Back at the Burj

In the time my husband and I have been together, we have moved to eight countries in four continents and now, after almost four years in Singapore, we are moving once again.  This time, it's back to a place we lived for two years and a half in the early 2000s when our son was a few months old.

Dubai was already a bustling desert city then with the Burj Al Arab as its' iconic super structure.  Today, numerous skyscrapers dot the skyline with the world's tallest building (the Burj Khalifa at 828 m), the world's tallest hotel (the JW Marriott Marquis at 355m) and the world's tallest residential building (the Princess Tower at 413m) all located in Dubai.  After several despedidas (farewell parties) and tearful goodbyes, we left Singapore yesterday and are now in our new home in Dubai.

What better way to spend our first day back than to go back to the year-old Burj Al Arab Terrace - a 10,000 square meter structure painstakingly built in Finland and shipped to Dubai in its' entirety to create a stunning restaurant, pool, beach and cabaña space abutting the hotel with uninterrupted views of the Arabian Gulf.

We began with lunch at Scape with it's seafood-centric California fusion menu - a perfect on this sunny 39C day.  From the Crudo bar, we ordered two raw dishes: the Hamachi crudo with Ponzu, pistachio, olives and capers and the Corvina carpaccio with scallion, nori, ginger and truffle yuzu which we had with some salads; arugula, quinoa, pumpkin seed, Feta salad and the endive, grape, Gorgonzola, pecan as our starters.  We then shared the wild mushroom pizza with goat's cheese and the Baja style tacos.  After our light and mostly cold lunch, we headed out to some sun loungers on the beach and enjoyed the cool saltwater infinity pool where I finally took the chance to take it easy and just relax after the hectic months of packing and moving.  It was warm but not unbearable and armed with 50 SPF Sun Bum,  my new Armani sunnies (which I got online from Smart Buy Glasses), and a stack of magazines, I happily spent the afternoon sitting in the shade catching up on my reading and just taking in the view. And what a view it was!  Happy to be home at last.

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The Terrace at the Burj Al Arab

Scape at the Burj Al Arab

OPRAH, September 2015

Lots to be happy about today - Singapore, my current adopted city, is celebrating its' 50th birthday (#SG50) and my small feature in the September issue of Oprah magazine - perfect timing to get back to Travels with a Gourmet after months of putting everything blog-related on hold for family time.  It's amazing how half a year can just zoom by - summer is almost over, school is about to start (more time for my blog!) and Christmas is less than five months away (yikes).  What have I been up busy with?  2015 was a year of travel (Paris, Buenos Aires, Phuket, Hong Kong, Manila, Tokyo, Moscow and Bali) and I just couldn't post fast enough before we were off somewhere again plus I still need to blog about the new restaurants I've been to recently in Singapore.  Then family time and making and meeting up with new friends became so much fun that I didn't realize till now how much I've neglected my writing.  I know it's a little bit late to do start my new years' resolution but it's always better late than never right? So, I'm taking the Oprah feature as a sign that I need to get back to what I love to do - write about restaurants, food and travel and get back to my blog. Fingers crossed it'll be smooth blogging from now on.  In the meantime, Happy Birthday Singapore!  Time to see some fireworks.

Hello, hello

After months of not signing in, I finally sat down today at my new desk in our new home, still in Dorado Beach, to explain why.  First, the kids are on their summer break which means that they're at home 24/7 so there's not much time to sit quietly and write.  Second, we went away for two weeks - first to Orlando (to the dreaded DisneyWorld) and then to Washington DC to go sightseeing and museum-hopping.  Finally, when we got back, we had one week to pack up our house and move to a ground floor apartment (we still have a large terrace and a garden - yay!).  This was much more difficult than when we just pack everything up and move to another country because there was lots more planning involved.  We ended up placing some furniture in storage along with lots of other things that we had to box up and put away as this place is smaller than the house we were in.  After a week of back-breaking work and unpacking, we are done and our new house can now be home once again.  So, I'll be back with more posts on Orlando and Washington DC and a few more from Dorado Beach.  Happy Summer!

Summer holidays

It's 91F (31C) in the shade and i n a few days it'll already be July.  Those first seven months of 2012 went quickly!  It's also the start of our summer family holiday.  The kids and I are off to Miami for the weekend then two weeks in Las Vegas with a side trip to Laguna Beach to watch the legendary Fourth of July fireworks with a traditional barbeque dinner.  It'll be a busy couple of weeks then it's back to beautiful Dorado beach and getting the kids ready for school.  Have a fantastic summer and come back in a few weeks to read about my summer restaurant discoveries!

I need your help

The nominations for Saveur's Best Food Blog Awards 2012 have opened up and I need your help.  Please nominate me for Best Culinary Travel Blog and please keep in mind that nominations close on March 29.  It's really easy to do it, follow the simple instructions below: 

1. Type in the URL of my blog:  http://travelswithagourmet.com
2. Choose a category: Best Culinary Travel Blog (You can choose up to three so go ahead and check any other categories you think are appropriate)
3. Explain why you're nominating my blog :-)
4. Type in your name
5. Type in your email address

Just click here to nominate me  - et voila, it's done.  I hope I make it to the final cut.  All finalists will be announced on April 5 then the voting begins.  Thanks a lot!!!

They say that packing up is hard to do

There's a very good reason why my blog has been abandoned lately.  First, lightning hit the phone lines on my street (honestly, it's one of those weird island things) and we haven't had a working phone line or Internet for the last two weeks and still don't until now.  Second, we are leaving Bali after our two-year posting and are off to Puerto Rico.  As I write this, our house is a an obstacle course of boxes and packers busy at work.  Today is the fourth day of packing and we're not done yet but we have moved back to the hotel so at least, I have WiFi and can work on the computer again.  It might be awhile before my next blog post but when I get to it, it'll probably be from Dorado Beach.  Keep checking in and wish me luck on this new adventure.

Asado Argentino

Our last evening in Buenos Aires was spent with family at home and a typical Argentine Asado (barbecue meal) where it's all about the lighting up the grill early then waiting patiently for the wood to burn then when the embers fly and the wood is white-hot, the grill is cranked up and the super hot wood chunks are pushed underneath before the grill is lowered again and the meat is cooked.  We always start with some sausages - always chorizo, sometimes morcilla (blood sausage) followed by several cuts of meat.  This time there were costillas de cerdo  (pork ribs), asado de tira (beef short ribs) and  bife de lomo (tenderloin)  plus baked potatoes.  Along with the meats, there are always several salads: cherry tomatoes, hearts of palm and corn, mozzarella, tomatoes and basil, a mixed green salad, and shredded carrots with shredded beets.  Several plates of meat and bottles of Malbec later and the desserts were served: a strawberry mousse, a chocolate tart and brownies.  It was a beautiful spring evening with family and a great way to end our two-week holiday.

* The photo above is an Asado Argentino that we did at our home in Bali last year.  Again, it's all about the grill and the wood used.  We had a makeshift grill propped up on the ground but we still used wood and did it the classic way.

Travel 2011

2011 has been my year of travel.  I have never been on a plane this much ever.  There were trips to new places - Bangkok and Beijing, a trip to my favorite city - Paris, trips to visit family - Buenos Aires and Las Vegas, several trips to see the doctor - Singapore, trips to do renew our passports - Jakarta and quick trips on a stopover - Sydney.

November, though, is going to be the busiest travel month for me, with a week in Manila from today (to finish unpacking boxes that have been in storage for several years) then a week in Osaka and Tokyo (my first trip to Japan) and finally, two weeks during Thanksgiving in Laguna Beach, Las Vegas and San Francisco, before I head back home to Bali just in time for the children's holidays and Christmas.  And there are still so many places I haven't been to and hope to visit in 2012.  So bear with me and my erratic posting.  I promise there will be lots to read very soon with my Buenos Aires posts coming out, slowly but surely, and with more gourmet travel write-ups soon.

Where are we going?

Can you tell where we're off to in a few days?  We're going for a two week holiday and we can't wait!  Here are a few photo clues of what we'll be eating when we get there:

Have you guessed where yet?

Beijing Bound

After spending the whole summer in Bali, we are off on a mini-break to Beijing to attend the opening of the exhibition celebrating Bvlgari 125 years of Italian Magnificence at the National Museum of China.  The 125 years was celebrated in 2009 with the opening of the exhibit in Rome which was followed in 2010, by an exhibit in Paris' Grand Palais.  The Beijing exhibit will run from September 4 to November 3, 2011 and will showcase all the iconic Bvlgari creations from 1884 up to the 21st century.  It's our first visit to China (not counting innumerable trips to Hong Kong) and we're looking forward to discovering a new city.  It will be interesting to say the least.  As Facebook and Twitter will be difficult to access, I'll be posting about our Beijing weekend when we get back.

Back in Bali

Okay, so I've been back in Bali for a week now but I still haven't gotten around to posting anything on Paris (we never made it to Cannes, there was a mix-up with the hotel bookings and during the festival, there are NO extra rooms to be had on La Croisette, so we just stayed in Paris) but I'm uploading the photos now and getting ready to do one post after another on my Paris week.  I also just got back from a mini-break in Singapore so there'll be a few entire on that too.  Hang in there and keep checking in for new posts.

Paris and Cannes, Here I come

Off to Paris tomorrow afternoon for a short "working" holiday with my mom.  Last time we were there together was in 2009 so it's been awhile.  We are also going to Cannes for a mini-break to attend the 64th Festival du Cannes as guests of Baron Philippe de Rothschild.  It'll be a busy week and a bit with dinners and events to attend and a few extra days in Paris for some retail therapy and people watching in cafes.  I'm looking forward to my first cafe creme and tartine breakfast on Wednesday morning.  Watch out for my posts.

BANGKOK

Water lilies in a pot at the Jim Thompson House, Bangkok

It's been awhile since my last post and the reason is I was away for a week.  It was my first time in big, bustling Bangkok and I really enjoyed exploring the city on foot and via Sky Train.  Despite it's bad traffic rep, Bangkok proved to be easy to get around in, even by taxi, as long as it was during off-peak hours and on other times when the streets are clogged, there's always the very clean and speedy Sky train.  At a push, you there are also some other more traditional options - river boat or tuktuk.  Lots to post about, the sightseeing, the shopping and especially the eating so come back and have a look in a few days time for my updated entries on Bangkok.

Back in Bali

Just got back a few days ago from our two-week holiday in sunny and chilly Las Vegas to windy and rainy Bali.  I just need a few more days to catch up on all the things that need to be done and upload photos so I can blog about the new places I tried - Jaleo at the brand-new Cosmopolitan hotel on the Strip, Lucille's BBQ in Henderson and my most-recent find Sambalatte in Summerlin.


There were also meals at our favorites - Lotus of Siam and Osaka and a failed attempt to have dinner at Raku because the staff were so rude that we decided to cancel our much-coveted reservation.  Check back by the end of the week when the posts should be up.

Family Holiday

By the time this entry is posted, we should be on our first flight to Hong Kong then connecting to another flight to Los Angeles.  It's our first family holiday for 2011 and we're going to Las Vegas.  After that long flight, we'll be spending one night in Los Angeles then driving to Las Vegas the following morning.  It'll be a nice change to somewhere cold for a bit and get to use our stored-away winter clothes.  Check back in a few days for some posts on the restaurant scene in Las Vegas.

Balinese Thanksgiving

It's already the 2nd of December (23 days to Christmas!!!) so where have the last few weeks gone?  My last post was a restaurant we went to on a brief visit to Singapore and since then, I have been running around like a headless chicken getting everything ready for my family's Thanksgiving visit to Bali.  We were expecting nine guests in total (eight adults and my three- year old niece) coming from Manila and Las Vegas and I was booking hotels and cars and arranging the guest room and grocery shopping for a battalion which obviously used up most of my time.

They all arrived on the Saturday morning before Thanksgiving.  My mom and two sisters stayed at home with us and the rest were at the nearby Bali Hyatt.  We had a very full schedule of sightseeing (Ubud, Uluwatu, Tanah Lot, Jimbaran, Nusa Dua), shopping (Seminyak, the markets), swimming (at home, Sanur beach) and lots of eating which led up to Thanksgiving dinner two days before they left.

After a long discussion on whether we should eat out or in for Thanksgiving, we decided on having a big family meal at home but make a twist on the traditional meal and have a Balinese- inspired dinner with Babi Guling (roast pig) instead of turkey.  As most everyone in the family loves pig (except for C who had nasi goreng to keep within the theme), we splurged and ordered a whole roast pig from Ubud's famous Ibu Oka.  All we needed to prepare at home were two vegetables (spicy string beans and stir-fried bok choy), steamed jasmine rice, drinks and dessert.

Thanksgiving Thursday was spent running around doing last-minute errands and making the desserts while some went up to Ubud for more souvenir shopping and to pick up the pig.  We were expecting a pig slightly larger than a cochinillo (milk-fed baby pig) and were shocked to receive a pig so large that three people needed to carry it out of the car.  There went the plan to just slide the baby pig into my larger-than-standard oven to reheat.  We spent a few hours carving the pig, peeling off the crispy skin and chopping the meat into large chunks so we could then place them on large oven trays to reheat.  Along with the roast pig were many rolls of blood sausages which we heated in a separate roasting pan.  We scooped out the stuffing - a chili, lemongrass, lime leaf, ginger, candle nut and assorted spices mix - and heated that separately on the stove too.  While the food was in the oven, we opened two bottles of wine that my mom had hand-carried from her Burgundy collection - a 1999 Chateau de Rully chardonnay and a 1996 Romanee-Saint-Vivant from Joseph Drouhin.

Dinner was finally ready around 7:30 when we all sat down and had several platefuls of babi guling washed down with the excellent wines.  A preferred the oakey, smoky chardonnay while I enjoyed the rich velvety pinot noir.  It is said that to truly enjoy a grand cru pinot noir, from seven to 15 years is needed and this wine was just right on it's fourteenth year.

We cleared our plate and figured out how to pack up the leftover roast pork, which we gave as big foil-wrapped portions to the gardener, his wife and the neighbors, then froze the rest in individual containers for later (pulled pork sandwiches and roast pork fried rice).

Then we sat around talking on the terrace, enjoying the slight evening breeze and having the desserts - homemade tiramisu and chocolate chip cookies - with espressos.  Thanksgiving is about family and giving thank so here it goes.  Thanks to my family for coming over to Bali.  Thanks for the wonderful babi guling and the unforgettable wines.  Thanks for the lovely holiday memories and photos.  That's what Thanksgiving, wherever or however it's celebrated is all about.

Buenos Aires

After a week in Miami, we arrived in Buenos Aires on a Saturday.  A sunny spring day greeted us when we landed and we went directly to A's parent's home where we had a big Argentinean breakfast of facturas (pastries) con dulce de leche.  We spent the rest of the day taking it easy at home. On our first evening we went for dinner to Sotto Voce, where as usual we had a very good meal.  After a post-dinner walk around the block, we headed home for an early night.

For Sunday lunch, we went to our favorite parrilla (grill) restaurant in Buenos Aires, El Mirasol.  As always, the mollejas (sweetbreads) were excellent - thinly-sliced,crispy and delicious just with a squirt of lemon. We had empanadas de carne (fried meat pies), a few salads, fried potatoes: papas fritas (thin fries) and papas rejilla (waffle fries) and two types of grilled meat: entrana (skirt steak) and matambrito de cerdo (a traditional Argentine cut of pork) with the traditional chimichurri - a sauce of herbs (mostly parsley an oregano), vinegar and oil which we enjoyed with Rutini's Trumpeter Cabernet Sauvignon .  It was a good start to our week's holiday in Buenos Aires and a perfect welcome to Argentina - family, lots of grilled meat and wine.

Going to Miami, Bienvenido a Miami

Last Sunday, we left Bali and took the long flight to Miami via Hong Kong and Los Angelese. Cathay Pacific's service was impeccable and the flight, though long, was a breeze with video on demand and their cubicle-like fully flat seats on business class. The best part is waking up and being served a proper espresso to start the day.
After a brief overnight stopover in Marina del Rey, we took the flight at noon to Miami and arrived on Monday evening. We headed over to the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne where from our balcony we have a view of the ocean. Room service dinner and early to bed where we promptly fell asleep to the sound of the waves crashing to shore.

Home sweet home

After that week-long Singapore break, it was time to finally hang photos and frames around the house and place all the books on the shelves.  This took several days of getting everything together and deciding what went where.  One of the things we've learned from all the moving is that nothing has a permanent place and with each new house, we've had to find ways to use our furniture and fit it into each and every place. From an apartment in Santiago, to a townhouse in Dubai.  From an apartment in Montreal to a duplex in Marbella.  Here in Bali, we're in a house that took ages to find and we've been here for over a month and it's only now that we've put our knickknacks in place, our photos on the display table, our books on the shelves and our frames up can we finally say that this house (our sixth in ten years) is now home.  My cookbooks are in the kitchen and I'm ready to cook once again.

Bali, here we come

Today is the official day that the packers start to box and wrap everything up in preparation for our departure on Tuesday.  We have spent the last four years in Marbella (the longest posting we've ever had) and are ready for the change but we're still sad to leave our "home" and say goodbye to our friends.   People think it gets easier with every move, but it actually gets harder and this time is no exception.

We go to the hotel later today with our eight pieces of luggage, car seats and strollers which is what all we'll have for the next eight weeks or maybe longer.  It's been an organizational challenge to get everything ready for this move and I'm looking forward to our flight out on Tuesday.  We will spend a few days in Singapore before heading off to Bali at the end of the week to start our new island life.  Hopefully, my next post will already be from the island of the Gods.  Until then, sampai jumpa.