I am writing this from my native Valais, southwest Switzerland, on vacation that has seemed a long time coming. As soon as we arrived, we had a blast of the local flavours. The end of April welcomed us with the first white asparagus that were poached just al dente, with some smoked ham made by my brother, some just ripe cheese from last summer's batch and of course, the inevitable white wine from our vineyard.

What was striking was not the selection of goods, it was the quality of the products of the terroir that were all in season. Nothing pretentious, nothing new, just plain hearty food and drink. The terroir, often related to wine but that actually applies to many food products, roughly defines the unique features of a product from the soil it grows in, the amount of sun it drenches in or the quality of the water it quenches its thirst in - the local geophysical features of the area is reflected in the products. 

One morning, as I went downstairs to pick a pot of black cherry jam for breakfast, I noticed that some carrots were still alive in the garden from the proceeding summer. Some root vegetables can be kept (stored) using this method during the winter, keeping them in their own earth and surrounded by sand. That way, with the low temperature of the winter and the nutrients from the soil, the vegetable can be kept fresh all winter long. 

These carrots almost instantly made me want to whip up a carrot cake for afternoon tea. And so I picked the deep orange roots from the soil and went back to the kitchen to prepare the cake. I did not modify an ounce of the recipe we use back in Hong Kong. As I was preparing the cake and shredding the carrots, I could already smell the difference. The cake mixture was whipped up in a very short time, thrown in the hot oven and baked to perfection within the next 45 minutes. 

What I thought would be a normal, standard carrot cake turned out to be different in an unexpected way. The flavours were simply different. It was not better or worse than the Hong Kong version, but it had the local terroir flair that I thought so interesting to discover. The way I prepare my carrot cake is simple: I place all the ingredients into a blender and mix it into a smooth batter. That way, I am exploiting each ingredient's best features. The local carrots and walnuts made the difference. The carrots from home are sweeter, have a stronger aromatic carrot flavour and are juicier. The walnuts came from our old neighbour's walnut tree. Every time we would pick walnuts, we would end up with black hands from the shells - that tree must be at least hundred years old - so massive. And so is the taste of its walnuts, earthy, chunky, really nutty and with plenty of oil that is released in the blending of my recipe. I personally think that the walnuts added that really special feature to the finished cake because of their flavour. I like to finish my cake with a nice, light and refreshing lemon glaze made simply from icing sugar and lemon juice. 

My advice to you, for the next time you're baking from scratch is try to source seasonal and local ingredients. Ingredients that were just picked and not stored or conditioned in order to travel halfway around the world. The New Territories has plenty of farms producing fruits and vegetables, as a matter of fact, the last time we were baking bread at an organic farm's wood fire oven, we were so surprised to find the wide array of available vegetables at that time of the year, from watercress to cherry tomatoes and Chinese celery. Really, taste the difference, support the local farmers and discover what's special from your own terroir.