the best of aromasysabores 2009 - lo mejor de aromasysabores 2009

Yes my dearest readers and friends 2009 is over. And to say so-long/farewel/aufwiedersehen/muchogusto/hastalavistababy to this awesome year (at least it was awesome to me) what 's best than doing it remembering with aromasysabores' best recipes?. Please enjoy!.

Salty aromas

Super easy, delicious and healthy!: Simple Soft Boiled Egg Salad/Sencilla Ensalada de Huevo tibio





Healthy and tasty, you cannot ask for more: Quinoa risotto with asparagus and peas/Quinoa con asparragos y chicharos.





For lazy days: No fuzz salad




Couscous Salad/Ensalada de Couscous

One of my favorite gustative discoveries this year was raw pumpkin; just like this one: Pumpkin and butternut squash salad/Ensalada de Calabaza





These recipes can save your life when you have to entertain at home: gazpacho , hummus, Greens Pesto/Pesto de hojas verdes or Broad bean dip/Dip de habas


An instant hit on this blog: Tessa Kiro's Sole Bundles with Spinach/ Rollitos de lenguado con espinacas





Sweet sabores

Two of my favorite ingredients ever: orange and vanilla. One pound cake. One damn good pound cake Orange and Vanilla Pound Cake / Panque de Naranja y Vainilla




One all time favorite of you my dear readers is this recipe: Nutella Alfajores/Alfajores de Nutella




I noticed I had shared very few Mexican recipes with you. Something I will fix on 2010. Here's my favorite Mexican recipe (and by far): Sweet Corn Cake/Pastel de elote (choclo)




A recipe of my French Pastry Chef husband!. The only one he have shared with us here on aromaysabores (another thing we need to change for 2010; more contributions from Chef Monges) Cherry Clafoutis/Clafoutis de Cerezas




My Mom's recipe; a traditional flan with booze; Mexican booze: Flan with Tequila/Flan al Tequila

Perfect for breakfast, lunch or brunch: Banana pancakes/Panqueques de Banano (platano)

Pierre Herme's namesake desserts gets a makeover: Ispahan Popsicle/Paletas de hielo Ispahan




More a healthy detoxifying beverage than a dessert but since it taste so good you might have it instead of dessert:Pinneaple juice with celery and parsley/Licuado de pina con apio y perejil

Less than 5 minutes to prepare it. 5 minutes:mango-coconut-guava smoothie

Happy Holidays

I hope you enjoy these holidays with your loved ones.
Yes, please, enjoy them. Hug them. Love them
I hope your celebrations will be full of Joy, Hapiness,
plenty of good food,
and plenty of aromasysabores .


xoxo

h

please don't hate me [our weekend in pictures]

Last Saturday, our dear friend Jason came for what was supposed to be a quick visit. We went for a very long Chinese lunch here, were we ordered like 20 dishes for just the 3 of us (well, it was more like 2.5 of us, since hubbie was on and off the table most of the time...and, no, I'm not complaining).

After dim sum, beijing duck, hot cha and a even hotter conversation (we needed to catch on Mr. Licker sweet life) my love took us on a wonderful private tour at the Hotel.

It was a short tour (but we covered the most important parts of the Hotel, you will see) since Regis was really busy (100% occupancy!) but it was a tour I truly enjoyed since it allowed me to check my husband's workplace and feel so proud of him.

So with no further blah blah blah, I'll share with you -our weekend in pictures-

Aren't these the coolest rocking Santas' ever?. I SO want to eat them. all of them. (and the man who created them too...ahem.)

Grand Club

and just a sneak peak on Mezza9

oh, and my favorite part of the tour; the Pastry Kitchen:

lovely wedding cakes..

to check the rest of the pictures check my flickr

My dear Macau

Dear Macau,

Today is a very important day for you.

Is your 10th anniversary of let's say your segundo aire.

So, please receive a big *virtual hug* from aromasysabores, Regis and me.

We heart Macau.

We love Ou Mun.




We love your tiny little streets,your excellent food, your little mountains, your Fort, your restaurants, your temples and churches sprinkled and hidden all around.

But most of all, we love your people. Your wonderful mix of local Chinese, Portuguese, Macanase and mainland Chinese is just amazing. Unique.

Congratulations.

it's all in the details and almost a Restaurant Review

Yes, think about this phrase: it's all in the details. I think in life it's all about them; the little simple things that make your life different, brighter, better.

Like that yellow post-it you leave to you husband on the mirror that says: I love you!, when you're about to leave home for a couple of days. Or like when your Dad wakes up every morning, just to prepare a hot cup of your Mom's favorite coffee/tea and say to her: buenos dias mi vida. (sweet).

Or like when your husband prepares Sunday breakfast consisting in homemade pancakes with maple syrup and jam for some noisy almost unbearable creatures; sorry, I meant: children; while he lets you sleep for another 10 minutes.

It's all in the details.

That's love.

Love to your partner, your family, your work.

I love to witness that specially in a restaurant.

Nowadays, everybody opens a Restaurant because a) poor darlings, they believe is easy and everyone can manage a business like that (so wrong) b) they want to make money fast (ha!...lol) c) people tell them they cook so good (well, it's easy to cook for 2 or 5. Even 10. Try to cook well for 150. Every time. Trust me; is not a piece of cake!).

That's why I love when I found little gems where everything shouts love and care.

I think I found a new gem in Shanghai (and I know I'm running a big risk here since I just went once to that place, and as a personal policy I try not to write about a place unless I have had a remarkable experience several times).

But this little place is cozy. Is full with nice well cared details. You can see it even in the intricate roof which follows the same pattern than the Restaurant's logo (yeah!), the flower arrangements, the decoration, the menu. Even in the beautiful matchsticks box; and boy! I have a thing for restaurant matchsticks. I kind of collect them (and that is embarrassing; to publicly confess it, I know!). These matchsticks now are competing with Glamour Bar's pack as the cutest ones in Shanghai (well, at least according to me).

Well, back to the food, since that's what we all care about right?. Well, food was good, very good, but I must confessed nothing extraordinaire; nothing out of this world. But hey, it's a Turkish restaurant, and when you go to a Turkish restaurant you're not expecting a 3 macaroon Michelin meal. don't ya?.

So summarizing about food, it was as good as typical Turkish or Middle Eastern food can be. We had traditional things like hummus, salad, lamb croquettes, zucchini cakes, tabbouleh, and a dessert I cannot remember what it was (something like a cross between a jelly-ish crema catalana but with a cajeta-goat milk jam flavor. Very, very good). Update: the name of my new love is kazandibi, and I have been tasting a few recipes and once I master it, I will share it with you.

As you can see we could not refuse to order also hot tea and Turkish coffee. I had the tea; and my friends ordered the coffee which smelled heavenly; like strong fresh brewed coffee. (One of my friends also reads the coffee!. But I strongly refuse to hear about my future.)

I will not fully recommend this restaurant for the reasons I told you before. And maybe I will need to go back again and make a better judgment on the place, because I might have had too many glasses of red wine that day. {just saying}

And yes, there are few things they still need to polish, and service is very *Chinese* style (hey, hellooouuu! You're in China) and servers are still novice (but very friendly).

But I can tell you this. The place has potential.

It's all in the details.


Pasha Restaurant
262 Nanchang Lu, near Ruijin Er Lu
南昌路262号，
近瑞金二路
Tel: 6473 8113

We went for lunch but we decided to order a la carte; however I saw good set lunches for around 70RMB.

Yes, yes, yes. I know. A recipe.
wait, actually is too late and I need to get some sleep.

Come back tomorrow, who knows. I might upload a recipe.

home

You know that saying: home is where the heart is; right?
and you agree with it, right?
well, me too.

I had a great time in Shanghai (more on that later) but I must admit I am happy to be home;
where I belong now,
with my wonderful husband and my lovely tiny Macau.

But I have a confession to make.
I did not missed my cozy little flat that much either.

My friend L welcomed me at her villa in Hongqiao; where she and her wonderful family made me feel en casa/at home; en familia/with family.

Once a very successful architect, she decided to follow her instinct and heart and she married to a Belgian guy. Several years and two daughters later they are continuing their expat adventure in Shanghai; where we've meet.

She's a very talented and gifted person with an eye for finding beautiful things and putting them together with no effort at all and create and ambiance. No, is not just that. She creates an hogar/home; either in Santiago, Caracas, Athens or Shanghai.

Today she devotes her time to her family and to her true passion: jewelery making

And that's not all. She's a very good friend. A honest friend. The kind of friend that tells you when a dress does not suit you that much (even if you love that dress) but instead suggest you another outfit with the best color scheme for your skin tone.

But she's also a loving and caring person when you need that too.

One day while I was still living in Shanghai I sent an email to correo de latinas (a private network of latinas) asking them where to buy a buenobonitoybarato/cheapandchic qipao. As a very good friend she is and with that sixth sense that only Mothers have; she called me and ask what was the occasion for the qipao dress. I told her something like:

-It's for my wedding. I just decided I want to wear a red qipao dress that day.

She said something like this:

-Well, my darling; in that case. I'll come with you. There's no way in this world that you're going ALONE to choose your wedding dress. This is a very special moment in your life, and if your Mother and sisters cannot be here with you to do it. I will.

And she did. She left husband and daughter on a Sunday afternoon to come with me to Lujiabang fabric market. She patiently went with me to each and every single store of the 3 floors building until I found the right dress.

Now my darlings; I don't know you, but I think that's the kind of friend I want in my life forever.

How about you?

ps. Gracias L. prometo regresar :-)

*correo de latinas es una red privada de ayuda de mujeres de habla hispana viviendo en Shanghai. Si vives alla y no lo conoces escribeme un correo ( heidileonmx at gmail punto com) y te contactare con las administradoras del grupo. No abierto a negocios, empresas u hombres. Mucho menos Spam or scam. Es un grupo femenino privado de ayuda mutua, y ese es su genuino espiritu; ayudanos a mantenerlo de esa manera.

almost home

My darlings, in few hours I will be here:

My former home. My Greater China first love. The pearl of Asia. The Paris of the Orient. My Shanghai.

To be honest it wasn't love at first sight (hmmm.. that's another story) but it was love at the end. And to be honest (again), I'm quite excited to go back after 6 months we left her. Yes, my darlings, there is no doubt in this world that Shanghai is a naughty sexy girl.

Most important,I want to see how she's behaving without me and how she's preparing for Expo 2010. (I'm sure she's pretty well comme d'habitude)

I'm not even there, and I'm already daydreaming with never ending lunches shared with beloved friends, long (or short, that will depend on weather) walks at the ex-French Concession, great massages (oh I so need one!), cheap mani&pedi (you really don't want to know about the look of my hands...really), wonderful Sunday brunches. Oh, and shopping.

Lots of shopping.
Lots of fun.
Then shopping again, until my feet hurt and my pocket is empty :(
And after that a hot chocolate at one of the hundreds of cute little coffees in taikang lu.

But no blog, or facebook or twitter; they all are blocked (thankyouverymuch GFW)
.....probably that's a good thing too.

Probably not.

Anyways, I'll be back next week.

Oh, and so sorry but no recipe this time.

chaosito babies.

*psst, picture number one is unfocused Bund/Waitan at night