lemon and honey drink

do you have a homemade cold and flu remedy? did your mum make you lemon and honey drinks when you were a kid?

I got the late summer death flu that seems to be going around everywhere, and spent 3 days in a fever-coma in bed, then drugged myself stupid with cold and flu meds for the first week of honours classes at uni. I’m sure I made a good first impression staring blankly with my mouth hanging open, wheezing and leaking mucus out my nose.

Consequently I have been living on mostly yogurt, lentils and flatbreads. none of this was particularly photogenic. I craved and made tzatziki over and over and over, and ate maybe 2 kg yogurt in a week. Just yogurt, garlic, salt, cucumber. I ate lentils in soup and dahl form, and ate flatbread with beans, herbs, carrot and yogurt in some variation several times. a few other meals in the mix, but that was pretty much it…

and the lemon and honey drinks. just like mama used to make.

My Lemon and Honey Drink Recipe

squeeze the juice of 1 lemon into a mug, add ~2 large teaspoons of natural pure honey (manuka is preferable, but goddamn, it’s like $9 for 400gs here!), then add boiled water to fill cup. stir and drink while huddled under blanket (in front of roaring fire is preferable). repeat until well!

this makes a very strong tasting drink, because I like feeling the lemony acid soothing my raw throat, and when I have a flu I can’t taste much. if it’s too strong for you, add more honey, or just squeeze half the lemon and use the other half for your friend’s drink or for yours, later. der.

if you are REALLY sick, like on the verge of death, add a chunk of fresh ginger, and a small, bruised but not crushed clove of fresh garlic.

aaaah, that’s better!

note: the tall glass is for visual effect only; when ill, I advise sticking with favourite large ugly mug with handle.

This is my entry in this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging, being kindly hosted by Kel over at Green Olive Tree (a really lovely blog!). so, Lemon… yeah, everyone knows about lemon, right. a great WHB topic eh? but wait…. why are lemons so good for the flu then?

According to this website, both honey and lemon are ancient and well recognised cold and flu cures. they say: honey, because it promotes mucus flow, and lemon because of it’s acidity, which makes your delicate and infection-prone mucus membranes taste bad to the bacteria and viruses! also the natural oils are antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal, and also promote mucus flow.

Check out this wacky webpage which claims colds and flus are caught via the middle ear and lemons are alkaline and balance an overly acidic, and therefore sick, body! man, the things you find on the internets! but here is another site extolling the many benefits of lemons for health and wellbeing, and they also mention some alkalinisation powers of lemons, so who knows… (we do know they are most definitely acid - ph of 2-3, not alkaline!)

Anyway, lemons, of course, have a ton if vitamin C, which is a great immune / healing vitamin, especially in conjunction with zinc (I took supplements of both to speed up the recovery). and here is the ubiquitous wiki link, which actually does have some interesting, though non-flu related, info if you’re feeling keen on lemons now! whichever way you want to look at it, a steaming cup of lemon and honey is, at the very least, definitely going to make you feel soothed and comforted when you’re sick, so give it a go!

and while we’re on lemons, don’t they have the most beautiful little blossoms? I think citrus blossom scent has to be one of my absolute favourite smells. gorgeous!

duck and coffee

we ate duck, then went to the rocks coffee festival (not all at once!).

it was good. so good, in fact, that all I have to show for the duck is the remains. this was also because we went for Joelle’s birthday, with a bunch of her friends, and I didn’t want whip out my camera and tripod at the dinner table and start snapping away when I’d only just met the people.. it is kinda weird behaviour, especially in front of strangers, right? do you sometimes feel a bit sheepish taking photos of your food?

the coffee festival was also gooood, BUT: it’s bloody crowded, and there are looong lines (check out the photos on the site - linked above). to add to this insult, they were handing out free pastries to the line next to ours, but we were already committed… we only made it through one 10 min line, and then in rained a bit and we were the only people in the WHOLE OF THE ROCKS without unbrellas (or babies for that matter).. we decided to cut our losses and go to a real cafe. next year: having a coffee before we go, and, ummm, going with my patient brain?

The Greens + The Coffee

I know I said I was going to make something exciting with my market buys, but hey, I’m a busy girl. I got home from uni starving yesterday, so made myself this little snackeral…

steamed bok choi and choi sum with snow peas, with a sprinkling of soy sauce. A piece of bready stuff with pesto, fetta and tomatoes (from Rusty’s) and off-screen is a bowl of miso (a paste sachet from the asian grocers two doors down from the backpackers).

and another thing: Carins doesn’t drink coffee. OK, they do, but nowhere near the volume Townsville does - and I am talking about volume.. I’ve been asking for large coffees all week and getting 8oz takeaway cups everywhere. WTF? that’s not going to get me through the belly morning!! I finally found somewhere that has 16oz takeaway cups, plus makes decent coffee to boot. Horray! here’s coffee directly fueling my work at 7am yesterday.

we’ve just now finished the coursework side of my uni course, which has been really interesting and fun. leaving C-town for Sydney tomorrow.

see you there!

A weekend in Sydney; Japanese and beer

spent the first of what will be many weekends in Sydney, now that Tom is back down there, but I am still up here!

sooo.. we ate. lunch: twice at Tokyo Ramen in Hornsby (their website is in Nihon-go, which I took - and failed! - at uni last year, so obviously I can’t translate for you!) Tokyo Ramen do awesome ramen. yep. also katsu don, gyoza and other tasty tasty things. it’s long and narrow, and always busy. everything comes out quick-as, and I just love it.

we also went to Redoak Beer Cafe on Clarence Street for dinner (ok. beer) for Tom’s birthday. I ate the Twice Cooked Duck on Sesame Noodles, Tom had Redoaks Spice Cured Ocean Trout, Bob ordered Brick Pastry Wrapped Jewfish (what’s brick pastry? well, it came with a little 5cmx5cm cube/brick of pastry on top. maybe that’s what brick pastry is?) anyway, there were 15 of us, so I won’t go any further with the descriptions, and the photos aren’t swell either, but I can recommend it as a social venue..

although there was an Australia v England cricket game on, and even though the restaurant section was less then 1/2 full all night, they put us right at the front, which is pretty much next to the bar. it was friday night, there was loud ‘bar music’, and cheering Britons to shout over. the back of the eating section was much much quieter, and empty when we arrived and for the rest of the night, so that would be the only complaint - plus, we would have been able to sit at a long table, rather then be split onto two.. but, enough quibbling, because: BEER! they brew! they know their stuff! it’s yummy and fun, and I love that the staff make sure you have a huge water glass, which they constantly re-fill. that is such a good policy.

then, more Japanese. Bob organised dinner at Sushi Samurai in Neutral Bay (who also seem to have ventures in Pyrmont and Darlinghurst - on business card, couldnt find a website). Bob has unbelieveable taste, and Sushi Samurai rocked. the set meals are sooo very worth getting, 6 of us ate far too much food, ordering both sets and assorted entrees and mains, and ended up being approx $25 pp! Bob’s tofu/seeweed salad, Ben’s pork belly, Andy’s sushimi salad.. ok, I’ll just say it was all great, otherwise I’m going to just list everything, and this post will be way too long. HIGHLY RECCOMMEND! and the staff are sooo cute and friendly - upon entering and exiting, you get a chorus of “Irashimase! Welcome!” and “Arigato gozaimasu! thank you very much!” from every staff member in sight.

oh. and the ice-cream (your choice of lychee, green tea or black sesame, all good) comes with Savoy Cake (dense sponge roll sort of thing) and nestled on a bed of…. cornflakes. which really works. hello, next dinner party trick!
YUM! I’m can’t wait to go back to Sydney to eat see Tom! xxx

coffee…

I’ve tried giving up coffee before, but it’s not for me. so I’m just comfortable with having an addiction to a stimulant. hey, I LIKE being stimulated, who doesn’t? and coffee is enjoyable and socially beneficial, rarely incites people to violence and makes us more productive, so as long as it’s legal, why not? bring it on!

who knows whether the ‘Ethiopian Goat Herder‘ story is history or myth (pretty much the same thing in my line), but personally I like the imagery of some crazy goats getting a bit of a perk-up from coca berries to get them through the grind (sorry) of scrounging for sustanance amongst the rocks day after day. there’s something Leunig-esque about it, don’t you think?

I have Gone Down To Get Coffee with ‘Jo and Jo’ on a near daily basis for a few years now. we share a love/need for coffee, and it gives us a chance to catch up, gossip and whinge about the boss.. oh, and, I mean, talk about upcoming projects. it was during a coffee trip/whinge session that we decided that we should quit work and started a business together so it could be called ‘Jo, Jo, Zo & Co.’

hasn’t happened yet, and we’ve now lost a ‘Jo’, but before she left she brilliantly liased with our local, Coffee Dominion (sshhh! I go to several. I’m a coffee slut. don’t tell them) who agreed to facilitate 2x Coffee Appreciation and Espresso Training workshops as part of the school holiday program (SHP) we run. so last week, 12 eager 12-18 year olds and 3 even more eager staff members arrived bright and early for 3 hours of history, theory, bean grinding, expresso machine managing, timing, milk frothing, pouring .. and of course; tasting! we staff were suffering a serious case of SHP Hangover from days and days of activities and events (well, not Karyn, she just wanted coffee) so it was a very welcome event.

since this is a food blog, and some people will actually want some info on the coffee making itself, here are some tips:

coffee beans are best ground straight before brewing: grounds start to stale after 3 seconds, due to the massively increased surface area/volume ratio, even if vacuum packed etc.. so grind on demand!

it is the oil from the beans that is essential, not some other mysterious brown quality, which is why expresso (vs plunger or heaven forbid percolated) has such a nice ‘mouth feel’ - the hot water, forced through the grounds with pressure, captures the oil particles better.

speaking of water.. don’t use distilled water: the minerals are essential for ‘capturing’ the coffee oils and wrenching them from the grounds. but you can be picky - city tap H2O with added chlorine etc isn’t great either.

don’t overheat the milk!! it should be cooler than most people expect - only ‘froth’ to 55-60 degrees C or so.. after that the lactose levels that build up nicely at that heat all drop away again, and you loose the natural sweetness.

that’s all I can remember.. I think the young people enjoyed it, they really got into it, including what to look for in taste and texture, and rating each others brews. Justin told them they would be the most popular members of their family if they master the art of good coffee.. here are a few pics of Jonothan and some ‘trainee baristas’, including a baby cowboy (look how little he is!) who was surprisingly into it, and Penny’s son Zinzan (look out, girls).