Vegetable of the year - Fennel

Learnt about this vegetable when flipping through our Italain cookbook. We did a Toscana wine tasting at home a month ago and wifey boldly added it to the menu. I say boldly because neither was she familiar with consistency of the vegetable nor the recipe especailly since it was from our italian cookbook. In any case it was a hit. After which it has consistently shown up in our salads, beef fry and stand alone fenkel sautee. Good stuff. I am waiting for yet another airplane while I scribble away though this one is of my own volition as its porting me to my well deserved vacation (a bit of aggrandisation?). I am quite sure I fell sick this week because of the consistent poor air quality in the flights that I am on. Getting better but still have a blocked chest and a heavy head. Later..

America here I come...

3 more days and I am back in Joyzee, looking forward to R&R. The todo list is long a distinguished for example lots of shopping mexican food Visit the MET Rekindle memories of NYC nightlife Play 56 Ruth's weddding Zach baptism Gamble at Foxwoods Barbeque Eat Dosas and steak Visit our old neighbourhoods Life in general is quite OK. Lots of travelling this month too - however most of it is quite pleasurable. For example I don't mond going for client meeting when you have go past 5000 year old pyramids enroute and layover weekends involve safaris. The last couple of weeks have been characterised by an overindulgence in beef. South African beef being my latest notch. I had it for the first time at the 'Butcher Shop' in Jo'burg and I should have heeded the warning on the menu which clearly said - 'We do not take any responsibility in the guarantee of satisfaction of our meat being cooked beyond medium rare'. The meat tasted good but it was completely dry and deprived the juicy consistency that I like with my ribeye steaks. Could'nt finish it. My second attempt was at a sirloin, this time I asked for medium well, better but I was left with feeling that it a bit rarer would have been tastier. The official verdict on SA beef will be delivered after attempt #3. However I did find out why Sa beef get so dry when overcooked. Its a very lean meat, its has only 11% fat compared to almost 23% for American beef. South Africa was an myth buster for me. More when I have some time. I am also feeling sick, hate being sick.

Half the year is up..

For those who decided to hang out at cherickel.com over the weekend were left a bit confused when they saw the advertisements for apartments instead of whining scribbles :) Thats what happens when you don't pay your bills ontime. Alls well now. Toscana was many bottles of wine ago, my daily life and blog content correlation is turning for the worse. No excuses other than too many wine bottles. The month of May was essentially a travel month. Italy was the clear favourite however Cairo turned out to be quite popular also. If you live in Europe for more than a couple of years and you have not visited the cities of Paris and Rome, you are doing yourself a great disservice. Our family ignominy was not visiting Rome. To make amends, we did a long weekend in Rome. I will spare the details but in general the idea of an open museum springs to mind after spending a few days there. People are a lot more pushy and taxi drivers are not to be trusted. The Roman kitchen is not bad but not the best in class. Tripe is a local specialty though the second time around I was not able to persuade my taste buds. The Colosseum and the Roman forum are must see and the mandatory Michangelos sites. The coup d'etat was the Basilica of St. Peters - Vatican and its monstrous museum. Warning - carve out atleast a day for both. Of course the other must see was our hotel room - priceless! I have been to Cairo a few times and its worth a few visits, will scribble about it in a bit more detail some other time. Interesting city, loud, polluted, decreipt and teeming with people however lots of character.