Tropical Delights in Airport Departure Lounges

Mauritius as seen from a departure lounge

Mauritius, a cultural melting pot of intrigue and language and designer clothing stores. Well, at least thats the impression I got from being in the airport departure lounge for 3 hours during the 20 hour dual leg journey from Perth to London.

My first tastes of Mauritian food was a curried egg sandwich and a chicken omlette. Which tasted surprising like a regular curried egg sandwich. Although considering it was most likely made in Perth by Qantas catering, who handles the outgoing meals for a lot of other airlines, should not be too surprising.

Sadly I didn’t get to venture out into the day, which looked very mysterious and intriguing from inside the airport. Small birds flew throughout the terminal without anyone thinking it was weird, and although they say English is the main language, why the hell would you want to speak it, when you know French ?? Big points for French speaking Indian Mauritians, who seem to be one of the few Indian populations around to throw off the impossibly uncool accent.

Second leg of the journey out of Mauritius saw me eating a chicken chop suey and some form of little coconut sweet tart thing, as well as a cream cheese sandwich which was about as disgusting as it sounds.

The wine was good though… a couple of bottles of low grade Bordeaux (a white Chateau du Pin, and a red), kept me well plied and dehydrated, and the ‘tropical punch’ was much less punch and much more ‘straight rum in a glass with ice’.

Never fear though, this will not become a plane food blog. I’m safe and sound in London now, and have much exploring to do. Will update as i can, otherwise I hope you’re all well.

Slow Food – Asado las ovejas

Lamb The matriarch of cool

Take one ram lamb in the prime of it’s youth, one fire stoked up and a pile of hot embers, combine with rosemary and about 5 hours worth of cooking, and you have a recipe for deliciousness.

Add to that a group of wonderful food loving people who all bring things to eat and drink that they’ve either made or produced and you have the makings of a great day.

I’m very lucky to know some wonderful people. People that have introduced me to many great moments of eating pleasure. Ranking high on that list of late are the wonderful people at Slow Food Perth, and in particular their illustrious leaders Jamie Kronborg and Pauline Tresize.

I’ve lately enjoyed a day of truffle extravagance as Slow Food Perth hosted a truffle lunch at the Mundaring Truffle Festival, and then today was fortunate to be invited along for an Argentinian bbq up in the Perth hills.

No words and no time to describe it all, so take a look at the photos for what can only be described as a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Great food, great wine, great people… and 84 year olds wearing novelty glasses who give you hope that maybe you’ll be as cool as them one day :)

My next update will be from Europe… the countdown has begun.

Spring Cleaning

Suburbanist

I hate cleaning. I hate pretty much everything to do with cleaning, aside from the fact that at the end of the process, things are less dirty than they were at the beginning.

I’ve been running this blog for the past 3 years now… Without so much as a birthday or a blogiversary, or whatever the hell else people do to make a bit of fanfare. So I figured that with the changing of seasons, both climatically and philosophically, now was a good a time as any for a new coat of paint, and a bit of a polish.

So here it is. With very little mess and only a smidgen of fuss, my stirling graphic designer put together a new look and feel that I think captures the essence of the old one, but pulls it all together just that bit more. Veering scarily close to some kind of coherency of style that only my laconic wit and haphazard use of punctuation… will be able to keep in check ?

The new me

There’s still a bit of work going on behind the scenes and a few more changes to make, but I hope you can bear with me and that you enjoy the new style. A special thanks goes to Teresa, for putting together a lovely, simple, and ultimately very me new design.

Of course if you have any issues with it please let me know, but otherwise look forward to same level of lazy postings and slanderous reviewing as per normal :)