When I was a little girl I would often accompany my mom to the bank.  She was in her 40s and had been living in the small town where I grew up for 20 years.  She obviously went in to the bank quite frequently, as was evidenced by the reception she got when she arrived.  She knew most of the tellers by name, and they knew her.  “Hello Mrs Gordon,” they would say.  “Hello Mavis,” replied my mother, “how’s your husband?  Feeling better?”  And so it would continue until she left, after having greeted all the tellers, the bank manager and, often, fellow clients.

Fast forward 30 years.

I am now the same age, and have been living in the same city for 10 years.  I frequent the same bank a few times a month.  But when I walk through the security barrier and look around at the tellers behind the bullet-proof glass, I don’t recognize anyone.  What happens to them?  Are they quietly recycled in the dead of night?  And the bank manager seems to change just when you start getting to know each other.  No doubt a deliberate tactic to ensure that they don’t do you any favours by way of extended overdrafts or credit holidays.

Nowadays we don’t really need to go to the bank very much.  Now we have Call Centres.
Thank goodness for these paragons of efficiency.  Thankfully I have loads of spare time to go through the IVR (interactive voice response) options, figure out whether I need Sales, Accounts, Telephone Banking, Internet Banking, PUK numbers, or listen to various computerized options.  Ok, sometimes I have to wait quite some time to speak to a “consultant”, but at least I can talk about what’s bothering me and they can instantly sort it out with the power to negotiate on behalf of their company.  That’s why these 20-something Generation Why “consultants” are put there along the front-line of customer service.  Not, as many think, as a buffer to protect the management from their clients.  No, they are skilled, trained representatives of their organization, able and willing to resolve your issue in record time.  And all it takes is an hour or two of holding on while I get routed between departments and IVR voice prompts.

Last week it took me less time to drive to the Sea Point Telkom centre to apply for an ADSL line, that it took a friend of mine to do exactly the same thing on the phone.  It’s ironic – a phone company that doesn’t answer their phone!

God bless technology.
God bless automation.

If you think that making Creme Brulee is a complicated gourmet thing, think again.  It’s one of the easiest desserts to make and can be enhanced by adding a bit of liqueur.  Lavender creme brulee is one of my favourites and goes down uber-well at dinner parties.  I would strongly suggest buying a small blowtorch, either from a kitchen speciality store or a hardware store.

Adding lavender is an unusual twist on a traditional theme.  Trust me, it’s gorgeous!

Here’s the recipe:

4 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon dried lavender flowers
8 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar, divided

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Butter your remekins and set them into a glass baking dish. If cooking custards in a metal pan, cover the bottom of the pan with a layer of newspaper to ensure an even temperature on the bottom. Place ramekins in a shallow ovenproof roasting or baking pan.

In a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat, add cream and the lavender flowers.  Heat just to a simmer. Remove from heat and allow lavender flowers to infuse with the cream for 5 minutes. Strain cream mixture through a fine mesh strainer to remove lavender flowers.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and 1/2 sugar until light and creamy. Slowly add the strained cream to the egg mixture, blending well. Divide custard mixture among the custard cups.

Bring the water for the water bath to a light simmer on top of the stove; carefully pour hot water into the baking pan to come half-way cup the sides of the custard cups. NOTE: The most common mistake people make in baking a custard is not putting enough water in the hot-water bath. The water should come up to the level of the custard inside the cups. You must protect your custard from the heat.

Baked 60 minutes or until set around the edges but still loose in the center. The cooking time will depend largely on the size of the custard cup you are using, but begin checking at a half hour and check back regularly. When the center of the custard is just set, it will jiggle a little when shaken, that’s when you can remove it from the oven.

Remove from oven and leave in the water bath until cooled. Remove cups from water bath and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.

When ready to serve, sprinkle approximately 2 teaspoons of remaing sugar over each creme brulee. For best results, use a small hand-held torch. Hold the torch 4 to 5 inches from the sugar, maintaing a slow and even motion. Stop torching just before the desired degree of doneness is reached, as the sugar will continue to cook for a few seconds after flame has been removed.

If you don’t have a torch, place creme brulees 6 inches below the grill for 4 to 6 minutes or until sugar bubbles and turns golden brown. Refrigerate creme brulees at least 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 6 to 8 servings (depending on size of custard cups).

For those of you who don’t know, a chocolate fondant is basically a small dome-shaped chocolate cake that has a molten liquid gooey chocolatey centre.  It’s a small, decadent, delicious dessert that, when it works, is hugely impressive…and yummy!

This is Gordon Ramsay’s recipe.  I’ve made it three times and it turns out beautifully…

CHOCOLATE FONDANT

Ingredients (makes 4)
50g unsalted butter, plus extra to grease
2 tsp cocoa powder, to dust
50g good quality bitter chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids), in pieces
1 free range egg
1 free range egg yolk
60g caster sugar
2 tbsp liqueur of your choice
50g plain flour, sifted
Icing sugar, to dust
Creme fraiche, Marscapone, or vanilla ice cream to serve

How to make hot chocolate fondant:
1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius.

2. Butter four ramekins (about 7.5cm in diameter), then dust liberally with cocoa, shaking out any excess.

3. Slowly melt the chocolate and butter in a small bowl set over a pan of hot water, then take off the heat and stir until smooth. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.

4. Using an electric whisk, whisk the whole egg, egg yolk and sugar together until pale and thick, then incorporate the chocolate mixture. Fold in the liqueur, followed by the flour. Divide the chocolate mixture between the ramekins.  As a variation, push a few white chocolate buttons into the mixture.  This will create a gorgeous marbled effect when you cut into the fondant.

5.  Bake for 12 minutes.

6. Turn the chocolate fondants out on to warmed plates. Dust the tops with icing sugar and serve with a dollop of creme fraiche, marscapone, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

7.  Let me know how it turns out.  I’m pretty sure it’ll be perfect, and you’ll score major points with your dinner guests!  Just don’t tell them how easy it really is!

Sunday February 20th saw about 200 people wearing red, yellow, green or blue t-shirts descend on Camps Bay Beach.  Everybody had previously downloaded an MP3 file and waited for 3pm local time to press PLAY.  Unfortunately, not everybody had synchronised their watches/cell phones to the atomic clock, so some of us were a few seconds out.  But, the fun tokens flowed freely regardless, and participants were put through various activities to the bemusement of the onlookers.  Some non-participants were so intrigued that they joined in with all the activities and seemed to be having as much fun as the headphone-clad players.

I’m not sure if the whole event hit its mark.  Orgnised by “Improv Everywhere”, it was all very American and seemed to lack local flavour and sense of humour.

“Improv Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 100 missions involving tens of thousands of undercover agents. The group is based in New York City.”

Here are the pictures.  If you see yourself in any of the images, please email me (flashaha@gmail.com) and I’ll gladly send you the original.