Turkish Delights

Tabbouleh

Last week we went on a girls holiday to Kalkan, Turkey. I had the perfect week and of course, we feasted like kings. One day we hired a boat to take us on a private trip from cove to cove (which ended in group tattoos. Whole new kettle of fish.) Me and Charlie spent the evening before cooking up a storm in the kitchen to serve as lunch the following day. We served spanish tortilla, crispy bruchetta and fresh tomato and basil salad and the finest tabbouleh you've ever tasted. Here's the guilt and trouble free recipe:

250g giant couscous; the food so good they named it twice
Half a cucumber, chopped into chunks
Handful of sun dried or sun blushed tomatoes
Handful of mint, roughly chopped
Handful of parsley, roughly chopped
Juice of half a lemon
1 tsp cumin
3 tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil
Maldon salt and pepper
Simply cook the giant couscous and bung it all together. I think finishing off with a few pomegranate seeds and some crumbled feta cheese would have added a little extra sha-bam.

Soup-er Man

Of all the soups in all of the lands, no soup is more soup-er than French onion soup, especially when you have to break your way through  a bubbling gruyere crust to get to it. Finding an authentic French onion soup, complete with sizzling, cheesy gratin was high on my list of priorities when I arrived in France. On Saturday it was my anniversary and Henry, who of course knew the way to my heart is food so took me out for dinner on Ile St Louis; the lovely islet tucked away behind the Notre Dame. It's such a magical place at night. 

Prix Fixe menus let you explore French Cuisine on a budget, it's a 'the more you eat, the less you pay,' policy. In England we call it Pizza Hut buffet. In this part of Paris you can tell all the food will be of be an equal standard, with restaurants catering to please tourists like myself in search of everything from onion soup to snails, so its fair to judge a book by its cover and choose the restaurant with the best table cloth! 

I started with a terrine of French onion soup. It was rich and sweet and the blanket of chewy, crispy croutons smothered in molten gruyere, was just what I had been searching for! Henry had baked camembert with a balsamic glaze and salad. For my mains I had roast duck with a sweet, smokey glaze served with a fluffy hybrid of mashed potato and a rosti.

Next weekend I'm going to perfect my recipe for French onion soup and gruyere gratin so keep your onions peeled. 

Paris

The waft of crepes, check. The hum of a saxophonist, check. Flimsy metro tickets that you've lost within minutes, check. Je suis arrivé à paris. So here I am, three days of feasting in the cheese and wine capital ahead of me, life is good now lets tuck in. 

Cloudy Bay, Pelorus Vintage 2008

Cloudy Bay Pelorus Vintage 2008, named after the dolphin Pelorus Jack, the legendary dolphin who followed ships between Wellington and Nelson in early 1900’s. Bubble wrapped and nestled in three layers of jumpers, this very special bottle of bubbly was backpacked through New Zealand, Fiji and America. In the heat of the moment, and after a few hours spent sampling the finest wines the Marlborough vineyards had to offer, I bought this bottle to bring home as a family Christmas present. My dad popped it open on Christmas Day and I was instantly reminded as to why I decided to lug it around the world. ..

Jean Philippe chocolatier and patisserie at the Belagio. A little $6 slice of heaven.

Honey, I'm home!

I’m back from my travels with a highly neglected blog that is in desperate need of some tender loving care. What better way to spend a frosty Wednesday afternoon than to fill this blog with the memories and stories my friends and family are all bored of hearing eh? Here’s the rest of every delicious morsel that went through these lips! 

The largest chocolate fountain in the world at the Bellagio hotel, Las Vegas

'Honey. You can't have a Creme Brûlée frap WITH cream.'

I’ll be honest, I tried for all of minutes to fit into the notorious ‘LA lifestyle.’ As I stood in the first of many Starbucks queues in Laguna Beach, I began a mental game of tennis, eyes flicking from the seasonal frap board to the classics, and then a second wave of panic came over me: ‘Do I join the incessant request to ‘Make that a skinny,’ or do I go with my gut and not be a pedantic sheep.’ I was a pedantic sheep, but not just any old, I’m sure i made them all snigger when I probably made customer history in asking for a skinny Crème brûlée frap with cream. I was understandably shot down by the glowing honey who was serving me, who definately takes hers black, one sweetener. 

Bruxie's Waffles

It began with waffles and ended in Mac'n'Cheese.

Sit back, loosen your belt and prepare to commit diet suicide with my Vegas Diet. I actually had a To Do list for my time in America, not the naughty, little black book kind, nor the organised, FiloFax kind, I had to To Eat list and I am proud to say I ticked every box. There were a handful of quirky Mexican shacks in Laguna Beach, selling juicy burritos and fresh, crispy fish tacos I’d had my eye on from the word Go. I didn’t get to itch my scratch for a fish Taco until the Monte Carlo food hall. It was perfection; salty, crunchy, tangy goodness in a blanket of guacomole, nestled in a soft tortilla wrap. Next on the agenda, waffles. I first met Bruxie on Black Friday. We were ‘cruising’ back from Fashion Island in Newport when my eyes locked with Bruxie. I started with a Belgium waffle oozing with Tillamook Cheddar & Gruyere Cheese followed by another waffle gloriously stuffed with sweet cream and strawberries. Next on the agenda was a big, juicy burger with a side of hand cut, double, triple, quadruple fried chips and where better to indulge that in the Hard Rock Cafe with a beaker of strawberry lemonade? My quest for American cuisine ended in The Cheesecake Factory with a smooth, gooey, crusty baked Mac’n’Cheese… God save America!

The Waterfront, Sydney

My wonderful big sister Charlotte treated me and Alexa to dinner at The Waterfront restaurant as a belated birthday present. She organised the best seats in the house and we were wined and dined under the stars. We shared a seafood platter, but not just any old seafood platter, Paremsan crusted scallops, callamari with a creamy lemon mayonaise, muscles marinated in a spicy tomato relish and prawns the size of my fist. I kept it classic with a chicken tandoori pizza, served with a big dollop of tatziki and a sprinkling of roast cashews. The panna cotta served with sweet peaches, raspberry coulis and crumbled biscotti sealed the deal on a very enjoyable night!

The Yasawa Islands, Fii

Fijian cuisine is fresh and exotic. They have exhausted the uses of a coconut; coconut water as a refreshing drink, coconut milk for mild fish curries, coconut cream for the traditional cold starter ‘Kokoda,’ desiccated coconut for baking and chunks of fresh coconut for snacking. In a Fijian cooking lesson we made Kokoda (pronounced Ko-kon-da) by marinating white fish in lime juice which naturally cooks it, adding it to finely sliced tomato, cucumber and onion and finishing with coconut cream. 

The Almighty Ferg

Ferg Burger in Queenstown, New Zealand is no less of a landmark than Lake Taupo and Franz Josef Glacier. The Southern Swine consists of a fresh bun that can only be described as ‘squishy,’ a New Zealand prime beef pattie, streaky bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado, red onion, alioli and tomato relish. With every bite, you become ever-increasingly assured, that ‘Ferg loves You.’

Byron Bay, Australia

The laid back, easy going, hippy haven lifestyle that Byron Bay has down to a T is perfectly matched by this little Moroccan lair that we stumbled upon. I can’t remember the name but its next to Happy Herbs on the main road. Who can say no to date and walnut loaf smothered in butter and a pot of peppermint tea for breakfast?

Fishing Trip with Mr Trung, Hoi An

Just our luck, the day the typhoon hit Vietnam in September, we had organised a fishing trip with Mr Trung. Despite the down pour, we spent the morning catching shrimps and  sardines. Flinging the sacred fish on the back of our bikes, we went to Mr Trung’s family home, where his wife provided a very authentic cooking lesson. We began by making spring rolls: mincing pork, slicing carrots and green beans, crushing peanuts and seasoning with the world and his wife before rolling into rice paper and deep frying. Then we prepared the fish and lemon and garlic marinade before rolling in banana leaves and cooking over an open fire. It was an incredible experience and the family recipies Mrs Trung trusted me with are safely locked up in my diary.

Food Market, Gili Trawangan

Me at the food market at Gili Trawangan! Where I was in my element surrounded by fresh fish BBQ’s, endless versions of noodles and fried rice, chicken sate, sweetcorn frittas and corn on the cobs! The Backpackers flock from all over the island to eat like a king for a dollar or two.

The Fast and the Furious

We decided to play it safe and pay a little extra to get the fast boat to the Gili’s! The other option being the 9 hour s-l-o-w boat. Little did we know that the current that runs between Lombok and the Gili islands makes the waves so choppy we found oursleves clinging onto the rails of the top deck. In a desperate attempt for some mid-day rays we perservered. A little under 2 hours later, we arrived, drenched and bedraggled at Gili Trawagnan! We saw Anna and Alex in the distance waving frantically and were helped down a rickety ladder onto the golden sands, to begin our 4 days in paradise!

Happy Birthday Bro!

Sorry I missed the end of August birthday bender again. I wish I was there to celebrate and boss everyone around the kitchen at breakfast. Lots of Love. Ro. X

Best Place for Brekkie in Bali

Sea Circus. Getting lost on Instagram lead Alexa to Sea Circus. It was the Hangover Happy Meal that originally caught our attention- a proper greasy fry up, fresh fruit juice and 15 minute neck massage for $10. Heaven! We tracked it down and went for breakfast last Saturday before hitting the beach. I have a Very Berry fruit juice and Avo eggs and it was incredible. Everything at Sea Circus is fun. The Bombay Sapphire table vase, the wall of clocks, the token Bob Marley quotes, even the cups and saucers have a fun story behind them (http://seacircus-bali.com/blog/)