El Bulli - sección dos

We continued on our El Bulli adventure with some other interesting tastes.

However, I missed a few of the small tasters in my first post on El Bulli. A mint leaf with coconut sorbet was one of them. A little bit of a same theme as the coconut from before but very refreshing as a palate cleanser.

Yes, there was a smear of something... but I'm afraid that I don't remember what it was (bad, bad food blogger, I know...).


But the next course was a bit different and consisted of two parts. I think it was called the LYO cream. The first part was a meringue with whipped egg white cream which you put in your mouth as a puff and then a spoon of egg yolk with parmesan. Together it was to mimic a mouthful of carbonara.


Unfortunately, the egg yolk had congealed a bit and the puff was a bit too powdery (causing hilarity as the mouthful caused one blogger to cough half the puff ALL over another blogger's arm... I will not name names but the graciousness of the coughed on blogger put my persistent giggling to shame). It was not a successful mouthful. I admit it might be our fault as we dallied before putting the egg yolk with parmesan in our mouths but the combo didn't work well in my book. Perhaps if the meringue had been floated on top of the egg yolk so it was all one mouthful.

Another one which came up was a cube of what I think was Turkish delight. It was very delicate, beautifully colored and the texture was like soft jelly. I did take a bite despite my instinctive gag factor reflex when in comes to eating anything floral.

I passed the rest to the boy.



This roll, or "Averantos" was both salty and crunchy, with what tasted like deep fried quinoa rolled around a soft crumbly textured black sesame like mousse.

It was very nutty and and crunchy and a little difficult to eat, which made me very grateful for the paper so that I could, in a very unladylike way, shovel it into my mouth.

The next taste before the savory main tastes, was a soup. Entitled buffalo milk , I believe it was made from the whey remaining after making buffalo cheese, topped by freeze dried strawberry and with basil matcha.

It was quite refreshing and at the bottom was a bit of honey like substance, perhaps royal jelly?

The next taste was my favorite of the evening. It was the razor clam/Laurencia. The fresh razor clam was just beautiful. Ever so slightly steamed, it was sweet and tasted of the sea. I have a weakness for razor clams anyways I must admit.

Even better was the agar agar ponzu jelly with Laurencia (a type of kombu, or seaweed from what I gather). Tasted all fresh, juicy and delish. Definitely a wonderful interpretation of the sea.

Mandarine flower/pumpkin oil with mandarine seeds - This was a mandarin sorbet which was drowned in fragrant pumpkin seed oil. You were asked to dig your spoon in to ensure you had both the sorbet as well as the oil in your mouth at the same time.

To me, this just didn't work at all. It tasted waxy and oily and the pumpkin oil just completely overwhelmed the sorbet. I could only manage 2 small tastes.

The next dish was savory/spun egg with egg yolk gnocchis - We were quite excited to get this as it was one of the few foods we thought we would be able to chew and use our jaws to eat. But looks can be deceiving. The gnocchi of egg yolk was made with the same encapsulated technology as the olive and burst in the mouth, while the dashi soup with shizo powder was very much overwhelmed by the amount of strong sesame oil which was drizzled on top. It was enhanced by fish roe (the little fuzzy orange blobs you see on the edges). Some of us loved it, while others had one bite and pronounced them over the bursting technology. I ate most of it, enjoying the mouthfeel of the different textures but disappointed by the amount of sesame oil which overpowered the dish.

The next dish was one which we all identified with as having strong Asian influences. Veal tendon in bone marrow soup. Flavored by star anise, braised until ultra tender, it was gelatinous in the best kind of way, melt in the mouth and sticky at the same time. It was delicious and made me want a bowl of "ngau gun ho" (beef tendon noodles) immediately. Very well done with a great stock which was sticky yet delicate and flavorful.

The next dish was something completely different for me. It was black garlic ravioli, paired with fresh almonds & a beautiful nub of what looked like cactus but tasted fresh, juicy and crisp. The ravioli had a sliver of garlic inside and was a bit too strong for my taste but when paired with the fresh almond, it tasted pretty good. I could only eat one of the black ravioli as strong garlic is not my friend (nor the boy's after I eat it) but the fresh almonds were delicious and I wouldn't mind more of those little cactus-y things!

Next up was mussel 2008 - half a dozen mussels, half flavoured with umeboshi sauce and the other half with dashi jelly, laid on top of laurentian seaweed.

Sadly, I'm not a fan of umeboshi but I liked the combo of the sweet tart taste of the umeboshi with the salty, sea taste of the mussel. The dashi jelly had a bit of texture to it, a little like a very, very fine fish roe jelly. The seafood was incredibly fresh and the flavors worked well together and tasted complimentary.

The water lily soup with cashew fruit has to be the most visually beautiful dish of the night. I loved the way it looked and was fragrant and pleasing to the eye and nose. It was so delicate and perfect, I was reluctant to dip my spoon in. I felt like I was destroying an live art installation.

Sadly, I'm not a fan of floral tastes so am not a good person to judge but I did like the delicate flavor of the refreshing soup and the flowers were not too floral (if that makes any sense) and I enjoyed the contrast of textures with the little bits that tasted like, but wasn't, pomelo (these were the little sprinkles you see best on the lower right of the picture). And yes, everything in that picture is edible...urr, except the dish of course.

We were then served game meat canape, which came as a thin piece of jerky, slightly toasted until a little bit crisp with a pate smeared across it and topped with flowers.

It was not as game-y or as intense as I though t it would be. I appreciate the effort that went into it but I thought it was only ok but nothing not something I would choose to have seconds of if offered.

A fitting end to part two is the suckling pig tail - served alongside a ham soup containing tofu and cantaloupe melon. The pig tail, in my own point of view, could have been crisper. It was a little chewy and much less crunchy than crackling. It was served with a sweet hoisin type sauce and again a little too salty for my liking.

The soup was delicate and slightly sweet, a nice counterbalance as it was served chilled.

Hope to have part three and my explanations (and excuses) up soon!

El Bulli - sección una

I am sorry this post has taken so long in coming and will be coming in three parts but truly, the meal was that long.

The reason? I'm reluctant to post my opinions about the famed, revered and extremely difficult to get into restaurant. I mean, the cheek of me, a junk food...junkie (I've got a way with words), an amateur blogger and a lucky, LUCKY last minute invitee to join Cha Xiu Bao and Umami at the world famous restaurant actually review it?

But I shall. For the sole reason that I owe it to you and I also owe it to the people who I've grilled over the years about their experience at El Bulli.

First of all, we took a well-advised taxi up to the restaurant, which was located remotely next to a private beach, up a very, very windy and steep road. Having driven that morning from the South of France, I got there a touch car sick and very hungry, but unspeakably excited.

We were greeted warmly (well actually I basked in the afterglow of the greeting Cha Xiu Bao received) and led into the kitchen where we met the man himself, Ferran Adrià, who was very kind, stood patiently for photos and was incredibly gracious.

After a peek around the kitchen, we were led to our table where we had a good look around the dining area and a view over the beach. Unfortunately it was evening when we arrived so the view was fleeting but still pretty in an isolated type way.

We were given refreshing sake and with a swirl of frozen tonic water, which was flavored with yuzu.

Then the parade of little plates started arriving. These came fast and furious, with strict instructions on how to eat them.

First up were nori-Trias - little dried seaweed wrapped black sesame butter.

Although the sesame wasn't exactly sweet, I didn't think the combination worked as well as it could have done. Wasn't quite Japanese enough if that makes sense. But that is very well because of my own biased tastebuds, which expect a more Japanese-type taste to the two flavors.

Next came the shiso soft candy, a soft, gelatinous, with the sweet sharp taste of shiso to refresh the mouth.

Sadly, Shiso leaves are not a personal favorite of mine and I did not enjoy this. It's just a flavor I don't enjoy although I know many who do. This was made with the red Shiso leaves rather the more common and stronger flavored green Shiso usually used with sushi.

Then two types of biscuits arrived, one with Parmesan and one tomato flavored.

I looved these, especially the tomato one, which made with what I think were very concentrated sun-dried tomatoes. It even stuck to the teeth, even as it crumbled in my mouth. The Parmesan biscuit was less high impact and memorable but still a very tasty beginning.

Then, the spherical olives came. Authentically scooped out individually by the waitress from a jam jar, they are one of the taste sensations that El Bulli was famous for and have been described as even more olivey than olives themselves.

It burst in the mouth, releasing essence of olive and olive oil. The table seemed to love it. It was very special, something I've never had before and it was different. I think I might prefer real olives rather than these but they were very different indeed and did live up to my expectations of how this would taste.

The next taste however, was unexpected and not as welcome. They were pinenut and chocolate bon bons, quite bitter from what I assume to be the high content cacao and the texture was somewhat muddy and sandy. I didn't enjoy this and declined seconds. I couldn't distinguish the taste and they didn't seem to 'teach' me anything new in terms of tastes or textures.

I was happy to see the next dish, a beautiful, delicate passion fruit orchid, beautifully formed, with lots of attention to detail.

It tasted wonderful as well, like concentrated fruit leather with a hard shell like texture. Sadly I can't remember what was inside the flower. Hopefully Umami or Cha Xiu Bao can remember.


The next dish was also beautiful in the same way, entitled basil leaf, it looked like a beautiful long green leaf. We were told it was made of mango and basil, I'm guessing made in the same way as the passion fruit flower as it had the same shell like texture with the fruit leather taste but this time not as intense mango and not as basil-y as I thought it would be.

The Asian influence was even more apparent with the next taste which was named a Pekin crêpes and filled with crab and soya wonton.

This tasted ok but I seem to remember it being a touch salty for my taste and the wrapper a bit oilier than I'd prefer



Next up was a coconut concoction that I can't place the name of. It was like flaked coconut ice sorbet shaved into a dry ice like state.

It was interesting because it had a moist like touch but a dry type of texture. To my untrained tastebuds, it tasted just like flaked fresh coconut so didn't impress me much. However, I'd be interested if the others could shed light on what I missed in this.

I *think* the next dish was "brazo de gitano" but I can't be sure as the order in the menus we were given may not match exactly the order in which the dishes came. I asked the boy who knows a bit of Spanish and it translated as arm of the gypsy. Hmmm...

It was essentially a beet root meringue wrapped around a thick creamy yogurt. Certainly great textures and almost like a mini pavlova with unusual ingredients. Taste wise, it wasn't a win for me.

The next one was a lot of fun. A Gorgonzola moshi, it was exactly that, a very thin outer layer, it tasted intensely of gorgonzola and was lovely. But then again, I like gorgonzola!

It was very good, creamy and unctuous and I didn't think the thin outer layer detracted from it and I can't be sure it was actually made of pounded rice flour or mochi ingredients.


Finally (for this post anyways), we had a grilled strawberry. It was very warm and fragrant. We were instructed to put it into our mouths in one bite.

It was a surprise because the warmth increased the fragrance of the berry but it was filled with some sort of stock so was salty at the same time. I enjoyed the taste of this and the surprise when put in my mouth.

What I didn't enjoy so much is when the waitress abruptly pulled the plate away as soon as they were taken, spilling strawberry juice over my bit of the table and onto my white cardigan. I also didn't exactly enjoy it when she signaled to another wait staff to lay a napkin over my table as "I" spilled strawberry juice over the table.

I must admit that we started to become a little overwhelmed by the speed in which the food came and with cameras and pens flying, the wait staff became a little annoyed at the delay with which we ate the snacks as they deteriorate with time. We couldn't help it though, they were so beautiful we wanted to savor them with our eyes as well as our mouths.

End of sección una for now. Oh and the boy has promised to post his comments in the comments section as a supplement. He and I, surprisingly, came away with very different impressions of the meal overall so its definitely worth reading! Oh, but no promises on how quickly he will post these comments!

BIG Food

Any girl who can eat a 5kg burger is a hero in my book...

Also links for big food:

Giant Burger Project

Pimp that Snack

Birthday in Spain

After a night of El Bulli (yes, yes, it's coming, alright?), we awoke the next morning to see off Umami and her husband, as well as the walking stomach that is my Cha Xiu Bao (respect man, respect!).

Then the boy and I headed into Girona, where we were a bit shocked to find was an incredibly sleepy town on a bright Sunday afternoon, in search of a birthday worthy lunch... the trick was finding one which was open.

We found one alright, Casa Marieta. We sat outside, enjoying the quiet half hour before the restaurant filled up and looked over what we wanted to eat.



I started with the melon soup as it sounded refreshingly cool, which it was. However, it was outshone by the very umamilicious gazpacho, which was served with condiments on the side (I much prefer it that way). The boy and I kept switching bowls and devoured the flour dusted warm rolls.


Which wasn't too smart for when the Fideuà for two came. Made similarly to the Spanish paella, it was made with short thin noodles. Very similar to a slightly thicker, broken Chinese mai-fun (rice noodle). It was infused with the rich seafood broth and served chock full of seafood in the form of calamars, shrimp and clams.


It was delicious, with little crunchy bits where it had been cooked on the top and rich soft noodle-y bits. Perfect rich comfort food.

We were expecting that the white asparagus and the grilled calmari we ordered to come at the same time but they were served after the fideuà, which meant that we were a bit too full to enjoy it. The boy loved his garlicky calamari and I struggled to finish the plate of very average, canned-tasting asparagus.

The service was lovely and it was a great way to while away two and a half hours. The food was a bit hit and miss but still a very nice birthday lunch in Spain.

Oh, and if you do go, don't miss going down to the basement where the toilets are, there's a little rock fountain and stream there under glass.

Casa Marieta
Plaça Independència, 5-6
17001 Girona
Tel. 972 20 10 16

Just a bite...

Before I actually begin the trilogy of an El Bulli post, which is coming soon to a blog near you (three blogs actually but I digress...), I thought I'd give you a taster from London.

The boy took me to Portabello Road market to walk around, look at the people, fashions and have a nose around the antique stalls and stores along the way. Besides buying a toaster rack (I couldn't resist, I hate sweaty toast), we searched for sustenance along the way. So we took a little detour to find a shop selling some snacks when we came across a sweet little shop/cafe named Tom's. Inside we found Poilane bread (yipee) as well as a variety of imported snacks from all over Europe. The cafe was full but we only stopped in for a peek as well as to pick up some drinks. However, at the cashier, the boy spotted Scotch Eggs and couldn't resist picking one up.

Two steps outside of Tom's the boy eagerly took a huge bite into the Scotch egg, rolled his eyes, took another bite and ran a little bit away from me. A sign that it was good.

I had a look and eventually wheedled a bite out of him. Yep, it was a good one, with a molten yolk, good quality sausage meat lightly crumbed studded with onions, it was quite delicious.

The boy declared it the best Scotch egg he had ever had. A bold statement which he asked me to challenge you all to beat. I do suspect, however, that he simply wants to know where else to find good Scotch eggs.

Tom's
226 Westbourne Grove
Notting Hill, London W11 2RH
Tel: 020 7221 8818

Ridiculous excuses

Yes, yet another ridiculous excuse instead of a proper post.

However, I put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Apple and O2.

Switching computers with my Mom for a Mac might not have been a good idea before a massive life changing move....

And damn it, will O2 please deliver the broadband package as promised already???

Ah yes... El Bulli..... hmmmm.... initial thoughts is that he is an artist of food, absolutely beautiful..... I think I will have to divide the photos and my review (used in the loosest sense, of course) into a series of posts, once my computer and broadband kicks in.

Sitting in the basement of a smelly cafe with a constant whining sound and the wafting, ripe smell of sweaty armpit from the man next to me doesn't inspire me to write somehow....

"Hoi Wei"

Sometimes in Shanghainese restaurants, you get given little dishes of pickled onions or pickled vegetables. As opposed to peanuts, which are designed to stave off that intense hunger that makes you bolt the first few dishes, leaving you less able to enjoy the rest of your meal, these are designed to make you hungrier.

That's right, hungrier. These sour, slightly tangy vegetables get the salivary glands going and are what we call "hoi wei". Or, in English, 'open your stomach', which should make you hungry for the dishes to come.

Which is exactly what this little post is. A small, tangy little bit that should make you hungry for more. But first, a bit of a drought because I'm off to Spain.

And which restaurant should be in Spain? Any hugely famous ones?

That's right kids, I'm going to El Bulli. This is thanks to a kind invite by a very, very well respected blogger. I'm also going with some other special people but I'll leave it up to them to "hoi" your "wei”.

F-odd: Cornolate

Yes, I've been slacking off. You would too if you had to deal with the millions of utterly thankless exhausting tasks I've had to do lately. Or maybe you wouldn't. You wouldn't whinge, whine, stamp your feet and take deep, deep breaths to calm yourself down when faced with someone in the service industry whom you've waited in a long queue to see, turn down your perfectly reasonable request. All I know is that I am no saint and I don't like being told no.

What I do like is chocolate. And corn.

But corn chocolate? That's a different story.

As opposed to how corn is seen in France, us Asian peeps love the stuff. From soft serve sweet corn ice cream served at 7-11 (ick and so, so wrong), to hot steaming cups of buttered nibblets to keep you company while waiting in line for the bus, to just the little corn on the corb skewers they serve at the local KFC. This is definitely a place that doesn't believe that corn is only fit for animal consumption.

But this particular treat, the corn chocolate, first appeared on my radar about 6 years ago, when a colleague brought back a package from her trip to Hokkaido. I was given a single piece out of her stash. Since then, I've seen it appear from time to time wrapped in a box ready to be gifted (another thing us Asians like to do). But now, you can often find them in the large Japanese supermarkets in a foil packet. Expensive enough to hesitate over but not as expensive as the high end boxed chocolates.

Seeing how these are wrapped and how crazy my colleagues went over them, I'll be the first to admit. They ain't all that. Seriously. It's CORN chocolate for one thing. Not a flavor I associate with chocolate. Oh, and it's white chocolate. Not something I like anyways.

But this one smells cloyingly sweet when unwrapped, very milky and pale yellow, with clear nuggets of corn (kind of like firmer rice crispies), when tasting it, its very crunchy, not as sweet as it smells and tastes wrong. Like it was a salty puffed rice treat that had been accidentally dipped in a sugar coating. It has a fragrant corn taste to it, which I'm guessing is the draw. All I can say is, you can keep it. Give me and my cheap ass a Tolberone any day.

You can find more on Corn Chocolate here.

Late Zhong

Yes, I know its been almost two weeks since Tuen Ng Festival but I've been busy stuffing my face with 'zhong', the official food of Tuen Ng.

I looove zhong but have been discouraged from eating it most of my life from friends and family whose concern that my body shape looks more zhongzi like by the mouthful.

However, my mother thankfully brought back some that a family friend wrapped herself. Being Taiwanese, these were Taiwanese zhong, somewhat smaller than its Cantonese counterparts and chubbier in status than its Shanghainese ones, which are elegantly long. Who says we're not what we eat?

Unlike the zhong that I blogged about during previous Tuen Ng Festivals, these were filled with glutinous rice, salted egg yolk, stewed pork, dried conpoy and shrimp as well as soft blanched peanuts. Rather than dark soy or granulated sugar, the Taiwanese prefer sweet chili sauce as accompaniment. Sweet with a slight tangy kick, it is perfect with the rich, fatty tasting zhong.

Definitely worth looking like a zhong for.

Head of the family

We were having dinner at home the other day, having bought half a roast duck for dinner when my Dad suddenly asked:

"Anyone want the head?"

We all looked at him incredulously, my Mom and I never ever dream of eating, let alone fighting anyone for a half a duck head.

When I asked to take a picture before he demolished it, he said:

"Why? It's only a duck head! You're wasting your time. No one wants to read about me eating a duck head!"

Lucky for you I managed to wrestle it from him before he put half the duck bill in his mouth.

And I managed a snapshot of the remains after he ate all the "edible" bits. I don't know why I'm decidedly unsqueamish about other animal brains but duck, pigeon and chicken freak me out.

Good thing the H5N1 bird flu virus wasn't found and announced until this Monday....

La Bouffe de L'Amérique

As promised, a selection of food eaten in America during our honeymoon.

However, before I start this, I finally "get" why Americans complain and attempt to sue companies for making them obese. While I truly believe in personal choice making one a chubster (ahem, I take responsibility for my "orange shaped" silhouette), I do sympathize with them. The lack of healthy choices and the abundance of cheap, plentiful and convenient fast food in the States is quite a little surprising. On more than a few occasions, the boy and I found ourselves with the choice of buying either a hot fast meal at Roi du Hamburger or paying almost double (!!) for a two day old sandwich and water. Granted this was at an airport but it was a bit shocking how easy it was to just eat rubbish. When faced with a choice like that, we tried to placate the rumblings of our bellies with the trail mix from Paris I had in my travel bag. However, as you will see, we indulged in a LOT of junk! Hey, I may get why Americans complain but I take responsibility for my bad choices!

First up, one of the worst things you can put into your body. We were walking along the depressing and sad area of Fremont Street which was recommended by our guidebook in search of something, anything interesting when we saw the sign: Fried Oreos, Fried Twinkies.

Come on. As if you wouldn't!

So I did. It came in a little cardboard box of three deep fried Oreos sprinkled liberally with icing sugar and chocolate sprinkles. What you see in the background is a chocolate dipped frozen banana with nuts. Very yummy.

Surprisingly, the Oreos became quite soft and cake like after being fried. And was it good? Hell yes they were. I didn't think they would be but they were delicious. And as delicious as it was, the boy and I couldn't finish one each.

In Hawaii, we indulged in macadamia nut pancakes, which were way too heavy and doughy for first thing in the morning.

And in San Francisco, we had to have a bucket of seafood. We couldn't resist the siren call of the classic "Eat at Jo_'s" sign for the Joe's Crab Shack. To the boy's dismay, it was what he described as TGIF with a "crabby" theme. It was done up to look like a Disney interpretation of a crab shack. After some initial hesitation, we decided to stay, if mainly to watch the scaring antics of the "bush man".

Not to worry, we didn't just go for this kind of cheap and cheerful (and average) food, we also went to the somewhat touristy Alioto's where the boy had some impeccable lobster and I had some lovely sweet fleshed crab.

Of course, since we were on the West Coast, I couldn't help but drag the boy to In N Out for a tasty burger...animal style bien sur. We returned twice.... once right before our ride to the airport.

And I am still dreaming about the crab macaroni and cheese I had for breakfast one day.... so SO good..... luckily we had that bike ride across the Golden Gate bridge to burn off the unimaginable amount of fat in that dish.

So while not the best food I've had on vacation, certainly the variety and the fun we had made it all worthwhile.

D'oh!

Sometimes I feel like the female equivalent of Homer J. Simpson. A walking idiot whose brain and tongue don't work in perfect harmony.

I'd been home three days when Susan invited me over for a dinner party yesterday. Despite the 5 hour advance notice, this is not something you turn down. Susan was cooking. 'nuf said.

Anyhow, lo and behold I'm there early and get to meet the Fuschia Dunlop. In those five minutes before someone else saved me from digging myself deeper into the pit of mortification, I have managed to a) insult London, where, unbeknownst to me, she was living; b) admit that I didn't really know who she was; and c) tell her that Londoners were unfriendly.

Upon coming home and googling her, I find out that I've had her books on my Amazon wishlist. D'OH!!!!

I'm an absolute idiot.

However, the dinner party was fabulous fun and Fuschia incredibly gracious. Although I didn't know many of the guests besides Susan and Sunday Driver, they were very nice and thankfully forgiving even after the sharing of embarrassing anecdotes. It wasn't upon coming home that I found out that some of these ladies were professional foodies... I'm actually glad I wasn't forewarned. I think that while I wouldn't have backed out (did I mention Susan was cooking?), I would have been very intimidated. As it was I think I was a little too loose with my tongue.

The food.... well... what can I say? It was delicious of course! My favorites being the pork neck and the desserts. Desserts consisted of Susan-made Meyer lemon sorbet, mango sorbet and the intoxicatingly addictive chocolate cherry ice cream. That's not all though... there were canneles.

Yes, you heard right, deliciously rich with a caramelized crunchy exterior giving way to a plush, chewy, pudding-like interior... painstakingly made with molds specially bought from France, beeswax ordered online to brush the molds with and an hour of baking of the thumb-sized treats.

And if you feel like learning to cook in Hong Kong, check out Corner Kitchen!

F-odd: Clothes make the Man

Recently, while browsing in some of the stores in Hong Kong, I came across a number of food themed useless items.

First of all was the incredibly life-like slab of braised pork belly phone decorator, then it was the stuffed chicken wing phone decorator (complete with "cleaning function"... a terry cloth side you can use to wipe down your phone after you made it greasy with your face apparently).

But this beats them all.

Yes, you saw that right. It's a bacon scented bacon print tuxedo.

If only I saw this before the boy and I got hitched.

The Good, the Bad and the Angry

I'm back and I'm Angry. More annoyed really but a high alert state of pissed off. Not at anyone in particular, you understand, just generally.

But really, let's start with the Good....the honeymoon...

- Seeing "O" and "Penn and Teller" in Las Vegas;

- sunset helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon, evening view of the Las Vegas Strip (I got to ride in front!);

- seeing the Wholphin as well as swimming, kissing and getting a belly ride from a dolphin at Sea Life Park in Hawaii; and

- biking over the Golden Gate Bridge (despite the boy getting a flat).

Then moving onto the Bad ....

- lack of time meant not great food... although highlights will be shown in a future blog;

- my camera not working properly in the middle of our honeymoon (hence the lack of photos);

- our flat, the one we found, paid and rented in 3 days in London between our leaving Paris and going away, being held hostage by real estate agents from the far depths of hell despite us paying rent on it already; and

- arriving in London, after a 10 hour flight and more than 15 hours travel time, to find out we can't get into our flat, staging a sit-in at the real estate agents for 3 hours then travelling another 3.5 hours back to the boy's sister's house in Wales.

So to arrive to London feeling cold, wet, hungry with a home you can't get into and 60+kg of luggage between the two of you.

Hell yes I'm Angry.

I promise you all a more cheery food post next time. Happily I'm going home to my beloved family in Hong Kong this weekend so there's bound to be lots of good food to blog about soon enough.

So long and thanks for all the memories...

I have been dreading writing this post.... my last from beloved Paris.

As people who know me know, Paris has been the land of my dreams since I was a wee young lass. I have always wanted to spend a year here and now, I have.

And what a year!

A huge change from my life in Hong Kong, I have experienced everything ranging from acute loneliness, the joy of finding a like-minded, food-obsessed blogging friend, the unexpected kindness of strangers, countless visitors, and the absolute freedom of being a flâneur, roaming the streets of Paris for hours on end with a dinner reservation to look forward to.

What was originally a six month stint turned into a 15 month stay after a proposal and subsequent marriage... um yes, that would be my own.

Now unfortunately as we begin our move to London, find a flat, go on honeymoon and return to Hong Kong to pack up my belongings, I will be on a break from blogging. I will be back end of May but for now, I leave you with a list of things I'll miss most from Paris. This list is by NO means exhaustive but may give you a taste of a few of my favorites.

• Cherry (thanks Susan!) and Salted Butter Caramel ice cream from Berthillon
  


• Peering into lit apartments and seeing wonderful decor


• Biche au Bois


• Stumbling onto an unexpected and utterly peaceful courtyard in the middle of a busy street


• Sandwiches and tarte fine aux pommes from our bakery


• Free museum days on the first Sunday of every month


• Bastille market (especially the salted butter caramels and the mediant mix)


• Special evenings such as Nuit des Musées, Fête de la Musique and Nuit Blanche


• Fresh fruit chocolates only available Saturdays from Jean Charles Rochoux


• Pretty dresses from Les Petits...


• Falafel from L'As de Falafel and the Foie de Vollaile in a pita from Chez H’anna (both on Rue de Rosiers)


• Rosewood body wash and oil from Patyka


• Meeting the boy for a sandwich lunch in Parc Monceau


• Lemon olive oil from O & Co


• Le Marais... we've been so lucky to live in the Marais


• CHEESE!!


• Being only a 10 minute away from the Seine and a view of the Eiffel Tower
  
  

I am sad to be leaving but I am so very grateful that I have had this chance to live here in this wonderful city. It has lived up to all my expectations and I have been very, very happy here.

As I walk around the city eating and drinking on my last day, sighing and making goo goo eyes at all the buildings, the boy turns around and says to me,

"We'll always have Paris."

and indeed we will. Indeed we will.

Le Petit Saint Benoit

So I thought I'd end the way I began. With food. I started with the first thing I ate in Paris and now I bring you my last evening meal in Paris.

It was at the Le Petit Saint Benoit, which I have been to on several occasions but have not yet blogged about. I have had very yummy meals there including the bestboudin and my first steak tartare in Paris.

But tonight, I had one thing on my mind. The Pot-au-Feu a l'Os a moelle. This was a lovely shallow dish of perfectly cooked vegetables with a large bone filled with meltingly fatty, rich, unctuous bone marrow, together with a large piece of what I *think* is brisket marbled with gelatinous bits. It was wonderful and rich but yet soothing and went surprisingly well with the bright warm spring day.

The boy had the special of the day, the cote de boeuf, which was a generous slab of meat with a wonderful green peppercorn sauce which kept the boy very happy indeed.

We didn't have dessert as we had luckily managed to snag the very last fresh fruit chocolate bar from the lovely Mr. Rochoux. Happily for us, it was the new season gariguette strawberries that day. Sadly for you, we ate it too quickly to take a photo.

We love the Le Petit Saint Benoit not only for the food but the wonderful atmosphere, the old bar, the interior, which looks like the restaurant car of an old train, the fun waitresses, and the old style 'patron', whose only job is to greet the regulars and make sure they are happy.

Le Petit Saint Benoit
4, rue Saint Benoit
75006 Paris
Tel: +33 (0)1 42 60 27 92