Revisiting Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham

I am staying in Gloucester these days so I took my opportunity to have dinner at Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham one evening. My booking was for 8pm. I arrived in Chelthenham at just before 7pm so I took a walk around the high street. Sadly, most of the shops were closed and I was dragging my laptop and my files with me, so I went in at 7:25pm and asked them (nicely) to let me in!

There were a group of old men and ladies celebrating a birthday, a family with 2 teenagers (I asked myself, "will they appreciate the food"), two couples on a date and a table with a businessman and a businesswoman. Then there is me. I was dining alone so they were thoughtful enough to let me sit in a corner, looking out to the rest of the dining room and the street. I had a good time watching other diners :-)

The restaurant is famous for traditional French cooking. The ingredients are generally in season and mostly local. It does not serve very fancy food, but it's just simple food to fulfill the soul (and fill the stomach!). It happens that my soul need some serious fulfilling, so I made my orders very quickly.

Appetiser of sour cream mousse with green pea and vegie froth

The bacon and shallot bread topped with black sesame is just as good as last time!

Seared dived Shetland scallops with cauliflower puree and cumin froth

The scallops appear to be smaller than last time. But the taste is still good. There are shreds of apple to add some sweetness and texture to the dish.

Lamb with roasted caramelised onions and cepes. The lady informed me that the lamb will come in 'pink'. I told her that it can come in red, because I love raw meat. hehehe.. so it came out medium rare.

A close-up. The sauce is excellent. It has the perfect consistency and taste!

As I said, these are not very fancy food but the chef has done a great job in turning some excellent ingredients into some very very good dishes.

The restaurant has retained its two Michelin-starred status again in 2008 and I can definitely see why. I will be going back there in a couple of weeks. I hope they have changed their menu then. But if not, I will probably have the same thing again!

Morocco trip, Dec 2007 - Eating out at the Djemaa el Fna square

When walking around the Djemaa el Fna square, it's hard to resist the urge to eat.

They have a range of things on offer: from simple things like nuts, orange juice, hot soup, mint tea to kebab, sheep's head and snails.

A person selling nuts. The vendors in the square are generally quite 'agressive'

and very efficient too!

'brochette', which are like kebabs.

The square at night. It is just one big food market!

Snail soup. It is a very popular snack.

There are a few stalls which does all kind of grilled things. You have to bargain your way though. If not, they will charge you by the 'menu' prices, which are inflated just for the tourists!

Us, enjoying our meal. Everyone just sit at long, communal tables, shared by tourists and locals alike.

Harira, a Moroccan soup made with saffron, rice, beans and bits of meat and thickened with flour and tomato paste

Close-up of the soup

We also enjoyed the very cheap orange juice. Freshly squeezed, and only 3 dirhams (approx. £0.20, €0.26, AUD$0.42) each. If you can overlook the fact that the glasses aren't cleaned properly, it's all good. We certainly had high doses of Vit C during our stay in Marrakech!

Mint tea with dates. In Moroccan culture, genuine hospitality comes with a glass of hot mint tea. If you don't have any local friends...

then you can buy them from the stall, sit at the long tables and pretend you are occupied (like SP did)!! :-) Look at the blocks of sugar! It is bigger than a mahjong!

Morocco trip, Dec 2007 - The Djemaa el Fna and the Marrakech souk

Djemaa el Fna (جامع الفناء) is a square and market place in Marrakesh's Medina quarter (old city). The square is edged along on one side by the Marrakech souk, which is subdivided into specialised 'quarters'. The bits closest to the square are more popular with general tourists and this is where you can find shops selling a whole heap of non-essential (read: useless) items such as canary-yellow slippers (babouches), giant brass platters and colourful lanterns.

It is a busy place. During the day, you will see water sellers in costumes, snake charmers, story-tellers, magicians, dancers and lots of tourists. As it gets dark, local people start to turn up for the dozens of food-stalls. More on that in a later post.

On our way to the square...

We were obviously tourists. So, we were constantly bothered by the people. This snake charmer came around, put a snake around my neck and then said he wants €10. We gave him some coins. These people are just plain greedy. So beware!

SP took this photo while the accomplices of the snake charmers were bothering other tourists

Parts of the square has turned into fun fair stalls! The idea is that if you can 'loop' the soft drink bottle towards you, then the bottle becomes yours. No easy.

The shops lining the edge of the square are definitely touristy. They will try anything to get you into the store

I saw a fair few tourists dragging lanterns around the square. I am not quite sure how they were planning to bring these back home. They are very fragile and some of them are quite big!

These key rings are much more portable, but then, it's useless.

Then, there are the ceramics. The local style is plain terracotta glazed in bright colours. I fear that the ceramics that they are selling here are more for decorative purpose only.

Down one of the 'street' in the souk

Carpets and leatherware.

Colourful slippers and shoes

A nice arch in the background

A vendor selling paintings. You have to be very careful when buying paintings, as some of them are printed

Cello day!

It's cello day again! It happens to be a sunny day so SP took photos of Valerie and I.

Huntley & Palmers Chocolate Olivers

It was a stressful day at work on Wednesday. So when I finished, I went to Waitrose to find some comfort food. First, I found that they finally stock cured salmon, so that was a STRONG/ DEFINITE BUY. Then, I went to the biscuit department to find some sugar fix.

The biscuit selection is great. There were a few chocolate biscuits which caught my eyes. It was going to be a tough decision. Then, suddenly, a marketing line caught my eyes. It reads something like "John Lennon of the Beatles used to love these biscuits". Well, if it is good enough for John Lennon, it should be pretty good. So, in less than 10 minutes, I have made my decision! That was quick by my standard!

The biscuit was indeed very good. There are actually more chocolate than biscuit. The sugar level is at a staggering 34.2%! It is very rich too so I can only take a couple at a time. They do tastes very good though.

After a bite. The biscuit bit is very thin, but it is very firm

Good food always motivates me to research. The biscuit that I bought was from Huntley & Palmers and they are called chocolate olivers.. So I looked it up on Wiki, it reads: "Huntley & Palmers WAS [hmm... this doesn't look right] a British firm of biscuit makers based in Reading, Berkshire. The company created one of the World's first global brands and ran what was once the world’s largest biscuit factory..... [In 2006,] a business of the same name has recently been re-established in Sudbury in Suffolk....."

Well, John Lennon wasn't around in 2006. So, I have bought a fake!! Well, not exactly, as I do more research, I found that the same patented recipe is still being used. What's the secret? Apparently, it's a hint of hops and malt with good quality dark chocolate.

What about the original Huntley & Palmers? It was a very famous company! It was founded in 1822. Initially the business was a small biscuit baker and confectioner shop at number 72 London Street. At that time London Street was the main stage coach route from London to Bristol, Bath and the West Country. His shop was directly opposite one of the calling point so he was making good money selling biscuits and confectionery. Because the biscuits were vulnerable to breakage on the coach journey, he started putting them in a metal tin. He was one of the first people to use tin for food packaging and the old tins are popular collector's item these days.

The tins also proved to be a powerful marketing tool. The company won many gold awards at trade fairs in the decades before and after 1900. During that time, Huntley & Palmer's biscuits and logo came to symbolise the commercial power and reach of the British Empire in the same way that Coca Cola did for the United States!!! The tins went everywhere, including the heart of Africa and mountains of Tibet. The company even provided biscuits to Captain Scott during his ill-fated journey to the South Pole.

It is nice to find out about the history of this company. I went to the Museum of Reading website and found some of the pictures of the old tin. They are indeed very beautiful and very English. I am all against collecting things but I can understand why people would like to collect these tins.

For more information:

Official web site of the re-established Huntley & Palmer's business
http://www.huntleyandpalmers.com/

Web site of the Huntley & Palmer's Collection at the Museum of Reading
http://www.huntleyandpalmers.org.uk/

Los Angelas, CA, USA

The trip to US in January '08 was a business trip. The objective of the trip was to integrate two of the best money transfer system in the world, so we can have one best system. Yes, you heard it right, we going to kick Western Union, Money Gram and REA's butt big time......for those who is reading this blog, its time for you to load up CSTR.

I wasn't expecting much personal time to travel around LA since I'll be hammered with meetings and questions. So I thought, I better get some sleep on the plane while I can. Luckily the AA passenger check-in officer was a lady and she has a really funny northern Italian ascent, nothing similar to Fab's from Bella Baita. I thought this is my only opportunity to chat her up and hopefully she will be upgrade me to business class. Well, to cut the story short, I think she is still head over heals with the previous passenger and I only manage to get a seat by the emergency exit.

It was my first time to the United States. I have heard a lot of horror stories about not to joke around at the customs. Well, if you know me long enough, I will not hesitate to open my mouth when given a chance. Luckily, the custom officer is a guy this time!

I think the customs officers at the LA airport must be on strike that day, it was the first time in my life I'm starting to appreciate the efficiency of Heathrow airport! Mr JB was waiting for me at the arrival hall. Poor guy, he must have waited for hours. As the Brits put it, he's nice chap.

During the trip I met a lot of good and friendly people in GPX which I will be working with closely with in the foreseeable future. Of course, I cannot name their names on this blog, but let them known as the Feather boys from ST! Sorry, cannot name their company, otherwise, it might affect their IPO later in the year.

Apart from working late (or to be exact, early in the morning) we had a very good time. Thanks to Mr JB, the feather boys and I, we've tasted some traditional Mexican food, true American style one pound burger, the original Peruvian food, not so traditional Japanese & Thai food, local oaky Pinot Noir, nice steaks but won't allow to serve bleu...sigh and drinking beers in American pubs. Apart from tasting different type of cuisines, I've managed to learn a pick-up word from the gang. I will definitely need to try it out and see if I get a kiss or a slap in the face!

In term of shopping. I was well informed by Ms JK where to get the stuff she wanted. That wasn't an easy task if it wasn't for Mr RD (To get from one place to another in LA, you really need to know where you are going on the spaghetti highway). Another nice chap, drove me around each day and I couldn't think of a way to repay him but to get him breakfast and extra diluted coffee each day from you know where. I wasn't stingy or anything but that was the most decent place to get coffee around the neighbourhood. I need to get triple shots to actually taste some coffee. Sigh.....

Above all, my biggest achievement while I was in LA was getting one of this.....


to serve and cook for my Ms JK with alot of yummy food! It will be my star helper when I cook her a 4 course meals, 3 Michelin stars quality dinner tomorrow!

Salisbury trip, Feb 2008 - Lunchtime tour of Salisbury

I have been working in Salisbury today. Last time I was here, I didn't had time to look around so this time round, I spent my lunchtime walking around the city (and tried to eat lunch in 10 minutes!)

Many many year ago, the location was chosen for a settlement because of the abundance of water. Rive Avon still run very close to the city today and it is surrounded by beautiful parks and recreational areas. I think this is a great city for people with young children.

Salisbury is a beautiful city. The city itself is a mix of brick, stone and timber framed buildings dating from medieval and Victorian times. It is almost a town, except that it has a cathedral and that makes it a city.

High Street Gate.

The other side of the gate.

The gate leads to the Cathedral Close, which has some very grand and beautiful homes! I was told that the former British prime minister Sir Edward Heath had a home here.

The tallest building in this photo is the Mompesson House. It is an example of architecture from the Queen Anne period and it was built for Charles Mompesson (a local Member of Parliament) in 1701. It is now in the hands of the National Trust.

The fields belong to the Cathedral and they are not going to build anything on it. So, these homes effectively have the best views! The building on the right is the North Canonry. It is largest Tudor domestic building in the city and the only building directly fronting onto the West Walk.

Here is the Great West Front of the Salisbury Cathedral. The cathedral is the only English cathedral built in one style. It was also built within one century with no substantial additions later on (which is quite rare!) The Cathedral also houses the best preserved Magna Carta (AD 1215) and Europe’s oldest working clock (AD 1386).

The beautiful cloisters.

The Chapter House on the right and the South transept on the left.

The Cathedral celebrates the 750th anniversary in 2008 (completed in 1258). I am really quite impressed by its history. However, according to my taxi driver, it has been undergoing restoration for more than 10 years, so it has had scaffolding around it for a long long time.

The 404 foot spire is the highest in Great Britain.

The weather was wonderful today and it was a nice walk around the city. The people are all very nice. This city is within short distances to the Stonehenge so if you are ever visiting Stonehenge, you might want to drop by.