Today I felt the faintest hint of a chill in the air in Doha. Which means it was 27 degrees instead of 35. Still, winter is coming and this is the most active time in Doha for foodie events and happenings. So for my Qatar-based readers, here are three foodie events you should try and make happen in the coming days and weeks. My love of dumplings is well documented and I have even traveled to China and Hong Kong on dumpling expeditions. W Doha’s Spice Market is running a Dim Sum promotion with renowned Chinese chef Allan Huang. For QR250 you get a soup, two starters and six baskets of dumplings…
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All Wrapped Up – Camembert En Croute for Christmas
It seems I am developing an aptitude for creating “stunt cheese” or “extreme cheese challenges”. First there was the infamous “Turkey Cheese” for Thanksgiving and now folks, I present to you my latest creation… This is a wheel of Camembert wrapped in puff pastry and baked. I had planned to do this with Brie, as is the traditional way, but believe it or not I struggled to find a suitable wheel. I also had a scramble to find readymade puff pastry sheets big enough (who has time to make puff pastry on Christmas Day) but managed to cobble together a casing from some small squares, well placed egg wash and a lot…
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12 Cheeses of Christmas – Festive Goats Cheese
OK I know I am a couple of days late starting this venture but the spirit is there. I was doing a Saturday smash and grab at Monoprix and saw this little festive beauty. It’s a lovely and fresh round of creamy goat cheese (called a crottin) rolled in red peppercorns and topped of course with a festive (fake) holly sprig. It’s amazing how something as simple as peppercorns and a splash of red can make a humble hunk of cheese so Christmasy. Goat cheese is my go-to (see what I did there) cheese but even among my cheese loving friends it is divisive. Some people find the aroma and distinctive taste…
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Rocky Road with Rambol
Rambol is a well known cheesemaker from France. This cheese included layers of crushed and pureed walnuts. A creamy white cheese as its base, it was like a taste of Autumn (in December).
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A New Leaf
So here’s the funny thing about this cheese, I actually DID take a photo of it before it was made into this: But, I must have been distracted and the photo is a complete blur (like last Friday…another story…). So i will have to use my powers of description. It was a small crottin (a pungent cheese made of goat’s milk and formed into small disks) which was wrapped in a vine leaf. It was very pretty (not pretty enough to keep me focused clearly). The cheese was clean and fresh, with that goat-milk tang I just love. The leaf was brined and while this wasn’t, I have read elsewhere that…
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Fromage to You – Review of The Cheese Market
OK yes I did a bit of a Gone Girl and disappeared off the food blogging scene for a couple of months. I would love to tell you I was getting drastic plastic surgery, or had eloped with a billionaire. Truth is, I just needed a break from blogging. As you sometimes do. And I also ran out of cheese puns. What dragged me back was several people telling me how they missed the blog. And not just my Mum. So while I was away something interesting happened in Doha. A dedicated cheese shop opened. The Cheese Market requires a special trip to find at The Pearl Qatar. Although I plan to open…
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A Hard Days’ Bite
In the scheme of things, last week was pretty draining. And I’m not talking about #whitegirlproblems, although I did learn my hairdresser is closing down. But that’s another story. Come Friday, all I wanted to do was curl up on the couch with a glass of red wine and Netflix. But my friend Alicia had other plans. She rounded up the homies for some mac and cheese and a viewing of the magnificently awful Sharknado. Margaritas, stretchy pants and a wooden Tara Reid. How can I resist? Alicia made her mac and cheese using a recipe gleaned from her friend’s blog Kitchen Thymes which involved using odds and ends of…
- Artisan Cheese, British, British cheese, Celebrity Chefs, Cheddar, Cheese, Cheese in Cooking, European Cheese, Food, Food Trends, French
Cheese Release Me
Listen, I am not talking myself up, but I have always been ahead of the curve on many things. I just can’t think of most of them now…but here is some recent proof of my sage-like abilities. Cheese, it seems, is the next big food trend of 2014. Roquefort doughnuts, Stilton truffles and goat’s cheese ganache: Chocolate and cheese set to be 2014s next big foodie trend It must be true, it’s in The Daily Mail. And on this blog.
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Let Me Entertain(er) You
It’s a pretty well known expat fact that Qatar is one of the more expensive places to live in the region. And of course, at the end of the day, everyone loves a bargain. Especially me, the week before payday. Well, actually any time. So that’s why you can always find my purse stuffed with Entertainer vouchers. The Entertainer has been offering great value offers for everything from Michelin-star restaurants to casual dining and cafes through their two-for-one vouchers books since 2001 and this year they have gone digital. They have launched an app that makes it easy to use at outlets spontaneously. It’s GPS based so you can source…
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Feeling Feta About It
What follows is a tale of greed, lust, violence and of course, cheese. It started innocently enough – three female friends having a quiet Thursday night dinner at our “local” restaurant Opal by Gordon Ramsay at St Regis Dohaafter a complex week in the vineyards of truth. I spend a lot of time at Opal, because it has simple and fabulous food, great staff and an outdoor terrace. It’s the closest place I have to a neighborhood brasserie. I know I can go there, have a terrific meal, a glass of wine and usually little drama. they also have a hard core commitment to cheese in all its form. It’s…