The Caledonian Sleeper Train

20 November 2015

In order to make the most of our weekend trip to London, Nico and I took the Caledonian Sleeper train from Edinburgh to London on Friday night. It’s billed as a fancy, comfortable way to travel the distance without losing any time. With a ‘Two Together’ Rail card, we were able to get the tickets for much cheaper (75 pounds each) than the normal price (100 pounds or more!). With a regular train costing 50 to >100 pounds per ticket, the sleeper is a pretty good deal. 

All aboard!!

We arrived at Edinburgh Waverley at the earliest boarding time (11:00pm), about 40 minutes before the train was scheduled to leave. We walked past the train car with the ‘reclining seats’ and peered into the window and felt happy that we had opted for the twin berths with actual beds. We were checked off a list by the attendant, and then we stepped into the correct train car and worked our way down the tiny corridor to our room.

The room was tiny, but sufficient and cute. It had a sink, two beds, and hangers for coats. There were storage areas for luggage by each bed and there were little flip-out trays for tea service or breakfast in the morning. They even gave us a little packet with a sleeping mask, earplugs, and a little bar of soap! The bathroom was down the hall, but it was the cleanest train toilet I've ever seen. 

Before the train even left, we wandered to the lavish dining car with leather couches and got a snack before bed. The food is supposed to be regional and delicious. We didn’t really get any of the signature dishes (unless you count haggis and bacon rolls) – I guess there’s something to try next time! We were waiting for our food when the train started moving.

The dining car with fancy leather couches and great service. 

Back in our room, we changed into pajamas and crawled into our individual bunks. The beds were comfy enough and, with the sleep masks to block out the bright green night light, we slept relatively well, despite several stops along the way. They add cars to the train on the way to London – the train was a lot longer in the morning than it was when we went to bed!

Normally, arriving early would be great, but it is less exciting when it means the train arrives at 6:15am instead of 7am. Who knew we would wish for a LONGER train ride! Other than being a little sleepy when we arrived, we had fun trying out the sleeper train. On to adventures in London!

Cooking in Morocco 3: Fun in the kitchen

The Moroccan cooking class felt like a professional cooking show, with all the beautiful vegetables and spices already displayed in dishes in a beautiful, enormous kitchen. 

Dressed like the locals.

We jumped in to help as much as we could. Apparently, not all people who have taken their cooking class were willing to get their hands dirty! What's the point of a cooking class if you aren't willing to learn by doing? This earned us brownie points with everyone there and they taught us a few extra dishes in return. 

The kitchen was also a flurry of languages. Comments and instructions went from one end of the chain to the other and back again, going through Moroccan Arabic - French - English and then back again with the response or jokes. As the person in our group with the most French speaking experience, I got to do the bulk of the French to English translation. I love cooking, but I also had a lot of fun practicing my translation - it's been a REALLY long time and I was surprised at how much I remembered. All this translating might seem like it could bog things down, but it was a fun flurry of languages and passion for cooking and it certainly kept us all laughing all the way through! 

Beauty in nature.

Plating our food so it looks as beautiful as it tastes. 

We all took turns frantically scribbling everything down in the notebook. This was the only way to remember everything since we were cooking 10 dishes approximately simultaneously. 

We took the class very seriously...really.

I assure you, we were working very hard...

One piece!

Master Chef Bram finishing the sugared apples with fleur d'orangier yogurt. 

Making meatballs for the kefta. 

The best part of a cooking class is the end - tasting all the wonderful things you've created! There is a special prize for anyone who reads through to the bottom (spoiler: it might be recipes!).

Our first course - Moroccan salads. Includes aubergine, green beans, and the salad that essentially means 'salad of whatever you happen to have lying around'

The suspense! This was also our only meal with wine on the whole trip - we decided to try a local vintage with our fancy meal.

An easy dessert, but hard to beat. Moroccan oranges are the best! This is simply sliced oranges with strawberries, cinnamon, and powdered/icing sugar on top. Simple, beautiful, and delicious!!

Salade Aubergine

Ingredients: 

• Aubergine - cut up, remove some skin, rinse in H2O 
• Paprika - 2 heaping teaspoons 
• Cumin - 2 heaping teaspoons 
• garlic - 2 heaping teaspoons 
• olive oil - 2 tablespoons 
• salt - 1 teaspoon + some later 
• coriander 1.5 teaspoon 
• 1 cup water 

Directions: 5 minutes in pressure cooker. Squish them. Taste and season and let them boil down until it's a thick consistency.

Tajine Viande Agée Kefta

Ingredients: 

• 7 tomatoes 
• 1.5 tablespoons parsley 
• 2-3 teaspoon garlic 
• 1 heaping teaspoon cumin 
• 2 heaping teaspoon paprika 
• 1 heaping teaspoon salt 
• olive oil 2+ tablespoons 
• Ground meat - ground with onion, parsley, cumin and salt 
• egg 

Directions: Slice bottom of the tomato and then grate tomatoes into skillet. Mix in parsley, garlic, cumin, paprika, salt, and olive oil. Put tajine on fire and cover (or use a regular large sauce pan with lid). After 5 minutes, stir well. Make meatballs from ground meat (mix in onion, parsley, cumin, and salt if not pre-ground in). Add meat balls to tajine and cover. Wait until meatballs start to cook. Add egg on top and recover. Cook ∼20 minutes.

Bon apetit!

Cooking in Morocco 2: Teaching the Teachers

As anyone who's ever stood in front of a classroom can tell you, you learn a lot as a teacher. Our cooking class was no exception.

We started out with some general prep. Three of us washed chicken pieces by using lots of salt under the skin to remove the connective tissue and mucous.

Nico managed to get out of this job (there was only so much space at the small sinks), so they jokingly decided to "punish" him by assigning him a tedious job next: peeling all the garlic cloves. Instead of being dismayed, he started grinning and asked for a metal bowl with a metal lid. After a few questioning looks, they dug in the cupboards, dubiously handed him what he asked for, and then gathered around.

Nico put all the garlic in the dish, covered it with the metal lid, and shook like mad! He took the lid off to a pile of peeled garlic and a round of applause. For people who peel a ton of garlic cloves on a daily basis, this was a wonderful discovery! They delightedly proceeded to try it out for themselves. Nico certainly earned his honorary title they used for the rest of the day: 'Chef'.

Round of applause for 'The Chef'

They found more garlic cloves so everyone could join in on the garlic-peeling fun

Normally, fun things have disclaimers like "Don't try this at home" but we're willing to make an exception in this case. Here's the YouTube video where Nico first saw this trick so you can absolutely try this at home!

Cooking in Morocco 1: The Market

While we were in Morocco, we took a cooking class from the woman who ran our riad. She let us pick our favorite meals and then guided us from buying ingredients to final presentation of the dish. It's way too much for a single post, so I'll break it into a couple of pieces (with a recipe or two at the end!).

Our cooking class started out with a trip to the market to buy all the ingredients for our meal. I couldn't read our shopping list, but luckily our guide had no problems!

First stop: chicken!

We expected to pick up a butchered chicken. We were very wrong...

They reached down and grabbed a live chicken. He looks so peaceful on the scale... 

Then they broke the chicken's neck and butchered him while we waited. A few minutes later, he handed us a package of chicken that looked like it could have come from any supermarket. It doesn't get any fresher than that!

Lots of stray cats. No stray dogs. Muhammad said something like "a love of cats is an aspect of faith" with a particular story about him cutting off the sleeve of his prayer robe rather than disturb his favorite sleeping cat. Needless to say, we saw lots of stray cats fighting over the entrails of the chickens. 

Another stray cat in a different market area. He saw me taking a picture and came over to say hello :)

Only dog that we saw at the market...

 Back to the ingredients for the recipes...

Fresh olives - good for recipes, if they last beyond snacking :)

We bought some beef for kefta (little meatball tagine). The guy grinds it up for you and even adds the onions, herbs, and spices!

 Speaking of spices: Look at all the saffron! Everything was incredibly cheap, too.

Lots of fresh vegetables in every dish. One of my favorites is the aubergine (eggplant) salad!

Who needs standardized weights and measures? Let's just use a ball of rubber bands, some metal weights, and some scraps of veggies... Although it's hard to complain when food was so cheap.

With all the ingredients for our meal purchased, it was time to head back to the riad and get our hands dirty!

Stay tuned for Cooking in Morocco Part 2: Teaching the teachers!

(Almost) Total Eclipse

20  March 2015

I was a little late for work, but getting to see the eclipse was worth it! Nico and I watched from the top garden terrace of Waverley Gate (where he works). The 93% total eclipse wasn't enough for complete darkness, but certainly enough to see a difference. It was a bit cloudy, but it meant that we didn't need to use a filter/special glasses for most of it. Here are some photos from Edinburgh and some from Svalbard (Thanks, Penny!) for comparison. Enjoy!

The beginning of the eclipse.

Through my fancy camera filter (I held the eclipse glasses up in front of my camera).

Can you hear the music? It's not quite a total eclipse, but close enough!

Peak eclipse - a twilight feel.

Looking over to the busy Calton Hill. 

The other side of the eclipse.

Eclipse over Arthur's Seat.

Series of photos showing the progressing eclipse in Svalbard. No post-processing or special camera equipment.
(Photos by Penelope How)