Is romance officially dead?

A couple of days ago, I rewatched  last episodes of Sex and the City. Do you remember when Carrie dates the charming Russian artist who does all those romantic gestures, from reading a love poems next to the fire place to writing love songs and takes her to opera in her perfect Oscar de la Renta dress (that he bought ) ?

At one moment, the poor Carrie who lives and breathes big, cynical New York City and who is  absolutely not used to romance, feels overwhelmed and she faints (straight in her lover arms, of course ). Then she asks Petrovsky  to “take it down “ as she an American.

So I started to think. Does romance still exist ? Are we all becoming cold, bitter, heartless and don’t care about it anymore? 

What happened to flowers, sunsets and romantic songs ? Did romance die itself or we just rejected everything what can be linked to it? Candles, holding hands, meeting someone interesting in real world (not only on Tinder app) make us feel uncomfortable, so we just don't do that, or maybe we are waiting for someone to show us a way to old school romance?

We still watch countless amount of romantic movies, listen to Ed Sheeran (guilty!) and saying big “AWWW” whenever something super cute happens, so I guess it’s a sign we actually miss romance, romantic gestures and somewhere deep inside we are not as sarcastic as we pretend to be.

Valentine’s day is coming in February, so I decided to embrace love and romance . They say it’s the month of love and pink/red  color, so let’s try to prepare some super cute desserts which you can share with loved ones. I start from sharing a recipe for Red Fruits Panna Cotta.

Red Fruits Panna Cotta

(Makes 2 small portions )

1 gelatine leaf

1 vanilla pod

166 ml double cream

25 g caster sugar

50 g fresh or frozen red fruits (blackberries, blueberries, raspberries)

1 tsp icing sugar

Soak the gelatine leaf in cold water until soft- it will take around 2 minutes. Blend red fruits with 1 tsp of icing sugar.

Pour the cream and sugar into the pan, split the vanilla pod, scrape out the seeds and add it to cream mixture. Add one tsp of red fruits mixture. Bring it to a simmer. Remove the gelatine leaf from the water, squeeze out and  add to the hot cream. Stir until dissolved. Divide the mixture into 2 serving moulds – it can be anything from little bowls, glasses to cups – whatever you feel like (use your imagination). Leave panna cottas in the fridge for 2 hours.

To serve, you can leave dessert into moulds and decorate it with red fruits mixture and fresh raspberries or dip the moulds into some warm water, then turn it out on to a serving plate and finish it with fruit sauce .

Ps: Remember that on the end Mr. Big came to Paris to save Carrie from her unhappiness with  Petrovsky’s. You see, even Carrie changed her mind about romance and happy ending . 

Ollie