Indian of course

While we were on our Honeymoon in India we spent the most lovely afternoon doing a cookery course with a local guy called Vijay Singh in Udaipur. He has a spice shop called Spice India in the main shopping area and while we were in the shop admiring the spices we noticed that he also offers Cookery courses at his home. This was a great opportunity to find out just have to make some of those delicious dishes we had been tasting each night. We choose what dishes we wanted to make from a menu of dishes we wanted Vijay to make on the course. I was happy with any of the paneer dishes as I developed a huge taste for this while I was in India. J wanted him to make a Paneer Butter Masala. Then there were a few other dishes like pakoras, chapatis and fruit yogurt thrown in to fill out the meal, which we got to eat as well as learn to make.

The whole experience was wonderful. Vijay picked us up from our Hotel on his trusty motorbike and the three of us rode on the bike to his home. I wish I had a photo of this to show you as it was a very tight squeeze. Of course in India it is not unusual to see whole families on the one motorbike but this was definitely an experience for us. We arrived at Vijay's home and were introduced to his wife, daughter and Mother. This was more of a demonstration then a course as Vijay was the one doing the cooking. Our job was to take notes and to taste the results both of which I did diligently.

Vijay was an excellent teacher and made the afternoon a pleasure with all his stories and explanations. He started out by going through the spices that all Indian families keep in their Masala Dabba Spice Tin (pictured above). For the record these are chilli powder, coriander powder, garam masala, turmeric, cumin seeds, salt and aniseed (I'm still not sure if I heard him right in that one). These seven spices form the basis of most Indian curries.

When we came back from our honeymoon I was dying to try out these dishes and see if I could make them to the same standard as Vijay. I am happy to report that the dishes I made were also excellent. I made a Chicken Butter Masala which we ate with the most delicious chapatis. Below the photos are the recipes I used.

Thanks to Vijay for making that part of our honeymoon so much fun. Now every time I take out my own masala dabba tin I will think of Vijay and the fun we had.

Chicken Butter Masala
75g Salted Butter
2 tsp chopped onion
2 tsp garlic paste *
1 tsp ginger paste *
4 tsp onion paste *
2 tomatoes pureed
1 tsp red chilli powder
2 tsp coriander powder
pinch turmeric
pimch salt
2 tablespoons natural yogurt
1/2 glass water
200g Chicken breast cut up into pieces and slightly browned in a pan
(or 200g paneer cubed)
1/4 tsp garam masala

1. Melt the butter in a wok
2. Add Onion and brown
3. Add the garlic, ginger and onion paste. Add the tomato puree
4. Add spices and cook on a medium heat for about 20 minutes until reduced to a paste and butter starts to bubble through mixture.
5. Add yogurt, water and chicken and cook for 3 minutes.
6. Add Garam masals
* the paste was a puree of garlic, ginger or onion mixed with water. Vijay makes a batch that lasts for a while in the fridge

Spiced Chapatis
These were so easy and so incredibly tasty with the curry.
250g Wholmeal Flour
pinch salt
1 cup water
spicy filling
boiled potato peeled
1/4 tsp chilli powder, coriander powder, garam masala, salt, cumin seeds, anisseed
pinch turmeric
pinch lemon salt

1. Mix flour and salt and gradually add water until a firm dough is formed.
2. Knead for 5 minutes and then divide into golf ball size balls
3. Mix the spices with the boiled potato and mush together
4. With each ball of dough. Roll it out to a saucer size disk. Place some spicy potato mix in the middle and gather the edges up to make a parcel. Squish parcel back into a ball and roll out to disk shape again.
5. On a hot dry pan cook the disks for a couple of minutes each side. Brush light with some oil to keep moist.

This was delicious served with basmati rice and some riata (naatural yogurt and cucumber mixed together)

Kr. Vijay Singh
Spice India,
4, Godia Road,
Jagdish Chowk, Udaipur
spiceindia23@yahoo.com
9352759772

Picnic Perfect

The first few years I lived in Sydney I found it very difficult to get used to celebrating Christmas in my shorts and t-shirt with the sun shining down. It just didn't feel right. But after living here for 11 years now I find that each year I have warmed to it more and more, literally. It actually means I don't miss my family as much as I used to because it feels like a very different type of Christmas. It doesn't actually feel like I am missing out as much on what is happening back in Dublin.

Now, when the weather starts to heat up in December, I no longer think of roast dinners at home. Instead I think of big juicy tiger prawns and red ripe cherries. I no longer think of snuggling up in front of the fire and instead dig out the picnic blanket and head for the outdoors.

Isn't it funny how food always tastes so much better outdoors. I am blessed with living within walking distance of a fruit market and a fish market. So last weekend I headed to both. I bought some of the tiger prawns and cherries and of course the obligatory Sydney Rock Oysters. I packed them in the picnic hamper along with my current favorite daytime tipple, Mrs Wiggly Muscato, and we headed off to the local park to enjoy the sunshine. The best thing about a picnic like this is that is takes zero time to prepare. No recipes or cooking. Just pack it up and enjoy all those natural flavors. Perfect.

I do still miss my family but at least there are many aspects to life here in Sydney that make it a lot easier to be away from them. Love you guys :)

Beau'tiful

Ok so I am well aware that this blog has gone disastrously downhill in the number of posts about food I have cooked. I promise you (and me) that this will change in the not too distant future. I have plans for lots of yummy things I want to cook and I will make every effort to photograph them and write about them here. But in the mean time can I just quickly tell you about our little weekend trip to Berry. We wanted to get out of Sydney for the weekend so we hit the road and headed to Berry which is about 2 hours drive south of Sydney. I love everything about Berry and have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to stay there quite a few times in the last couple of years. It’s always a favourite for those girlie weekends away.

This trip was all very last minute. A friend phoned and asked if we would be interested in getting away for the long weekend. This was a marvellous idea, only problem was that it was only a week before the long weekend and it is the middle of school holidays. It was not going to be easy to find accommodation. A few enquires were made about hiring a house but it was not looking like there was much on offer. I came across a website for a B&B that looked pretty nice and when I phoned up they were able to take us as their other guest had cried off due to having the flu (everyone has it at the moment).

So off we headed to Beau Glen for the weekend. I recognised it as soon as we got there mainly by their beautiful gardens. This place had the most magnificent gardens which we got to enjoy over the weekend. There was Gin & Tonics down by the bubbling brook, cheese and wine in the gazebo, whisky on the porch.

I’m noticing a recurring theme here. Our hosts were lovely. They were so friendly and welcoming and they really looked after us well. I know they liked us because they spent most of the weekend with us when we were at the house. They sat down with a cup of tea after serving us breakfast. They joined us for our marathon movie night watching the God Father. They just loved having company. They were a lovely couple but I have actually sworn off B&B’s for this very reason. I just forgot this time but too be honest it wasn’t that bad as they were good company. And I really can’t complain because they served us the most delicious eggs I have ever had. The yolk was the closest to a gold colour I have ever seen. It was almost luminescent. I don’t know much about chickens and that bright yellow could have been a bad thing but what I do know is that they tasted wonderful poached for breakfast and you all know from a recent post what a big fan of eggs I am.

On the second night we cooked up a BBQ and as our hosts were heading out to a party we were left to our own devices. Bob, the man of the house, had left us some relish to enjoy with our steaks. It looked harmless enough. Then I tasted it and wow was this a tasty little relish. I loved it so much that I smothered it all over my steak, my vegetables and I would have put it on some fruit for dessert if the others hadn’t prised it out of my hands. I loved this relish. The next morning when we were checking out I was raving to Bob about how wonderful it was. I was trying my best to get the recipe from him but instead I walked away with my very own jar and a very big smile on my face.

I’m not giving up yet though. I plan to write him a thank-you e-mail and I will be asking for the recipe. If I get it I will write it up here so that everyone else can taste the pleasures of a good relish.

In the mean time check out some of the beautiful flowers that were in bloom.

One day free

Today we woke up nice and early, full of organisation. We're heading off to Canada for a short skiing holiday and the adrenalin is already flowing. We are just organising the last minute details of the packing when I noticed that there is a missed call on my mobile phone. It’s the airline to say that our flight has been cancelled. We are both so disappointed. All of a sudden we’re not going anywhere for another 24 hours. Should we go into work – No way!

I am, by nature, an extremely organised person, so to be given a gift of a free day with absolutely nothing organised is a rare pleasure. After many, many phone calls this morning reorganising our plans, J and I headed, with the dog, to the local park for some sunshine, a sambo and a chance to register that we weren’t going on holidays for another day. We came back and the hassle of the morning had worn us out so we both ended up napping in the afternoon sunlight on the couch in the lounge. No greater pleasure than napping in the afternoon.

Today is the 29th Feb and so it is already an extra day in the year but today was our very own extra little day. Two wonderful things happened today. One was that when J and I were out walking the dog he showed me a park right beside our house that he has known about for months. We did talk about this park when he discovered it but I think I was distracted and so didn’t comprehend how convenient it actually is. Since I am the person who walks Teddy every morning it is so wonderful to find a park so close to our house where you can let the dog off lease. I am very happy about this find.

But much more important then finding a new park was having a meal with my favourite chef. Art has been staying with us recently on and off while they spend some time in Sydney. They were going to mind lil Teddy for us while we are off skiing but since we didn’t leave Sydney today we were able to gatecrash his dinner with a friend tonight. While clearing out the freezer before going on holidays I came across a frozen bag of some unidentifiable black food. I phoned Art and asked had he left anything in the freezer and he informed me that they had brought some Abalone back from Tasmania. Tonight was the night to enjoy the abalone with their good friend. All of a sudden two more guests would be joining. Being the excellent chef that Art is, he just added a few more veggies and a little more wine to the sauce and hey presto the meal would stretch to 5 people. There is nothing I enjoy more then having dinner cooked by Art and so today really was a treat for us.

Of course a certain little dog has come to learn that when the suitcases come out it means he will be left behind and so he has been in a little bit of a sulk today but it is very cute to watch my little puppy trying to sulk while still wanting to be involved in everything.

Third Visit

Well, we didn’t get to go to A’Mews last week because J’s Dad didn’t feel that well but we have rescheduled for next Friday. I was nervous phoning up at the last minute to cancel but Dani was wonderful about it and said it was no problem to change the reservation by a week. Thank god for good service. Now I can start looking forward to thi wonderful meal all over again. There's a lot to be said for delayed gartification.

What we did do was head back to Clarendon Forest Retreat at the weekend with J’s parents. This has become a real favourite with us. We were there this time last year with J’s parents and last November with my parents. The big draw card is that we can bring the dog with us and he absolutely loves it there. We hire two cottages that are about 200meters apart and the dog spends the weekend running between the two houses. He is in his element. The first time we got the food catered from local restaurants. It was good but not great. So when we went with my parents I made a point of cooking the food myself. This time we had the best of both worlds. I whipped up a very simple meal on the Friday night when we arrived and then we got the Saturday night catered. J’s Dad organised it all so I’m not sure where he ordered from but my god did he do well. At 7:00pm, as I lounged in the Jacuzzi with a cheese platter and a glass of bubbly on the side (yes it really is a tough life), there was a delivery of two magnificent seafood platters. The selection on the platter was out of this world. Crab, lobster mornay, oysters and prawns all of top quality. This was a dinner fit for a fisherman’s king. And the best bit was not a single bit of cooking was required cos we all know about my recent lack of interest in cooking.

We had a great little adventure weekend with J’s parents. You would not believe they were grand parents when they are hopping on quad bikes, zipping down toboggan rides and splashing off the end of massive water slides. On the Sunday the sun graced us so we took to the water. We hired a small sail boat and motorboat and zipped around on Smith Lake. Then the boys headed off for some more adventurous sailing, helping a guy crew a much bigger sail boat (you can tell I know all the technical sailing terms). J'sMum & I headed for a marathon walk along the beach with the dog. Is there anything more rejuvenating then a walk along the beach? Forster is a great spot to go on holidays to and I look forward to going back already.

A little camp

After all the excesses of Christmas and New Year it was time to head off and get some fresh air and exercise. Here in Australia we are blessed with a public holiday to celebrate Australia Day which is on the 26th Jan. That day fell on a Saturday this year so we had a long weekend. A group of Irish, Scottish and a token Aussie headed off to Kangaroo Valley for some canoeing and camping. This was one of those rare weekends where absolutely everything just works out perfectly. We had fantastic weather and found the perfect camp site. We had oodles of food and copious amounts of alcohol. But best of all not one of us got bitten by a deadly spider or snake. We did see lots of mean looking mammas but at least if you see them there is a much better chance you won’t get bitten by them.

To share the load of preparing the food we were all allocated different meals. J & I were in charge of one of the main meals. We made a one pot wonder chicken curry that was kept on ice in an esky until it was needed. At which time we were able to heat it up on our little gas cooker. Another couple made up a chilli dish. The boys were in charge of making the rice to go with. Snacks and alcohol were also in great supply. Much as I thought this weekend of activity would be good for me I managed to counter all the good with a steady intake of snacks and alcohol. Weekends away like this are one of the main reasons why I love living in this beautiful country.

Usually at this point in the post I would be including the recipe for the wonderful chicken Curry I prepared. There would be a number of different spices mixed lovingly into an aromatic pot. Unfortunately my recent lack of interest in cooking has gone completely out of control and I don’t know if I can actually say this but ….. I used a jar of Chicken Tonight Butter Chicken. There, I admitted it and that’s half the battle. Hello, my name is Audrey and I use jars of Chicken Tonight. There must be some 12 step program I can start on to get my over this.

During the weekend in the dark of night my camera had a bit of an accident and the display screen no longer works. I am going to get a new camera and I’m hoping that the new purchase will relight my interest in photographing food once again.

Happy Christmas!!!

Ok so the healthy eating didn’t quite work out. In fact, as always seems to happen to me, the more I try to be healthy the naughtier I usually am. The ole “Oh well it is Christmas” has been used a little too frequently recently. The lil cupcake pictured is a perfect example of some of the naughties I have been enjoying recently. It was given to me by P, who sits beside me in work, as an apology for not going mountain biking this weekend. I must be on top of the Christmas jobs when we can pack up the bikes and head to the Blue Mountains for a bone shaking ride along the Oaks Trail. This is my kind of mountain biking. You park the car, get on the train with your bike. Get off the train up the mountain and cycle down to the car. It’s a great ride and at times felt like we were on the bucking bronco at the rodeo.

I have a very easy 5km cycle into work everyday and apart from fighting off the taxi and bus drivers it’s not very taxing so this ride in the Blue Mountains gave my hybrid bike a work out on the rougher side. Here’s a picture of myself and A who I also work with. He’s my cycle guru so I wouldn’t go out in the mountains without him. You can tell from this photo that the weather here is actually the complete opposite from what I grew up with. At the moment is pretty darn hot here. Chances of snow on Christmas - a definite 0%

Christmas dinner is being taken care of by some very capable cooks who are part of J’s extended family. We are going to his brothers for Christmas dinner and everyone brings along a different dish for the dinner. J’s sister-in-law is Greek and her Aunts make some of the most delicious Christmas food. The dangerous part comes when it’s time for dessert. So as not to offend anyone you must try a little of everything. It’s a tough job but I think I’m up to it. I’ll be up bright and early on Christmas morning, making a very tradition Australian Pavlova. I will be staying well away from the green food colouring.

The only other cooking I will be doing on Christmas day will be a breakfast fry up. This was always one of my favourite parts of Christmas when I was growing up. We would open all the pressies and mid way through the process Mum would disappear into the kitchen to start the most humongous fry up. It would look something like this only much bigger. My family have lived all over the world and Christmas day was the only day when we would all eat breakfast together. I have carried on this tradition and have made a mini version of Mum’s fry up for J and I before we head out to see friends and family on Christmas Day. God forbid we should start the day without a full tummy. I’m thinking of whipping up some Irish Brown Bread too because nothing soaks up the grease like some slices of Irelands finest.

Roll on New Year’s Day when I know what my New Year’s resolution will be....again

Happy Christmas everyone!!!

Where have I been

My parents have been over for the last few weeks and we have been having a ball. We visited a few spots that I have mentioned on the blog before. For the first weekend we all headed back to Clarendon Forest Retreat, dog and all. As my parents got slightly delayed on the way over we had to zip off a few hours after they arrived. My parents were so good and didn’t complain at all about the extra four hour drive after flying half way around the world to visit us.

As mentioned when I wrote about our last visit here, the food supplied in the cottage is wonderful. No sooner had we arrived than we were tucking into the champagne and cheese plate provided. What a luxury. I had also brought along a box of Fromager des Clarines to try out. I am on a hunt to find the cheese that I had at the restaurant Guillaume at Bennelong for my Birthday back in May. I know I could just phone the restaurant and ask them what that soft buttery cheese they serve is but I am having way too much fun tasting cheeses to do that. When I described the cheese to the very helpful lady in the GPO cheese and wine room she recommended I try Fromager des Clarines. It was wonderful and creamy but I still have not found an exact match. I think I will just have to make another visit to Bennelong.

After teasing the taste buds with this wonderful cheese I got going on dinner. This time instead of opting for a delivery from the local restaurants I went with cooking us up some good old fashioned hearty food. I knew after all that aeroplane food Mum & Dad would prefer something simple. On the first day we went Italian and had lasagne, my new favourite rocket salad (thanks Niamh) and garlic bread. Simple tasty food and a good bottle of wine – perfect. The following day J showed my parents his culinary skills with some wonderfully marinated fillet steaks on the BBQ. Eating at the cottages meant we didn’t have to leave Teddy alone to do any damage. He’s the best dog in the world as long as there is someone with him but leave him on his own and he’s bound to get up to mischief. It was a very lazy weekend of walks on the beach and lounging around reading. It was just what my parents needed after the trip over. I had all sorts of plans for going walking and getting out in the fresh air but in the end I opted for the fresh air on the veranda while relaxing.

No sooner were we back from our trip to Forester then we were off again. I flew up to Noosa with my parents and would you believe that we revisited every restaurant that Mum & I ate at the last time we were there. So let me not bore you with repeating the reviews because every one of them was still wonderful. I have been trying to eat healthy recently so during the day we kept everything light. A bowl of cereal while watching the waves crash in (the picture above was from the balcony of the apartment we were in for the week). Lunch was a light sandwich or maybe some of Mum’s melt in the mouth scrambled eggs. Keeping things light meant that we always had a good appetite for our delicious dinners.

After Noosa it was back to Sydney where we have been entertaining ourselves and our friends with all sorts of culinary delights. Most notable was a Toblerone cheese cake which Mum made for a dinner party with some of my friends. I am sorry but I don’t have some mouth watering photos of the cake as I seem to have lost my food photographing mojo. It’s killing me because I would love to be able to share it with you. Maybe I will just have to make it again – any excuse.

Speaking of loosing my mojo, I’m sorry for not updating the blog on a weekly basis like I used to. I have loved keeping this blog. Friends and family have told me they like to check what I have been up to by reading the blog and recently there has been nothing for them to read. I’m not sure why but I have gone off photographing and writing about food. While Mum & Dad have been over I’ve been very naughty with all the food and wine I’ve been having because I have a bit of a tummy problem at the moment and I have been trying to eat plain food. Let’s be honest, who wants to hear about plain food. I spoke to my sister about loosing interest in my own blog and she reckons I should stick with it. I need to loose some weight (yeah, I know, who doesn’t?) and so I really need to cut back on the calorie high foods which are usually the ones I like reading and writing about. My sister thinks I should blog about good healthy food that people can enjoy. Do people really want to read about that? Maybe that should be the challenge I set myself. Me and all the diet books out there are trying to make healthy food look appetising. I’ll see how this goes. Stick with me.

Berrynice once again

We headed off last weekend for another Girls weekend to Berry. This was with a different group of girls but the last one was such a success that I made sure we did lots of the same things. We enjoyed the same bircher muesli in a glass. We drank copious amounts of wine and ate our own home cooked Italian food. on the Sunday after me constantly talking about the Woodfired Sourdough Bakery the girls eventually gave in and went there for lunch. Thank god they loved it too because I had really talked it up.

There is nothing nicer than having quality time with the girls. We arrived late on the Friday night and whipped up our own pizzas and garlic because what could be nicer while you tuck in to a very large supply of bottles of red wine. We had a massive fire to sit around and talk into the wee hours and that’s all we needed to keep us happy.

After a lazy bircher muesli breakfast on the Saturday we spent hours pampering ourselves and each other with facials, foot scrubs and all sorts of lotions. Our friend, A, is a bit of an expert when it comes to skin care so she was giving us all sorts of advice. When we ran out of lotions and potions someone produced a cheese plater and since it was 5 minutes past midday we decided it would be respectable to open our first (of many) bottle of red wine. And so another day of eating and drinking was under way.

We had planned on going out in berry. When we booked the house we were staying at online the website said it was 0km from Berry. There must have been a mistake. I think it was missing a little 2 before that because we were probably about 20km from Berry and the last part of the trip was over dirt road. Since we didn’t fancy our chances of a taxi actually finding us we decided to cook for ourselves.

It’s amazing how fast you can whip up an great meal when you have four hungry women working in the kitchen. We started off with Bruschetta (pictured above) E made this and it was so good we all ate way too much. It is such a simple starter but it tastes so damn good when it’s made with fresh ingredients. We had wonderful fresh bread, juicy tomatoes, and loads of fresh basil.

For dinner we had steak, veg and a salad that made a number of appearances over the weekend.
Our new favourite salad –
Rocket
Lots of Fresh cracked Pepper & Salt
Extra Virgin olive Oil
Splash of lemon juice
And lots of lovely shaved parmesan cheese

It’s a fresh tasty salad that goes well with any dish and did, in fact, many times over the weekend.

Dessert was simply more lovely red wine and some Lindt chocolate as we snuggled up on the comfy chairs once again around the roaring fire. I love winter nights when you have an open fire.
On the Sunday we were way more organised and since we had finished off the supply of wine the night before we headed into Berry town to exercise our credit cards in the fabulous homewares shops. There was also a market that occurs on the first Sunday of every month. It’s more of an art and craft market than a food market.


Over the weekend there had been lots of mentions of the donut van that is well known to all who visit or pass through berry on the way to the South coast. Every time we thought about visiting the donut van we were already too full to enjoy them. We made the effort not to eat for long enough to be able to enjoy the donuts on the drive back to Sydney. They make them fresh when you order them and they are divine. They’re proud boast is that they have never sold a cold donut nor attempted to rewarm one. I have never been a big fan of donuts and one of my most disappointing donut experiences was when the Krispy Kreme shop opened in Sydney and EVERYONE was raving about them. When I took my first bite it tasted awful because it was like a mouthful of sugar. These donuts are nothing like that. They are doughy, warm and melty sweet. Even though I was full after the one I still couldn’t help myself from having more and that’s got to be the sign of a good donut. I think I have just found a new place for my pit stop when I’m heading down the South cost.

Food highlights

Ok enough about the holiday I hear you say. But please, let me make one last post and then I promise it is straight back to food after a long hiatus. I wanted to very briefly list some of the wonderful restaurants we visited. Our very insightful apartment owner, Nicole, left us with a list of seven good restaurants and we ended up going to five of the restaurants and all of them were excellent. This woman knows her restaurants. We were also lucky to be in Paris with a good friend who also knows his restaurants too, so he had a few little gems for us. I am just going to give a list with a very brief description. This list is as much for my own records as for the blog.

Brasserie Bofinger was a wonderful old style brassiere that specialised in seafood and Alsatian style dishes. We arrived at the restaurant late and only started dinner at about 10:30pm. We finished up at about 1:30am at which time the restaurant was still buzzing with people eating. This is one things I miss in Australia. Over here people eat very early in the night and you would seldom see a restaurant open past midnight.

One of the specialities of Bofinger is Choucroute, sauerkraut laden with cured and boiled meats. This is a monster of a meal and I was such a greedy guts here that I didn't have to eat at all the next day.

Brasserie Bofinger
3, Rue Bastille 75004 Paris
+33 1 42 72 87 82

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Chez Michel was a gorgeous little restaurant that was only 5 minutes from our apartment. We arrived late and were led to a table downstairs that had an old world feel to it with all the stone walls, large wooden tables and cellars of wine. The menu was very gamey and the food was delicious. What we ordered was all slowed cooked meats with rich sauces and delicious vegetables. The desserts were excellent too and my Paris-Brest was a wonderful introduction to this old favourite.
Chez Michel
10, Rue Belzunce 75010 Paris
+33 1 44 53 06 20

Chez Casimir can be found just a few doors down from Chez Michel and it was only when I googled this restaurant to find it's website that I realised that it is owned by the same guy as Chez Michel. This was great little cheap eat restaurant that was just around the corner from where we were staying. They have a wonderful menu with lots of good hearty food on it. We enjoyed a slow cooked stew where the meat just feel apart. The staff here were wonderful. Especially when we kept wanting change tables because more people were joining us.
Chez Casimir
6 rue de Belzunce 75010 Paris
+33 1 48 78 28 80

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Restaurant 404 was a treasure of a Moroccan Restaurant that our friend T had booked for us. It was recommended to him by another friend. Isn't 'word of mouth' great. The decor was so impressive. We arrived for dinner at 8:00 and there were a few other people there. By 8:15 the whole restaurant was full so I reckon it would be a good idea to book here. We started the night off with a round of fresh mojitos that got us in the mood for the meal to come. We ordered a selection of tagines and cous cous dishes that were all great.

If you are booking ask for the tables upstairs which have the big cushions and the round moroccan trays for tables. You get a great view of the festivities in the main part of the restaurant.

I couldn't find a web site for this restaurant but I did find this article which was talked about it Ny times article

Restaurant 404
69, Rue Gravilliers 75003 Paris
+33 1 42 74 57 81

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Chez Louisette is an absolute gem of a cafe. If you can find it in the market you are over the first hurdle. our friend, T, had been here and with the help of a few locals we stumbled across it tucked away in the corner of one of the markets at Les Puces. The day we decided to visit the flea markets we were all very hung over after an all night session of dancing and drinking. We needed hangover food and we needed it immediately. Thank god we weren't after anything too up market because this food was good wholesome fare with not even a smidgen of fancy thrown in. We did have the necessary escargot (when in France) that were juicy and oozing with hot garlic sauce. The mains were a little bit too greasy for all our likings so maybe go for a salad or something that doesn't call for oil in the cooking process.

The decor in here did absolutely nothing for our hangovers and it was almost necessary for us to keep our sun glasses on. I've never been in a place more gaudy in my life with tinsel, Christmas balls and shiny paper as far as the eye can see. But this is what makes this restaurant so fantastically unique. Of course the wait staff shouting the orders to the chef upstairs was also quite unique but nothing beat the dulcet tones of Emmanuelle singing her heart out as she did
her best Edith Piaf impersonation.

Chez Louisette
136 avenue Michelet 93400 Saint-Ouen
+33 1 40 12 10 14

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The Moulin Rouge was everything we hoped it would be and I'm not even talking about how happy J was to see all those topless young ladies. We arrived a little late for our reservation as we got delayed in the queue to go up to the top of the Eifel Tower. We had made a reservation for dinner and a show and to be honest we didn't realise the dinner was going to be so good. I only wish we had had more time to enjoy it as we only had an hour before the show started the waiters were giving us super speedy service. They did allow us to take our time over the dessert and of course there was always that second bottle of champers to enjoy.

There are a few different set menus depending on how much you are willing to pay. Our menu started with some succulent lobster which had already been removed from the shell - no hard work for us thank you very much. For mains we both had an almost perfect fillet steak with shoestring fries and creamy béarnaise sauce.

Dessert was eaten in the dark as the show had already started but I have a recollection of a dark chocolate torte and a fruity little number which we both shared.

The show was wonderful and was a lot less tacky than I thought it was going to be. I loved watching all the girls in their magnificent costumes but not as much as I suspect J loved watching them. This is a tourist attraction that is a definite must-see.

Bal du Moulin Rouge ®
Montmartre
82 boulevard de Clichy 75018 Paris
+33 153 098 282

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We did manage to get to a few foodie shops but its hard to get J to traipse all over Paris in search of the perfect Macaroon as he just isn't into food like I am. We did visit a Mariage Frères shop where I was so excited to see all the different selections of teas displayed in an old world style shop which had gentlemen in linen jackets looking after everyone's requests. I would love to get my hands on some great tea because I drink so much of it but I find it overwhelming when you have so many different teas to choose from. Bar having a sniff into the tin, how can you tell what the tea will taste like? Trial and error I guess. I asked for a recommendation for the guy who was serving me and he came up with a black tea that he said had a 'fresh' taste. It was good but would it be blasphemous to say that I prefer my cup of Lipton tea - so uncultured.

I never made it to Pierre Hermé's shop but as a consolation I did drop into a La Maison Du Chocolat shop and get me some of those tasty little macaroons. There were so many beautiful looking chocolates there I was in my element.

And so our 5 week holiday eventually had to come to an end and what a fitting view from the airport as we sat waiting to board our plane back home. Right so, time to start planning the next holiday.

Louvre

I think it would be fair to say I am not an art gallery/museum kind of tourist. Don’t get me wrong. I like my bit of culture as much as the next person. I think that my problem is that I have a short attention span so after a few hours of ‘looking’ at stuff I just want to get on with things.

Well this was not the case with the Louvre. We spent over eight hours here and even then the only reason we left was because they were closing up. I was mesmerised by this place. I was as impressed with the building itself as I was with the art work it contained. This place is huge. One side of it is 700 meters long! Apparently it would take eight months for one person to glance at every art piece in the Louvre. Or eight hours to do the very cheesy but enjoyable Di Vinci Code audio tour follows by J’s very own little personal tour. How does my man know so much about art and history?


After our day at the Louvre our legs really didn’t want to walk too much further so we headed out the main door and under the arches of the Louvre to the very fancy Café Marly. We were a little under dressed but we weren’t going to let that stop us. So what if they hid us away from the main entrance and asked us to remove our backpacks. WE weren’t going to let that spoil a good meal. I loved watching the different colours and shadows fall over the Louvre as the sun set. It made our day there last even longer which was perfect for me I didn’t want to leave.

Café Marly
93 rue de Rivoli
+33 1 49 26 06 60

I love paris in the ... anytime

I loved Paris. It was everything I had expected and more. Everyone had told me how they loved Paris and how I would too and they were absolutely right. From the minute I got there I fell in love with the place. It definitely helped that we were staying in the most amazing apartment in Paris.

I came across this apartment years ago through the daughter of Nicole, the woman who owns it. I met her daughter here in Sydney and she told me about the apartment. I checked it out on the net and for years I have thought it would be excellent to go and stay in the apartment and now we have. There is something very special about this place and I’m not talking about it perfect location near Montmartre. There is a feeling about this place. I don’t know if it’s an aura or feng shui or what but it makes you feel good just being there. It might have something to do with the tree growing in the middle of the apartment or maybe it’s all the light from the glass wall. I don’t know but I do know that it made me fell good just being there. So thank you to Nicole for letting us stay there.

Again I did intend to cook in the apartment while we stayed for the week but apart from the typical French breakfasts we enjoyed in the courtyard every morning, I only cooked one day and that was the first day we arrived. We were shattered from getting up at 4:30 to catch a flight to Paris so I said I would cook instead of going out. J was happy with this suggestion as he had been carrying around a few food purchases I had made in Lucca a couple of weeks back. Thank god this man packs light as he usually ends up carrying as much of my stuff back as he does his own.

There was pasta, olive oil and some mushroom & truffle sauce. All I needed was some ham and mushrooms and I could whip up a great little Italian meal in minutes. Or so I thought. While J was sleeping on the couch I snuck out and did my first reconnaissance mission of the local area – in other words I checked out what food shops were close by. I found an excellent boulangerie and picked up my first of many baguettes. Further along I came across a little market which was perfect for picking up the essentials. Of course while I was perusing the cheese section, as you do, I noticed that they had Boursin for sale. While I was growing up there was an ad on TV for years for Boursin that used the slogan 'Du Pain, Du Vin, Du Boursin'. J loves this cheese and has been known to repeat this slogan many times. So while in France it had to be done. I had ‘du pain’ already so now all I needed was the Boursin and a bottle of ‘du vin’. Whoever thought up this slogan knew what they were talking about because there is nothing better for lunch then fresh crispy baguette smothered with Boursin and a glass of red wine.

Anyway, back to the dinner. Well, my one and only attempt at dinner during this holiday was a disaster. It didn’t help that we now had such high standards after many, many good meals out. I didn’t even take a picture of the finished meal because all it looked like was a big bowl of pasta. The problem was that in my enthusiasm to elevate J of some of my purchases I decided to use ALL of the pasta. Whata-a-mistaka-ta-maka. There was too much pasta and so the mushrooms and lardons got lost and the sauce did not flavour the pasta enough. Oh well, I made the effort, just not a very good effort. Thank god we had devoured Du Pain, Du Vin et Du Boursin earlier.

Dubrovnik continued

It’s got to be a good complaint when you are enjoying your holiday so much that you just can’t fit the time in to update your blog. We have just had the most amazing holiday. Now we’re back in Sydney and I have been reliving the holidays through the photos. Let me first finish off with Dubrovnik and then over the weekend I will give an update on the wonderful food we enjoyed in Paris.

Dubrovnik was the perfect place to chill out and take it easy – except every night when it was time to return home as we were living up the hill over the old town and had to walk up about 500 steps to get home. That’s one way to work off all that good food I suppose.

We found the restaurants were pretty good but were very expensive for what you were getting. I hear that the locals very rarely eat out in the old town themselves because of the prices. The two places that did really impress us were Lokanda Peskarija overlooking the old port and the old Benedictine monastery on Lokrum Island which is now a restaurant and café bar.

Lokanda had a great advantage in that it has the best views of the old port. We knew we were on to a good place when saw the queues that started to form every night. They have traditional Croatian singers that serenade the outdoor restaurant at different times during the night. The food here is simple seafood fare that is served up in big black heavy pots but it is excellent quality seafood and at a pretty good price so this got our vote as our favourite restaurant of the week. WE went there twice and enjoyed prawns, muscles, sardines and seafood risotto. With lots of local wine and some fresh bread. What more could you ask for?

As for our favourite drinking spot - thought it was the bar I mentioned in the last post but that was until we took a day trip over to Lokrum Island. It’s only about 10 minutes away from Dubrovnik by ferry but it feels like another world. We spent the day exploring this little island and swimming in the cold clear waters off its rocky shore. When we could take the sun no more (oh yes I remember that feeling so well as I sit here in the cold sunshine of Sydney) we headed back to where I saw a sign for drinks near were the ferry docks. As we rounded the hedge that concealed this little jewel we heard the excellent music of a local guitar player. The chairs were big comfy balinese chairs that were perfect for enjoying a cold beer while listening to the guitar player and watching the sun go down. I loved this bar and we could have stayed here all night if the last ferry hadn’t been leaving at 8:00pm.

Our little apartment was perfect for our week in Dubrovnik. I had all the best of intientions of cooking for us but except for breakfast I didn't spend any time in the kitchen. This felt very strange for me but I soon got used to it. don't you just love holidys.