Yummy Street Food in Istanbul

OMG OMG OMG! Where the heck have I been?
I've been to a few places, and work has been absolutely MAD!
Anyway, let's not talk about work right now...

This is one of the few places I've been recently, Turkey. I've been to two cities, Istanbul and Izmir. They are absolutely AMAZING! The country's at its most gorgeous when I was there. Blue sky, perfect weather, flowers everywhere (like literally, EVERYWHERE!), awesome people, majorly cute boys, and of course, yummy yummy food!


I don't normally love candies, but this one's very lemony... and...


...it's sold by such a hunk, I just had to try!


Awesome breads and pastry everywhere. Putting myself on a low carb diet would've been absurd!


Grilled chestnuts and corn. I had the grilled corn while waiting in line to visit Aya Sofya.


And of course, we had to try kebab!
Everyone's so friendly in Istanbul, the shop owner insisted that we posed with him shaving off yummy grilled meat. I LOVE IT!


Absolutely yummy! We bought watermelon from a street vendor too and it's so dang sweet!


Juicy meat, fragrant rice, tasty condiments... heaven!


Sour cherry juice. I regret not trying...


WOW! I've never seen so many baklava in my life!


The charming gentleman who owns the baklava shop also insisted that we posed with him. Adorable!


I tried the chocolate and pistachio baklava.
Melt-in-mouth!


Polished everything off with Turkish apple tea.
What an amazing day!

And gosh I miss blogging!!!

Super Cheesy Baked Egg with Broccoli

Cheesy is pretty much what I am all about. I kinda overdid this a bit. Well a lot. The amount of grated cheese I added to this thing was ridiculous, but hey... the block of cheese was gonna expired soon, I had no choice right? Plus, there's never too much cheese in my book ^_^

So this was one of my last low carb breakfast before I went on a chain of business trip. I'll surely go back home and make this easy treat again.

Recipe
(served just me ^_*)
- 1 egg, beaten
- a dash of cream
- lots of grated cheese (like a tiny mountain of it), I used cheddar, but if you had a bit of mozzarella to go with it, it'd be nice too
- a handful of chopped broccoli (just used some leftover, a handful of frozen peas would be nice too)
- a bit of pepper
Preheat oven to 200C, throw everything, except a bit of grated cheese to put on top, bake until golden brown and fluffy. Serve with chilli sauce or tabasco.

And I got slimmer a bit eating this sinful thing? Howww?

Yummiest Things I Had in Cote d'Ivoire

I didn't expect anything when I traveled to Ivory Coast. Some of my colleagues told me some horror stories and recommended me to pack some food. And no, not cup noodles, because the hotel we stay in might not have a kettle. Yikes! I packed a bunch of soyjoy bars, cookies and nuts, thinking that I would be totally miserable, but it would be nice to lose a couple of pounds out of this trip. Silver lining is all I see :)

 Little did I know... that Ivory Coast, being so French influenced, is so full of delicious treats! Every day, I had buttery and flaky pastries during breakfast (if you followed me on instagram or liked my Facebook page, you've probably seen my breakfast photo reportage ^_^)

Now, here's one memorable short food adventure my colleagues and I had, courtesy of our very lovely and hospitable local customers, in-between working like mad preparing for a successful event.
Hard boiled eggs. I am not a big fan, but...

...with this sprinkle of yummy spices, I fell in love!


Wait a minute. These little nuggets look familiar...


They are Vietnamese spring rolls and they are so popular in Ivory Coast! WOW!


Next, we sat down and had our late lunch alfresco.

The weather was beautiful! We were elated to be dining on the street!

I tried Orangina.

And I LOVE this fizzy orange juice!

We tried this yummy coconut chips.


And these fluffy and crispy shrimp fritters.

YUM!

And say hello to the best sandwich I've ever had!

The generous bits of grilled beef were so beefy, tender, juicy and so charcoal smoky... none of us could say anything but ..mm...mmm...MMMH!
Did you notice how my local customers got used to me taking pictures of my food? At first they went "Ahhh Rrrrrittaaaa... Riiiittaaa!!! You and your photos!" but after a while, they helped opening this sandwich up for my photographic benefits ^_^
I can't thank you enough!!!


Look at how they wrapped the sandwich in recycled paper!

J'adore!
Ivory Coast, you are delicious!

Mushroom Omelette with Black Truffle Pate

OMG! It's been so long!
Lots have been going on in my life... a new job, a new flat, business trips, etc etc etc...I am overwhelmed!
And naturally, I've been eating a lot of carbs, dumping my diet aside, which is a bit sad since it was going so well :(

Anyway, looking at my old low carb pictures, I am inspired to start again, and I'd like share this one with you. It's meatless but very tasty and satisfying with a touch of luxe ;)

Recipe
- 1 egg, beaten
- half a cup of button mushrooms, sliced
- a tsp of black truffle pate
- butter, salt, pepper

Melt butter in a non stick frying pan, saute mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, pour beaten egg, cook for a bit (do not overcook), flip, serve and add black truffle pate on top.

YUM!

My Holiday Breakfast Indulgence

Chocolate cake for breakfast. So un-me, but so delish!


It all started when I bought a bag of super soft and chocolatey chocolate cake from A1 Bakery for baby M, and he cringed at the sight of chocolate cake (weird!!!) and refused to even try it (double weird!!!). But he adoresss eating just chocolate (triple weird).

Anyway... so we ended up with this chunk of temptation, and finally caved and had it for breakfast.

I added touches of savories, one's peanut butter and the other is cream cheese with passion fruit jam.

I had mine with coffee and SC devoured this with milk x yakult (weird?), with his bedhead (censored) and iPad on his lap (we no longer have human interaction on dining table since... iPhone and iPad).

Hehehehe...how was your Easter holiday, guys?