Goodbye 2009, Welcome New Decade 2010!

This this is our 2nd Christmas in London and we finally gathered enough friends to throw our very first house dinner party. We bought our Xmas tree, ordered our fresh turkey, leg of ham, bangers, pork pies, pudding, kris kringle and of course lots of booooozze! So much that SOME people didn't even make it through to desserts and kris kringle!

I say Trent is getting old. He can no longer handle his grog!!!

Nahm Restaurant

Having made his name at Darley St Thai then Sailors Thai in Sydney, David Thompson opened Nahm restaurant in London. This is the first Thai restaurant in Europe to achieve the prized Michelin star. A few of the group were great fans of Sailors Thai, providing much anticipation for the meal. Besides a few hiccups from the group eating the very very spicy chilli's, it was a great meal. Though, I am sure you could have got something of similar standard from Surry Hills for a lot less.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Being inspired by Nigella's Xmas specials, we got into the festive spirit by hunting for our first real Xmas tree.

Early Xmas Present

We finally joined the band wagon and got ourselves a Wii. The reasoning behind it is that we can use Wii fit to exercise and avoid the cold and miserable English winter. We did also get the new Super Mario Bros. to revive our long lost skills and memories.

Morocco - Marrakech

Most of our time was spent in Marrakech. Being lured by the colour and culture presented on the travel shows, it was a must go on our list. After arriving, it was a constant frustration of having to be hassled by the locals with Japan? Chinois? Korean? Having got past that, the highlights were the Souks, food markets, and the little alley ways showing the decades that have passed them by. It was an eye opening experience, but we don't think that we will be back in a hurry.

Morocco - Atlas Mountains

Taking advantage of one of the 320 days of sunshine per year, we headed 2 hours south to the Atlas mountains. The hike in the mountains were slow going as we had to scale rock faces to reach the lookout over the waterfalls. The view was a perfect reward for the group of us.

Morocco - Essaouria

The sights, smells, and sounds of Morocco were quite overwhelming and only to be taken in small doses. After landing in Marrakesh we were presented with a car that does not inspire confidence "Dacia Logan". Might I add that Dacia comes from Romania! After nearly 3 hours of following the behinds of donkeys that were carrying 10 times their own weight we made it to the port town of Essaouria. The smell of leather in the air, the bustling markets, and goats left right and centre was what turned out to be the subtle welcome to Morocco. The next day was in stark contrast with only the sounds from tourists. We discovered that it was a Muslim holiday and realised that the smell of wood fires were yesterday's goats.

Move Over Chicken

Trent's famous roast chicken is now 100x better using the Guinea Fowl! The aroma, texture and taste is so much more fragrant and juicy...MmMMmmmm....I dont think the roast chicken will ever be the same!

Piedmont - Truffle Hunting and Wine Festival

After our visit to Piedmont in Easter we knew we had to be back to hunt for the prized tartufo bianco (white truffles) in the autumn. Throwing away all concern for finances, we booked ourselves into La Villa and it had the feel of the Cheers bar where everyone knew your name. We absolutely loved it! We had planned the long weekend as such that we could do some truffle hunting with Mario and his dog Rocky for one day and the other would be boozing up at the Costiglione Barbera wine festival.

Birthday Dinner at Tom Aikens

Another year passes as I edge towards 30. It has been another great year, and anxious to see what the next year has installed for me. To mark this milestone, we had a last minute detour to the 1 star michelin restaurant Tom Aikens situated near Sloane Square. We were very impressed with the restaurant surpassing our expectations and has our personal ranking above some 2 star michelins. The food was all well balanced with complex flavours to tantalise the palette and the service attentive and friendly. Our menu consisted of;

Starters: Roast langoustine, braised pig cheeks with ginger sauce; Pan fried foie gras with roast apples

Mains: Roast turbot, sorrel leaf, samphire, confit of chicken, chicken and olive oil sauce; Seasonal game of venison with beetroot risotto and shallots

Desserts: Warm rice pudding with poached pear; Jasmine brulee with chocolate mousse.

You can see by the menu, we were stuffed by the end and had to take our petit four on the doggy bag. Unfortunately, we did not have our camera with us to share some of the experience.

Quiet Weekend

It was a nice sunny London saturday and with no specific plans for the weekend, we enjoyed a late lunch at Sloane Square. The area is always so poshy, mothers in Range Rovers, chauffeured Bentleys and today we saw a SLR McLaren.

On a different note, we did our usual supermarket run and Trent found a potato almost the size of his head! Check this out...

Amsterdam

After a overnight pitstop in Brugge to stock up on some chocolate truffles...mmm... we drove up to Amsterdam. We ticked the box for all the must see things but maybe not did everything we saw... hmmm... We went to the Van Gogh or pronounced Van Gockkk museum, Anne Frank's House, ate poffertjes, saw the tranny's, girlies, and dirty old men in the red light district, saw the coffee shops that strangely did not seem to sell coffee, went dutch on the bill, and tried the dutch oven, plus even had time to see some windmills on the way back to Calais. Too much to report, but here are a couple of pics as it is now 1am in the morning before the start of another work week.