Traditionally, I’ve ended
the year on my blog by looking back at all the good dishes I’ve eaten during
the past year.
Well, 2020 was a strange
year – with very little travel and eating out at restaurants – unlike previous
years. It’s a bit more difficult to recap the best meals I’ve eaten this year. However, most of the best meals in 2020 were homemade and eaten at home.
January 2020
The year started out
hopeful. One night, we met friends after work to take advantage of a 3-course
meal at Gaucho in the South Kensington neighborhood of London.
While sipping my glass of red wine in the chic bar, I had no idea what the upcoming
year would have in store for us. Highlights: scallop ceviche and chicken
Milanese.
At the end of January, we
flew to Barcelona to meet up with American friends visiting from NYC. Highlights
from our dinner at Can Boneta –known for its Catalan tapas and small
plates – included octopus with creamed potatoes and veal carpaccio.
Our last meal in Spain was
a tapas lunch at Mercado de la Sagrada Familia – cheap platters filled
with Spanish jamon and queso and a side of patatas bravas.At the end of January, I
even managed to drive to Bath for a day with two girlfriends. We enjoyed
an Italian lunch at Sotto Sotto with its vaulted cellars and bare stone
walls.
February 2020
We planned an overnight
trip to Liverpool, one of the larger English cities that we hadn’t visited
yet. We went to a food hall, a beer festival with hundreds of people and ended
the night at the Cavern Club – a crowded night club where the Beatles once
played. A weekend like this would be unthinkable right now.
At the end of February,
we were supposed to go to Milan, which ended up being one of Italy’s epicenters
of the Covid-19 virus. We opted for a nice dinner out in London at Eneko Basque
Kitchen & Bar, which was offering 3 courses for £28. Highlights: beetroot
tartare, pork ribs and a decadent chocolate tart for dessert.
March 2020
On March 9th,
I flew to the US to visit family and celebrate the 90th birthday of
my husband’s grandmother. I made a two-layered carrot cake for the occasion.
I’m glad we had the chance to visit family before the pandemic took hold of the
entire world.
Luckily, we flew back to
London, landing on the 16th of March – the day Prime Minister Boris
Johnson announced the initial UK lockdown. We were in for a bumpy ride.
At the end of March, we
celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in our garden at home
instead of on the beach in Thailand as we originally planned. I made a
an issahn-style pork salad and pad thai, and hubby made pina coladas to drink.
April through
Summer 2020
And thus, this started the
beginning of our lockdown life in London.
I was furloughed from my
pastry job. Hubby was working from home. I began cooking all the time and joined
the sourdough baking bandwagon. I learned the ups and downs of feeding and
taking care of my starter and also had difficulties sourcing flour several
times.
I made Turkish kebabs, pide,
sigari böreği, mucver and revani – a semolina cake.
I sometimes made Italian focaccia,
pasta, ravioli and pizza.
We took advantage of the
sunny days and went on long bike rides and grilled outside.
I baked bagels, challah
and cakes at home. I soon started donating treats to my friend’s business, The
Plattery, who started cooking for low-income people who needed food. (NOTE:
we’ll still be donating meals in 2021, so if you can help donate here,
please do.)
I made homemade tortillas
and pulled pork so we could celebrate Cinco de Mayo at home.
We discovered a fish
delivery company called The Upper Scale and cooked our own seafood
feasts at home like French moules frites.
July 2020
For more than three
months, cinemas, hair salons, museums, restaurants and bars were closed (except
for take-away and delivery services) in the U.K. The country’s first lockdown
ended on 4th of July.
Toward the end of July,
we booked our first trip post-Covid-19 restrictions and drove up to the Peak
District for a week. Our life didn’t change too much – hubby still worked
from “home” and I went on long walks and cooked at our rental cottage. However,
we did manage a few visits to the local pubs – as long as we could dine
outside.
August 2020
We booked our second
staycation and stayed in a rental cottage in southern Cornwall for a
week. Sitting outside at a pub, smelling the sea air and eating fish and chips
– life never seemed so good!
September 2020
We ventured out of the
city again – this time we donned our facemasks and took our bikes on a train
heading to Norwich in the County of Norfolk. Over the course of
six days, we managed to cover 205 miles/325km on our bikes. We ate a lot of pub
meals to fuel up for our long bike rides and ended that staycation with a big
steak dinner.
October 2020
Although I’ve tried all
sorts of new recipes during lockdown, I started taking some online cooking
classes in October. I learned how to make pastel de nata from a Portuguese
woman in Lisbon and Argentinian empanadas from a lovely couple in Columbia.
We also managed – just
barely – to escape to Wales for a couple of days for hubby’s birthday.
The foodie highlight of that staycation was cooking Welsh lambchops in our
nearly 200-year-old rental cottage.
November 2020
My favorite foodie
holiday, Thanksgiving, fell during our second lockdown. We still pulled
off a socially-distanced dinner with our neighbors and piled a table full of
festive delights such as grilled turkey, green bean casserole, sweet potato
casserole, roasted veggies and more.
December 2020
As mentioned in my
previous blog post – How to Pretend You’re in Paris via London – we were
able to treat ourselves to one fancy meal out before London went into lockdown
– AGAIN!
This year has been all
about cooking and baking new recipes at home, becoming a pantry raiding
superstar and foraging for ingredients around the city. I’m thankful that I’ve
learned some new baking skills, but I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to work in
restaurants and enjoy dining out with friends again in 2021.
Wishing you all a Happy and
Healthy New Year!
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