As many regular readers know, I generally take a little break from my blog every northern Summer. I get blog fatigue. This year’s has been longer than usual because, I just couldn’t find the words to write. Every time I opened the site to start, the words just wouldn’t come. Just a couple of weeks ago, my greatest supporter, the first reader of my blog, my Mum, passed away after brief and brutal battle with cancer. I still can’t believe those words even as I lived and wrote them. I’m not completely sure how I have been functioning the last few weeks, except for the love and support of family…
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The Goan Rate – 48 Hours in Goa
Sometimes a gal just has to get out of the city. And at just three hours away from Doha, with its European heritage, spectacular beaches and yes, tasty food Goa is the perfect quickie escape. I gathered up the gang and headed to Goa last weekend, in search of good food, cheap spa treatments and a dust free environment. Goa is one of those destinations that can truly surprise you. It’s kind of India Lite. This was my fourth trip to Goa and unbelievably my 12th to India. They should give me residency or a lifetime supply of dosa anyway. Fresh off a 5am flight and a sprint to Immigration to…
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Just Leave it Brie
*Warning this post contains bad puns about cheese. I am a bit of a conservative when it comes to my cheese. The more unadulterated, the better. The only exception being truffle brie. On a recent supermarket spree, I found two new hybrid cheeses – a truffle Moliterno and a bruschetta brie. For me, the Moliterno was the more successful hybrid. Unlike most truffled cheeses (where the cheese is added at the last minute before sale), the wheels age for about six months before being infused with pure black truffle paste, so that the cheese develops a very particular character and depth. The vein of truffle is part of the cheese, not an…
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Living La Vida Loca at El Faro
In my next life I want to be a flamenco dancer. There is something about the combination of fierceness, amazing red frocks and being able to dance in high heels that really appeals to me. I have always loved Spain and visited Madrid twice in recent years. I even bought one of those stunning fringed Spanish shawls, determined to channel my inner Flamenco dancer. I’ve worn it once and nearly decapitated myself when it got caught in the door of my car. But I love the Spanish combination of pragmatism and love of life and food. And their sense of humor. This is the country that gave us surrealism. Spanish…
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Peynir and Dear – The Simplicity of Turkish Cheese
The great thing about traveling to a place you have been to several times is you know where to find the good stuff. On my recent trip to Istanbul, I headed straight to Spice Market (via 100s of traders telling me they know how they can help me loose weight) and to my favorite cheese shop which is buried deep inside this tourist attraction. This shop has dozens of different cheeses, meats and other goodies. You can even buy bread rolls to take on an impromptu picnic. My haul this visit included some new cheeses to be covered in their own posts. But I managed to pick up an old…
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Very Fondue You – Swiss Week at Grand Hyatt Doha
Some people know the way to my heart is cheese (and flowers but that’s another post), so one event I do look forward to each year is the Swiss Week at the Grand Hyatt Doha. I had a chance to check out the selection at the launch last night. But to be frank, we didn’t make it past the luxurious cheese selection. It runs from 2-7 May from 6:30pm until midnight and includes Swiss music and dishes including fondue, raclette and rösti prepared by Chef Sebastian Wirsching from Park Hyatt Zurich. I promise I will go this week to try the other dishes (including a fantastic array of seafood and a hot…
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Breaking the Fast at Eatopia
Let’s be honest, breakfast for me is usually some toast, topped with maybe a slice of cheese or Vegemite scoffed down at 530am as I rush out the door, praying my car will start that morning. This is why I love weekends, when I can indulge in a decent breakfast, cooked by an expert and also catch up on all the gossip. Eatopia, which opened recently in The Gate Mall in Doha, seems to be all things to all people. Offering different cooking stations as well as a cafe, deli, fresh produce counters and a supermarket, they recently launched a new breakfast buffet and invited me along to test it.…
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Fine Dining With a View – Review of La Mer’s Blind Tasting Menu
I’m about to clock up eight years in Doha. I’m not going to bore you with the expat habit of saying how fast it’s gone, how things have changed etc. What I will talk about are the things that have become a constant. The irritating being the sandstorms, the whingeing expats and the bad driving. The good constants being friends, special people in my life, my job, this blog and the opportunities. There are also the physical constants – those places you have been going to for years, that are a part of your life. One of those places is the Ritz Carlton Doha. Always elegant and welcoming, I have always…
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Caerphilly Does It
Last year, my friend Alicia and I thought it would be a great idea to go and see Tom Jones, one of Wales’ greatest exports, perform in Doha. It’s all very well and good until we realized the performance (which incidentally was incredible) was outside, on a beach in 40 plus degree temperatures and high humidity. This is all because I desperately wanted to hear him sing one of my favorite songs, the Green Green Grass of Home. Don’t even get me started on why I like this song, except to say that I should never listen to it when I have been drinking gin. Wales has given us many…
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Cheese Really Did Change the Course of Western Civilization
I don’t want to say I told you so, but this piece on the fabulous Quartz blog has confirmed what I have been banging on about for many, many years. That is…cheese changed the course of civilization. Long story short, the dawn of cheese apparently happened 8500 years ago less than a three hour plane journey from where I am sitting writing this post. In the Fertile Crescent (which stretched from Egypt to what we now know as Iraq and parts of Iran) over production of agriculture had depleted the soil, meaning our Neolithic ancestors turned to raising sheep and goats. Meanwhile, some smart cookie also invented pottery. Throw into the mix…
