Notizie per la Nonna: September 2012

A few things I've made recently, with or without company! First comes my attempt at cute Bento Boxes, an adorable tradition/cult among Japanese mothers- essentially it is making art out of a packed lunch! Mine are a little small, but I was assured made up for in cuteness what they lacked in size! Aside from sticky rice I used carrot, cucumber, dried seaweed leaves, spinach and one little kernel of corn.

Oh, hello kitty!

And below are a few snaps from Clara's birthday:

Out to dinner at Wagamama, an Asian fusion restaurant

Yaki-tori, edamame beans, miso soup and dumplings! Yum...

The oreo cake I made for Clara

And here are a few from baking with Katy:

Damson and apple cobbler- somewhere between cake and crumble, and definitely the best of both worlds in taste!

Nutella pastry pockets... not the highlight of the day...

A rather nice salad I made for myself... looks oddly like all the salads I make but oh well

Chinese mooncake I bought in Chinatown, London.

Can't say I was pleasantly surprised to come across these orange things in the middle of my bean paste- turns out they are duck's egg yolks. Needless to say one was enough.

Cuddles at the table :)

En route to Budapest on a delightful evening train:

Budapest central train station at around 10pm

Pretending we were rich with the silly big currency

Tesco! In Budapest! Weird.

Entrance to our little hostel, which was a weird little one. We booked last minute and were very much attracted to the centrality (1 minute from the river) and cheapness (something stupid like 8 euros a night) so couldn't really complain; basically the owner had converted his apartment to accommodate 16 people, with four bunk beds crammed into two little rooms. There was a nice computer/living room, an odd bathroom with two shower cubicles and two toilets. Having a kitchen was an added bonus, and saved us the trouble of going out, although what we cooked was a little funky anyway. Aside from some unbelievably loud snoring (causing us to wake up at 7am) and a slightly mysterious room mate, it wasn't all so bad.

Hiding from snoring room mates in the kitchen- we don't look pretty without sleep!

Day One: A bit of general sightseeing around the city, followed by a little soak in the Rudas thermal baths. I had taken pictures on a disposable of the inside, but the silly developing service didn't bother printing them- perhaps they were too dark (or they were too stupid). The front of the bathhouse was under construction, which meant you had to buy your ticket from what looked like a man in a box in the street, but once you got past the changing rooms it was all normal...or at least unchanged from usual. It was a very relaxing way of experiencing local culture, despite some weird reviews online of the 'men only night', it was perfectly fine.