Food Tour again? Um, yeah! Duh.

I went on another Food Tour, with Real Richmond Food Tours! It was very exciting just like last time (If you are curious about my last Tour, just check out my other Food Tour post). I really really recomend that everyone goes on a Food Tour at least once in your life, it is just really fun to try a variety of foods and experience the atmospheres of different restaurants.

 

The first stop was at Pearl's Cupcake Shoppe. Now, first, let me just clarify, that I never eat cupcakes because I was traumatized as a child and blah, blah, blah: long story short, here I am today successfully avoiding cupcakes. Except on this tour. I tried a cupcake. As a well know hater of cupcakes, I have to admit that this cupcake was yummy.

The second food stop was at The Continental. Oh my goodness, can I just say that their vegetarian nachos were so delicious! Of course I can, it's my blog. DELICIOUS NACHOS! Oh sweet baby Spock, I ate all those nachos as if someone was about to take them from me.
I enjoy quality nachos.

The third foodie stop was at Gearharts Fine Chocolate. Holly delicious chocolate trap Batman, I don't know why I left that place.  I tried their Criolla, which was extra bittersweet (73.5%) Venezuelan single bean chocolate ganache with natural cacoa nibs, dipped in dark chocolate. If that sounded beautiful to you, then imagine how it tasted. Or go and buy some. While your at it, buy me some as well.

Seriously though.

Our fourth eatery was SuperStars Pizza! I love white pizzas and every pizza place sells regular pizza, but SuperStars Pizza sells white pizzas! I am super excited, and it only gets better, SuperStars Pizza primarily a "Take-N-Bake", where they provide a delicious pizza, instructions on how to cook it, and a special cooking sheet. That way you can enjoy the most mouth-water pizza ever, at the comforts of home. Yay for pizza-eating introverts, now we never have to leave the house! (Except for once a month, that is when we brave the outside world to stock up on more pizza!)

The final destination for the Food Tour was Westhampton Pastry Shop, the world's Donut Squad Headquarters. Again, I am weird about sweets, I don't like cupcake or cake, but I do like sweets just in small amounts. But, their pecan pie is to die for. I could have eaten three of those pies. There were as delicious as WPA Bakery's Buttermilk Pie (shout out to them!).

Alright, now lets get to some geeky recipes to munch on, sip a bit, look at, or dream about. User's choice.

Vulcan Spice Tea

 (Makes about 1/4 cup of the spice mixture)

To make the spice mixture:

1 cinnamon stick (about 10g)

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds (about 2g)

1 teaspoon cardamom pods (about 4 g)

2-3 teaspoons black peppercorns (about 12g)

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (about 2g)

2 teaspoons ground ginger (about 8g)

If you have a spice grinder, combine all the spices listed above and blend until you have a fairly smooth mix (some larger pieces are OK). Otherwise, use a mortar and pestle to grind your spices into small pieces.

To make 1 cup of the tea:

1/2 cup water

1/2 milk

1 teaspoon brown sugar (or to taste)

1 teaspoon loose black tea leaves

1/2 teaspoon of the spice mixture, above.

Add the water, milk, brown sugar and tea leaves to a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat and add the spice mixture. Bring to a gentle boil again, then remove from the heat and let steep for 4-5 minutes. 

To serve, pour the tea through a tea strainer or even a piece of cheesecloth to remove the tealeaves and pieces of spice. If desired, grate a little more nutmeg on the top as a garnish. 

Balso Tonic (cucumber juice)

(Makes about 400ml of cucumber juice)

1 English cucumber

Juice of 1 lemon

3-4 sprigs of mint (a good handful)

100ml water

1 teaspoon sugar (optional, to taste)

Soda water (optional)

Coarsely chop the cucumber and throw the pieces into a blender. Add the remaining ingredients and blend for 3-4 minutes until it is smooth. 

Strain the juice into a jug, pushing the pulp down with a back of a spoon to extract as much juice as possible.

To serve, add more lemon juice or sugar as needed (to taste), and top up with soda water if desired. Garnish with a piece of cucumber and an additional sprig of mint.

Notes:

• I prefer to blend everything together so it is well integrated, but you could also blend the cucumbers first so you have a neutral juice base you can then add other flavours to.
• I don’t bother peeling the cucumbers before blending, as they’re all going to be strained anyway, but you can peel the cucumbers if you wish.
• The cucumber juice also makes a great cocktail base - Hendricks gin is recommended!
• Add some yoghurt to the leftover pulp and you will have a smooth, raita-like dipping sauce.

Plomeek broth

(Serves 2-3 as a starter)

3 medium sized beetroots

2 carrots

1 onion

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 or 3 sprigs fresh thyme

2 bayleaves

1 litre vegetable stock

1 teaspoon salt

Pinch of pepper

Pinch of smoked paprika

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (or white vinegar in a pinch)

Start by preparing the beetroots. Wearing gloves, use a vegetable peeler to peel the skins off. Then chop them into chunks and set aside. As you are straining the vegetables after they’re cooked, you don’t need to worry about chopping them nicely.

Chop the carrots and onion into rough pieces. Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan and add the onion, thyme, salt, pepper and bayleaves. Cook for a few minutes until the onion begins to soften.

Add the carrots and beetroot and cook for a further few minutes. Then add the stock, bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer, with the lid on the saucepan, for about 40-50 minutes, until the vegetables are soft and almost falling apart.

Strain the broth into a bowl, and test for seasoning (you might need to add more salt or pepper). The leftover vegetables can be eaten if you wish, although they probably won’t have much flavour left.

To serve the soup, stir in the paprika and the vinegar, and serve either warm or cold. Add a sprinkle of more paprika as a garnish if you wish.

So there, I hope everyone enjoys the recipes and thought the Food Tour sounded cool, because it was. I found all of these recipes from http://foodreplicator.tumblr.com/ which I will also share the link to on the side bar!

Thanks for reading, I know it was a page full, comment at will. :)