Well, as soon as the duck slices, which were breast pieces and had ~1/2" layer of fat underneath the skin, started to cook, the fat dripping onto the coals created A LOT of smoke. So imagine this, 4 charcoal grills x 4 slices of duck = smoke, smoke, and more smoke. So much smoke, that we set off 4 fire-alarms and all of the ladies were fanning themselves with menus. Apparently, we were the first people to ever try the little grills, and we were told, we would be the last. The rest of the meal was fairly horrid, as the waiter who should have been more than embarrassed, hurridly tried to push us out. We left with the strangest sensation of content bellies and confused/disappointed minds. Oh well, another restaurant tried and another restaurant not worth the money. Good service can make up for decent food, but fabulous food can never triumph horrid service. Its that simple.

Keeping with tradition, Jairo and I celebrated Valentines Day not on the actually day. Because of external circumstances, we have always had to celebrate the day before or the day after, and this year again proved that Feb. 14th was not a good day for us to celebrate. Wednesday, Feb 13th was perfect, as Jairo didnt have class until 9pm (which he did the 14th) and my dad had a work dinner at Tamarind. We did an impressive antipasti followed by garlic and fennel grilled veal chops, patatas bravas, and buttery brussel sprouts. The following day, Lina came and joined us for our late valentines dinner of wild mushroom soup, fettuccine with duck ragu, and New York cheesecake. Needless to say, we did some good eating this week.

Hopefully my dad will feel better and we will be able to get out a little today!

Talk to you all soon
Bre

Turn of Events

2008-02-09T12:40:00.000Z

I've been dreading writing this next post. My life kind of took a tumultuous turn when the eczema on my hands became so bad that I was unable to even wash my hands, much less be in a kitchen. In this time, I realized that my dream of being a chef was not going to happen. There is just no way my hands will allow it. So with that I have spent the last two weeks trying to figure out what I am going to do. I have thought about being a restaurateur, a wine distributor, a food writer, and even a stay-at-home mom with 6 kids (ok, that idea didnt last too long). My latest interest is event planning, seeing as I can remain in the food and entertaining world, but instead of making the food behind the scenes, I can create the atmosphere and watch the fun unfold for myself. I'm now working on seeing what opportunities I can find in catering/event planning.

Only because Jairo gave me the confidence to share something I wrote, I do want to share a letter that I wrote a few days ago to the editor-in-chief at my favorite food magazine, Gourmet. I think it explains whats going on at the moment.

Dear Mrs. Reichl, 7 February, 2008

I finished your book Tender at the Bone today. After religiously reading your column for years, I stumbled upon your novel in a little shop called Books for Cooks in Notting Hill. I immediately bought it, hoping for the same invocation of emotions that I seem to receive from simply reading your short column each month. You did not disappoint in the least. Your book was fabulous and inspiring and I plan to pick up the next one this weekend.

For the first time in my life I am a fan. It took me 22 years, surpassing the boy band and Britney Spears era, to finally become a fan of someone. I cannot remember when my family first starting subscribing to Gourmet, but I do remember eagerly flipping through the pages and drooling over the beautiful pictures. Up until a few years ago, when I realized how much of a passion I had for cooking, the recipes in Gourmet seemed extremely complex and only for those who were chefs. I thought I was going to be a successful doctor, just like my mother, and my late night joy for cooking was merely a hobby. After two years in college, I found that although I was on a collegiate sports team, I had more fun planning and making the next batch of goodies that I was going to bring along on our away matches than actually playing. As fate would have it, my body gave out on me before I could actually make the decision for myself to stop playing. It was at this moment that I called and nervously told my parents I, in fact, did not want to be a doctor, but instead really wanted to be a chef.

My parents took the news surprisingly well. My mother simply said, “Do whatever you like, as long as you finish college.” I transferred schools immediately, changed my major from Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology to Nutrition and started working in the kitchen at a local restaurant. My love for the industry and food only heightened through my expanded knowledge, though the daytime studies at school were completely contradictory to what I experienced at the restaurant. I learned that the calorie dense dietary preferences of customers in the restaurant and the constant banter of calories and weight gain from society did not coincide in the least. It also did not help that I was a college girl who was surrounded by obsessive, compulsive girls who would rather be thin than enjoy the beauty of food. Nevertheless, I graduated college ready to start really learning to cook.

I enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu London last October. I planned to do the Grande Diploma, an intense 35-hour a week, 9-month pastry and cuisine degree that I hoped would teach me classic French cuisine. The course is split into Basic, Intermediate, and Superior levels, each lasting approximately 10 weeks and incorporating extra cheese, wine, spirit, and history classes. Because I am living in London, and I’m a little of a workaholic (my mother is a Jewish doctor who never seems to stop working), I also started working at the newly opened Whole Foods Market in the Wine/Cheese/Charcuterie department. I finished the basic level in December and unlike most, stayed in London because Whole Foods has a no vacation policy during the Christmas and New Year Holidays. At the end of the holidays, I was absolutely exhausted but the intermediate level began in the beginning of January, so I had no time to make it back to the states. (Did I mention that I am a half-Asian Jew who grew up in North Carolina?) Anyway, by the third week of intermediate and still working 20 hours a week at Whole Foods, my body gave out on my again, like it had almost exactly two years ago. Instead of low back spasms, which I could have dealt with, the eczema on my hands finally became unbearable, becoming so bad that I had to go on antibiotics and could not get my hands wet. Within one week, I had quit my job and technically failed my culinary course due to absences. Everything that I had worked for suddenly came spiraling down and I drowned myself in self-despair.

This all happened two weeks ago. I continue to go to the demonstrations at school but am unable to attend any of the practicals in which we actually make the food we see the chefs create. My hands have healed for the most part, but even the mention of citrus, tomatoes, onions, garlic, or dish soap starts my hands tingling. So here I find myself in a predicament. I cannot be a chef, it is as simple as that, but I still love the power and beauty of food so much it is all I think about. Food for me is not just for sustaining life. Food has the ability to bring people together, to evoke emotions of time past, and to make boys fall in love with me without even knowing my name. Yet, for the first time in my life, I have no idea what I am going to do. I am not working towards a degree, I do not have a job, and I genuinely do not know what to do. I had been worrying myself sick (making me feel as if I had turned into my Bronx mother) about my future but after finishing your book today, I suddenly stopped. I have no idea what or where the shift came, but suddenly I was swept with the idea that everyone was going to be fine…that this was just another way of sending me in a different direction.

So I guess, though all of my blabbering, I am trying to say thank you. I can only imagine the amount of fan mail you receive daily (maybe hourly) and even if you never do read this, I hope that whoever does (if someone does) tells you have without knowing the least bit about me, have eased my situation. Interestingly enough, this all again stems from love of food. Its funny how something as far-reaching as food can unite and inspire complete strangers in different ways.

Thanks again,

Breana Goldman Lai

On a different note, Jairo is in the US right now and I want to say CONGRATS to him on passing his citizenship examination. I guess he really isnt with me because I'm an American!

Will write more soon.

First Week of Intermediate Patisserie and Cuisine

2008-01-13T09:44:00.000Z

The first week of school has been the longest and shortest week of my life. Last monday, my first day of school, entailed a overly complicated rearrangement of the locker room followed by 7 1/2 hours of pastry. Tuesday was Brioche day and we made 5 loaves of the buttery bread in lots of shapes, though I followed this by going to work until 11pm. Wednesday was the start of cuisine, which this term is organized geographically instead of by ingredient. Each day we cook traditional dishes from a different region of France, from appetizer to main to dessert, thus learning more entire menus rather than just 10 different types of ways to cook eggs. Wednesday was the Picardie, Thursday Normandy, and Friday I cant remember right now. On top of the full schedule, I continued to work, though it sadly caught up with me Friday. After going to class from 9-4:30, then to work from 5-11 on Thursday, my body let me know it wasnt happy and contracted a nice little sinus cold. For the first time in my life, I called in sick to work on Friday and spent the afternoon wandering around a travel bookshop with my Norwegian friend Line (pronounced Lina).

To further my needed stress relief, Line, our Indonesian friend Sandra, and I headed to Borough Market yesterday market. Borough Market can only be described as a gigantic farmers market, though their range of products extends much further than the average market. With half of the market covered, the stalls are not only of local farms, but also of small London food-related businesses that have expanded. For example, my favorite butcher, The Ginger Pig in Marylebone, also has a full stall in Borough Market, complete with fresh pig's heads and trotters. The market, as well as selling meat, fish, and produce from all over the world, also has several vendors which cook the food for you to enjoy while you walk around. You can have seared scallops, venison sandwiches, German sausage rolls, kebabs, fresh shucked oysters, soups, juices, mulled wine....the list goes on and on.

Line, who is taking care of our friend Ester's dog and three cats for the weekend at Ester's home in Islington (and therefore has a large kitchen and a living room with a fireplace), and I decided to make dinner from the best fresh ingredients we could find at the market. It actually all started when we found this Date and Walnut sort of chutney which was mixed with lots of Mediterranean spiced and oil. We tasted it and immediately though of slathering it all over a pork roast. From there we bought haricot verts, fingerling potatoes, tomatoes, lemons, basil, kiwi, oranges, a gigantic circular loaf of crusty french bread (Pain de Campagne), sage, organic free range eggs, olives, cornichons, and fresh cheese tortellini. We also bought, 6 different types of cheese: parmesano reggiano (the ultimate) , umbriaco (an Italian cheese aged in red wine), tomo (a mild Italian cheese), a fresh French goat cheese, fresh mozzarella, and the creamiest gorgonzola dolce you have ever seen. We didnt make ALL the food last night of course, but we did make a lot and feasted until midnight.

On an entirely different note, Jairo has 7 exams next week and thus, has been up to his ears in studying. So while I spend my days cooking and working away, Jairo has been supporting the coffee industry and studying like mad, for which I am so proud. I know he is going to do well and am excited for him to show off everything he has learned.

Jairo and I also celebrated our two year "anniversary" this past Thursday. I want to thank him (for the 100th time) for the beautiful, gorgeous red Le Creuset grill pan that was waiting for me when I got home at 11:30 from work. He makes me forget that I am exhausted and remember that life is about the little things...like coming home to someone who knows how to make the world disappear and only the two of you exist.

How is Chapel Hill?

Breana

Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, a British Pantomime, and New Years

2008-01-01T16:28:00.000Z

To start, I have to say thanks to Clive, Diane, and Laura Bowman who took my parents and I out of London for a day of blissful food and hilarious fun. Since I started school, I have not been able to leave central London for transportation and time reasons. Last Friday, Clive and family picked up my family and drove us to Great Milton, a tiny little village which enrobes Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons. The inn and two Michelin star restaurant could not be more charming, with its individual themed guest rooms, vegetable and herb gardens, ponds, Japanese pagoda, cookery school, and absolutely fabulous restaurant. Our four-hour lunch consisted of 10 courses, ranging from wild game consomme, foie gras, scallops, sea bass, duck, three desserts, and a few others which I cannot remember their names...only that they were spectacular. In addition, the formal lunch was sandwiched between opening champagne and finishing petit fours, coffee, and tea, both of which were celebrated outside of the main dining room and in comfortably furnished seating areas. The gracious staff then guided us in a tour of the kitchen, one inhabited by over 40 chefs, and a tour of the provence room, a luxury suite that had a fully decorated Christmas tree and was priced at a mere 895 pounds per night. We left feeling satisfied and pampered, unknowing that there was more to this wonderful day.

How can I explain a British pantomime? The closest explanation would have to be a farce play which contains an immense amount of audience participation. Families, from baby to great-grandmothers, all head to their local theater every year together to enjoy this highly entertaining show. This year, the very politically incorrect version of Cinderella did include a distraught young girl who is bossed around by her ugly sisters, but in this case the two ugly sisters were large middle-aged men dressed in spectacular drag. There was lots of singing and dancing, as any normal musical though the songs were very different and the sexual innuendo was blatant (think Shrek but to a higher degree). Needless to say, we all had a great time and it was the perfect was to end such a wonderful day.

Though my parents had to leave today, I hope we sent them home after two weeks of relaxation and fun. Last night, we took them to our favorite local Italian restaurant, Caffe Caldesi for Champagne, Amarone, incredible food, and impeccably friendly Italian service. After dinner, Jairo and I rang in the New Year at our favorite local pub, the Marylebone Tup with Kir Royals and lots of sparkly dressed, mostly drunk people.

So Happy New Year to all. I miss everyone tons and hope to hear from people soon!

Breana

Happy Holidays

2007-12-25T09:51:00.000Z

Work, Work, Work. Since my last post, all I have done is work at Whole Foods as the holidays approached. Working both on the floor in wine and at the wine bar, I managed to rack up over 45 hours in 5 days...which isnt much for an American but A TON for a European. (In Europe, few people work more than 40 hours a week and there is at least about a month of holiday per year, if not more. Its even better in France.) The store was pack with people buying all of their holiday meal preparations and with those buying gifts (the infamous british hamper, which is basically just like one of those big gift baskets from Southern Season), so my days have been jam packed with customer service. Now usually, as most people know, I have absolutely no problem talking all day but after 5 constant days of dealing with indecisive, panicking people...I'm beat! Last night, I got home and was so relieved to simply be cooking (Herbed roast chicken with root vegetables) and drinking good wine, and for the fact I do not have to work again until Saturday. In fact, today has solely been filled with all of the preparations for a very non-traditional Christmas dinner. We are starting with a cheese board (stilton is an english institution for christmas), followed by french onion soup with smoked bacon lardons and cote de boeuf, wild mushrooms risotto, and steamed baby bok choy. For dessert, a lemon cake with lemon caramel sauce and candied lemon peel. I figured this meal would cover several countries (UK, France, and China) which is only appropriate for the time in my life.
My parents got here Saturday, which couldnt have been better timing. Having someone take care of you is priceless, and without Jairo here, my parents have filled in the spoiling Breana role by doing lots of little chores that I havent had an instant to do. To repay my parents in the slightest, I am taking them to the British Museum tomorrow for a special Boxing Day (Boxing Day is like the day after Christmas when everyone goes shopping for sales) exhibit of the Terracotta Soldiers from China, the most popular exhibit in London at the moment. Needless to say, we are incredibly exited.

Time to get back to my humble but working kitchen for the last of the preparations. I wish everyone a Happy and Merry Christmas and hope to hear from some people soon!

Breana

The Fastest and Strangest Week So Far

2007-12-18T10:11:00.000Z

I first have to start by saying happy 22nd birthday to my wonderful, beautiful friend Katie Vail. I am sure that she is doing something special for her birthday and I am sad that I am missing it, though I am sure that everyone is taking care of her. I promise, promise, promise an amazing cake in the future...one with lots of homemade buttercream icing and chocolate. Love you and miss you tons Katie.

Next comes my mom's wonderful, wonderful visit. She arrived last Wednesday and graciously made her way to the flat and then to Whole Foods, where I was working until 4:30. She then took me shopping (the first of many times...YAY!) and bought me a few more warm weather items, considering it has been in the 30s for a little while now. We then met up with my Norwegian school friend Line (pronounced Lina) and went for a really yummy dinner at Fishworks. I did not have to work Thursday so mom and I headed to Harrods for lunch at the Jewish deli Harry Morgans and a little shopping. The shopping continued on Marylebone High Street, where we bought all the ingredients for French Onion Soup, including fabulous new Le Creuset soup bowls, and steak and stilton salads. My graduation was on Friday at the Four Seasons and was lovely but cut short because I had to work Friday till close. I had to work again Saturday but Jairo was wonderful and hung out with my mom while I was gone. They then joined me at work and we headed to L Restaurant and Bar for a wonderful dinner of Spanish food and tapas. I wish I could say that my moms visit ended as well as it started but during dinner at Nobu on Sunday night, my stomach started to really bother me. Thinking it was just my gastritis/ acid reflux, I thought it would subside naturally. When it only proceeded to get worse, Jairo bought be some alka seltzer-like remedy and I gulped it down. I immediately felt better, but within 5 minutes, my expensive Japanese sushi dinner came rushing back up. Monday was spent sleeping and watching tv and today, although I am feeling better, Jairo isnt feeling great and we are both fairly useless.

I have to go back to work tomorrow but I should be fine by then. Jairo leaves for the US tomorrow and both my parents will be arriving Saturday morning. Thats all for now!

Bre

The End of Basic Cuisine and Patisserie

2007-12-10T14:34:00.000Z

I had my final exam in cuisine this morning. We had to make an herb stuffed supreme of guinea fowl with tomato butter sauce and courgette spaghetti. As you can see from the picture, we made mousse out of the dark meat of the guinea fowl then stuffed it into the breast meat, which was then rolled into a circle and poached. Courgette is the british word for spaghetti and was julienned, then sauteed with olive oil, garlic, and herbs. Luckily I did well and have passed my first semester!

My final in patisserie was last Thursday and was a extremely rich chocolate cake called an Alhambra. It is a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and a chocolate glaze. Something Lauren McD and Helena would absolutely love.

This picture is not of mine, its of my friend Ei Liang's, though my turned out okay enough to pass. Though I did manage to accidentally drop one of my layers on the floor. Luckily, luckily, luckily, the cake was on a cakeboard and like a cat, dropped directly with the board and never once touched the floor. I have to admit, my heart dropped when my cake dropped. For both cuisine and pastry, our finals account for 45% of our grades. We are graded on the normal organization, presentation, and taste, but in particular, if our dish or cake could not be sold in a restaurant or bakery, we fail. And yes, some people did fail.

On a happier note, we get to graduate properly from each level of the course. By properly, I mean a ceremony followed by a three course lunch at the Four Seasons on Friday. Additionally, my mom gets in on Wednesday to celebrate the occasion, which I am very excited about.

This afternoon I have a History of Food lecture and then a bunch of us are going to the Michelin-star rated Lebanese restaurant Fakhreldine for dinner tonight, which I am sure will be absolutely ridiculous. I start working at Whole Foods full time tomorrow and will be until I start school again. Other than that, not too much to chat about. I have been so busy with school and work that I have barely even had time to sleep. But yes, I am having the time of my life.

I hope everyone is enjoying the start of the holidays!

Breana

Happy Birthday Jairo and Mom!!

2007-12-01T08:05:00.000Z

This week both Jairo and my mom celebrated milestone birthdays. I want to wish both of them Happy Birthday and absolute best wishes for the next year. Because Jairo and I have been so busy, we have been having more of a "birthday week" celebration for him. We started Tuesday night with a bunch of my friends from school, a lot of wine, and then followed with a trip to the restaurant l'entrecote de relais, a french restaurant that ONLY serves entrecote steak, fries, and a little green salad. Needless to say, though they serve one dish, they serve it well and there is always a line into the restaurant. Wednesday night Jairo headed out with his friends (I was in class from 9am-6:30pm, then at work from 7-11pm) and Thursday, we went just the two of us to another wonderful restaurant called Union Cafe. Last night, we reserved the back room of the pub we always go to, the Marylebone Tup, and both Jairo and my friends did our best to occupy as much space as possible.

At school, I have been learning about fish in cuisine and petit fours in pastry. This included learning how to properly cook moules (mussels) and dungess crab (both cooked from live), and descale, gut, and fillet fish. I also learned how to make a proper hollandaise, which is honestly one of the most temperamental sauces I have ever experienced. Work has been great, as I am tasting charcuterie, wine, and cheese so often know that I can truly tell the difference between salami from italy and salami from Hungary, or the difference between different types of brie. Petit fours week was also entertaining because of the variety of little nibbles that I learned are perfect for parties or any type of entertaining. We made tuiles, florentins, macarons, fudge, checkerboards, etc...which were all a HUGE hit at Jairo's party last night. I had saved all of my petit fours, along with my friend Line's (pronounced Lina), so we had massive amounts for all the MIB people along with half the people at the pub.

Today is filled with practicing the extravagant, incredibly rich chocolate cake w/ chocolate ganache and glaze which is to be my final next Thursday and then I am off to work 2:30-11 and then again tomorrow 9:30-6. Luckily, I received my first paycheck, so I have finally physically seen a little compensation for the balancing of work with school.

Lastly I want to say Happy Birthday to my wonderful mom. I am so sorry that I couldnt be there to celebrate, but I promise I will make it up to you when you come visit. I hope that you have a great day and, though its just another day, you enjoy it as much as possible. You continue to look younger every year and I can only hope that I look as beautiful as you do when I am the same age. I love you so much and I cannot wait to see you!

Hope everyone is enjoying the start of the holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T23:19:00.000Z

Thanksgiving. The holiday where the sole purpose is to be with friends and family and eat entirely too much food. Of course, those are the exact reasons that I love this holiday so much. Even though I spent the entire day cooking, you know that you truly love something when you spend all of your effort on simply trying to make the best food possible.

I want to thank Jorge for coming and celebrating with Jairo and I. We dont have a lot of room, but it was truly wonderful to have someone enjoy the holiday as much as Jairo and I did. I only had 3 hours and 3 pans, but we still managed to have roasted turkey, italian sausage stuffing with fennel, mashed sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and fontina dinner rolls...all homemade! Luckily, today was a pastry day and I had dessert covered with individual mango mousse cakes. In addition, we had saved my dads generous wine gift, so we topped off the perfect meal with perfect wine--2003 Joseph Phelps Insignia. Thanks dad!

Also, both Jairo and I really enjoyed the family phone call. My parents, Jairo's parents and brother, and Christine and Art are hopefully indulging on my moms wonderful food right at this moment and I as much as I love it here, today was my first real nostalgic, homesick day.

Thats all for now. I'm exhausted and am fighting food/wine coma...and its winning.

Happy Thanksgiving America!

The Milchteim's Visit

2007-11-11T11:15:00.000Z

This week was completely out of the norm for Jairo and I. First, Jairo's classes were canceled Monday and Tuesday because his teacher had become ill. He had class Wednesday, though not his normal all day because his parents came into town, and then on Thursday and Friday, no class because his next professor was in a motorcycle accident. I, on the other hand, had 35 hours of demonstrations, practicals, and lectures, though luckily, I have not had to work until today.

Jairo's parents arrived Wednesday morning, stayed the night, then left Thursday for Strasbourg, came back late Friday night, and then left this morning. Though their presence was spotty, the time we spent with them was very much welcomed and fun. They brought us gifts from the US (thank you so much mom for all of the clothes!!) and finally got to see our humble flat. Wednesday night, they took us to dinner at Caffe Caldesi, a lovely Tuscan restaurant where the fare was simply, yet authentic Italian food. The pasta was homemade, the food was perfectly executed, and the service was impeccable. The restaurant is located directly next to my school in Marylebone and we would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a simple but fantastic meal. If you want something fancier, go to their sister restaurant Caldesi down the street which is the fancy version of the Caffe.

Because the Milchteim's flight was delayed and they didnt get back until late Friday night, Jairo and I threw together Shabbat dinner with not so traditional Jewish foods (except for the challah) but lots of courses. We started with hummus, tuna, and a selection of cheese from La Fromagerie, then followed by one of Jairo's famous salads. The main course was seared fresh cod in roasted garlic olive oil, couscous w/ courgettes (zucchini), gruyere, parmesan, and herbs, and vine plum tomatoes stuffed with herby breadcrumbs. Because it was Friday, which is a pastry day for me, dessert was Panes de Genes (almond cake), Gateau de Citron (Lemon cake), and Madeleines, all of which I had made that afternoon. Needless to say we started eating around 9:30pm and were not finished to 12:30am. It was a wonderful, wonderful meal if I may say so myself.

Saturday, Jairo took his parents to Harrods and for a fabulous french lunch while I typed up my recipes for the week. We then all met at John Lewis (a department store that is like the upscale version of Target), where Jairo's parents graciously bought us an Espresso machine and coffee grinder. We then brought them to The Ginger Pig (the butcher), La Fromagerie, Fishworks, Divertimenti (kitchen store), Oddbins (wine), and Waitrose (grocery)....does anyone sense a theme? They stocked us with lots of goodies (and by goodies I mean a full supply of cleaning supplies and coffee) and we couldnt be more thankful for everything they did. It certainly was greatly appreciated and hopefully they will be able to come again soon.

On a different note, I had another spectacular week at Le Cordon Bleu. Following in the red meat theme, though not traditionally French, I learned how to make the coveted famous Yorkshire puddings, served with rare roast sirloin, steamed turned potatoes, and stuffed tomatoes. The next day, we turned to the very traditional French beef bourginon, served with mushrooms, bacon, pearl onions, and croutes. Wednesday was eggs. Now I like eggs but cooking eggs is an art that even if perfected, can still go terribly wrong. We did eggs florentine (poached egg over sauteed spinach with cheese sauce), eggs scandinave (scrambled eggs with smoked salmon), and omelettes. Needless to say, I was glad when we were done with that practical and completely egged out (remember, you taste EVERYTHING before serving).

Pastry was much, much more entertaining, as we started boulangerie (bread). I learned how to make lots of shapes out of basic dinner rolls, soda bread, brown bread, and foccacia. We also learned how to make ice cream, milk and custard based, granita, sorbet, and parfaits. I also made an apple tart, the lemon cake, almond cake, and madeleines mentioned above. So all in all it was a very busy week. Its amazing how much time I can spend in the kitchen and yet, still want to do it again the next day. I guess thats what it means to truly love doing what you are doing.

I also wanted to thank Christine, Gina, and Katie for their emails this week and Mike for calling. Its always nice to hear that everyone is doing well. We have an IP phone which works through the internet and has a US number, so if anyone wishes to hear our lovely voices, please lets us know and we will give you the number!

Lastly, I'm sure that some of you have heard, but I will not be coming back to the US over Christmas time. Whole Foods London has a rule that no one is allowed to take vacation time during their busiest month of December, so I am staying, though Jairo will be coming back from Dec.19th to Jan.2. Luckily, my parents are coming here to spend the holidays with me, so at least we will all still be together.

Happy Sunday!

Whole Foods

2007-11-04T17:56:00.000Z

These past two weeks have felt like a whirlwind. Not only are classes picking up, but I also started my first week of work at Whole Foods. My technical title is Wine Bar attendant but being in the specialty department means that I cut charcuterie, cheese, stock all the antipasti, deal with wine and beer, and do pretty much anything else that needs doing. It is a lot of fun but I definitely have a full schedule now! It used to be that I had 2 or 3 classes a day and that Cuisine and Patisserie were only on their appropriate days. Now I have 3 to 4 classes a day (they are 2 and half hours long each) and in one day I can have either Cuisine, Patisserie, or both. Needless to say, Im slightly busy and have no idea where the time goes.

Heres a recap on the recipes for the past two weeks:
Cuisine: Choux pastry filled with a ham, cheese, and parsley bechamel, crepes, omelettes, deep-fried prawns with a pimento and tomato sauce, gnocchi, risotto, noodles, alfredo sauce (jairo was in heaven), roasted rack of lamb with parsley crust, and ratatouille.
Patisserie: Lemon Tart, Chocolate Tart, Almond Tart, French Apple Tart, Fruit Tart, Fig and Chocolate Tart, Chesnut Charlotte, Palmiers, Papillons, Eclairs and Choux pastry, and several types of pastry cremes and meringues.

Quiet busy 2 weeks if I may say! The most interesting was the making of fresh pasta and gnocchi and the lamb. Our demonstration for the lamb was actually the entire lamb broken down from head to foot. I compared it to my mom like anatomy. We only had to prepare a rack of lamb (which is much harder from scratch than if you buy it precleaned) but the results really are amazing. Needless to say, Jairo and I have been eating VERY well.

Sorry that I have not been keeping up but I promise that I will start writing more often again. Also, I am typing up all of my recipes so let me know if any of the above sounds particularly appetizing.

Jairo says he will post soon. He's been avidly working on essays and final projects and has about as much free time as I do. In addition, his parents are coming Wednesday, staying for one day, leaving Thursday, but coming back again for the weekend, which is very exciting.

Hope all is well in North Carolina. I meet a lot of Americans while working at Whole Foods and it does make me miss home (although the Americans here are all from NY and CA).

Lots of Love
Bre

Mayonnaise and Custards

2007-10-21T15:50:00.000+01:00

Breana:
At the end of my second week of Cordon Bleu, I can officially say that, for the first time, I love school. Everything I thought culinary school would be has been absolutely true. I literally learn how to make foods and desserts that are restaurant quality and have a highly trained chef standing behind me constantly telling me what I am doing wrong.

This week was a little less exiting in cuisine but more in patisserie. In cuisine, we learned different salads, hot and cold, and how to make mayonnaise, aioli, and tartar sauce by hand. We also learned how to turn vegetables, which is basically a fancy way of shaping them into ovaloid looking shapes, although it is so much harder than it looks. I have been practicing at home on carrots and mine never seem to come out as good as the chefs. In patisserie we began custards, meaning I now know how to make crème brulee, crème caramel, and crème anglaise. We also learned how to make tuile garnishes, which are thin cookie decorations made into fun shapes, twirls, spirals, etc, and sugar decorations. The amount of things you can make out of sugar is truly amazing. The ability of the pastry chefs really shows when we all tried to copy them during our practicals. They just make everything look so easy!!

Also, my dad has been in and out of the apartment this week, staying with us Monday and Tuesday, and again Saturday and Sunday. It has been really nice to have a familiar face around and to have him bring us some of our winter wear. Its getting chilly here (low 50’s during the day and 40’s at night) so scarves and jackets were much appreciated. I also want to thank the Milchteims right now for the BEAUTIFUL scarf they sent me. I have worn it several times already and love it. I’m even working on trying to get Jairo to wear a scarf. A lot of men wear scarves here and though Jairo tends to stay warm, he cant help but be jealous of me wrapped up in the warmth provides by scarves.

In other news, I officially accepted a position at Whole Foods yesterday. I’m working part time in the specialty department (wine, beer, cheese, and charcuterie). Under my student visa I can only work 20 hours a week so I will be working weekends and one or two nights. I’m incredibly excited and hope to start next week. Orientation is all day and because I am in school usually until 3:30, they have to find another time to fit me in, meaning I don’t exactly know when I will start.

Bre's first week at Cordon Bleu and Jairo's first school outing

2007-10-14T14:40:00.000+01:00

My first week at Culinary School can no less be described as a whirlwind of emotions, introductions, knives, and flour. In my first week I have managed to meet people from all over the world, learn some basic cooking techniques (although Jairo doesn’t consider them basic), become certified in food sanitation, and realize how incredibly lucky I am for all of my previous experience. I have not been able to check my email all week or update the blog, so I am warning you now, this is going to be a long post. Hope you enjoy it.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were filled with Basic Cuisine. In the morning, we had a demonstration and then in the afternoon, we broke into our smaller groups of 10 and replicated what was shown in the morning. On Monday, they eased us into the kitchen by having us just perform basic vegetable cuts (julienne, jardinière, dice, chop, brunoise, macedoine, etc) and put together bouquet garni's. By the way, if you are interested in any of the items, techniques, or recipes that I am mentioning, let me know. I am typing up all of my notes post-demonstrations so I can have a legible and follow-able collection so all of the recipes are available if wanted. Anyway, Monday was pretty boring, but I did get to meet the people in my group...the same people I will be having my practicals with for the next 10 weeks. I have two 18-year old boys (one Canadian, one Scottish), three Chinese girls and one Chinese guy of which ages could be anywhere from 20-30, one 60-year old Irish man, one 31-year old Dutch girl, and one 23-year old English girl who I have become really good friends with already. Only a handful of the people in my group have any restaurant experience, which is nice for me because my dishes come out faster and prettier comparatively. Monday was basically filled with becoming acquainted to the kitchens and each other, though I did managed to get a huge bluster from my 9" cooks knife.

Tuesday is another story. I have to mention here that although class starts at 9 am, you have to change into your uniform (chefs jacket, pants, hat, and kitchen shoes) before class in the tiniest locker room known to man. I do not consider myself a large person but when changing into my pants, I literally cannot help but hit my butt against the cold lockers behind me. You can imagine for everyone else (except for the tiny little Asian girls for whom make me look like as curvaceous as Jennifer Lopez) changing in the locker room is not exactly the highlight of the day. Also, because Cordon Bleu has accepted WAY too many people, you have to get to the demonstration room quite earlier to secure a decent seat. That means that for a 9 am class, people have started getting to the room by 8:30 just to be able to see what the chef is doing. For some people, getting their on time is hard, so by the time its 8:50, there are only seats fairly far away.

So on Tuesday we learned how to make White Chicken Stock, Brown Veal Stock, a poached chicken, and basic plain rice (on the stove, not the easy way in a rice cooker). The making of stocks is a process that must be accompanied by patience, although the result is completely worth it. I know it is extremely easy to buy the carton of pre-made chicken stock, but in the UK, they do not have those containers, only the stock cubes. Homemade stock is the basis of a fabulous sauce and entirely necessary to the essentials of French cooking. The fun part was trussing the chicken for poaching. Trussing a chicken is a method of securing the wings and legs onto the chicken with kitchen twine and lends to a less dry, juicier chicken that has a more even cooking time. It also makes it easier to secure any goods stuffed within the cavity for flavor. The traditional way of preparing a chicken at Cordon Bleu was much more complex than imagined, though the result was spectacular as even Jairo liked the plain poached chicken meat. As this was our first real cooking adventure in the kitchen, it soon became very clear who had any experience cooking. I have to thank Chris Burgess now for teaching me how to make stock properly and how to present food on a plate. All we had to do was poach the chicken, make the stocks and prepare the rice. Our presentation included a plate with rice, two pieces of chicken and reduced chicken stock with a bit of parsley. Let’s just say the people in my class made me look really good.

I have to mention also that after class on Tuesday, my English friend Carol invited a few of us to the Spanish tapas restaurant Fino that she works out. Five of us got there at 6 and, with Jairo and her boyfriend joining us later, ate and drank our way through tapas, gin and tonics, vodka tonics, and 3 bottles of wine before leaving at 11:45 at night. It was a lot of fun and I suggest the restaurant to anyone who enjoys Spanish food.

Wednesday only contained a demonstration, with the practical being completed tomorrow (Monday). We learned thickening agents (roux) and how to make sauces, including béchamel, espagnole, and veloute. All of these techniques were used in the preparation of Blanquette de Veau l'Ancienne (a traditional white veal stew) served with rice pilaf. Needless to say, Jairo is going to be quite happy with my leftovers tomorrow.

Thursday kicked off Basic Patisserie for the people in my group (completing the Grande Diploma) and included another 30 people (I say people but I mean girls) who are jut taking the Patisserie side and not the Cuisine. I must admit that I was not as excited for the patisserie as the cuisine especially because the class is entirely too big. Thursday included introduction again and the making of a fruit salad with a simple syrup and learning how to make caramel.

Dinner Thursday night was the leftover poached chicken and rice mixed with celery and onions in béchamel sauce and covered with puff pastry to make a pie. I am really trying to utilize all of my skills at home as well as at school and I believe that Jairo thinks I am doing ok!

Friday actually turned out to be a lot of fun. We learned how to make puff pastry and a beautiful lattice topped pear tart with almond cream. Although I was not nearly as excited in the beginning to be baking, I found that I am better at baking! My tart came out very well and I have my mother to thank for that. Apparently, not everyone grew up with a mother that bakes all the time and was able to teach them the proper way to make bread, pies, and tarts. So thanks mom, you made me get top marks in Patisserie!

Unfortunately Saturday was also spent at Cordon Bleu as I was there from 9-4 completing a Food Safety and Sanitation program. Terribly boring but necessary. But last night was the England v France semi-final rugby game and we went to the pub with Jairo's friends. No lack of fun there.

Jairo wanted me to post what I made for dinner last night and I just wanted to thank him for loving my food so much and encouraging me to explore constantly. He eats everything and I am truly blessed! We had seared sirloin steaks with a mushroom-red wine reduction, bacon and parmesan risotto (tinted red because I used red wine instead of white), roasted brussel sprouts and fennel, and homemade gruyere and chive rolls.

This morning was spent at the farmers market, making brunch, and now we sit at Starbucks paying an absurd amount to use the internet (the pub with internet that I usually go to is packed for the other semi-final rugby game tonight).

I’m sorry Mike that I haven’t been posting enough but my dad is coming tomorrow and was graciously willing to stay at the flat and wait for our modem to come in the mail. So I should be writing more often soon.

Jairo's Post:
Hello everyone. I hope you're doing well. This week was very busy, as usual, but extremely fun. We started International Financial Accounting this week, and the Professor is very good. He's a true Brit, with a cool and well-spoken British English. It is also pretty impressive that he's able to make accounting interesting.
We had no classes on Friday, which meant that several of us went to the Pub after class on Thursday. It was really fun to hang out, outside of class, with people from all over the world. We had a Russian, an Irish, two Mexicans, an Egyptian, a Lebanese, a French, a Dutch, a guy from Kazakhstan (a Kazakh??), a Brit, and a few more nationalities that I can't think of at the moment. We ended up hanging out for more than 3 hours, talking about Business, life, and inappropriate topics that should be left for the Pub. On Friday, we got together in the afternoon to play a game of football (soccer for the U.S.). One of the guys knew of an outdoor field with artificial grass that was perfect for a 6 v 6 game, and luckily we had perfect weather for it. After 2 hours of pretty much non-stop play, we were all pretty dead. But it was a blast. I hadn't played football in months.
Saturday night, Bre cooked an amazing meal (see above) and then we went out to watch the Rugby World Cup Semi-Final match between England and France. We went with some people from my program, so Bre got to meet some of my friends. After an incredible game and a few pints, England was able to pull off a 14 to 9 win. Everyone was singing and celebrating, it was quite impressive. It almost reminded me of watching football matches in Brasil.
Oh, and I've managed to sneak in a little work in between all the fun events. I'm finishing my essay for Business Ethics, catching up on some reading, and studying for the classes that already finished but don't give an exam until January.
Other than that, things are great. We're looking forward to having Eric visit us this week as well as for the arrival of internet. I know, it's hard to believe that we might have internet shortly.

We'll write again soon.

Love,

Ja

Orientation and Business Marketing

2007-10-06T14:46:00.000+01:00

Im sorry for not posting earlier, I personally just have not had the busiest week and the internet at the pub has been particularly spotty. At the moment, Jairo and I are a the Marylebone Library, which we discovered today is just around the corner from our flat. Jairo is working hard away on his financial accounting problems, communications reading, Kyoto Protocol essay, and French homework while I am diving into the culinary world. Here are the highlights from the week:

Yesterday I sat in on my first day at Cordon Bleu. To my amazement and slight dismay, this is the largest incoming class that Cordon Bleu has ever had. I was given a welcoming folder with tons of goodies (remember Freshman year orientation everyone?) and two gigantic folders, one for Basic Cuisine and one for Basic Patisserie. each folder contained everything I was going to need for the entire 10 weeks of each course. This included everything from sanitation guides, knife sharpening, recipes (minus the procedure), demonstration and practical instructions, grading, glossaries, etc. We were separated into our small groups, in which all our practicals are completed, given a tour of the school and our schedules and sent on our way to ponder exactly how we were going to learn so much in just a short time (thats what I was thinking at least).

Scheduling works like this. Basic cuisine meets Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Basic Patisserie meets Thursday and Friday. There are some Saturday classes, but I think I only have two. There are 4 class times of the day, 9 am, 1 pm, 4 pm, and 7 pm. In general you have a demonstration at 9 am and a practical at 1 or 4 pm. Additionally, there are several extra technical courses and theory classes that are all mandatory. And by theory classes, I mean lectures on the history of food, wine, cheese, etc. Each day your schedule changes (I mean who needs uniformity) and depending on your group, so does the chef. There are numerous teaching chefs (I dont know how many) and most of them are French, which makes for the constant need to decipher not just exactly what is going on but exactly what they are saying.

From my first day I have gathered there are far too many Americans and Asians (I DO realize I fit into both of these categories, but realize I DID NOT say Asian-Americans). I am not sure how much experience anyone has but it is a melting pot of backgrounds, ages, and goals, which should all-in-all prove to be thoroughly enjoyable.

On another note, I went for an interview at the brand-spanking new Whole Foods in Kensington but was sadly disappointed. The only part-time open positions were as a cashier or in floral but I did get to talk to the head chef of prepared foods who took my name and number. I figure if it is meant to work out it will, if not, I already have my elbows drowned in stocks and pastry cream for the next two and a half-months.

Other than school I have continued my wandering through the streets of London. My most coveted find during the week was an original copy of Larousse Gastronomique which was first published in 1961 in English. I found it at a used bookstore for 10 quid and could not be happier with its frayed edges and yellowing pages. It makes me feel like I am joining the ancient world of cooking, while at the same time just learning the basics.

Okay enough about me, here is Jairo.
So I have survived my second week of classes. Although I've been working for a year now, being in class from 9:30 to 5 has proved to be quite demanding. I'm usually exhausted when I get home, so I am very grateful and very lucky to have Bre cook me gourmet meals almost every night (I do clean by the way...). I also have French class from 6 to 9 on Wednesday nights. My class is also the largest Masters class LSBF has accepted ever, which makes it a little challenging for Professors to handle so many 20-something year olds. But you have to make the best out of it. The students in my class are incredibly interesting and from all parts of the world. I've made some good friends already, and am looking forward to spending some time with them outside of the classroom.

The highlights are as follows: London is wonderful. I've really enjoyed being here so far. I walk to class every morning (takes about 40 minutes) and I get to see and feel the city getting started. I've also been trying to get to the gym before class, I have been getting up quite early in the morning - not as early as my brother, but early enough for no matter what. I'm excited that Bre is starting school, mainly because her meals are already incredible, so I'm wondering what Cordon Bleu is going to do to them.

Other than, I miss everyone and am looking forward to seeing everyone in December. We are days away from having internet at home, which means we can try to hook up the IP phone and call the U.S. for pretty cheap. Mom, sorry I have not been able to set it up sooner. Each internet request has to be personally approved by the Queen of England, so it should take a few more days.

Anyway, we'll try to stay in touch. Email us if you can.

Love,

Bre and Ja

First Recipe

2007-09-30T15:00:00.000+01:00

Since acquiring cable, I have been able to catch up a little on my food program watching. I have found my new favorite is The Naked Chef, though he doesnt cook naked anymore, Jamie Oliver. Naked for him means using the freshest, most natural and organic ingredients and minimally messing with them to make home-cooked meals, a method I like to believe I have always used. Last night, I decided to experiment a little and make a one-dish meal. Although I like to believe Jairo likes all my food, he almost inhaled this...enjoy!

This may seem like a lot of ingredients and prep-work but it is well worth it because once you put it all together and put it in the oven, you dont have to do anything else and it comes out perfect. Feel free to vary the vegetables and potatoes also. These are just what was freshest (and cheapest) here.

Roast Chicken with Root Vegetables and Potatoes

1 2-3lb free-range chicken
1 lemon, quartered
1 head of garlic, quartered
2 tbsp smoked spanish paprika
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp dried rosemary
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
olive oil

8 small new potatoes, quartered
3 turnips, peeled and quartered
10 white button mushrooms, halved
8 medium carrots, ends trimmed and halved
1 leek, light green and white parts washed well and sliced

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (210 degrees C).
2. Layer vegetables on the bottom of a casserole dish. I put the potatoes on the bottom, followed by the carrots, then the turnips, mushrooms and leeks for the third layer.
3. Give the vegetables a good drizzle of olive oil and sprinkled salt and pepper..
4. Wash the chicken (thanks Jairo) and pat dry with paper towels.
5. Remove the giblets, sprinkle the cavity with salt and pepper, and stuff with the lemon and garlic.
6. If you know how, truss the chicken (tie the arms and legs close to the chicken).
7. Combine the paprika, thyme, rosemary, kosher, salt, and pepper. Rub the mixture all over the chicken.
8. Place the chicken, breast-side up, on top of the vegetables and roast in the oven for 45 minutes.

If you have a baster, suck up the juices and spread over the chicken and vegetables after 25 minutes and again after 35 and 40 min.

Take the chicken out of the over and let sit for 5 min. The chicken is all the way cooked when the juices run clear when the thigh is pierced. Do not overcook the chicken (mom), I can almost guarantee it is done at this point.

Enjoy with a salad, glass of wine (a light red, like a pinot noir, or a heavier white, like a chardonnay), and some bread with salted butter.

Jairo's First Day's of School and Breana's Walks

2007-09-27T17:14:00.000+01:00

Jairo started school on Tuesday and I have desperately been trying to occupy my time. On Tuesday, I had to wait at home for our bank cards and Sky Cable, which had given us the time slot of 9 am to 5 pm. Sky called in the morning to say they were coming from 12-3 but the bank cards could come at anytime. Well, Sky came and had to install another cable, thus drilling holes in the wall, but the bank cards did not come until 4 pm. If anyone knows me, staying in a small confined space with no internet (and no cable until 3) was utterly miserable, although it was of course worth it in the end.

Wednesday was a walk to Covent Garden and a little shopping, which I completely blame on Katie's ideas. Jairo had class all day 9 am to 9 pm (he has mandatory french class on wed nights from 6-9) and so after the walk I spent the rest of the time watching tv and making an elaborate dinner, as I do when I am bored.

Today I walked to Notting Hill and rummaged through the antique shops, vintage clothing stores, and numerous specialty food stores. This area seemed exactly the same as it was when Cristina and I visited it a little over two years ago. (Even the hummingbird bakery, which solely sells chocolate and vanilla cupcakes was still idyllically perfect and beckoning). One store in particular was a bookstore with a tiny kitchen in the back. This friendly nosh not only had shelves crammed with books for every occasion, taste, and eating preference, but it also cooked up a nice daily meal. Unbeknown to me, this is a first come first serve basis, so by the time I had bought my books, all that was left was the soup (they were out of the indian chicken drumlets with couscous and the date and apple cake, both which are up my alley...though most foods are up my alley). So I read the paper, ease-dropped on the Brazilian couple joyfully consuming the last of the chicken and cake, and thoroughly sopped up my white bean, baby spinach, and fennel soup with homemade foccacia.

While my life is moving a bit slower these days, Jairo's is in full force. I will let him describe the goings on at his school, which to me, are even more internationally and thrilling than he (we) could have expected.

Hope everyone is enjoying the warm weather at home (its already in the low 60's here)

Our Portugal Trip

2007-09-23T18:53:00.000+01:00

Our week-long trip to Portugal, Sept 17-Sept 21, for my birthday was absolutely amazing. The lack of economic progress and dependency on tourism has led to the countries monuments and natural beauty to remain largely untouched, which is good for foreigners but obviously not for the citizens of Portugal. We spent our week first in Porto, then down the Douro River at Pinhao, and lastly in Cascais, the major resort suburb of Lisboa. We ate incredibly well (thank you Michelin Guide), drank tons of vinho tinto (red wine) and port (tawny, ruby, and branco) and soaked in the sun (ok a little more Bre than Jairo) for an overall thrilling but exhausting week. Here are the highlights:

Bre's story:
Sunday, Sept 16 I spent the night so excited I slept maybe an hour. For one, I could not wait to make our first international journey and second, we had to "wake up" at 3:15 to leave the flat by 3:45 to catch the bus. Well, we somehow either couldnt find the bus or we missed it, but we ended up taking a taxi to Victoria station so as not to miss the Gatwick Express. Another 30 min on the train and we finally make it to the airport, hungry, tired, and running solely on adrenaline. After finding sandwiches and coffee (all of Europe seems to be fueled by sandwiches and coffee), we boarded the flight to Porto and were off on our first journey from London. The flight was only an hour and 45 min (though they managed to serve hot tomato and cheese sandwiches, yogurt, and coffee) but we were so tired and full from sandwiches we passed out. We arrived at the Porto airport and headed to get our rental car. Our rental car, know that I that I think back we should have named it, was a 1.2L manual Opel Corsa. (My dad gets a HUGE kick out of the fact that our car had the same amount of horsepower and torque as our John Deere tractor, which sadly was true, although at least we had air-conditioning). After getting lost (none of the roads have signs), we finally made it to our hotel, the Pestana Porto located on the Cais de Riberia next to the river Douro.
The hotel was a wonderful find and we had a beautiful walk-out view of all of the port lodges across the river (see pictures). We spent the rest of the day at the port lodges and eating at two great restaurants (Mercearia for lunch and Don Tonho for dinner). The next morning we set off for the Vintage House Hotel in Pinhao, a historic hotel located in a tiny, tiny town an hour and a half along the Douro river. The hotel and landscaping was set among the Quintas, the vineyards producing port wine, and was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.
A little background about Port wine, which we learned on the tours at Ferriera and Taylors, is that the wine is actually produced in the Douro region and then it is shipped to the port wine lodges in Porto. The wine lodges are therefore more of a "holding ground" for the three types of port: ruby, tawny, and branco. Ruby is aged in a huge barrel while tawny and branco (white) is in smaller, individual barrels. Therefore, if you ever do a flight port tasting, you will notice that ruby is fruitier, tawney drier, and branco is sweeter. On another side note, they make this great port cocktail which is incredibly popular. Instead of a vodka tonic, they do a white port and tonic...its fabulous.
To move on, Pinhao was quaint and relaxing and we spent most of our time at the pool. The restaurant at the Vintage House was absolutely incredible and Jairo had arranged for birthday cake and singing, which after a white port, cocktail and three glasses of wine (it was my birthday mom), were both spectacular. After Pinhao, we hopped into the car and headed to Cascais. The drive to Cascais was nothing short of entertaining. First, we stopped in Aveiro, a beach town south of Porto, at a cafeteria where you didnt order anything but the special. Well the special happened to be chicken with a small salad, french fries, and rice for Jairo and fried white fish with russian potato salad for me. Needless to say the typical portuguese food was so good and we thoroughly enjoyed the atmostphere, that it made it that much better that we both had to stop at a bathroom 30 minutes later.
And now I must mention the car. Oh our poor little car. Between Jairo and I's 280 lbs and our luggages 100 lbs, the car was fully loaded down and refused to go more than 80 km an hour. I must now admit that in Portugal speed limits have a minimum and a maximum and the road we were on, the main highway between Porto and Lisboa had a min of 80 and a max of 120. I must also state that NO ONE in Portugal drives at 120km (~75 mph) on the highway; instead, the drive more like 140-160km. So there we were, puttering along up the hill in 4th gear (5th didnt have enough power) with Jairo laughing so hard he was almost crying, which was making me laugh.
We reached Cascais and to our greatest hopes, we found that our hotel, the FarolDesign Hotel, was completely posh and located on a cliff overlooking the water (again, see pictures). Each room is different and not only were we in a trendy beach town, but everywhere we went it was sunny and beautiful. Thursday, we put on running clothes, packed a backpack of bathing suits, hotel pool towels, and havaianas, and went on a 6 km run to the praias do Guincho (the beaches of the villa of Guincho). We then rented an umbrella and laid on the beach for hours. After a cafezinho (espresso) at the beach cafe, we ran another 6 km back to the hotel. Exhausted, we headed downstairs to the bar for our complementary port and to play cards. We ate at the restaurant at the hotel, the Rosa Maria, which included sushi, filet mignon, and four types of creme brulee (and more port), and crashed upstairs.
The last day we drove through Sintra, another beautiful historic town, and then back to the Porto airport. Overall, the trip was nothing short of wonderful. I thank Jairo immensely for his knowledge of Portuguese (although he couldnt stop laughing at the portuguese of Portugal) and for how great he made the trip with all the small surprises he had for me.
And lastly, after a week of sheer absurdity, we couldn't wait to get back to London, which is starting to feel like our home away from home. Our flat, all four rooms and 600 sq feet couldnt be more inviting and we are now both ready to buckle down and start exactly what we came here to do...to figure out what we want to do for the rest of our lives.

Hope everyone is happy and well and thanks for all the birthday wishes!

Breana

Jairo's Take:
In my first ever posting, I would like to start by pointing out that I was never a good writer in my native language (which must be painful for my mother who was a languages and literature major). That naturally translates into poor writing in English, so let me apologize for run-on sentences, lack of punctuation, or anything else that may make reading this slightly painful. Nevertheless, the purpose of these posts is to relate some of our shenanigans, travels, and experiences while in London, and not a Shakespearian Novel. So bear with me.
Portugal was incredible. I could not have hoped for a nicer vacation before we buckle down and start school. I also seemed to have provided Bre with a fun birthday trip, so that was nice too. Now for those of you who don't know this, Portuguese from Portugal is quite hilarious. Ask any Brazilian that you know and they will confirm it. Therefore, I had to control myself several times from not laughing in people's faces while they spoke to us, which proved to be increasingly challenging as Bre's portuguese got better.
Between Port tastings, incredible food, beautiful sights, fun road trips, nice hotels, and the beach, Portugal definitely moved up a few notches in my book. I would most certainly return given the chance.
I'm assuming most of the people reading this are Bre's friends, but I wanted to send my love to all anyway. I hope you are all doing well and know that we miss you guys a lot. I hope some people get to visit us, as London is an amazing place. Until then, we'll speak online or whenever Bre wants me to post again.
Mike, congrats on the win today and sorry we missed your birthday. We saw the pics from Osman and it seemed you guys had a blast. Happy belated birthday bro.
Mae, Pai, e Cha, eu amo voces muito e estou com saudades.

Beijos pra todos,

Ja

Portugal Pictures

2007-09-22T16:43:00.000+01:00

I will write the post soon but here are some pictures of our Portugal trip to Porto, Cascais, Guincho, and Pinhao. Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2172068&l=2252b&id=2722563

Thames River Festival

2007-09-16T13:32:00.000+01:00

In an effort to see more of the city and for my love of festivals, Jairo and I headed down to the River yesterday to experience the largest festival of London, occuring the 15th and 16th of September. In an effort to save funds (its $8 a per person for a one-way fare on the tube) and to maintain a shred of exercise, we have been walking as much as possible. We started by walking from our flat to the beginning of the festival, which started at the London Eye and stretched all the way to the Waterloo Bridge (about a mile).

Now let me remind all that I, though born in California, was raised in North Carolina. When I think of a festival/fair, I think of animals, tractors, spinning rides, silly games, people trying to guess your weight, cotton candy, and all things fried. As expected, the London Festival was far from my deep south ideals. Instead, it was a multicultural gathering which catered to each and every country...all except the US of course. There were crafts, jewelry, pottery, clothing, shoes, and food from every part of the world. Our most interesting stop was the Southwark Bridge, where the whole bridge was shut down and converted into a global eating and drinking bonanza. They covered half of the bridge with sand and the other half with fake grass, had couches, hay barrels, a giant gingerbread house, every type of beer on tap, pumpkin carving, and food from countries that I couldn't place on the map if I tried (I am apologizing the my AP European teacher who would be very disappointed). The entire time Jairo and I kept looking at each other, just to make sure the other was seeing the same. What makes Britain so great though, besides the fact that there are no open container laws, is that everything and everyone are so civil. There was no pushing and shoving, no kicking and screaming. Everyone was just minding their own business and trying not to lose their children (which is a sore topic here because of the little girl Maddy that was lost in Portugal).

After our trip across the transformed bridge, we realized we were an hour away (walking) from our flat and were starting to be hungry (the lines for food on the bridge were just too long). So we decided to go to a pub called bonds, which we had stopped in for for a pre-dinner drink with my dad the weekend before because we had a little time to spare. We figured if we walked, we would be rewarded with beer, nachos, and the chelsea-blackburn football game on a flatscreen. (our tv at home only gets 3 channels..bbc1,bbc2, and itv...all of which show the most random shows at random times, and gets quite racy after 10 pm). After finally making it to the pub and finding a great booth, one beer turned into two (and beer to wine for me), and nachos turned into a burger and pizza, and it somehow was 9 pm (we got there at 6).

The pace of London thus has to be explained as a combination of that of the US and Brazil, but with a wider range of style. Nothing is ever hurried, though things start on time, and no one seems to be really bothered by anything...except for the weather, the tube, and ques. To say the least, Jairo and I are settling in well.

Now if we could just get internet!

On another note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE and I hope my parents wedding party for Yuka and Paul goes well.

Cheers!

First London Post

2007-09-10T11:45:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone! Jairo and I are settling in slowly but making rapid progress everyday. We've been cleaning, buying things for the apartment, and trying to figure out how everything works, though none of the tasks have been as interesting as they are exhausting. We do not have internet yet, nor will we for at least another 2 weeks, but I will do my best to post as often as I sit in an internet cafe.

In short, London is wonderful. Life is a little slower but terribly multiculteral and fascinating. Our apartment is small but warm and our neighbors are nice but Russian. We have heard more foreign languages in the past week than I knew existed and have met more Brazilians than Americans. My days of talking about people in Portuguese are slowly fading, as I now realize that people can actually understand me.

We have had not only the help of my dad, who just spent the weekend with us, but also the immense pleasure of being helped by two of my dad's friends Clive and Lefkos. Clive picked us up from the airport, pointed in the difrection of necessities, brought us to Ikea, and even sat on the phone with British Telecom for us. Him and his family have been the greatest source of advice (I actually called Clive just to ask how to post a letter) and we are greatly indebted to them.

Ikea was more than an experience. There were more people shoved into the huge store than I thought there was merchandise, although somehow after two hours, we emerged with enough stuff to fill half of our apartment. Jairo and I spent last night putting together a bookcase, a nightstand, organizing boxes, and filing cabinets...probably to our neighbors dismay. We still have a desk to put together, but there is always tonight.

My dad bought us arguable the most important purchase...two dinners, breakfast, dim sum, and half a case of wine before he left. He likened our living to that of his earlier years in Hong Kong, although he said it was more 'posh.'

Thats all for now my time is almost up!

Going Away Party

2007-08-31T21:25:00.000+01:00

Jairo and I will be having a few close friends and family over for pizza and drinks this Sunday, September 2nd at 6 pm. If you are in town and would like to stop by to say goodbye, we would love to see you!

Departure Date

2007-07-23T18:54:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone! Jairo and I spent last week staying with Josh Evans in NYC (at his brand new apartment) and getting our UK visas. After getting soaked in a torrential downpour, we finally managed to escape the embassy with our passports and visas. With our visas in hand, we are finally able to give everyone a departure date--SEPTEMBER 5, 2007--so as to make sure everyone knows we will be gone, even if just for a year.

I also wanted to post a few pictures of our apartment. A few weeks ago (of course during the car bombs scares), we found a flat in London, aptly located above a coffee shop, so as to make sure Jairo will never be short of espressos (espressi?). Anyway, it is a two-bedroom, one-bath, moderately furnished apartment. It was the second to last place we looked at, but we knew as soon as we walked in that this brightly lit, homey feeling place was for us...It also had kitchen with a gas stove (which is not common at all) and two wine racks, so we knew it was the place for us.

So here are a few pictures of the place Jairo and I will call home for at least a year. And yes I say at least a year because no one can ever know what will happen.

Graduation

2007-04-11T03:22:00.000+01:00

Bre's graduation from the School of Public Health is May 12th @ 2:00 pm. Following her departmental graduation, Myla & Eric will be hosting a graduation fiesta at their house.

On Sunday, May 13th @ 9:30 am, the school-wide UNC graduation wil be held at Kenan Stadium, weather permitting.

GO HEELS!