Goodbye London...

I remember when I first moved out of home. I can still picture my parents waving goodbye on the curb, as I drove away smiling, excited about the future, cranking up Bon Jovi on the stereo, headbanging away with the world at my feet. Then I promptly turned the corner and burst into tears.

Leaving London is a bit like that. Only a few months ago, we found ourselves with irresistible new job offers in Melbourne. Home! Think of the weather! The sunshine! A beach at the end of our street! The coffee! The Thai food! Brunches! Dim sims on tap! 


We were suddenly resigning, packing up the house, finding another, planning a wedding (complete with traumatic wedding dress dramas - who knew it would be the hardest part?), failing to plan a honeymoon (still on the to-do list!), trying to cram in every last bit of travel and London life we needed to squeeze out of our last 3 months.... It's been a whirlwind of excitement and a maze of cardboard boxes. 

But now the time has come to go - just as I've remembered not to say "pants" or "thongs" in the entirely wrong context. And there's a big heavy lump in my throat.

The last 5 years in London have been wonderful. When you travel to the opposite side of the world from all your friends and family, with only each other and a few boxes of clothes (none of them warm enough for December in London - the warmest thing I brought was a cotton jacket! COTTON!! Madness), you never know what's in store. But we've made new, life long friends, we got engaged (woot!), travelled high and low (every month, at least -  we have some serious trees to plant), expanded our culinary horizons (from spotted dick in Britain to oysters & pearls in New York to sea urchin at the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo), enjoyed jobs that we have loved, explored every nook and cranny of London life, and treated each week like there's a new adventure to be had. The experience will change the way we live forever. 


Oh, and we've bought a lot of warm coats. Melbourne winters, do your best - I am ready for you.

I'll miss living on our beloved Rupert Street where we moved 5 years ago for its proximity to London's best flat white at the time, as you do (at Flat White - your only other option back in the day was Provs - how far London has come!). Rupert Street - so full of character and life, from its crack pipes in our doorway to the gigantic men in tutus across the road, from the food and coffee carts lined up along the cobblestones, to our stash of hams, cheeses, truffles and fresh pasta at the cute Italian delis up the road, from its flashing neon STRIPTEASE signs, to the rock 'n roll Spuntino diner downstairs. I'll miss the newsagent who thinks TPG's Italian L'uomo Vogue is a gay porn mag and wraps it in brown paper before he leaves the shop. 


I'll miss runs past Big Ben and Buckingham Palace through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, especially in Autumn, my favourite London season. I'll miss spotting celebrities in random places on the streets (even if it is sometimes just Jim from Neighbours). I'll miss riding at the top of the double decker buses and scoffing salt beef bagels on Brick Lane. I'll miss stocking up at the Lebanese grocers to cook the latest from Ottolenghi or shopping in Chinatown after work to knock up a quick bowl of Vietnamese fishy soup. I'll miss H&M and Anthropologie and reasonably priced champagne. I'll miss jetting off with my rolly bag after work on Friday nights for weekends in Paris or Rome. I won't miss the Tube. Or the weather. Most of all, I'll miss my friends.

Writing this blog has been a wonderful adventure in itself. I'm still so grateful that anyone reads it. It was born from an obsession for eating, cooking, rummaging through deli shelves and discovering new places to eat. TPG and I had already built a life around travelling by gut and reading endlessly about food, so why not share the joy of new discoveries - while indulging in a little creative outlet along the way? I'm not sure what form it will take going ahead - it's getting harder to keep it up and I value nothing more than spending my precious spare time with TPG and a bottle of wine, pondering life and love and the next big feast. But the magnificent Australian food scene is one I'm bursting to write about and share. So finger's crossed that I find the time, and that you still care to read. 

So tomorrow, we take off for Melbourne - but not before some travels through Venice, the wine regions of Amarone, Barolo and Bordeaux, the French gastronomic capital of Lyon,  and - of course - New York. Well, you only live once.

Thanks for tuning in. It's been a wonderful 5 years. Goodbye, London!


Gulp.

Nahm, Belgravia - London Restaurants

Prawn salad

I'm in the middle of packing to leave the country and I have to make a lot of important decisions. Does the hair straightener come with me, side by side across the globe, so that I have it for important Christmas parties and pre-wedding functions upon landing in Melbourne - or does it get shipped, not to be seen again for 3 long, harsh, frizzy weeks?

Hotel foyer-esque room

Given the weighty matters I am devoting my mental energy to, you will have to excuse some rather brusque reviews for the time being. You don't care anyway - you don't want to know about the complexity of the foam in the 15th amuse bouche, about the crisp (never crispy) textures contrasting with the fluffiness of the mousse or the char marks on the steak. You want a gut feel. The nutshell. Should you go or should you not?

Curry

Nahm feels like eating at the check-in desk of a barren hotel foyer, the service is irritatingly attentive, there are a lot of suits and your water will be topped up after each sip - generally right at a key moment as you try to whisper sweet nothings into your date's ear. Don't go there to propose. But the food is magnificent. It really is. I was expecting less, I think from things I have read, but I also think a lot of people wouldn't know good Thai food if it rolled itself up in a banana leaf and slapped them across the face.

For TPG's birthday, I took him to Nahm and indulged us both in the Thai tasting menu - a starter, salad, soup, stir fry, curry, main - a grilled fish or meat, dessert and some other bits for around £60 per head, plus drinks. They'll help you to get the right balance of things.  Everything is cooked really well and the layers of flavours are bursting and gorgeous as all good Thai flavours should be. The desserts are di-vine. It's really hard to find a decent wine to match Thai food - but, of course, TPG put about 75 thousand hours of research into it and struck gold with a nice riesling.

If you are a Thai fan or a David Thompson fan (his cook books are beautiful, if complicated), or you want to try Thai food at a Michelin star restaurant, go to Nahm for the food, but beware the soulless atmosphere.

Nahm, The Halkin Hotel, Halkin Street, Belgravia, London SW1X 7DJ (Tel: 020 7333 1235)

Pinxtos and Sherry in San Sebastian, Spain - Gluttonous Travels

Coooeeee! Yes, my blog posts have been few and far between. I have been busily finishing up at work and preparing to move across the globe, all while cramming in last minute travels like I might never cross the equator again. But I finished work on Thursday, met TPG on the Eurostar with a bottle of champagne to celebrate with dinner in Paris (long story of adventure and mayhem) and now I'm back. And I won't be in the office again until 5 December! 


So expect lots of travel tales and London reminiscences from me until I land in Melbourne. After that, I'm not sure what's in store for the GD. But for now, let me tell you about San Sebastian....

Yes, San Sebastian has more Michelin star restaurants per capita than anywhere else in the world, and is the culinary capital of Basque from where great chefs, the likes of Arzak and Subijana, have brought Spanish haute cuisine to heights that were previously reserved only to the French. But it's the combination of the laid back beauty of the place, the amazing beach, the huge tables of families taking for granted the excellent quality, well cooked produce making up the feasts before them, and the non stop carnival of hilariously fun pinxtos bars lighting up the streets from morning to night that won me over. And possibly the chocolate that tastes like cinnamon. And the lovely custard flans.

We ate juicy, perfectly cooked steak and juicy roast pork a short ride out of town at Rekondo, with its enormous 250 page wine list - famed for selling rare and beautiful wines at a fraction of the mark up you'll find them anywhere else. Wine buffs should not miss it.

My rice with baby cuttlefish oil and slivers of Idiazabal cheese at Bodegon Alejandro was the best I've ever eaten, and although the room is plain and the service a shambles, fare like anchovy lasagne, glazed Iberian veal cheek and junket with heather honey will make it all worthwhile.

We had a reservation at classic fine dining establishment, Akelarre, then cancelled it in favour of spending our 3 days lapping up some much needed hot September weather on the beach, in between necking aroxtas (a local fizzy white poured from great heights to encourage the fizz) and delicious (yet insanely cheap) glasses of rioja and ribera del dueros at the local pinxtos bars. Superb wines that would cost 9 quid per glass in London can be yours for around 2 euros per glass. Oh, what a time we had.

Each of the pinxtos bars has their own specialty. A favourite was Ganbara where we jostled at the bar for plates of grilled wild mushrooms, slices of nutty iberico jamon rammed into buttery little croissants (great wedding dress preparation), pastries filled with crab or prawns, layered tortillas and plates of fresh octopus or salty anchovy. I also loved the local specialities like the uber tender braised beef cheeks, and seared foie gras with tart apple sauce, at La Cuchara de San Telmo and Bar Zeruko is another great one - but the whole point is to ramble between them haphazardly and discover what takes your fancy.

Here are some snaps for inspiration. One of my all time favourite weekend destinations  - and I wish we'd stayed for a week. When the weather starts to fade next year, book yourself a flight to San Sebastian.

The epic wine list at Rekondo

I am not telling how many of these I ate...

This cost 4 euros

Cod cheeks - a local speciality

We flew to Bilbao with Easyjet for around €150 each. The last bus from the airport to San Sebastian leaves at 12.30am and takes around an hour. It costs around 12 euros. Alternatively, a taxi will cost around 100 euros so beware of cheap flight deals arriving late.

We stayed at Pension Aldamar. I highly recommend it for simple, good value comfort and an unbeatable location, right on the edge of the old town and a 5 min walk to the main surf beach. The only drawback was the noise of other guests checking out early that awoke me each morning (each room faces onto a communal hall area).

If we had more time, we would definitely have eaten at Mugaritz - please try it and report back to me.

Banana Tree - Indo China Kitchen, Soho - London Restaurants

I don't do chains. That has been my cry throughout life. I am from a city where Starbucks doesn't survive. Whether it be coffee, sandwiches, restaurants or clothes, we Melbournians like our independent stores for all their quirky, unpredictable glory.

But then I moved to London and stumbled upon Busaba. And I liked it. It became our standard lazy option for decent, local Thai food. In my desperation to find an acceptable coffee in the early days, I even tried Costa and Cafe Nero. Thank God we discovered Flat White, and promptly moved in down the road.

Papaya salad

BananaTree is a little chain operation that I wasn't all that keen to try because, well, it's a little chain operation. But then I did. And it was really good. The food was lovely and the place had personality. So then, exhausted after weeks of travelling and long hours, TPG and I decided to go again on Friday night - to lazily send off the week with a table full of food and a bottle of wine. And an hour later, by coincidence, I received a voucher to come in and visit for essentially a free meal (review us if you like us, give us the feedback if you don't). Done.

Eggplant

I like it.

Specialties from the Indochina region (think the lemongrass and fresh herbs of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar mixed in the the dry spices of mainland Malaysia) are served in a casual and funky setting. The room has an industrial fit out (quirky low hung light fittings, wooden tables, concrete walls, exposed pipelines, splashes of red), with an open kitchen (now becoming something of a norm in new London restaurant openings) and a mix of small and communal tables. Although Banana Tree has only been open in Soho for a month, by 8pm it's buzzing with a crowd, but minus the long queue of Busaba up the road.

Chargrilled pork

Feast on the tart but addictively sweet goodness that is the papaya salad (£5.90), actually right up there with the best I can remember having, along with some lusciously gooey baked aubergine with caramelised vinegar sauce (£4.20) - a bit like the Japanese nasu dengaku, and the big hitting rendang (£9.80) - satisfyingly big, tender chunks of beef, slow cooked in coconut milk and spices like lemongrass and chilli. The sautéed lamb with fragrant kari patta leaves, cashews, coriander, tomatoes and spring onions (£8.50) is rammed with so much flavour that I don't mind that the lamb is too dry. Large, thin slices of chargrilled blackened chilli pork are marinated in dark soy, palm sugar, chilli, garlic and spices (£8.90) and come with a nice nasi goreng - more deliciousness. With 2 glasses of wine our tab comes up to around £50 for 2 people.

Rendang

After eating at Nahm earlier in the week, eating this sort of food anywhere else so soon was at risk of being a massive downer. But, actually, I really like Banana Tree. I think Busaba has gone downhill recently, and in my view Banana Tree definitely comes up trumps for the quality of its food. Just watch the prices as they can stack up. Looking at the cost of each dish, I don't think they're overpriced compared with other places in the area (although the rending and some other dishes are probably pushing the upper end of the scale), but I probably tend to go to chains thinking they should be the cheap option, when actually the costs can sneak up on you.

Oh, and the service staff have been really sweet and keen on both my visits (as much on the anonymous one as my invitation to review). It may be a mini chain, but don't be afraid - it still has soul and you can taste it. Definitely one to try.

Banana Tree - Indo China Kitchen, 103 Wardour Street, W1F 0UQ (Tel 0202 7437 1351)



There are other Banana Tree outlets at Angel, Bayswater, Clapham Junction and West Hamstead.