Month: July 2009

Normally, I’d have a natural yoghurt with a few nuts and seeds in it. This time, I was given a vast array of things to choose from, so I did the usual yoghurt, and to this I added some cottage cheese, thus firming up the base texture a little....

This particular savoy cabbage had clearly seen better days and was looking rather sorry for itself. Whilst I set about shredding it finely, I set a sweet potato on to boil. I mashed the potato together with milk, pepper, and a small pinch of salt and mixed it together...

Quite close to where I stay in Nice is l’Ousteau, a corner brasserie not far from the train station, and 7 or 8 minutes walk from the sea. It has good seafood, with an outside display case of the day’s goodies on crushed ice. However, both myself and my...

We were at the Chop House again, and the wine was The Opportunist again. I went for the Venison Pâté again, and it was as good as before. My friend ordered from the specials board for her starter: the duck parcel. It was a large filo pastry parcel, filled...

It would not be a new observation to make that as one gets older ones tastes change, refine, and anew. We eat new things, drinks new spirits, inhale a different type of cigar. Some we enjoy, others we hate, a few simply are. It is recently dawning on me...

A Scandinavian restaurant in Nice? Yes, and a good one. It’s on the Rue Marechal Joffre, a few minutes walk from the sea. It does French food as well, to cater for local tastes, but the dish to go for is the “Symphony of seafood,” a mixture of the...

Capers, the preserved buds of Capparis spinosa, are a traditional accompaniment to salmon – smoked or otherwise – and are a particular favourite of mine. That said, I don’t normally have them at home because they’re ludicrously expensive to buy – quite a few pounds for a very small...

The brasserie on the corner of Rue de France and Rue Dalpozzo has changed owners and changed names. It used to serve excellent seafood, enticing customers in with an ice tray outside packed with the seafood on offer within. Now it’s called Trattoria, and still offers seafood, but with...

In the Chop House before dinner, I opted for a pint of the excellent cask ales. Following my usual “something I’ve not had before” I opted for the 3.9% Summer Ale. It’s from Tydd Steam, in Tydd St Giles in Cambridgeshire, and was a a pale golden colour. It’s...

I was sitting outside but in the shade at the Bar de la Degustation in Nice’s Place de Palais (de Justice).  I was enjoying a cool beer when I heard the unmistakable strains of a jazz band.  No, it wasn’t piped music, for into the square strolled four musicians...