• Travel

    Five Foodie-Approved Short Breaks to Take this Summer

    I’m in the process of researching and booking my Summer holiday destinations. The criteria always remains are unchanged from the last year: solid foodie credentials, direct flights on Qatar Airways and as few visa entanglements as I can muster. If you are, like me, when choosing a destination, food is a major consideration. Well, let’s be honest, it’s probably top of the list along with easy (or no visas) visas and bearable flight times.And many times, I book a food tour before I book a hotel. All the below destinations are a manageable four to five hours from Doha and have visa on arrival or e-visas AND have the Life on…

  • Cheese,  European Cheese,  Feta,  Food,  Greece,  Travel,  White Cheese

    Never Get Feta Up With This Cheese

    Ahhhh Feta. Not only is the sharp yet creamy taste something to savor, you can basically to anything with it – salads, sandwiches, stuff it into things (other food I mean you evil people), drizzle it with oil. Back at Grand Hyatt Muscat for the weekend, I managed to convince them to serve up one of my favorite breakfasts -feta, olive oil and tomato on bread. I’ve written of this before, but the cheese on this occasion was a kind of feta I haven’t come across before. It was firm yet creamy and you can see the ripple marks from the basket it was brined in. There was no comparison…

  • Cheese,  Feta,  Greece,  Travel,  White Cheese

    Feta the Devil You Know

    Say what you want about the Greeks, they do two things really well – cheese and anarchy. I have always admired the Greeks for their ability to enjoy life, create amazing food and manage to plunge their country into widespread chaos at the flick of a switch. I last visited Greece in the 1990s, when the Drachma was its currency, an older Papandreou was PM and they weren’t beholden to Germany to pay their bills. I haven’t been back since, but I still remember the food – simply cooked, lots of lemon, olive oil and salty cheese – all served with their typical (sometimes dark) sense of humor. When my…