5 tasty treats you absolutely should eat in Paris

Tags

birthday, cafe, cake, chocolate, cocktails, ice cream, Paris, paris food, restaurant, treats

I realise the title of this post makes it sound like I may be up for heckling people in the street who happen to be eating a baguette or a croissant. “Hey! You over there! You should be eating that in Paris! How very dare you!?”

While that would be fun, that is not my intention. Rather I’d like to recommend to you five wonderful culinary moments you simply must experience during any visit to the stunning French capital.

I gingerly made the step from my twenties to my thirties last summer and I knew there was only one city that could make me feel like this decade was going to be my classy, sophisticated and oh-so cultured decade.  Only Paris would do.

The city was everything I’d dreamed it would be. Crammed with beautiful, elegant buildings, endless people watching opportunities and buzzing with an unmistakable joie de vivre. But the thing that truly bowled me over, was the delicious food that I indulged in for every meal of the day.

Now I know Paris is considered to be a top foodie destination, I haven’t been living under a rock cake. But what really struck me was that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to give your tastebuds their holiday of a lifetime.

Here are five of the best things that passed my lips during my birthday week in Paris…bon appetite!

Macaroons from Ladurée under the Eiffel Tower

I trotted into this plush little cafe en route to the icon of all Paris icons, the Eiffel Tower. It wasn’t serendipitous, I’d done my research – Laudree is famed for producing some of the very best macarons in the French capital.

I felt my breath quicken as I took in the array of their pretty pastel coloured delicacies. And while the interior was almost intimidatingly bijou, the staff were warm, attentive and happy to help me select my flavours. I got a little carried away and immediately chose rose, coffee, salted caramel and chocolate flavoured macaroons. Then I remembered, it’s only nice to let my boyfriend pick some too, and he went for raspberry, peach, strawberry and vanilla.

Sitting on the long stretch of grass in the shade of the epic Eiffel Tower nibbling these little beauties is one of my best memories of Paris.

From Laudree on Rue Bonaparte to the Eiffel Tower, it’s a 40 minute walk, but you can take in the charming streets and burn off those calories before a macaron even touches your lips, so why not.

Boeuf Bourginon in Montmartre

Few things could be more French than a steaming bowl of Boeuf Bourginon. Our apartment was on the border between the rough and ready Pigalle area (think Moulin Rouge and a sex museum…) and the quaint, pretty Montmartre – the setting of the film Amelie.

Sacre Coeur in Montmartre

On our first evening we wandered the busy streets of Montmartre in search of some dinner. The majestic Sacre Cour crowns the hill, but the surrounding streets are like a Parisienne Disney Land, jam-packed with tourists and tacky souvenir shops. Instead I’d recommend that you head a little downhill, to the quieter streets, where restaurants are better quality and locals meet for late night chats over a glass of wine.

We were tired and hungry, so alas I did not note down the name of the restaurant, but Boeuf Bourginon is a classic dish and the key component here is the setting – Montmartre is quite magical.

Opera cake from Dalloyau

I first tried Opera Cake in an Edinburgh cafe and bakery called Falko in Bruntsfield. Upon finishing, I calmly placed my fork back down on the plate and proclaimed the Opera cake to be the best cake I had ever eaten. And the trip to Paris offered the perfect opportunity to trace this little slice of heaven back to its roots.

Cyriaque Gavillon of Dalloyau patisserie is credited with creating the Opera cake in 1955. Its layers of almond sponge soaked in coffee, chocolate and ganache tick all my boxes, and the slice I ordered on my birthday was everything I dreamed it would be.

What could have been a better birthday cake?

Strawberry champagne cocktail while people watching

If there’s one activity I’d recommend in Paris – it’s people watching. Parisians were fascinating to me, with their effortless style, endless midday glasses of wine and nonstop smoking that somehow did not ravage their complexions.

Hop off the metro at Cite and you’ll emerge in a lovely market that sells all kinds of wonderful lanterns that you simply cannot buy because it will destroy your luggage allowance. Then head toward the Palais de Justice and on the corner you’ll find a busy restaurant called Les Deux Palais. It isn’t cheap but it’s a great place to rest your weary legs and watch the world go by.

My boyfriend enjoyed their beef carpaccio, while I opted for a light salad. The strawberry champagne cocktail from the specials board, however, was the real star of the show.

Ice cream beside Notre Dame

And finally…a proper little hidden gem. Just five minutes from the aforementioned Palais de Justice, on the corner of Boulevard du Palais and Quai du Marche Neuf, you’ll find an unassuming ice cream shop window attached to brasserie Le Soleil D’or. Buy ice cream from here – it’s insanely good. I had strawberry and my boyfriend had caramel, and it was such a meltingly hot July day we had to scoff them down before they turned to liquid. But, oh my, so good.

It was incredibly hard to narrow the list down to five things, but if you try any of these I promise you won’t be disappointed. If you’ve been to Paris, I’d love to hear what tasty treats you’d recommend? After all, something tells me it won’t be long until I return…

 

 

 

 

 

Wandering in the West

Tags

craft beer, loch fyne, loch lomond, mull, Scotland, seafood, staffa

Fionnphort on Mull

“Is that the boat for Staffa?” I screamed at the shaggy haired man who trundled towards me up the stone jetty at Fionnphort.

“Yes, it is.” He answered. I watched with dismay as the tiny passenger boat turned around and started to pootle away from us.

“Come back…” I felt as useless as Rose in Titanic.

“OI, MATE, COME BACK.” The shaggy haired chap clearly had more powerful lungs than I. The little boat turned around and came back for me and my boyfriend who’d made into the jetty after a necessary trip to the loo. Thank you, shaggy haired man.

Later that day, standing on the top of Staffa with my favourite bit of man stuff and the salty sea air whipping at my back, I was really glad the boat had turned around. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world.

The approach was a delicious appetiser of choppy waves, seal spotting and tales from the sea courtesy of our friendly boat master. The clouds that had dulled the mainland were left far behind and perfectly blue skies stretched ahead of us to Staffa.

Staffa

Named by the Vikings, Staffa means stave or pillar island. The basalt rock of the island stood uniform like the keys of a piano reaching from the furious navy sea, the tiny boat cave in its side like a deep dark belly button leading into the mysterious darkness of the past.

on Staffa

Once the boat had dropped us off we explored the island on foot. My favourite part was edging into Fingal’s Cave, where the turquoise sea lashed the rocks and flecks of foam danced through the air in the ancient cathedral-like hollow.

Fingal’s Cave on Staffa

The rest of the West

Scotland’s west coast really is quite special. It’s the first place I’d take visitors to show them the ‘real’ Scotland – rugged, wild and at times jaw-droppingly beautiful.

Loch Lomond from Sallochy Campsite

Our little adventure kicked off on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, with a night at Sallochy campsite. Stunning as the location was, I merely confirmed to myself that I am simply not made for the outdoors – particularly, not camping (unless there’s plenty of beer involved). Still, there was something quite special about enjoying a warm cup of coffee on the pebbled beach…after surviving a night of camping. Coffee had never tasted so good.

Coffee on the banks of Loch Lomond

The next day we ventured further west, to our cosy little guesthouse in Inveraray. Brambles is my absolute favourite, and we were lucky enough to be in the room that had a brand new roll top bath AND monsoon shower. Needless to say I was very clean by the time we left for dinner two hours later.

outside Loch Fyne Oyster Bar

It’s been on my bucket list to try the seafood platter at Loch Fyne Oyster Bar and, oh my, it was all I could have wished for and more! Scallops, mussels, oysters, cockles, crab…basically the finest fruits of the sea Loch Fyne had to offer. The waiting staff were so lovely and we were pleased to find some locally brewed Fyne Ales on the drinks menu too – the perfect match for seafood.

Loch Fyne Oyster Bar seafood platter

The following day we took a speedy trip to Mull for our Staffa boat trip. Mull was far more enchanting than I’d remembered (I’d visited for work before, and I was quite ill at the time so probably didn’t fully appreciate the place). I love the relaxed pace of life on the island, cars saunter along the singletrack roads at 20mph and sheep lazily graze by the roadside.

Isle of Mull

At this point we’d made the ferry from Oban by a hair’s breadth, and, of course, barely made the Staffa boat on time. So we were feeling rather lucky. Perhaps a little too lucky. In our unbridled glee, I forgot to get my sensible head on to check the ferry timetable. So we got stuck on Mull.

Tobermory

My sorrow at missing a second precious night at Brambles was soon washed away by the colourful harbour and cosy pubs of Tobermory. Cue an evening spent drinking more wonderful Fyne Ales by a roaring log fire and playing cards with some of the locals. Perhaps we were quite lucky after all…

Log fire in the pub at Tobermory

7 reasons I’d totally bum Bruges

Tags

beer, belgium, bruges, craft beer

1. It’s full of amazing beer. Belgium is known for its trappist beers, which are made by monks and taste like a little sip of heaven. In Bruges you’ll find the Halve Maan Brewery, finely crafting local tipples Brugse Zot and Straffe Hendrik – the tripel is a potent treat.

2. It’s full of people who love amazing beer. The best kind of people.

3. It’s full of people who love drinking amazing beer in amazing pubs. Must see pubs are the lovely and old Staminee De Garre (try the house brew, mysteriously served with cheese…), the incredibly friendly ‘t Brugs Beertje, Bruges’ oldest drinking den Herberg Vlissinghe, the cavernous and candlelit Poatersgat, and the smoochy, romantic Cafe Rose Red.

4. It has canals. You can take boats on the canals and the tour guide will speak any language you fancy.

5. People live in houses like this.

6. They take chocolate and waffles extremely seriously. As do I.

7. They are also very keen on chips.

Tapa review for Bite Magazine

Tags

Bite Magazine, Cook, Edinburgh restaurant, food, leith, Madrid, restaurant, restaurant review, Spain, Spanish, Spanish cuisine, tapa, tapas

Recently I had the pleasure of reviewing Tapa Restaurant in Leith for Bite Magazine.

A year spent living in Madrid ignited my passion for Spanish food and the food served in Tapa would certainly not have been out of place in the sun-drenched Plaza Santa Ana, where I whiled away many a pleasant afternoon with friends and a caña or two…

Keep an eye out for the July edition of Bite where you can see the review in print and read lots of other exciting foodie related stories.

Coconut Chicken Curry recipe

Tags

Bay leaf, Black pepper, chicken, chicken curry, chillies, coconut chicken curry, Coconut milk, Cook, cumin, Curry, Curry chicken, friends, ginger, indian cooking, Madrid, recipe, Spain, spice, Sundays, turmeric

When I lived in Spain I learnt to cook authentic Indian curry. That’s right, curry. I lived with an American and an English-Indian girl and most Sundays we took it in turns to cook for around 10 other TEFL teachers in our tiny little flat in the suburbs of Madrid. And in a small way it felt just like being at home.

Curry is easier to make than most people think, once you know the basic spices you can play around a little and try out different combinations of spice or different bases – tomato, coconut milk, yogurt or cream – whatever you’re in the mood for.

I love to cook curry for groups of friends, because you can make a big pot and everyone can just help themselves to as little or as much as they like. Here is one of my favourites…

Coconut Chicken Curry
(feeds 4-5 hungry mouths)
What you’ll need…
Around 12 pieces of chicken – ideally a mixture of legs and thighs
Basmati rice
400ml coconut milk
Fresh coriander
2 cloves of garlic
2 chillies (leave some seeds in if you like it spicy, like me)
2cm of grated ginger
1tsp turmeric
2tsp ground cumin
½ tsp black peppercorns
50g butter
Bay leaves

1.) Firstly, pop the garlic, chopped chillies, turmeric, cumin, ginger, peppercorns and some fresh coriander into a bowl and use a hand-held blender to mix into a smooth paste. Alternatively use a food processor.

2.) Put the chicken into a dish and make sure it’s all nicely covered with the paste then pop in the fridge for two hours to soak in all those lovely flavours.

3.) Pop the oven on at 220C and, once heated, stick the chicken in to cook for around 45 minutes. Check occasionally and jiggle about the chicken to ensure it’s thoroughly cooked. For the last 10 minutes, put the chicken under a medium grill to get a nice golden finish.

4.) In the meantime, cook the basmati rice for 7 minutes, then drain. Add two bay leaves plus the butter – place a teacloth over the pot and leave to steam for 20 minutes.

5.) Check the chicken is completely cooked i.e. not pink in the middle, then serve up and garnish with a coriander sprig or two.

A nice, cold Indian Pale Ale straight from the fridge is the best accompaniment to this warming curry – dig in!

Brew at the Bog – a rather tasty Brewdog festival

Tags

beer, Bogbain Farm, Brew, brew at the bog, Brewdog, churros, edinburgh, festival food, Inverness, Madrid, music festival, Spain

It was an unusually chilly 5th of May, but that didn’t stop us packing up our camping gear and heading up north to the first ever Brew at the Bog festival at the lovely Bogbain Farm, just outside Inverness.

Now I could tell you about the scrumptious beer, my new found love of red ale 5am Saint, how we danced away the cold (almost), the relatively unknown new bands I discovered and what a quirky, unique venue the fairy-lit Bogbain Farm was.

But this hungry weasel had something else on her mind – churros.

Churros come from Spain and when I lived in Madrid I loved nothing better than a 5am jaunt to the famous San Ginés Chocolateria for a post-party snack.
Strips of fried pastry, covered in sugar and accompanied by a pot of thick, melted hot chocolate for dipping – what’s not to love? So when I clocked the Churrio stall at Brew at the Bog my heart did sing a little.

Without exaggeration, the churros were just as good as those I had coveted in Spain. The dipping chocolate was just the right amount of bitter to balance the sweetness of the churros themselves and so warming to my already-numb hands. The only difference was that Churrio had added some cinnamon to the churro batter, but this worked really well.

Another charming dining option was The Tea Posy – a welcoming little caravan serving some much-needed hot drinks and delicious looking homemade cakes.

After hours of dancing, we finished the night with some much-needed fish and chips, and of course the Edinburgh girl in me had to go for salt and sauce.

It would have been great to see some food on offer made with Brewdog beer itself but as this was the inaugural Brewdog Festival perhaps I was expecting a little too much. But, hey, there’s always next year…

For coverage of the ACTUAL BEER check out the wonderful musings of aletotheking.

Tasty adventures in Portugal: Belem custard tarts

Tags

cake, custard tarts, pastry, portugal, sintra

Countries in mainland Europe are just so blooming amazing at making mountains of baked yumminess aren’t they? And Portugal is no exception.

Wandering around Lisbon you’ll find a bakery on practically every corner, with delicious looking cakes, biscuits and pastries bursting out of their window displays and proving very difficult to resist.

High up on my must-try list was the Pastel de Belém, also known as Pastel de Nata, a traditional custard tart that is said to date back to the 18^th century when nuns used the egg yolks left over from wine making to make this tasty little treat.

I got my hands on one on our day trip to the lovely little town of Sintra, just outside Lisbon. Here I am…in Sintra…pre-tart….

They tasted as good as they looked – the perfect combination of sweet pastry and thick, creamy yellow custard. Why thank you, you thrifty nuns!

On another note, I’m really excited to be heading to the first ever BrewDog festival this weekend Brew at the Bog near Inverness. Not only will I be sampling some tasty beer but I’ll also be making notes on some of the interesting festival food there, so watch this space for a related blog post. In the meantime, check out a guest blog I did for the rather fabulous Ale to the King, all about BrewDog bar in Edinburgh.

Off to get the thermals out…

Tasty adventures in Portugal: the Francesinha – a sandwich to end all other sandwiches

Tags

cheese, Francesinha, holiday, meat, Porto, portugal, sandwich, steak, travel

Say hello to the most epic sandwich you will ever encounter – the Francesinha. Seek out this meaty, cheesy delight and your standard tuna mayo or egg and cress will forever pale in comparison.

The Francesinha isn’t hard to find in Porto, so spend a little time seeking out somewhere locals are eating to be sure of the tastiest specimen.
This may be called a ‘little French girl’ but little it ain’t (although the boyfriend and I agreed you could definitely fit a small child in there).

A traditional Francesinha contains wet-cured ham, smoke-cured pork, sausages and steak, all sandwiched between two slices of bread, lathered with molten cheese and drenched in a spicy tomato and beer sauce. With chips. Oh my.

I thought I was doing a rather good job of delicately eating mine in a ladylike fashion until my boyfriend exclaimed “well, there’re not many girls who could take a Francesinha like you do.” After that I stopped trying to be elegant and tried to take pride in my meat eating abilities.
It was heaven.

The best thing about the Francesinha is that it isn’t just something for the tourists. As we were leaving the restaurant, a little light-headed and a little bit in need of a lie down, we saw a tiny, elderly Portuguese lady tucking into a Francesinha, giant portion of chips and huge glass of Super Bock. Good on you, love.

Enjoying a stout from Marble Brewery at Sheffield Tap :-)

Tags

ale, beer, pub, sheffield, stout

Mmmmm chocolate, espresso, dark….tasty! The Sheffield Tap has an extensive selection of real ales – a must-see for ale lovers, and right beside the train station!

Tasty adventures in Portugal: A trip to the market

Tags

food, foodie, healthy, market, mercado do bolhao, oranges, portugal, sardines, travel

During our stay in the northern city of Porto we visited the colourful daily market – Mercado do Bolhão. It’s a glorious place to explore and a great way to get a taste of local life.

The market was pretty quiet when we visited in the afternoon, but I imagine mornings are the busiest time when the produce is at its freshest. Mercado do Bolhão was everything you might picture a Portuguese market to be – from glistening sardines to bountiful displays of fruit and veg, stalls bursting with colourful flowers to traditional handmade ‘azulejos’ (those ceramic tiles you see practically everywhere in Portugal).

We treated ourselves to some enormous green olives which we munched away on whilst exploring the stalls, and couldn’t resist buying some juicy oranges for the train ride back to Lisbon.

It’s no surprise that the med is so famous for its healthy diet and long life expectancy – the food on offer here was nothing but nutritious and bursting with goodness. Next time I go to Portugal I’m going self-catering so I get the chance to cook some of that delicious looking fish for my dinner.

The boyfriend even managed to get himself a lucky Portuguese cock, bought from a tiny, gentle Portuguese lady who made up for her lack in height with boundless enthusiasm for her collection of cocks.

Unfortunately Portuguese cocks don’t travel well, but lucky for Rob I’m a dab hand with the superglue…