A Long Swiss Weekend

Geneva and Lac Léman from Mont Salève

Before my last minute trip to Paris was arranged, I booked myself a little getaway to Geneva where I was to visit an old friend who was spending the summer interning at one of the numerous international bodies based there. To be honest, I was desperate to get out of London. The last few months had been pretty much been a case of extreme highs and lows for me and getting away was just what I needed. Then came the trip to Paris ... Geneva became a really nice, hearty bonus :)

The city's iconic Jet d'Eau switched on for summer

Catching up with my friend was great, we never seem to be in the same part of the world anymore these days - part of growing up and apart, I guess. Geneva was nice. I had been warned of how small and boring it would be but I as was only going to be there for a long weekend, how bad could it be? I actually quite liked it. For such a little place it had nearly everything one could need ... in material terms of course. But heavens forbid ... it's so expensive!!! I'm not happy about the weak pound but it was incredibly saddening in a place like Geneva. I paid almost 5 quid for a medium sized fruity frappacino from Starbucks. Ergh! Hahaha the Starbucks test is almost like the coke (as in coca-cola) test that my parents use to compare prices around the world.

Sailing on Lac Léman - I did wish it was me out there

Geneva with Mount Blanc in the background

Apart from the constant reminder of sky high prices, Geneva really is quite relaxing in summer. People there were just so relaxed ... boating and swimming in Lac Léman (Lake Geneva), enjoying the sunshine, coming and going in shorts even to a nice dinner ... basically enjoying the beauty of the season. Since I had spent a great deal of my summer wrapped up in cardigans, lightweight jackets and/or scarves, this was amazing!

Norwegian Salad

On my first evening we headed down to the park for a a bit of bubbly and a few nibbles (and to admire the view of course:). Mount Blanc to one side and the three famous peaks on the Evian bottles of water on the other. Alright, the three peaks can't actually be seen from Geneva but I did catch a glimpse of them the next day when we took a boat to the French medieval town of Yvoire. For a little supper we headed down to the city's old town where we sat in the restaurant's courtyard and indulged in a couple of salads. Yes, indulged it was ... vanity, oh vanity! My Norwegian salad came with little prawns, thinly sliced smoked salmon and a Parmesan crisp. All delicious but the mixed salad greens were a little odd ... they looked like any other salad greens but tasted peppery and just a tad tough. Not just one of the leaves ... ALL of them.

Nyon - overlooking the lake and on our way to Yvoire

Our boat steaming to Yvoire

The next day we were off to Yvoire via Nyon, a Roman town across the lake from Yvoire. Blue skies, lovely weather and a beautiful lake. It couldn't really get any better ... well, if only I got to jump into the water ... :) There were tourists galore ... some foreign, some local ... all taking advantage of the sunny weekend. Yvoire is one of those postcard perfect towns (just as long as you stay within the old city walls). Very picturesque in an totally touristy sort of way. I'm sure it's been scrubbed up since the days of old when battles were fiercely fought for the city walls but it makes a nice wander round for a few hours these days.

Pretty Yvoire - flowers in the bloom, even the cat looks content.

Lunch was the local delicacy - perch caught from the lake. They do seem very proud of this little fish. We had ours dusted with flour and fried. Served with a light cream sauce, courgettes cooked in a tomato sauce, fries and a green salad.

Lunch of fried locally caught perch - straight out from the lake.

As part of the lunch menu, we got dessert too. A simple yet lovely dessert of vanilla bean ice cream, stewed berries, fresh berries and whipped cream. Ooo summer heaven in a little glass. All this for €20 each. Not so bad I guess.

Summer in a glass - vanilla ice cream, berries and cream.

Dinner that night was a picnic in the park, where loads of people seem to have the same idea. Our amusement for the evening came in the form of 3 young-ish German guys who had obviously had too much to drink :) No photos taken and no details will be imparted ... it was way too gross. Lol. But when we were at the supermarket picking up bits and bobs for our picnic - a bottle of wine, 2 types of cheeses, smoked fish, frankfurters (I had been hankering for them), 2 dips, peaches, grapes and bread - yesssssss........ all this for two people! Now you know why it was just a salad the night before :)

Watching the sunset over Geneva in the park.

Anyway, at the supermarket I spotted this little pot of ice cream that I had read about on the inflight magazine on Swiss Air (which I must say I was very impressed with - the airline, not so much the magazine:) A special edition flavour from Mövenpick - Lam Dong green tea and jasmine flowers. It was double the price and half the size of the other tubs by Mövenpick but I just had to try it. So darn persistent I was :) It was really rather good. Unlike the usual Japanese green tea ice creams, the green tea here was a whole lot more subtle (unlike matcha, which is really quite a bold flavour) and the fragrance of the jasmine came through very delicately. A very nice summer flavour ... now if only we didn't have to finish the whole tub in 2 days ... it was rather much, even the glut in me had to admit that.

Lam Dong Green Tea and Jasmine Flower Ice Cream.

My last full day was spent on Mont Salève, the rocky outcrop that serves as Geneva's backdrop. Other than the great views it offers of the city and the lake, it really not all that pretty up there. Nothing like the image of alpine Switzerland.

Mont Salève, France

Dinner on the last night was at a local fast food restaurant of sorts Chez Ma Cousine (apparently the McDonald's in Switzerland are the most expensive in the world - how's that for a bit of useless information?). The only thing on the menu is chicken - grilled chicken served with potato wedges and a side salad and three/four different types of main chicken salads. It was busy when we got there and a little queue forming. Good sign. We were seated within 10 minutes and we ordered .. chicken. Half a grilled chicken each (you can't get it in any other sizes) and a side order of sauce. For a while I was a little disgusted thinking that I had to pay for the bottles of ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard that were circulating around the restaurant. This place is cheaper than most other places to eat in Geneva but to pay an extra £1.50 for a little ketchup did seem a little ridiculous. I soon informed that this was actually going to be chicken gravy - ah, that's fine then :) However, it wasn't fine. The staff promptly forgot about us ... the table seated after us had nearly finished their meal (they were either very fast eaters or we were very patient that night) before we told them we had yet to get any food. They seemed genuinely surprised ... odd considering they had passed us several times and not noticed that we were not eating and did not look like we had finished eating. So much for customer service. The food was served quite promptly after that but it was good only if you like dried rotisserie chicken and ultra salty chicken gravy. Ahhh dissapointment. The wedges weren't too bad though.

Rotisserie chicken dinner - dissapointing.

Left to my own devices on my last day when my friend headed back to work, I decided on a little wander through town. There really isn't that much to see, or to buy for that matter. I wasn't on the lookout for a Chanel suit or a Rolex watch so it became boring incredibly quickly. With my handful of coins I bought myself a blackcurrent sorbet on a sugar cone from the Mövenpick stand and sat down to watch the world go by. Ahh the little pleasures in life :) Unfortunately, they do not last all that long. Soon enough I discovered a Starbucks that was nicely located by the river. Armed with my ultra expensive frappacino, I basked in the sun for a little longer ... between catching up on world affairs from a copy of the International Herald Tribune someone had left behind and watching financial Geneva whizz by.

Blackcurrant sorbet from the Mövenpick stand.

A little snack I bought myself before heading to the airport - mini ham and onion pizza.

Did I actually buy anything on this trip? Of course I did. I bought myself at least 2 months supply of chocolate before I left. And what fun I had choosing them too :)

A plate of pretty biscuits and petits fours that I spotted in a shop window with the famous Swiss cow

Paris Revisited

The view of Tour Eiffel from the balcony of our room. Pretty impressive :)

I hadn't been back to Paris since my one and only visit there years ago, probably when I was about thirteen. It's never called out to me. Oddly enough Italy yells out to me with flailing arms and yet I've never been there ... hmm ... so much for "the calling" theory. So a few years on I was ready to put aside memories of a miserable first visit - very probably brought on by a nasty bout of teenage angst - and make another trip to the city of lights, romance and French snobbery at its snottiest. Of course the fact that my father was willing to foot my bill as traveling companion to my stepmother was an incentive too :D

One should always do a little of the touristy when on holiday :) The very crowded Basilique du Sacré-Cœur

Off on an early morning train ride on the Eurostar (a first ... which was one of the highlights of the trip ... totally showing off my "provincial-ness" here:) and we were in Paris just after noon. Fear then set in. Oh dear God, I'm going to get yelled at all through the trip, aren't I? I hadn't learnt any pretty French phases to smooth things over when people realised I only spoke dreaded English. Odd this fear of mine since I've survived numerous trips to distant lands and never felt this anxious. For Paris I had only come armed with very prettily practiced "bonjour" and "merci" which, thankfully, kept me alive for the next four days. Only once did I have to extend beyond this to, "deux café au lait, s'il vous plaît" (a charming smile was inserted at this point). In return, I got a barked, "what size? big, small?". In English, no less. Ahh at least I tried :)

The ever majestic Champs-Élysées crowned by the Arc de Triomphe

The Paris of my twenties certainly seemed a lot more charming than the Paris of my teens - delightful as only the French can be, as spread out and huge as I remembered it and as stonkingly hot as London will never be. I loved the French approach to food. Good, fresh food and lots of it. It was salad and dessert galore. On one of the days as I sat resting my aching feet at a cafe I saw a very chic and disgustingly slim young woman sit down and order lunch. Salad and an ice cream sundae. And why ever not? All in moderation. I like that.

Lunch on the first day, a ham and cheese salad for me. Bread and an apple tart for my stepmum

Oddly enough I hadn't done much foodie research, other than the casual glance through a not very good guide book on the Eurostar. I already knew about Ladurée (but forgot about Pierre Hermé) but was, by chance, reminded of Poilâne. And that was about it. I was happy to just go with the flow. Huge on our holiday menu were salads. Huge, yummy and a whole lot more digestible than confit de canard in the baking heat.

Dinner one evening - Salade Niçoise with a twist - rice (hidden from view at the bottom of the plate) instead of potatoes and additional corn kernels. I wonder what a purist might say about this?

Dinner one evening - Salade Nordique. Whatever a Nordic salad is but this was good - little prawns, smoked salmon and salmon tartare on half a avocado.

By chance we passed Les Deux Magots along Saint-Germain-des-Prés, alright hardly by chance since we did spend a good few hours walking up and down the road window shopping. Whilst I had a very boring café crème, my stepmother ordered the very Italian affogato, which came with an utterly delicious chocolate hazelnut praline on the side - to be fair I'm biased to almost anything containing chocolate and hazelnuts.

Coffee at Les Deux Magots - affagato with a lush chocolate praline on the side.

And in homage to my father, who was stuck in an English country hotel attending a conference, we had his obligatory fruit de la mer - twice. The first was far tastier and cheaper than the second. I usually make it a point never to eat at the most touristy of spots - anything on Leicester Square or Piccadilly is a no-no. Anything off the central area is fine but when you're hot, tired, hungry and not in the mood to have a foreign language tested on you ... a tourist restaurant seems almost heaven sent :) But beware the over-priced, nasty food!

Fruit de la mer - fresh and reasonably priced.

Fruit de la mer on our last night - ergh!

Feeling a little ambitious, we had a fruit de la mer platter as well as a soup each. I got the soupe de poissons, which arrived with all the condiments (rouille, croutons and grated cheese - it was either gruyere or emmental , I wasn't sure which). For about €14, this was nasty!

The one place I did track down was Poilâne. I know there's a branch in London, which I have yet to visit, but it's never quite the same as the original, is it? With a few wrong turns and a terrible sense of direction we finally made it to 8 rue du Cherche-Midi, a quiet unassuming street. Here we were treated to their famous Tartelettes Aux Pommes (apple apple tarts to you and me) - rich, buttery puff pastry topped with sweet, yet sharpish caramalised apples. Nice, very nice. I really must track the Poilâne in London down.

Beautiful apple tarts.

Purely by chance we passed Fauchon at Place de la Madeleine. With a few minutes to spare before the store closed for the day, we popped in for a quick look around and emerged with a few goodies of our own - little caramel madeline and a oh sooooooooo delicious palmier. Buttery and yet so light and brittle with a thin layer of caramalised sugar. Ahh I'm in love! Utterly gorgeous!

Caramel madeleine

The utterly delicious palmier - thin layers of buttery, caramelised gorgeousness.

I love paris in the spring time, I love paris in the fall , I love paris in the summer when it sizzles, I love paris in the winter when it drizzles ..............

I think I've become quite fond of Paris ...

But how could I have forgotten my macarons from Ladurée, which survived the track back from Paris. I shared my morsels of goodness with Stuart who slurped with them down. So much for slow, quiet appreciation of food :) We shared all of them so we had a little taster of all the flavours but I'm still not sure which I would call my favourite. I love salty caramel, so those were good. The slightly tart blackcurrant violet had an edge over the raspberry and as much as I dislike my food carrying flowery over/under tones (jasmine doesn't count .... jasmine's just devine lol), I really liked the orange blossom. Ooo I want more of these little darlings! Maybe a trip down to Burlington Arcade tomorrow ....

Macarons from Ladurée - having survived the track back to London. They don't look to have fared very well on the journey but they tasted yummy nonetheless. From top: Raspberry, Blackcurrant Violet, Orange Blossom, Coffee, Bitter Chocolate and Caramel with Salted Butter.

Spaghetti Bolognese - Italian Kitchen, Holborn

I've been browsing through some of my older stuff on Flickr and come across these from a meal I had ages ago at Italian Kitchen in Holborn. And in the spirit of keeping this post short and sweet, here they are :) It's about £10 for their lunch special with a soup or salad as a starter and a choice of pasta and sauce as a main.

My Spaghetti Bolognese was rich, hearty and filling. I couldn't really fault it ... yes, it was a little heavy but I wouldn't want to go an Italian restaurant and be served a ragù 'lite'. And the pasta was nicely al dente :)

Italian Kitchen
43 New Oxford St, London, WC1A 1BH

Happy Birthday to Me - Cakes from Konditor & Cook

I'm no fan of my own birthday. Really ... do I really need another reminder of how old I'm getting? :) I do, on the hand, enjoy other people's birthdays. Just as long as it's not my own ... However, there are a few out there who very sweetly refuse to to forget (thank you, you know who are:), hence the two slices of cake from Konditor & Cook. And very good cake they were too. Good enough to tempt two colleagues to share them with me one sunny afternoon in the park.

The Curly Whirly came in the form of chocolate sponge with a vanilla bean frosting. Nice, light with a slight tartness, which I think can be owed to the cream cheese in the frosting. The curly whirliness came from bits of pipped chocolate icing .. nothing greatly exciting. It was a good piece of cake. Solidly normal .... as a Victoria Sponge.

The Chocolate Raspberry Fudge Tart on the other hand ... was wholeheartedly chocolate down to it's soul. Rich, deep and broken only by a layer of raspberry puree sitting just above the pastry. The pastry, however, was a bit of a disspointment. It would have been delightful if they had used a buttery pastry crust or crushed chocolate biscuits (think cheesecake here) if we were going for the full chocolate whack. Instead it was lacklustre, boring and verging on tasting like stale pastry.

Konditor & Cook is certainly worth a try. I didn't manage to find that many reviews for them online but I have asked around and they do seem quite well known with five branches across London.

Gelato in the Park

What is sunny weather without ice-cream? In British terms this could really be at any time and not necessarily during summer either. During one of the odd spells of April sunshine, Stuart and I managed to drag ourselves to the park and discovered, to my delight, that the park cafe had started selling gelato.

I just had to have a scoop of bacio - chocolate and hazelnut. I adore hazelnuts! And I love chocolate too.

Ahh bacio is certainly a flavour made in heaven.

Stuart had a scoop of strawberry which came delightfully with large chunks of strawberries swirled throughout . Much to my irritation his was actually better than mine. Lighter on the tummy too considering we just had a huge feast at a newly found Portuguese cafe (more on that later). I did end up eating quite a bit of his and he was handed the remainder of mine :D One just has to learn to be very persuasive lol

Comfort Eating

It's been a long few weeks. Far too many hours at work, followed by a frighteningly high number of after work/weekend drinks ... too many. A diet of take-out salads, sandwiches and vodka tonics are all good and well but after a while all the body and soul wants is some good, old fashioned comfort food. Far too tired and to late to pull together an elaborately heart warming dish (I've been craving braised pork belly with preserved vegetable for far too long now ...) I made this quick mince and bean stew served with rice and a fried egg after work one day. Tried and tested flavours, there was no way it could go wrong.

I remember having a version of this whenever I went to stay with my paternal grandmother when I was a child. Unlike most grandmothers, my mama wasn't known for her cooking skills. She was a far more gregarious creature who preferred to stay out of the kitchen and had a fondness for mahjong (something of which I think both my sister and I have inherited). Mama did, however, live with her best friend who did all the cooking for her own rather large family. This dish is in fact a tribute (rip off?) to Ying Yee Por.

Mince and Bean Stew with Rice and Fried Egg

250g of mince (preferably pork but I used turkey this time as I couldn't find any pork mince at the supermarket)
Minced garlic (to your hearts content but I stuck to about 2 cloves or the equivalent - I was a bit lazy so I used garlic powder)
1 tin baked beans
Eggs (depending on how many people there are to feed and the size of their appetites)
Splash of soy sauce
White pepper
Steamed rice to serve

• Heat some oil in wok on medium-high heat until it steams lightly. Add the mince in and brown evenly.If there is too much liquid released from the meat, drain it off in a sieve. This ensures that the meat browns and doesn't steam and simmer in its own juices.
  
• When the meat is lightly browned, add the garlic. Fry until you can smell the lovely garlicky-ness. Make sure you don't burn the garlic though.
  
• Pour in the tin of beans and mix with the meat. Release the remaining bit of tomato sauce and beans from the bottom by swirling half a tins worth of water around the tin and pouring it all into the wok.
• Just as the meat and beans begin to bubble, lower the heat. Flavour the dish with a few splashes of soy sauce and a sprinkling of white pepper.
• Heat frying pan with a little oil. Break in an egg and spoon over the hot oil to help cook the top. It is ready to serve when the edges of the egg are crispy and the egg yoke still bright yellow and wobbly.
  
• Serve the meat and beans with steamed rice and the fried egg. I like my fried eggs served with white pepper and a few dashes of Maggie sauce (affectionately known as ti-ti-ti in our household, origins very likely long forgotten).