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TofC contributor Janella Fox recently discovered a beautifully shot short film featuring an international hotel group. Here it is...Enjoy!

I recently came across this beautiful short HERE from the director Luca Guadagnino of I AM LOVE and producer Waris Ahluwalia. What a nice and unexpected little journey. It's so stunning and poetic. I was surprised to read further and discover that it is a promotional collaboration between these talented men and The Luxury Collection Hotel Group. Of the 3 destinations featured in the film, I've had the pleasure of staying at The Royal Hawaiian in Waikiki and was happy to see it featured here. Don't you want to be her just for a moment? (Bonus, Jason Schwartzman does all of the music).


Photos: Royal Hawaiian Photo, J. Fox, Waris H. photo by Alessio Bolzoni
Text: Janella Fox 

Dim Summing: Hong Kong Part 1

 Our dear friend and T of C contributor, Janella Fox, has made several reports on her trip to Hong Kong featuring her Dim Sum experience. Here is part 1. Enjoy!

Happy Year of the Dragon! In honor of Chinese New Year last week I thought it was a good time to share some highlights from a recent trip to Hong Kong. While it was a very brief visit, I came away with a great sense of the spirit of this wildly diverse and entertaining city. The most striking thing for me was the extremities of waterways, mountains and high rises and how they all collide and yet it feels small when you are actually in it. The other very pleasant discovery was how kind and helpful the locals are (unless you are taking photos of them at the wet market but that will come in a future post).

Hong Kong is a world class city with some of the best dining in the world. I typically plan my days around my meals when in a new city for the first time so I was overwhelmed by the possibilities. One thing I knew I had to have on this trip was a proper dim sum experience. After a day of walking around and shopping we asked for recommendations and ended up in a mall (this is perfectly normal there) on the central side at a place called Lei Garden. Elegant, modern, quiet and clean...I knew I was in for a treat considering the only dim sum I've had has been in the loud crowded cafeteria style places with fluorescent lights and speedy servers who never seem to have the items I want on their carts (which seem to have always been emptied by the other diners, making me wonder if I really should give in and try the chicken feet). Up until this trip, Ton Kiang in San Francisco was my favorite dim sum. LEI Garden was already proving to be a departure from that experience as we were seated in a beautiful white booth with slated wood partitions and soft light streaming in. The server brought us a delicious pot of tea along with a perfectly sharpened pencil and a handsome menu to select from. It was warm and calm and quiet and it felt like a big hug. I think I read somewhere the dim sum means "to warm the heart" and this place was doing just that...and I hadn't even sunken my teeth into the bau yet.

As we had arrived on the later side in the afternoon they were out of many things however we did manage to get a nice range of the best dim sum I've ever had. It went something like this...

Chicken Dumpling: Steamed dumpling of chicken and perfectly blanched vegetables that gave off an impossible green glow through the very delicate translucent rice flour wrapper. I was impressed with the crispness of the veggies in this perfect little bite and despite how delicate the wrapper was it held together without completely falling apart once bitten into.

Har Gow: A staple on the dim sum circuit (and why I fell in love with dim sum in the first place) Steamed dumpling with fresh chopped up shrimp. This one is so simple and so delicious when done with the perfectly cooked shrimp. Heaven.

 

Crab Dumpling: This was not served as expected. Instead of the perfect little bites this was served as one massive dumpling in a crab based broth. It was the least favorite of them all as it seemed to get soggy and fall apart in the liquid, which is perfectly acceptable once you think about this as a soup instead. 

Crispy Pork Pot Sticker: When given the option of having something fried it's hard not to go for it. We assumed this would arrive and be the most indulgent of them all in all of it's fried crunchy glory, instead what came was the most elegant and beautiful of them all. A plate of 3 pot stickers with the most fragile sheet of crispy goodness placed delicately upon it..it was so composed it was hard to break into it. We did manage to gently tap it into pieces and were blown away by the deliciousness of this. Delicate dumpling, crunchy coating, simple filling of ground pork and scallions along with an accompanying sauce to die for. It was a combination of sweetened soy, spicy chili, toasted sesame, fresh garlic and a bite of ginger. I am determined to recreate it and dip everything possible in this sauce from now on!

Pork Bau: Steamed fluffy buns with pork inside. Bau are another reason I fell in love with dim sum. There is something about the whitest of the white dough, steamed to a fluffy puffy perfection that is unlike anything else you've ever eaten. But once you discover what's inside you reach another level of flavor goodness, the sweet pork mixture that is cooked into the middle. It is so good it almost seems like it could and should be dessert. LEI GARDEN made me never want to eat another one of these little buddies again because it was that perfect and that good.

We ended the meal with a sweet egg tart and resisted the urge to nap in that little booth in the warm glow of the afternoon sun. We made our way back into the mall and out into the madness of the city with full tummies and warm hearts.

Lei Garden is located in the IFC mall in Central Hong Kong (where you will also find the incredible department store Lane Crawford...)

Pizza by the Fox

Our dear friend and T of C contributor, Janella Fox, made these two pizza varieties when visiting us here in Paris. They were some of the best we've ever had. Try making these 2 together as they are a super tasty combo.

Ingredients


The dough:

1 packet yeast
3/4 c warm water
1/4 c white wine
1 tbs honey
1 tbs olive oil
1tsp salt (to taste)
3 cups flour

The toppings:

Brussels Sprout & Pancetta White Pizza ( Inspired by Motorino, NYC)

2 cups Brussels Sprouts, leaves separated and tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper
1/4 lb or one standard deli package of pancetta, thinly sliced
1-2 balls of Mozzarella di Bufala , medium sized slices
1 clove of garlic, chopped
freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
olive oil for drizzling

Mushroom & Spiced Sausage Pizza

1 jar of your favorite fresh pizza sauce or homemade
1-2 balls of Mozzarella di Bufala , medium sized slices ( add more or less as you like it)
1 lb fresh crimini mushrooms ( or button), thickly sliced
1/2 pound Italian sausage
1/2 - 1 tsp chili flakes or crumpled whole red chilis. As hot as you can handle!
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp dry or small handful of your favorite fresh herbs (oregano, basil, sage, or chervil, etc.)
freshly cracked pepper
freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Preheat your oven to 550° (285° Celsius) or as hot as your oven will get. Ideally, you would use a pizza stone. If you don't have one (or broke it like me), wrap foil directly on your oven rack, or use a thin metal sheet with parchment paper.

Optional: You can par-bake the pizza dough by pricking all over with a fork and baking it for 2 minutes. Cool crust before adding your toppings. You can also bake two pizzas at one time by positioning one rack in the top third of the oven, and the other on the bottom third. Then switch racks half way through the cooking time. Total cooking time may increase to 20 minutes in this case.

 Mix the warm water, wine, and yeast together and stir gently until yeast has dissolved.

 Then add the honey, olive oil, and salt until dissolved.

 Add about 1 cup of the flour to liquid and mix into a paste...slowly incorporate the 

remaining flour until a ball forms.

 You can remove this and knead it for several minutes on a floured surface.

 Let this guy rise in a slightly oiled bowl in a warm place and cover with a towel 

for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the dough is double in size. 

Mimic letting the dough rise in a hot and sunny Italian garden. 

Feel free to enjoy some of the leftover white wine with your buds during the wait time.

 Once it has risen, cut into quarters and refrigerate for at least a 1/2 hour

(wrapped in plastic, slightly oiled).

 Sauté the sausage with cracked pepper, chili flakes, herbs of your choice
and fennel seeds until crumbly. 

Slice mushrooms and set aside in a bowl. Pull apart the leaves of the Brussels Sprouts and 

toss with olive oil, s & p, and place in a bowl. Pull out the dough from the fridge.

 Do like Janella and stretch out the dough on your rack, wood paddle, or stone.

  Slice mozzarella, chop garlic and slice/tear the pancetta and set aside.

Let's start with the Brussels Sprouts variety. Drizzle the dough with a bit of olive oil, 

sprinkle the chopped garlic on top, and begin the layering of cheese and pancetta...

 ...and then finally, the seasoned and oiled up brussels sprouts.

Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, or until the crust is brown on the edges and crunchy.

The Brussels Sprouts will darken and crisp up a bit. Sprinkle with a dash of salt, 

a drizzle of olive oil and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

 Now for the mushroom and spicy sausage pizza. Stretch out your dough and spread 

a thin layer of pizza sauce on top.

 Layer the cheese, mushrooms and then the sausage on there...

 ...and bake for 10-12 minutes or until crispy!  Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and parm. Yumtasitcal.

Fall Jams

Our friend Janella Fox, and TofC contributor, is in Paris this month exploring the city's magic during the shift into Winter. She arrived to our home with a special gift. Her homemade Elderberry Jam, featuring berries from her northern California hometown of Twain Harte. The jam is perfectly tart and sweet and has sparked the season of tucking into crafty project ideas while waiting for the first snow.

To honor the arrival of the magical fruit pot, we went to our favorite bakery, Du Pain et Des Idées. We picked up a loaf of their brioche called Mouna, and a piece of their Pain des Amis. Mouna a traditional brioche from north Africa, and it's buttery dough is delicately perfumed with fleur d'orange, orange blossom. I've never had a better brioche combo. My mouth tingles just thinking about it, it was that good. Pain des Amis, friendship bread, is from a centuries old recipe yielding massive round crusty loaves that are then sold in pieces. The thick crust is almost smokey and woody, and the inside is soft and nutty with a hint of sourdough.  It's very complex and delicious. It tastes like no other bread I've had and I feel as if I'm transported to the renaissance period while I'm eating it. The owners have passion and discipline, which is why they take the time to do things the longer way.

It is supposed to snow on Thanksgiving day here in Paris. Lucky for us, we've been invited to two Thanksgiving parties. The first one is here in Paris with our friend Mary Rozzi, and the other is in the countryside where the local butcher has ordered us a turkey. Our village friends there await our festive crew while preparing Tarte Tatin and other new traditions-to-be.

From the Harte

By guest author Janella Fox

I grew up in Twain Harte, a small mountain town in Northern California situated between Lake Tahoe and Yosemite. It is named for famed authors/poets Mark Twain and the lesser known Brett Harte who both spent time in and around the area during their careers. I recently returned to visit my mom who relocated to the area after years of living in Lake Tahoe. She is now living up near this small magical gem of a lake called Pinecrest that is just up the road from where I lived during my childhood. There was a small patch of sand between the forest and water's edge that functioned as a beach for me and my friends during our teenage years...on hot summer nights we would stay into the evening and watch movies projected onto a screen in the woods. I hadn't been back to the area for over 15 years and was overwhelmed with memories and gratitude for having called this place home while growing up. 

My mom lives in a cozy little cabin in the woods just down the road from the lake. When I arrived and walked into her kitchen I discovered that she had been picking and harvesting elderberries! They are the tiniest little things, they resemble blueberries but are much smaller and are nearly impossible to see growing unless the large shrubs happen to be blossoming. My mom has always had a crazy hawk eye for spotting wild animals (owls, bears, bald eagles etc...) but I had no idea she was such a skilled elderberry hunter. She has all of her secret spots scoped out that she sends her husband to for him to go retrieve large batches from the branches which he manages to get down with a golf club and transports back to her in boxes and bags...her kitchen was overflowing with them, so she clearly had put him to work in the days before i arrived. 

The elderflower is commonly used to make a syrup that has recently been popping up on cocktail menus (often mixed with champagne and other sippers). But I hadn't seen or had an actual elderberry since I was very young when we went out and gathered them to make a pie from. We only did this once but I'll never forget the unique and distinct flavor...a kind of perfect merge between a blackberry and blueberry with just enough tanginess to give it its own distinct flavor.

 That night my mom and I spent hours pulling the tiny berries from the stems, filling bowl after bowl from which we made batch of jam.  I managed to stash a bowl and transport it back to LA with me and made my first pie in years...I'm left wishing it was easier to find and pick berries here in LA. But I guess it's better considering I have one more reason to return to my little town in the woods.