St Sylvestre Dinner 2006/2007 : French Fusion

We invited an interesting German-Mexican couple and their 2 children to join us (MIL and SIL included) for our New Year Eve's dinner. Our children go to the same French-German school in Stuttgart and as the small French expatriate community would have it, we have a few friends in common and to top it all, hubby used to work in the same company as the male half of the couple so they could really relate to one another.

The Sommerhalters arrived at 6pm for a dip in our indoor pool before dinner. They brought champagne from Moët et Chandon and a really huge variety of cheeses from France : Comté, Roquefort, Camembert, St Marcellin etc etc.

On our side we have started to prepare dinner from 2pm on, as the dinner will have at least 7 courses with a good wine/liquor from our personal wine collection for each course. This is a typical French meal in a good restaurant though of course I have added my Asian touch here and there to make it a little different.

Here it goes (Food in Red and Drink in Blue) :

Amuse bouche en variation de quiches
Champagne Moët et Chandon

۞۞۞

Foie gras mi-cuit marbré cacao et son mesclun aux noix
Riesling vendange tardive 2004, Wolfberger

۞۞۞

Marmite de fruits de mer et son consommé à la citronnelle
Chablis 1er cru 2002, Mont de Milieu, Thierry Lafay

۞۞۞

Trou normand Heumaden
Granité aux deux citrons et Vodka russe

۞۞۞

Magret de canard au miel et vinaigre balsamique
pommes de terre Sarladaise et haricots verts du Kenya
Pauillac 2000, Prélude à Grand Puy Ducasse

۞۞۞

Plateau de fromage
Ladoix 1er cru 1999, les Joyeuses, Domaine Prin

۞۞۞

Croustillant de framboises et sa crème fouettée
Champagne Moët et Chandon

۞۞۞

Café Vergnano, Arabica
Et son pousse café : Armagnac 1966, Tequila Don Julio (reposado), et plus si affinité…

I prepared the ingredients for the mini quiches, but only assembled them before serving. We made 2 types of quiches : Tomato-Egg-Cheese-Onion-Bacon and Tomato-Egg-Cheese-Onion-Anchovies. The recipe can be found in one of my earlier postings, though this time around I added some beaten egg with crème fraîche.

Hubby made the foie gras himself a few days ago. I'll post the recipe another day, but basically one has to de-nerve a beautiful 600g lobe of raw duck liver, season it with salt, pepper, a sweet wine (we used a Monbazillac), in our case coffee etc and cook it in a bain-marie in the oven. Then put a weight on top of the terrine and leave it to settle in the fridge for a few days. The foie gras was beautifully half-cooked and tasted really good. Félicitations au Chef!

I've also posted the recipe for the seafood soup a few months back, though this time around I have added a stalk of lemon grass to give it an exotic touch. The consommé was as such nicely perfumed with the seafood (Mussles, Clams, Tiger Prawns, Scallops, Cod Fish...), vegetables and lemon grass.

The trou Heumaden was named as such as we made the lemon-lime sorbet ourselves and served it with vodka between 2 main courses so as to facilitate digestion. I'll put up the recipe another day too if I have the time.

The duck magret main course was cooked by Hubby this time around. It consisted of grilling the breasts on their skin (make light parallel cuts on the skin beforehand) till much of the fat has been melted and the skin nicely roasted. And then to finish the cuisson on the flesh part - but only till it's pink/rosé on the inside, of course. The sauce was made with balsamic vinegar, honey, fond de veau and the juice (containing some blood) from cooking the duck. We served the meat sliced reasonably thick with the sauce, garlicked sauteed potatoes and very fine green beans gently sauteed in salted butter and garlic.

We finished the 2nd main course just in time to run out of the house to watch the fireworks. Alot of them seemed to be sponsored by our neighbours (those living in the flats). I have toyed briefly with the idea of setting off some myself (saw them in PLUS etc), but images of exploded fingers and a burnt house stopped me and we just had to be happy with what we could find in the sky above us.

So we started on the cheeses after midnight. At 1am, I put in the finishing touches to my dessert and served it. It consisted of layers of Greek Filo pastry (that I baked beforehand earlier in the day with salted butter and sugar between the layers), thick cream (that I beat up in the morning, adding in mascapone, almonds, fleur d'oranger, rum, fruit sugar...), fresh Raspberries (that I was lucky enough to find in Strasbourg a few days earlier)...AND dark chocolate discs that I made myself a few hours earlier. For decoration, I sprinkled ground pistachio nuts and icing sugar over the whole thing before serving. It was light, delicious and quite refreshing.

We ended the meal with coffee and liquor for those with a strong stomach (not me). An old Armagnac (hubby's year of birth - haha), excellent Don Julio (Reposado) Tequila he bought in Mexico on one of his frequent trips there and of course some quality Swiss and French chocolates.

It was 4am. MIL was falling asleep at the dinner table, our baby girl was sleeping on one of the sofas, their baby boy on the other sofa, our baby boy at the dinner table, though both our eldest children were busy playing Monopoly on the floor and trying to get richer than the other.

Talking about children, we fed them a different meal as they had to be fed earlier. Hainanese Chicken Rice and free-range Roast Chicken à la française (white wine, herbes de Provence, salt, pepper, paprika...). The amazing thing was that those kids (5 of them) finished the chicken in no time (nothing left) and kept asking for second, third etc servings of the rice. What appetite!

The Sommerhalters decided to call a taxi and come back for their car the next day. I was told that Mister was so happy with his St Sylvestre that he gave the driver a 10 Euro tip!

Happy New Year and Lots of Good Tidings in 2007, Everyone!

Yakitori and Sauteed Mushrooms

When we were living in Paris, we used to bring the kids to a nearby Japanese restaurant (unfortunately run by some Chinese) for a few makis and yakitoris. Easy and fast to eat and the kids just like them.

In Stuttgart, they seem to have only one Japanese restaurant, and I was told by my Japanese neighbour that it was expensive and so-so. The Chinese here seem mostly into all-you-can-eat lousy Chinese buffets than pseudo Japanese restaurants, so it means that I'll have to make my own yakitoris if I want to eat them.

The good thing is that the possibilities are quite endless when it comes to what we can put on a skewer. I usually do it with chicken filet, wings, minced meat rolled into balls, beef filet and cheese, pork, seafood, vegetables etc.

I always make some Japanese rice to go with the yakitoris (the kids like to eat the sticky rice with the sweet yakitori sauce) and occasionally some mushrooms (brown and white button, shitake, golden pin, abalone etc) to accompany them.

I like to marinate my meat before cooking them. And I bake them quickly before putting them on their skewers to be grilled so as to make sure that they are cooked through.

Meat (cut into skeweable portions)
Onions
Bell Peppers

Leeks
Mushrooms
Sherry/sake
Light Soy Sauce

Sesame oil
Sugar
Mirin
Ginger (minced)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cucumber (juliened)
Wooden or metal skewers (the former are best put into water to be softened in order to prevent burning during cooking)

Sweet Yakitori Sauce :

100ml Mirin

3 Tbsp Sake

100ml Soy sauce

50g Sugar

Marinate the meat in the sake, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, mirin and ginger for at least an hour. Remove from the marinade and drip dry, reserving the marinade (if any) for later. Skewer the meat with vegetables like bell peppers, onions, mushrooms etc if desired. Bake the skewers in a hot oven for 10 minutes.

Prepare the yakitori sauce by combining the mirin, sake , soy sauce and sugar in a casserole and simmering it till the sugar is dissolved. Pour the leftover marinade from the meat to the sauce.

Return the skewers to the new marinade, making sure to coat both sides generously with the sauce. Grill the skewers (e.g. on a BBQ) for 2 minutes on each side. Return them to the marinade to be re-coated with the sauce and then grill them again. Brush the meat with the marinade while it's on the grill.

Sprinkle some salt on the cucumber and serve it with a few yakitoris and a bowl of rice.

As for the mushrooms, just stir fry them with a little oil, garlic, oyster sauce, soya sauce, sherry, sesame oil, salt and pepper. Add some chopped parsley or coriander leaves just before serving if you wish.

Christmas 2006 (Cold Seafood, Pan-seared Scallops and Foie Gras...)

We have MIL and SIL over for Christmas this year. Not that it changes much of anything, no matter where we are, we always eat well for the occasion. And too much.

This year, to keep up with the tradition of serving mainly seafood, we drove 1h35mins to Cora Hagenau in France - grocery paradise with excellent wines, meats, seafood etc and etc. I am still wheeling from the sight of so many goodies on offer, so many culinary possibilities...

We started out with 4 dozens of 3-4 types of raw oysters, all from Brittany this year. Served with a shallot and red wine vinegar dip, bread and butter. Followed by a few hundred grams of crevettes roses (pink prawns cooked at sea), crevettes grises (tiny grey shrimps), raw shells, 2 home-cooked Tourteaux (giant crabs).

For those interested, I first made a stock with water, white wine, lemon slices, bay leaf, thyme, parsley, aniseed, carrots, onions, celery and a fish stock cube. Then we plunged the crabs (kept overnight in the fridge to numb them as nobody knew how to spare them torture by killing them outright) in the boiling stock and cooked them over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes (depending on the size). Took them out of the stock, cleaned them and then cut them up. Refrigerate for a few hours before serving.

For the main course, hubby came out of semi-retirement and prepared Pan-seared Scallops and Foie Gras (duck liver) déglacés with some honey, balsamic vinegar and fond de veau (concentrated veal stock) and decorated with slices of black truffles. The scallops were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, the lightly seared raw lobes of Alsatian duck liver simply melted in the mouth. Simply heavenly. Accompanied by fresh green beans lightly cooked in butter and garlic.

We had excellent wines to go with the meal, a dry Chablis for the seafood and a heavenly, very fragrant Gewurzstraminer to go with the scallops and foie gras.

For dessert, we just had lychees from Île Maurice, passion fruit, clementines, pineapple, blood oranges... Very good coffee from our new Nespresso machine and chocolates from Marquise de Sévigny to end the meal.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Baby Girl Turned 4

It's amazing how little kids love Birthday parties. It was little girl's 4th Birthday in early December and it was her little brother who spent the day singing the Happy Birthday song...

She prepared her list of friends to invite like a month before the big day. It was long and I had to play the wicked parent and cut it down quite drastically. In the end she was allowed to invite 7 kids (3 boys and 4 girls). It wasn't too bad for a first-time Birthday party, I thought.

Even though it was officially winter, the sun was shining and the day was actually quite warm. The kids were therefore able to play in the garden and we even had a father staying around to help us out. They took turns going down the slide and being pushed on the swing, played catching in the garden etc.

Then we ushered them into the playroom and had a few games going on : snakes and ladders, kapla, pretend play (toy kitchen etc)...

It was difficult attracting the kids' attention for more than 15 minutes at any one time, so we brought them to the kitchen to eat the Bob the Builder Chocolate Birthday cake and open the presents and then just put them all in front of the Plasma TV. They watched Pinocchio and were really quite concentrated during the show.

I gave each kid a little doggy bag with a picture of PUCCA, stickers, tattoo, candy, chocolate, a wooden ring for the girls and a wooden spin for the boys to take home with. Baby girl was really very happy with her party and so was her little brother who participated 101% all the way and looked all set to have a party of his own come March.

As for the parents, we were exhausted and relieved that it was over for another year (especially when we just had a party in October for the big brother), though I had to spend an hour or so cleaning up the kitchen thanks to our failed attempts at making coton candy with this lousy machine we bought from Amazon.de. There was sugar EVERYWHERE, I could hear the ants marching here...

Somaly Mam's Le Silence de l'Innocence

I've recently read this book “Le Silence de l’Innocence” written by Somaly Mam. Former teen prostitute (raped at 12, forced into a loveless marriage, later sold to a brothel etc) in Cambodia, she managed to get out of her hell by marrying a French man with whom she was to set up AFESIP, an organisation that aims to rescue young girls from human trafficking and sexual slavery.*

It is very sad to read about the way young girls and women in general are treated in this country. This is just so inhumane and exasperating. Fancy girls as young as 8 or 9 being sold into prostitution by their own mothers or sisters and then raped, abused, drugged every day of their lives. Many would catch AIDS, STDs, Tuberculosis etc and suffer all the way to their early deaths. Why is there no justice for these poor souls?

And just as exasperating is the physical lack of justice in these countries. The corruption among the judiciary, the Police etc is rampant and the work of associations like Afesip is often ineffective because of that. And the culture of having sex with virgins and young children is sick and to think that those culprits often consider themselves Buddhists or Muslims and lived as righteous individuals in their societies. And not to forget all the men from developed countries like Japan, Germany, the UK etc making their way to Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos etc by the planeloads to abuse young girls, may they grill slowly and painfully in Hell for that.

I know that I sound like a broken record, but please let us not accept the belief that prostitution has to be tolerated because it is the world's oldest profession. Please pressurise Governments into punishing all the pimps and owners of brothels and especially their policemen and soldiers for their part in the trade. Please let us give hell to all the Johns who abuse these women and girls often forced into the trade. Please tell anybody whether they want to listen or not that it is inadmissible to close an eye to sexual abuse in any form and on anybody. And please start in our own homes by educating our own sons and husbands to what it means to respect another person, women in this case.

By the sad state of the world economy, many has been forced and will be forced to sell themselves. But if demand can be reduced if not eliminated, surely the attractiveness of using women in such inhumane ways would also see some decline. It will be a very long and tedious battle, but we have succeeded in warming up the globe in a few generations, I don't see why we can't deal with human slavery and trafficking.

*PS : www.afesip.org : "AFESIP exists to combat trafficking in women and children for sex slavery; to care for and rehabilitate those rescued from sex slavery; to provide occupational skills and to reintegrate those rescued into the community in a sustainable and innovative manner. AFESIP also seeks to combat the causes and effects of trafficking and sex slavery through outreach work in AIDS prevention; through advocacy and campaigning; through representation and participation in women’s issues at national, regional and international forums."

Our Flat in Paris

When I visited the flat in February 2004, I could hardly believe that it could be within our budget. "There must be something wrong with it," I kept telling myself.


But apparently there wasn't anything wrong with it. The owners had bought a bigger flat elsewhere using a prêt-relais (a transition bank loan) and were in a hurry to sell it as the delay in doing so was costing them alot in interest.

We visited it on a Friday, made an offer the same day and signed the papers the following Tuesday.

The flat is situated in a quiet street in the 16ème arrondisement de Paris. A chic address. Even better, it is between 2 métro stations (Kléber and Charles de Gaulle-Étoile), 300m from the Arc de Triomphe, and 3 avenues away from the Champs Élysées. I often walk to the Tour Eiffel when I felt like taking a look at the monument (it's more or less at the other end of my street). When you think that I arrived in Paris in 1995 with only 3000 Francs in my pocket, this would seem far-fetched.

I love my flat. Our flat, since I bought it with my hubby and our 3 kids. It is on the first floor of an early-20th century free-stone (pierre de taille) building. It has top-to-floor French windows, parquet flooring and the different rooms are logically distributed. The flat is not very big, about 120m2, though for Paris this is a considerable size. It has 3 bedrooms, a large living-cum-dining room, a separate kitchen and 2 bathrooms.

We often imagine ourselves retiring in this flat. It would be great for city-lovers like hubby and myself. Walking distance to some of the best restaurants in France, the cinemas, theatres and shops in the Champs Elysées, the marché des Ternes, a straight coach to the airport, museums and palaces...

But we do not live in it now. A German family is renting it. And loving it. When they move out next Summer we'll return to make a few renovations and spend some time in it. And in Paris.

Moules Marinières (Mussles in White Wine Sauce)

Mussles we can still find in Stuttgart (Nordsee, Real, Edeka...) so mussles we will eat - from time to time. Besides there is no need nowadays (unlike a few years ago) to wash and scrub the mussles, a lot of time and effort is thus saved and one just needs to rinse and cook them.

I do my mussles in different ways (à la provençale, curry, à la crème...) but the best is the simplest - Moules Marinières.

1kg of fresh Mussles

Olive oil or Butter

1 Onion and 1 Shallot

1 clove of Garlic (optional)

White wine

Salt and Pepper

Parsley

Heat up some olive oil in a casserole or pot. Brown the sliced onions, shallots and garlic. Add in the mussles (washed and drained), stir a little and then add in the white wine. Cover. When the mussles start to open up, remove the cover, add salt and pepper to taste, mix in the chopped parsley and serve hot (do not overcook the mussles) - best with French Fries.

Tarzan in the Forest

We visited Hubby's colleague (who's also French and who like us has 3 kids) in Reutlingen before the end of Summer. He had this good idea of bringing us to Schloss Lichtenstein where there was this amazing tree-top walk in the forest (www.abenteuerpark-schlosslichtenstein.de) that the 2 men and our combined 3 boys (the women we ended up stuck with 3 other children on the ground) did.

The park's open from June to November and has 5 itineraries (easy to difficult). It takes about 2 hours to complete 2-3 itineraries. It costs 12 Euros for children between 8 and 15, 15 Euros for teenagers from 15 to 18 and 17 Euros for adults.

There's a parking (paying) and a small restaurant where one can have a drink and eat a snack.

Could be an interesting Birthday Party venue when the kids are older (14 onwards) as the younger ones would need supervision in the order of 2 kids to one adult.

My eldest completed his course. At one stage I thought that he was going to give up as he was stuck and afraid, but peer pressure (from the other 2 older kids) gave him the courage to continue and once he gained confidence, everything became easier. Another reason to be pleased with this outing and to feel better about spending 2 hours waiting in the cold running after 2 babies.

PS : For lunch we had a pot luck. His colleague's Chinese MIL from Madagascar made the dish on the extreme left : Beef with Chinese Cabbage. I made the the other 2 dishes : Prawn and Green Beans Szechuan Style and an Indian Chicken Curry.

Cream of Mushroom Soup and Chicken Pie : with Campbell

At the German discount store PLUS the other day, I saw cans of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup on sale. That really set me down Memory Lane, to a 14 year old me back in Secondary 2, learning how to make Chicken Pies during Home Economics class.

So while I am not a fan of canned or industrially-made food in general, I went ahead and bought a few cans of the soup out of nostalgia and since I have nowhere else in my very full pantry to keep them, I promptly made a meal out of 2 cans : improved Cream of Mushroom Soup and Chicken Pies.

I do not want to know how the soup would have tasted like just directly out of the can. If it's anything like the Tomato Soup from the same brand, it would be quite disgusting. What I did was to slice some onions, loads of fresh mushrooms (white and brown), and a stalk of celery and brown them together with bacon bits in a bit of butter. Then I emptied 1 1/2 cans of the Campbell Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup into the pot and stirred in 1 can of water and half a can of milk. Heat up the whole thing for about 15 minutes (do not let it boil though) and then mix it with a handmixer. Add a dash of cream if you wish. I served it with some puff pastry pieces. The soup had lots of flavour and my hubby actually loved it.

The remaining half a can of the condensed soup was used to make a few Chicken Pies. Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC. Using round cutters cut out Puff Pastry rounds (I'll put up a simple recipe another day, but just use the ones sold in the supermarket they are quite good nowadays) and line a muffin tray with them. Use a smaller cutter to make puff pastry rounds to cover the pies.

In a frying pan brown a few chicken filets in some olive oil, sprinkling some salt, pepper and Herbes de Provence over them. When they are done, take them out of the pan and place them on kitchen towels to absorb the oil. Dice them into small cubes.

In the same frying pan, brown some diced onions, potatoes (use a boiled potato), celery, carrots and mushrooms. Add in the chicken cubes, some green peas, the condensed soup and some pepper. Stir fry everything for a few minutes, adjusting the sauce with a bit of milk if necessary. If you wish, at the end of the cooking, you may add in a hard-boiled egg (diced, of course).

Fill in the puff pastry cases with the filling and cover with a pastry round before putting the muffin tray in the oven. If you wish, you may waste an egg and brush the pastry cover with some egg yolk so that it turns out prettier. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Eat them hot.

Simple Peking Duck with Tortilla Wraps

I had visions of Peking Duck wrapped in pancakes recently. When I kept seeing magret de canard (duck breast filets) being sold almost every where (Christmas' coming) and added to the fact that I have a few packets of tortilla wraps at home (I didn't feel like making Fajitas and the wraps were about to expire) - my simple Peking Duck with Tortilla Wraps was thus born.

When I said simple I really meant it.

2 Duck Breast Filets (can also use duck thighs)

1 Tbsp Brown Sugar

1 Tsp Ground Ginger

1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon

Pinch of ground Nutmeg

1 Tsp Ground Coriander and Cumin

1/4 Tsp Ground Pepper

1 Star Anise

1/4 Tsp Ground Cloves

3 Tbsps Red Wine Vinegar

1 Tsp Sesame Oil

2 Tbsp Sherry or Rice Wine

Hoisin Sauce

Tortilla Wraps

Cucumber (finely sliced in 5cm-long strips)

Spring Onions (ditto)

In a small saucepan put the sugar, spices, vinegar etc to boil. Remove from heat and let the marinade cool.

Bring water to boil in a pot. Remove from the heat and plunge the duck breasts into the water for 5 minutes. Then take out the breasts and put them in a pot of cold water for another 5 minutes. Pat them dry with kitchen towels and spread the marinade generously all over with a brush. Leave at room temperature for at least an hour.

Pre-heat the oven at 180ºC. Place the breasts skin side up and roast till the skin is crisp and brown. It should take about 40-45 minutes. Take them out of the oven and let them cool a little before slicing them into very thin slices (about 5 x 1 x 0.5cm).

In a bowl, pour in a generous amount of Hoisin sauce and mix in the marinade from the baking tray. Microwave the tortilla wraps for about 35 seconds. Spread a little Hoisin sauce on each piece of tortilla wrap (about 10 x 10 cm pieces), add in a few strips of duck, cucumber and spring onions, roll it up and enjoy.

PS : Needless to say, it works well with a whole duck too. But may need to marinate for at least 2-3 hours in this case and roast for 1 1/2 to 2 hours breast side up. The carcass can then be used to make soup.

My Ruby and Diamond Ring

Hubby's one of those men who only remember their own Birthdays. Not even his own mother's (so one can imagine that I buy the presents and give them away in this foyer) and whenever he has to fill up some form involving the family, you can bet that he'll be calling me up at some point to ask me for the kids' birthdates.

I have therefore not seen a present for a few years. Not for my Birthday, nor for Christmas, our wedding anniversary, Mother's Day, the birth of each child or what naught. Though he was not entirely to be blamed, for he works long hours and does not have the time nor the inclination to shop. And I am, according to him, a very difficult client, so he does not feel like buying any present and getting scolded for it because I should happen not to like it. And he did say that I am free to buy whatever I want whenever I want to - but you'll understand that it's not the same, right?

A few weeks ago, as we started to plan for Christmas (this year his mother and sister are coming over from Paris for Christmas AND the New Year), he said to me, "My Chérie, what would you like for Christmas? You have not had a present in years, so you can have a nice one this year.[..] How much are we going to be reimbursed by the Taxman?[..] OK, you get to spend up to 4000 Euros..." (!?! - wire kenna pulled as we would say at home in Singapore)

One can imagine that I wasn't going to wait around for him to change his mind (especially if for some reason the Taxman is not going to reimburse us what we thought he owes us). So I started looking around for my present. Which was difficult in Stuttgart with the limited number and types of shops. And I can't possibly fly back to Paris or to Singapore just to hunt for a piece of jewellery. And the Internet is risky for things like that.

Yes, so that's what I've decided to have. A nice piece of jewellery. Something bright and gaudy, to spend hours looking at during the depressingly long and cold winters here in Europe. I've decided to buy a Ruby or Emerald ring (the pendant, bracelet, earrings etc will have to come later, sigh...)

What I've almost forgotten is the auction house EPPLI here in the centre of Stuttgart. It's a small shop next to the covered market (Markthalle), but contains a good variety of old and new jewellery, furniture, fur coats, branded bags etc. The Schwabs are very stingy people, so recycling is common and second-hand shops do well here.

I normally wouldn't have gotten anywhere near second-hand jewellery, me being an Asian girl brought up on ghost stories where oftentimes the spirit of the former owner of some ring turns up to haunt the new owner...But time away in Europe and the reality of the purse help change minds and I have decided to take the risk and consider the option of buying a second-hand ring.

Antique jewellery is interesting. The modern ones tend to be simple and increasingly popular/common. And when one starts looking for a ruby or emerald, one realises that it is difficult to find nice colours and clarities in the shops that you find in the usual malls or shopping areas (not many people can afford them so most shops just don't carry them) - and walking into Chaumet or Cartier at this moment in time is unfortunately not yet possible for us.

Rubies like diamonds have to be examined in terms of colour, clarity, cut and carat. But unlike diamonds where normally the more colourless the better and standard grades exist to help tell them apart, colour in Rubies is quite personal and one really has to spend quite some time looking at the stones to know what one would like and is looking for. And when one is just starting out, one would have little notion of clarity and cut, heated or unheated stones, and many of the usual shops out there often sell red rubies that are quite opaque and badly-cut. And another thing I've found out as I was looking for my ring is that the origins of a Ruby is also very important, e.g. whether it comes from a mine in Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, India, Afghanistan, the USA or Africa...

I guess that not only do I want a Ruby, but I also wanted it to come with diamonds. Somehow diamonds look great on their own and they look even greater when they accompany a coloured stone :-). And I am quite sick of the usual round diamonds, so well, that's another reason why the quest was starting to be quite difficult.

On one of my last trips to Eppli, I saw a few really nice Ruby rings. One of them was going out to auction in early-November and has a Burmese Ruby surrounded by diamonds and set in 14K gold (Germany usually sells 14K and 10K gold). The colour of the Ruby was fantastic and though the diamonds were round, the setting was really pretty. I will of course not be attending any auction (it's an Art and I've no notions about it except for Ebay), so I decided to wait and see if it wouldn't get sold during the auction and would then be sold in the shop.

And so it wasn't auctioned off. And the price tag was 2200 Euros before the shop's 20% commission and any eventual ring sizing. It may seem expensive, but if you see what one has to pay for a similar new ring in a shop (if you find one like it), it's half the price.

But on the day that I brought Hubby to the shop to look at the ring, sitting next to it in the window was this other Ruby ring set in 18K white gold (I prefer), and surrounded by...6 Navette diamonds and 6 round diamonds with a total weight of 0.88 Carats (TW-W, VSI-SI). The Ruby (3.2 carat Siamese Pailin which in this case would actually be Cambodian) is not as fine as the Burmese one and has a visible inclusion (a line cut across), but it is translucent, has lots of fire and is of a rich purplish-red (not pigeon-blood red Burmese, but...). It took my breath away.

Hubby took a look at it and said that it was pretty but don't you think that it's kind of big? If you wear it out people will think that it's a fake...But he could see that I was quite taken by it, and I suspect that he was just relieved that I have found something that I like, that it was cheaper than usual since it was second-hand and was just quite glad to get it over and done with. So we paid for the ring, asked for it to be re-sized (it was 58 versus my 48.5) and as I thanked him for it, he muttered that he hoped that I was happy with it since I wouldn't be getting another present for the next 10 years! Ha ha! If only he knew that I'm already starting to dream of Emeralds...

So I'm wearing my ring as I type this out. We collected it this afternoon. I wish I could put up a close-up picture of it, but I do not have a zoom on my camera and it just wouldn't turn out. So I'll have to wait for an occasion to have its picture taken. Until then...

PS : I went back to EPPLI recently and saw 2-3 other Ruby rings (2 Burmese and 1 Ceylonese) and they were all going for less than 500 Euros before commission and resizing! It is amazing how much difference there could be between what I paid for mine and what's being sold just after. But it's all a question I guess of quality (or at least I hope) though to tell the truth I can't see no difference between the cheaper rings and mine (except that mine's bigger).

Us in Strasbourg

I have always liked Strasbourg. Now that I am living in Germany, I love it.

Strasbourg has always been special. Separated by a river between France and Germany, it had at different periods in its History alternated between being German and French. And even when it's French, Napoleon gave it (Alsace) special status (e.g. in its Social Security laws) and like the Germans they eat spätzle and sausages and make Riesling wine.

But trust me, Strasbourg is French and very much so. We often wonder how this city can be so near Germany and yet be so French :-). When you cross over to Strasbourg from Kiel (on the German side), it gets dirtier and messier. But the old city is simply beautiful, with quaint little shops (the window displays, the goods on offer etc are immediately better, more varied and more interesting), wonderful pastry shops and most important of all - great restaurants. And that is what differentiated Strasbourg from Germany and confirm its very Frenchness.

Even the Kebab is tastier in Strasbourg. It is made of real meat piled up one on top of the other. Not like the factory-concocted slab of tasteless meat that we usually find in the Turkish-owned Kebab shops in Germany. So we may occasionally take away a Kebab sandwich as we leave Strasbourg - for the son.

We try to visit the city once every 2 months. It's about 2 hours from Stuttgart by car. We usually arrive in time for lunch, and would either eat in the Chinese restaurant at the entrance of the old city (needless to say, even the usually lousy Chinese food in France is better than the usual Chinese food in Germany - don't ask me why), or at Kammerzell (http://www.maison-kammerzell.com).

Kammerzell is wonderful, a very old Strasbourgeois house just opposite the beautiful Cathedral. It has a good menu with the usual choucroute (sour cabbage - a Chinese invention for those unaware of that), onion tart, steak, foie gras...and includes a very good variety of seafood dishes. One of my most memorable was its Foie Gras poêlé et Lotte (pan-seared duck liver and Burbot), a delicious marriage of meat and fish, turf and surf. And the desserts also make it very French, ranging from fruit tarts (not the heavy jello sort), to home-made sorbets and ice-creams, chocolate parfaits etc etc. I always make sure that I make room in the stomach for dessert when I'm there. A bonus - 2 children under 10 eat lunch for free and they do not serve you nuggets with fries, but real food e.g. grilled salmon with pasta, chicken in cream sauce...The service needless to say is good, the maître d'hôtel takes obvious pride in his work.

After lunch, we would usually do a bit of shopping. Books (e.g. France Loisirs, FNAC...), clothes and shoes (Héraud, Jonak, Minelli...), and especially food (Monoprix, Paul, Atac, Auchan...). We never fail to bring back a few delicious bread and pastries from Paul, a few good cuts of beef (e.g. bavette, onglet, côte de boeuf...), seafood (oysters, scallops, crabs, cooked pink and grey prawns, stingray...), Bonne Maman cookies, Badoit Rouge mineral water etc etc. We've even invested in a cooler that'll be able to keep our purchases cool during the ride home. In the afternoon, we often had tea at Christian's, a tea salon just opposite the Cathedral, with delicious cakes and pastries and home-made whipped cream.

On our last visit, as my mom was with us, we took a boat ride down the river. There we realised that the city was even prettier than we thought. We got to see the European Parliament buildings as well. We'll certainly go on the boat ride again when we next bring other visitors to the city!

One more thing : they make very good foie gras and Gewurzstraminer (I especially love the vendange tardive wines) in the region. We've yet to visit a few of the wine makers as we wanted to, but we'll try to do so before we leave Germany.

Bon voilà a short write-up on Strasbourg.

Recent Eats (Chicken Caesar Salad, Vietnamese Cari Ga, Black Pepper Crab Crispy Noodles...)

Too much backlog, so will just post a few pictures without the recipes.

Caesar Salad with Pan-seared Chicken filets (Roman Salad, Rocket Salad, Red Onions, Roasted Garlic, Garlic Croutons, Parmesan Cheese, Olive Oil, Lemon Juice, Worchestershire Sauce, Egg...)

Vietnamese Cari Ga (Chicken in a Lemongrass-flavoured Coconut Curry Sauce with Sweet Potatoes...)
Black Pepper Crabs on Crispy Egg Noodles

Breakfast this morning with a mother from school :

Fried Rice Vermicelli Singapore Style, Toast à l'andalou (toasts rubbed with fresh garlic and raw tomatoes and dribbled in olive oil), Tarte aux Pommes (Apple Tart with Ground Cinnamon and Sugar), Tarte Salée (Puff Pastry with Red Onions, Cherry Tomatoes, Fresh Basilic, Bacon, Cheese...)

Leek and Potato Soup

Your basic soup in a "Western" restaurant in Asia :-); Our basic soup at home, fast and tasty. This Leek and Potato Soup serves 3-4 as a starter.

2 big Leeks (well-washed and sliced into big pieces)

2 Potatoes (peeled and quartered)

3-4 bowls of water

1 stock cube (or a meat bone blanched and rinsed)

Salt and Pepper

Crème fraiche

Grated cheese

Put the leeks and potatoes in a pot and add in the water and stock cube (I get a meat bone free when I buy meat from my butcher so I use it). Cover and let the water boil after which lower the heat to medium-low and simmer for about 20 minutes till the potatoes are cooked. Remove from the heat and mix the contents of the pot with a handmixer. Serve hot with a touch of crème fraiche and some grated cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste.