What to Eat in Sri Lanka

It took me a while to reach my food peak in Sri Lanka.  And to be honest our first week of eating (apart from in the capital, Colombo) I was pretty non-plussed.  In that first week we were in the hill country (Kandy and Ella) and then on safari in Udawale (which is in the middle of nowhere) – and for whatever reason, they were feeding tourists pretty basic stuff in these places. Or maybe I didn’t look hard enough.

However, as soon as we hit the coastal resorts of Tangalle, Mirissa and Galle – our food experiences rocketed, and we ate an awesome array of interesting curries (including banana flower and tamarind root) and great rotis and hoppers (more on what they are below), and I came away excited for more Sri Lankan food experiences.

I’m going to talk you through the different dishes we had, starting with the hoppers:

Hoppers

They are a kind of crater shaped pancake made with rice flour and coconut milk.  Fillings vary from savoury to sweet, but the most popular are cheese, egg and curries or if you’re going sweet there’s nutella, ice-cream of fruit fillings.

An egg hopper, a cheese hopper and a roti wrap

Lassis

I think you’ve probably all heard of lassis – a delicious yoghurty milkshake.  We had some crackers out there.

Banana lassi

Fruit Juices

I became obsessed with juices in Sri Lanka. Every day was an opportunity to sample a new variety, favourites included:

• passion fruit
• mango
• papaya
• watermelon, mint and ginger

Passion fruit juice

Fruit Platters

I decided to go on a bit of a health kick in Sri Lanka.  This still involved booze every night, but other than that I stuck to a light breakfast, and a modest lunch and dinner, with no snacks (unheard of for me).  Fortunately the astonishing fruit we would have for breakfast every morning made ‘light breakfasts’ a breeze – I never felt I was missing out.

Enough fruit for two?

Kottu

Kottu is a bit like egg fried rice, but instead of rice, there’s chopped up roti (flatbread) thrown in instead.  You could have pretty much any variety of kottu – whether that was egg, cheese, fish, chicken, veg. I don’t think it was the most healthy thing we ate on our trip, but it was brilliant comfort food – full of spice and heat and flavour – and it was the meal that no matter how poor the options were in a restaurant, we knew it would be tasty.  In fact, if you need another comparison, it was a bit like a Sri Lankan take on bubble and squek.

Chicken kottu

Rotis

Rotis are basically flatbread, but we ate them in so many different versions including the kottu which I just described.  I personally was a big fan of just a plain coconut roti, maybe with a spicy sauce to dip it in.  Another options was a samosa type roti filled with potato curry – a cold version of this was sold at pretty much every corner shop in Sri Lanka and rightly so – it was a tasty 20p snack! Another clever adaption was a roti wrap – whatever filling you desire wrapped in a roti and fried on a griddle pan – I tried a prawn, egg and tomato number which was a winner.

Unusual Curries

We certainly had some nice curries on our travels – veg curries, seafood curries, but until we got to the colonial town of Galle, we hadn’t had anything that seemed that unusual or particular to Sri Lanka. But in Galle we had two magnificent and very local curry experiences.

First there was Coconut Sambal – a dinky little place that only seated about 10 people. They offered an all you can eat buffet of curries all served in 6 clay pots (for about £5 a head).  We were given an little basket tray with a plastic sheet to put our food on and off we went.  The curries were: chicken, ‘meat’, mango, dal, banana and aubergine and there was coconut sambal for sprinkling (a spicy grated coconut mix). It was a delicious meal and I loved that it was a tiny little authentic set up – it felt cosy and fun. And the mango was curry was a revelation – I’ve had mango chutney – but this was a hot juicy curry – it was beautiful and really complimented the other dishes.

Coconut Sambal

Curry in a basket at Coconut Sambal

The second destination was not as interactive and fun as Coconut Sambal – but Lucky Fort Restaurant served the most extraordinary food. We paid £15 between us and received ten curries to share (with rice).  It was an unusual line up and I’d struggle to choose the most delicious, but I think their stewed mango may have won again.  These were the curries:

1. Chicken
2. Stewed mango
3. Banana flower
4. Tamarind root
5. Green beans
6. Pumpkin
7. Sweet potatoes
8. Crispy aubergines like crispy onions
9. Dal
10. Okra

I would go back to Sri Lanka just to have this meal again. It was such a unique and tasty experience.

The ten curry bonanza at Lucky Fort

Bad Food Experiences

The stuff I was less wowed by – any food that was ‘devilled’ – menus always offered devilled chicken or beef or prawns – basically a lame version of sweet and sour.

Anything involving packaged white bread (which was quite a lot).  Sri Lankans eat roti not this pap, but I guess tourists often want home comforts.

Any attempts at salad were pretty hilarious, usually involved a few tomatoes, lettuce and some rubbery meat. I mean I should have known better really – Sri Lankans don’t eat salads themselves, so why would they be good at salads?

Inspiration

I was very inspired by the Sri Lankan food so we will be attempting to create some of these lovely dishes by trying recipes from the brilliant Weligama cookbook by Emily Dobbs.  Watch this space as I may even blog about our attempts!

Weligama Cookbook

Sri Lanka Awesomeness

I certainly thought Sri Lanka would be a nice holiday, but it was so much more than that.  Sri Lanka is lush and green and teaming with life – the people are colourful and you can’t avoid the wildlife (in a good way!) – especially the monkeys and the lizards.  We were there for just two weeks, and boy, did we have an adventure.

Colombo

We arrived on Sunday evening in Colombo, the huge capital city.  The owner of our guesthouse Dolce Casa was a super helpful and clever Italian lady called Florence.  She gave us loads of practical advice on Sri Lanka and Colombo.  Thanks to Florence’s ultra efficiency, along with the chilled vibes we instantly felt in Sri Lanka, I was feeling very much at home already.

The next day we were due to travel to Kandy at 3pm, and by following Florence’s very exact itinerary on the best local sights in Colombo, we fitted quite a bit into our day:

1. A quick visit to the Gangaramaya Buddhist Temple, which was kind of interesting, but if I’m honest was a bit too much of a tourist joint for me.
2. A papaya juice at the decadent Galle Face colonial hotel.
3. A ridiculously rushed (but tasty) lunch at the Ministry of Crab.

This hectic approach may not be the ideal way to experience Colombo – but we quite enjoyed it.  And being able to get tuk tuks for £1 a journey certainly helped.

Next up was our train to Kandy – which was just 2.5 hours and a rather nice experience.  By paying a bit more (all of £10) we ended up in the observation carriage which is air conditionned and reserved just for tourists.

Crab time, at Ministry of Crab

Kandy

Kandy is in Sri Lanka’s hill country – I wasn’t wowed by it but we still had a nice time there.  I found it an intense, slightly overwhelming city. But our guesthouse up on the hill had pretty views.

What was good about Kandy was that it was a great base to go to Sigiriya Rock – which is about a 2 hour drive away.

The stunning (if slightly misty!) view from our B&B in Kandy

Sigiriya Rock

Is an ancient rock fortress dating back to the 5th century.  Sometimes I’m not very interested in historical ‘stuff’, but this place is magical.  It’s quite a sweaty climb (it takes about an hour), but when you get to the top, you feel like you’ve entered a mystical land.

Sigiriya Rock

Kandy to Ella by Train

Our next destination was Ella, but this was a 7 hour train journey away, it is apparently one of the world’s most epic train journeys.  Ok, we travelled through some stunning tea plantation scenery on the train, which was quite something, but if I’m honest it didn’t live up to the hype for me.  7 hours on a train is still 7 hours on a train – a bit too long.

The famous Kandy to Ella train journey

Ella 

Initially I fell in love with hill country town Ella – it seemed hippy and chilled and the surrounding hills are jaw droppingly picturesque.  However my feelings soured quickly when I realised this tiny town was a backpacking mecca. Everywhere I turned there was some traveller boasting about their escapades – it was a little suffocating.

However what was spectacular about Ella, was our walk up to Ella Rock, which was a special and tingly experience. We met with our local guide at 6am (while it was still dark) and started our two hour journey up to this glorious peak.  We walked along a railway line, past waterfalls and up a really steep climb at the end.  And, best of all we were the only tourists up there because it was so early.  The views, and the atmosphere were breathtaking.  And our local guide Abi, was the sweetest guy – he really made the trip for me too.

Our trusty guide, Abi, at the top of Ella Rock

Udawale Safari

Having identified that I don’t like long journeys on public transport, we opted for an air conditioned taxi to our next destination, Udawale, which was 2 hours way.  It was gloriously easy.  On arrival we booked ourselves onto a safari jeep and headed off to the wildlife park. I was trying to keep my expectations in check, as I wasn’t sure if we’d see much.  But we were in luck, we must have seen about 30 elephants (and quite a few babies) and most were in spitting distance of the car.  They were so graceful and elegant to watch. We also saw eagles, pretty bright green bee-eater birds, water buffallos, alligators and peacocks. Brilliant.

Beautiful Elephants

Tangalle Beach

A quick 1.5 hours in a taxi and we were in Tangalle. When the taxi driver dumped us by a lake with a pulley boat to get accross to our guesthouse, I started to get nervous about how remote this place was. As it happens, it was pretty remote, but that didn’t matter, because the beach was like paradise, and the guesthouse served exceptional food, so we didn’t need anything else for two days.  It was a lovely bit of time for relaxation and reading after all the hecticness of the previous week.

Beach idiotics at Tangalle

Mirissa Beach

We downgraded to a tuk tuk to get to our next destination – which took a couple of hours and was a lot of fun.  However when we arrived in Mirissa I was slightly horrified, it appeared we’d arrived in Sri Lanka’s version of Benidorm – the beach was rammed with burnt tourists. We were both really turned off.  But, as we settled in, we started to adjust to being in a busy environment (the beach at Tangalle had been empty and vast), and actually started to totally fall in the love with the surfy, yogic hippy vibe of Mirissa.

Chilled Mirissa

Galle

Galle was our final destination and what a beautiful one to end at.  It’s a Unesco World Heritage Site and an old trading port full of imposing Dutch-colonial buildings, ancient mosques and churches, grand mansions and museums.  Apparently it’s had a lot of money pumped into it since the 2004 tsunamai because a lot of charities based themselves in Galle. It was definitely our poshest stop off. I really enjoyed walking round the ancient city walls and looking at all the glamourous colonial buildings. And we had the BEST meal of our holiday at Lucky Galle Fort restaurant where we shared 10 curries for just £7.50.  These curries were exquisite – including banana flower, crispy fried aubergine, tamarind root, mango curry (basically stewed mango) and pumpkin curry.  Every mouthful was a taste sensation.

Lanka Galle

I felt sadder leaving Sri Lanka than I normally do at the end of a holiday – I was treated to a slice of paradise on this island – the scenery, the gentle people, the crazy monkeys and lizards, the tasty curries and rotis – and there was always so much colour and life going on around us. I’m glad I’ve got a lovely load of cherished memories and photos to hang on to.

More Sri Lanka Blog Posts

I will be writing some more blog posts on my Sri Lanka trip if you’re interested where I’ll be going into more details on the destinations we went to.  I’ll also write one on our Sri Lanka food experiences.

Cost

And for those thinkng about going to Sri Lanka you might be interested to know how much we spent in 2 weeks:

Our flights with Emirates cost about £500 each from Manchester (with a stop off in Dubai) – and our journey time in total was 14 hours.

Our accommodation in total was about £600, and each place ranged from £25 a night to £75 a night, but we mainly paid about £35 a night.  And you really get a lot for your money for that. We weren’t staying in particularly posh places, but they were all clean and really nice and we were treated like royalty by the staff.

And while we were out there we spent between us about £800, so £400 each – and that included several long distance taxis, a safari, entrance to Sigiriya Rock and lots of lovely meals and cocktails! If you’re thinking of going on a budget  you could easily do it cheaper and have a nice time.

Total Spend

Was about £2400, so £1200 each.

Why Puglia Was Not The Rustic Dream Holiday I Thought it Would be

I think sometimes I big up a destination in my head so much, that it can’t live up to expectation.

And I was very excited about my rustic holiday to Puglia (the heel of Italy).

I’d heard it was a less touristy region than many places in Italy, and it would be very rural and simple, and that I’d be able to eat amazing food for very little money.

So I was a bit grumpy at discovering on arrival, a lot of tourists and restaurants very much catering for them.  They were ruining my authentic experience of Southern Italy!  Damn you Justin Timberlake for getting married in Puglia and starting an influx of American visitors and unrusticking it.

We didn’t help ourselves by getting into the habit of eating croissants every morning.  Not sure what we were thinking as they are not bloody Italian.  Then for lunch, out of ease we started eating pucce (Puglian ciabatta) toasties with proscuitto and mozzarella every day – very nice, but it’s not exactly an enriching culinary experience. And in the evenings we weren’t faring much better, and frankly kept making crap, touristy, lazy choices.

On our fourth day, I broke my croissant fix and chose an Italian chocolate cake for breakfast.  And omg it was so stale.  It was the last straw.  I had a massive grumble to Jamie and said I wasn’t having the authentic Italian experience I wanted. Poor Jamie, I really moaned.  I banged on about all the amazing, cheap mind blowing meals I’d had in Italy on my 7 previous trips, and that I was disappointed.  In hindsight though, I was lumping together all the food highlights from each trip, leaving my perspective a bit skewed.

So we got a bit more organised and started scrutinising reviews on TripAdvisor before making restaurant choices, and just generally being a bit more fussy, and I also conceded that we might have to pay for quality (gasp!).

And guess what? Things got better.

Highlights included the chewiest chocolatiest torte, a divine carrot and orange cake, a very melty piece of lamb, two phenomenal octopus sandwiches (so fresh), a super crispy lasagne made with spinach lasagne sheets and lamb, a beautiful aubergine and cheese ravioli, oh yes and lets not forget cannoli – deep fried pastry tubes filled with sweet ricotta.

Deep fried Octopus in a bun – heaven!

Aubergine and cheese ravioli

Possibly the best lamb I’ve ever eaten

Breakfast at a proper old fashioned Italian cake shop – a culinary success this time!

And do you know what, despite a bit of whinging on my part, we had a really nice holiday, Puglia is beautiful, and most of it is rustic.  In particular I fell in love with the remote and rugged beaches, with the bluest, clearest seas.  And the ancient towns and villages at the top of hills like Lecce and Ostuni are gorgeous.  And in terms of taking photos, it’s pure Instagram gold. Lovely light, beautiful crumbly old buildings, colourful doors, blue seas – it was iPhone photo ecstasy!

This was an olive oil tasting at a fabulous olive farm visited

Beautiful Punta Proscuitto beach

 

 

 

Go to Goa – go on!

On 3rd November Jamie and I boarded a plane in freezing cold Manchester and eight and a half hours later arrived in sunny Goa at seven in the morning.

From Dabolim airport it was a hairy, cow dodging taxi ride to Patnem, but an hour later we were at the beach.

As we dragged our wheely suitcases along the sand to our accommodation at Sea Front Beach Huts, I eagerly stared around trying to soak up the atmosphere of the place.  And I spied relaxed, hippy looking types, supping on lassis and masalas teas.  They looked happy – this was a postive sign – I sensed we were going to have a very good time.

In the weeks leading up to the holiday, I had made lots of plans as to how we’d spend our fortnight – day trips, local markets and perhaps an outing to a spice farm.

Then when we got there, reality hit.  It was so damn hot and nice.   I literally couldn’t arsed to move much.  Forget day trips, I wanted to do nothing.

Patnem Beach

It was a very long 14 days, filled with competitive scrabble playing, book reading and watching the world go by on the beach.  The Goans are delightful people – charming, happy and friendly and this was a big part of why we enjoyed Patnem so much.

We started out literally having curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner – which I thoroughly enjoyed.  But after a few days I was starting crave fresh fruit and veg, and eating paratha (Indian layered bread) three times a day was leaving me feeling bloated.  So we moved on to amazing smoothie bowls with fresh fruit at ‘Zest’ health cafe for breakfast, and tasty salads for lunch at ‘Home’, a peaceful and pretty beach front restaurant.  We stayed committed to curries in the evenings though when we’d jump in a rickshaw and drive a mile down the road to lively Palolem for dinner and drinks.

Despite never leaving the two neighbouring beaches of Patnem and Palolem for a fortnight, it still felt like such an adventure.  Just the interactions we were having with local waiters, shop owners and rickshaw drivers felt exciting and interesting.  And the atmosphere of Patnem itself, which is known for its many yoga schools, felt exotic – not only because of the melting pot of nationalities hanging out there: Israelis, Germans, Russians, Brits and even Indians on holiday, but the yoga vibe of the resort was very different to any holiday I’ve ever been on. Watching people do classes on the beach was fascinating – admittedly sometimes the chanting got on my nerves, but largely I loved watching the focus, dedication and grace of these people learning their skill.

When it was time to go back to the UK, Jamie and I were both really sad.  It had been a magical experience.  It wasn’t a hard core immersion into Indian culture – Jamie described it as ‘India light’ – a gentle introduction to the country without the chaos and hassle you might receive in other Indian tourist spots.  Two weeks of beautiful beach with my excellent boyfriend in gorgeous hot sunshine, surrounded by lovely Goans – I couldn’t have asked for more.

 

Smoothie bowl at Zest Cafe

Soaking in local life on one of my evening beach walks (they are dipping a little kid in the water if you are wondering what’s happening!)

Rickshaw ride to Palolem beach whilst dodging the cows in the road

At Home, our favourite lunchtime restaurant

I couldn’t get enough of the curries in Goa (or the banana lassis!)

Chateaux, Pigs, Good Cheese and Sexy French Men: Five Memorable Days in the Loire Valley

I knew the writing course I’d signed myself up to would be good.  The description of the workshop seduced me on the spot.

Five days of scoffing french food; a truffle hunt; local food market and winery visits; accommodation in a renovated 16th century mansion – now a hotel, and I would be taught by two accomplished food writers.  Everything about the course screamed out to me – food is an art form in France and I was desperate to immerse myself in their food culture.

Over the course of the trip I rammed smelly cheeses, light wines, sweet radishes, quiches and saucisson down my gullet.  And let’s not forget the superb patisserie.  There was very little that passed my lips that wasn’t exquisitely fresh and locally sourced.  And eating was always delightfully social.  Long breakfasts around the fire in the morning, chatty picnic lunches between classes, brilliant nights out in local restaurants.  The whirlwind of gorgeous meals and the French reverence towards eating that went with it cultivated the perfect environment to learn the craft of food writing.

For all of us the truffle hunt was a huge highlight. Which had a lot more to do with the the handsome and energetic truffle hunter Louis Houette than his descriptions of the complex ecosystems of truffle farming.

Louis the truffle hunter

Next in the hierarchy list of interest on this trip were the excitable piggies Speedy and Gonzales – Louis discovered he couldn’t actually use them for truffle hunting because although they’d find the truffles, they would just eat them. So he decided to keep them as pets/tourist attractions.

Speedy the pig

Following on from the piggies here’s the order of my remaining truffle hunt highlights:

• Louis’ Border Collie, Touk Touk – the true truffle hunter – a wildly affectionate and obedient dog who can sniff out truffles from 50 metres away.
• The two inquisisitive and friendly horses on the farm who nearly knocked me over in their enthusiasm to get to know me.
• The magical truffle butter and baguette we sampled at the end – what a creamy heady buttery hit that was.
• And lastly the elegant Houette family chateau that we nosed around while eating our buttered treats.

Butter and shaved truffle on baguette

The Houette family home – I have chateau envy

On another day we were sent out with notepads to Chinon’s food market.  We were to observe and jot down what we saw – colours, shapes, sounds, movements, people and events. I have never approached writing like this.  For me my writing process involves a rambling memory based effort, so I rather liked having to tune in and focus all my senses on this experience.

And after two hours of lots of listening, watching and scribbling, I returned icy toed and numb fingered to Hotel Diderot to share my writing with the group and to eat an enormous picnic of our joint purchases.  14 people sharing local cheese, sausages, breads, fruit, salads, rottiserie chicken and patisserie creates a spectacular spread.  If only I could lunch like that every day!

On the Winery visit we were yet again dazzled by a sexy french man.  Sebastian (below) runs Chateau du Petit Thouars with his father.  He was literally bouncing with enthusiasm and humour.  Just like our truffle tour, I found myself rather more interested in Sebastian himself than his talk of appellation and soil composition.  The outing was completed with a wine tasting and pot eu feu (beef stew) and tarte au verginon (apple tart with wine jelly) for lunch – the experience made all the more interesting by Sebastian’s flamboyant hosting style. The six wines were delicate and delicious  – the most popular being an 8 euro cremant – a sparkling wine that tastes just like champagne.  My workshop buddies stocked up while I cursed myself for flying with hand luggage only.

Sexy Sebastian – I didn’t really listen to anything educational he said but his enthusiasm and humour were infectious

Sebastian’s chateau – he lives in this enormous chateau with his wife, two kids and his dad!

La tarte au vigneron – made with jellied wine, this tastes quite like a boozy trifle but with a delicate crispy pastry bottom

My time in France was such an adventure. If only all learning could be so hedonistic.  The interesting activities, delicious food and the nurturing and safe environment created by the teachers Dianne Jacob and Jamie Schler enabled us all to learn with ease and excitement.  I’ve come back to England inspired.  I feel focussed and confident about how to improve my writing. And the passion and intelligence of the French food artisans we met and the quality of the food that they produced has made me very sure that I need to discover and blog about people making great food in my area.  

 

Raising The Bar on my Snapping Skills: Food Photography Workshop

On Saturday I rocked up at Clapham Studios  in Lavender Hill, London to attend a food photography workshop. I had no idea what to expect – but as I’m trying to build a career in food marketing I figured it would be pretty useful.

Carole sets up for the morning session

Pictured above was our lovely tutor Carole.  In the morning we focussed on technical talk. Aperture, shutter speed, how to make the most of lighting, why it’s important to use a tripod, colour theory etc. Ok this totally was not my favourite bit of the course, but it really was bloody useful.

Next up Aimee the second tutor on the course styled a cake for us, creating a scene for us to photograph.  The cake (a four tier butternut squash cake – yum) got adorned with beautiful flowers and the background was made up using autumnal influences, ingredients from the cake and vintage accessories – so things like ivy, leaves, apples, blackberries and butternut squash.  It was very informative to see how Aimee put the display together.  I’ve always been a bit unimaginative and literal about my food photography  –  for me it’s just an aerial photo of a plate of food and job done!  I now know better.

An autumnal cakey scene

After a lot of snapping of this styled piece we were treated to a very tasty lunch of homemade quiche and salads and obviously great big slabs of cake! Get in!   Lunch was a nice opportunity to get to know everyone in the group – we had bloggers, a personal chef, a pastry maker, a cookbook writer. It was really interesting to hear about everyone’s motivation for doing the course.

The afternoon session was the most fun because we got to be creative. We started with Carole demonstrating a flat lay – i.e. – creating a scene on the floor which you photograph from above.  Carole talked us through her creative thought process as she laid out her accessories – making sure to create some layers and movement within the scene. Then it was our turn and we were given free rein to put together our own scene . I got very enthusiastic and did three!

Flat lay 1

Flat lay 2

 

Flat lay 3

The final part of the class was doing a three dimensional side view picture, so again the tutor showed us what to do – and here layering and getting the sizes of accessories in an eye pleasing order was particularly important.  This was my attempt below.

 

Side view

The course gave me so many ideas about how to set up pictures and to be indulgent about really taking my time to get it right.  I’ve been practising since and I’m pretty pleased with the outcome! Have a look below.  I think my photos are really starting to look professional. I’ve also been shopping for accessory nick nacks on amazon and in charity shops – hence the nice tea towels and vintage crockery. And I bought a white box with lighting (very cheap online) which also makes a big difference to how bright my photos look.

 

Jamie Oliver beef and sweet potato samosas

Jamie Oliver skinny carbonara

If you’d like to find out more about the courses that Carole and Aimee run here are the links to their websites:

 

http://www.mademoisellepoirot.com/

http://www.twiggstudios.com/

 

A Tremendous Tour of Trellick Tower With Open House London

If you’ve not heard of it, Open House London is an annual festival where buildings and homes of architectural interest are open to the public to have a browse.  Sounds excellent, but it’s actually really difficult to get into any of the buildings! The best ones you have to sign up to weeks in advance online.  We failed to do this. However on Sunday we thought we’d chance our arm (s) and hang around outside the iconic Trellick Tower near Portobello Market and see if we could get on a tour anyway.

Beautiful graffiti at the foot of Trellick Tower

Precariously balanced graffiti artists

By a complete stroke of luck, we got squeezed on a tour.  But by now my expectations were low.  It’s such a striking building from the outside, but when you get close to the building the area around it is very run down and the building itself looked pretty grotty and unloved. Was it worth looking inside?

However, first good sign – our tour guide was sprightly, clever and fun, and in the lift we got, up to the 18th floor.  And wow! We were greeted with a pop of bright yellow! There was shining yellow tiling everywhere – all around the lift shaft and up the corridors.  It was so cheering and contemporary – it looked amazing.  I couldn’t believe the tiles looked so good after over 40 years (Trellick was built in 1972).

Apparently all the other floors have different coloured tiles.  The Brutalist architect Goldfinger chose to use these upbeat tiles and a lot of big windows in the corridors to ensure residents got a good burst of light in their flats and would feel uplifted as they walked down the corridors to their homes. Very progressive thinking for social housing in the 70s.

And excitement, we were going to to see two examples of Trellick flats.  I love nosing around people’s places, especially if I can steal interior ideas.

First of all we walked into a one bedroom flat (which was as it turned out owned by the tour guide) – it was very compact: small bedroom, small lounge, small kitchen – but it was rather lovely and most importantly the views of London were stunning!

Next up we went into a three bedroom flat, the friendly owner and his enthusiastic fluffy dog greeted us at the top of the stairs.  It was an attractive, tasteful flat packed with great vintage furniture and most of the rooms had incredible views.

I was particularly enamoured with the kitchen – and was keen to find out how I could replicate the yellow kitchen cupboards.  Cue me bothering the owner who kindly explained how to achieve the look (Ikea cupboards and Farrow and Ball paint if you are interested).

Kitchen envy

Best bedroom view ever

Me having a vertigo moment – looking over the balcony at 18 floors was frightening

View of the basketball court from 31st floor – don’t fall!

Iconic stained glass windows – all a bit Doctor Who!

In just half an hour I felt that we’d been transported into another world! It was a very interesting, enjoyable and even better – completely free – tour.  We felt privileged that the tour guide and his neighbour so generously gave up their time to let us trample through their homes.

 

9 Reasons to Cruise Before You Become a Pensioner

I am normally opposed to all inclusive holidays.  Ferreting out quirky local establishments to eat regional food is probably the most important part of a holiday for me.  However, when my boyfriend Jamie’s parents suggested we went on a family cruise (they would be paying the lion’s share) I was quick to overcome my stance on this!

I was very excited about cruising around Italy,  which as a foodie is one of my very favourite places.  However I was nervous about how the whole experience might backfire.  Stuck on a boat with a bunch of people who I anticipated might be quite conservative, with ship entertainment and formal getting dressed up nights (tuxedos for the men!) all sounded potentially stifling to me.

Well it confounded all my expectations and here’s why:

1. Being out at sea, without another ship in sight is a deeply relaxing experience. Staring out at the horizon is mesmerizing.
2. Waking up in a different place every day is incredible! Being on the move for the entire week kept us all on our toes and kept our curiosity peaked throughout.  Below going clockwise – Florence, Naples, Dubrovnik and Venice.
3. The opportunity to eat formal three course meals for lunch and dinner with waiter service every day is just EXCELLENT.  Who cares if it’s not local food? Getting to choose from a broad and different menu every day and be pampered by attentive waiting staff is a treat.  It wasn’t always the best food I’ve ever eaten, with the odd dud dish (a bruised banana wrapped in a toasted tortilla was a particular low point), but largely it was posh tasty restaurant food with loads of variety every night.  We were eating as a family of eight every evening with an eight year and ten year old boys  – and the ease of routine every night allowed for us to enjoy real quality time together.
4. The promenade deck.  On the 7th deck of the ship there’s a lovely wooden boarded and wide promenade that goes in a circuit all the way round the ship.  It’s about a third of a mile so if you are very keen you can run 10 laps to tick off three miles! However Jamie and I preferred to have a tipsy stroll on the promenade after dinner and before bed.  It would always be very peaceful and romantic walking along and looking out at the night sea.  
5. The view from our cabin.  Waking up to a different panorama every day was thrilling.  And watching the light change and sea scenes change from our window was a delight. 
6. Sleeping at sea.  In normal life I’m a bad sleeper – my brain struggles to switch off. However on the cruise I slept so deeply every night.  I’m going to take a punt and say that the gentle motion of the sea had a very calming effect, combined with a day’s worth of sea air and feeling dreamily removed from day to day reality was a winning sleep inducing cocktail!
7. The incredible staff.  Initially the attentiveness of the 900 strong staff (there were only 2000 cruisers) was a little overwhelming – it’s not something I’m used to.  But oh, it didn’t take long before I was lapping it up! Our cabin was cleaned twice a day, drinks were brought to you on your lounger and anything you needed – hairdryer fixing, a new bottle of conditioner was quickly sorted by the ever present cabin hand.  Returning to post cruise life without a fabulous army of staff pandering to your every whim, has been tough.
8. There are a million different ways to cruise.  If you like a Butlins type experience – you can have it – enjoy the entertainment, join in the quizzes, go to the nightclub.  If you’re anti-social and hate the sunshine – sit in the library, the games room and enjoy the sea views from the peaceful and shaded promenade deck.  I burn really easily and I like my peace and quiet, so I enjoyed sneaking off  to the shady and calm promenade deck for games of scrabble and when we did sun bath there were lots of quiet corners dotted about the boat.  I was also delighted to find a gym on board which after all that fine dining was useful for damage limitation!
9. Watching the sun set on deck.  This would make me positively giddy.  You would often set sail around 7pm, watching the port disappear and moving along the Italian coast.  This accompanied with a G&T as the sun was setting was sublime! The only downside is that pre dinner drinks on deck combined with sunset excitement tended to leave me hammered before dinner! 

I came away from my week Mediterranean cruise very chilled and content.  It reconfirmed my love of Italy and I’m already hankering to get back and stuff my face with Italian food. And whilst I’m not about to go on any cruises in the next few years, it has left me curious about doing another more exotic cruise at some point in my lifetime as it’s very unique way of experiencing a country  – perhaps Baltic and Scandinavia or South America . It also taught me a lesson that going all inclusive does come with benefits – being spoiled rotten and not having to lift a finger for a week makes you really relax.  Are there any other cruisers out there?  Do you love or loathe it? Please do comment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rustic French Baking with John Whaites

John Whaite’s brand new cookery school is based in Wrightington, Lancashire.  It’s in the countryside between Wigan and Chorley.  John has refurbished the 400 year old barn that’s part of his mum’s house.  And it’s beautiful – rustic, but modern.

I tipped up in my car at 9.45am and was welcomed personally by John who came out of the barn to greet me and invite me in.  The day started with coffee and croissants and a little chat with the group I’d be baking with.  There were ten of us.

Today we would be learning about rustic french cooking – and we’d be walking home with a tarte tatin, coffee eclairs and a savarin (a giant rum ba ba).  It was all sounding good to me – apart from the awkward issue of transporting this stuff home.  I was on a night out in Manchester afterwards.  Oh well!

The day kicked off with savarin pastry and my first ever experience of a Kitchen Aid. Those things are cool! Savarin is a yeasted ring cake that we would be soaking in a rum based syrup and filling with cream and summer fruits.  We beat our yeasty mixture together and left it to rise.

My first Kitchen Aid experience – so good!

In honesty the rest of the lesson was a whirlwind of activity that’s kind of merged into one for me! The three bakes were approached simultaneously.  As soon as we’d done a choux pastry for the eclairs, we’d be cutting out the puff pastry for tarte tatin, and when we’d done that we’d be creating the craquelin (a frozen rectangular of pastry to strengthen the eclair) and the next minute we’d be beating up a creme patisserie, then we’d be creating a caramel syrup for the apples in the tarte tatin.

It was a fast paced, intensive, hands on, educational day and BAGS of fun.  John was a joy. He clearly adores sharing his passion and knowledge about cooking.  His teaching style was relaxed, informative and incredibly playful – he loves entertaining a crowd. And I think getting ten pastry novices through three complicated dishes and keeping us all feeling chilled and competent is quite something!

It was quite surreal when at 3pm I had three fabulous pastries to my name!  I wasn’t quite sure how I’d done it!

Tarte tatin

Savarin (disclaimer this was John’s – I failed to photograph mine!!)

 

Coffee eclairs (erm, these were also John’s – mine were just as good – honest!)

The day ended with us drinking prosecco and tucking into a delicious lunch prepared by John.  And what a highlight that was.  Getting to hang out al fresco on a beautifully sunny day stuffing our faces with delicious salads, quiche, cheeses and meats and a homemade onion fougasse bread.  We definitely deserved a sit down after the frenetic day we’d had.  It was also a great opportunity to chat with my fellow ‘chefs’.  I think cooking together is quite a bonding experience, so we all felt at ease with each other at this point.

For me the day from beginning to end was a delight.  John runs the classes with his bubbly sister Jane who slaved away over our washing up all day long.  She was quite the dynamo! And John’s partner Paul was on hand all day to help with lunch, prosecco pouring and photography. It felt like a real family affair – and all three of them went out of their way to make us feel at home and fussed over.  I feel like I learnt a lot, but actually most importantly I had a ball with a bunch of great people in a really beautiful location.

Here’s a link to John’s Cookery School – check it out!

John Whaite’s Kitchen

A beautiful al fresco lunch

John brings out the puds!

KFC, red pudding and haggis: exploring the very tip of Scotland

It takes a long time to get to Durness at the very north west tip of Scotland.  We left our house near Stockport at 7am.  We arrived at our B&B at 9.45pm.  Ouch!  However there were upsides – travelling by train allowed me to watch three episodes of The Night Manager and we were lucky enough to stop for an hour’s lunch break in Edinburgh.  Because of our heavy bags we didn’t end up in the gastro pub we’d been recommended, but instead an uninspiring food court by the station!  Jamie spotted this as an excellent opportunity to abandon any marathon related healthy eating and ordered a KFC. A classy start to our rugged adventure.

On day one of the holiday, we awoke to glorious blue skies and sunshine! We couldn’t believe our luck. This is the view on our walk into Durness. We were off to join the rest of our friends on the Mad Walkers hiking expedition. Today’s trip would be to one of Britain’s most beautiful beaches Sandwood Way.

The beach in Durness

Sandwood Bay didn’t disappoint – a mile long stretch of white sand and dunes and due to it’s remote location (2.5 miles from the road) – it was pretty much deserted! And a perfect lunch spot amongst the dunes.  The food wasn’t highbrow (aldi ham and cheese sandwiches and a flask of tea), but food does just taste extra good when you’re sitting on a stunning beach after a hearty walk.

Sandwood Bay

Aldi sandwiches are the food of kings when eaten in these exquisite surroundings

Day two we were pretty lucky with the weather too.  And today was a coastal walk with lots of delightful little beaches along the way.  We walked from Talmine near Tongue in a loop along the coast.  Today we sustained ourselves with fruit pastilles, murray mints and cherry and watermelon ‘sour pops’ – marvellous sour lollies with a bubblegum centre. Yes walking is the perfect justification for mainlining crap! Yay!

Sour pops – hiking fuel

A beautiful cove near Talmine

And hearty walking earns a hearty evening meal. That evening we went to the local Smoo Cave Hotel for dinner.  Jamie and I decided to get adventurous by ordering haggis, neeps and tatties (neeps = turnips) and red pudding (deep fried sausage) and chips. I didn’t have high expectations for either dish.  In all honestly I knew I’d be blogging about Scotland so felt obliged to go native!  But goodness that haggis was a treat – similar to a deliciously spicy, almost middle eastern style mince. And the turnip mash – now that was something else.  Nutty and sweet and beautifully complimentary to the haggis. Who knew I liked turnips?

Haggis, neeps and tatties

Jamie’s red pudding (despite his apparently unhappy face here) was also delicious.  But you can’t really go wrong with anything deep fried that is served with chips, can you? Marathon diet going well still.

Red pudding and chips

The last day was a very lazy day! It poured with rain in the morning which gave Jamie and I the excuse to stay in bed until 1pm.  Result! As soon as it brightened up we headed out on our own little stroll to the nearby Faraid Head about four miles from our B&B.  Basically a beautifully Caribbean-esque peninsula with an MOD site at the end of it. It was a glorious walk and as per usual my highlight was sitting on top of a hill with a flask of tea and an Aldi crisp sarnie.  Happy days.

Balnakeil Beach, Durness

Me and my Aldi and Highland crisp sandwich.

Jamie and I will definitely be returning to the north west coast of Scotland – we were inspired by its windswept beauty and romantic remoteness.  We are hoping to do the famous five hundred mile coastal route by car one day.  I will pack a lot of snacks!