Happy Pills

Man, am I craving some candy from Happy Pills in Barcelona.  Have you heard of this place?

They need to expand.  I love them, their design and their concept.

When I visited Barcelona in September, I went back to Happy Pills twice to make a little take-away box of gummies to enjoy while walking around!  Their concept is adorable-In a tiny storefront, they offer different sized boxes, and jars at the entrance for you to fill with all the gummy, colourful candy that fits in.

Their website creatively states that Happy Pills is a radical solution for a) Lovesickness b) Work Problems c) Friendship Damaged d) Sustained Sexual Effort.  I say, whatever your reason, if you love gummies, there is no better way to enjoy than eating them out of a take away container or a plastic “pill” bottle.

Photo Source: 1, 2, 3, 4 (me), 5, 6

They have four shops in Barcelona, one in Bilbao and one in Zaragoza, should you find yourself needing a candy pick-me up during your travels of Spain.

Here are some other people who seem to be happy with Happy Pills:

1. Kikki.K Candy Happiness

2. We Are Private Happy Pills Candy Store (Barcelona)

3. Mocoloco BCN: Happy Pills

Birthday Cupcake from Agnes

I am back from a rain filled birthday weekend in Copenhagen.  The rain held off on Friday (my birthday), but the rest of the weekend was pretty dreary and wet.  A little rain and cold did not stop us from exploring the city though.  With umbrellas, rain gear, gloves and scarves in tow, we walked all over the place to get a sense of the landscape of the city.

I think our best unintentional find was Agnes Cupcakes, Copenhagen’s answer to the North American cupcake craze.  Agnes Cupcakes was started in 2010 in Copenhagen by founder, Kristian Vangsgaard.  Agnes runs on a calendar system of flavours so everyday, there will be a combination of staple flavours such as Red Velvet, Carrot and Dark Chocolate and specialty flavours such as Liquorice, Caramel, Sicilian Lemon, and Quince-tea.

The interior of Agnes Cupcakes is a combination of glass, marble and wood; a reflection of Scandinavian minimalism meets cupcakes.  I actually thought, their interior reminded me of Karas Cupcakes in San Francisco with its glass, and wood- or maybe I’ve visited too many cupcake shops and they are all starting to blur together.

I really liked the Agnes Cupcakes display case because their cupcakes are quite textured in their frosting and decor and visually looked attractive on display.  Some of their cupcakes are simple like the one I tasted with a swirl of icing and a fondant cutout on top (think Sprinkles). Others, in contrast, are rolled in chocolate curls, toasted coconut, sprinkles or other fun items to bite into.

Take away cupcakes are packaged in beautiful, brown, branded boxes and dine-in cupcakes are served on a ceramic plate/platter that has a groove to hold the cupcake and a groove to hold a beverage.  Or I guess you could say there were two grooves for two cupcakes.

We arrived at Agnes at around 7pm for a pre-dinner birthday cupcake.  There was some promotion going on where you could buy a cupcake and a beverage for a reduced price, so we went with a tea and a carrot cake cupcake with a cream cheese frosting.  The carrot cake was spongy and moist and the cream cheese frosting had the tang I was looking for.  It was not the stiffest or densest cream cheese frosting that I’ve tasted, but its gooier consistency complement the carrot cake nicely.

I am a firm believer that you can’t judge a book by its cover, which is why we returned to Agnes Cupcakes on our last day in Copenhagen and sampled two (more) of their mini cupcake, just to make sure!

We also tested a dark chocolate cupcake that had a superb, rich, (bitter) dark chocolate frosting that was like biting into a truffle and their toasted coconut cupcake which was fun to eat thanks to all the little coconut shavings.

What I’ve learned from travelling and eating in Europe this past year (and from personal baking experience here) is that ingredients vary from country to country and things like flour consistency can really alter an end product.  I would say that Agnes’ Cupcakes were spongy and moist but not dense, in comparison to a cupcake that you may taste in North America.  However the flavours and frostings were all terrific.  This is the real deal in Europe!

Other People Who Are Talking About Agnes Cupcakes:

1. Unlike.net: Agnes Cupcakes

2. Umamimart: Packaging w*&$^) Agnest Cupcakes

3. New City Mums: Agnes Cupcakes

4. Anarka: Agnes Cupcakes

Copenhagen Birthday

Happy birthday to me today!  Yippy!

I am off to Copenhagen this weekend for a little birthday celebration and exploration of all things Danish design related.  I can’t wait.  Will report back next week.

The birthday cake is being postponed until next weekend, where I will be doing a double belated birthday baking extravaganza.

Photo Source: Sweet and Saucy

Have a lovely fall weekend.

La Variete

On the last leg of my honeymoon, I spent three days in Barcelona.  Arriving in Barcelona after spending almost two weeks in small, quaint villages was overwhelming.  Especially because our hotel was adjacent to the touristy, La Rambla.  What a nightmare that strip is- it is a more crowded version of Wenceslas square in Prague but with heavier crowds.  Fortunately, I found out that if you walk away from La Rambla towards the Raval district and the contemporary art museum, you  get an artsy, more low-key environment.

On my walk AWAY from La Ramblas, I found the adorable, corner store, La Variete.  Raquel Muntal, owner (local Barcelonite) of La Variete, fills her small shop with wonderful home and personal items designed locally and made in Thailand.  She manages to use every square inch of that shop and has packed it with cool-affordable priced woven baskets, flip flops, vintage furniture, toys, scarves, pillows and clothing that all have an Asian-minimalist aesthetic.

I picked up two of her cloth wrapped headbands after I snapping my last plastic headband on my trip (she also had bangles).  Something else that also stuck out to me was her small glass bottles that were test-tube-esque (els botilets – see picture 8) with a suction cup that allows you to display flowers on your window and her line of paper bags with Thai writing (cases, wallets, sacs and purses -see picture 9).  Raquel has an online store for her boutique which is great if you don’t have any more room in your suitcase!

Photo Source: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

The blogger behind Cute Suite, (see Cute Suite- La Variete) wrote a wonderful post on La Variete that I would recommend checking out if you are interested in another perspective!  She also has a lot of other terrific resources on local designers in Barcelona and indie shops.

Delicatessen- Marseillan

Marseillan, a sleepy port town in the Languedoc region of France that you have probably never heard of, has a gem of a restaurant called Delicatessen.

Despite the restaurant’s central location beside the church in the town’s main square, Delicatessen is one of those places risks being missed entirely unless:

a) You know that it exists

b) You choose to look the opposite direction of the restaurant and pick up on the fact that there is an eclectic collection of vintage furniture arranged on the cobblestones adjacent to the church (no, it’s not a yard sale).

The vintage furniture belongs to Delicatessen and come meal time, bums fill every single chair, couch and stool.  People in the know are hungry for their simple Marseillan fare of seafood dishes, hamburgers, platters and ode to pork.

I could not quite figure out what drew people to visit Marseillan.  Outside of the fact that it is a small, cute, quiet, fishing/beach town marina, Marseillan has a market, a church, a marina, your basic staple shops (boulangerie, patisserie, pharmacie….) and of course the Noilly Prat & Cie factory, the creators/home of the liquor, vermouth.  Perhaps it is the peace and tranquility that is a draw.  It certainly looked like people were relaxed sitting in cafes looking at the boats pass by.

I was hooked on Marseillan after I had lunch at Delicatessen– This restaurant embodied the essence of cool vintage interior decor, with lots of nik-naks and an incredible, high quality menu to match.  From the wine casually served in Duralex (French made) glasses, old posters, old bottles, old bouillon KUB containers, and lots of little pig things (Delicatessen does a lot of pork dishes).

For lunch we ordered the mussels in pesto and a vegetarian “planche” which came with a chilled soup, salad, a fritatta equivalent, olive tapenade and toasted baguette.  If were in the Marseillan region longer, I would have gone back a second time for dinner to try more items off their menu. Everything coming out of the kitchen looked incredible, particularly their hamburger.

For a feel- I even found a short clip posted on YouTube to help get a sense of the vibe at Delicatessen.  Has anyone been here?  I would love to hear about your experience of this rather obscure, yet trendy secret of a spot. If you haven’t been, next time you are in the Languedoc region… I hope helps make an easy decision of where to stop for a casual lunch (or dinner).

Delicatessen

A Bagel Discovery in Poland

I am back from spending 36 hours in Poland and the trip was both productive and a blast. I tried borscht, perogies and surprisingly found the equivalent of a bagel in a grocery store.  The bagel find was quite significant in my books.

 Photo Source: Simply Recipes

My Bagel Story: On our way back to Prague, we stopped into Carrefour to pick up up some groceries and grab a quick snack.  If you are a consistent reader of Lamb411, you have hopefully caught on to the fact that I have a thing for grocery stores in foreign cities and tend to frequent at least one grocery store per trip.

Now, the last time I set foot in a Carrefour must have been when I was living in China in 2007, so my memory of my in-store experience may be a bit fuzzy.  I would describe my Carrefour experience in Poland as the following:  Imagine that Nestle, Gillette, Proctor and Gamble, Unilever and a couple random Polish brands got together to create a grocery store.  At least 75% of the packaged goods in the store were from multinational CPG brands.  It was like I was in a bizzaro world or something.   I was dumbfounded that the experience of shopping in Carrefour was no different than walking into an American grocery store- well except it was a little more disorganized and disheveled looking when it comes to merchandise- and it had smaller aisles.

In the baked goods section, I select what looks like a series of dinner rolls stuck together in the shape of a flower (six rolls with one in the centre), for my snack.  It was the kind of roll where each ball is a different flavour.  I had zero expectations that this would be remotely satisfying and wait until I am back in the car to dig in.  I tear off a ball and take a bite…

What do I discover?  I swear I had a bagel in my mouth from Toronto’s What a Bagel.  It was soft, doughy, chewy and had poppy seeds.  The taste profile was an identical match to a North American bagel.  It was then after eating another roll that I was convinced the recipe must have come from Poland.

Photo Source: 1 

All this time, I thought bagels were a New York invention, although some Montrealers may argue otherwise.

My curiosity led me to do a quick fact check, (there is even a book on the history of the bagel) and low and behold my suspicions were confirmed.  Bagels came to North America by way of Poland!!  They are a Polish invention.

If I had cream cheese and lox on me I would have turned my flower shaped dinner roll-bagel-in-hiding-snack into a mini brunch in the car.

Happy Thanksgiving (or long weekend) to Canada.  You would be proud, we made a turkey breast for two.  Actually, my husband made the turkey breast and found a neat beer-spiced rubbed recipe, which we will feast on tomorrow night.  Who said you could not combine Canadian and Czech culinary traditions!

Eating in Les Halles to Recalibrate

The most fun thing about travelling has to be relying on markets for a meal.  Don’t get me wrong, I like to dine out in restaurants, but the novelty wares off really quickly especially on a long trip.  At one point during our honeymoon, we were at a restaurant for dinner in Beziers, France and I flat out  protested the meal.  I ordered, I tasted, but I wanted nothing to do with it.  I was done eating.  So stuffed and tired from eating out every meal, all I could think about was being at home and making scrambled eggs or having a bowl of cereal.  I needed to re-calibrate and take a break from long dinners and rich, intense food.  The answer:  Eating at a market.

My most memorable market feast was in Avignon at Les Halles (that is the green looking building the the first collage- gotta love environmentally friendly green walls and real estate!).

When visiting a market you have to strategize, or else you might miss out on something good.  We typically walk the entire thing, allow all the eye candy and food porn to draw us in, and then we figure out what to buy.  Otherwise, if you buy as you go, you end up with a lot of random bags dangling from your arm and you don’t eat half of it.  Often the case is that our eyes are larger than our stomachs, especially in the presence of so much delicious, fresh food.

At Les Halles, we bought a fresh baguette de campagne, two types of cheese (a goat and a blue), muscat grapes, a couple pieces of fruit, an interesting pasta spice mix for later (back at home in Prague) and an apple tart that I could not simply leave without trying.

We took our purchase to the river, sat on a bench and ate with our hands like savages as we were without any form of cutlery, plates or napkins.  It was great!  Well that is not entirely true. After we left the market, I dove into the apple tart.  All that food shopping and strategizing is hard work.

I am off to the Blue Beetroot hotel in Bolesławiec, Poland this afternoon to do a photo shoot on Polish pottery that will be in the second issue of Countlan Magazine.  Wish me luck!! I’ve never been to Poland before.  I hope I find some good perogies this weekend.

If you are Canadian and celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend… Happy Thanksgiving!!  I may attempt a turkey on Monday if I can find one at the butcher.

What are you doing this weekend?

Comments on the blog and on Facebook are always welcomed and answered!!

Sunday Closures + Le Grenache

We spent a few days in Provence while travelling on our honeymoon which overlapped the weekend.  Why am I event spending an ounce of my time talking about the weekend and potentially alluding to how that can be less than enjoyable??

If you have traveled in Europe before, you will know that Sunday’s in Europe are not the best days to travel as most businesses are closed.   On this particular leg of the trip, we were looking for activities to fill our Sunday and found out about an antique market that would be taking place in the town of Carpentras, about 25 km from Avignon, Orange and Cavaillon-if those reference points make sense to you.

The market was centrally located in the city on a stretch of land that looked like a parking lot framed with beautiful trees; not too far from the old synagogue.  We parked the car, and walked up and down the lanes while we explored what junk, treasures, and antiques people brought to sell.  A few items caught my eye.  For example, there was a large wooden wine bottle holder in the shape of an inverted V that I have seen in restaurants before, but it comes up to about shoulder height and was way too big to figure out how to ship back to Prague, let alone accompany us on the rest of our trip.  I also found some old, heavy, metal keys which I didn’t want to lug keys around for another week in my already overweight suitcase, and some porcelain jugs.

However, what we did find in Carpentras was a new wine bar that opened in the city called Le Grenache.  How do we know it was new, if we have never been to Carpentras before?  We had a lovely chat with the owner who gave us his entire history including sharing some interesting stories from his diverse career in education, film and now wine.

We parked ourselves at the bar counter, had some wine from Provence and sat in his air-conditioned space, while we watched his wife prepare big plates of cheese and charcuterie for guests who braved the heat on the patio.

What I liked about Le Grenache was the owner’s wine wall, which was was aesthetically quite impressive, all neatly organized by colour and hue as well as his photography on the walls by photographer, Nicolas Bertrand (another item I would have purchased if I could have figured out how to get it home or shipped from Provence to Prague).

I guess drinking wine is a fun activity as any to pass a Sunday in Provence.