Very British? Hell, no.

Last week I was on a trip to England. Together with a group of people from school, we visited Hastings, Brighton and London. I thought it would be quite interesting for you to see what we ate there, as the British kitchen is known as very special. The truth is, we tried lots of yummy things and I do not want you to miss any of them.

The first day we spent a couple of hours in Hastings, where we ha lunch. After a long night travelling by bus, we were quite hungry and not in the mood to search for food for very long. Luckily, there was a mid-eastern restaurant near the place where we stopped.
I do not eat meat and had therefore few things to choose from, but was pretty happy with this rice and bean soup portion. It was tasty and a pretty big amount of food, I could not eat it all.

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The second day, we were in London. Our little trip to borough market was an awesome idea, they offered fresh falafel wraps there, which were prepared to your taste in front of your eyes. Very good thing.

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But now wait, here comes the most fabulous thing about borough market: desserts. A few meters awaf from the falafel wraps, I found myself in a sweet heaven.

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This stall ofered different cakes, including chewy-gooey brownies.

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Here was a stall with various kinds of fudge and honeycomb in chocolate. I bought some raspberry chocolate fudge. It was veeeeeery sweet but so good.

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This stall offered French pastries. They all looked gorgeous, but I decided on macarons. I must honestly admit, they were a little too dry and sugary to my taste, but the chocolate filling of the brown one tasted like heaven.

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One merchant offered sweets from Turkey. I was impressed by the different kinds of baklava, which increased my urge to bake it myself.

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In Brighton, the town we stayed overnight, we found a Moo Moo’s. This sweet brand sells some really good milkshakes. I one with strawberries. I really liked the thick consistency, caused by loads of white vanilla ice cream. The oreo version you can see above is the right thing for cookies & cream freaks. In Brighton, we also tried fish & chips, traditional British food, they call it. I did not take a picture. I did not eat it all. And I will tell you why: I am a tolerant person and open minded to other cultures. But if you care a little about your heart, be careful with this. Forget about McDonald’s, forget about Burger King. This was a real bomb of fat. Maybe we stopped by at the wrong snack bar or there was a problem with the deep-fryer, no idea.

The last day of our stay, we were in London again and we visited Camden Town. This was our best decision! This part of London is a whole piece of art and there will be a post on my other blog about it. But here you can get to know the food. What’s Camden Town like? Imagine the whole world, assembled at one place. There is Indian, Thai, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, American food. Merchants reach their handy out from every stall, offering foretastes to the people passing by. Every few metres you smell different spices and ingredients. It is simply stunning. Bang bang chicken, anyone?

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You could sit down one a moped seat by a small river and have your meal.

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I had Indian samosas and Thai vegetables. Both things tasted great. I hope I will get to know some good Thai recipes on my trip next week.

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Of course, there were classics and fancy food. Last Christmas I saw journalists of BBC calling fried mars the most disgusting food in the world. I can’t judge that, I did not try it.
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And of course, there was a variety of dessert – for cheap prices.

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Give me loads of money and a few hours, and I will return roud as a ball.

All in all I can say – eating in England is an adventure. If you go on a trip there – be open-mided and try different things, it will be worth the experience.

White Chocolate Blueberry Cheesecake

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I kind of have a thing for cheesecake. A few weeks from now I started craving it and this desire has not stopped until yet. This weekend, I came across a recipe called “The best cheesecake in the world”. Dear reader, be careful when reading such things – do not believe everything written on the internet. I was very sceptical at the beginning, as I have been disappointed with such “best” recipes, but the instructions did not sound too complicated, so I gave it a try.

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This cake has a crust which holds the whole mass together. I am not reaally a fan of crusts in cheesecake, because they usually take quite some time to prepare and are dry when baked. But this one is no big deal concerning the preparation and is a little crunchy, which is really an interesting experience to taste.

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To make the whole thing a little special, I cut one white chocolate into small pieces with a knife and put it in the batter. Also I put some blueberries in the middle of the batter. And no doubt, the cheese layer was by far the best one I have ever tried. It uses beaten heavy cream to get fluffy and the white chocolate inside makes it taste full and rich.

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Although my version turned out a bit burned, as can be seen in the pictures, it did not taste burned at all. So please do not let the brown top scare you, the most important thing is that the mass is baked. And now here the instructions for the surprisingly simple “best” white chocolate blueberry cheesecake.

White Chocolate Blueberry Cheesecake

(for a round 26 cm (10´´) pan)

crust:

200 g (1 2/3 cups) flour
75 g (1/3 cup) sugar
75 g (1/3 cup) butter
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder

cheese layer:

125 g (1/2 cup + 1 tbsp) butter
180 g (3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pckt instant vanilla pudding powder
3 eggs
500 g (18 oz) curd
200 g (6,5 oz) sour cream
200 ml (3/4 cup) heavy cream
150 g (5 oz) frozen blueberries, defrosted and dripped off
100 g (3 oz) white chocolate, chopped into small pieces or shredded

To prepare the crust, soften the butter in a microwave and mix together with the other ingredients for the crust until a crumbly dough comes together.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).

Oil a round pan and spread the dough on the ground and form a rim of about the width of two fingers. Place the crust in the fridge until the cheese mass is done.

For the cheese layer, mix butter, sugar, vanilla extract, pudingpowder and eggs in a bowl. Add curd and sour cream and cream until incorporated.
Beat the heavy cream in a seperate bowl, then fold it gently in the rest of the mass. Last but not least, put in the chopped white chocolate.

Pour half of the mass into the prepared pan, then spread the blueberries onto it. Now spread the rest of the mixture on top.

Bake for a good 60 minutes, until the cheese mass is done.