Feest Isolation Days – 15 January 2021
Because we have spent a lot of time in our much loved New Zealand, I get a lot of emails and information from there. This morning, I got an email called “I Love Takapuna” – Takapuna is a town over the North Shore bridge from Auckland. It has a great beach and is also home to many fine shops, the Bruce Mason Centre which is a wonderful concert and theatre venue, and, of course, there are many great restaurants in Takapuna.
Many of our international visitors who have stayed with us during our time in New Zealand will have joined us at the Takapuna Beach Café. As I write this, I’m thinking that yes, I do love Takapuna! We can’t get there at the moment, but it reminded us of one of the best dishes we order when we visit the beach café. In fact, all over New Zealand one of the main treats for breakfast or brunch is an Eggs Benny. Eggs Benedict is something we haven’t consumed since last February, so we intend to have a culinary treat this weekend and try our hand at making it here at Chez Feest in Bristol (which I also love). The main ingredients of a Benny are poached eggs, ham, a muffin type bread underneath, and the all important hollandaise sauce. Looking up how to make hollandaise sauce started us on a new culinary learning journey! The sauce is one of five “mother” sauces that are used in French cuisine. The other mother sauces are béchamel, velouté, espagnole, and tomato. They were developed by French chef Auguste Escoffier in the 19th century. These sauces are a starting point for all sorts of dishes and from them other sauces – the daughter sauces – are derived. Think Bechamel. While Escoffier is a name that you may have heard, it is the Frenchman that he followed who founded the notion of cuisine as both an art and a science. Antonin Careme. Careme was born in Paris in 1784, and died there in 1832. He served the royalty of Europe and wrote several texts that have become classics of French cuisine. He was a pioneer of grande cuisine. He made elaborate dishes and introduced restaurants to the sort of food once only found in palaces. Cooks who had once worked in the kitchens of aristocracy were no longer able to do so after the French revolution. Careme helped to create a new culinary ethic which many cooks took up and into the restaurants where they now worked. Just make sure your French is up to it when you order in French….
All this new knowledge because I got an “I Love Takapuna” email! You never know where life is going to take you really do you?
Would anyone have thought a President of the United States of America could be impeached twice? Revenge, as the democrats might understand, is a dish best served cold. The trial for impeachment will be set before the Senate much later this year. That will enable time to develop the case and put the facts before those who will come to judge the impeachment proceedings.
Meantime, I’m off to work with the Chez Feest head chef to see what we can do about recreating our version of an Eggs Benny. One taste and I shall be whisked straight back to Takapuna I have no doubt!
Pictures on Monday. Have a great weekend.
Stay safe and Enjoy!
With love,
Kathy x