Today’s recipe is a true classic: Pavlova. A meringue with strawberry sauce and a selection of berries to go on top and whipped cream. This is a timeless dessert. According to online sources the dish was first created in New Zealand in honor of Anna Pavlova, a Russian prima ballerina that was visiting the country during a world tour. However it wasn’t until Perth chef Bert Sachse developed his pavlova recipe that the name and recipe become more widely known around the world. The dessert pavlova was intended to be a metaphorical representation, representing the splendour of the dancer’s costume and ‘lighter than air’ form
Disclaimer: this recipe has been made primarily by Mr Hoang. Due to his other work commitments I wrote the post 
I like the idea of sharing economy, the fact that companies like Airbnb and Uber exist means that many of us can, potentially, make some money by using what they already had. Be that our house or car. So if you have an extra house you could rent it out to tourists, and avoid the hassle of a long term tenants that may never leave. You could also rent out your own home if and when you go on holiday.
In Holland, when you live in a condo, we have something called VVE, it is essentially a meeting that is held once a year to discuss issues or requests by each of the owners. That may involve some repairs, or anything that may affect others. In the last one we had a few days back one of our neighbors, who spends most of his time in Brazil, has put forward a request to be able to short let his place, mainly to tourists. Dutch people can be very straightforward and they certainly were during that meeting
It’s only 8 of us in the condo, it’s a pretty tiny one and everyone knows each other. They look at Hoang and I a bit suspiciously as we are the only non-Dutch neighbors. They are a bunch of nice people that have been living there for ages. They do care about the building and they are afraid ‘bad’ things can happen. I can understand where they come from, as their main concern is not to have loud people staying in the building disrupting the quietness that we have. Or the idea of bumping into someone new up the stairs is something they feel unhappy with.
However, I also see my neighbors’ point of view. Letting your property in the Netherlands can be a real hassle. Tenants are very protected by the law here, which it makes virtually impossible to evict them. That being said, most of the tenants I know are humble and will never cause any trouble to their landlord. This strict regulation is making companies like Airbnb very appealing to many people that want to capitalize in the short term. Problem is that the hoteliers know that too, and they are fighting like crazy to get the safety standards and taxes they have to adhere to, to be applied to Airbnb host too. As you can imagine, this is a real mess. And like most of the things in Europe, it ages before it gets resolved and in the meantime we enjoy the loopholes As of my neighbors he gave up. Everyone, a part form me an another one, was against his proposal. Changes never come easy…
Have you ever been the guest of Airbnb or have you ever host someone? Hoang and I always stay in Airbnb apartments. We love jumping in someone’s life that we don’t know for a few days
Enough bla bla bla for today, it’s time for some serious sweet. This is a true classic , we didn’t want to re-invent the wheel today. We leave this to speak for itself.
Ingredients
- Egg white: 4
- Caster sugar: 250 g (1 1/4 cup)
- Corn starch: 1 tsp
- Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
- Wine vinegar: 1 tsp
- Double cream: 350 ml (1 1/2 cup), stored cold
- Icing sugar: 3 tbsp
- Strawberry: 400 g (14 oz), chopped
- Blueberry: 100 g (4 oz)
- Blackberry: 100 (4 oz)
- Raspberry: 100 g (4 oz)
Method
- Pre-heat an oven to 150 C (300 F)
- Whisk the egg white using electric mixer or food processor until they form stiff peaks (about 5 mins), then whisk in the sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, until the mixture looks glossy. After that, whisk in the vinegar, cornflour and vanilla
- Use a pencil or pen to mark out the circumference of a dinner plate on baking parchment. Then pour the mixture (meringue) inside the circle, spread and create a crater by making the sides a little higher than the middle
- Bake for 1 hour and let the meringue cool inside the oven (about 1.5 to 2 hours)
- After that, blend half of the chopped strawberries with 2 tbsp icing sugar
- Whip the double cream until double in size and add the remaining 1 tbsp icing sugar
- Finishing the dish: Place the meringue on a dinner plate, spread the whipped cream on top, add the remaining chopped strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and pour the strawberry sauce over
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