Summer 2015 – Photo Catch-up

Hello!

Remember me? That blogger that used to blog regularly once upon a time?

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Hello pork roast & crackling! #HelloScotland Last few days of cool weather + gluttony in #Scotland before heading back to the #Dubai sandpit.

A post shared by Sandy (@gingerandscotch) on Aug 23, 2015 at 9:46am PDT

 

Now that Wee Scotch (nearly 6 years old!) and Li’L Ginger (nearly 2 years old!) are in school and nursery, I’ve told myself that I would start blogging more but I’m finding it very difficult to hit the PUBLISH button.

I’ve had this post in my drafts folder for the past few weeks, staring at it nearly every day, trying to find the right words and phrases, but oftentimes, my brain just seems to freeze up and thus my fingers too. Other times, I decide what I’ve just typed is droll and who would want to read anything like that?

So delete delete delete.

Anyway, I suppose the best way to get back into blogging is, as Nike puts it, Just Do It.

Or as I like to put it, Just Do it – Dammit!

So here I am, just putting words onto the proverbial paper and getting used to the process of writing my thoughts down again.

I have tons of food photos to share in the next few posts and also lots of travel writing to catch you all up on. Who knows, I might end up blogging so much, you all might get sick of me! Ha.

First things first, here is a photo catch-up post, from pictures that I originally posted on my Instagram account, of some of my eating adventures in NY, Chicago, and Edinburgh including an artisan bread-making course my MIL gifted me (a more detailed post on that bread class later, I promise).

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Our summer months in New York to escape the Dubai heat included romps in the city parks, the usual weekly pilgrimages to dim sum and Vietnamese restaurants, and a new favorite food court – Brookfield Place near Battery Park – where most of the restaurants started out as food trucks, a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to eat at the new Grimaldi’s Pizza, and of course, eating oysters oysters oysters.

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"My Little Gourmand" I look at my children and every moment of every day I can't believe how lucky I am to have these 2 little angels call me "mom". 💙 Today, my 5-year was thoroughly enjoying his dinner when he paused, turned to me and asked: "Mom, can you teach me how to cook?" ❤️ I can't even describe how incredibly proud I felt at that moment.

A post shared by Sandy (@gingerandscotch) on Jun 29, 2015 at 7:52pm PDT

 

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Hello Bubble Tea! #nycsummers #iloveny #hellonyc First bubble tea drink of our NYC summer – this one is a large Taro milk tea with black tapioca pearls (US$4). I really liked this one as not too sweet and was also a big hit with LiL Ginger.

A post shared by Sandy (@gingerandscotch) on Jul 5, 2015 at 2:21pm PDT

 

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Hello chicken feet! Weekly pilgrimage to a dim sum restaurant. #nycsummers #iloveny #dimsum #nofilter #hellonyc

A post shared by Sandy (@gingerandscotch) on Jun 30, 2015 at 10:02am PDT

 

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Hello fried taro puffs dim sum! #nycsummers #iloveny #hellonyc Crispy outside, flavor-packed minced pork inside. One of my favorite dim sum items.

A post shared by Sandy (@gingerandscotch) on Jul 9, 2015 at 8:06pm PDT

 

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Hello Vietnamese food! #hellonyc #nycsummers #iloveny Weekly pilgrimage – this time to one of our favorite Vietnamese restaurants in Brooklyn. On the table: -Sugarcane shrimp on rice noodles ready to be made into a scrumptious lettuce wrap with fresh herbs and pickled carrots+daikon. -Bun Bo Hue (rice noodle soup with beef) which was not stellar that day due to a watery broth. -Stir-fried tofu and veg dish for my vegetarian Grandma.

A post shared by Sandy (@gingerandscotch) on Jul 3, 2015 at 5:43am PDT

 

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Hello Food Truck Court! #nycsummers #iloveny #hellonyc Enjoyed lunch last week at Brookfield Place's Food Truck Court where many of the restaurants started out as #foodtrucks. Pictured here: A "Manly Burger" (beer-cheddar cheese, bacon lardons, smoked-salt onion strings, Umami house ketchup, mustard spread) from @umamiburger and a Five Spice Pork Belly sandwich (with cucumber, pickled carrots, cilantro, chili mayo) from @numpangnyc Started eating the food before I remembered to take photos…

A post shared by Sandy (@gingerandscotch) on Jul 2, 2015 at 12:08pm PDT

 

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Grilled spicy pork rice bowl @ Num Pang in "Brookfield Place" (World Financial Center to me) – loved the grilled veg as much as the pork. #nycsummers #hellonyc

A post shared by Sandy (@gingerandscotch) on Jun 30, 2015 at 11:00am PDT

 

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Hello Grimadi's Pizza and Brooklyn Bridge! #nycsummers #iloveny #hellonyc Doing the tourist thing with @mynuttydubai by eating @GrimaldisPizzeria and then burning off the calories by strolling across the Brooklyn Bridge. #pizza #brooklynbridge

A post shared by Sandy (@gingerandscotch) on Jul 3, 2015 at 2:49pm PDT

 

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Hello Oysters the size of my hand! #nycsummers #iloveny #hellonyc Check out those big-ass "NY Steakhouse Select" oysters the size of my hand! They totally dwarf the small Kumamotos. They were my fave – big, creamy, substantial. In general, I like the stronger tasting West Coast oysters more than the lighter, crisp, briny East Coast #oysters. 6 different oysters at the #rawbar yesterday: East Coast (US): 1. Blue Point (Long Island) 2. Chincateague (Virginia) 3. Fishing Creek (Virginia) 4. NY Steakhouse Select (Long Island) West Coast (US): 5. Fanny Bay (British Columbia) 6. Kumamoto (Oregon)

A post shared by Sandy (@gingerandscotch) on Jul 2, 2015 at 4:50pm PDT

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This post is getting really long so I will share just one photo from my trip to Chicago with Li’L Ginger where we ate our way around Taste of Chicago.

Here she is enjoying alligator sausage. You can see more Taste of Chicago photos on my Instagram account.

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Hello Smoked Alligator Sausage! #tasteofchicago #hellochicago LiL Ginger @ Taste of Chicago today: eating a sausage taster made from 20% alligator meat (sourced from Louisiana, so I was told) + 80% #pork. From @chicagosdoghouse. Basically tasted like a spicy Italian sausage and was VERY good!

A post shared by Sandy (@gingerandscotch) on Jul 10, 2015 at 7:26pm PDT

 

Alright, one more Chicago photo!

How can I not share this one from the Lisle Farmers’ market (a suburb of Chicago) of a chocolate covered bacon skewer.  Yes, you read that right, bacon.  It was…odd to eat bacon with chocolate…I can’t say that I didn’t like it…I guess it kinda grew on me…I’m glad I tried it:

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Hello Chocolate Covered Peppered Bacon Skewer! #hellochicago #farmersmarket My first, small, exploratory bite was met with chocolate flavors. As I continued to work through the chewy texture of the meat, I was soon able to taste the bacon – yummy bacon – and then a hit of the course cracked pepper. From John Dough Bakery in #Lisle, Illinois: http://johndoughbakeryonline.com/

A post shared by Sandy (@gingerandscotch) on Jul 11, 2015 at 12:11pm PDT

 

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Last but not least, I proudly present to you a photo of the different types of artisan bread I learned to bake at the Edinburgh New Town Cookery School.  I thought I was hopeless at baking bread but I’m glad this class proved me wrong:

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Hello homemade bread! (All made by me 😄!) #HelloScotland #HelloBread Thanks to my MIL for sending me to an awesome "Artisan Breadmaking Class" yesterday at the Edinburgh New Town Cookery School (@ent_cookeryschool). #Artisanbread : We made Focaccia, Olive-Parmesan Breadsticks, Poppyseed Plait, Potato-Onion-Cheese Bread, and a Pain d'Epis (not pictured bc rather pathetic looking). #Bread Happy to have finally and successfully make bread other than pizza dough.

A post shared by Sandy (@gingerandscotch) on Aug 23, 2015 at 3:11pm PDT