venison scotch eggs

My girlfriends and I get together for our regular date night once in however-often-we-feel-is-necessary. Away from our taller, hairier and decidedly less intelligent masculine counterparts, we are free to wile away the hours discussing make up, travel, careers, weddings, designer bags, child birth, bling, shoes, eye creams, hair styles,  fashion, and where, on our infinitely long list of places to eat, we should go for our next date night.

This weekend, we bent the rules ever so slightly and at the recommendation of a number of other foodies, we adjourned instead for a date day, at The Harwood Arms in Fulham.

Read More →

strawberry pavlova and chocolate lamington, from Toast Australia Festival

Ok, wishful thinking calling myself a beauty. While I am from the land down under and did try to be beautiful and even though beauty is apparently only skin deep, my natural reaction to claw, kick and bi-atch fight anyone who stands between my food and I pretty much vetoes my right to all beauty, including that of the inner variety, which is normally hidden below layers of flubber.

So be it. Eating is so much more rewarding anyway.

Read More →

chilli dip with tuna and pickled vegies; grilled calamari; chocolate fondant; breakfast buffet

Hi! I’m now back from Tunisia (yes, Northern Africa) and am suffering from post-holiday blues so play nice, ok? Three and a half days of lazing by the pool, soaking up the nothing-but-blue-sky thirty-something degree heat plus a 60 minute massage has un-knotted my knots, un-stressed my stresses and really has me believing that I should just pack up and move out there. Seriously.

In the mean time though, reality is still biting, so here I am and yes this post is totally about BBQ pork!

Read More →

angelled eggs

So it is now only one more sleep until I hit the sunny shores of Tunisia for a well deserved three-day lie-on-the-beach/pool/bed/recliner holiday. Being as ridiculously geographically challenged as I am (I don’t think I’ve ever taken a geography lesson. I vaguely remember having to take Social Studies in Year 9, which in all effects and purposes should cover geography and history, but all I remember from that class was an unhealthy obsession with all things Egyptian, and an even unhealthier obsession with Stargate and pondering the gender identity of Jaye Davidson – the jury’s still out on that one), up until about a month ago, I thought Tunisia was in Europe. Anyway, Google Maps told me otherwise. Tunisia is actually in Northern Africa, right up there next to Algeria and Morocco, and a stone’s throw from Italy’s south coast. At least it’s close to Europe. There was a time when I thought the Caribbean was in Africa. Shame.

Read More →

macaroons

I first discovered this miniscule parcel of joy at the Lindt Cafe in Sydney, and marvelled over this half-biscuit half-cake creation with a delicate shell and soft, sweet centre.  I’d never seen one in my twenty-something years alive, and little did I realise the impact it would have on my life and the repeated trips I would take to Ladurée, Burlington Arcade, London, in search for the taste of one, just one, pistachio macaroon.

Read More →

When I went to Barcelona, Spain for a weekend last October, on the first day we ate Mexican food. Yeh I don’t know why either. And on the second day, I was hit by the mother of all flus, and had I actually been able to squeeze a morsel of Spanish food past my tonsils (which felt like they were the size of baseballs) I would have done, and probably raved on about it. But alas, I painfully swallowed my cold and flu tablets, and stayed in bed…

tapas_paella_churros_2

So this time round, I wanted to get in as much as I possibly could in the two days we were there. 

Read More →