Warner Bros studio london

A note to myself to visit Warner Bros studio in London next time we are there. A just saw an Instagram photo of it and I think my kids would love it!

Tawa bakery

Places to try: a gluten free bakery in Abu Dhabi. Tawa bakery, Muneera Plaza, al Raha Beach.

A cafe for eating pies

Due to my looming international move I have been forced to sort through the pile of magazine cut outs. I stumbled upon an article about a pie restaurant from an estonian women's magazine Anne and Stiil. I have kept this article as I love the classical estonian and russian pies. Next time in Estonia this place is on my list of places to be checked out.

Cafe Nikolay

They have restaurants/ cafes in Moscow and Kiev and now also in Tallinn.

I wish they would deliver abroad....

Where to go in 2013

If you are lost for destinations, here is a nice place to start: the NYTimes 46 places to go in 2013

As my New Year's resolution included 'less travel', or more precisely, no travel on two consecutive weekends, I am carefully picking my destinations. Happy to see that my April's destination is at the top of the NYTimes list! In addition, with 7 already done that appear in the list, I have enough picks for the rest of the year from the 38 recommended places that I have not yet seen. I must say, the heart draws to Mongolia, especially as I have an open invitation to go there to visit my friend who just moved back home....hmmm....tempting.

But, we have our rough plans already done until August....

January: Estonia - my birthday celebrations
February: skiing in Megeve
March: Italy
April: Brazil! Rio, Sao Paolo, ...
May: Italy
June: - free -
July: Estonia and Greece

Silves restaurant

You see, I was on holiday...and this is why, for the first time in 6 months I had a chance to read How To Spend It completely with all the detail.

Sure enough, there was an article about the 2 Michelin star restaurants in Portugal...but these were not the ones that interest me. I am much more curios to visit the place the author mentioned in the very end of his article. Silves and the restaurant Restaurante Marisqueira Casa Velha - apparently a typical portuguese place with superb seafood. He recommends the wreckfish aka stone bass.

Will report back once I get my feet into Portugal.

Another one for the wish list - Marseille - Mama Shelter

I am trying to eliminate the newspaper cutouts in my household as they are making me claustrophobic. So here is another wish list entry - again from FT's How To Spend It.

Marseille - accommodation: Mama Shelter Marseille. Check out their website! Inviting! and still in my price range too - as there are plenty of other fabulous accommodations featured but way out of by price range and until now will stay out of my wish list.

Anyways, apparently, according to FT HTSI the lobby has a 4m long table-football game for up to 18 people.

And there is a Mama Shelter Paris too.

Paris - to do

I love reading the FT Weekend How To Spend It section.

I love the pretty things even though they have a price tag that is way out of my reach and sometimes I really wonder, who are these people who are buying these. Mostly I love the fact that even though the magazine is all about the best of the best, it is still humble.

One of my favourite sections of the magazine is Perfect Weekend and I am linking here Pierre Herme's Paris perfect weekend as I want to remember the places he talks about for next time we go to Paris. Enjoy.

Bouneweger Stuff

I find most cafes and bars in Luxembourg either boring or stuffy. Not at all the types of places you would like to hang out more than once. So I was interested to see in the Good Idea newsflash an ad for Bouneweger Stuff: Link here

Cannot wait to try it out!

Restaurants to try: Antwerpen

As usual, we turned to the NYTimes travel section when looking for travel tips and advice before our Antwerpen trip.I did not make it to all the restos they recommend so I quickly quote them here, as I want to remember to go there next time

This is from the article A Fashion-Forward guide to Antwerp: 

"Graanmarkt 13’s restaurant is overseen by the young, talented chef Seppe Nobels, who trained at Michelin star establishments (Graanmarkt 13; 23-3-337-7991;www.graanmarkt13.be). By day it serves country club food like caviar and club sandwiches; at night Mr. Nobels offers modern versions of European classics like beef carpaccio with foie gras and pork cheeks cooked sous-vide with spring vegetables.

Antwerp’s local fashion crowd and academy students tend to hang out and drink coffee at either Biologisch Dynamische Bakkerij (Volkstraat 17; 32-3-216-0042), a cozy organic bakery and cafe, or the Cafe ‘In de Roscam’ (Vrijdagmarkt 12; 32-486-425-606), which hosts a festive Sunday brunch.

Almost a year before the anticipated May opening of the Museum aan de Stroom, the museum’s ground-floor Storm cafe (Hanzestedenplaats 5; 32-3-231-4300; cafe-storm.com) started drawing crowds of locals curious to check on the building’s progress. And they keep returning — for the harbor views, tasty sandwiches and, on occasional Saturday nights, live music."

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised when now I saw from 'restaurants we recommend' in the NY Travel section Chez Fred being one of the 8 top restaurants and having a New York Times pick. Go Fred!  

La crêperie Breizh Café

So, we rented an apartment for the weekend in Paris and the owner said that we should go to this restaurant Chez Nenesse. I usually do not trust these types of recommendations from hotels and apartment owners who say jus to go there and say that Louis sent you. But the reviews of this apartment all spoke highly of the restaurant recommendations and we needed something early, quickly and without reservation so we thought to give it a try. Just to find out that it is closed for this weekend.

Having no idea where to go and no reservation for Saturday evening we decided to go into the first place that we like. Beggars can't be choosers. We stumbled upon a completely innovative idea of a brasserie of Bretagne cuisine with Japanese influence: La crêperie Breizh Café (109 rue Vieille du Temple, Paris).

Mostly it was crêps with different condiments - salty and sweet. The crêpes themselves were wholewheat and of a completely different texture than one would imagine from a French crêpe. Like they say on their business card: "a different crêpe, a tradition renewed, creative. The condiments almost always included an egg and then something.

P took "Payasenne" - a crepe with onions, egg, sausage, cheese and something else that we cannot remember. I took a daily special - it had chanterelle mushrooms, smoked duck, egg, cheese and cabbage. Both were absolutely delicious. But I rush ahead as I forgot to mention the fresh out-of-this-world Bretagne oysters that are delivered each morning and today at least tasted of heaven (and seawater). I must say that the presentation got high score too: on a bed of salt and crushed ice.

As for eating they stick to various variations of the crepe then to drink they stick to various variations of the cider and drinks made of or with cider. We took a carafe of cider and it came in a beautiful earthware carafe together with a japanese inspired cone earthware cup. Additionally I tried an aperitif of cider with strawberry liquor and it was delicious.

I wish we had, but we did no make it til dessert. Our neighbours did and as they basically licked the plate afterwards I feel safe to say it must have tasted good. You could pretty much see and hear everything your fellow patrons did because the place was incredibly small, cosy and tight, with wonderful lighting. I think only 15 tables. You'd think it could bother you but instead it felt nice and not intrusive at all. Our neighbours happened to be an elderly worldly couple who struck up a conversation with us immediately. We were lucky as it turned out that the lady knows the owners and she was able to give us the entire history plus a recommendation of a teeny tiny B&B that they run in Bretagne. The guy literally looked like he had just stepped out of a Woody Allen movie. He must of been at least 80 years old but I am pretty sure they were there on a date. They spoke french, italian and he spoke american english - we found out that he is a real old-school banker. Like the one they write books about.

I loved it there! But as a recommendation I think the mere fact that most (if not all) crepes had egg on them I would suggest going there for brunch instead of dinner.


PS. Also look for the Breizh Café in Cancale (7 quai Thomas) and their 4 bedroom hotel where the view is supposed to be spectacular over the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel. We certainly want to try once we go there.

The best restaurant in Germany?

I'd like to find out. Especially as I just read that Germany's prestigious gastronomic magazine "Der Feinschmecker" has given its top position to a restaurant that's just across the border from Luxembourg. Klaus Erfort restaurant in Saarbrucken already has 3 Michelin stars.

Need to hurry to get a booking!