Monthly Archives: December, 2009

The Magical Austrian Christmas Markets!

Posted in Austria Eating & Travel,Europe Eating & Travel

salzburg christmas markets ornament

Salzburg Christmas Markets

There are times when food blogging is quite the most fun thing on earth to do. It makes up for the times writing at all hours and never having a day off. One of these times was when I was invited to a media famil trip by the Austrian National Tourist Office  which was sponsored by Emirates Airlines. When I was first asked if I’d be interested in coming along to see the Austrian Christmas Markets in Salzburg and Vienna along with partaking of some gourmet goodies, I must have looked rather comically disbelieving. I may have even stammered in disbelief and after recovering briefly, I started packing my bag mentally in preparation. And a few weeks later when I saw the itinerary I was even more delighted. I may have squealed. And settle in for this story as it’s a long story (but I promise a goodie!).

vienna christmas markets decorations

Decorations at Vienna Christmas Markets

This was my first time to Austria. Of course I have my friend M who is Austrian who has made me all manner of Austrian food from Pancake Soup to Malakoff Torte but to actually visit Austria was a thrill and not only was I going to participate in Austria’s culinary and shopping tour, I was also going by Emirates Business Class and trying out the A380! My fellow travellers are Alison formerly of Vogue who now writes freelance for Get Up And Go magazine among others, Mike from the Daily Telegraph and Gerard from the Sydney Morning Herald along with Astrid from the Austrian National Tourism Office.

After a quick unpacking and refreshing, we all set off to check out the Christmas markets. Advent or the Pre Christmas season is very important to Austrians and starts four weeks before Christmas. There is a candle holder wreath with 4 candles inside and on each Sunday one candle is lit until 4 weeks later and all 4 candles are lit. There are many Christmas markets throughout Austria with a general rule that only good quality hand made items can be sold. Each market has its own personality and they each have special items that you don’t see at other markets. The Christmas Markets also serve as a gathering place for locals where they can shop for Christmas presents and ornaments and also rather importantly, drink cups of hot Glühwein and Punsch to help ward off the chills and eat Christmas Cookies. During our visit it’s unseasonably warm (which I’m rather happy about but we were all hoping for snow for some true winter photos) but the effect of the Glühwein and Punsch isn’t lost on us. It’s fabulously warming and even after we’ve left Austria I still have a hankering for a cup of Punsch at around 5pm (when we typically had it). So without further ado, here is your guide to some of the amazing Christmas Markets that we visited during our time in Salzburg and Vienna!

You can also skip through to the Christmas Market that takes your fancy from the list below.

Christmas Market at Salzburg Cathedral Square

salzburg christmas markets

salzburg christmas markets scented bunches

Our first Christmas Market and a truly lovely one at that. These markets are housed at Cathedral Square in the centre of Salzburg. They’re very large with stalls selling all manner of items from beautiful glass ornaments, gorgeous wooden Christmas decorations as well as wooden children’s toys (there was even talk of banning plastic items here). The prices are reasonable but depend on the stalls. Buying from the stalls here will inevitably save you about 20%-50% from buying from a regular store, particularly if it’s a touristy store.

girls wings

The Christkind

Whilst wandering around Salzburg we spotted these girls. They are the Christkind who are the child like bearers of gifts as opposed to Santa which is more an American or British tradition (and there is some opposition with Austrian traditionalists who don’t want Santa to intrude or overtake on their Christkind). Every year the Christkind is chosen in a competition and they dress up in gorgeous outfits and parade around the city centre wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. One is the Christkind (in the gold dress) while the others are angelic types that surround her. The Chriskind usually has blonde hair and wears angel wings.

salzburg christmas markets marroni stall

The Hot Chestnut Stall

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87 comments | December 10th, 2009 - 5:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Yoghurt Passionfruit Syrup Cake & High School Reunions

Posted in Cakes,Cooking and Recipes

main3 yoghurt passionfruit cake

High School Reunion. Three words to strike fear into the hearts of people everywhere. When I was messaged  on facebook by High  School pals earlier this year about the idea of having a High School Reunion in December I thought “Dear God No!” and then thought that it was so far away that I never even thought about it. Fast Forward 11 months later and we’re only days away from D Day. I had a bit of an idea what it would be like, the reunion before was all about “What job do you have?” and I knew this one would be all about “How many children do you have?” and I had the feeling that “None. Thankyou very much for inquiring” would not suffice and would only garner me sympathetic looks. Any protests from me saying “No really, it’s fine, I’m not pining for any” would only have girls clucking even more sympathetically and god forbid a shoulder squeeze or even worse a hug given with furrowed brow and pout and a faux reassuring “Suure”.

yoghurt passionfruit cake 1

I figured I already kept in touch with the ones that I wanted to but of course there was a morbid curiousity about how everyone had turned out. I swayed between “Oh screw it, just go” to “I’d rather gnaw on my arm”. Mr NQN asked me if I was going and depending on the day or hour or minute my answer would be one of the two. I busied myself thinking of other things including making this cake, a cake that I immediately bookmarked in the new Donna Day Seasons cookbook which is a collection of the best of Donna Hay magazine. It’s a gorgeous tome and it’s full of Post It Notes (about 36) and Donna was kind enough to send me a signed copy!

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74 comments | December 9th, 2009 - 5:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Ferrero Rondnoir Dinner of Discovery & Q&A with Tobie Puttock!

Posted in Eating,Special Events,Sydney - CBD and inner city

ferrero rondnoir dinner tobie puttock bowl

“Oh they’re just photographing the celebrities over there” the smiling hostess says “So you can go that way” she says pointing in the other direction. I laugh, yes we’re not famous and apparently the left side is for the celebrities and the right is for the non celebrities. At tonight’s Ferrero Rondnoir event is Jade McRae who is tiny and wearing a column dress and tousled curls, Michelle Bridges from The Biggest Loser and Celebrity Masterchef who is thin with an amazing bottom (yes I noticed!), Charlotte Dawson who is friendly with amazing cleavage (yes I noticed!), Australia’s Next Top Model winner Demelza Reveley who is gorgeous and amazingly tall (it’s hard not to notice that), designer Wayne Cooper, Sarah Marsh, newsreader Natarsha Belling, Konstantina Mittas and Adriano Zumbo and of course Tobie Puttock. Did I mention him? No, well Tobie is putting together a degustation for us based on the Ferrero Rondnoir. And read on later for my Q&A with chef Tobie!

ferrero rondnoir dinner tobie puttock bar

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44 comments | December 8th, 2009 - 5:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Snow Sundae Dessert

Posted in Cooking and Recipes,Ice Creams,Other Sweet Things

snow sundae dessert 1

The onslaught of Summer heat in Australia can be oppressive when the temperature hits above 40 degrees C. You just don’t want to move, you just cannot move no matter how hard you try and the thought of leaving air conditioned comfort fills you with dread. It’s at times like these that you transform to a Winter lover and fantasise of snow. Sweat pours from your brow although I should take the chance to confess something about myself. I can’t really sweat. That’s why I feel the heat that much more than everyone else as my very own inbuilt air conditioning system is faulty. So I absolutely need cool drinks and desserts to help me through the day.

snow sundae dessert 2

This is really based on the Ice Kacang dessert from Singapore and Malaysia but of course it’s not entirely faithful so that’s why I haven’t put any claims forth or called it Ice Kacang. For starters I don’t think that they would use Pomegranate syrup on theirs and instead of fruit they use sweetned red beans and palm seeds. I’ve made a version which is more Western in flavour for the simple reason that I didn’t have the Asian ingredients to hand. I can imagine pursits clucking amongst themselves “Coconut! Mango! Cherries and Ice Cream, that’s not an Ice Kacang tsk tsk!”. I made this last year for my friend Queen Viv, M and her boys and they loved the sweet coolness and immediately asked me for the recipe.

achacha

You can use an ice shaver for this but I don’t really have any room for single use items in my kitchen so I use a food processor which does a good enough job. What you do need is syrup, sweetened condensed milk (in a tube works best), fruit and the a big spoon to tunnel into the snow capped mountain. I used young Coconut meat which you can find at most supermarkets nowadays (and the juice itself is delicious), lychees, ice cream and achacha fruit which is a new type of fruit which is similar to Mangosteen which is one of my favourite fruit. Sadly I’ve yet to have a good Mangosteen here in Australia but opening these up is much easier, they’re much more reasonably priced and they’re just as sweetly gorgeous (and the season has just started yay!).

coconut meat

With the young coconut, you’ll need a very, very sharp and heavy knife and even then my chef’s knife wasn’t really a match for it. I kept banging and banging using the thick base of the knife (no use breaking an knife for a coconut no matter how delicious the innards are!) and I found it best to summon up any inner rage and beware your fingers. It will give way eventually and then some delicious coconut water will come out. Have a bowl ready to catch this delicious water. Once the coconut has drained then take a spoon and scrape away the smooth white coconut layer inside and drink the juice separately.

snow sundae dessert 5

This also happens to be fabulous for kids and relatively low in fat particularly if you use a low fat ice cream or just one scoop. They love towers of colours and digging at things and of course the sweetness. Ah yes the sweet coolness, there’s nothing quite like the ice cold trickle of the syrup, fruit and ice down a parched throat. And raising an arm to spoon this in is the most I can do most days.

So tell me Dear Reader, how do you beat the heat?

Snow Sundae Dessert

Makes 1 medium to large bowl (serves 2)

  • 1 tray of ice cubes
  • Fruit Syrup (make your own Pomegranate syrup here or buy one)
  • Sweetened condensed milk, chilled
  • 1/2 whole Young Coconut, chilled and cut open, the sweet white meat removed
  • Fruit such as lychees, achacha, mango cubes or cherries, chilled and cut up ready to use
  • 2 scoops of ice cream, cold (obviously :) )

Buyer’s tip: Achacha fruit are available at Eveleigh Markets, Sydney.

making dessert

second layer

1. Take out everything just before using. Place 1 tray of ice cubes in the blender and blend until it resembles shaved ice. Place a scoop of ice cream in a bowl and add some fruit and coconut meat at the bottom. Add the shaved ice on top of this and pour some syrup over and then douse liberally with some sweetened condensed milk. Add extra scoop of ice cream and the add more fruit around it. Serve immediately.

ice after

snow sundae dessert 3

40 comments | December 7th, 2009 - 5:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Konoba, Barton, Canberra

Posted in Aust wide Eating & Travel,Canberra and Surrounds,Uncategorized

Our last meal in Canberra was set to be a great one. If only I hadn’t made a pig of myself and succumbed to the vanilla slice winking at me from the marble table in our hotel room. Allow me to rewind a few hours if you will. Earlier that day we’d visited the Braidwood Bakery and then gone to the Old Bus Depot Markets and then settled our weary selves into Hotel Realm. Booked thanks to the lovely people at Toyota it was a toss up between the Hyatt and The Realm and they had chosen The Realm because of its modernity.

It’s modern indeed with nice touches and I take off my heels and sink my feet into some comfortable padded slippers. In the room there’s no bath, the view is of a construction site, there’s no porter to speak of and the gym and sauna is privately owned so when Mr NQN wants to use the sauna at 4pm on a Sunday like a good Finn he is told that it is shut. The positives is that the room is very nice and modern, they happen to stock Pickwick’s Earl Grey tea which I happen to love, there are complimentary Byron Bay cookie company biscuits and cable stations are great. And for dinner we don’t have to go far except for downstairs which is a winner given how exhausted we are.

So fast forward and one vanilla slice down the hatch we make our way down to the restaurant to meet with Todd from Toyota and his wife Melissa. There’s one other table dining tonight and so we have a booth to ourselves. This is their first time dining with a Foodus Bloggerus and I accepted Todd’s invitation for dinner  after asking if they would mind the whole photo taking experience.

Rigatoni with pork sausage, ham hock, tomato, garlic and chili $20.50

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34 comments | December 6th, 2009 - 5:00 am | Not Quite Nigella