Eat Local Soup: Polevkarna

When I first moved to Prague, I was on the look out for cute cafes where I could grab a bit to eat, read a book, sip tea, or meet friends for lunch.  In my opinion, what makes a good city or community are loads of these types of places.  These cafes and small stores are what adds vibrancy to an area and encourages a social aspect of a district.

One of the first places I made a mental note to go and try was Polevkarna, an adorable soup cafe in my neighbourhood (yay for Prague 8).  I was first attracted to their cute storefront with its big glass windows adorned with loopy, white cursive writing.  I thought to myself, this creative looking-out-of-the-box-for-Prague-place must be good if it looks like some time, thought and effort went into the cafe’s branding, interior and food.   Likewise, I was excited to give Polevkarna a try because a) they serve one of my favourite foods , soup, (typically six flavours a day), but also offer nice sandwiches, a selection of sweets and to-go grain salads AND it was non-smoking.  My first visit to Polevkarna was with two friends who were in visiting from Toronto.  I tried a vegetarian Moroccan tomato based soup with curry, lentils and chickpeas.  Very tasty.  I returned a second time, solo, with my Bon Appetit magazine in hand and had a mushroom and walnut soup that was thick and a bit on the salty side.  The good thing about Polevkarna is that they rotate flavours and typically carry three meat and three veg options.  You can expect to find soup flavours such as carrot and ginger, beef borscht, tomato and basil, and chicken and tarragon.

If you haven’t checked this place out, or are passing through Prague and are looking for a lunch place, during the week (open 8am-6pm M-F) outside of the tourist centre, and appreciate a little gigham on the walls, bay window seating with cushions and lovely ceramic soup bowls, I’ve found your place.

design friendly jam

I spent most of the day preparing a Power Point deck for my lecture tomorrow and funny enough, I got an idea for my blog post as a result of my research for class.  I am big fan of the package blogs, The Dieline and Lovely Package and have featured product designs from both sites, on my blog over the past couple of years.  Today, I was hunting down examples to illustrate the concept of positioning in marketing and decided to focus on jam brands.

What I learned is that jam is a tricky item to position and requires extra creativity to carve out a niche in the mind of the consumer.  I think at one point in time, positioning jam based on a comparison such as, made with 100% fruit and no sugar added versus the alternative (less than 100% real fruit with additives) used to be a differentiating factor for a new entrant.  A company could enter the market with a new jam and have a home in the customer’s mind with its 100% fruit product.   However, after digging around for examples, I discovered a lot of  jams were 100% fruit with no sugar added, which crossed out that idea for positioning.  So I had to come up with another set of criteria.  Chunks versus no chunks? Organic versus non-organic?  I decided to use design as a position, why not? I blog about it anyway.

Here is a round of my design friendly jam that I am sure tastes good (as it is 100% fruit, no sugar added) but looks fantastic due to the talented package designers behind the label.

1. Fruita Blanch from Spain- These guys are so popular from a design perspective they have their own stationery and font.  I wonder what the price tag is on a jar of their jam?

via dtail.com

via lovely stationery

via carrieanndesign

2. SuperJam from Scotland- Simple packaging, bold font and bright colours stand out.

via inspiring young people

3. Uten- Norway – Natural and homemade looking and a reusable jar with a label attached with a string so you can make your own once you’ve finished theirs. Cool angle.

via lovely package

via packaging of the world

4. We Love Jam from California- Minimalist jam.  Love it!!

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via daily candy

Homemade Granola + Weekend Roundup

It’s Monday! Where did the weekend go?  I just returned from teaching my marketing strategy class and was famished as usual after talking for two and a half hours, so I decided to make myself a vegetarian pasta lunch from scratch.  I can’t remember if I have ever taken the time to cook myself a “meal,” beyond a salad, soup or sandwich, for lunch.  Odd, lunch seems to have evolved into this meal in passing, during the week, where cooking and sitting down to eat lunch is more of an exception than a rule.

This past weekend was quite busy with lots of socializing.  Fortunately I had time to make my weekly batch of homemade granola that is a staple in our house.  Granola is one of my go-to breakfast/brunch staples and after reading and getting turned off from too many granola labels from store bought items, I was motivated to learn how to make a healthier version for my house.  I typically make a batch every 10 days depending on who is around and what we are doing and store it in a big Ikea jar.

I can’t tell you how easy it is to make granola if you’ve never tried.  My recipe is a combination of two recipes, plus room for creativity and flavour variation.  The first (it’s been a while), I believe came from a Toronto Star recipe about making your own granola without using oil (often used in store bought products).  Next, I later modified it to include quinoa, after testing out a recipe from the Quinoa 365 cookbook.

So far my recipe is as follow- Heat oven to 35oF or 180C (Europe)- if you want bake it slower I’ve also done this recipe at 325F.  Depends on how hot your oven is.

In a metal bowl, mix:

3 cups of oats (you can scale the recipe depending on how many batches/how much you need)

1 cup of uncooked quinoa

1/2 cup of slivered almonds, 1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds, 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds (out of shell)

1/4 cup of wheat germ, 1/4 group flax seed (called Lindseed in Europe) (for protein, nutrients and fiber!)

2 tsp of cinnamon and 1 tsp of nutmeg (omit if you don’t like nutmeg)

Then add 1 cup of honey and 1/2 or 1 cup of maple syrup to the dry goods and mix everything together.  Again you can alter the quantity of liquids (honey/maple syrup) but the point is that the dry goods should be covered, not soaking wet and drowning.  This is what helps bind the dry goods together while cooking, so once you’ve given everything a good mix, if it looks too dry, add more of something (honey or maple syrup) until you are satisfied that everything has been coated.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spoon out your granola mix on the sheet, pressing the mixture down in order to spread it out right to the edges of the pan.  If there is too much granola on the baking sheet, it may make more sense to split it into two batches.  I find a thinner layer of granola cooks more evenly and prevents burning, rather than piling the entire batch on one. (Up to you of course!)

Set the timer for 15 minutes to start.  At the 15 min mark, it is worth taking the granola out of the oven, mixing it around (especially the edges which will burn first if you don’t watch it), re-patting everything down and then putting it back in for another 10 minutes or so.  When the granola is golden brown it is time to take it out.  Let it cool either on the pan, or by pouring it back into the metal bowl. Once completely cooled, you can add any chopped dried fruit or other items such as cacao nibs or dark chocolate to the mix.  Store in an air-tight container and enjoy on top of yogurt, with milk or sprinkled on gelato.

Outside of my granola making efforts, I wanted to share a couple more tabs that I’ve left open all weekend in hopes of sharing with you these ideas that made me smile:

1. For our Sunday morning breakfast, my fiance made us Joy the Baker’s Smashed Raspberry, Chocolate Chunk Pancakes– quick thoughts- interesting recipe, uses very small amounts of brown sugar instead of white sugar.  We both thought the pancakes had a bit more of an elastic texture but still delicious and worth trying.

2.  I decided, this year I want to learn more about the science of cooking and just ordered myself a cookbook that I read about on Heidi’s recommended book list (101 Cookbooks) titled Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking.

3. Three new Berlin sites that will provide me with endless hours of reading on where to eat and shop when I visit the end of this month: Exberliner (not sure how I missed this one!), Uberlin’s food and drink section, and Cafe Kultur Berlin that sadly looks to be done updating its content but still has some terrific recommendations.

4. Design Seeds, for all you colour palette, inspiration board fanatics- this will be your new bf.

5. Raspberri Cupcake’s Salted Caramel Apple with Popcorn recipe (I’m dreaming of this for my wedding)

6. Finally, Call Me Cupcake‘s amazing, self-produced s’mores cupcake video.

polka dots and spots meet art

I am excited for the weekend as I have a couple fun things planned.  First off, I think I am going to try baking Smitten Kitchen’s Apple Sharlotka for dessert. Second, I learn to ski and take a lesson!  One of the goals I set in Prague was to learn how to ski.  I haven’t been on skis since I was six years old.  Since Prague is central to so many mountain ranges (in driving distance), I wanted to re-learn how to ski to make the most of my winters in Europe.  There are a few mountains in the Czech Republic and we thought about checking out Spindleruv on Saturday for the day.  Lastly, a visit to the David LaChapelle exhibit at the Rudolfinum in Prague until February. I know if I don’t make a plan to go the exhibit will be long gone before I get there.

Speaking of art, to sign off with something fun for your Friday, I put together the work of two different artists who have both done magnificent things with polka dots:  Damien Hirst, the British artist and Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese artist.

The first set, is of my favourite painting by Damien Hirst, a picture titled “LSD.” The first shot is actually a play on Damien Hirst’s LSD painting by the famous, British street artist, Banksy. If you don’t know who Banksy is, watch the documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop and you’ll be up to date!

via hypebeast

via geeks on the inside

Next up, a really cool exhibit titled “Look Now, See Forever” that is taking place at the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art on now until March 2012 by Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama. In the pictures below, you’ll see the immersive room Kusama created for kids, called “World of Dots.”

via creative inspiration

via gewoon chic

via gewoon chic

via creative inspiration

via creative inspiration

Cuisine de Bar by Poilane

For those of you who drool over the aroma and thought of freshly baked bread, which would be most of us, unless you are gluten free, you’ll be excited to read that Poilane, a family run bakery in Paris recently opened a new cafe/bakery/restaurant called Cuisine de Bar by Poilane in Sloane Square in London.

The history of this bakery dates back to 1932 when a young baker from Normandy came to Paris to open a shop. The baker, Lionel Poilane, known for his sourdough bread, achieved success with his breads and even received request for bread from artist, Salvador Dali, who created a house out of bread for him to test if he had mice.  Today, Poilane is still family run and has three locations in Paris and two in London (Cuisine de Bar as the newest edition).

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll recall this is not the first time I’ve mentioned Poilane.  A couple years ago, I wrote about the bakery’s other famous product, their punition cookies , the cookie beloved by home bakers, foodies and Francophiles all over the blogsphere (here, here, and here), that gained a lot of traction after Dorie Greenspan published a recipe for punitions in her book titled, Paris Sweets.

While I am not in London to taste treats from Poilane’s new outpost, lucky me, my fiance will be heading to London in a couple weeks and I am going to send him to test and report back. That’s what I call team work at its finest.

via hautecompass

Adriano Zumbo

There is nothing I like more is a renegade pastry chef with a strong aesthetic and fearless attitude toward pushing the boundaries of flavour combinations and tastes. Enter Adriano Zumbo, the Australian native who studied locally and in France honing his sugar obsession into beautiful things.  He is probably best known for his macaron and offers sensational flavours such as coconut, green chili and lavender, lychee, passion fruit and tonka bean and salted butter caramel.   On the more daring side, he did a pig’s blood and chocolate macaron.

After participating on Master Chef in Austrialia, Zumbo has become a household name beyond his start in Balmain (a suburb of Sydney).  Now the owner of four locations, The Star, Patisserie Balmain, Patisserie Manly, and Cafe Rozelle, Adriano is patissiere-entrepreneur to the max.  He has even branded his macarons calling them Zumbarons, a smart tactic to get customers to keep him top of mind.  If you can’t make it to Sydney to check him out, Adriano recently published a book, dedicated to his world of sugar, titled, Zumbo; I would highly recommend it- however the recipes don’t look easy.

via perth now

via time out sydney

via crunchy tiger

via chocolate suze

via ke zu

via kezu

via ooh look

Qkies + Cookies

For my birthday, my mother bought me a subscription to one of my favourite food magazines, Bon Appetit, and had it sent to Prague.  I just got my first copy two weeks ago and decided to try out their Almond-Cranberry Quinoa cookie recipe in the January 2012 issue.

a little of this

to make these

small taste test

While the recipe was only so-so, not enough flavour (a tad bland) and crunch for my taste, I wanted to post about a funny cookie idea that I read about on The Urban Grocer and Springwise called, Qkies. Qkies is a company based in Germany that was created by Juchem Gruppe and DFKI, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (not your typical baker combination) and makes QR code cookies.

In this new level of technology-meets-cookie, customers can order a box of Qkie mix, bake it in their own kitchen and apply the edible QR codes that come programmed to the website of their choice, which can then be scanned by the end “eaters” by using a smartphone.  The educational video on the Qkies website shows a girl using the Qkies as invitations to a big party she is hosting.  Unique? Yes.  Quite the unique way to invite guests? Absolutely! Now, do I think I would feel a bit funny and uncomfortable “eating” technology like that?  Yes.  While I am sure it is safe to eat, there is something about the idea of eating a barcode that turns me off.  That being said, is eating royal icing dyed with food colouring any better system? In my ideal world, I would like to think so.  What will a little red and yellow dye do to you?

via iurban

via cnet

via trendhunter

Something like Byrd’s, seems much more appealing to me.  A one pound cookie jar of homemade cookies.  Just like the convenience of Qkies, you can even order cookies online from Gilt Taste.

via nic108

$315,000 Wedding Cake: Black Swan Bakery

Hold the presses.  Here I was, all eager to write a post about the delicious pumpkin chocolate chip bread I baked over the weekend with photos and my recipe to start off my Monday.  My idea and intention has just been interrupted and derailed by a story I just read about a bakery in Beijing called Black Swan Luxury （黑天鹅蛋糕） that sells a wedding cake for $315,000 USD.  My chocolate chip pumpkin bread can wait for later this week.  Doing some basic calculations here, let’s estimate you have a 300 person wedding, that means you would have paid approximately $1,050 per slice of wedding cake.  Last time I checked, wedding cakes ranged in the $7-$15 per slice category for something half decent.  The cake in question from Black Swan Luxury is 70-80 times the price.  Yikes! I wonder how many of these cakes they are selling.  I guess it doesn’t really matter because if they sell more than one, it has generated some significant revenue for the company.

Where did I come by this outrageously priced wedding cake, you ask?  I am a regular reader of the Business of Fashion, a site that specializes in curating a collection of business news articles and interviews about the fashion and luxury goods industries around the world.  Having lived in China and having written my thesis on the Asia luxury goods industry, when I saw the article titled “Chinese are up to speed with life in the fast lane,” published by the LA Times, it caught my attention and I decided to give it a read.  Did I know that one paragraph three quarters of the way down the page would have me nearly falling out of my seat.  Black Swan Luxury is part of the bakery group, Holiland 好利来. Ironically, Holiland’s website, translated in English, means buy cake (买蛋糕)- smart if you are asking people to spend a small fortune for a cake that typically doesn’t even get cut.

While the cake is not my taste, I’m sure Black Swan Luxury will have some eager brides and grooms clamouring for a slice of luxury.  I even found a YouTube video filmed by a customer who shows you a clip of the cake in the window and the wedding consultation area on the second floor.  Happy Monday!

via Rich Times

via Friend Feed