The Good Stuff

Recently I received an edict from Bruce, my jam-making ex-colleague to stop drooling over the Jam Lady's jams. I had developed an addiction to this fig and earl grey jam and had been trying to order some online from Victoria but have been facing some technical difficulties. So I hike back to the old neighbourhood to get my fix and have been using her jams as an industry benchmark to give Bruce some feedback and critique on what's yummy and what makes it so.

It's good that Bruce puts some value on my taste buds as he came over this afternoon bearing a cloth bagful of his home-made deliciousness poured into bottles with handwritten labels.

He had brought over 4 different peach (with brandy, cointreau and a couple of other which I forget as all I need to remember was they were yummy) jams, a fig and lemon jam and a plum paste. I made some crepes to go with the jam-tasting session.

You can't go wrong with peach I reckon. Peach anything is good, more so these peach jams. The juicy, plump bits of fruit were visible and the fragrance was enticing. The fig and lemon jam had a nice contrast of chewy bits of fig and the lemon rind, I love the zestiness of this one although it is different from Jam Lady's fig and earl grey jam which was my favourite of her range. The plum paste was recommended with cheese, but we just tried it with the crepes anyway. As the paste was much firmer, I guess it didn't go as well with the crepes as the jams.

And Bruce left me several bottles of goodies to savour. I promised him to let some friends do some tasting and take some orders for him. Good stuff needs to be shared all round...