Would you pay 350AED to eat chaat, tandoori chicken and masala prawns? What if we threw in some lamb korma and some lasooni scallops, a fillet of sea bass with crispy skin, a scoop of sorbet and a couple of chocolate truffles? No? Maybe it would be better if we upped the price to 650AED,…
Shaw and Smith Sauvignon Blanc 2013
I was in the Adelaide Hills in 2013. This exact time last year, in fact. It was supposed to be in the middle of harvest, but it had been such a wonderfully warm vintage, that everything had come off the vines a week early. This meant I was able to try some tank samples of…
In the meantime, happy Holi
It’s the festival of colour today, and so I thought I’d do a (fairly) wordless tribute. It’s a Hindu celebration, where they paint everything with powdered colour, and something I’d love to participate in first-hand one day, probably in Rajasthan, but I also like the idea of being in Braj, where it’s legal to hit…
Ruinart Brut Rose NV
I met a lady the other day who really knows her wine. She was complaining that she opened up a bottle of Ruinart Brut Rose the previous weekend, and her plebby friends sculled it back, smacking their lips, and saying, only on the last dregs “mmm, that’s luvly! I could drink a lot of this!”…
Traders Hotel, Qaryat al Beri
It seems I have to find somewhere to stay less and less in Abu Dhabi. The city is expanding at such a rate, becoming so exciting, infinitely more livable, and I find more and more of my friends are moving there, and kindly offering food and shelter for the night where needed. Abu Dhabi is…
Greg malouf – selling ice to Eskimos
I’ve followed Greg Malouf’s food for quite a while. He’s a bit of a culinary personality from my home town of Melbourne (Australia), and was the first person to take middle eastern cuisine up that extra rung in the city, and serve it in a fine dining restaurant. I used to love Momos – a…
Hotel Stein, Salzburg
Salzburg has been the stage set for music and drama in real life and fantasy. The likes of the Von Trapps and young Wolfgang Amadaeus Mozart are revered by residents and visitors alike. The city itself still appears to reside in a fantastical state. Too pretty to be real. I visited at Christmastime, hoping to…
Francis Ford Coppola Sofia Rose 2012
There are a couple of ways to make a rosé wine. Firstly, you can add a teeny bit of finished red wine to a finished white wine. This isn’t done much anymore, and is actually breaking the rules in countries like France. The second thing you could do, is to make a red wine, and…
The Dubai Gourmet Trail
I’ve been involved in a task recently for the Dubai Food Festival. They contacted me a short while ago, and asked me to assist with creating a “Gourmet Trail”, for visitors and residents alike, who would like a little more to get excited about for the food festival month. (As if all the events were…