Sun, June 29 - Euro Final

8.43am - oatmeal w/ almond milk and raspberry -flaxseed sauce, walnuts, sesame seeds, at home, with Ritesh11.07am - toasted whole wheat English muffin w/ olive oil and salt. Something to line the stomach as the time of the game drew near. Just found out around this time that Michael Ballack was actually going to play - he'd been out with a calf injury for the last two days.

11.44am - Phinney went all the way to Rockenwagner to buy fresh pretzel bread! And she brought sweet German mustard! And butter and brie! (you're so the best, Phinney!), the minute before the game started, at Juan's, with Stuart and Jess, Scott and Tamara, Greg and Phinney, and Ritesh. Don't ask me why the piccie is sideways all of a sudden - did neither take it nor save it or upload it that way. Hmm...

12.36h - Ritesh went all out and made German-style currywurst, and a whole platter of it! This is the most popular German fast food (along with Turkish doner kebabs which, admittedly, are more photogenic), and it's basically a pork bratwurst with a special fruity curry ketchup, some curry powder, and a curry-tomato sauce - home made in this case by Ritesh, who cooked up three batches of the stuff last night: the first one had a little too much vinegar, the second one was so spicy only he and I could eat it, and the third one was just about perfect. Yet in spite of all this effort, and the fabulous result, the German team just was not to be persuaded to actually play well. The Spanish were running circles around them, literally. And of course Fernando Torres (Liverpool's number 9, as Stuart likes to remind people) had to score. So Spain won. Ah well. Good for them. They deserved it. But as they say - after the game is before the game, and we're just warming up for the World Cup in a couple of years...

14.34h - some marzipan-y German almond horns, after the game

15.01h - and no better time to get some cupcakes! Still helping Phinney in her research... These were from a place on Wilshire and 5th, which I think is called Vanilla - hard to say since there's two cupcake stores on this block and I'm not sure which is which. These are mini-cupcakes btw, mocha, red velvet, and the seasonal berry in front, with a passion-fruit filling. My favorite. However, decidedly NOT dairy free...

18.04h - so dinner had to be healthy - spicy hummus w/ cucumber, tomatoes and some organic whole grain-flaxseed tortilla chips

Sat, June 21 - hot, hot, hot

8.11am - fresh mango, at home. 29 Celsius inside the house. 9.31am - pink lemonade, at home. Found out only afterwards that this is sweetened w/ high fructose corn syrup. This is Paul Newman's supposedly wholesome and organic brand, explicitly marketed as "all natural" and sold at Whole Foods.Wtf.

10.24am - Thai style peanut-lime salad - made in advance for dinner tonight, at home, with Ritesh.

14.41h - chips and some super-spicy salsa at El Toreo Cafe in Pasadena, with Ritesh, Greg and Phinney. If we're technically in the desert in LA, Pasadena is even more so as it's further inland. At least in West LA, you get some breeze from the ocean - Pasadena was just relentless, about 40 Celsius, and we practically fell into the first air-conditioned restaurant we found just to get off the street. As an aside, I have to confess that after 10 years in LA without air conditioning in either car or home, we finally gave in this week and got the air conditioning set up in our car. Not in the apartment, mind you. But the car nevertheless. Not sure how we would have made it to Pasadena otherwise.

14.41h - Mexican combo plate, shared with Ritesh - he got the taco, and I got the chile relleno that's buried somewhere under the cheese, mole and lardy refried beans. There was also an enchilada under there, according to Ritesh.

15.23h - Phinney is still on a mission to find the perfect cupcake for their wedding and treated us to some for research purposes (thanks, Phinney!). This is a strawberry shortcake and a Neapolitan cupcake from Violet's Cupcakes, which was conveniently located on the block where one of the bands Phinney wanted to see was playing.

15.32h - and this was the one we liked best: the banana bread cupcake w/ chocolate frosting.

16.12h - and this is Chhom Nimol and Dengue Fever playing on the World Stage in Pasadena, on what was still the hottest day of the year.

16.15h - more Dengue Fever (I never thought that beard was real. It is.)

16.27h - and more Dengue Fever

18.25h - fresh lime w/ sparkling water, after a cold shower, back home, with Ritesh.

20.07h - Thai/Cambodian-style peanut-lime salad w/ bell pepper, radishes, snow peas (due to the Japanese origin of this recipe), mung bean sprouts and cilantro. Made this variation of the regular soba-noodle salad w/ coconut milk as we're having a bit of a South East Asian theme going tonight, what with Dengue Fever and all. At home, with Nadya, David, Mingus and Ritesh, who bravely put up w/ my Dengue Fever albums all evening.

20.43h - Cambodian amok (fish coconut curry), made w/ fresh black cod and a lot less chilies than last time.

21.59h - coconut sticky rice w/ fresh mango, at home, still w/ Nadya, David, Mingus and Ritesh.

Sat, May 31 - Rhubarb Crumble, Thai Town, Cupcake Tasting

10.30am - started off the day by making some lovely rhubarb crumble according to this exquisitely detailed recipe. I used five California-sized (i.e. gargantuan) stalks of rhubarb, and three of Nadya's home-grown oranges, so added an extra 100g of oats (special, Scottish-style porridge oats from Whole Foods) and it turned out great, except for the fact that our oven seems to be a little hotter than others and ended up burning the top a wee bit, although I pulled it out before its time. Or maybe I got the conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit wrong, which is always a possibility. It has to be said, though, that gas ovens are a bit of a pain. As much as I love cooking on a gas stove, gas ovens I find very hard to handle, and believe me, I've tried. One of the reasons I rarely bake anymore is because it seems impossible to reproduce my favorite recipes from home. A kingdom for an electric oven - with a gas stove top! 13.57h - a Thai Iced Tea at the somewhat prosaically named "Spicy Barbecue" Thai restaurant , with Ritesh. After all the Korean barbecue we had in the last couple of weeks, I was going to pass just based on the name, but what can you do when a place comes recommended by Jonathan Gold? Turns out, there really wasn't much barbecue on the menu, so maybe it's just a bad translation? Anyway, this is a small mom-and-pop operation (six tables in all) in Thai town, where we headed to buy the ingredients for some Thai and Cambodian cooking to come soon. But for now, note the pretty rose-shaped thingie they did with the paper at the end of the straw...

14.03h - grilled pork patties (I guess these do qualify as barbecue, although they're more like meatballs) that were DELICIOUS! Spicy, with a ton of mint inside, plus note the extra fried mint on top - serious competition for last night's meatloaf! The sticky rice on the side goes with the next dish...

14.04h - ...the signature num prik oom, a mix of grilled, mashed up, incredibly spicy serrano chilies (with garlic? fish sauce? it was just too spicy to tell, and our waitress wouldn't say) that you dip your sticky rice in - amazing. We eat a lot of very spicy food but couldn't finish this. Ended up taking at least half of it home (I'm sure it'll be put to good use). And now, four hours later, my stomach is still on fire.

14.07h - kao soi - chicken noodle soup w/ coconut milk and little pickles and fried rice crisps that are served on the side (left) and that you mix in yourself. Good, but this is more familiar Thai stuff.

15.56h - blueberry-apple spritzer, at home.

21.18h - impromptu dinner at Greg and Phinney's - this is Greg's yummy miso soup
21.36h - this is our contribution to dinner, the soba noodle-peanut-citrus salad I'd first made a few weeks ago, w/ snow peas, radishes and red bell peppers. This is my adaptation of somebody else's adaptation of a Nigella Lawson recipe and it still needs a little bit of tweaking to make it perfect, but in my heart of hearts I'm thinking I may start posting some recipes soon, and this should be one of them...22.05h - and voila, the cupcakes. Greg and Phinney are getting married in October and are planning on a cupcake tower instead of a wedding cake. So now the search is on for the perfect cupcakes for the occasion (recommendations are welcome and will be swiftly passed along). This is a selection Phinney picked up from Lark bakery in Silver Lake, clockwise starting top left: chocolate mousse, coconut, red velvet w/ cream cheese frosting, caramel w/ kosher salt, berry shortbread, and black-and-white in the center. Each of us got to try 1/4 of each cupcake, and we all agreed on the berry shortcake as the winner - moist, succulent, and with the most sophisticated frosting (cream cheese is nice but maybe not nice enough for the occasion). But this is only half of Lark's selection, so Phinney is going back to sample more. Maybe a lemon one would be good...
22.33h - in spite of the cupcakes, we managed to squeeze in a quarter each of a tasty, marzipany German almond horn before sugar shock finally made us collapse on the couch.