A glimpse in the Chelsea Flower Show 2014

End of May I went to the Chelsea Flower Show. Lots of people, a myriad of flowers, splendid show gardens… here are a bunch of pictures:

The theme for one of the competitions was dresses:

(new camera - I had to play with it)

This one has been crown ''flower of the year"

At 4pm starts the dismantling of the show
and everything is sold

I got one too!!

Everyone leaves hands full

Culino-test

Surprisingly (because I am french and we love our food and our products), I am really happy with the food products I find in London. Obviously, importation is the key. Still, I sometimes come across these gems of English cuisine. Today I present you ''Angel Delight''. 

I assumed it was going to be similar to the "Crème Jock" I liked in France... but I have never been so wrong! You already know it is going to be really bad before actually trying it. The list of ingredients is not engaging and the worst thing is to look at the preparation procedure. "1. Pour 300 ml of chilled milk into a basin. 2. Add the Angel Delight and whisk until light and creamy. 3. Leave to thicken for five minutes before serving." Clearly if the milk thickens without warming up then a bunch of chemicals you do not really want to eat are involved - hence the list of ingredients.

Anyway, I went on with the experiment. It thickens in a fluffy way: with bubbles and it looks lighter than a cream. It tastes of the flavour you choose (I tried butterscotch) as well as chemical nothingness. It feels like nothing (not creamy nor rich nor gelatinous): it does not have any texture. I did not enjoyed it. I am not willing to try again. 

Holidays in Cornwall

For Easter, we went to visit Cornwall and it was a really relaxing and welcoming change of scenery. Spring is obviously a lovely time to go as gardens are booming and weather starts to be agreeable (still cold, windy and humid though). Here are some pictures to make you want to go to :-)

Fowey

Fowey

 

Amazing scones with cornish clotted cream and strawberry jam

Falmouth

Glendurgan Garden

Glendurgan Garden

Maze at Glendurgan Garden

The Lizard coast

Merry Maiden stone circle

Penzance peninsula

St Ives - we drove into this street
"Cornwall - where cars are smaller than you thought"

Newquay

Newquay

Trebethrick beach

Where rocks (slate) are blue and purple

And striped!

Green Couscous from Ottolenghi

Yesterday I tried the green couscous from Ottolenghi's recipe cookbook ''Plenty". It is the kind of recipe with an ingredient list as long as my arm, but it totally worths it! This is a great dish, perfectly balanced (no herb overpowers another, they work really well together). It contains rocket, toasted pistachios,  fried onions and a herb paste (coriander, dill, tarragon, mint, parsley). The exact recipe can be found there.

Moleskine in the sky

Universe Expansion made with foam pouncers

50 years of the Doctor (yay I am late…)