The Oyster Box- A touch of old world class

 I remember years ago as a child, going to the Oyster Box for numerous family  lunches.At the time we were living in Johannesburg and made the trek to Durban every holiday we could.
I never really associated particularly good food with the Oyster Box but fun times with my family. But I suppose how much does a child remember about fine dining?

I hadn't been to the Oyster Box in quite a few years when I heard it was revamped a while back. I was really intrigued to see how much of my childhood memories of the Oyster Box had remained intact and how much of the hotel had been changed.
When I went back a mere few weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised at how they had appreciated the history of the hotel by keeping certain fittings but dramatically changing others to really give it an almost palatial refinment.

As I walked in to the hotel, I felt like an old hollywood movie star ( Well in my mind I did). The interior is breath taking, with a distinct colonial spin on certain elements.

 To reintroduce myself to the Oyster Box, we went to have a drink at the Lighhouse Bar. The view is amazing looking over the ocean and it's peaceful serenity. Our waiter was completely professional, taking our orders accurately, seeing to us when he saw fit but also leaving us in peace when we were in the midst of a big conversation ( or gossip whichever way you look at it).
I ordered a Bellini, which in this case was peach liquer topped off with champagne. It was very tasty and I savoured every delectable sip, but I am a complete sucker for champagne or any sparkling wine varieties. ( It must be the old hollywood in me).

I perused the menu for snack items they had in store. The menu is nice with a variety of pate's, ploughman's platter etc. What I would like to see however and perhaps they have these at the other bars at the Oyster Box are canape platter's you could order for the table. If I could have ordered a platter of smoked salmon blini's with my bellini I would have been the happiest person around.
I suppose I will have to drink a few more glasses of champers at the Oyster Box other bars to find out!
Let me know what your experience's have been like at the Oyster box.

Happy Dining x

Jooma- a new kind of coffee shop

I have been a Kloofian for a while now and have frequented the same coffee shops for what seems like an eternity. So imagine my delight when I discovered Jooma a new coffee shop in Village Rd, Kloof.

This is a coffee shop with a difference, you order at the counter, so no waiting around for a waiter to serve you. You are the proactive participant in this piece, which is quite refreshing.

All the coffee favourite are on the menu as well as some delightful baked treats displayed in a beautiful window with chalkboard labels to give it a continental touch.
I opted for the latte and a bacon & mozzarella muffin. I must say I was not disappointed, the coffee was the perfect balance for me. Not too milky or too strong. I am a relatively new coffee connoisseur. I only bought myself a one cup coffee plunger about two weeks ago! Terrible I know but tea was my tipple before discovering the wonders of good coffee.

The muffin was good, it had no hint of that horrible raising agent taste some coffee shop muffins have. My only slight criticism is that  I would have loved a little more bacon but that's just me. I also enjoyed the addition of onions, which in my opinion makes anything a more pleasurable eating experience.

Another great achievement by Jooma is their staff. They are knowledgeable, capable in their coffee making craft and helpful to their customers. This was highlighted by the fact that my sister is gluten intolerant and we asked one of the staff members if they had anything gluten free, unfortunately they didn't at the time but are really looking into gluten free items for those that can't enjoy a muffin as I did.

So if you fancy a different kind of coffee shop experience, pop into Jooma. Let me know what you think!

Until the next delicious dalliance.
x

"La isla bonita- my version of a spanish chicken stew"

This recipe evolved from a "what's left in my fridge, cupboard scenario". I knew I felt like something a little spicy but also hearty & soothing. With this in mind I conjured up "La Isla Bonita"

Here is the recipe:

4 chicken breasts, sliced into thirds

2 red onions, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic

1 red pepper

½ a chorizo sausage, sliced

1 bay leaf

1 chilli, deseeded and diced

2 tins of tomatoes

100ml white wine

Italian parsley

1 cup polenta

1/2cup milk

Chicken stock

A knob of butter

1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese

 Season the chicken breasts. Heat a pot to medium heat. Brown chicken breasts, set aside

In the same pan. Saute onion, then pepper and garlic until soft. Follow this by adding your chorizo and chilli, fry for a couple minutes until the chorizo exudes it's natural oils.

Deglaze with white wine to get all the delicious flavour out of the pan. Return the chicken back to the pot. Add your tinned tomatoes and bay leaf. Remember to season during each step of the stewy process.

Simmer for 20 minutes.

For the polenta

Heat your chicken stock & milk in a pot. Then slowly start adding your polenta whisking frequently. Once it starts getting beautifully thick and gloopy and not grainy; take it off the heat. Then add your butter and Parmesan; stirring until melted into the polenta.

Spoon your polenta into a bowl, top with your stew and scatter over chopped parsley. Coriander would work equally as well.

I do hope that when you need some spicy upliftment you will think of "La Isla Bonita"

"You can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man"

There is something so fascinating about gingerbread men. You bake them and they come out looking merely like oddly shaped cookies. Once you start icing them however they start to build character and have very human elements to them. That is why it's so fascinating that people are sometimes rather sadistic in the way they consume these little gingerbread men.

Have you ever noticed how people relish biting off the head off these fun little treats? It's very similar to the jelly babies fate unfortunately. Whichever way you eat them either kindly or cruelly, they are such fun to make. You can also use them as bases to create an array of characters, a cow perhaps or a jolly santa claus for the upcoming festive season? The options are endless. I shall give you the first building block with my ever so simple gingerbread man recipe, here it is:

Ingredients:

125g butter, at room temperature

90g brown sugar

2/3 cup of syrup

1 large egg

380g cake flour

10ml ground ginger

5ml mixed spice

5ml bicarbonate of soda

1. First step is to cream the butter and sugar together. Do this for about 5 minutes so it's light and fluffy.
2. Add a pinch of the flour, the egg and syrup beat until it mixed.
3. Add all your dry ingredients and beat until it forms a nice dough.
4. Clingwrap your dough and let it chill for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.
6. Roll out dough and cut out your little men or women on a lightly floured surface.
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes until they are beautifully golden and your kitchen smells glorious.

Wait for the little dears to cool and decorate to your hearts content. I have a great royal icing recipe that I found trawling the internet one day for a royal icing recipe that is good, easy and you can pipe beautifully with it. I have found the trifecta of royal icing courtesy of the domestic goddess herself, the divine Nigella Lawson.

Here is the recipe:

2 egg whites

3 cups of icing sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon of lemon juice

1. Place all ingredients in a mixer and whisk for 5 minutes or until gloriously glossy and thick. Colour to your whimsy and decorate away.

Where is our Barefoot Contessa, Nigella or Donna?

Every morning without fail I get up at 5am to start my day. My little rituals in the mornings start with grabbing a cup of coffee and watching an episode of Barefoot Contessa. I love her relaxed way of cooking and entertaining, her cheerful demeanour is a delight to wake up to every morning. But alas sometimes Food Network does show episodes I have watched, which is why I am delighted that BBC lifestyle will be showing Nigella Lawson's new show Nigella Kitchen, I am ever so excited!

Another doyenne of the food world I absolutely adore is Donna Hay, I buy every issue of her magazine at my local C.N.A, with import costs it's super expensive but so worth it! She is the master of food styling and fresh flavours.

All three of these women are such inspiration to inspiring cooks coming up the ranks, so my biggest question is why oh why don't we have some culinary superstar with global success coming from our shores?

It's slowly starting to happen with great shows by Justin Bonello and the delightful ladies on Charly's Cake Angels but I need a show that is in the same vein as Barefoot Contessa etc.

I believe the passion here in South Africa for good food is as strong as any other country, our produce is great (well most of the time anyway, unless it's exported overseas) If we did have people that had the same prestige as these women, there would be a culinary revolution. People would no more tolerate crappy food or even worse service  just because it's the restaurant they always go to, tastebuds would come to forefrunt, more people would cook, the sun would shine, there would be smiles all around and even world peace! ( Okay perhaps I'm pushing it with world peace, but hey it could happen right?)

So I implore all the television stations to invest in finding charismatic passionate foodies to cook for South Africa! But please oh please do not put a generic South African celebrity in front of the screens that has a mild interest in food, we need someone fresh and actually knowledgeable about food.

Perhaps in the near future I will be waking up to watch an episode of our very own domestic goddess? That's the kind of world I want to live in.

"Fancy a meatball? or Perhaps a kofta would suit?

This is probably only the second time I have ever made a kofta in my kitchen. The first time didn't work out as great as this delightful meal. It was a good few years ago when I was a newbie to cooking. I didn't bind the meat well enough to the wooden skewer and I tried to fry it at an extremely high heat, I also didn't soak the wooden skewers in water to prevent burning. Needless to say it was a total disaster. But all mistakes are made to be learnt from, therefore with a few more years of foodie wisdom behind me, I decided to make Kofta's once more. I relied more on my instincts and made up my own little recipe, which worked out really well.
Here is the recipe for this delightful middle eastern dish.

Lamb Kofta, served with thyme flatbread, minted yoghurt and a butternut, beetroot and cranberry leaf salad

5ml dry yeast

300ml warm water

500g bread flour

1/4cup olive

1 teaspoon of dried thyme

900g cubes of Deboned leg of lamb, minced

1/2cup fresh coriander

Salt and pepper

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2 tablespoons chopped mint

1 cup of plain yoghurt

Butternut, chopped into small cubes

Salt and pepper

Finely sliced beetroot

Cranberry salad leaves (find it at woolies)

1. For the thyme flatbread: Pour the warm water and olive oil in a bowl. Mix the thyme,flour and yeast together. Add the dry ingredients to the oil and water, knead for 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place in an oiled bowl, clingwrap and leave in a warm place for an hour.  Divide dough into 8 portions and roll into a circle, 1/2 cm thick. Heat a griddle pan. brush the dough with oil and fry for 2 minutes a side.
2.  Firstly put your wooden skewers in water to soak. Then put the lamb in a processor and blitzed until minced. Add the coriander, seasoning, cumin and coriander & blitz again. take portions of the seasoned minced and shape around the wooden skewers. Pour a little olive oil over them and grill for 15 minutes.
3. For the sides, mix the mint and yoghurt together. Grill the butternut with a little cumin for 20 minutes until golden, toss with the salad leaves and beetroot.
4. Serve and enjoy!

For the carnivores

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day in Durban. It was with a sense of relief that I awoke at the crack of dawn to a stunning sunrise eclipsing my garden in a ray of orange glow. It made get excited about the forthcoming summer, the braai's, laughs and eating bonanza that will inevitably happen.

 To pay homage to this ever increasing feeling of euphoria I decided to make nicely seared porterhouse steak (Man were those steaks massive, that's the slight downside of buying age matured vacuum packed steaks, you don't realise the whopper of beef you just bought!), with a chimichurri sauce, creamy leaks with bacon and to top it all off, pink fir potatoes sauteed in butter.

I discovered pink fir potatoes in the veggie aisle at my local woolies. I love it when they put new produce in the aisles, it's similar to how fashionista's must feel when a new range comes out. These knobbly little potatoes are great because their skin is thin, so there really is no need to peel them, they are great sauteed or simply boil and tossed into a salad.

So moving on with the show here is my recipe for my tuesday night dinner

Pan fried steaks with chimichurri sauce, sauté potatoes and creamy leeks with bacon

Ingredients

Two porter house steaks

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

2 cups of parsley

4 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon of dried oregano

1 cup of olive oil

Zest of one lemon

3 tbsp of white wine vinegar

Salt and pepper

200g fir potatoes

Butter

Olive oil

Rosemary

4 rashers of bacon

5 leeks

a knobButter

dash of Cream

1. Let's start with the Chimichurri sauce. Simply put your parlsey, garlic, oregano, olive oil, lemon zest, vinegar, salt and pepper in a food processor and blitz. Easiest steak sauce ever!
2. Then take your potatoes, halve them and pop in them into a pot of salted water and parboil them for a couple minutes. Drain your potatoes, heat your butter and oil in a pan, then saute the potatoes and rosemary until they are gloriously golden.
3. Onto the creamy leeks.  Fry your bacon in a pan until crispy, drain on kitchen paper. In the same pan heat your butter, add the leeks until soft. Add your dash of cream, simmering for a few minutes, then add your bacon.
4. Now get your steaks, season liberally and oil the steaks not the pan. Heat your griddle pan to quite a high temperature. Sear your steaks, two minutes a side. Put the steaks in a roasting pan with a knob of butter on each, place in a 200 degree celcius oven for 7 minutes. Take out and rest.
5. Now put all your yummy components onto a plate & enjoy!

Pop goes the Kloofians

This past saturday I was fortunate enough to attend the Durban Pops hosted by the Kloof Rotary. It is a rare occasion when I get the chance to remove my flour covered apron and get really "dolled up", so I was glad that the red dress that has been staring at me out of my wardrobe had a chance to shine.
The Durban Pops is an event based on the Boston Pops in the states. It combines classical music played beautifully by the KZN philharmonic orchestra, and more contempary music together. The contempary vocals were provided by Catherine Lin, Makhadze Baloyi and Oshry Msizi Hadebe, they are all still in High School and damn can they sing! Pretty darn impressive if I do say so myself.
Now for the most important part of any evening is the food which was provided by Eat Greek. Due to the large amount of people that attend the Pops and the lack of a fully fitted kitchen, the food is served cold.

The starter was fresh poached hake with a light passion fruit sauce on an avocado cream, topped with a smoked salmon tartar and a lid of puff pastry.
The presentation was really well executed, I also liked the fact that the plates were so clean ( see how the plate is glistening in the light, brilliant!)
Unfortunately flavour wise the light passion fruit was not that light and it encompassed most of the flavour overshadowing the more subtle flavours such as the avocado and hake.

The main was chicken thighs filled with spinach and feta with a sundried tomato sauce, served with crunchy coleslaw and a combination or roast poatoes, butternut and sweet potato.
I enjoyed the main, I thought the flavours were good and enjoyed the addition of rocket.

After the mains and a few more songs we were treated to a cheese board with an array of dairy delights ( You know how much I love cheese)
The highlight however of all this was most certainly the cocktail kataifi's ( kataifi's are pastries made with shredded phyllo pastry soaked in syrup with almonds)
They were simply scrumptious and ending the great evening on a good note.

As I write this I am back in my flour and sugar coated apron dreaming of the next time I get to don a fancy dress and enjoy an evening of culture, only another year to go!

Foodie out. x

"Leave the gun, take the cannoli"

In the early hours of saturday mornings, when all the darling people of Durban are slumbering peacefully in their beds ( Well most of them anyway, apart from the nightclubber, joggers and cyclists), us dear folk that have stalls at the Shongweni Farmer's Market go about merrily setting everything up for our customers. Waking up at three thirty on a saturday morning is still quite a surreal experience. You still go about your morning rituals, but at a far earlier time. Such as checking your facebook and seeing friends statuses posted a mere hour before commenting on their fun night out. I then get my coffee, say hello to the cat, Thomas Tonks 'O Malley aka Shmanky or Winston Churchill and then watch an episode of Barefoot contessa (Love you Ina Garten!)
This morning Ina was making mexican chicken soup and corn bread and even at four in the morning I was jonesing for a square of that golden cornbread.
Leaving the house at five am to get to the maket on time this morning, the sun was rising emitting a radiant glow that can't help but put you in a great mood. I was ready for another great day at the market!

I love the whole ritual of laying everything out at my stall. Setting up the tables, lining the trays with Chelsea Buns, Cannoli's  (Cannoli's are a sicilian pastry filled with sweetened ricotta cheese, lemon zest and mixed peel, hence the title of today's blog), savoury scones, little gingerbread men, cookies and other things.
The delightful lady in this photo is my mama making cake boxes for our dear customers to carry all the yummy pastries home.

Another thing I love about the market is the people watching. Everybody loves to people watch and the people that say they don't haven't discovered the fun of it! There are plenty kids at the market that are rather amusing, begging their parents for some candy & these poor folk attempting to say no but desperate not to cause a scene with a noisy child either. Kids are pretty darn clever that way. But my favourite thing to do is to look at all the dogs that come to the market. All of them are such characters and makes me desperate to have another dog at home ( I don't think Shmanky would approve though)
My latest obession is with Scotty dogs, I adore them! I want to get a male scotty, name him Angus and have his own tartan jersey for the winter. I could also imagine every bark with an inflection of a scottish accent , really think about it and it will also make you chuckle.

This is why I love spotting little guys like this. His tongue darting out of his mouth as if to say " I can do whatever I like, even run Scotland Yard if I wanted to! ( All this in the voice of Sean Connery)

But moving on to the food once again, this blog is called the foodie after all. Selling food at the market is such a joy, especially for customers that come and try their first cannoli. They're not too sure what to expect as it is pretty new on the Durban market, but to see their eyes light up in happy surprise makes waking up before the crack of dawn so worth it.

Well I hope to see you dear readers at the market next week if not to try a cannoli at least to come people and dog watch with me.

Foodie out x

"Zucchini I hardly knew him, Camembert on the other hand"

Everyone has heard of the old wives tale that cheese gives you nightmares if you eat it late in the day. I can not believe that we could live in a world where something as special and delicious as cheese could be anything but good.However, cheese did interuppt my sleep on wednesday night, along with a fericous storm banging and clapping away at two in the morning.
But cheese was not the evil culprit the old wives have said, instead I had beautiful dreams of aisles of creamy camembert, bountiful brie and sharp as a razor roquefort.
Perhaps it was the tri-alliance of all these delectable dairies that made me wake up with a craving to make chicken stuffed with camembert and cranberry, wrapped in cripsy streaky back bacon. Some zucchini/ baby marrows/courgettes could join the party too ( Why does that vegetable have so many darn names?), and potatoes cooked in lashings of butter (Perhaps not lashings, gotta keep the cholestrol in check) to complete the meal.

How I made my dreams a reality was rather simple really. I took some succulent chicken breasts, made an inscision in the fillet and stuffed camembert and cranberry jelly in the crevice. I then wrapped it in bacon to try keep as much cheesy goodness locked away.
Pop the chicken in an 180 degree celcius oven for twenty minutes.

For the potatoes I simply sliced them rather thickly ( don't worry about peeling them), I then parboiled them followed by sauteing them in butter, oil and lots of salt and pepper.


Sometimes zucchini's can be rather boring but they have so much potential! Using the correct seasonings and additions, it can be one glorious vegetable. In this instance all I did was heat a pan with a bit of olive oil, fry two cloves of garlic for 30 seconds. Then add the zucchini, which has been sliced at a slight angle to look a little but poncy ( But poncy can be fun!)
Season the zucchini with salt and pepper as well as a tablespoon of fresh thyme. Just before it is ready, add the juice of half a lemon, just to give it some zinginess.

Then the best part has arrived, put everything on a plate and enjoy the fruits of your labour!

Foodie out x

It's time for a Jam session

A few days ago I was doing the usual grocery shop at my local Spar, I went to buy ingredients for roast lamb and while I was there, the nectarine's were at an amazing price! It must have been the portion of Scottish blood in me but I ended up buying three and a half kilo's of the luscious fruit! I then decided the only reasonable thing to do with that amount of fruit is to make jam out of it!
Many people are faced with a sense of trepidation when it comes to making Jam, but I can assure you it is both easy and thoroughly satisfying to make your own jam ( If you are not so inclined, come buy a jar of my jam at the market, wink wink)

Stage one: The first step in any jam making session is to prepare your fruit. I used 3.5 kilograms of nectarines, which I stoned  and sliced, it is a labour intensive job but if you are a jam lover you will do it.

Stage 2: You will need a seriously big and sturdy pot for jam making or you can just make smaller quantities. Put all your sliced fruit in the huge pot and simmer on medium heat until the juice's of the fruit make an appearance.

Stage 3: This is when the health conscious are going to scream in horror, leave the computers, go for a jog and then perhaps return to this Jam making session. You see with Jam, sugar is the ingredient that get's the pectin working in the fruit as well as preserving the jam. Therefore for 3.5kg of fruit, I added 3 kilograms of sugar, two tablespoons of lemon juice and a teaspoon of vanilla paste to add to the flavour.

Stage 4: Keep the heat on medium and stir the sugar, fruit and other ingredients so the mingle together.

Stage 5 & 6This has to be the longest stage as you have to wait for the pectin to do it's thing and the dreaded skimming commences. Skimming the foam of the jam, makes a clearer jam and prevents the jam from going mouldy. If you can't be bothered, the jam will survive but it really won't be the same sheeny jam one is accustomed to.

Keep skimming and stirring until the jam is lovely and gloopy ( Gloopy is most certainly the technical term, I am sure)

A little tip I learnt from Donna Hay on how to test if Jam is ready is by putting a plate in the freezer until really cold, put a tablespoon of jam and place in the fridge, go back in a few minutes and if you run your finger through the jam and the line stays there, your jam is ready!

Once your Jam is done, you can pour it into sterilised jam jars ( I just pop the lids and jars in the dishwasher to sterilise them)

*The quantity of my recipe makes 9 jars of jam

I hope you enjoy your jam session!

Foodie out x

Quo- A restaurant that has restored the status quo (Sorry to be punny)

 As I said in my first blog, I shall name and shame poor restaurants but also shall I applaud the great ones. After venting my frustrations this morning, I decided to pop out for breakfast when my started grumbling from the absence of dinner last night.
So off I popped to Quo in the Gillitts centre, Kloof. It truly is a hidden gem. On the outisde, the centre looks like any other centre but as you walk through, you discover a beautiful quad with stunning tree's and a soothing fountain to add to the ambience of the place.
The indoor seating at Quo is also tastefully done, with orchids in wooden boxes aligned on the walls and a beautiful light teal to set the mood.
We opted to seat outside in the sunshine and cool breeze of the day. You have to love those type of days, when the weather is just right. As soon as we sat down, there was a warm, friendly waitress eager to serve us. I ordered a tea and my mother ordered a cappucino ( She is addicted to cappucino,
without a decent cup at least once a day she is not her happy self)
The waitress merrily went about getting our beverages sorted, while the owner popped by our table to make sure everything was fine. Such a lovely chap.
Feeling rather whimsical I ordered an omelette (Which I haven't ordered in years as I am always dissapointed with the quality of omelettes in restaurants) and my mother had poached eggs with bacon.

 As you can see by my rather impressive blackberry camera pics, the food was awesome! There was sincerity in the plating and the flavours were great!
I perused their menu to see what they offer for light meals and mains and it all sounds great. Fresh salads, salmon pate's and asian inspired fillets really do tempt me to go back again and try something different everytime!
That is when you know that a restaurant is special, when you want to try different things instead of sticking to the same old stuff you always eat in fear that you may be vastly dissapointed.

I would love to hear all about the restaurants you love to go to, I am on a culinary crusade to find good restaurants.

I wish you all foodie delights.

Foodie out x

The night I thought I was being shucks'd

It was one of those sweltering days in Durban yesterday. The weather had been terrible for the past few days, so with sun coming out, most Durbanites descended onto the beach front. I made the trek all the way from Kloof in peak traffic to dine at a certain seafood restaurant on the Ushaka Beachfront for some sushi and to take in some amazing views.  I met some friends as well as my friend's foreign visitor, hoping to show off how great Durban is.
As soon as we sat down, I had an ominous feeling of what was to come. The table was as sticky as a bar counter after a half price shooter special and that's saying something.
We proceeded to order our drinks from the waitress, you could see by the dazed and confused look in her eye that serving seven customers at a table was going to be daunting. We waited around twenty minutes for our drinks to arrive but didn't really think much of it as we were enjoying each other's company and the beautiful Durban sunshine.
At around five thirty we all ordered our food, which took a while as it was clearly evident that the waitress was not familiar with the menu, especially the sushi menu.
As the sun set, so did our hopes for a pleasant dining experience. We asked for a cloth to wipe our sticky table, which the waitress just left on the counter for us to wipe our own table. By seven pm, the food still had not arrived. Eventually my friend went to complain to the manager about the poor service and how long we had waited, pretty unperturbed by our grievance she said the food will be out in a couple minutes. The "hot" food such as the fish and chips arrived at our table with so many bones in it, it could choke a whale and was luke warm by the time it got to out table. As for my sushi, out of all the items I ordered, one measly portion of bamboo rolls arrived. The ironic thing was the sushi was warm, obviously the rice had not been cooled sufficiently before making the bamboo roll.
By that stage we were all in fits of laughter as to how terrible it was! At least we got a good chuckle out of it!
The same friend complained once again ( I wish I had the tenacity and no-nonsense attitude she has, I am rather cowardly when it comes to complaining I have to admit) We paid for the food we did receive and laughed off the food that hadn't arrived.

Out of the ashes of a terrible evening came the inspiration to write about these experiences. For any reader's out there I would love to hear about your great as well as not so great dining experience's.
Have a pleasant day and enjoy some charming cuisine, I hope.
The Foodie out. x

My first post as a foodie adventurer

This will be my very first post as I delve into the world as a foodie blogger. I am a chef and overall lover of food. I have so many opinions about food and all that it encompasses that those that are near and dear to me implored me in desperation to start a blog. This way there is a bigger sounding board for me and they may at last have some peace.
I decided to start this online journal of my expolits into the foodie world as a sounding board for anyone that loves food! Also for all of us to band together and gripe about bad service and poor food in restaurants, but also to applaud and praise those restaurants that go the extra mile and are a joy to dine at.
I hope this blog will be amusing and insightful for all the fabulous foodies and delicous diners.

Let the opinions and witty comments begin!