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…
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Bubbling Over – A Fondue Review
There are three things that come to mind when I think about Belgium – mussels, the mussels from Brussels (aka Van Damme) and beer. Fondue? Nope, that’s Swiss. Except…in Doha at Belgian Cafe at the Intercontinental Doha Lured by a special promotion this month of fondue served with beer, I could’t say no. The belgian is perhaps the single most popular bar/restaurant in Doha. On any given night, it’s packed with a mixed crowd having a beer or sharing a pot of mussels. I have to admit I don’t go there often, but this visit changed. What I didn’t know is that the menu was all about cheese, not just…
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La Dolce Latte Vita
I know, it’s been a while between drinks and cheeses. I can give you many reasons including illness, hysteria and related dramas. But essentially a gal needed a break from the dairy overload. I will admit, I have been cheating on cheese with Asian flavors. But here I am, I am back with a vengeance. Last week I judged my outfit far too cute for just the office, so I rounded up some usual suspects for a wine and cheesefest at Opal by Gordon Ramsay at St Regis Doha. Meeting friends for the Thursday download and judgement session at the bar, Chef Elias whipped up this special pizza which featured…
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Making the World a Cheddar Place
They say that familiarity breeds contempt. This is perhaps why I always forget about cheddar as a legitimate contender in my own pantheon of great cheeses. I mean, it’s one of the first cheeses we come across in our lives. I remember cheddar cheese sandwiches on white bread as a child and learning to smother them in mustard. I also remember Saturday lunches, when after doing the shopping, Mum would fill the dining table with cold meats from the local deli, freshly slices tomatoes and of course, slices of cheddar. We would then make our own sandwiches on fluffy white rolls. I came across this cheddar Jones the Grocer, and…
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Hard to Brie-sist
Many of my American and British friends believe much of the Australian vernacular is made up. They allege they are just jumbles of ridiculous sounding vowels meant to bamboozle non-Australians, that it’s one big in-joke at the expense of other lesser nationalities. “That is NOT a real word,” my friend Alicia exclaimed once, upon hearing the place name “Wharoongha”. Fair suck of the sav indeed. This post came to be thanks to my friend Brooke who recently hosted a gaggle of women, a lot of wine and a slew of Australian cheese. Much was discussed over cheese and wine in her “Secret Garden”, including sport, men and bad bad boyfriends.…
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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…
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All White on the Night
Sometimes a girl needs a home-cooked meal. And in the absence of a husband or even a knight in shining armor, basically anyone, that task often, okay always, falls to me. Last week, faced with a fridge full of cheese and a chicken breast, I had to get creative. In a not especially creative moment, I picked up some White Castello cheese at the supermarket. Castello is a brand name and its’ influence spreads around the globe. White Castello is a white blue cheese. It has the strong taste of blue, without the confronting veins. The cheese tself is a Danish White Mould full fat soft cheese. The consistency matures…
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Baguette About It – French Cheese Wrapped in More Than Bread
I don’t know about you, but I love eating things that are wrapped in something else. Be it bread, pastry, cheese or even bacon. It’s like getting two tastes in one bite. Cheese has been wrapped in things besides bread (ahem baguettes) for centuries. At a recent cheese and wine night at Grand Hyatt Doha I came across this beauty – Banon à la feuille, it is an unpasteurized cheese made from goat’s milk. This pungent uncooked, unpressed cheese consists of a fine soft white pâte that is wrapped in chestnut leaves and tied with raffia prior to shipping. It hails from the region around the town of Banon in…
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Beefed Up – Review of The Anvil Rooms
I had a phase (and by phase I mean 18 months) at university when I became a vegetarian. I’m not sure what prompted it, seemed like the thing to do at the time. Like wearing Doc Martins and raging against “The Man”. One day, about 18 months in, I decided to start eating chicken again. Then the floodgates opened and I have been making up for that 18 month lapse for the last 25 years. I love a good steak and especially love a good steakhouse, there is something about their warm, clubby environment, their comfy chairs and the proliferation of onion rings that make me very, very happy. This…
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Make It Tso – Four Days in Beijing
Note to self. When a Chinese person says something is “walking distance”, what they actually mean is “It’s around 8km away”. I learned this the hard way on my recent trip to this fascinating country. Let’s just say it involved the Forbidden City and my quest for dumplings. Lesson learned. I booked my trip to Beijing on a whim. Lured by the said dumplings, Peking Duck and the Great Wall. I wasn’t disappointed. The Chinese love food and as they say, the food is far, far more complex than the sweet and sour takeaways from the Happiness Inn. But first to the touristy stuff. I did it all and saw…