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Midday at the market, for a moment, the clouds subsided & the sky turned beautiful blue. It prompted me to ask my fellow stall holder to look after my stuff & go for a quick stroll. We often take turns looking after each other’s stalls like that, for whenever nature calls or when we need to grab ourselves a lunch.

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When on my stroll, I often like to walk to the end of the market to see my friends at their baguette stall. On way, I noticed the cherry tree next to ‘L’eau à la bouche’ café was in full bloom. Wow, first sign of Spring & what a magnificent one! Mr.S from the café says that it bloomed almost all of a sudden. I took the murky picture above with my grubby iPhone. The weak but direct ray from the sun felt penetrating & tingling warm in the still crisp cold air. Perhaps the cherry tree decided to make the most of the sun’s rays & use the opportunity to blossom, just like how it prompted my little stroll.

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I felt peaceful. Or maybe I was just simply spaced out through lack of sleep. I went to bed after 4am on the previous night & woke up at 7:30 in the morning. I told a visiting friend about this, & she said “Tamami, but 4am is not ‘night’, it’s already ‘morning’! What-on-earth..?!”. Lol, yes, perhaps, but I didn’t feel the lateness atall! I was buzzing, working on my book! And it is just so exciting, ideas just keep pouring out & I know exactly what to write! Like the crisp blue sky, everything is clear for me on what to do. If only time allowed, I would work on it day on end!

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And besides, I didn’t sleep much prior to this book writing anyways! It’s just the way I am. On average I probably slept 5 to 6 hours or so a night, often going to sleep around 3am. There’s something I love about the undisturbed hush of the night, it’s as if suspended in time. I often read or potter around in the kitchen & ofcourse also do my blogging. And now that my book project has fully commenced, it’s the night-times that I must really work in, what with day-times being fully booked with family & market work, it’s the only reserved slot of time I have.

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The stall’s doing great by the way. Sales are on the up for definite compared to last Winter. (Phew!) And it’s still cold enough to have a decent sale on the truffles & hot chocolates. The market itself feels busier than ever before & this week was a perfect example of so.

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The last two weeks I deliberately produced less cakes so that I can finish slightly earlier on Friday night & also go home earlier than usual at 4pm on the Saturday to conserve energy to work on my book. Unfortunately it also meant no lemon drizzle cake the first week. I disappointed a few customers though so I just about squeezed time to make two for this week. But the situation is that a cake has to leave my line-up, & it’s either gotta be the lemon drizzle or the baked cheesecake (aghast!) Which one should go? Sale-wise, the cheesecake is perhaps less popular, but the look of it with the bird stenciling does stop people on track… Sigh…, which one should it be? It’s so difficult!

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(above cheesecake picture borrowed from This is naive.)

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Hello~,

yes, I’ve got a bit of news ~ I’ve decided to write a cookbook!!!

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Yup! That’s right! And I’m confident enough to say so here on my blog & let everyone know. Some might say “don’t jinx it” or perhaps advise me to keep schtum until I know for sure that it gets published to save embarrassment, but…

1. I think this ‘jinx’ malarkey is rubbish – & infact, I’ve had a sour experience in the past when a friend decided not to tell me certain things because she ‘didn’t want to jinx it’, but I find out later that she told others but just not me!? It’s probably since then that I really hate this ‘jinx’ talk. It’s just a silly way of not including certain people.

2. I’m pretty bad at keeping secrets anyways! :)

3. Letting everyone around me know would definitely kick my head in gear to work on the project. I work better under pressure!

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You’re perhaps wondering wether I have an agent or a publisher? Well, no. Or shall I say ‘not yet’. I’m not exactly sure how to go about it but I’ll try approaching a few in an appropriate timing. Or if that fails, I might go down the self-publishing route. I’ve read up online about the ‘print-on-demand’ system which sounds rather appealing… Well, anyhow, we’ll see won’t we, when time comes to consider those options. (Then again, if you ARE a publisher reading this, please don’t be shy as to letting me know if you are interested! Thank you!!^^)

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In a strange & wonderful way, this career path marries my present job to my old one, which was being a graphic designer. When I think of this, a phrase like ‘everything has a meaning’ springs to mind. That perhaps all those years designing brochures, proofing & visiting the printers will be put to good use once more.

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Dearest blog-readers, may I thank you please for the wonderful support you have given me so far – this goes even to those who’ve not yet left comments, because I know you are reading. Did you know, it’s your continual support that has given me the strength to make this step. ~ It strongly reminds me of… … when I was about fourteen years old. There was an art teacher called Mrs. Davies who believed in me. During one lesson I wanted to draw a figure lying down on bed, but I found it very difficult, especially the perspectives. When I told the teacher this, you know what she did? She laid down on the dirty art-room floor for me to sketch from. Without a single fuss. I remember I was so shocked & touched by her gesture that I proceeded to sketch with so much intensity to try to return my gratitude. Needless to say, I loved Art more after that! ~ … … I guess what I’m trying to say from this is that your support gives me strength & belief in myself – I believe that I can do it & make something of it. So thank you…

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I know it’s some time ago now, & it certainly feels like it, but I thought that for this post I’ll write about how it’s been at the market last Winter.

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Although… well, in short, I can simply put it down to one word: ‘crap’.

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Saturday 18th of December:

(picture taken earlier in the day)

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The weather during the week leading up to it was not good for starters. It first snowed on the Wednesday I think, & I remember at that point I deliberated on wether to turn up at the market. But my books showed that I ALWAYS do ‘more than a good-day’ around this time of the year, afterall it’s meant to be THE cushiest day of the year for retailers, & I thought snow or not, surely people still need cakes for dinner parties & chocolate boxes for presents…, right? So I decided to go, but chocolates-wise made just 360 truffles, which is slightly more than the usual but a lot lot less than last years’ 700+.

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Come Thursday, as I was prepping the tart dough to rest in the fridge overnight, big clumps of snow started to fall, & within just half an hour everything outside was covered in white. It looked so dreamy & so romantic! But straight away alarm-bells were ringing in my head & I was thinking: ‘$%!t…, this is gonna be waaaay bad for Saturday’s trade…’

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Waking up to snow-wonderland on Friday morning was, let’s just say an official booking for the doom & gloom ride for Saturday. At this point, I made an executive decision (ahem!) to bake as little as possible – so there were no lemon drizzle cakes, cheese cakes, brownies & lemon tarts, & generally less of everything else, especially small heart tarts.

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First thing when I woke up on Saturday morning, I looked out of the window. Good, it’s not snowing. Hm, it might be alright. So I psyched myself “Right! I’m gonna do this! Let’s do it, let’s do it, let’s do it!!!” & got in to my battle-gear (Lol!) of heat-tech, turtle-neck, fleece jumper, multiple layers of leggings, woolly socks, & the ‘pièce de résistance’ stick-on heat pads… – D was really great about all of this snowy situation & without a single moan carried everything in to the car & scraped the snow off the car windows. But as we tried to set off, the engine… wouldn’t start up. “Crap…” (I very very rarely swear, but on this occasion I was). On reflection, this perhaps was the tell tell sign of things to come that day.

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Miraculously (& with D’s persistence to try turning the key numerous times) the engine decided to play ball with us. When we got to Broadway, the market boys had been busy removing the snow off the pavement already! Ha! Good work! ~ Feeling uplifted by their spirit & seeing all the other traders who braved it out, I set up my stall. And from early on, big cakes were starting to be sold – Hm, maybe it’s not as bad as I feared??

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But Tamami, learn, please, follow your instinct. You shouldn’t ‘ve come. For as yes, it’s started to snow HEAVILY & it’s way earlier than what the weatherman said. (Mister said it’ll hit the East around 3pm, but in reality it was 10:30am.) At first it was lovely in that ‘oh wow, this feels like a proper Xmas Market.’ kind of way. Everyone was smiling & enjoying the experience.

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After thirty minutes or so, the tarpaulin roof cover over us was sagging with the weight of so much snow. I saw fellow stall holders using a broom stick to shove the snow off it. Thinking, wow, what a great idea to foresee it caving in, I asked if he could broom my roof too.

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Soon as it happened, I regretted asking. – Just above my stall is where two sheets of tarpaulin connect, & with the force of the broom it separated like a flap & a load of snow was dumped on to one third of my table, yes, disastrously on to quite a number of tarts.

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“Oh £v<k.” (ps: so sorry for all the sign-hidden swear words in this post, like I said, I very rarely swear, but I like to portray it as how it really went…) The man with the broom profusely apologized, poor bloke, but it really wasn’t his fault, if anything it’s the stupid roof. I told him so & to not worry. But I think my facial expression must’ve been so awful looking, he walked away looking unconvinced of my words & ever so sorry. – It must’ve been because in my mind I was repeating ‘this..is..not..good.. this..is..crap..”. I quickly put all the affected tarts aside (which got given to fellow stall holders to consume – they didn’t mind) & got the market boys to fix together the roof.

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But aw gawd, what ever next? … What!? Gaaaaa!!!! The snow is now blowing INTO my stall!!! And not just a bit but big time! It’s going all over my things! Sa~ve me….

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It took a while to figure out a solution (which was to buy cling-film & cover the goods). By that time more things were too damaged for selling on. Even the ones that were not directly hit by snow was also damaged as the moisture in the air was making the tart bases soggy to the touch. Might as well really, because to top it all off, the early heavy snow detracted visitors it seemed & the foot count was bad anyways. Later in the afternoon, I heard that the public transport had come to a halt & fellow stall holders started to talk of how on earth they’d be getting home. Some packed up early so they have a head start & obviously because they simply had enough of a bad day.

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1. 3pm, D telephones me. He can’t get the car to start up again.
2. 3:10pm, the car finally starts but he now couldn’t roll it out of the parking position because there’s too much snow under the tyre, it’s slipping.
3. 3:15pm, standing outside in gusty wind which felt like -6 degrees, I started my ‘end-of-day saaaaale….!!’ call. I think it’s the earliest I’ve ever done so.
4. 4:20pm, D had only moved about 1.5 miles from our house due to extremely bad traffic.
5. 4:45pm, pride shunt aside, I managed to sell almost everything except for two chocolate heart tarts.
6. 4:50pm, but panic!!!!! D is still stuck in traffic & he’s going to be very late to pick me up. But the market finishes at 5pm…!! Do I stand by the side of the street with all my bags & wait?!
7. 4:55pm, I then remembered that our friends D & L who lives near to the market dropped by earlier saying that if I ever needed help today they’d be around. I phoned them & within ten minutes they came rushing to my rescue… Friends like D & L…, are a God-send… THANK YOU.
8. 5:20pm, in D & L’s warm house, feeling relieved but exhausted. I just couldn’t get over how lucky I am to have them as friends. L swiftly hands over a mug of hot mulled wine, orange slices an’ all. I’m so lucky… It could be because my cold body was getting back to normal temperature, but I felt a tad mushy.
9. 5:50pm, my D arrives at D & L’s house. In the end it took him OVER FIVE times longer than usual to drive. I’m so sorry… & thank you for not complaining…

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Friday 24th of December:

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In my mind, I knew it was always going to be a gamble, the fact that the market day being a Friday instead of the usual Saturday. ~ Would it be busy or quiet? ~ I knew there’d be quite a number of people that had already traveled away to spend Christmas with their parents. But Broadway Market being loved by the locals, there’d always be shoppers too.

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I decided that this 24th for me would be about having fun & not stressing out on stuff not being sold. I wanted 24th to be plain-sailing, a nice finish for the year. So I didn’t make any lemon drizzle cakes, nor brownies & lemon tarts. Generally less all round, which was the right decision as the foot-count was great in the morning but trickled in the afternoon. Which infact suited me fine. I’ve already left my pride somewhere last week I think (!) as I felt so easy about calling out ‘saaale!!!’. … well besides, anything’s better than last week isn’t it - atleast it wasn’t snowing nor so windy.

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The market ended early at 3pm. Wishing “Merry Christmas” to so many people during the day ofcourse has a knock-on effect, & I’ve been feeling festive all the time, but it was when D with the two children came to pick me up that I truly felt festive & loosened up. Seeing them approaching the stall, all happy to see me, I vowed never to work on a silly day like the 24th, I really should’ve been with them. To somehow make-do with the time left, we went to sit at ‘Off Broadway’ (a café/ bar that is just a few steps away from my stall). The children drank hot apple juice (their favourite), I had red wine (my favourite), & D was coffee with milk on the side (his favourite non-alcoholic drink?!) as he was driving. It was a nice little moment there & I’m glad we did it.

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(ps: I read some where online long time ago that a guy couldn’t access my blog at work as it got caught up by firewall or something – well, perhaps this post with the occasional naughty words won’t help… lol, oh well.)

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Hello! How are you all keeping in this cooooold weather? Wrapping up warm I hope??

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Last week I purchased a repro US Military ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) snorkel parka on eBay, & just got it delivered to mine on Sunday (which got us surprised as we didn’t know delivery service was operating on Sundays! It must be a special Christmas season thing…). The parka is definitely bulky around the shoulders unfortunately…, but it’s seriously warm (they don’t tag it ECW for nothin’ baby!) so I’ll be looking forward to wearing it at the market for the first time this coming Saturday! Just don’t laugh if I’m moving a bit stiff! Lol!

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Anyway, I’m typing this quick message to say that this year, Broadway Market will be open on FRIDAY 24th December instead of 25th! (25th is Public Holiday.) The special Christmas market will open from 9am & finish slightly earlier than usual at 3pm. And then next year, the market will commence from the 8th of January, although I will be on my annual break for 3 weeks & will be back at the market from the 29th of January.

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The Christmas market on the 24th will be very special with festive atmosphere… – I love it when greetings like “Merry Christmas!” can be heard left right & centre! It’s a time when one can’t stop feeling anything but festive. It makes me grin & feel proud to be working at such a friendly market. So if you’re going to be in London, & have some time to spare, hop on down to East London & hang out with us – I’d love to catch you this side of the year before my break!

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Happy thoughts to you all, Tamami xx

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A couple of weeks ago I was invited to attend a preview do for Waitrose’s new cookery school. It was on Thursday evening, which was not exactly great as it’s my chocolate making day but I wanted to go so much, I decided I’d make a little less to make up for the time-loss.

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Now, I’m a sort of person who h.a.t.e.s going to places alone. I get uncomfortable, be it waiting for a friend to turn up at the bar, or going to cinemas on my own. So I asked my friend A to accompany me. She also has great interest in food & teaches Japanese home-style cooking here in London, so a perfect companion for the night I think!

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Soon as we got our coats checked-in, we were handed a glass of champagne. Champagne is my favourite alcoholic beverage (next to Japanese plum wine) that magics delirious happiness in me. Hmm… – And then came very tasty canapés. Ah! We’re getting treated finely tonight aren’t we! (champers fueled giggles with A.)

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(Another one? ~ oh go on then, bend my rubber arm why don’t you.)

(Behind the scenes, making our nibbles.)

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Drink in one hand & camera dangling on neck, we nosed around. Gosh, it’s such a dream place. If I was to ever open a school it’ll be like this. A spacious open plan set-up of cooking workshop area, eating area & impressive bar. There’s also an auditorium for demonstrations in the next room equipped with hi-tech live-camera above the front work-top so that seated students can see what the chef is doing in detail on a mounted telly. Not bad.

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Equipment freaks that we are, we looked in draws in the workshop. I instantly fell in love with the following two; a ‘Lékué Decopen’ for piping,

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& this, oh God I want it so bad, a titanium ‘Kenwood KM070 cooking chef major mixer‘, WITH induction cooking technology!!! I’ve never heard of such a thing! Apparently you can make béchamel sauce in it, & even risotto. Well, with just under £1000 to buy just one of these, it better do. I have never ever been interested in food mixers before, even the lovely KitchenAid, but this… God, I want one. (did I just say this twice?)

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Anyway, back to writing about the evening.

There were only around 17 bloggers that attended & from Waitrose’s side there were around 7 chefs, aswell as more bods from management & PR. (Pamper-ometer, tick!) After champagne, we watched head pastry chef James Campbell (formerly Gary Rhodes’ group head pastry chef ) make italian-meringue based macaroons in orange marmalade flavour. And then it was our turn to do the same. The ingredients were already measured out set neatly by our work table, & ofcourse we don’t do the washing up later.

(Clean & stylish)

(Macs. Italian meringue based are easier to make (compared to french meringue version) as there’s no drying period, but I think the result-texture is harder & chewier… – although it is less so as you leave it for a couple of days.)

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We then had a cocktail master-class. Orange & vodka mix poured in to  sugar-rimmed  glass, & then another cocktail which was coffee flavoured.

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(My friend A making cocktail.)

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We also sampled two more flavours of macs. Eggnog one which had chantilly cream filling which was delicious, & mulled wine one with edible glitter on its surface. Everyone seemed to love the glitter on it, but I personally don’t, although I do understand the attraction of its prettiness. The reason why I don’t like them is simply because I don’t want to eat it. It’s the same feeling I have to edible gold leafs.

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Anyway, all in all I was very impressed with the place & the chefs who were all friendly. I thought that the price for classes (all-day classes are £175) are reasonable if you think that there are three chefs to 24 pupils which is good going.