X’mas baking and decorating

KATHMANDU: Christmas is still a month away, and if you think it is little early to start Christmas baking, then you are mistaken. Back in England and Europe in the earlier days, mixing of the ingredients for Christmas cake used to begin six month before Christmas at every household and it was considered a big family event with ladies busy soaking dry fruits and spices in alcoholic beverages.

However, with commercialisation and easy availability of readymade cake this tradition has almost been forgotten.

To mark this tradition, Soaltee Crowne Plaza organised a ‘Cake Mixing Ceremony’ on November 23 at the hotel bakery. More than 20 ladies from various diplomatic missions and corporate houses participated in the ceremony. This is an annual event normally done a month earlier to herald the festive feel and cheer.

It began with Father Christmas offering all invitees a welcome drink. Then Executive Chef Pavan Kapur and his team gave a demonstration on how to make the plum cake and fruit truffle.

The most exciting part of the ceremony was when the ladies were divided into four groups and the contest for decorating the Christmas cake was declared open. They had a lot of fun with all coming up with innovative ideas to decorate their cake in the perfect way.

The ladies from the Korean and Chinese embassies in Group B judged the best Christmas cake decoraters of the day on the basis of colour combination, neatness, appearance and the theme.

A panel of judges comprised Bobby Malla, Lazu Pradhan, Pavan Kapur and Dig Bahadur Shrestha.

Then all the ladies mixed the necessary ingredients for the Christmas cake — dry fruits, hot spices and alcoholic beverages. The event concluded with a lunch for all participants.

EU kitchens

KATHMANDU: Brandish yourself with a knife and a fork, for the onslaught is on! It is Chef Narendar at the Hyatt Regency spearheading the culinary campaign. This time though, he’s devised it as ‘14 kitchens of the European Union’ to clutter your platter with a welter of surprises. So get ready to break the monotony of regular meals and plunge in for a bout of exotica.

You could start your meal with the Norwegian salmon and fine herb soup or the Dutch Erwtensoep (Dutch green peas soup); then move on for the main course, which could range from anything from Australian specialty Gefulltes Schweinskarree (Stuffed smoked loin of pork), Danish Kogt salet al (Cooked smoked salted eel), French Langouste Baoloise (Spiny Lobster la Baule), German Kuhnerbrustchen auf Strassburger (supreme of chicken Strasbourg), Italian Osso bucco (Italian lamb shank stew) and many more. And guess what, it will be the Swiss dessert, Chocotine Charlotte, to wrap up your hearty meal.

So, get ready to break the monotony of regular meals and barge on to the Signature Restaurant to relish the entire culinary multiplicity of Europe. Europeans love good food,

all right, but it’s the right moment to prove that you’re no less of a foodie! The festival is on till December 1.

Key to Mustang

Kathmandu: Susan Griffith-Jones’ photographs bring us closer to our elemental nature, demonstrating subtle aspects of pure, spacious wisdom of mind.

Over 150 photographs taken by Griffith-Jones have been assembled into large mandala-like pictures entitled ‘Two keys, One lock’ and ‘Pure Vision Transformed into Organised Confusion’.

The exhibition is on at the Lazimpat Gallery Café from November 25 (inauguration at 5:30 pm).