Average Betty was here!

Are you familiar with the American food blog called Average Betty? It's written by a lovely 30-something LA-based woman called Sara O'Donnell, who is even more known for her witty and catchy recipe channel Average Betty on YouTube. She was visiting Estonia last week and I had the chance to meet her and throw a party for her and her husband. It was supposed to be a garden party (my dear K. even managed to excuse himself from my aunt's husband's 65th birthday party as he had to mow the lawn and make sure the garden looks all nice and pretty when Sara and the guests arrive ;)), but alas, the weather wasn't on our side. Luckily we managed to fit all the 18 adults and numerous kids into our house as well.



While I regularly entertain rather big groups of people at our home, I decided to play it safe this time and organise a potluck party instead, asking each local guest to contribute a dish. We did agree beforehand that the dish has to be pretty Estonian and more or less summery, and we ended up with a rather lovely spread, if I may say so myself. I think Sara and Lee agree, and I saw them at least tasting each of the numerous dishes - quite an achievement considering that they came to the party straight from the meeting with a famous local chef Dmitri Demjanov, which included a full meal at one of his restaurants.

 
Sara and me checking out some of the delectable dishes available.

I had invited a group of local food bloggers to the party, as well as my favourite pastry chef and good friend Heidi Park (who just happens to be an American based in Tallinn) and another good Estonian friend who currently resides in Washington DC (but is visiting home for a few weeks). The local bloggers were a mix of good foodblogging friends and some rising local foodblogging stars, and based on the quality of the dishes they brought along, I just might invite them over again soon ;)

Here's the bi-lingual menu (ignore the bottom part of the blackboard. I told you the house was full of kids ;))

 

On the photo below you see a beetroot salad (thank you, Mann!), a salt pork and onion flatbread, specialty on our largest island, Saaremaa (baked by Kirsike). Fried Baltic herring and a sour cream dip was brought along by Vernanda, the barley soda bread by Tuuli (I've blogged about this delicious Estonian bread here). You can get a glimpse of various local charcuterie on the left and of local artisanal cheese at the bottom. Finally, there's a selection beautiful tomatoes from our greenhouse (various cherry tomatoes - mainly Suncherry and Sungold varieties - are in a beautiful white bowl designed by a young Israeli Tal Zur of Studio Trixie), large tomatoes are next to chopped green Siberian chives, all from our garden as well:


Here's Sara taking photos of our cute tomatoes (she's a foodblogger, after all):

See that pale blue enamel pot just behind the charcuterie selection on the photo below? The pot contains a huge pile of delicious breaded and fried turkey steaks in marinade. These were made and brought along by Ragne, and it's a lighter version of this popular Estonian pork dish.


Marinated saffron milkcaps, courtesy of my K's mum:

I baked one of my favourite chantarelle quiches, flavoured with tarragon and paprika (recipe in Estonian):


Other savoury dishes included a wonderful Estonian rye bread and herby home cheese (Tuuli) and a layered smoked ham, egg and cucumber salad (Kätrin).

Sara looks happy with a glass of Estonian bubbly (see note at the end of the post), and our son is helping himself to some of the dishes:


We obviously also had quite a few sweet dishes, though in the midst of the hustle and bustle we forgot to photograph them all :) Heidi, the Tallinn-based American pastry chef, brought along a  passionfruit cheesecake - a perfect balance of acidic fruit and sweet cheesecake. Kirsike made a batch of toffee-covered kama cereal balls (Estonian recipe here), and my friend Liis brought along a proper Estonian kringel (baked by her sweet diplomat husband Kristjan, who couldn't make it to the party himself), and Kätrin made a küpsisetort, a layered Estonian cookie cake (I've posted a recipe for my favourite version here).

Kaare, who drove to the party all the way from Tartu, brought along a very popular curd cheese cake - a shortcrust base, with a raisin and curd cheese topping:
 

Oh, and there was also a bowl of wonderful sweet-yet-tart yellow gooseberries that Triin brought along from Tartu.

Finally, I'd love to say a huge thank you to our drinks sponsors. Coffee was provided by Nami-Nami's long-time supporter Meira, who's also representing Segafredo Zanetti coffees in Estonia. Meira kindly gave us a Segafredo capsule coffee machine for the party (a huge thank you also to our barista Natalie :))

A le Coq sent us a selection of juices (plum nectar, banana-pear nectar and orange juice) and their Organic Beer (the first locally produced organic beer in Estonia)! By the way, the banana-pear nectar has two of Nami-Nami's recipes printed on each carton :):



There was another first-and-only at the party. We enjoyed chilled FEST - the first Estonian sparkling fruit wine, made from local apples. This semisweet apple wine is definitely very squaffable, if you ask me :) A huge thank goes to the producer, Põltsamaa FELIX. Another local drink company - Värska Vesi - had just re-introduced their mineral waters and still and sparkling drinking waters in beautiful glass bottles, and they kindly sent us a box of each.

 

All in all, I hope that Sara and her husband had great time in Estonia and that we managed to make them feel very welcome here.

Saveur's Worldwide list of 55 Great Global Food Blogs

Today's photo: some of Nami-Nami tomatoes, 2011

I'm thrilled to say that Nami-Nami was listed in Saveur's list Worldwide Feast: 55 Great Global Food Blogs. (Thank you, Silja, for pointing this out to me). I'm in a great company - there are some real foodblogging heavyweights listed -  Delicious Days, David Lebovitz, Chocolate and Zucchini, to name just a few. During my 6+ years of foodblogging, I've met several authors of the blogs mentioned - Ximena, Dagmar, Jeanne, Keiko, Pertelote. Most of the other blogs are familiar to me and I follow them regularly, but there are some new ones listed as well that I'm off to check out right now. Definitely a good and honorable company to be in :D

Thank you, dear Saveur, and dear Nami-Nami readers :)

New Höganäs teacups, three Swedish foodbloggers, a great tomato toast recipe

While I'm still a bit exhausted after a day forageing for wild mushrooms in the forests on Saturday (and then cleaning, pickling, salting, frying them until the wee hours of the morning - and yes, of course I will be writing about those gorgeous mushrooms soon), and completing my latest Daring Baker challenge yesterday, I thought I post a photo of my newest kitchen acquisition, 2 lovely Höganäs mugs (above).

You see, last Tuesday I had the pleasure of meeting three lovely Swedish foodbloggers - Dagmar, Anne and Kristina. It was a meeting that should have happened over a year ago, when I was in Stockholm for a wedding, but unfortunately all three girls were out of town back then. However, now we met, and I had great time with them exploring Old Tallinn. We met under the Town Hall Raekoda, headed for a rustic Estonian lunch at Kuldse Notsu Kõrts, then wandered around the cobblestoned streets, before relaxing with a cup of coffee at Chocolats de Pierre. Dagmar and Kristina have written in much more detail about the Tallinn Tuesday here and here - do go and check out the posts and the photos.

And the two Höganäs mugs? Well, Anne, Dagmar and Kristina brought those as a gift to me, to accompany my gorgeous Höganäs teapot. What a thoughtful present, and what wonderfully perfect-sized mugs!



Meanwhile - the bruschetta-lookalikes on the top and above photo are nothing but. They're butter-fried crispy white bread slices with tomato-onion-dill topping, prepared according to a recipe from a very sweet Estonian blogger Krentu. Bread slices are fried slowly and gently in plenty of good butter, and topped with finely chopped sweet onion, ripe tomato and fragrant dill. That's it. That's how a friend of Krentu's late grandmother ate tomatoes during the summer, so the recipe is very old, definitely local and utterly delicious :) Aitäh, Eveli!!!

A delicious weekend with Johanna

A view from the Edinburgh Castle, September 2006

One of the unexpected, joyful and most rewarding 'side-effects' of foodblogging is the number of new friends I've made, not talking about widening my culinary horizons, knowledge about food and recipe repertoire. Johanna of The Passionate Cook is one of these friends. I first met Johanna, who is originally from Austria, at the 'tiny' gathering of foodbloggers in London in March, kindly organised by Andrew. This was followed by Johanna's and Jeanne's blog birthday party in June, where, after a great evening, I was also treated to a fantastic brunch on the patio the following morning. It was then that Johanna told me she had never been to Edinburgh. As I'm soon leaving Scotland, she thought it would be a good idea to pop up before I go.

And so it happened that Johanna was in Edinburgh just over a week ago, and we spent a wonderful food-packed weekend together. In less that 48 hours we managed to have a cuppa at The Elephant House (supposedly the place where J K Rowling wrote the first of her Harry Potter books), drooled over the amazingly decorated chocolates at Plaisir du Chocolat, stopped for another coffee and lemonade at VinCaffè, and had an enjoyable dinner with Melissa at (the fair-trade/free range/organic/local sourcing restaurant) Urban Angel, followed by a visit to the quirky whisky haven, The Canny Man's, in Morningside. On Sunday, we had a brunch at Centotre (their Cenerentola, a fresh fruit drink made with freshly squeezed orange juice, passion fruit & pineapple is my huge favourite), marvelled at the bounty available and had another cup of coffee at the oldest Italian deli (established in 1934) Valvona & Crolla, stocked up on Scottish cheese at Ian Mellis Cheesemonger and checked out the Mexican delights at Lupe Pintos deli. And finally, after having covered many kilometres by foot walking around Edinburgh, we had a most delicious and luxurious meal (and a great value one at that, £12.95 for the 2-course pre-theatre menu) at The Witchery, the restaurant underneath acclaimedly one of the most romantic and decadent hotels out there.

I didn't take any pictures - Johanna had a great camera with a fancy objective, so I kept my wee baby-cam firmly inside my handbag. But do check out the the pictures and read Johanna's post about The Witchery instead. There is, indeed, so much more to Edinburgh & Scotland than deep-fried Mars bars and haggis, neeps and tatties.

Blog birthday party in London

I am back from my trip to Greece, where I had wonderful time with my friends, met some lovely new people, ate delicious food and perfected my tan. Once I sort out my pictures, I'll tell you where do you can enjoy a frappe with the best view, how does the real Santorini fava compare with my version, how does Santorini salad differ from the ubiquous Greek salad, what is tsipouro, what is the most popular fast food in Volos, and so on.

But first things first - before I flew to Greece, I attended Johanna's and Jeanne's blog birthday party chez Johanna in London. It was a great party - the weather was warm and sunny, there were lots of lovely people (some I knew - Johanna, Jeanne, Andrew and Christina, some I met for the first time - Xochitl, Amy, Anna, Shana, June). And of course, there was great finger food, loads of pink cava (Codorníu Pinot Noir rosé cava) and lots of fun with the chocolate fountain:



If you want to read more about the party, then here are links to:

Johanna's post about the party, including the list (and recipes!) of all the fab nibbles on offer. Everything was mouthwaterlingly delicious, with salmon & cream cheese roly-polies, mini-potatoes with wasabi crème fraîche and caviar and croustades with creamed mushrooms and crispy pancetta being my favourites. Oh, and chives. Khmm.

Jeanne's post and recipe for her great - if macho - boerewors, peppadew & haloumi skewers

Andrew's (SpittoonExtra) reflections on the party, post at Slashfood and photos at Flickr of various dishes.

Shana's (Owlfish) post about the party

Xochitl's (Xochitl Cooks) post and a close-up of the chocolate fountain

Thanks for a great party, Johanna & Jeanne!
P xxx

Meeting the London foodies @ Anchor & Hope

Although most foodbloggers write about food - that's why we're called foodbloggers - the posts also give an insight into the person behind the delicious recipes and wonderful photography. I, for sure, feel that I "know" some of the foodbloggers whose writings I read more regularly and frequently, even if I've never met them. Nevertheless, sometimes it's nice to meet the "real" person behind the blog. Living in the same town as Melissa of The Traveler's Lunchbox has meant that I've been priviliged enough to meet her on more than one occasion. Last week in London I had a chance to meet some London-based foodbloggers as well. Andrew of Spittoon Extra had kindly organised a small* meet up at Anchor & Hope - a lovely gastro-pub close to Waterloo & Southwark stations. I was somewhat intimidated about meeting such a large group of London foodies who all knew each other from before, but they turned out to be a lovely and very friendly bunch of people who made me feel very welcome that night:)



Here we are (from left to right): me, Jenni of Pertelote (whose utterly delicious chickpea & tuna salad features on my buffet table regularly), Andrew (who very kindly organised the whole event), Christina of The Thorngrove Table (a new blog to me), Jeanne of somewhat naughtily named Cook Sister! (I've been talking to my South African friends, Jeanne:) and Johanna of The Passionate Cook (whom I've been looking forward to meet since I received her wonderful foodie parcel as part of the EBBP and who this time brought me a bottle of Austrian blackcurrant schnapps!).

Both Andrew and Christina have already written about the delicious offerings at the gastropub, so I won't go into too much detail here. The food was interesting and delicious (you don't often find hare, boar, giblets, lamb's tongue, duck confit etc on the same menu, do you), the atmosphere was very cosy and warm, and both the pub (where we met) and the restaurant (which doesn't take bookings, so turn up early) were very busy all Tuesday night. We drank wine - served in little tumblers - chosen by our resident wine buff Andrew (who blogs about wine over at his other blog, Spittoon), and chose a wide range of dishes from the menu that changes daily. I had roasted Italian greens and spring onions with goat curd toast - a lovely combination of textures and flavours, followed by a really delectable alcohol-infused panna cotta with roasted rhubarb. And of course we spoke about food - among other topics, that is:)

Thank you again Jenni, Jeanne, Christina, Johanna and Andrew for your warm welcome!

I liked the place well enough to actually go back on Saturday night for a quick meal before seeing Resurrection Blues at the Old Vic - a three-minute walk away. This time I had a pork and herb terrine with cornichons, whereas my friend opted for roasted beetroot and lamb tongue salad, with a side dish of potatoes. Most interesting, and we were both very pleased with the meal. No pictures, however, as we were seated at a shared table and I didn't want to scare the other two couples behind the table! (And no, we didn't mind sharing the table, as we were speaking our own little secret Estonian language:)

* Andrew insisted that it's going to be a small casual affair, just him, Jeanne, Johanna and me. However, when Keiko left a comment on my blog that she cannot make it (which was a pity, as I'm a great fan of her Nordljus blog), I knew Andrew was just being cheeky!

Anchor & Hope
36 The Cut
London SE1 8LP
Tel 020 7928 9898 (no bookings though!)