Ukrainian granny's vareniki with mashed potatoes (vegan version)

It is hard to believe, but I made my first conscious vareniki (Ukrainian dumpling) just a couple of months ago. I pretty much grew up wondering around them being cooked at the family kitchen helping to make them here and there, but never really did the thing myself from start to the end. The tradition comes from my Ukrainian grand grandma. She cooked beautifully and she taught me a few things. The one I'm most proud of is this vareniki seal, which makes them look so pretty.

Escribà pastry shop in Barcelona

Sweets in Barcelona often go unnoticed. If you don't get to spend much time there it easily overloads you with its amazing seafood, paella, wine and tapas. But this would never happen to such a sweets junky like me. Barcelona has its own beautiful culture of sweets and there is so much to try there! Escribà is one of the oldest and most famous pastry shops in the city, which I was lucky to visit during my last trip.

Lemon and caraway biscuits

Now when everybody is not as busy with halloween I can clearly see that it is not only me who is impatiently waiting for Christmas. My first Christmas cinnamon roll cookies this year were baked on October 1st and here comes the second batch. Every time I bake these lemon biscuits they surprise me once again with their depth and intensity. And almost everybody who tries them asks me for their recipe.

Tamarind and fresh ginger cake (vegan version)

This time of the year I constantly feel like something spicy. This cake came out very Asian - with intense sweet dark muscovado sugar and sour tamarind. Fresh ginger, cinnamon and black pepper create a spicy explosion, but there is almost no texture, it disappears right after it gets into your mouth.

Perfect risotto at l'Osteria restaurant (Paris)

I got to visit l'Osteria during my last trip to Paris. It's a tiny Italian place hidden in one of le Marais side streets who's chef, Toni Vianello, is famous for revolutionizing risotto. Yes, the saint-jaques risotto we had there was in fact beautiful and different from everything I tried before. But even if we leave the risotto aside, it was just a perfect evening I got to spend with an old friend in the atmosphere of almost family hospitality.