Blog-Event LXIII - Gute Vorsätze für das Neue Jahr

This is my first foray into German food blog events and in a slightly recursive way is all about resolutions.

The blog event theme is about cooking or food related resolutions and participating in it fulfills some other resolutions of mine:

Resolution 1: to re-energise Travels With My Fork (our blogging dropped off in 2010)
Resolution 2: to make more of an effort to network with German food bloggers, because, well, we live here now.

This post is also about Resolution 3 which is to eat healthier breakfasts in 2011. I go through phases with breakfasting. For a month or so I was fixated on vollkorn bread with a smear of leberwurst. Then I switched to cereal. And more recently I've been having a brötchen with sliced meat and cheese. I wait until I get to work to eat my breakfast so something transportable is a prerequisite.

Last year, when i was working down by London bridge, I went through a stint of breakfasting on simple miso soups that Kelsie would prepare in advance. Those were by far the most satisfying for me. I could stave off any elevenses cravings for a biscuit or sweet thing, if I had my bowl of miso soup in the morning. And the additional perk was that this soup is not heavy or carb-laden. Pluses all around!



The recipe I've used comes from Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking. It takes no more than 20 minutes to make and is flavourful and restorative at the same time.

Carrot and Miso Soup
100g carrots, peeled and cut into thick circles
200 ml water
1 chicken stock cube or 2 tsp chicken stock powder
1 rasher streaky bacon
1 celery stick finely chopped (i used celeriac)
1/2 tsp miso
salt and pepper
coriander to garnish (i used chopped spring onion)

1. Bring the water with chicken stock to a boil.


2. Add the carrots and cover with a cartouche. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook until the carrots are tender.


3. Take the carrots off the heat and mash in the stock until broken up into small bits.


4. Fry the bacon until crispy. Take off the heat and stir in the chopped celery.


5. Add the bacon and celery to the carrots and bring to the boil again.


6. Turn off the heat and stir in the miso until dissolved.


7. Season with salt and pepper.


8. Serve garnished with coriander leaves.

dotori finsbury park

I met mel in The Crown pub on friday (work drink thang) which was heaving and not particularly enjoyable. We were also not in the mood to deal with Piccadilly circus and surrounding environment at that time so we hot footed it back up north to our patch. I had spied a Korean/Japanese place a few days earlier near Finsbury Park station and knowing that mel loves sushi we decided to give it a go. Research told me that Dotori had been open since the summer and seemed to be doing quite well for itself thank you very much despite its slightly dodgy location in Finsbury Park. On entering it looked busy and we overhead the one and only waitress say that people were having to share tables. I had already clocked a couple of "bar" seats by the street window so we asked for those. Drinks and menus came quickly enough and the choice looked good. The place was clearly crying out for more wait staff even tho it seemed like there was a random guy who came of the kitchen to serve food and take orders. Anyhoo we placed our orders and waited. I plumped for the variety of dumplings as a starter and Mel ordered the Agedashi tofu which is cubes of tofu fried in dashi (broth). Both very good, no complaints. Mel commented on that even tho fried tofu was a simple dish very often a lot of people do it wrong. In this case tho it was all good. Next up was the salmon, eel and tuna nigiri for mel and I ordered strips of beef served with soba noodles and vegetables. Red wine was also orderd which came slightly chilled. Mel's nigiri came fairly quickly and was quickly gobbled. Mel reckoned it was pretty fresh. I tried a piece and had to agree. No complaints there. However, I was still waiting for my strips of beef. And I waited and I waited. Mel had also ordered a spider crab roll which came and went while my strips of beef still eluded me. Okay enough was enough. I turned around and gave the struggling waitress one of my most pissed off looks and within seconds she produced another plate of on the house dumplings to apologise for the wait for the beef. The chef had clearly forgotton about it and they apologised. Fair enough. It arrived fairly soon after but I was pretty full after scoffing the extra dumplings so perhaps I didnt enjoy it as much as I could have. Despite the slow service we enjoyed the food and the experience and would definately try it again. The bill came to £43 which is pretty decent considering we had a beer and 2 glasses of wine each. Check it out!

Dotori Stroud Green Road Finsbury Park London, N4 2DF