Photo/Andrey Armyagov/Shutterstock
It’s notoriously underrated, but the votes are in and everyone agrees: Iowa is an awesome place for traveling fun.What awaits you in the friendly Hawkeye State? We’ve rounded up some of the highlights for you!
Read my complete post at Miles Away.
The class, held at Rossopomodoro’s Chelsea location, turned out to be a lot of fun. After a long workday of sitting on my bum and staring at a screen, it was nice to use my hands to make something simple and yummy, socialise with some folks and enjoy a nice meal.
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The sausages are available at all UK Shake Shack outlets (there are four at the moment, three in London and one in Cardiff) as the main ingredient of two hot dogs: a Jimmy’s Farm Cumberland-Style Sausage Flat-Top Dog; and the ShackMeister Sausage, a flat-top Jimmy’s Farm Cumberland-Style dog topped with cheese sauce and crispy ShackMeister ale-marinated shallots.
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Photo by Marc Riboud courtesy of Thames & Hudson
I must admit I was impressed with the crisp definition and vivid spectrum of images on screen when I had a look-see at a recent “Window to the World” dinner at Bompas & Parr’s soon to wrap up British Museum of Food (which apparently was the only actual meal ever served during the museum’s run).
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The weekend of 29 January saw head chef Pascal Proyart of One-O-One Restaurant at The Park Tower Hotel in Knightsbridge making space in his kitchen for chef Mark Jordan of the Michelin-starred Ocean Restaurant at The Atlantic Hotel in Jersey. The duo were giving London foodies and hotel guests the chance to try a collaborative range of four, six, and eight-course sustainable seafood menus showcasing ingredients from Jersey alongside ingredients like seaweed butter and salt caramel from Pascal’s home, Brittany.
Read my complete post at Great British Chefs.
COMPETITION IS NOW OVER AND THE WINNER HAS BEEN CONTACTED. THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING TIKICHRIS. PLEASE STAY TUNED FOR LOTS MORE FUN AND FREEBIES TO COME!
Not yet available on the high street, Hansells’ easy-to-use yoghurt maker enables you to make your own homemade yoghurt. Not only is this more convenient than lugging tubs of yoghurt from the supermarket, the yoghurt you make will be fresher and contain more active live cultures than most store-bought yoghurts.
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In 2014, there were 262,240 marriages performed in the UK. Even if half of those couples opted not to have a traditional wedding cake served at their reception, that still leaves over 100,000 cakes to be baked and decorated. And for an upscale event in which the cake involves multiple layers and is heavily embellished, one cake can sell for as much as £1,000.
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It’s hard to imagine a landscape more dramatic than that of Namibia. Add to the scenery an amazing (and rather accessible) assortment of big game and wildlife. Then, lightly apply a sprinkling of well-maintained roads across the country to help folks get to its towns and settlements, best beauty spots, and welcoming network of bush camps and luxury lodges. If you like the idea of hitting the open road, experiencing true wilderness, seeing lots and lots of game, and still being able to take a hot shower and sleep in a comfortable bed every night, Namibia’s the place for you.
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Photo: Ksenia Novikova
Warm smiles, plenty of cozy sleeping bags and blankets, and heated areas made of less temporary building materials abound, to ensure you won’t freeze while having your frozen fun.
Read my complete post at OneTravel.
You might not realise it, but you undoubtedly have seen images of the famed (and huge) red sand dunes of Sossusvlei. Maybe you thought is was the Sahara, the American southwest or some other desert but it was this arid beautiful region of Namibia. A landscape photographer’s dream, the area didn’t teem with as much big game as other parts of the county. Still, spotting a sidewinder (with trained guide Forster at my side), eavesdropping on a pack of cape foxes with newborn cubs, being dazzled by a gazillion stars in one of the clearest, cleanest skies I’ve ever gazed upon – these were all experiences that made the end of my trip so extraordinarily memorable.
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Yeah, a $150 hardly adds up to a dream spree in London – especially when converted to pounds. For every dollar, I got £0.6216 – so, just under 100 quid. Regardless, the chance to breeze through town on somebody else’s dime wasn’t something I thought I should pass up. Besides, if anybody should be able to stretch £100 to great effect, it’d be a cheapskate like me.
So, I told ‘em to sign me up, and I’d have at it.
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The camp was a khaki canvas paradise of haute design fixed lightly to one of the world’s most desolate and pristine wilderness areas. Open just over a year, this fully solar powered joint venture between Wilderness Safaris and the neighbouring Conservancies of Anabeb, Torra and Sesfontein, was the very model for cutting edge – and sustainable – luxury.
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Photo: visuall2/Shutterstock
Let’s take a ride through our top 6 best biking destinations on the planet.
Read my complete post at OneTravel.
The four-hour drive from Andersson’s Camp to my next lodge, Doro Nawas Camp, was a delight. Most of the route was clean blacktop, but the last hour or so of the drive was dirt road – perfectly safe, utterly scenic and coupled with a feeling of being off the grid and completely out there.
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Luckily I didn’t have to wait long to find out. Soon after the Next Generation reveal, folks at HIE (part of InterContinental Hotels Group) got in touch to find out if I’d like to give Next Generation the once over at the Holiday Inn Express London in Ealing, West London.
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The drive took about five hours from Windhoek. The highway was well paved, straight as an arrow for much of the route and pretty much all mine most the way (save the occasional roadside warthog and baboon spotting).
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Bunny who? In case you’ve yet to get hip to this SA street food phenom, Bunnychow (the place, one word) serves bunny chow (traditional street food from Durban, two words). A “bunny” is a freshly baked bun hollowed out and “crammed” with hot fillings and topped with a bread lid (which serves as an excellent sopper-upper once you’re close to the bottom of your bunny).
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This was my first time in Namibia, but not the greater southern Africa region. I’ve been heading down to this gorgeous part of the world since the mid 90s (and even lived in Mozambique for about a year) – always encountering enthusiastic folks insistent that I get to Namibia but never quite being able to take them up on their advice.
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So far my illy Francis Francis Y3 iperEspresso Machine is proving to be a smart choice for my coffee cravings. It pulls a quality espresso at the touch of a button. And at just 10cm wide, it fits in my kitchen without taking up too much space. That’s not to say it isn’t noticeable though. The Y3 comes in black, white, lime, red and orange. I got the orange model to add a bit of colour to my home and have enjoyed catching glimpses of it throughout the day.
Read my complete post at espressoCrazy.
My blog is up for public voting in two categories: Travel and Food and Drink. There’s a ton of entries. I don’t think stand a chance. But, ya never know.
To vote for tikichris …
Click here:
http://blogawardsuk.co.uk/ukba2016/my-entry/tikchris#votenow
You’ll see a drop down menu with these options:
– Travel + Food and Drink
– Travel
– Food and Drink
I would appreciate it most if you could vote for that first Travel + Food and Drink option.
Voting for the 2016 UK Blog Awards is open from Monday 4 to Monday 25 January 2016 at 9pm.
To vote you’ll need to enter your name and email address. I hope that’s okay! Continue reading
COMPETITION IS NOW OVER AND THE WINNER HAS BEEN CONTACTED. THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING TIKICHRIS. PLEASE STAY TUNED FOR LOTS MORE FUN AND FREEBIES TO COME!
Formerly only available to buy in fine establishments such as The Ritz and Mews of Mayfair, Green & Pleasant lager, ale and cider is now available to buy online from green-and-pleasant.com with free delivery on orders of 12 or more bottles.
Let’s have a look at Green & Pleasant’s range of drinks:
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With four shops in Japan already under his obi, Ikeda explained to me that he felt it was time to expand his Wasokan vision with an outlet in Europe. Following visits in 2013 to London and Paris, he discovered interest in kimono, matcha, and all things Japan was especially high in London and decided the British capital was the place to start sharing his passion for wa no kokoro, the “spirit of Japanese harmony,” with the world.
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Annie Leibovitz WOMEN: New Portraits exhibition commissioned by UBS.Wapping Hydraulic Power Station. 16 January – 7 February © Martin Ruetschi
The groaning of the spindly stairs underfoot leads to a large floor plan of elderly red brick faces, peeling white paint, and unkempt hydraulic machinery in situ. This aged London power plant in the East End has become the spot du jour for artist exhibitions. A serious and transformative space, it lends a sense of history and gravity to the photographs that hang there today, lit by tall windows pouring in muted daylight – a London commodity. It seems fitting, then, that the current exhibition is a combination of the past and the present: WOMEN: New Portraits, by seminal photographer Annie Leibovitz.
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29 and 30 January, One-O-One Restaurant will see Proyart and Jordan team up to create a range of tasting menus of sustainable seafood dishes showcasing ingredients from Jersey such as fresh royal king crab, scallops and lobster, beef, halibut, and Jersey cheeses alongside ingredients like seaweed butter and salt caramel from Proyart’s home, Brittany.
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To be released 29 January in UK cinemas, Youth sees old pals Fred (Michael Caine) and Mick (Harvey Keitel) hanging out on holiday at an upscale spa hotel in the Swiss Alps. Both are nearing 80 and grappling with the fact that the best of their lives is behind them. There’s a calm charm to this movie about life’s golden years that’s beguiling and poignant, but it’s marked too often by cumbersome attempts to get its message across.
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He told us not to blow it ‘cause he knows it’s all worthwhile
Or at least I assumed that was what the report was about. The station was all-German (a legacy of Namibia’s colonial past) and the broadcast went something like this to my ears:
German German German David Bowie German German German Iggy Pop German German German Berlin German German German … German German German …
But, from the somber tone of the announcer and not being able to figure out why else there’d be a news update about Bowie, I surmised the worst must be true.
I looked around – nothingness everywhere – and had something of a Major Tom moment.
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Born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Vi brings to her table a chef’s background. She even co-owned her own Malaysian restaurant in Spain for five years with her husband (which she believes to have been the only Malaysian restaurant in the country at that time). Now living in London, she opens her home (a “characterful warehouse conversion” in central-ish east London) and occasionally other venues to the public for regular supper clubs featuring a range of dishes that celebrate the “gastronomic diversity” and “true fusion” of Malaysian cuisine.
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Want to know where you should eat next time you visit Dallas? We’ve got you covered. Bon appétit, y’all!
Read my complete post at Miles Away.
Wealth, sensuality, shopping, and scandal: ITV’s Mr Selfridge has been gripping British viewers for three seasons now, and on Friday, January 8th at 9pm, the series’ fourth and final season will premier. The period drama has been a roller coaster ride through war and romance, following the rise and fall of its titular character, the London retail magnate Harry Selfridge (played by Jeremy Piven).
Season 4 will feature what the Season 3 finale teased at: the arrival of the infamous Dolly Sisters, a pair of identical twin dancers who lit up the hearts and stages of Europe in the vaudeville days. Starring in the role of Jenny Dolly, a tragic and romantic figure that shapes the destiny of Mr. Selfridge and his brand, is Zoe Richards. The up-and-coming actress has tackled roles on the big screen from How to Become a Criminal Mastermind to Get Him to the Greek. For her dynamic return to television for this whirlwind part, I interviewed Zoe to discuss life on set, the rigours of acting as a career, and how she prepared for bringing Jenny Dolly’s rich and sensational story to life for millions of viewers.
The katana-wielding, poetry-writing actress dove right in, showing just much spirit and energy as Jenny herself.
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To help you browse Maddie’s Crete Eats posts, here’s a list with links to all of them:
Crete Eats
A Grecian Agro-Adventure
Fantastic Mastic!
In The Olive Grove
Cheesemaking at a High-Altitude Goat Farm
A Michelin Day In The Kitchen
Agro-Adventuring – Is It For You?
Round Up of Posts
Let me take a moment to describe what the landscape of Greece is like. Mountains topped with sun-spattered clouds, expanding towards the shining armor of the sea, dotted with greenery, with villages nestled into each crest and valley. I could understand why the ancients believed in Zeus and Hera: never had I be somewhere that looked more like an impressionist painting. A truly majestic spot, especially for lovers of ancient history.
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On my final day in Crete, I was transported from the field to the inside of a kitchen at restaurant Kritamon in the Archanes village with Michelin starred Chef Dimitris Mavrakis.
This is where my days of farming took root in culture and found some finesse. I learned that Cretan food of the type I’d been digging up and dining on all week is so healthy that it had been proven to help solve cardiac problems. I’d readily believe it, if the number of people over the age of seventy I saw jauntily climbing up mountains were any proof.
It’s the combination of olive oil, beans, and greens, greens, greens that really does it.
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In the high-altitude village of Krana in Mylopotamos, the baying of goats is a common sound. They are a shepherding people, in this part of Crete, and I had the honour and pleasure to meet Father Andreas Kokkinos, one such shepherd who would show me the ropes.
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Welcomed with warm Greek hospitality by the locals in the small Cretan village I’d be living in for five days, I admit, I was spoiled right off the bat. After a welcome meal of fava beans, sour beet root, lime fried mushrooms, tzatziki sauce and bread, dakos, and more (much, much more: the Greek way is all about small mezze taster dishes), I was left daydreaming about which was my favourite. Little did I know that olive oil would be the victor.
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