VANILLA LATTE is a blog dedicated to food & travel with occasional random stuff thrown in. It is managed and written by me, Maggie Ha.
Mmmm Barcelona. I think I ate the whole city. This was my second visit to Barcelona, I had a done a weekend trip there back in college when I studied abroad in London. This time, there was much more eating and way less drinking. I had my list of must-visit and must-eat’s and even though we didn’t get through the entire thing, we did some serious fooding.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am officially back! After the craziness of moving from Sydney to New York, I am finally settled in. Well as settled as I can be, I am no longer sitting on a cardboard box and my fridge has more than just a bottle of water. Although, I am still missing my cooking toys that are now somewhere in the ocean between Los Angeles and Sydney. Hopefully they’ll make it here before the holidays!
New York has been amazing so far – I eat and eat and eat. Our first week was mainly filled with pizza, bagels and occasionally a cupcake here or there. We have been ordering food or eating out every night. Needless to say, I cannot wait to cook my first meal! This past week started off with a 4 hour expedition at Bloomingdale’s kitchen department. That was followed by a couple hours at Williams-Sonoma. Then somewhere along the way I found myself downtown at Sur La Table. Even when I was book shopping, I came across a copy of the first English edition of Larousse Gastronomique, food is everywhere I turn! So what if I don’t have a bed, dresser, desk or chair…. I have a kitchen! Stay tuned for some culinary experiments from my new home in New York!
Dear beloved readers,
First I’d like to say, I sincerely apologize for the recent lag of posts. Second, I have BIG big big big news! I have been running around like a crazy person the past few weeks because, drum roll please, we’re moving to New York! Ahhh!!! It’s taken me a little while to make the announcement but I’ve been really swamped. We had a short but lovely snow holiday in New Zealand where we ate, drank and snowboarded ourselves silly. Then came back to Sydney where I spent this last week putting most of my possessions (including my cooking toys) on sale and arranging for the big move. Whew! I’m exhausted just recapping all of that.
I’m ecstatic about the move even though I’m incredibly stressed about it. We only have 3 more weeks in Sydney before we start our journey home. As of this week I will have no cookery so my culinary experiments will be on hiatus until I get settled in my new home in the Big Apple. Until then, I plan to post some of my last-time Sydney food adventures, some of my long awaited fast food runs while stopping through LA and I might even have some guest bloggers lined up! So stay tuned and happy eating!
I was really excited about my 100th post, so much so that I made alfajores to celebrate. I have been meaning to makes these for quite some time. I’ve always wanted to try Matt of mattbites.com‘s version because his photos look so scrumptious I want to eat the screen! But of course I can’t find store bought dulce de leche here so I had to make my own. I did it the cheater way 
simmering a can of sweetened condensed milk submerged in water for an hour and 45 minutes gives you delicious dulce de leche. I’ve always wanted to try that method! Sure the can could explode and I could possibly suffer burns but that’s the fun right? Okay to be honest I was scared the whole time. But the key is to keep the can completely submerged so it doesn’t explode. I used the biggest pot I could find and filled the entire thing with water… just in case!
So Alfajores… a delicious latin treat with two biscuits and dulce de leche in the middle. And then of course powdered sugar on top! I actually really liked the biscuit by itself with just a little sprinkle of powdered sugar. They’re a little cakey and not your usual cookie crunch. Almsot like a little pancake… in fact the house smelled like pancakes the whole time. Mmm I’m going to have another one now.
Another film about cooking? This one is a documentary about high school kids in Philly trying to get a scholarship to college… culinary college that is. And a teacher that’s incredibly intimidating (see trailer below!) but somehow through her unconventional teaching methods, inspires these kids to go for their goal. It’s out in the US in some places, but I have no idea how long it will take for it to come out here in Sydney!
I’ve mentioned sriracha before. What I haven’t mentioned is that the factory is near my hometown and every time I drove by I can smell the garlicy chili sauce through the car vents. MMMMM Most people think this sauce is Asian – Vietnamese or Chinese usually. Well, technically it’s American. From San Gabriel to be exact. The NY Times wrote an article about it… I gotta say, I’m so proud that it’s made from my hometown.
It’s a great read. Go to the article here.
Image from Robert Yager for The New York Times
It’s been a while since I’ve mentioned Anthony Bourdain. I absolutely love him even though he hates my kind … the vegetarian kind that is. I find his humor insultingly hysterical and man this guy loves his pork! Anyway, these lunch bags are hilarious. The artist, Sam Morrison, has other funny ones like “his and her” lunch bags and Dharma Initiative ones – any Lost fans out there? You can buy some here and view more of his work here.
A movie about food, about cooking, about blogging … WOOHOO! I can’t wait! I’m sure it’ll be at least a year before I can see it in Australia but perhaps my next trip home will fall around the same time it’s in theaters. In the meantime, I think I’ll be cooking something French real soon. Yay!
Oh and coincidentally I came across this quote:
“I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate.” – Julia Child
Wow I was so excited last night when I was featured on the homepage of Foodbuzz again! This time for my enchiladas recipe in the Top 9 section. I started out at #5 – at least when I first saw my recipe there – but then buzzes came in and I made my way to #1!Woohoo! Thanks to everyone that buzzed me! Your support is very much appreciated and I hope I can continue making things that you all like. Thanks for the support!!
So instead of buying some very drooled after Bose headphones that I’ve been eying for months, we somehow walk away from the mall with my first global knife and a new stainless steel saucepan. We spent a little more than what we would have for headphones but boy was it worth it! I’m still a bit scared of using the knife because it’s SO SHARP!!! I’m taking baby steps, we only bought the 14cm vegetable knife. Thanks Vini for my lovely cooking tools! Yay for gifts!
My local favorite is currently Ground Support in SOHO. I go there almost every day for a smooth creamy soy cappuccino or if it’s hot out an iced soy latte. When I’m not in a hurry to run out, I try to take a few extra minutes to enjoy the coffee in the shop… you know, chat with the staff, catch up on some calls and best of all… people watch. Always some interesting characters in NYC!
