Avocado, Fig and Pomegranate salad recipe

Ah how I love Salad...
It started off from trying to eat as much vegetables a day, trying different kinds and I ended up becoming obsessed with dressings and seasonal veges. I even throw in some crushed crisps when I have it for crunchy flavour.
Fried onion bits comes in a plastic tub for £0.90 ish is one of my all time salad topping I always stock as well.
Today I made a salad using fig, avocado, salad onion, cress, pine nuts, gem lettuce.
The combination is up to you, but I like to throw normally 2 special things apart from usual lettuce and onion.
Recommended combination
Avocado, sun dried tomato and pine nuts
Mozzarella, basil and sundried tomato
Avocado, tomato and pine nuts
Fig and cress or Fig and goat cheese
Grilled courgettes, onion
Roasted aubergine, roasted parsnip or carrot
Sundried tomato, mozzarella with Penne pasta
Prawns and avocado
Broccoli, carrot and  crispy bacon
etc list can go on..

Ok, Fig and Avocado salad that is today...
To make one big portion/or 2 as side

Salad
Gem lettuce small 2
1-2 spring onion chopped
some pomegranate (I used less than 1/4 of one)
1 medium ripe avocado
Half of salad cress from a package
1 ripe fig skinned and slighted thinly
some roasted pine nuts

dressing
1.5 tbl spoon mild vinegar (I used sushi vinegar)
1 tbl balsamicvinegar
1 tea spoon mild Dijon mustard
1 tea spoon honey
2-3 tbl spoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tea spoon lemon juice

To make the spring onion mild, I marinade in vinegar and honey first before any other things, then followed by mustard then all other dressing ingredients. Toss all the salad in. Don't mix salad with dressing until just before you eat it, otherwise it can get very soggy.

When it comes to olive oil, I am always in search of good ones as far as my budget can catch up with that is.., any recommend?
My favourite so far is, Carluccio's Lemon Olive Oil I was given for my birthday gift from Christina (thanks for introducing!!) It is purely, heavenly, perfectly FANTASTICO! I recommend this super highly. (on salad, seafood.. anything)

Autumn day wander: Hampstead Heath and mushrooms

After many rainy days in London, it has been lovely sunny days are upon us.

No wonder I found so many different kinds of mushrooms today on Hampstead Heath when I just popped out for a walk. Within 30 minutes of looking around casually, I found and collected at least 10 kinds. I wish I was with a mushroom specialist so I know which one to pick and cook and which ones to avoid, and which ones could take me to a special place ;)

I picked this much today (I didn't dare to touch some others..)

The most amazing discovery was not the fairytale/Snow White world's red with white spots mushroom on heath (see image), but this weird white egg jelly mushroom I found. 

Fly Agaric

The most weirdest and bizzare kind.. I didn't dare touch it with my bare hand, but with a wooden stick, the egg like mushroom, looks like a big normal kind we eat commonly but without any visible stem, looks like a big round pouched egg. This egg like mushroom is very soft (like, again pouched egg) as it has this jelly inside this outer shell, then a hard white core. This, seems to grow a long asparagas looking white mushroom which is airy light and in fact looks like Aero choc bar for its bubbly texture. (See image, broken egg like base with the long mushroom take apart next to each other)

Does anyone have any slightest idea what this mushroom is?! I'm very curious..

jelly like inside

long mushroom stems from this egg like base

 I absolutely adore the heath, and it is the top 1 reason why I love my area, walking in 20 minutes through amazing shops and the feel of English country is priceless.

Brough house was closed so I had yummy coffee and chocolate carrot cake (total yum) in Ginger and White, then went for a walk on heath for an hour or so to enjoy the quiet autumn day.

perfection latte at Ginger and White

The days are getting shorter, so before I complain and moan whole winter, it is a good reason to get up early and get out to get as much sun/light as possible.

Music to check out: Paul Metzger/Bo Ningen

Paul Metzger

I just found his music online, Paul Metzger is his name.
He's an experimentalist in string instruments for truly the experimental sake.
I will sadly miss his show on Cafe Oto on 22nd October, but if anyone's around, it should blow your mind. Go!
Here are some extracts of his music. (from 2008 Locust release "Deliverance")

Bo Ningen

Also what I'm interested in music now, a new band called Bo Ningen, a Japanese band formed and based in London. They're living Can-like band and sounds very crazy, eye/mind grabbing noise/psych. They are playing in UK a lot, and I will finally catch them this Satday at Cafe Oto, only £3, don't miss out!
My beloved Ricoh camera is broken and has just started his journey to Japan to be hopefully repaired there, so I may not be able to take any photos but may write a review here soon.
They are going to be (sadly for me to use this phrase..) "the next thing" after following the same/similar footsteps of Melt Bananas, Acid Mothers Temple, Boris etc, I will check with my own eyes/feels, but I felt it when I saw a few seconds clip of their introduction on French cultural golden time TV show this Sep in Paris.

Dreams: 03.10.2010

I must have been having temperature when I dreamt this.. (I've been having mild fever and sore throat)
It was very vivid, scary and at the same time strangely beautiful. (just like dreams on nicotine patches!)

catfish (in Japanese old drawing) we say they can predict earthquakes, but here this picture shows in Edo period had a folklore a giant catfish is causing an earthquake so people are trying to calm it.

I was somehow staying in a very expensive hotel in London, right next to Westminster abbey, I woke from the bed and noticed that there were some people next door chatting and moving about, it turns out there was no door to divide the rooms, so I could see this posh family packing up in the next room.
They were middle aged couple with 2 young sons, they spoke very British and were like from middle class family.
As I was in the rare opportunity to be staying in a nice hotel, I thought about taking a good bath before leaving, but the bathrooms were shared with this next room and some more maybe, I could only see 4 shower rooms with white curtains, no much privacy more like a gym shower room, so I gave up the plan and go back to my room.
It was still night time, very dark, and I could see a huge Big Ben from the window. "How London!" I gasped, this was the closest you could get to view the Big Ben.. I try to stare at the scene.
The Big Ben was illuminated in the night lake/pond underneath it, and it was so beautiful I took my camera to take some shots, knowing this would be a masterpiece images.
One of the sons from next room comes into my room and I tell him how beautiful it is the scenery from the window. He agrees and watches with me while I get ready to shoot some pictures.
There was even a illuminated cherry blossom tree by the lake/pond which made the scene extraordinary like in a dream cinematography. I could still picture this scene by heart, it was stunning night scene.
I look at the camera screen and notice something is moving there, I noticed I was not looking at the image I took but the actual scene through the finder. I look at the water surface and there were many massive cat-fish like creatures slowly moving around. Sometimes this slimy creature would come out from the water with sharp threatening movements. When my eyes get used to the dark, I see the water was full of them moving around in a circle like a sinister ritual.
end of this dream...

Is that because of my temperature?  or is that because I am reading Kenji Miyazawa's stories before bedtime? He was a country literal who loved the nature and wrote many stories for kids but often quite dark with folklore involving animals. I strongly recommend his literatures/poems if you're interested in nature and folklore. His style is very romantic yet embraces harsh reality of incomprehensible relationship between nature and human.
Amazon has some good valued books in English here.
I a watching "Grizzly Man" by Herzog now and then will be continuing to read Kenji's short stories, so I'll see what dreams I will be watching :)
 (hopefully not get eaten by a bear..)