Bye Bye Miss American Pie

A Weekend in Food

A couple weekends ago it seemed that I traveled far and wide, for (you guessed it) food. My journey began on Friday night when I traveled all the way to the east side of London. My friends have decided that the demarcation line in my head between east and west London is Liverpool Street Station and I am definitely a west London girl. What got me to the other side of town was Galvin La Chapelle. This is the third restaurant by famed London chefs/restauranteurs the Galvin brothers and it is beautifully set in the chapel of an old Victorian school. I was amazed how Galvin La Chapelle had the closest resemblance in terms of size, space, décor, and atmosphere to a San Francisco restaurant. I really felt like I could be walking into RN74, Boulevard, or Range. The food did not disappoint either offering daring twists on French classics.

My next stop took me to Oxford where a classmate/good friend lives.

Are You a Mexican or Mexican't?

Before I start getting angry emails, my title is a line from the movie "Once Upon a Time in Mexico". A couple weeks ago I decided that I had had enough of the cold dreary London weather so I packed my bags and headed to Guanajuato, Mexico. Where is Guanajuato and why Guanajuato you ask? The state of Guanajuato is basically the center of Mexico and the city is about 400 KM north of Mexico City. I chose the city because it was warm, it offered me a chance to fill up on sorely missed Mexican food, but most of all because my good friend Dan is currently staying there.

Dan is a good friend from San Jose/Munich. We met in San Jose, however, didn't really become friends until he moved to Munich and I moved to London. Dan is learning Spanish and decided that the best way was to move to a Spanish speaking town for a few months and fully immerse himself. Lucky for me he chose the quaint city of Guanajuato and found a great host family to stay with.

Where Did Summer Go?

I feel as though I blinked and this summer completely disappeared. My belief is that Europeans know how to enjoy summer the most with the annual festivals, cafe culture, and general laissez-faire attitude when the weather gets warm. It doesn't hurt that they get anywhere from 20 to 40 days off during the summer to vacation as well. Perhaps this is why I tried so hard to make the most of this summer and packed way too much in. Between my trip to South Africa and now I have only had one weekend in London. I've mostly been away to visit friends but the last month has included plenty of work travel as well. I was really trying to take advantage of having two months off from school. During the past two weeks alone I managed to go from Istanbul to Cork (Ireland) to San Francisco to Munich to Milan back to London for 1 night then to Paris and finally to Nice/Monaco. I'm just trying to recover now and catch up with schoolwork that I'm sorely delinquent on.

I hope to blog more soon but I'll leave you with some pictures from Istanbul, Nice/Monaco, and our welcome back to school party for now.

Out of Africa

Apologies that it has been nearly a month since my last post but it has been an extremely busy and interesting month. Since my school summer break started I have been to Champagne, Berlin, and most notably Cape Town. Although I visited Cape Town not too long ago, this trip was very different. The main focus of this trip was for an international assignment which is a requirement for my executive MBA. I did manage to go out about a week early with my classmates to do some sightseeing as well though. Both work and play turned out to be much more enjoyable and rewarding than I could have imagined.

Back Among the Living

Unfortunately my blogging went on another hiatus but at least I was able to cross a few things off my bucket list while I was away. This summer was always going to be a busy one, as it may be my last in London, so I booked several things that I'd always wanted to do in Europe.

The summer started with my first time at a cricket match. For those who have heard that cricket matches can last for days, yes they can last as long as five days. However, I went to an ICC World Twenty20 match (a new format to get new audiences) which only lasts about four hours.

My next quintessentially English summer activity was watching tennis at Wimbledon. Last winter I managed to score a couple tickets through the lottery system. I got to see the Andy Murray on centre court and Andy Roddick on court 1. I was never a tennis fan until now. Wimbledon is such an amazing and historic place.

Last but not least, I was finally able to do something I've waited years for. I admit that I'm a bit of a motorhead/adrenaline junkie so I love fast cars. For over five years I've been trying to make my way to a little town in Germany called Nurburg which is home to the world famous Nurburgring race track, also known as The Green Hell. Nurburgring is 17.56 miles long with nearly 100 turns. It used to host the German Grand Prix part of the Formula One race until too many drivers died there and the others decided to boycott it. 

Hidden Kitchen

A few months ago I was looking into taking a Parisian food tour given by David Lebovitz (former pastry chef at Chez Panisse). However seeing as the trip costs €3450, I decided to check out a few of the spots from his trip on my own. This lead me to the Hidden Kitchen, a private supper club run by two Amercans in Paris. The story from Braden (from Massachusetts) and Laura (from Wisconsin) is that a few years ago they finished university and decided to spend some time living in Paris. As a way to make new friends, they started inviting people from the language school over for dinner once a month. The success turned it into a bi-weekly event among friends. Now Hidden Kitchen is an underground restaurant hosting 16 diners two nights a week out of their beautiful apartment in the 2eme.

Three Days in Paris for the Three Rs

For the last month I've been overwhelmed with work and school. As soon as I got my passport back I was on the road for business travel spending my usual week in three or four different cities. I needed a few days to myself so I got on the Eurostar and headed to Paris for the three Rs: rest, relaxation, and retail therapy. Of course there was a bit of eating interspersed in there as well.

In terms of rest and relaxation, I spent lazy mornings reading newspapers cover to cover over aromatic cups of cafe noisette. It was difficult the first morning to fight the need to head out and be productive but I managed to force myself to linger at the cafe for at least an hour each morning.

Retail therapy mainly consisted of food shopping. I was finally able to visit G. Detou which is an amazing food shop about the size of a shoe box. It was a baker's paradise with industrial sized bags of chocolate in every consistency along with items you never thought you needed until you came here. I picked up a gigantic container of vanilla sugar, a tube of vanilla pods, cooking spray (as yet to be found in London), sea salt, pistachios, sea salt caramels, and a few other items. On the other end of the spectrum was my stop at La Grande Epicerie (Bon Marche) which was a huge food emporium. This place puts the food markets at Harrods, Harvey Nichols, and Selfridges horribly to shame. There were rows upon rows of foie gras, truffles, oils, vinegars, wines, saucisson, pates, cheeses and on and on. I tried eating my way through all of the samples until the staff started giving me strange looks. Unfortunately after my splurge at G. Detou there wasn't much room left in my suitcase for more than a few bottles of wine and some tasty nibbles. On my way to the train the taxi driver actually charged me one Euro extra since my bag was so heavy.

Eating my way through Paris started with

Taking a Small Bite Out of the Big Apple

I just returned from an extended weekend in New York City with my really great girlfriends Brit and Karen. I always have a great time with these girls and they are such inspirations to me. Very cool chicks indeed and always great hostesses. NYC is also a city that I LOVE LOVE LOVE so I've never not had a fantastic time there. This trip though we had the special addition of my friend Grant who also happened to be in NYC at the same for business. Having Grant along meant that I could indulge in some "less-girly" activities, namely attending the New York Rangers vs. Boston Bruins hockey game at Madison Square Garden. I was really looking forward to this since 1) I haven't seen a hockey game in ages and 2) I've always wanted to attend an event at MSG. Although I had no allegiance to either team I had to root for the Rangers since Grant was rooting for the Bruins (clad in Boston Bruins jersey all the way from London). The Rangers played an appaling 46 mintues of hockey where they were actually starting to get booed by their own fans. With a bit over 6 minutes left in the game, the Rangers finally scored their first goal of the game to put them 1-2 against the Bruins. I was holding my head down in shame expecting Grant to gloat when in the last 53 seconds of regulation time the Rangers' Markus Naslund scored a second goal forcing the game into overtime. After 5 minutes of sudden-death overtime the game was still tied 2-2 leading to 4 shootout rounds which finally ended with the Rangers' captain Chris Drury scoring the game winning goal. Admittedly if you look overall at how well the game was played, the Bruins should have taken home the win but no, my team for the day WON! Aside from the highlight of the hockey game, the weekend mainly consisted of tons of eating, boozing, shopping, and hanging out. To give you an idea of the magnitude of our gluttony, Saturday morning we had pastrami sandwiches and cupcakes delivered to the flat right before heading out to brunch. And nothing tastes better at 4am than our traditional slice of pizza at Rosario's in the Lower East Side. Another notable restaurants included August Restaurant (a brunch must of ours), Les Halles (associated with Anthony Bourdain before he became a roaming TV chef), and Artisanal (which surprised and impressed me so much it will get it's own post). Unfortunately my trip concluded with a 4-hour delay on my already taxing redeye back to London but I'm chosing to remember the good times and will do whatever is in my power to never fly American again. I just returned from an extended weekend in New York City with my really great girlfriends Brit and Karen. I always have a great time with these girls and they are such inspirations to me. Very cool chicks indeed and always great hostesses. NYC is also a city that I LOVE LOVE LOVE so I've never not had a fantastic time there.

This trip though we had the special addition of my friend Grant who also happened to be in NYC at the same for business. Having Grant along meant that I could indulge in some "less-girly" activities, namely attending the New York Rangers vs. Boston Bruins hockey game at Madison Square Garden. I was really looking forward to this since 1) I haven't seen a hockey game in ages and 2) I've always wanted to attend an event at MSG. Although I had no allegiance to either team I had to root for the Rangers since Grant was rooting for the Bruins (clad in Boston Bruins jersey all the way from London). The Rangers played an appaling 46 mintues of hockey where they were actually starting to get booed by their own fans. With a bit over 6 minutes left in the game, the Rangers finally scored their first goal of the game to put them 1-2 against the Bruins. I was holding my head down in shame expecting Grant to gloat when in the last 53 seconds of regulation time the Rangers' Markus Naslund scored a second goal forcing the game into overtime. After 5 minutes of sudden-death overtime the game was still tied 2-2 leading to 4 shootout rounds which finally ended with the Rangers' captain Chris Drury scoring the game winning goal. Admittedly if you look overall at how well the game was played, the Bruins should have taken home the win but no, my team for the day WON!

Aside from the highlight of the hockey game, the weekend mainly consisted of tons of eating, boozing, shopping, and hanging out. To give you an idea of the magnitude of our gluttony, Saturday morning we had pastrami sandwiches and cupcakes delivered to the flat right before heading out to brunch. And nothing tastes better at 4am than our traditional slice of pizza at Rosario's in the Lower East Side. Another notable restaurants included August Restaurant (a brunch must of ours), Les Halles (associated with Anthony Bourdain before he became a roaming TV chef), and Artisanal (which surprised and impressed me so much it will get it's own post).

Unfortunately my trip concluded with a 4-hour delay on my already taxing redeye back to London but I'm chosing to remember the good times and will do whatever is in my power to never fly American again.

Living the Dream

When I moved to Europe, I had a few things on my to-do list that were just too difficult to achieve before when I was just a tourist visiting each city for a day or two here and there. I have a somewhat complete list below of the things I set out to do below but the one thing that I was really looking forward to happened on Saturday. After over a year of living in Europe I was finally able to attend a hands-on cooking course at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Knowing that I would need to be in the Paris office last week, I searched Le Cordon Bleu's website for weeks to try and find a class that would fit the timing. I was finally able to enroll in the Autumn Cakes and Pastry course that would be on the Saturday following my business trip. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the course but I was excited to know that I would be learning from an esteemed French chef. In addition to the course I would also be able to walk the halls that Julia Child, Dione Lucas, and other great chefs/cooks once graced. For all the male cooks out there, Le Cordon Bleu is also where Giada de Laurentiis studied although I couldn't find anything in the curriculum about low-cut tops and big smiles.

The course started promplty at 9am after some coffee and croissants. We were given a few pages with a list of ingredients for the two cakes we would make but no instructions. A few students were looking for the cooking instructions but it was explained to us that at Le Cordon Bleu they teach you to use your 5 senses and that you would learn better by doing and taking your own notes. Everything was pre-measured so after a quick demonstration by the chef, we jumped right in. I worked with Sue from Australia on a few of the steps since certain items were easier to make in double vs. single batches. Like Sue, many of the students were visiting from far away places like Brazil, China, and Chicago and had given up a day of sightseeing or being with friends to take the course. The cakes that we made were much more intricate and delicate than everything I had made before so I was glad I was in an environment where I could mess up and learn from it. Sue and I turned out to be quite natural though and the course just flew by. When the class ended at 3pm, I could scarcely believe we had been there are all day and made two cakes along with some sables (shortbread). I would love to take another course at Le Cordon Bleu as I have so much more to learn and it was such a joy to be in a professional kitchen. There is something very clinical and orderly about a professional kitchen that just gives me the reassurance that things should work out well and you have full control over your destiny.

Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera (if you can believe it) but hopefully Sue will be able to send me her's when she returns to Australia so that you can see my masterpieces.

Completed	To Do	Unexpected Bonus
Dine at a 3-star Michelin restaurant	Get reservations at El Bulli (MISSION IMPOSSIBLE!!!)	Walk in Jesus' footsteps in Jerusalem
Drive "balls out" (excuse my language) on the autobahn	Drive on the Nurburgring	Go on safari in South Africa (and live to tell about it)
Wander around a farmers market in Paris	Run with bulls in Pamplona	Drink South African wine while overlooking the lucious Stellenbosch area
Visit an Eastern European city	Get hit with a tomato at La Tomatina	Many times eat in Paris until I was sick because it was just that good
Take the Eurostar from London to Paris	Visit the newly reopened BMW Museum in Munich	Experience Barack Obama giving a triumphant speech in Berlin
Experience an opera at Teatro alla Scala	Attend an Audi driver's day	Meet and actually speak to Christiane Amanpour
Experience an opera at the Royal Opera House	Lay on the beach in Greece	Experience World Cup fever in Paris
Try the local cuisine every place I visit	Go truffle hunting	Attend a race at Ascot
Watch the sun set over the Seine	Drive a supercar on a Formula 1 race track	Eat the freshest seafood and tomatoes while sunning myself in Provence
Ski/snowboard anywhere in Europe and live to tell about it	Meet a strikingly handsome and caring heir to some megafortune (now that I'm 30 my chances are dwindling)	Meeting some great people who have helped me adjust and make London feel a bit more like home
Go to Oktoberfest and live to tell about	Drive the adoption of Altera's low-cost products throughout Europe (had to throw that in here for the Alterans)
See the remains of the Berlin Wall
Visit the Audi factory and Museum Mobile in Ingolstadt
Drink Guinness straight from the source
Get lost at the Notting Hill Carnival
Go to a concert in a London park
Sit in Hyde Park or Kensington Gardens all day long
Take a class at Le Cordon Bleu

Mission: Figs

You can call me anal retentive, obsessive compulsive, or a control freak but I am an organized traveler. My friends laugh at the spreadsheets I compile that include hotel reservations, flight and other transportation details, restaurant bookings, organized tours, contact details, and etc. all organized by date, location, time and whatever else I can fit into a pivot table. Knowing that this is truly who I am, I have no idea how my flatmate Erin convinced me to go on a "by the seat of your pants" trip to Montenegro.

Erin is a citizen of the world who is used to roughing it without housekeeping, room service, or even indoor plumbing. It also helps that she's a flight attendant so she can hop on a plane to anywhere at anytime. To continue the birthday month celebrations (her's and mine) we opened up a map and looked for a spot that offered warm weather, would be fairly easy to get to, allow us to sit by the beach/pool all day, and would be a new place to experience on a low budget. We determined Herceg Novi, Montenegro would be it. I was really excited about this choice since I haven't been able to get to Eastern Europe since I moved so this would be a completely new experience. Montenegro is located in the south of the Adriatic Sea and is part of the former Yugoslavia. It is borded by Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovinia, Serbia, Kosovo, and Albania.

Many parts of Eastern Europe have not advanced very far since they were pillaged by war after war so getting to Montenegro proved more difficult that I expected. I flew from London to Vienna, Vienna to Dubrovnik, and then took an hour bus ride from Dubrovnik to Herceg Novi. All the while I didn't know exactly when and how often the bus ran, where I would sleep, or where eventually I would meet Erin. Somehow everything worked out and when my bus turned into the Herceg Novi bus station, Erin was sitting there waiting for me. I should admit that I was a total wimp compared to Erin who flew from London to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Belgrade, a ten-hour overnight train ride from Belgrade to Podgorica with loud obnoxious boys, and a three-hour bus ride from Padgorica to Herceg Novi. Along the way she slept in a park and rented a room in a stranger's house.

Montenegro was definitely worth the trek though. It's toursim industry is just built up enough to provide some local activities but hasn't been completely spoilt by travelers from the United States, England, Germany or other western countries expecting to see fish and chips and sausage on the local menus. The locals were actually quite surprised to see a couple American girls running around since mainly the country is visited by tourists from Russia. The yet to happen influx of western tourists has also managed to keep prices quite low with cocktails ranging around 2-3 Euros. We were actually able to take an eight-hour boat trip that included lunch and two siteseeing stops for only 20 Euros. In Italy or France it would have easily cost 80-100 Euros.

We only had a few days but we made the most of our time before being caught in a torrential monsoon at the end. On this trip Erin discovered the taste of fresh figs in the local market for the first time. So when we stopped in the town of Dobrota on our boat tour and happened to spot some fig trees, we knew what we had to do. It was Mission: Figs (excuse the pun). I would spot out the figs in the trees and Erin would climb them like a monkey to secure our prize. It was pretty hilarious except for the fact that we were likely stealing figs from the consecrated grounds of a monastery. We didn't feel so bad later when two Russian women from our boat trip saw our feast and revealed the mandarins they had picked from some trees behind us.