i really love chai tea lately

i make myself a schnitzel

start spreading the news ...

well. i am not a globetrotting kind of person.

but when i look back at my year i am amazed that i have seen so many places and that i took so many nice trips in 2010 that lead me away from my regular paths. berlin, istanbul ... and guess what, i am practically on my way to new york city now. it will be a trip with my department from university and it is pretty well planned (they have a lot of arty and touristy stuff covered), but i also want to sneak off every now and then and do stuff on my own.

i especially intend to eat my way around new york. or maybe i should watch a few episodes of sex and the city in preparation for my trip?

or perhaps you want to help me fill my google map with personal tips off the beaten track? that would be really nice!

oh, and if you want to get in contact and maybe even join a little european girl wandering around manhattan - don't be shy! get in touch via email! it would be really cool to meet fellow foodbloggers!

... i am really getting excited now ... !

dish towel salad dressing

i am a frugal person living on a budget and i just HATE seeing food go to waste. especially since i usually buy the more expensive organic version of things.

would you throw your money in the composte bin?
i wouldn't either.

so i was wondering how i could handle my "salad problem" better. i often ended up eating bigbig portions of salad because i would fear i'd have to throw out a half eaten lettuce a few days later. i had to throw out several half eaten heads of lettuce nonetheless!


thank the fsm for apartment therapy and their food section "the kitchn". i recently tried their method on how to store greens and i have to say this approach is just perfect for me.


you should check that method out too and have crisp and fresh salad all week long!

i need one of those

restructuring. kitchen and life.

a while back there was this problem with the plumbing behind my kitchen cabinets. i didn't realise the subtlie leakage at first but as a weird smell developed after a few weeks ... yeah, let me spare you the disgusting details. believe me, you don't want me to paint you a picture of half rotten kitchen cabinets!

so i called the people from my local bulk rubbish service to pick up half of my kitchen (i usually would not touch mould with a pole, but i just had to put on my work clothes and get this disgusting stuff out of my space), i borrowed a car, drove to IKEA and bought some new kitchen counters.

after giving my empty kitchen a good goooood gooooooood and thorough cleaning - several times - and also treating myself to a mini diswasher (the first diswasher i own! EVER!) i now can show you my brand new kitchen with optimised storage and way more space.

i have to admit it is a bit high for a short person like me but nonetheless i love my new space because i wanted open counters for like forever.


as you can see i don't have a built in oven, i just pull out my electrical appliances from underneath. i love to keep things flexible like that and cooking here also works perfectly for me.

if it only was that easy!

Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo.

my shiatsu guy said i should eat porridge in the mornings

this is going to be tough because i am not a breakfast person at all. and with the gooey consistency of this meal ... is that really what a good start into the day looks and tastes like? though i have to admit, my porridge and fruit thing here did not taste too bad. i will certainly give this new breakfast ritual a try.

(happy) chicken wings and (fruity) mango dip

silvana franco made something similar on "the best" (LOVE that show!) but since i can't quite remember the correct quantities or spices anyway i will do my take on this and make my chicken wings with a hint of tikka. this may seem like a fastfood dish but i am actually careful that i always buy free-range so my chickens are as happy as possible when they are alive. i firmly believe that it is better for me to avoid meat from facory farming! and it also might not be that fast before i can tuck in - i am sure this will need more than an hour before it is ready to eat! (edit: yes it did)

(happy) chicken wings


add one tablespoon of garlic salt, a good handfull of chopped koriander, three teaspoons of tikka seasoning and four tablespoons of flour to the happy chicken wings (i bought about one kilo, which easily serves two. or me, twice.) toss them around a little, making sure they're evenly coated. preheat your oven to 220°c and place the wings on some sort of rack on a baking sheet. the happy wings will take about twenty minutes to half an hour on each side, turn them over half way through!

mine were fairly large, so they took a while to roast all the way through. after i figured out that my oven has a grill preset and i switched that on everything went a little quicker. so i suggest you just trust your cooking skills on the right timing!


(not quite ready to turn)


a nice side dish for the chicken is a mango dip, especially if you have to rescue one overripe mango from going bad. chop a few spring onions and sauteé in a table spoon of vegetable oil over medium heat. roughly chop a mango and add to the onions. also add four tablespoons of brown sugar, four tablespoons of vinegar and one tablespoon of salt.


turn up the heat a bit and add one star anis. let the mango simmer until the happy chicken wings are ready! i wonder if this really is a dip, it might be more of a sauce or even chutney ... aaah, what to i know. i have no idea when it comes to culinary theory!

and there you have it! now go sit in front of the TV and open a can of beer for this dish.
and burp when you're done!

or better yet: dine in style! don't worry if it is just you having these perfect wings. pull out the good place mat and get out the good china. the happy wings deserve to be celebrated, so you might even light a candle!


go on, light a candle.
you know you want to!


(not really a whole lot left)


(that is going to taste so amazing when i reheat it at work tomorrow. wow. my mouth is watering. and i just ate! the happy chicken wings are just delicious!)

i like how they compare money to cake

i will try this micro payment system here on my blog. it is a good idea but i wonder if it catches on. after all, it is still in beta. it might end up being bloggers shuffeling around really really small amounts of money. a "like" button like on facebook does show appreciation, but you can click it very recklessly. so how do i really show appreciation for a post that i consider worth something? by giving money, i suppose.

i will try that. but on the other hand: does it really make sense to show appreciation by giving away money, even if it is less than a few cents? oh, and one more question: am i really THAT much of a capitalist that i think i can make money off of a hasbeen weblog?

i will go do my dishes now and think about that for a while.

i am making bread again

i used to be afraid of yeast.



i recently bought one of those "passion" notebooks by moleskine and my sister added the first recipe: sour dough and yeast bread. reason enough for me to start the breadmaker!



perfect shape.
perfect taste.

delicious istanbul

i recently spent a week in istanbul on a university trip / vacation. i have to tell you that i could not get enough of the amazing food! boy oh boy, i could go back there right away just for the gorgeous simits alone! my local turkish minimarkt does not have them, so i have to go look elsewhere. i will have to check out the other turkish shops around town but i doubt i will find anything as fresh as the curls that were still warm from the bakery next to our hostel ...

i make sure there's always chocolate icecream in my freezer

i think i may need that!

oh wait.
i KNOW i need this!!!

culinary highlights of last week: tandoori plus coriander and tom ka gai

what went wrong?

when i was little, my grandmother always used to say "this is where the baker slept!" when we found a big "cave" like this in a bread ... to this day i cant get that image out of my head ...


i mixed two different kinds of flour. since i don't really know yet how that ancient wheat "purpurweizen" must be treated, i will have to experiment a little more. maybe more water? more time to rise? and definitely more kneading! yes, that's probably it.