Top walks in Paris: Covered market streets

It took me nearly 5 trips to Paris and 3 months of ...

Cassoulet: uncensored

As mentioned in my previous post “Guests in Paris”, I set myself ...

Dans mon quartier: The perfect apéro at l’Avant Comptoir

This very special place is a little out of my neighbourhood, about ...

Princess Jasmine in Morocco: staying in Marrakech with style

Marrakesh conjures Aladdin-like images of narrow streets, snake charmers, bizarre food stands ...

The art and fashion of smoking food

I’m a fan of the art of smoking food. Awestruck by it, ...

Brush up on your scotch-whisky knowledge

If your Scotch whisky knowledge is limited to the likes of the ...

La tête dans les olives – and a word on sincerity

Preambule: I am aware that the “food blogging” movement has changed the restaurateur’s business reality. In fact, I don’t think it’s a reach to say that the emergence of blogs, Trip Advisor reviews, Facebook, Twitter and other such crowdsourcing, community-based websites has affected and changed the service industry as a whole. I feel lucky to […]

Make it an oyster (and champagne) night in Paris – l’huitrerie Regis

Paris is romantic. Fresh oysters are good. Champagne is fun, and good. Having all of those things tucked neatly into a 20-person space in Saint-Germain-des-Prés is a dream come true. To the exception of a cheese plate and minimal cold cuts, this small restaurant exclusively serves raw seafood, satisfying your biggest cravings for oysters, urchins […]

Getting a fancy dinner out of your leftover’s leftovers

If you’re American, you’re probably all turkey’d out from Thanksgiving celebrations. If you’re Canadian, Thanksgiving’s long gone but still lives on in your freezer, and you’re most likely exhausted by the idea of Christmas on the way (the massive meals, the cocktails, the family reunion marathon). You’ve eaten the left over turkey already and had […]

Girl’s lunch and Paris-Brest – bistro love

Winter is slowly creeping up on us. Before you say that I sound like Eddard Starck , I’d like to share a recent find which may prove to be a perfect lunch time hideout from the cold weather. A girlfriend of mine thought to invite me on a lunch date “un samedi après-midi”. She mentioned that […]

Linger at Madrid’s Mercado San Miguel, Spain

If you happen to pass by Madrid, you may want to reserve some time for Mercado San Miguel. It’s a great place to linger for a glass of wine or two before heading for dinner mas tarde. You’ll find fresh meat, cold cuts, seafood stands boasting fresh oysters and champagne, cocktails, wine bars, pastries, local […]

Guests in Paris

I’ve been delving in recipe ideas, restaurant reservations and sight lists in preparation for my brother and sister in law’s visit to Paris on Friday. I love to indulge in this type of preparation – appetizer ideas, greasy breakfasts galore and so on. The homemaker in me also desperately wants to take advantage of a […]

A fall day in Paris – coffee and soup

London gets the bad rap of being rainy all the time, thought in recent weeks I’d say that Paris has been right up there with nonstop groggy and wet weather. Thankfully though, today has surprised us with some sun, making it imperative to get out of the house. Heading out early instead of doing our […]

Burgers in Paris: Le camion qui fume

As anyone who has visited this wonderful city knows, Paris has inexplicable issues when it comes to making good hamburgers. I’m telling you, at times, a good burger in Paris seems impossible to come by. You’ll be lured in, tempted and, more often than not, cheated by many burger announcements, seeing as they’re popular here […]

Top 10 tips for Oktoberfest in Munich

Oktoberfest is somewhat akin to Thanksgiving, in that it is a harvest-time celebration of nature’s abundance – though in Munich that means ingesting enormous quantities of sauerkraut hot-dogs washed down by your ale of choice. Oktoberfest is a blast – everyone knows that. But for those who’ve never been to Munich to celebrate it, here […]

Moroccan salad trio – woo your guests

As promised in my previous Moroccan post, here are the recipes for chef Hasna’s three entrées from my Riad cooking class. We ate delicious food throughout our trip, but I must say that our meal with Hasna in Marrakech was the best. Eggplant salad I’m a huge fan of the Tuscan interpretation of eggplant side […]