The Battle of Hastings

This weekend was the annual re-enactment of the 1066 Battle of Hastings - Sunday was the anniversary. I've been planning to go see this since I became an English Heritage member at the beginning of the year, as I think the idea of ~1,000 blokes dressed up in chain mail with swords, shields and horses etc. carrying on is completely and utterly awesome. Perhaps a little nerdy, but awesome. If I was a bloke I would totally be on the field and not just spectating - though I've since been told by Mr M that he spotted women in the re-enactment. I'd love to be a part of the cavalry, but can you imagine me with a lance and armour and shield?! The weight of the lot would mean I'd surely fall off it before I even got to the battle.



Anyway I was fortunate that 8 other people signed up to join Mr T and I and it made for a great day, despite the inclement weather (we were poorly prepared from a weather and food perspective), mud, and ruined shoes - read more about our day's fails and successes (and the Battle Abbey site) in Miss E's post here. Luckily it wasn't all bad and we were blessed with periods of sunshine, else it might have been a different story. And on a final weather note,  English Heritage actually cancelled the Sunday activities due  to safety issues from the mud so it was lucky that we went on Saturday.

The Battle of Hastings story 

Note: I have paraphrased this super brief high level summary from the voiceover man who did the commentary on the day. Given that the reenactment took place at Battle Abbey  I assume what he said is accepted as being fairly historically accurate (and hopefully I heard correctly!)

The Battle of Hastings occurred on 14 October 1066 - a pivotal day in English history where Duke William of Normandy defeated the Harold Godwinson and claimed the English throne (note that the battle actually occurred in a place now known as Battle, and not Hastings itself!). The story goes that Harold Godwinson crowned himself the king on the same day that Edward the Confessor was buried. William subsequently declared war, as he claimed that Edward the Confessor had promised him the crown.

William arrived unopposed in Pevensey and was making his way up towards London when he was met by Harold Godwinson and troops, who had hastily returned South after holding off a Viking invasion up North. Harold was fighting with a bunch of  hungry tired troops which would was an obvious disadvantage, nevertheless he did have the benefit of the high ground and a sturdy shield wall.



William on the other hand had the benefit of a blessing from the pope, a well disciplined army, and a cavalry with knights and lances. The cavalry was so unusual that the Normans were actually surprised that the English weren't up to speed with warfare etiquette and didn't understand that they were only supposed to attack humans, not the horses.



Back to the fight. William's men hit the shield wall again and again with minimal success, sending in the archers, infantry and cavalry in turn. There was plenty of "Nor-man-dy! Nor-man-dy!" cries which were matched by "Oot, Oot, Oot". At some point a rumour started that William had been killed and the men started to retreat. The English saw this as their opportunity and started to pursue them ... which left a hole (or holes) in their shield wall (you know where this is going right?)



It turns out that William was not dead after all and he subsequently rode up and down the lines of men to prove that he was still alive. His men regained their enthusiasm and broke through the English ranks. Harold's brothers are killed and then Harold himself gets an arrow in the eye. And so ends the battle with carnage everywhere and the spectators can all get out of the rain and head home.



Other comments and pictures from the fight

• It may not have been a huge challenge for William to rally men to his cause as he had packaged up the fight for England as a crusade, complete with a papal blessing (though it could well have been a personal vendetta against Harold - guess we'll never know for sure!) It was quite difficult to gauge who is fighting for who, since the lower ranks didn't have uniforms and everyone brought weapons and armoury from home. Wonder how many people were accidentally killed as a result of this.


• The axe was one of the most common weapons accessible to everyone - swords are too expensive for the common man to have lying around the place, but everyone needs to chop wood.


• The Norman cavalry was well disciplined and there were knights that were professional soldiers and undertook horseback training 6 days a week (but never on Sundays of course). Here are some photos of the cavalry demo from the day. My favourite horse is the little fat looking one - could be a Shetland pony? I also heard a guy next to me say that he thought one of the horses was a dressage horse from the way he trotted.

Archery 



 

Last time we went to Hastings and visited Battle Abbey, Mr T decided he *had* to have a mini bow and arrow. This time though we got to try archery with a full size bow and arrow! I was particularly pleased that I managed to hit the target board on all 3 shots, though JLO pointed out to me that I never hit the actual target. D'oh. And for some amusement here's a steamy owl, presumably drying off in the sun after the rain.



 

 

Falconry
There was a fabulous falconry display on the day by Raphael Historical Falconry. The star of the show was the Peregrine x Gyrfalcon hybrid (one of the fastest creatures on the planet) which did a number of swooping moves and laps around the place before catching his dinner mid air. Did you know that hybrids can't reproduce? So apparently you will never see a second generation hybrid. Anyway, I was really really pleased to be able to snap these pics:



There were also the owls. Its actually only been the last century that people have been able to get better value out of owls after figuring out they hunt by sound and not sight. Oh, and by the way, don't bother buying a plastic owl from the garden centre to drive the seagulls out of the garden - it doesn't work! I'm loving the expression in these pics; I can't decide whether its suspicious or thoughtful or something else.

Easy egg whites

Anyone who is into making desserts will know the value of egg whites - macarons, fluffy sponges, meringues, pavlova, mousse etc. just to name a few. Egg are the one of the most versatile foods I know of, and egg whites enable wonderfully light and fluffy textures to be achieved in desserting and caking.

Problem: what to do with the egg yolks? There's only so much ice cream and custard I make, and if I'm completely yolked out, even chucking it into fried rice or instant noodles seems unappealing.

Solution: egg whites in a tetrapak - genius! I was so excited to see a flyer about this at the Cake & Bake show last month and when I saw it quite by accident in my local Waitrose when I was looking for something else, my day was completely made. The packet was even kind enough to rattle off some of the health benefits to me...

I can't wait to be able to weigh out egg whites for macarons without having to worry about how many dozens of eggs to buy. In fact, whats even better is that the pack has 15 liquid egg whites and the expiry date for the unopened pack isn't for another 4 weeks so I can go completely nuts on the desserts next weekend (have still yet to pick up a macaron piping tip and print out some templates for piping them).

Update - Two Chicks is awesome for desserts. It whips up superfast (like 30s vs 1-2 min for freshly cracked eggs), its easy to measure to the gram, and there's no wastage. Brilliant!

On a less eggy note, my friend JLO has a few food allergies (including eggs), so whilst this has solved the egg yolk wastage problem and facilitated easier dessert making, I've still got to hunt around for an alternative before doing some vegan style baking experiments with his partner Miss E. I've found that vegan cake has tended to have a heavier and denser texture and lack the springiness and lightness that eggs provide. I think its the "glueyness" of eggs in the batter that makes a difference, and there's no ingredient like it! I have read about the Ener-G egg replacer which I've never seen in shops (but is apparently on Amazon) and see how it goes.

In the meantime, any other suggestions welcome!

Modern Pantry dinner - Clerkenwell

I've been wanting to go to Modern Pantry for a long while now, ever since I discovered a) chef Anna Hansen (formerly of Providores in Marylebone, and another delicious place) is a New Zealander, and b) its down the road from my house.

English vs Australian cuisine 

a) is important as English cuisine doesn't sit so well with me (English friends forgive me please), despite being partial to the desserts here and Sunday roasts. According to wikipedia, English cuisine involves bread, cheese, fish (cod and haddock everywhere), shellfish, pies and pastries, sausages, sandwiches, and stuff that is salted, smoked, pickled and preserved.

I've never been sure what exactly is defined as Australian cuisine (even wikipedia is far less definitive in this area) but in my experience it definitely doesn't involve having cod / haddock / salted & smoked stuff, pies etc. on menus all the time. Its always felt to a bit "fusion" with a lot of Asian flavours and I recall that pork belly seemed to be particularly in vogue by the time I left. Actually now I think about it I have a bit to say on food at home, will leave that for another post. By the way, I'm so not a food connoisseur, I'm just someone that likes to cook and eat!

Anyway back to the food - I was particularly excited about Modern Pantry since the sample menu looked like it had things I love to see and eat on a menu. In fact, it gets printed daily so I assume it must change subtly (or more obviously) every day. The day we went happened to be my birthday and I certainly wasn't disappointed!



Starters

I ate THE best tasting corn fritters I've ever eaten in my life. According to the menu it did had dates and feta as well as corn and was accompanied by rose and molasses yoghurt.



At my request, Mr T tried the spring rolls filled with crab and lemongrass which came with a coconut and green chilli dipping sauce. Alas, the spring rolls tasted like western made crab that had been put in a spring roll rather than an Asian spring roll - not sure whether that was the intention. Didn't rock my world but tasty nonetheless.



Mains

We had fairly contrasting mains afterwards, with a roasted haddock on congee and sambal (I'm not sure why on earth I've never thought to do this) and a tamarind marinated onglet steak. I think this was my least favourite part of the meal, though I was excited that the side of cassava chips came with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce! Just like wedges... but not.




Something sweet

The dessert menu looked awesome and I was super excited by the variety in frozen flavours. But me being me, I couldn't settle for a scoop of Modern Pantry style frozen since it seems such poor value when I can try and replicate this next time I do an experiment (thats the Asian in me talking).

So I went the whole dessert hog and came out with a chocolate pudding of sorts with a white miso caramel and a matcha syrup.

And a pecan meringue which was surprisingly creamy and chewy rather than meringue like. I was particularly happy that it came with rhubarb! A favourite of mine but perhaps a little old fashioned.



I think I mentioned I'm partial to the puddings in this country; one of the things I love about eating desserts is adding new stuff to the ideas bank and trying to use them my way. In this case, the new kids on the block courtesy of Modern Pantry:

• New ice cream flavours


• Miso in my caramel


• Rose and molasses yoghurt (and an enhanced corn fritter)

Awesome!

PS: Mr T and I liked this Modern Pantry so much we did go back for breakfast a couple of days later... more on that another day.

Oktoberfest

Beer festival, world’s largest fair, agricultural show … and a mecca for Australians. Even if I’m not a beer drinker - or any drinker really - Oktoberfest has always seemed a rite of passage for any Australian (or is it only talked about at uni as a cool thing to do?). While I am happy I went, I was equally glad to be home after a whirlwind 48 hours. In fact, I think the most enjoyable part of the whole trip was the walking tour of Munich, and the stories told to us by the lovely tour guides at Sandemans (mostly beer related, but justifiably so given its starring role on Bavarian history). But more on that in another post, today I’m being an Australian and talking about beer! Well, at least the things that stood out to me from my beer experience anyway.

Fortunately for us we had a Sydney-turned-Munich local with us who reminded us that the window for Oktoberfest beer tent space reservations is in December the year before. Basically, unless you know someone (who may know someone), forget about a reserved table. Problem: No table = no service = no beer. Solution: Queue up by 8.30am for a 9am start. QED.

We were staying about a half hour train ride from Theresienwiese and since the flight was delayed we didn’t make it to bed until 1am. Being the least fond of mornings of anyone I know, watching people down steins at 9.15am was somewhat disconcerting, but amusing at the same time. I think there is also some sort of rule where if you’re inside at a table you must be drinking, so you can imagine the sinking feeling I got when the beer put down in front of me (needless to say, someone else drank it).



Eating pretzels and weisswurst (the Munich white sausage) mid-morning was a bit of a novelty too, especially the bit where deskinning of the sausage is required as the skin is indigestible.



A few other interesting (to me) things I was told about beer / Oktoberfest:

• There are only 6 local brews that are allowed to be sold at Oktoberfest: Hofbrau, Augustine, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Spaten, Lowenbrau. The seventh Munich brew is Airbrau – yes, the airport has its own brewery. And why ever not?! Kumulus is such a cool name for a beer. Unfortunately I forgot to check whether stratus, altostratus or cirrus were on the list.


• The pope is from Munich and Augustine Edelstoff is his favourite beer. It is so prized that the Vatican is the only place that it gets exported. We did try and get our hands on some pope’s beer but alas as the wrong time of year… the only Augustine beer on offer was Oktoberfest flavour, presumably created especially for this two weeks.


• The biggest proportion of visitors to Oktoberfest are from Australia. Over time, drunken Australians with lost passports became such a problem that a guy was sent from Berlin every year to set up a temporary consulate (embarrassment much?!) for the duration of Oktoberfest. Though I presume this was awhile ago though since a quick check of the DFAT website gives an address of a consulate in Munich.

Back to the Oktoberfest experience. By 12pm myself and a couple of others had had enough and ventured outside. The number of people and the size of the place was intense, apparently it was like Sydney Royal Easter Show on steroids (not that I can comment since I’ve never been to the Easter Show). In any case, the fair ground was as packed outside as it was in a beer tent, and it started to rain, but fortunately I had a giant fairy floss to make everything better. In fact I was feeling so uplifted by the sugary goodness that Miss E and I decided to go on a baby ride as well. Before you laugh, we did briefly consider the adult version of the ride but as we got closer the I'm-too-old-for-this factor crept in. Besides, can you imagine how cold it would have been swinging around ~20m or so up in the air?



I'd love to be able to say that we finished off the day by going back for another beer, however there was no possibility of that given the rain and crowds at the beer tents (and the lack of desire by this point!)

Rite of passage complete, the next crowd battling effort was going to be at the train station back to the hotel, where I promptly went to the land of nod for the next couple of hours and spent the rest of the night recuperating.

Fortunately for me, there was gingerbread on hand to help, thanks Mr T! More on the rest of Munich (and the food there) another day...

Cakey things

This has been a week of shopping excitement when it comes to cakey things. I feel like I haven’t shopped for ages, so when Amazon sent me an email recommending I buy the Hummingbird cake days book, I couldn't resist.  Being sucked into the website by then I also saw the Magnolia book so I got that too. And a new cranked handle spatula. And flower modelling tools. And piping tips. And.... do you reckon I could buy some time as well to now to put all these things into action?

On a side note, I’ve found it really bizarre that its so difficult to shop for caking stuff in London, and on the odd occasion that I have managed to get something I need its been really really expensive. £4 for a balloon whisk at Sainsburys? £10 for a 8” round cake tin? No kidding. We went to the cake and bake show a couple of weeks ago (more on that another day) where I had hoped to find some inspiration and stuff to buy, but found myself more than a bit disappointed by what was there. Guess online is still the best!


I am particularly excited about the piping tips, I finally have a replacement 2D Wilton! Hurrah for fast roses on cupcakes (rather than individual buttercream petals) and no more plain boring swirls. Here’s a quick snap of the 2D.



Next step: go get a Hummingbird cupcake to analyse look and taste, make cupcakes and a big batch of buttercream / whipped cream to pipe, and find someone who needs to overload on sugar. Volunteers anyone?

Raspberry rapture

Did I mention my over excitement at the epic amount of fresh food and veg at Parkside the other week? (see here) I managed to drag Mr T back to Parkside after I saw on their website that they had RASPBERRIES. I'm a self confessed raspberry monster and it was the last chance I had before raspberries go out of season. So we rugged up and made the trek, and it was totally worth it. Here are the spoils (yes, the products got shared out and were put in desserts! No way even I could eat them all)

If I had to choose a favourite to eat forever it would definitely be raspberries. Heck, I even like raspberry leaf tea. Everything from the gorgeous shades of raspberry (pun intended) on the exterior and interior, the squishy yet unsqueaky texture, the completely uniform crinkles in the leaves ... suffice to say I was in raspberry heaven this morning. Check out these morsels of deliciousness - Waitrose raspberries eat your heart out. What's your favourite way of eating raspberries?

Beary best friends

Its been so grey this last week that  its time for remembering sunshine and smiles. On a rare sunshiny day in summer I took Dougal bear and Penny bear to one of the squares down the road from my place to practise full sun photography (Aussie friends, you might have a flicker of recognition as you look at these - Dougal is a daffodil day bear and Penny is a pink ribbon bear), rather than the usual weekend of eat and drink.

Here are some of the snaps from the afternoon of Dougal and Penny picnicing, telling stories and even going for a walk. I think they look super sweet and I hope they make you smile too.