I admire the people of Mexico and their devotion to all things cheese-related. I mean, what’s a taco without cheese? But I am stereotyping this great country and its’ food. It’s much more than tacos and enchiladas. That said, it is hard to find authentic Mexican food in the Middle East, or anywhere outside of Mexico and the US.To make authentic Mexican food, you need a Mexican chef. Which is why I am hightailing it down to The Sheraton Doha tonight to check out a Mexican chef, Demian, in his unnatural habitat. For one week only, the Sheraton is hosting this chef for a Mexican Gastronomic Week, with a special…
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Restaurant Review – Manis Gourmet Cafe Muscat Oman
It would be fair to assume that I do spend a lot of time in five star hotels – either lounging around, terrorizing their chefs or drinking heavily. The reasons for this are twofold – in the Middle East hotels are generally the only place a gal can drink in public and frankly, my handbag collection demands a stage. That said, I don’t mind a greasy spoon joint (hangover helper) or a quality cafe. Anywhere with good coffee, magazines and decent people watching/judging opportunities. On one of my most recent trips to Muscat, my regular partner in crime GF and I ventured out of the rarefied confines of five stardom…
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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…
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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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Taking a Punt – Football Shaped Cheese Is A Thing Now Apparently
Look, I am a football fan. I have been a lifelong and suffering fan of the Parramatta Eels who haven’t won anything useful in ohhh…three decades. I know the words to this song: And I remember this: I am, a football tragic. I am also a cheese tragic. But never, ever, in my darkest moments, have I thought to combine the two. But someone…has. Football Shaped Cheese Ball There is even a video of how to make it should you feel so inclined. It appears it’s a “thing” in the US Cheesy Football Each to their own I guess!
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Feeling Ropey – All Wound Up About Shelal Cheese
Something had me doing a cartoon-like double take in Spinney’s supermarket this week (and it wasn’t the bill, altough I do tend to leave this place feeling violated and not in a good way). While cruising past the olives and nestled next to the pickles in the deli area I found this interesting sight – Closer inspection revealed it to be a cheese of some description, but the guy behind the counter was unhelpful – “It could be a cheese, I don’t know”. So I took a punt, bought a hunk and set off home to investigate. Turns out this is shelal cheese (Jibneh Shelal), known now amongst hipsters and…
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You Had Me at Halloumi
The thing about diets is that you tend to eat a lot of salad. A. LOT. I’m 6kgs down and staring down the barrel of a another half a lifetime of lettuce and accompanying low cal pals. But the good thing about lettuce is that you can load it up, and this is one of my favorite salads, created by the chefs at the Grand Hyatt Doha This salad is so simple, yet I can never recreate it. Rocket leaves, fig, bresciola, walnuts, a simple dressing and of course the hero – grilled halloumi. Although it is of rather disputed origin due to the mixed cultures in the Levant and…
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For Feta or For Worse
My love of the salty goodness of feta is well documented on this blog and my waistline. So I was the happiest traveler in the sky recently when I had the chance to fly from Stockholm to Doha on the Qatar Airways Dreamliner and the menu featured this tasty little morsel. A moist piece of feta cheese, rolled on sesame seeds. For once also served at the right temperature, along with a tomato salsa. I am learning that feta, in some for or another, is made in countries around the world. It is simply a farmer’s cheese and I have tried varieties in Turkey, Central Europe and of course, the…
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Baby I was Bjorn This Way – Cheese, Meatballs and ABBA in Stockholm
I am going to be brutally honest. I have nothing to hide or be ashamed of. The main reason I went to Stockholm was to visit Abba – The Museum (and visit friends NOT called Benny or Bjorn) and pay homage to the supergroup that had a significant impact on my childhood, and yes, my adulthood. Australia was the first country outside of Sweden to really embrace ABBA and all its campness. ‘Australia was the first country that took ABBA to heart and we never forgot about that. We always felt a lot of love from audiences there,’’ Bjorn Ulvaeus once said. I was not immune. I had their albums,…