How to build a Mozambican house

We were only a group of 5 ladies, but we made incredible progress with our building in the 7 build days that we had in Mozambique. The homes we built are fashioned on the traditional Mozambican huts, but with a concrete floor to keep out pests and diseases. This way, Habitat is able to employ local builders who are skilled in traditional building methods such as thatching to maximise the employment they can provide for the community. Houses are also extremely cheap to build - apart from the concrete, most of the materials are natural and can be found in the surrounding areas, and it was amazing to see how you can build a house with basically some tree branches and reeds.

Step 1 - make a foundation. Thankfully these are not very deep, and like I've seen in other African countries, they fill as much as possible with stones in order to save on the cost of concrete. Here is the foundation dug with rocks filled in. The dude is Orlando, the head builder in the village, who quickly earned the nickname Grumpy, although he was lovely really:

Here's Leonie and Sue shovelling rocks - back-breaking!:

Step 2: build a concrete base for the house. These were made with two layers of breeze-blocks and built into a circle. Leonie (the builders' favourite) was allowed to actually lay the bricks!:

The blocks are then rendered with more cement and smoothed over for a nice finish. The builders didn't quite trust us to do these! We were particularly impressed by the use of an old chocolate wrapper to do the corners:

Step 3: build a wooden frame for the walls. These were constructed by cementing large tree trunks into the foundation, and then with more flexible branches to go round the frame. This is followed by step 4, surrounding the frame with reeds. This pic features Salvador (and yes, he is wearing a woolly hat in the 30C heat, it was winter you know!), who we all ended up wanting to marry:

The walls are secured together with wire:

And some very technical 'bashing' to make sure that the wires were wound tight. And yes, it did meant just hitting the house with a big bat, as demonstrated by Robin:

Step 5: make the roof frame. Unfortunately we were not quite skilled enough to really help with the roofing, but again this involves locally gathered branches secured with wire. The structure was really quite impressive. It took the whole team to get it onto the house itself:

Step 6: thatch the roof. Alarming this does just mean climbing on top and applying the thatch. Health and safety officers please look away now:

Et voila! Here is the finished product! Doesn't it look cute and beautiful?

As well as being cheap and sustainable, these houses go up incredibly quickly. Local builders can build one of these in about 3 days, one day each for the base, walls, and roof. Our team helped to build around 6 bases and 6 walls during our time there, and we became particularly expert at the walls, which were probably the most fun to do as well as it involved a lot of teamwork between us and the builders.

Working alongside the families also really touched us. We were particularly attached to Flora and her family - she is a widow living with her elderly mother Amelia, and has 7 children, all packed into one of those mud huts. The finished house above is actually Flora's, and we hope that it will provide more space for her family.

I end with a little video of the dance during the dedication ceremony at the end of our build. Dancing and singing is very much part of Mozambican culture, and our builders treated us to an impromptu dance! Roughly translated, it was all about the beautiful house we have built. Enjoy!

Mozambique Habitat for Humanity OVC programme

I have just returned from an incredible two weeks working with Habitat for Humanity in Mozambique. The credit crunch unfortunately has hit charities hard this year, and this has meant the Global Village programme that Habitat does has also been drastically affected. However, I was quite privileged to benefit from this as I was asked to lead a team to Mozambique at the last minute, and it was one of the most awarding Habitat trips I have been to.

Habitat Mozambique differs from the traditional Habitat model in order to cope best with the HIV/AIDS crisis. Around 16% of the Mozambican population are affected, the percentage being much higher in rural areas, and this has left many orphans and single-parent families with little or no income. The traditional Habitat model is built around the providing a low-cost home which homeowner family pays a no-interest mortgage towards, but given the situation in Mozambique, Habitat has adopted the model where they are focused on providing 100% subsidised homes for orphans or vulnerable children - the OVC programme. However, in keeping with the spirit of the charity, homeowners still have to provide their own sweat equity (i.e. they must provide their own labour towards their own homes), as well as helping others in the community with their homes.

We were building in a small village called Jossias Tongagara about 1.5 hours out of the capital Maputo. This was by far the poorest community I have ever built for. One of the team mentioned that it was almost like going back in time, seeing how these families live their day-to-day lives. This is an example of the types of home they would be living in, constructed by very basic materials - branches, mud, and a corrugated iron roof if they are lucky:

It comes as no surprise that these homes are extremely vulnerable to not only the weather, but also diseases. The homes are also incredibly dark as they have no windows, and as a result, families spend most of their time outside. Chairs are a rarity in the village, and every time our team took a break, the children would gather up all the chairs in the nearby homes. We were only a team of 5, yet they couldn't always find enough chairs.

We got a very unique view of how people lived their lives as we built their new homes next to their existing mud huts. I found it incredible that almost everything had to be done from scratch. People would disappear for ages just to go and fetch water, and all food was pain-stakingly made. Here is a picture of one of the girls we built for. Louisa here is grinding corn and maize in order to make xima, a porridge-staple found in much of Africa (ugali in Tanzania/Kenya, garri in Nigeria). She was literally grinding for most of the morning and afternoon, and she does this every day for her family's main meal:

We also visited the local school in the village during our visit, and again, we were shocked at the conditions. The school not only lacked materials such as exercise books, but even basic things like desks and a flat floor could not be taken for granted here. They also have a huge problem with girls' attendance once they reach around the age of 15, where many girls give up their education in order to get married and start families:

We had a very packed two weeks, so I'll post a few different posts. Overall, however, it was just such a privileged to meet the community, get to know the families, and the whole experience was extremely humbling.

Regional Chinese

Since I came back from China, there has been a proliferation of more regional Chinese restaurants popping up in London. It all started with the uber-trendy and pricey Bar Shu, specialising in Sichuan spiciness, but since then, lots of more affordable places have appeared around Chinatown and Soho. I'm assuming that the target market for these eateries is the growing non-Cantonese Chinese population, so I was hoping for some authentic experiences. In actual fact, Time Out etc. have all cottoned on to these places and have been raving about them.

Leong's Legend (梁山好漢) has a terrible English name, and is tucked away on Macclesfield Street opposite my favourite Chinese cake shop. The idea behind it is to recreate a Taiwanese teashop, and the last time I came 6 weeks ago for dinner, there was an enormous queue outside, with mainly Taiwanese sounding clientele. I've never made it to Taiwan, so can't really comment on the authenticity, but unlike most places in Chinatown, some thought has been put into the decor, which includes dark wooden tables and benches and plastic fighting swords along the stairs.

I need to come here a few more times to really test the menu, as it is pretty long with lots of dishes you don't normally find in London, including pig trotter noodles and bamboo rice. Dave and I came here specifically looking for congee with dough stick and xiaolongbao, and I think this may be one of the few places that serves them all!

The congee (lean pork with preserved egg) was fine, but they didn't bring the dough stick until it was getting quite cold!:

The xiaolongbao are what this place is famous for, and there are two versions, the standard (£5 for 8) or with crab (£6 for 8). They are very very juicy, but I do feel the skins were still a little on the thick side:

We also ordered some wontons in chilli oil (紅油抄手) - the wontons were definitely bought in I think, hard as rocks:

We also ordered some interesting sounding sea bass cheung fun, which was ultimately a mistake. Obviously a vehicle for them to use up off-cuts which were not very fresh:

Overall, the food is a bit hit and miss, but I think I need to come back for their more noodley dishes.

The other place that has been hyped to death recently is Baozi Inn (人民公社), right near where the pagoda used to be. The Chinese name literally translates as 'the people's commune', and it is hilariously decorated with Communist era newspapers and slogans everywhere, with plastic sweetcorn and chillis hanging. I'm not sure whether it is ironic or not.

The English name, on the other hand, suggests they specialise in the humble baizi bun, and they are very good value at £1.50 each with a variety of fillings. But I was more interested again in the noodley dishes. The menu reads like a combination of Beijing and Sichuan street food, and I was here especially to try my forever sought-after dan dan mein (擔擔麵). At £4.80 for a big bowl, it is much better value than Bar Shu:

However, I can't say the quality is all that. The noodles as you can almost see from the picture were really soft and overcooked, although the sauce was not bad, if not quite spicy enough.

I'd actually gone for the lunch set menu at £8.50, and I was more impressed with the sides that came with my noodles:

The cucumber salad was very nice - mixed with a good dose of chilli and Sichuan peppers, it had the ma-la that I was craving from the noodles. The soup was dragon's wontons, and probably the best thing about the place. They were very much like the ones I had in Dali, with little prawns floating in the soup, and the wonton tasted very homemade.

And both of these meals washed down with the prerequisite soy milk. Leong's Legend clearly wins on this one - thick, flavourful, in a big pint glass, versus the version at Baozi Inn which is served with ice and very watered down.

The last word on authenticity or not. I thought both of these places would be good for me to practice my Mandarin, but the staff at Baozi Inn all shout at each other in Canto. Hmmm.

Capital Hotel: big disappointment

Now that I'm working in the restaurant industry, I have the painful task of having to check out the competition at other fancy schmacy restaurants (any excuse). Capital Hotel in Knightsbridge is definitely fancy schmacy - one of the only 8 restaurants in London with 2 Michelin stars, and even on the way there, we managed to spot about a dozen Ferraris, Porsches, Lamborghinis, including weirdly 3 matt painted ones. I'm obviously not at one with the fashions in the posh car industry.

I've only ever been to one other 2 starred place, the wonderful wonderful Pied a Terre on Charlotte Street, way back in 2004. Back then I was a poor student at the LSE, and in return for taking notes at a conference was 'paid' with a tasting menu. The food was tremendous, but it was definitely the first really posh meal I ever had, and I was probably a bit overcome with the setting as well as the food. This was Pied a Terre pre-fire, and I loved the plush interiors which was cosy and romantic (a shame I was there with a bunch of LSE bods).

The room at Capital, however, was really very unimpressive. It is in a bit of an awkward narrow space at the front of the hotel, to the extent that you feel like you're in the middle of a hallway. The decor is hideous - the curtains don't match the blinds, and wall to wall there is flimsy panelling in a rather unattractive colour that is not that dark and not that light. It also didn't help that we were sat right next to the emergency exit even though the place was less than half full. (And for the benefit of the GUers, I think there was carpet, but I can't remember. There were some very big cushions though).

But onto the food. Their menu reads very very well with a nice range of starters and mains, all looking at quite reasonable prices for the pedigree (£55 for two courses, £63 for three), but both Peter and I had already decided on doing a degustation (£70) even before we stepped in the place. Matching wines also available at £55.

To start was a pre-starter of salmon confit with enoki mushrooms and creme fraiche dressing. This was a very nice change from the veloute/soupy pre-starters you normally get served, but it was a bit meh - reminded me of the free tuna appetiser you usually get when you order from Hazuki when you're working late at Uncle B:

The first official starter was a scallop with a sauce vierge (spelling?). The best thing about it was probably the wine that came with it - a white Burgundy, it was by far my favourite of all the matches. The scallop itself, unfortunately, was a little overcooked and tough. It may have to do with the fact that it was huge, nearly two inches in diameter - I'm not convinced that with seafood that big is always best. Peter also thought there was just far too much going on on the poor little scallop.

Second starter was a ballotine of fois gras with cherry foam. I liked this very much - the fois gras wasn't just pressed into a terrine, but you can feel all of its fibrous beauty. I also love the combination with cherries. Only complaint was that I would've liked a bit more of the pistachio toasty thing that came with it:

The fish course was apparently our waiter's favourite main course, which led us to really question his taste buds. If I had had the a la carte menu, the John Dory with baby squid with white bean and chilli salsa would have been my first choice for main, but this was really not a success. First off, the bit of toast on top (chef Eric Chavot appears to be obsessed with topping everything with a tiny bit of toast as you can already see) was quite burnt, and the white bean as well as the chilli salsa as well as the pepper sauce just do not all hold together. It did feel like there was panic to see what else they could put on this plate. What a shame as the presentation was beautiful:

But the second main course was much much better, probably the best course of the whole thing. The veal with asparagus, mushroom and ricotta gnocchi will not set the world on fire in terms of originality, but definitely the best dish in terms of execution and combination of flavours. Having said that though, the veal was still on the tough side despite being still pretty rare. It made me wonder whether the kitchen just has a bit of a heavy hand - several of the dishes were a little bit overcooked:

Our pre-dessert looked very much lik yoghurt and granola, but in fact was a lemon jelly with coconut foam with crunchy bits on top. The coconutty bit was actually quite thick, reminded me of the coconut jelly cake you get at dim sum (椰子糕). This was the second dish that featured jelly, and there is one more to go:

Our first dessert was apple foam with sorbet and vanilla, and it was truly truly vile. The foam was just rank, tasted almost stale, and the coldness of the sorbet really clashed with the creaminess of the vanilla. Again, there was also just too much stuff in this dish; the more you dig, the more you find, including some biscuity bits, some marinated melon (absolutely absolutely vile), and the ever ubiquitious jelly. Foul!:

At this point, we were the only people left really in the restaurant, and the service completely went to pot. The sommelier had disappeared, and the maitre d' actually gave us our dessert wine. Also the cheese waiter morphed into the food waiter, and gave us our final dessert without actually telling us what it was (the menu itself is very vague on what you're going to get for pud, just has 'a selection from the patissier'). Some more jelly, this time cherry we think, accompanied by a cherry and cream filled chocolate ball. I actually quite liked this, but a heavy slant on cherry in two courses was a bit much:

Neither Peter nor I have much of a sweet tooth, so we skipped out on most of the petit fours, as well as the handmade chocolates they come round with (an intriguing selection including honey, lavender, and cinnamon):

Overall, very disappointed. Given the lack of ambience or decor, you would think that the food would massively make up for it, but nothing really wowed me, and that's not counting the dishes that weren't really very well executed. There is also the small matter of the ladies' toilets, which are decorated in completely bad taste. The taps are actually dragons, and water flows from the dragons' mouths.

I know that the Capital was supposedly one of London's first boutique hotels, and it got its 2 stars a long time ago, but it all feels very dated to me. It does have the crown as the cheapest 2 star menu you will have in London, but I do question whether it is 2 star quality. For me, I would go back to Morgan M (with zero stars) ten times over before going to Capital again.

People watching after Latium

I have lost count how many times I've been to the lovely lovely Latium on Berners Street, but my most recent visit assured me it is certainly remaining lovely, and still very dserving of the title of Connie's Favourite London Restaurant. The small occasion this time was dinner with Amit, a pesky vegetarian / skanky ho. It didn't take me long to think of Latium as a place which might please. They serve the most excellent ricotta and lemon ravioli there, so good that I have chosen this over meat options before.

This time, I was even more adventurous and did not go for the fish ravioli for starter. Instead, I remembered once that I stole a bit of someone else's papperdalle with wild boar ragu, and this time I wanted a whole plate of it. It is not pretty, hence no photo, but it is sooooo incredibly good. The beautiful thing about it is that it is more about the pasta than the ragu, and it is so silky yet still with chew. It nearly moved me to start making my own pasta.

For main, I had a roast cod with beetroot sauce and spring vegetables. Much prettier:

And as usual, very well executed, my only complaint being that the beetroot sauce wasn't very beetrooty. I guess they do it more for the colour than for the taste in this dish, which when I think about it would've been a bit overpowering. I also now have a new phone, and therefore new camera (5 megapixels I'm told), so I'm hoping you're seeing a slight improvement in picture quality.

We were both too stuffed for puds (which aren't that amazing here anyway), but we did decide to go to the opposite Sanderson's Hotel for a drink or two. Normally I completely forgo this option as they rarely let you in, and it's ridiculously expensive, but Amit was still recovering from his promotion, so I thought I would take advantage of it. You go there simply for the people watching, and even before we crossed the road, we saw some evidence as to the kind of people you might find in there:

Yes, your eyes are not fooling you, that is a 100% chrome Merc, so shiny that my flash really didn't like it. Absolutely hideous. But completely the kind of car that the typical Sanderson's Hotel clientele would drive.

And inside it was all confirmed. I haven't been here for years, but it came to no surprise to me that I immediately felt like I was about the youngest person in the room, plus I was wearing way too many clothes, even though I was wearing a skimpyish summer dress. It was just like a mutton-dressed-as-lamb party that I had just gatecrashed, more fake tan than an episode of Bargain Hunt. All this with good cocktails made for an excellent evening.

All Star Lanes

My last Uncle B case team event was an extremely special affair. I am so going to miss these paid-for work jollies, and even better, it was Max's 25th birthday. Chris had come up with some complicated voting system for what we were going to do, but we ended up going bowling, with Jon still promising to have a BBQ in his garden sometime soon (I shall hold him to that, don't worry).

Chris went completely crazy with the decorations at All Star Lanes in Russell Square. They were extremely accommodating and brought out the cake as needed and everything. But I think the waitresses soon got tired with all the balloons everywhere:

I do love the concept of the place, where even your bowling shoes are very 50s American-esque. However, I do think they take the piss a little with the pricing of the food. A steak is at around £18-20, and comes with a sprig of watercress. I went for a striploin, which I guess is a younger brother to a sirloin? Anyone who can enlighten me to American cuts of beef is welcomed to:I do like it though that you can order macaroni cheese with your steak here - one of the very few Americanisms that I wholly embrace. I also tried a bit of Maxy's enormous rack of ribs:

I shall move on from the food as it's quite obvious you come to All Star Lanes for the cocktails and slightly drunken bowling. We made a mistake of ordering some 'zombies', which people are limited to ordering 2 each! They were not nice!

And when it came down to the actual bowling, there were some real surprises. Chris looked like an early leader with some very stylish bowling, but it was Maxy who swept the floor with his amazing consistency. I managed to get the highest score I've ever got at bowling! But more practice needed methinks:

What I neglect to include here is that we also played a half game after this, where I scored a grand total of 1. Yes, 1! Maxy managed 84! Never mind... I blame those zombies...

Leaving Uncle B

I have worked for a very special organisation for the last 5 years, where Uncle B has treated me unbelievably well. It was also under Uncle B that I really learnt about food and have been able to afford to eat very well, so I will eternally be grateful. However, I decided this year was the right time for me to move onto to do other things, and will be starting a strategy role within the restaurant business in the next month. I won't mention who they are here, but I will also stop blogging about them just to be objective (although some very honest blogs about these restaurants already appear here!!!).

But anyway, the real reason for posting is to give out my recipe for brownies. These are unbelievably good brownies, and it generally how I make friends (just ask Matthew). It is actually a Nigella recipe, and yes, even I am shocked at how much fat/sugar goes in it every time I make them.

Brownies (makes about 48 - they are so rich you will want to cut them quite small)

375g soft unsalted butter
375g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)
6 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
500g caster sugar
225g plain flour
1 tsp salt (I sometimes just use salted butter and omit this)
300g chopped walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line your brownie pan with some greaseproof paper. The pan I use is just larger than a A4 sheet of paper and about 2 inches deep.
2. Melt the butter and chocolate together (microwave is fine!) and allow to cool.
3. In a large bowl (enough to hold all the ingredients) beat the eggs with the vanilla and sugar.
4. Beat in the chocolate/butter mixture, then the nuts and flour. Beat to combine smoothly and scrape out into your brownie pan.
5. Bake for about 25 minutes - the trick is get it so that the top is dry, but the middle still looks quite undercooked - this will ensure that the final brownie is nice and dense and gooey inside.

Obviously you can omit the nuts and add in whatever you like - dried cherries in particular sound very nice. I also successfully managed to do a non-nutty version for Chris who is allergic in a little ramekin.

Apologies to the baymates who were in Newcastle and never got a taste! If you guys keep me on the bay mailing list, maybe I'll make them again soon :p