The Wonders of Double Cream and Gibraltar Living

Tristan has already written about the hope and disappointment of US keto-shopping.  Just as we had viewed the upcoming groceries stores of America as a keto-utopia while we were in England, our return to the UK also was being seen as rosier and rosier with every passing week we spent in America.  

We longed to return to double cream and nutritional information standardized to 0.1 g and per 100 g, regardless of the item.  We would know exactly what he was eating and be able to get more fat in him than ever!  

As with most things though, our return home was not the perfect paradise we had imagined.  We arrived back in our home after a total of 7 months away to find that the refrigerator is broken!  Back to living life out of an ice bag!  We were dismayed by our inability to stock up on keto-rific products from the local grocery store and begin the process of finding the very best cheese, sausages, and what not, but headed to the grocery store anyway as a sort of re-con mission and also pick up our life saver, double cream.  

One of Gibraltar's Macaques

Lo and behold, does the only British grocery store in Gibraltar, Morrisons, have double cream?  No.  They are out.  'Perhaps try again in a few days time. '  For anyone not British and in the know, double cream is essentially a Britain-only dairy cream product which contains about 50% fat and only 1.5 g carb per 100 g.  It tastes great, and makes our life so much easier when we're in a fat-pinch.

The sausage section had also been reduced to a gaping hole in the refrigerated aisle, and with Tristan's temperamental tendencies, it is a miracle one of us wasn't reduced to tears or found assaulting a Morrison's employee.  This time, I wouldn't have blamed him.  

One punched laptop later (someone was bound to get hurt, but the laptop took it quite stoically), we now finally have a working fridge, even if it is white and not sleek brushed metal, and we have also visited more grocery stores (Eroski carries some Waitrose products!)  Everything is actually going to be ok.

For the time being, there is no perfect keto-paradise.  Everywhere we have been has its pros and its cons.

America is stocked up on its low-carb wonders (still bugging Tristan to review his new favorite chocolates), and unusual ingredients like guar gum.  I have also come to realize what a true 'melting pot,' as it is so often called, America really is. Being from Texas, for instance, I take for granted the normalcy of having German sausages next to Italian next to Polish. Most of the cheeses in the 'fancy cheese section' as I call it may be imported for a hefty price, but cheese from all different European countries are a part of my normal cheese life.  It never would have occurred to me that it could be any other way.  These are great things, but I dont have to tell you, there are downsides to my side of the pond as well.

We are lucky in Gibraltar that we get the benefits of both British and Spanish products.  So for the next while, expect to see some British and Spanish cooking!

Home is where the fat is

We are finally back 'home' in Texas, with the family and other animals. 

Those of you who know me well, know that I never tend to be happier than when I am on the go, enjoying fresh experiences and forcing people to like me in exciting new places. I would normally have added something about food to that list, but things stand somewhat in reverse these days as its my return home which brings with it the potential for new gourmet experiences.

Running to the freezer in Beth's home as I did the moment I got to McAllen, I dug out the remnants of the last batch of vanilla pecan ice cream which Samantha had made me before we left on our road trip. There was only about a quarter portion left but I hungrily lapped it down like a famished goat. No surprise there really, since the only sweet foods I had eaten in the 2 months I had been away from Texas, has been the small portions of the 'big three' berries (straw, black, rasp - in that order) that I had been having daily with heavy whipping cream for dessert.

I promptly chained Samantha to the ice cream maker and got her working on a batch of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Not only delicious, but like all dishes created in 'our kitchen', very fatty. In fact it contains more than three times as much fat as my usual dessert on the trip of 25g of strawberries (that's one medium sized strawberry to you and me) and 20g of cream, not to mention, to get technical, a far better fat to protein/carb ratio of 5.5:1. I also get to lick the spoon and scrape the bowl on the day she makes it, which I assure you, cannot be a pretty sight to behold.

an unlikely kitchen helper

Having done most of our cooking either in campsites, or the unfamiliar kitchens of our new friends, or hostels (or motorway rest stops, motel bathrooms, parking lots), the return to Beth's kitchen was a welcome treat and also meant time to get started on those delicious fruity flax loops which I adore so much, providing, as they do, a welcome relief to the egg-and-bacon-rich breakfasts I have almost every other day of the week. Each batch (providing one bowl!) takes almost an hour to make, so I am yet to break the news to Samantha that she should not make any plans for Sunday this week.

Whilst we did exemplarily well in keeping the precision going over for three meals a day over almost two months, it was however the potential to experiment which we have most been missing. Not to mention the fact that there is also a limit how many strawberry and goats cheese salads or sausage suppers the human body can take before it screams 'no more'. Since our return, Samantha has already been flexing her creative muscle and, aware of how much I was missing Chinese food, created an 'Asian Chicken Salad' which quickly shot up my list to become, quite possibly, the best meal of all time. There is also a salmon salad with fresh raspberry vinaigrette in the pipeline and I am literally licking my lips in anticipation of this dish as I type. You will have to 'watch this space' with regard to both of these ...

Last night, we had 'sushi' of the rice-less variety at Kumori, a local restaurant which claims that the food it serves is contemporary Japanese, and a trip to Taco Palenque, the family's favourite taco joint, is also on the cards in the days to come. I suspect another blog post by me about 'Dining in the Rio Grande Valley' might be coming along soon also. So there's another space for you to watch,

people.