Happy new year everyone!

I wish you all health, happiness and many culinary surprises for this new year to come!

This year I've been quite lazy cooking and I've eaten out A LOT so it's only natural that I share my Best Restaurants review of 2011!

• La Guérinière, 33470 Gujan-Mestras (France) *****

This is a one Michelin star and affordable treasure of my hometown. I really can't get enough of this restaurant in spite of the many vain attempts from my parents to find a cheaper alternative. The prices might have gone up slightly but the quality hasn't gone down at all. This is a top fine dining experience for special occasions. Full mark, 5 stars!

• La Table de Montesquieu, 33650 La Brède (France) ****

This is the place we chose for my mum's birthday this year in September and we weren't disappointed. Yet another expensive one Michelin star restaurant one might say but it's quite far from it. The extraordinary culinary talent of the chef translated in every single ingredient and dish selected by himself. Almost a full mark, slightly pricy!

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• Bloom Brasserie, D4 Dublin (Ireland) ***

Recently opened, this is a great addition to Baggot Street. The service was good, plenty of choice in the menu and the food was delicious. This is a nice place for special occasions, verging on fine dining but not pretentious. Almost 4 stars, a different league from the two above!

• Dada, D2 Dublin (Ireland) ***

One of my favourite non-gastro/non-French places in Dublin! With a beautifully decorated dining area and great Moroccan dishes on offer, this place ticks almost all my boxes. The prices are slightly on the high-end but the pastilla/pastela is so worth it! It still deserves 3 stars!

• Baan Thai, D4 Dublin (Ireland) **

I really enjoy Thai food and especially when it's tasty but not too spicy. This place offers a huge variety of chicken, pork, beef, prawns boiled, roasted or cooked with very fragrant spices. I really enjoy this place in spite of the cluttered dining room. I give it 2 stars.

• mash: restaurant, Osprey Hotel, Naas (Ireland) **

This was quite a surprise. Who knew that a spa hotel was able to offer great food for a bargain? I really enjoyed dining there during my stay in March this year. Every dish delivered, especially the dessert which was divine! I give it 3 stars for the location and randomness.

My honorable mention goes to Yamamori Noodles (steady choice!), Brasserie Sixty6 (not bad!), Oliviers Restaurant at the Schoolhouse (new entry!), Millers Pizza Kitchen (very original!) and Herb Street (best brunch!). 

Christmas cook off 2011

This year again we kept the tradition going and held our annual family cook off!! Let's be honest, we don't have much of an appetite in my family so we chose to cook "nouvelle cuisine" style food with one appetizer, two starters, one palate cleanser, one main and one dessert. All of this washed down with some champagne, white and red wine. What a feast!!

The above homemade Christmas dinner menu was designed by the finest cooks on hand:

• Dad's trio of 'Surf and Turf' canapés
• My seared scallops on black pudding with mint pea puree
• Nicho's cod and caramelized mango filo pastry bonbons
• Nicho's lemon sorbet with vodka shot glass
• Mum's duck with chocolate and pear sauce with pears and roasted potatoes
• Dad's mignardises assortment

Check out below the collection of my best christmas pictures...

As I was in charge of the 1st starter, I'm going to share this simple recipe for my seared scallops, black pudding and mint pea puree.

Ingredients

- 3 large scallops per person

- Frozen green peas

- Clonakilty black pudding

- 6 large fresh mint leaves

- 1 medium-size onion

- Unsalted butter, rock salt, black pepper, cumin, olive oil, chicken stock, peanuts

Recipe

- Blend 2 finely chopped mint leaves and 2 table spoons of olive oil with a mixer

- Put in the fridge for 2 hours (will be served as garnish)

- Chop your onion, fry in a pot for 5 minutes, add your peas, your mint, some butter and your stock and simmer for 10 minutes

- Thinly slice your black pudding and fry in a medium-hot pan

- Dry fry your peanuts in a small pan on the side

- Blend your minted peas into a puree with a mixer, keep hot in a pot

- Fry your scallops after seasoning them into a medium-hot pan (1 minute each side)

- Dress as below with some minted oil and peanuts on top

- Enjoy while still hot!

Once-in-a-year event... me, baking!

This time, we had a bake off at work and I thought "Why not? Let's give it a try!". So I baked my a** off and turned my kitchen into a pure chocolate mess to deliver lovely and fluffy chocolate truffles with almond powder and desicated coconut (picture below).

My truffles went down a treat!

Chocolate Lounge, Dublin airport

If you're ever craving for some chocolate before boarding a long flight, get your fix at the Chocolate Lounge in Dublin airport, Terminal 2 :) They serve the most delicious muffins! I personally ordered a dark chocolate mint oreo muffin with a hot creamy cappuccino. Yum!!

Café Gourmand

A 'café gourmand' is a very simple but great way to jazz up an espresso at the end of a meal and combine it with dessert. Last summer I went to the Café Japonais in Bordeaux with 2 of my friends and ordered the one below. Served with a beautiful green tea macaroon and other delicacies, this was simply de-li-cious!

An Italian touch in Ireland

Cooking is great when you have time in front of you but sometimes, simple but tasty ingredients put together nicely can do the trick! So why not try some tomatoes and mozzarella or a nice platter of cured meat with cheese, vegetables and baguette? So Italian, so French, so simple, so yum!

French Bahn Cuon (Vietnamese rolls)

One of my favourite dishes of all times and so easy to make: Bahn Cuon! This is a Vietnamese recipe taught by my grandma but instead of using rice flour to make those slimy, translucid and easily breakable crepes, we make regular French crepes and keep the same filling :)

Ingredients

- Crepes: Flour, egg, milk, unsalted butter and salt

- Filling: Mince pork, shallots, coriander (fresh and powder), 5 spice and black mushrooms

Recipe
- Prepare your crepes mix with the above ingredients, then keep in fridge
- Cook your mushrooms in a bowl of boiling water for 30 minutes, drain and rest
- Finely chop your shallots, cook in a pan along with the pork, coriander powder and 5 spice
- Put the mushrooms, the pork, fresh coriander in a mixer and blend for 3 minutes
- Reheat in a pot for 5 minutes, then rest
- Put your oven on at 150°
- Make your crepes in a flat pan
- Roll your bahn cuon with the pork filling
- Put in the oven for 20 minutes after covering with foil
- Dip them in nuoc-mâm or diluted sweet chili sauce

Fancy Christmas dinner 2010

Another fancy Christmas dinner this year where everyone gave a small hand for the cooking and a big hand for the eating :)

• Asian flavoured lobster amuses-bouche
• Grilled "Dukkah" oysters
• Roasted quails with chestnut puree and sweet potato crisps
• Frozen fruits and ice cream

Below, my usual Christmas food collage and my table decoration...

Beautiful food in the Maldives

I went to the Maldives early May this year and got to enjoy gorgeous food! Freshly caught fish was part of my daily diet but there is so much more than that! So many spices, so many vegetables and fruits... fresh food for high temperatures!! Just what I needed :)

Spicy thai beef salad with green papaya (above)

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(Below and in this order)

* The freshest sushi in the world

* Vegetable chapati rolls

* Coconut stewed tuna chunks

Hatsune!!

Voted best Japanese restaurant in the world by me, welcome to Hatsune! Located in the Chaoyang district, probably the most vibrant district in Beijing, Hatsune is a real hidden gem... and my friend Pat was kind enough to take me there for a feast!

Food is a real feast there and includes the usual miso soup, Sapporo beer but also some delicious deep fried chicken... Yummy! Special note for the "Motowhola" roll, one of the funkiest sushi ever made! More details can be found here.

Roasted tomatoes and basil bruschettas

A very quick and easy starter for real bread lovers...

Ingredients
- Fresh baguette
- Tomatoes on the vine
- Fresh basil
- Garlic
- Extra virgin olive oil

























Recipe
1) Slice some nice big thick pieces of bread
2) Brush some olive oil on both sides
3) Place in a medium heated grill pan
4) Roast some tomatoes in an oven tray
5) Mix the roasted tomatoes and basil leaves
6) Rub some garlic on your toasted bread
7) Spread the tomatoes and basil puree

Chorizo & mushroom risotto

If you like a chunky risotto with nice hearty flavours, this recipe is just for you...

Ingredients
- Risotto rice
- Variety of mushrooms
- Spicy chorizo
- Chicken and vegetable stock
- Truffle oil

Recipe
1)
2)...

Marinated monkfish "Caribbean-style", mango & caramelised onions

If you like asian fusion food combined with a high quality fish, this recipe is just for you! I have to admit that this recipe idea is not mine but my mum's... thanks mum for sharing your wisdom :)

Ingredients
- Monkfish
- Fresh mango
- Cucumbers
- Fresh mint leaves
- Red Onions
- Shallots
- Chives
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Limes
- Curry powder

Recipe
1) Mix some lime juice, soy sauce, olive oil, chilli sauce, garlic cloves and curry powder in a bowl
2) Add your chunks of monkfish and marinate for 30 minutes in the fridge
3) Prepare your cucumber, mango and onion chutney in the meantime mixing the rest of your ingredients

Peaches, mozza, rocket and parma ham salad

If you're looking for a summer salad with a twist using some nice fresh ingredients, this recipe is just for you!

Ingredients
- Ripe peaches
- Buffalo mozzarella
- Parma ham
- Rocket salad
- Fresh mint leaves
- Roasted pine nuts
- Extra virgin olive oil













Recipe
1) Place your rocket into a bowl and add your sliced peaches
2) Slice your mozzarella and season with salt & pepper
3) Add some chunks of parma ham
4) Roast some pine nuts into a pan with no butter or oil
5) Drizzle some olive oil

Scallops & mint pea puree

If you like seared scallops with a bit of a kick served with some fragrant traditional side dishes, this recipe is just for you!

Ingredients
- Medium-sized fresh scallops
- Spicy chorizo
- Baby potatoes
- Green peas
- Fresh mint leaves
- Single cream
- Unsalted butter













Recipe
1) Boil your peas and drain them
2) Reheat the boiled peas into a pot, add butter, single cream and mint
3) Blend the mixture until smooth and then season
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4) Boil your potatoes into a pot and drain them
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5) Pan-fry your scallops with some oil
6) Add your chorizo to the pan
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7) Serve the scallops and chorizo into a lettuce leave and add some chives
8) Pour your pea puree and add half a tomato for more colour

Chargrilled camarones... Olé! Oysters... olé olé!

I went to Portugal last week and after seeing the huge variety of seafood that they have over there, I got reminded of the huuuuuuuge prawns - aka "Camarones" - that my dad cooked on the barbecue last year, in August 2008.














They might have looked impressive but size doesn't matter with prawns and the taste was slightly disappointing :( The thing is, they don't come cheap and this dinner wasn't exactly "value for money" but it was definitely worth a try! At least for the pictures!!

Fortunately, we had thought of a back-up plan with some delicious oysters from the Bassin d'Arcachon... not all was lost ;P

No more Coke!

Only heavy Coca-cola drinkers can understand what I've been through when I took the decision to ban Coke from my life! With an average of 2 cans of Coke a day, I suddenly realised that this heavy consumption couldn't be good for my little body and this is exactly when I decided to quit! Yes, I did quit!! Now, if you look at the chart below, you'll see that in my case, there's absolutely no correlation whatsoever between my Coke intake and my weight loss! It's really sad but true!

The Food Network TV channel

In April this year I went to Saint Lucia in the Caribbean and finally got access to American TV where I found my dream TV channel: THE FOOD NETWORK (website). Basically, you can watch all sorts of cooking shows on this channel (live cooking, cooking competitions, cooking games, etc.) 24/7..! Trust me, when it rains in the Caribbean, it rains like hell and you're happy to have some comforting TV to watch :) If you ever get to watch this channel, I recommend taking a look at my personal favourites: anything featuring Bobby Flay (the US Gordon Ramsay), Chopped and Iron Chef.













Saint Lucia's mountains: the Pitons ("Gros Piton and Petit Piton")

Fancy Christmas dinner 2008

I went home to France that Christmas for a nice family dinner of 6 people. A divine menu had been designed... yummy yummy yummy!!

Setting: Chic dinner table

Appetiser: Duck meat bouchées














Starter: Fried rolls of langoustine

Main course: Crayfish/Langouste tail with steamed rice

Fancy Christmas dinner 2006

It was good to be back for Christmas this year as I was now living abroad. Comforting food and beautiful wines... what else do you need?

Setting: Nice table with Christmas decorations















Starter: Scallops and salmon caviar


















Main course: Crayfish/Langouste tail with steamed rice

Next day: Saint-Stephen's day feast