Ta-Ta-Ra-Ta Tarte Tartin
“A party without cake is just a meeting” ― Julia Child. Tarte Tatin is a classic French upside-down apple tart with caramelized sugar and flaky pastry, perfect for impressing guests or for enjoying at home. Every cook should take a cooking class at least once a year. Beyond being...
The Melting Pot
The Chocolate Melting Jar is an innovative find from Kitchen Inspire by ANZO. Often, the best buys are the ones I do on the trot while my eyes are searching shelves for the thingy on the list. My blue eye spotted this gem while scouring the shelves for the 6th colander for our summer cottage...
Open Secrets, Closed Books, and Fishy Tales
Speckled eggs, peanuts, and raisins with Mustard leaves and ginger are my new addictions; if I didn’t know better, I’d think something fishy was going on! I juggle the three, in no particular order, while I make a salad and think about Village life on a Saturday morning. I love the bunch...
Hydrangeas, Hot Chicks, and Old Favourites – Easy Chicken for the barbecue, Cheesy Garlic Bread, Marinated Red and Yellow Bell Peppers, Sandi’s Oriental Cabbage Salad
Hydrangeas are blooming in cotton-candy pink and lacy blue. My pecan tree is shedding its flowers, and my garden is swarming with bees, dragonflies, and frogs. It’s the old summer magic, and there’s no time to waste experimenting with new menus, which suits me just fine. Last night, the Queen...
Chocolate Champagne and Caviar - Sparkling Berry Cocktail, Blini's, Chocolate Timbale, Berry Compote, Almond Bread
These three C’s, Chocolate, Champagne, and Caviar, are the star attractions that inspire wise hosts to create an elegant, memorable festive table. “Happiness, simple as a glass of chocolate or torturous as the heart, Bitter. Sweet. Alive.” - Joanne Harris, Chocolat. Don't invite the usual...
Five Fish and Four French loaves - Beef Stroganoff and Mushroom Soup
Five fish and four baguettes won't cut it if you're planning on feeding a multitude. Here are a few basic recipes for everything divine. Double them up for a crowd. My motto is: Consistency is unimaginative, dress them up or pasta it down. Girls want to have fun, and preparing a meal must be...
The Fast Lane to Bloemfontein
You may well ask what on earth we were doing in Bloemfontein. It’s the home of the Safari Suit; indeed, one only goes there for a wedding, a funeral, or a meeting. But someone’s wagon stopped there. My Ouma was a student at the Teacher’s Training College in 1929. Today, unless you’re accepted...
From Leap Frog to Toad in the Pole
Silvery, soft, silky, squishy, and slightly dry. That’s what I thought the glob of sticky putty would feel like as I gingerly tried to pry it from between my speedometer and dashboard while driving home. Then it jumped! It was a silvery, soft, silky, squishy, and slightly dry Arum frog...
Being a Free Spirit and an Aging Gypsy
Children are resilient, so is the child in me. Circumstances change; I’ll adapt. Nothing is impossible, my mind renews like shedding skin. I’ve wept; it made me strong. I loathe mediocrity, apathy, and dullness. When I'm hopeless, I live one day at a time. When depression knocks, I walk to...
Curry Flavour When It Rains In November
111 years ago on this day, my Grandmama was born. How the world has changed, the only thing that hasn’t is the rain! Bob Hope was also born in 1903, and Konrad Lorenz (Austrian Zoologist 1903-1989) said: "I have found the missing link between the higher ape and civilized man: It is we."...
Fashionable Food for Fabulous Fridays - Recipes for the weekend
Those are some of my favourite F words; fortunately, it was a good week, so I have no desire to stab someone with a cake fork. To celebrate the weekend, there’s nothing better than having fab food lined up, which won't keep you in the kitchen for hours. Try these when serving sundowners or...
Clickety-clack choo-choo
Clickety-clack, Clickety-clack, choo-choo-choose your train wisely! Trains and Champagne. I’m neither an Anorak nor a Trainspotter, but I love the huge beasts: skinny bandy legs, new black lace-up shoes, the dress 6 inches off the floor when kneeling—a very wobbly chin. I'm petrified I’ll...
Pass Lee's Age Rose Merry and Time - Orange Scented Oxtail Casserole
It’s snowing in Canada, and a fine mist covers my mountain. Comfort food is called for, which is perfect because it stews in its own juices while I dig spring out of my garden and prepare for summer. Clay pots will be filled with culinary herbs, including parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme....
Halo! Halong is Halong Bay? Halong can I stay?
“To be included on the World Heritage List, sites must be of outstanding universal value,” and “To contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance.” I must confess I knew very little about Halong Bay except that it was exceptionally...
Silly Season Snapping at our Heels – It’s Market Day in Hermanus
This morning I didn’t wake up to the chirruping of songbirds, but to the clanging of a bucket, snap of a step ladder, and a yodelling painter, Wally is revamping. Roof trusses are being set up across the street as a new house goes up, and, according to the owner, his parents are moving in on...
Fat Plump October - DD's Christmas Cake
Now’s the time to get Grand’Mere off the shelf, dust her, and riffle through her pages to the two pages stuck together when I baked last year’s Christmas cake. It’s eight weeks to go, and that’s how long a cake needs to mature. This cake is an heirloom. This fact struck me like a blow to the...
Decidedly Dilly Divas and other Dramas
Confucius said, “A short man who dances with a tall woman gets a busted mouth.” That is indeed a pearl of wisdom! As we were privy to local lore, we were treated to Ha Noi's strange customs. So instead of watching the famous Water Puppets, we went in pursuit of Fre Astair and Ginga Roger...
Oranges and Lemons ring the bells of Citrusdal
Just a quickie before I forget, do not pass through Citrusdal without stopping for brunch and coffee on the main road. The chocolate cake is the best in the west, and the baked cheesecake is celestial. At the Grapevine Coffee Shop, the instruction is clear: "Greet everyone with a smile!" ...
Street food in the fast lane
Streets are swarming with scooters, rickshaws, hookers and hawkers. The sidewalks bustle with traders, pedestrians, street cafes, and panhandlers This frisson is like a needle in a vein and addictive. The steamy life on the street is heady and the cacophony of sound and raw energy makes any...
Serenading Sundays – Recipes – Smokey Citrus Chicken, Pineapple and Mint Salsa, and For Dessert, easy Lemon Filling
More lyrics have been written about Sunday than any other day of the week, from Queen to Joni Mitchell. Here, Sundays are a day of worship, thankfulness, and rest. Panama hats, cheese cutters, and blazers, the old school tie, and Church Schools are still a firm favourite in our neck of the...
Cheese Souffles
There’s nothing nicer than waking up to a freshly mowed lawn, Cape White-eyes splashing in the birdbath, and that special feeling of well-being when the sun shines. Perfect Porcelain blooms cover rosebushes; I spot the neighbour’s cat unwinding himself from his scratch-pole. All this calls for...
Having street food without being a pavement special
Si! “The Italians and Spanish, the Chinese and Vietnamese see food as part of a larger, more essential, and pleasurable part of daily life. Not as an experience to be collected or bragged about - or as a ritual like filling up a car - but as something else that gives pleasure, like sex or music,...
The Church Boutique Hotel Hanoi
Imagine our excitement when we touched down in Hanoi. We’d had a brilliant flight and been attended to hand and foot, but a cunning little cottonwool cloud floated over our sunny autumn horizon as we were ripped off at the tourism counter when we ordered a taxi. Charging us an arm and a leg,...
In a Singapore Grip
Let's get one thing straight, prohibition sucked and led to all sorts of mischief. Imagine a government that bans chewing gum? The fear of the law was put into me, and I had visions of sniffer dogs discovering my Imodium and Vomifene, so I rushed to my G.P for prescriptions in case I got the...
Green Mango Salad
The sing-song voices of ladies walking and the chitter-chatter of birds wake me up on quiet mornings. Summer's here; it's flip-flop-sunhat season, and we need refitting for the beach. Salad days are back, and the fresh summer fruits and vegetables are perfectly timed to appear on our shelves....
Lemon Grass and Turmeric Chicken Skewers
When the sun shines, and evenings are balmy we have the perfect reason to have a midweek celebration, light a fire, and barbecue something easy, fragrant, and delicious. Sip cold, crisp, green Sauvignon Blanc and listen to evening sounds. LEMON GRASS TURMERIC CHICKEN SKEWERS (This recipe has...
Ruffled in Raffles - Singapore
This I’ve got to get off my chest. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, right? So off we went to the iconic Raffles bar for the famous Singapore Sling. It was a typical hot, humid Singapore day, so we didn’t need much encouragement to visit this famous landmark. The beautiful Raffles Hotel...
Yikes bikes, peddling power - Vietnam
“Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle, and he will realise fishing is stupid and boring.” Desmond Tutu, high-fi! This afternoon, I donned my cycling shorts and reluctantly went to the gym for a Spinning Class after an...
Clams Crabs and Cookery Courses
Slipping into a sexy, starched apron with a new recipe in one hand and a flute of bubbles in the other is indulgent. The olive in my Martini is attending a cookery course that rekindles my passion for food, where delicious recipes are shared, prepared, and enjoyed by the group. Good food and...
V Lavender Hotel Singapore
Singapore is someone’s vision come to fruition, and for that, I admire the man and his dream. But it’s just another large, modern city with a beautiful skyline at night when the lights shine bright. We were very spoiled while there, enjoying sundowners at a rooftop bar and delicious street food...
KOK Coffee - Ha Noi - Vietnam
A week ago, I opened my eyes in Saigon; today, as on most mornings, I awoke to the exotic aroma of freshly brewed coffee and the golden sunshine pouring into my bedroom from the azure sky. My Dad has been making his “Sleeping Beauty” her first cuppa every day for 60 years, and it’s still...
Be Thankful it's Baked Pumpkin Pie
Here, it's summer blue, sun-yellowed, gentle days, which is a reminder of the harsh weather many ex-pats are going into. Celebrate a table laden with the essence of summer with a joyful Thanksgiving. BAKED PUMPKIN PIE - South African style. 125g butter 200ml sugar 3 eggs, beaten...
Trekking in Sa Pa with Zer-Zer
On 24th August, Butch Googled “trekking in Sa Pa, Vietnam” and found Zer-Zer, a local guide whose name would soon become central to our unforgettable journey. Little did we know that a life-changing experience was awaiting us. Butch was quick out of the blocks, phoned the number, and a gentle...
Fowler's Grill
In a one-horse town, this is where the horse is. It's had its ups and downs, but it remains a landmark on Church Str. Locals love it, as there are no surprises here. Not even Chef has a bad day. If you're looking for more than just steak, ask about other menu options or vegetarian choices...
Flights of Fancy - Flying Business Class Singapore Airlines
Boozy lunches can lead to trouble, and this one was no exception. At our table, there's always good food, good company, and copious amounts of champagne and wine. As the afternoon unfolded, we decided we’d flip a coin; September was a good month either to start Banting or to travel. It was...
Les Girls are Frenching It - First Reunion
My beloved spends a weekend with his four ex-wives and a girlfriend, that's how he described himself when asked what he was doing! Our friendship is a gift which we re-live as we savour it. In a wink a year has passed. Les Girls got their act together and we enjoyed a fabulous weekend...
Les Girls are Frenching It - Paris
The three days in Paris were just fabulous. Our apartment at the Hotel Verneuil Saint Germaine was beautifully appointed, modern, and immaculate, and slap in the middle of Saint Germaine, pure indulgence. A stone's throw from the Louvre, the Seine, the shops, eateries, cafés, bakeries, and all...
Inverroche Classic Gin
Most people remember their grandmothers because they smelled of violets or lavender. When I think of my Glam ‘ma, I imagine gin and cigarette smoke, two of my favourite things! Femme fatale. She was glamorous, worldly, beautiful, graceful, and well-travelled. She spoke the Queen’s English...
Have NO Passport. Will NOT Travel.
Picture the scene: you're late, you're brushing your teeth, and above the whine of the electric toothbrush, you hear this "Darling! Have you got your passport?" By now, you've had it and shout back "yesh" loudly. Spraying toothpaste foam all over your new black cashmere sweater. I...
Ranthambore National Park - India
We travelled halfway around the world to visit Ranthambore National Park for one reason only. To see the mighty and very elusive Bengal Tiger, a symbol of wild beauty and conservation importance. I wonder if they still exist? In Ranthambore village, Precious decided to hire a tailor to...