Oct 29, 2008

Braindead.

I have to say, eastern Europe has a certain endearing charm; I find Zagreb's just calling me to return. It's got it's own sense of burgeoning coolness, a trendy looking take-out sushi bar with external signage looks like it'd be right at home in an upscale San Francisco district, but with some pretty unique anime-inspired art inside, and hot brunette Croatian servers.

On the other hand, maybe I was a little too comfortable, as I left me camera in my friend's car when getting off at the airport. I guess that means I can't be a photographer! Ugh.

Oct 23, 2008

Leftovers

I was really more excited with the various leftovers I managed to clean out of my fridge with this, rather than how good it really was. But then, it really was pretty good. A personal sized chai flavoured bread pudding.

Sitting around:
1. 1 rock hard 3 day old bread roll
2. 2 eggs
3. half a liter of milk

Solution:
1. Make some chai:
 1a. Boil milk with a couple of teaspoons of Assam tea, 2 cloves, half a stick of cinammon, and a cardammom pod.
 1b. When at a boil, add lots of sugar, until it's super sweet.
 1c. Strain and let cool.
2. Cut up the bread. This was the most difficult part when the bread was rock hard. A hammer might have worked better, place bread in a non-stick (or buttered) pan so it fits snuggly. You want to be able to pour in liquid and have it fill in the cracks, if your pan is too big, this won't happen.
3. Beat the egg till frothy.
4. After the chai has cooled a bit (so it doesn't cook the egg on contact) add chai to the egg. Add enough so that you have enough liquid to fill what space is left in the pan.
5. Let bread soak up the liquid. This could take 10 minutes.
6. Bake for until the custard sets. It took me 20 minutes at 300C (my combo nuke-convection-broiler oven doesn't go any higher) with my thin dessert. I think it could take up to 45 minutes if you have a larger and thicker bread pudding. Serve warm a la mode.
IMG_2805
I could only find a big bread pan that was too big, or two small shell shaped pans, which worked well. I ended up having enough stuff to make 2. The second sat another 2 days in the fridge before I baked it, no worse for the wear. I really should have taken a picture, on a plate, with ice cream, but I got impatient and ate it.
IMG_2807

Oct 1, 2008

Something new

I was at a concert in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw today. The first half was Beethoven's 6th, the second half Bartok. I find baroque and classical music easy to listen to, and Beethoven's 6th is both familiar and pleasant. It's the first time I've ever listened to Bartok - up till now I've pretty much dismissed any "modern" composer as unlistenable.

The first thing that struck me is that it sounded a lot like movie soundtrack music. I guess Bartok must have had a significant impact on current movie soundtrack composers. While listening and thinking about it, pieces began falling in place. Compared to the Beethoven, the Bartok piece seemed extremely disjointed, mostly missing any sort of melody, and instead featuring dissonant chords.

Although all the chords don't form a musical piece that draws me a long, they're very moody. The modern classical sets the mood instead of providing a tune to hum along to - which it makes sens that it's influenced a lot of today's movie music. However, I still think it doesn't stand well on it's own - without the clear melody, it's hard to follow. I do keep trying to picture the movie scenes that would go with the music though.

Apparently I had an awesome seat, I was told that I was sitting right in front of the mayor of Amsterdam!