It’s often the case for me, and maybe for many people too, that I would ignore what’s close to me. I have written so many things about other cities I visit, other cultures, but rarely about those where I actually lived, or live. But since moving to Bologna, a city rich in food cultures and delicious goods, it’s about time I start to write about the place where I live in.

And luckily, I was invited by my friend’s granny to join her and her family for lunch in their country house outside Modena.



Emilia-Romagna is a region in central-North of Italy, where food is probably one of the first words people associate this place with. It was the birth place of raw Parma ham, Parmegiano Reggiano, aceto balsamico, and the lovely knotted ravioli called ‘tortellini’ and ‘tortelloni’

Plus, the gelato in this town is just divined.

Simply said, people who travel to this region, their main reason is probably to eat, just like me.

So, where else would be a better place to learn about how the Bolognese people eat, if not at a lovely grandma’s house where she makes her own fresh pasta almost every weekend, and ferment her own balsamic vineger in the attic room?





It was a warm and sunny summer morning when my friend Giulia picked me up from the train station in Modena and drove me out into the countryside. When we got there, her grandma already made quite a lot of tortelloni, but of course I was there to learn so we made some more together. Starting of with making the egg pasta dough by mixing just plain flour with eggs, 100g. flour per egg. She rolled the dough out thinly in two different ways, using the metre-long rolling pin in a traditional way, and an electronic pasta machine which saved much more time and work. Then I had a go at folding the lovely tortelloni knot, filled with ricotta, spinach and parmesan.



After the pasta-making session, we tried some homemade aceto balsamico and Giulia showed me the attic room where the vinegar was produced by her dad. As we entered the room filled with small wooden barrels, the sweet and sour smell hit my nose. She explained the the balsamic had to be done in the attic because it required the extreme temperature, cold winter and hot summer.

This balsamic was so good that you can simply eat it on bread, parmesan, ricotta or even gelato.

Yes, balamic-drizzled gelato had become my new favourite.

We had a walk around the garden in the hot midday sun. Almost-ripe red cherries and amarena (sour cherries) were hanging from the trees. Their land was full of fruit trees, peaches, plums, apricots, persimmons, watermelons, and also many other vegetables, and a small vineyard (where they harvest the grapes for the balsamico) It was just like my countryside dream life.

This was my ‘stereotypical Italian life’ preconception I had, and would probably continue to have.



Back in the kitchen, her grandma was preparing some bread for later. There are several types of interesting bread in this regions. Piadina, a flatbread made traditionally with lard and stuffed with different filling like sandwich is one of the most popular. Tigella, a small but thicker bread, grilled using a special pan that leaves flower pattern on the surface of the bread, is also eaten stuffed with cold cuts, cheese or grilled vegetables like a mini sandwich. What the granny was making from scratch, though, was a fried bread called ‘gnocco fritto’ A thin slice of dough, deep-fried in hot oil until puffy and golden-brown. I didn’t expect to like it very much since deep-fried stuff, especially on a hot day like this, is nor really my think. However, spreading fresh ricotta and topped with homemade sour cherry jam before folding it in hald, that first bite screamed ‘more! more!’



So I fell in love, with ricotta, balsamic vinegar and cherry jam.

Lunch composed of fresh salad from the garden, ricotta and spinach tortelloni with sage butter, tigella and gnocco fritto with cheese, cold cuts and grilled vegetables. Of course, the meal ended with gelato, and a shot of homemade limoncello with the lemons from their garden.



It didn’t surprise me that the concept of slow food was born in Italy. People are still living this lifestyle now, in a very genuine and non-pretentious way.

I was well-fed and stuffed until dinner. Her grandma gave me a big bag of fresh tagliatelle we made this morning, and invited me to come back again. Next time we can make lasagna, she said.



Well, it’s probably not very common to meet a food-lover traveller from a faraway land like me, maybe that’s why I managed to make this Italian nonna fall in love with me over a course of lunch.

Of course I would not so no to such invitations, not for a second.

When I asked Anna, whom I bought my return ticket from, to recommend me some places to visit (and eat) in Naples, and told her that I’m a food writer, she sent me a looooong list of what to eat and where to eat them.

The list was really long, way too long for my small (but growing) body. I tried many of them, mostly the sweet stuff (it’s just much simpler to buy a piece of pastry than sit down and eat something in a restaurant…or at least that’s just my excuse)

Okay, I also had pizzas, from two of the most famous pizzerias in Naples, Da Michele (where Julia Robert came for Eat, Pray, Love) and Sorbillo. At Da Michele, they do everything in the ‘traditional’ way. There are only two types of pizzas, Marinara and Margherita, and you can choose sizes between normal, medium and large. They don’t do pizza with mozzarella du buffala here either, because it’s not ‘traditional’

The pizzas were soft and soggy, slightly burnt. I love the dough and how soft it was but not the sogginess that came with it, especially in the middle. I have to say I prefered marinara to margherita. Maybe because I was quite fed up with cheese and marinara was light and perfect for a late evening meal.




Gino Sorbillo, on the other hand, had exactly 21 different special pizzas, one for each of his children, who were all pizza makers (or what they call pizzaiolo in Italian) We had margherita with buffala (to be honest, I couldn’t really tell the difference…except on the bill that was) and a special one called Benito, with capers, olives, fresh tomatoes, provola cheese and some other stuff. It was delicious.

However a whole pizza to myself was still a bit too much for me to handle. My favourite thing about the napoletana pizza is still the dough though, the softness, lightness and chewiness of the long-fermented dough. I don’t understand why people here don’t eat the lovely rim of pizzas, I really can’t get enough of it!

Move on to something sweet :)


Naples is famed for the sfogliatella, pastry filled with candied orange and sweet ricotta cream. There are too types of sfogliatella, one is made with the less sophisticated sweet short-crust pastry dough called sfogliatella frolla, and the other laminated with so many layers of dough and baked until brown and crispy, served warm and dusted with icing sugar.


Heavenly.

But this heavy and warm pastry can be too much for the summer months when it’s so hot outside already. Of course the napoletani have a solution for this, dryer and crispier dough is used as a cone, filled with soft-serve and different toppings.


Heaven again.

If you still need some cooling down on a hot day, Naples had an amazing gelateria right in the city centre.

Living in Bologna, paradise of gelato lover, I didn’t really want to have gelato elsewhere because my favourites in Bologna were hard to top. However, when I walked past this gelateria with Mara, my Couchsurfing host, and the smell of fresh waffle cones hit my nose, I couldn’t help it.


Yes, they made their waffle cones right in front of you, the sweet buttery smell infused the air. The gelato here was equally as good as its cone, intense natural flavour of everything.

Heaven existed in Naples, food heaven does.


This area has such a rich food tradition, from savoury to sweet. The typical cakes here are pretty good as well. Torta Caprese made with cocoa powder, butter and grounded almonds. So dense, so rich…

Don’t try to calculate the calories, just enjoy the taste of it is my best advice ;)

I went to Slovenia didn't expect to like the country, or its culture,  that much. Probably because it wasn't as popular and ditinct as, say, Italian or Scandinavian ones. And that is, in fact, true. Slovenian culture is kind of a mixture between Italian, Austrian, Hungarian and Balkan, which is very unique and charming in its own way.

And here are my 8 reasons I'm looking forward to visiting Slovenia again.

Gelateria Romantika

At first, I didn't plan to visit this gelateria since there were so many recommended ones in Ljubljana. However, I've heard that Romantika makes 'experimental' flavours, and I'm a sucker for that.



It was love at first lick, and I knew there was no going back. After trying more thann 10 gelateria in Bologna (and even more in other cities in Italy) I can say with confident that Romantika won my heart over. Not only they make creative flavours that blew my mind, like 'Ljubljanska' with ricotta and sage, which is the flavour combination for Potica, the famous cake from Slovenia, or my favourite one like 'Mediterranean' with tahini, honey and cocoa powder, the gelato here is also not too sweet, and it's clearly noticeable in a very good way. Everything tasted so natural, pear sorbet tasted like fresh pear, which was a rare find for me.

The owner of the shop took 3-week gelato making course in Bologna, and she said she put around 10-15% less sugar than in her gelato, making it taste much more pure and natural.

There is no doubt that I could choose only one gelateria in the world to go to, this one would be it.


Prekmurska Gibanica



Slovenia has a lot of delicious cake, like Kremsnita from Bled (which tasted much better than its appearance, but try it at Slaščičarna Zima!) But my favourite one was this Prekmurska Gibanica, an 8-layer cake consists of sweet pastry, grounded poppyseed mixture, cottage cheese and cooked apples.  The cake is dense, full of flavours and texture and not too sweet at all, for me is was the perfect cake for breakfast


Austrian-Italian-Hungarian-Balkan-Inspired Cuisine


As I said at the beginning, Slovenia is like a melting pot of cultures from its surrounding countries. In the region next to Hungary, traditional dishes often contains meat, like stew and goulash. Most of the  pumpkin seeds oil productions are also from there.  On the seaside towns next to Italy, the food was clearly Italian and mediterranean-inspired, including a lot of farms producing olive oil and cured meat. Inspired by Austrian food, Štruklji with both sweet and savoury fillings is a popular dish around the country, as well as Balkan street food like Borek is very cheap and popular, which is like essential stop on a night out that's ten times better than any other fast food chains.

Slovenia has it all, meat, seafood, vegetarian dishes, cheese, cured meat, wine and good bread.

Too bad it's a bit cold, otherwise I might have loved it as much as Italy.



Social Enterprises Cafes 
Skuhna is not like any other cafes in town. Even though the food wasn't, in my opnion of a person who's been exposed to ethnic food since I was born, anything spectacular, but the concept wins. Everyone but two Slovenian who work there are immigrants from different continents. Each day, the cafe has a country theme which the food served that day will be cook by someone from, say Indonesia or Kenya, and it would be a 3-course dishes from their countries. The menu and countries change everyday, depending on the chef that day.



Not only a cafe, Skuhna also has (and actually started off as) a catering business and organise food-related cultural events every once in a while. On the end of the week that I was there, they organised a Zimbabwe night with 3-course meal with traditional live music from the country.

Apart from this cafe, there's also another social enterprise cafe in town called Gostilna Dela which hire unemployed youth to work there. The cook using market-fresh ingredients and vegetables from a farm nearby, therefor the menu also changed daily according to what's available that day.


Pumpkin seed oil


I love pumpkin seed oil, in salad and on bread. It's a delicacy from Slovenia. They put it in everything here, from soup, salad to chocolate bars and pralines. Romantika even has a pumpkin seeds oil gelato!

I swear I receive no commission from this place, it's just simply so good I can't help but spreading the word.


Creative Chocolate


Nowadays every country sells chocolate as souvenir, and Slovenia is no exception. But the flavours chocolate here are impressive, from the more 'expected' one like season to chocolate with added spices like cumin, coriander seeds, pink pepper and many more. My favourite brand is Passero from Prekmurje region. Its flavours are things like cumin with pumpkin seeds or coronary seeds with raspberries.

Sound weird, I know, but it's done so well that the flavours mix and mellow with one another so beautifully.

And it's not easy to find, only in a few shops in Ljubljana and Kranj!


Buckwheat Walnut Bread


As a bread-obsess, I have to try bread from famous bakeries in any places I visit. But in Slovenia, even bread from the supermarkets is so good! Especially this one with buckwheat flour and walnuts  (Ajdov Kruh z Orehi) which I couldn't get enough of. There are two types of this bread, a denser one with more buckwheat flour, and lighter one as shown in the photo above.

It was so good it was hard for me to not eat the whole loaf all at once, and this was just from a supermarket bakery...


Okay, the nature too!


So far, I've only talked about food (which is kind of my speciality, or rather obsession) but I didn't only go there to eat, I actually saw some breathtakingly beautiful places too! Of course, Slovenia has much more to offer than just food, like the bright crystal blue Soca river where you can join a lot of outdoor adventure activities in the summer, or the Alps for skiing in winter. There are also so many lakes (not only Bled) where you can go trekking or swimming, or seaside towns where you can enjoy fresh seafood and sunshine.

we love food.

and i can't think of any other way to begin this post.

we love food so much, which, i guess, is what brought us together (very unexpectedly) on gumtree.

so, our house consisted of Flo and i, who cook all sort of experimental dishes and give them their names ourselves. (like vegan ginger and salted chocolate banoffi with date caramel and walnut crunch...or thai salad with grounded sesame doesn't actually exist in thailand) coming from thailand, i have not once cooked anything authentic except thai black fragrant rice i brought from home at the beginning of the year. yes, putting rice in the rice cooker and press 'mix rice' has been the most authentic thing i cook here in england, which at least reminds me of my mum's food, or the food that i would have back in my country.



and then there is Noosh, my half iranian-half swiss housemate whose cupboards are filled with dried herbs from her mum (like 5 big tubs of herbs and dried vegetables), plus her spices like saffron and cinnamon (which smells ways more intense than what you can get in english supermarkets) she doesn't seem to be in the kitchen as often as flo and i, but when she does cook a meal in there, the whole kitchen smells like another country. her food looks very different and traditional to me, with all the herbs she uses and their farsi names that always make me curious what they actually are.

finally, after 4 months, it's time to try some delicious persian food. it's hard to believe we've waited this long for it to happen.

but at least it did, and it was amazing.

for my first ever persian meal, noosh cooked us some herbed rice with spiced potato and onion patties. the potato patties was made mainly of two grated potatoes, grated onions, two eggs and spices like turmeric, pepper and cinnamon. they looked similar to swiss rösti. i thought it was kookoo sibzamini but maybe not after all, because she didn't boiled the potatoes first.




having rice as the staple grain in my culture, the way she cooked rice here was different. using basmati rice and parboiled it first, she then drained the excess water, mixed in herbs (which we found out later was a mixture of dill and something else, but mainly dill) and salt. the rise was put back into the same pan with added oil, she closed the lid and kept it cooked on low heat until the bottom was a bit burnt and crispy.


and what seemed like forever later, our sunday persian lunch was ready! it was served with yogurt mixed with dried mint leaves, chopped tomatoes and a sprinkle of salt if desired. the rice was light, soft and aromatic. the spiced potato patties were slightly sweet from the onion and minty yogurt plus chopped tomatoes were refreshing. i loved them all together, especially the fragrant rice i couldn't get enough of. i am glad to know that it was dill and will definitely put that on my shopping list.

just over a year later, and there i was again, in london.
with the same main purpose, to eat.

only this time it was a little bit different, i wasn't there by myself, i was there with a friend.
a friend who's from london.

which made the trip a whole lot different. someone who knew her way around was showing me the best of food scene in london!

we started at our beloved market—broadway market—on a sunny saturday with 16 degrees and plenty of sunshine (which was quite unusual for late december) we were well-prepared to eat our way through the market by having just fruit salad for breakfast after a light morning yoga session.
and by the time we got to the market at twelve, our tummies were already rumbling with hunger.




one great thing about travelling with a friend (who also loved food) was the fact that we got to try more food because we just bought one portion of everything and shared them. a great way to save money and be kind to your body. (even then, i found myself lying in bed at midnight with a full stomach almost every night in london)

the first thing we went for was heavenly halloumi burger from the veggie table, flo's favourite veggie burger.


the memory of visit to london last year came back, when i got myself a veggie burger from this stall and it was very soggy and messy to eat on lettuce. that was vegan chickpea burger. this time, however, it was halloumi burger in a proper bun, a lot easier to eat and a lot tastier. though i guessed i wasn't too keen on it still and would like to try something else from other stalls next time. maybe the savoury wrap nearby!

overwhelmed by the choices of food available, we walked around till the end of the market, turned right and entered the little market in a school. we just felt like we needed to see everything before make a decision of what to eat next.

and then i saw this rather mysterious coconut pancakes stall with no photos or samples or queues or whatsoever that would indicate what the food look like. out of curiosity i asked the guy at the stall he told me it was basically a stack of 3 american-style pancakes made from coconut flour, coconut milk, coconut butter, coconut water, coconut meat and banana (maybe the only thing in there that wasn't coconut), topped with salted caramel sauce made with coconut milk and coconut sugar.

how on earth could it get any more coconuty than this?

and of course it got me, a true coconut lover.



while the pancakes were nice, they weren't as coconuty as i hoped they would be (and i knew why...they missed some toasted coconut flakes!) and being a good pancakes-maker myself (reasonably) my pancakes, maybe not made entirely with coconut, were possibly tastier. the only thing i didn't have was the salted caramel sauce which was quite nice (and sweet)

not a bad experience overall but maybe not again.

though we were quite determined to go back for something savoury from the main market, we decided to explore the last bit of the market, netil market, first. and we got hooked.

by victoria's yum.

a very dangerous place indeed.



all the cakes looked amazing, and the price was unbelievable (for london, the size of a slice) we were, once again, overwhelmed by the varieties of these beautiful and mouthwatering cakes and couldn't decide to buy just one.

simple solution, we got a slice each and shared them.

i was torn between spiced orange chocolate cake and the raspberry, pistachio and rose 4-layer cake. i decided to went for the latter (main because of it being a 4-layer, and the baker said it was her favourite) while flo went for another 4-layer salted caramel chocolate cake.

the first bite was heaven. sweet and moist, just lovely. but as we were finishing the first slice, we realised only one slice would have been enough.

nevertheless, we finished everything, and were properly stuffed afterwards.
the salted caramel chocolate one was nice, but the raspberry one wasn't quite my taste. it was just sweet where i prefer either something sweet and sour (like lemon cake) or sweet and bitter like chocolate one. though i would love to go back there and try some of her vegan and gluten free stuff next time.

just before we left, i saw my favourite chocolate shop, dark sugar, and i couldn't help but stop and tried a few pieces of chocolate from them. everything was so lovely. the plain dark chocolate, orange and cardamom, stem ginger and honey, and the salted caramel bomb.


the next day was sunday, which meant another market day. we started of with ally pally (alexandra palace) farmer's market, five minutes down the road from where flo lived. i didn't expected the market to be so big. well, it wasn't as big as broadway market but bigger than i thought it would be, and the selection of food there was amazing.

we sampled a few things, like really fresh british walnuts (which tasted so much better than any walnuts i've ever had, so sweet and fresh), lovely goat's curd from narnia goat's cheese, and a few things in-between before buying ourselves a starter: lentil and mushroom scotch egg. despite the fact that it was cold, the egg was amazing.  perfectly cooked and just lovely.


we skipped our main and went straight for dessert, cannolis from casa cannoli. we got three to share: original, hazelnut and pistachio. it was the first cannoli i had ever had, and it was delicious. crispy shell, creamy filling. my favourite ones were original and hazelnut. i would love to try lemon next time (again, i was sweet & sour kinda person)




and one of the best savoury food i had from markets in london was this mushroom spring roll made by a philipino.

yes, a mushroom spring roll. and i come from thailand.

the mushrooms smelled like umami and it was just incredible. no dipping sauce needed and no words could explain what i tasted in my mouth.

i would definitely get this spring roll again. there's no doubt about that.



not too far from the market was a lovely cafe called nati's, owned by flo's aunt. the place was bright and lovely with a small counter full of baked goods. they also serve deli-style lunch and breakfast.

we got some chai lattes (mine was matcha chai which i really liked), chocolate bun, brownkie with pistachio and some kind of spanish almond and pine nuts cookie. and even though i wasn't too keen on the spanish cookie, the brownkie was amazing, and so was the chocolate roll, tradition pastry the hungarians have for breakfast (that's what nati, who was from hungarian, told us) everything was freshly baked, especially the yeasted roll which nat herself baked every morning. i would love to go back there for breakfast or lunch (which flo told me was really good as well.)


we went on a cannoli hunt later. and flo took me to this italian deli on wardour street called princi. we bought a huge (and very expensive) cannoli and enjoy every moment of it while it lasted. unfortunately, it didn't last very long.

all the salads there looked mouthwatering, as was the arancini which we might go back and get it one day.


and those were our two heavy-eating days. the rest were lighter (my tummy was thankful for that. i don't think it could handle any more sugar-heavy market days for a while)

the next day, we took a bus to green lanes and went to flo's favourite turkish restaurant called haha. there, we shared a fried aubergine dish, Imam Bayildi, which was more than enough for the two of us. this due mainly to the fact that they served complimentary salad with freshly bake bread and yogurt sauce, which was almost as good as the main dish itself. and hummus that came with the dish was one of the best i had ever tasted.

and the bill was a tenner for the two of us.

clearly there was no reason for me not to go back there.
no turkish meal would be completed without a few baklavas. so we crossed the street and went into a big bakery selling so many different types of baklavas cookies and bread. we asked the staff and a turkish customer before deciding what to get. at the end, we bought three (way too much considering the state of our tummies), a pistachio one, almond one and walnut one (with noodles wrapped around, that was my favourite!)


the pistachio, pretty classic, was drenched in syrup. the almond one was alright. the walnut noodles was amazing. not too sweet with the crispy noodles texture outside. and it was huge.

can't wait to go back and try more varieties of them.



walking through the market, i tried one of the best rye bread i had ever had from karaway bakery (the black rye one.) at was dark and slightly sweet. i think rye bread was growing on me slowly, as was my interest for scandinavian cuisine.

and i tried a lot of olive and truffle oil. like a lot. it was my first time tasting truffle oil which was super intense, as well as the fresh, first-press olive oil. at the end of the day, throat was filled with the scent of truffle it was overwhelming. my favourite, though, was olive tree tea which reminded me a little of chinese oolong tea.


and i tried loads of cheese...goat's, sheep's, raw and all sorts. that was very satisfying.


sampling my way through the market. that, i believed, was the best way to experience food when you're travelling by yourself. rather than being one thing and feel stuffed afterward, just a bite of everything was enough for me.

and of course, i saved some money doing so!


because flo's sister was a head baker at brick house bakery, we paid a visit to the artisan sourdough bakery and cafe in east dulwich. situated in a bright warehouse-like building, the place has got this hipster vibe, it felt less cosy but rather communal with the big long tables. what i found really cool was the fact the customers could look over the counter and see the bakers at work.
we got a grilled cheese sandwich and some salad from the deli counter. they sourced all the ingredients really well, using high quality veg, cheese and meat. my grilled cheese with chopped spring onions inside was amazing, and so was the salad. they had a great selection of mouthwatering-looking pastries as well. their sourdough loaves looked amazing (and was amazing, my favourite ones were multigrain and peckham rye) but they sold out really fast. go there after twelve and there's very little chance you'll be carrying a loaf of bread home.

if everything was not so expensive (or I start to earn more money, if at all), i would definitely be back there. though i supposed i can go to places in leeds like sheaf st. cafeteria for brunch and the food would be as good.

though the morning buns there would draw me back for another visit...


to round of our culinary tour in london, we went to golders green for some jewish treats on christmas eve. flo wanted to show me jewish bakeries and all the interesting things they had in there. unfortunately, it was not the poppy seeds and hamantaschen season (which would be during easter time) so instead of those, we got some pastries, biscuit and rugelach-like pastry which was really nice. the cheesecake there was also amazing.


there were an abundance of japanese restaurants in golders green. to round up our culinary tour in london (before the big christmas feast begins), we stopped by at flo's favourite japanese restaurant called cafe japan. to flo's surprise, the place was renovated and it changed a lot, less friendly and more formal (from her memory.) we ordered spicy salmon inside-out roll and enjoyed every bite of fresh salmon. oh how much i missed fish (and japan)

followed by a big christmas feast with loads of cooking and eating christmasy stuff including brussels sprout, nut roast, christmas cake and our homemade, sugar-free ginger salted chocolate banoffi pie (which was divine) i left london and ended my year (unknowingly) at the 10-day vipassana course.

london was great (and money consuming.), partcularly all the amazing food and farmer's markets. it was so nice to have a 'local' showing me around all these great places and trying different food from all around the world. i can't wait to go back there, and on my next-to-visit list are...

sunday ally pally farmer's market
brick lane weekend food market
saturday malty street market
golders green and the jewish bakeries
turkish at green lanes
and so the list continues...