CHELSEA MARKET

On my last day in New York, I met up with good friend, Brooklyn native and fellow foodie C, who said I couldn't leave the cit without stopping by Chelsea Market - which houses an enclosed food court with specialized food purveyors including a large Anthroplogie boutique, a Posman Books 

and a Bowery Kitchens, restaurant supply store where I finally found a large metal cake stand which I had long-admired in the Dean & DeLuca stores.  Also in the same building are the offices and production facilities of the Food Network which makes for a captive clientele of foodies who often lunch at the market.

We met right after noon and walked around the place scoping out the area and doing a tour of what was available before deciding on lunch from the specialty butcher Dicksons Farmstand  where the daily blackboard menu listed pulled pork, banh-mi, roast chicken and hot dogs.  C had the pulled pork sandwich and treated me to a banh-mi (a Vietnamese sandwich usually made with roasted pork belly) with caramelized ground pork stuffed in a soft baguette and topped with pickled cucumbers and carrots and lots of fresh cilantro along with a fizzy organic lemonade.  We managed to snag one of the few tables where we devoured our sandwiches before heading off in search of dessert.  

We finally ended up at Bar Suzette where we lined up for a takeaway lemon, butter and sugar crepe made with the pedigree ingredients of Ronnybrook Dairy Farm butter, fresh lemon juice and natural granulated sugar.  Wrapped up in a paper cone, we then exited onto to 16th street and climbed up to The High Line where we enjoyed our dessert while taking a stroll in one of the prettiest parks created out of an abandoned railway.  We grabbed a post-lunch coffee at the Blue Bottle stand where I had an espresso while C chose an iced coffee then we walked further on until we found a spot in the shade of The Standard Hotel and listened to a classical quartet while enjoying the summer breeze, the Hudson river views and several years of catching up. 

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Chelsea Market

75 Ninth Avenue (between 15th and 16th streets)

New York NY 10011

Telephone: +1 888 727 7887

*Open Monday to Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The High Line

Telephone: +1 212 206 9922

*Open daily from 7 a.m to 10 p.m. 

Access from the following locations:

• Gansevoort Street
• 14th Street (elevator access)
• West 16th Street (elevator access)
• West 18th Street
• West 20th Street
• 23rd Street (elevator access)
• West 26th Street
• West 28th Street
• West 30th Street (elevator access)

Feed Me Now

I just received my Amazon order yesterday evening. Along with two Booker prize nominations (AS Byatt and Sarah Waters) plus the winner, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, I also bought two foodie books - David Leibovitz's The Sweet Life and Bill Granger's newest cookbook Feed Me Now.  It's been a long time since I've actually sat down and read through a whole cookbook from cover to cover.  This is going to be a classic and will now be on my "favorite cookbook shelf" for its' simple recipes and realistic preparation and easy-to-find ingredients.  I can't wait to get back from Madrid and try the recipes out.

Goodies from back home

When people come to visit, they usually bring presents from back home. Lots of times it's food that's sorely missed or can't be bought here. From Manila, I always receive ensaimadas (sugar and cheese buns) or bibingka (rice cakes). Sometimes, I get a small bottle of taba ng talangka (crab fat/roe) that I have sauteed with a bit of garlic and tossed with spaghettini for a quick lunch.

Our most recent guests were my brother in-law and his family who had arrived from Buenos Aires and brought some goodies from Argentine: a large box of assorted Havanna alfajores (cookies sandwiched with dulce de leche). There were two kinds: some covered in chocolate and others covered in powdered sugar. They also brought several packets of Chocolinas (chocolate biscuits) sent by my mother in-law when she heard from me that my husband was remembering a taste of his childhood. (He's now gone through most of the packets of biscuits which he eats slathered with dulce de leche.)

The largest (and heaviest) goodie was the doorstopper of a book A Day at El Bulli by Ferran Adria. It's been sitting on my bedside table all week waiting for the right opportunity for me to go through it and read all about what it's really like to spend a whole day in one of the world's most famous restaurants. I might even attempt one of the easier recipes in the book if I ever get off my chaise longue this summer.

A Late Dinner

Here's another book that was on my bedside table pile that I finally finished the other night.  What a good thing I did because this is the book I was looking for when we moved to Spain three years ago.  It's a concise and interesting narrative on the food of Spain told by an expat who has been living in Spain for over twenty years.

Aside from the ever-present jamon, I was beginning to have my doubts as to what the gastronomic claim to fame Spain had.  Although I knew that San Sebastian and Barcelona were perhaps the most advanced in terms of Spanish cuisine, I never knew about the seafood delicacies of Galicia nor about the rivalry between Valencia and Barcelona.  There are lots of tidbits - gourmet and otherwise plus a few restaurants worth visiting that are way off the beaten track.  This is a must-read for all those curious to learn about the Spanish cuisine and where to go to have a taste of Spain.

Hungry for Paris

Aside from cookbooks, travel and guide books are what fill my shelves and every year, I add a few more to my growing collection. These are my favorite bedtime reading and are an entertaining form of vicarious travel.

In preparation for an upcoming trip to Paris, I've started researching on the internet for new places to try out. To help my search, I also ordered Hungry for Paris from Alexander Lobrano (Gourmet magazines' European correspondent) because I thought it would give me a more detailed review of the restaurants that were already on my list. It was a surprise to read the book and discover so many under-the-radar (not necessarily new but just not often written about) restaurants out of the 102 listed in the book. I was also pleased that quite a few of them were in the Left Bank (5th, 6th, and 7th arrondissements) and within walking distance of the hotel we usually stay at.

Since I'm meeting my mom in Paris for a few days before coming back with her to Marbella, we'll have almost a week to explore the city together. The last time we were in Paris together was for two days in October 2007. On that trip, she was too jetlagged from her flight and I was too tired from walking that we hardly went out. This time, I'm hoping we can try a couple of neo-bistros and some old favorites as well. As I don't want to spoil the surprise of where we'll be going, watch out for my Paris posts at the end of May. I'll have Alexander Lobrano to thank for the "new" places he's pointed out that are worthy of a meal. His book has definitely made me "hungry for Paris" all over again.

London, Day 1: Our arrival and Chinatown

Clockwise from upper left: Chancery Court from the street, our deluxe room, the facade of the building in the inner courtyard, fruit and wine amenity

Arrived on time at Gatwick's north terminal and after getting out luggage, we went straight to the M&S Simply Food to get a picnic lunch for our half-hour train ride into London. We took the Gatwick Express and spread out our impromptu packed lunch - sushi for my son, two roast chicken sandwiches for my husband and I along with an Edamame and snap bean salad for my husband and a roasted vegetable couscous salad for me. The salads were surprisingly very good and the sandwiches were filled to the brim with sliced chicken breast, cucumbers, lettuce and tomatoes on malted bread. All this we finished off with a container of mixed fresh fruit (melons, strawberries, seedless grapes and apples) and some fresh lemonade.

We took a taxi from Victoria station to our hotel on High Holborn, the Renaissance Chancery Court, near the theatres of the West End and Covent Garden. Our deluxe room overlooked the inner courtyard and had enough room to have a rollaway bed near the window for our son. They also left us a bottle of wine and fruits plus a Paddington bear ( a London classic with a rain slicker, red rubber boots, an umbrella and hat) plus union jack rubber ducky for J who was very impressed with his personal amenity. After unpacking, we decided to go to Waterstone's on Piccadilly to replenish my supply of English books and to buy the Monopoly that we had promised our son.

After browsing around the large store, it was almost 5:00 p.m. and we were hungry again. What with the time difference, it was already 6:00 p.m. for us, so we walked down Shaftesbury avenue, enjoying the warm weather and walked towards London's Chinatown on Gerrard street to find some dim sum for our early dinner. We ended up at the tried and tested Golden Dragon - a favorite that I had been to many times before. Unfortunately, we had just missed the last of the dim sum so we ordered from the a la carte menu instead.

Top row: scenes from Chinatown and the Golden Dragon's facade; Middle row: roast duck and pork hanging from hooks in the window, crispy beef and noodles; Bottom row: Stuffed bean curd with broccoli, roast duck and slat and pepper spareribs

We had a small portion of roast duck with plum sauce, salt and pepper spare ribs, crispy beef, prawn-stuffed bean curd with broccoli and vegetable fried noodles. The roast duck and bean curd were exceptional and the other dishes didn't disappoint as well. At first, I thought we wouldn't be able to finish all that we had ordered but I guess I didn't realize how hungry we all were. After our satisfying meal, we took a short walk up the street then hopped in a cab and went back to the hotel to rest after our long day of travelling from Malaga.

Blurb.com

My sister just told me about a fantastic website where anyone can make a book. Blurb.com would be great for creating one's own personal cookbook or a travel book or even a memory and photo book. I 'm looking forward to making a guidebook of my personal favorites (recipes, food, restaurants, hotels) from all over the world. All one needs to do is download the blurb booksmart bookmaking software, upload photos, artwork and text and then decide on a layout for the book and before you know it, your own book is published. There are sample books on the website to see how what one can do. Check it out!

Paris, here we come

Just received some books from Amazon and among them is the new book from famous blogger, Clotilde Dusoulier of Chocolate and Zucchini. It's a very useful food guide to Paris and lists many smaller, not so famous restaurants in each arrondissement which is perfect as we're off to Paris again in the middle of June for a few days. There are also other food-related listings (boulangeries, patisseries, fromageries, wine shops, markets etc.) which will prove very useful guide for any foodie preparing to go to Paris.

My husband will be there for one night for business before heading off to London and Brussels while I stay for two more nights with a good friend, Daria, who just moved there a few months ago. Luckily, she lives in the 5th arrondissement and is a block away from the bustling market on Rue Monge and cult boulanger Eric Kayser so we'll have a lot of gourmet escapades within walking distance. On my list to try on this trip is the always-packed Le Comptoir du Relais of Chef Yves Camdeborde plus one of Christian Constant's restaurants . The problem with going to Paris is there are so many wonderful restaurants to try that narrowing down my final list is going to be difficult.

The rain in Spain

The past week has been dark and dreary. It has been raining non-stop for three days now and isn't typical for the Costa del Sol although it is needed before the hot summer months. This kind of rain encourages me to lounge around in pajamas all day long drinking hot chocolate and reading a book (which is pretty much what I've been doing.) I'm slowly going through my pile of bedside table books and have just started A.A. Gill's Table Talk which is both entertaining and frightening. (If you've never read him, then you won't know what I mean.)

I don't feel much like cooking although I did make a roast pork with crackling on Sunday and a cheesecake today to keep me occupied. Other than that, I really haven't had the energy to try new recipes or cook up a feast. I'm counting the days to spring.

Moleskine

I've been a Moleskine user for several years now ever since I stumbled upon them in Paris in 2004. I always keep my used-up notebooks for future reference and they prove very useful when I need to remember something I jotted down, perhaps a book title, a CD or a new address.

Recently, Moleskine have launched a handy do-it-yourself guide called the City Notebook and I picked up the Paris one last week at L'ecume des Pages. With all the new restaurants and shops I visited plus my all-time favorites, I can finally have my own personal guidebook for my most-visited city. Get yours now and start filling up those pages with your discoveries and favorites.

There's nothing like Paris: part 2

The following morning, we walked further up the rue du Cherche-Midi and stumbled upon this nondescript boulangerie. It was none other than Poilâne, the famous bakery was opened in 1932 by Pierre Poilâne making bread using stone-ground flour and natural yeast and baking them in a wood-fired oven. In the seventies, his son Lionel took over the company and continued the traditions that his father had started but made sure the bread became well-known. The crusty brown sourdough bread eventually became known as pain Poilâne and is indicated as such when listed in menus of cafés and restaurants not just in France but in the rest of the world. When we lived in Montreal, we used to go to the café at the Holt Renfrew department store on Sherbrooke to have a tartine pain Poilâne.

We stopped by to have a few of their buttery croissants while walking towards boulevard St. Germain, the left bank's epicenter. There are two famous cafés in the area - Les Deux Magots and the Café de Flore and you either preferred one or the other, never both, We went directly to the Flore for our much-neede café crème. There is no better way to understand the Parisian café obssesion than sitting here at the Flore and indulging in a pricey coffee, reading the paper and watching the world go by.

When we had our fill of Parisian street life, we headed over to next-door Librairie La Hune to see what new titles were out. Right by the entrance is a magazine kiosk that has a fantastic selection of both French and English magazines and newspapers. On the other side of the Flore is the other bookstore L'ecume des Pages which also has a paper store, La Papeterie de l'Ecume des Pages down the side street rue St. benoit. In the paper store, we browsed and ended up purchasing paper and a few more Moleskines to add to my growing collection.

On the rue St. Benoit are a few more interesting addresses - L'Entrecôte (for steak-frites and the special sauce), Hotel Bel-Ami (my favorite Paris design hotel), Yen (a stylish modern Japanese restaurant) and the back entrance of the Louis Vuitton boutique which we entered to purchase 2008 agenda refills.

We did more window shopping which sound so much more appropriate in French leche-vitrine, literally translates as "window-licking". We stopped across the street at Arthur et Fox, my all-time favorite for tailored mens shirts. They also carry a few items for women on the 2nd floor. I ended up buying my husband some shirts and skipped the women's section for fear of buying more shirts for myself. I also went to Gerard Darel to buy my winter bag - the St. Germain sac "24-heures" in dark grey.

Retail therapy always works up an appetite so we paused for lunch at Orient-Extrême. Fortified by raw sushi and miso soup, we continued on towards Le Bon Marché where I needed to purchase a few bits and bobs plus three bottles of Hermès Rocabar for my father-in-law. Then, it was back to the hotel to put our feet up before dinner.

New books

Finding English books in Southern Spain is not difficult what with several Bookworld shops scattered on the Costa del Sol but when I'm looking for something specific - especially cookbooks - I go online and order them directly from Amazon.co.uk.

Living within the E.E.C. has many advantages, one of which is shopping online from European sites and getting the order delivered straight to my door without having to pay any taxes.

I've always said that I'm a fan of Nigel Slater so I'm completing my collection of all his cookbooks. My recent discovery is Rose Carrarini's Breakfast Lunch Tea which is a compilation of recipes from her famous cafe/boulangerie in Paris' 9eme arrondissement - The Rose Bakery. I just received the first half of my order today and am looking forward to some quiet time this weekend leafing through my cookbooks and trying some new recipes. Aside from the four above, I'm still expecting the other half of my order below which should arrive in a few weeks.

D'ALICIA CAFE

On Saturday mornings, we usually drive over to Guadalmina to buy the papers and have breakfast at a café/patisserie - D'Alicia that has the best croissants on the Costa del Sol. It's a little place with an outdoor terrace and a few tables inside. They have a limited menu of sandwiches and salads but most people stop by for a coffee and a pastry. D'Alicia also has a super selection of bread, cakes, pastries, cookies and quiches to take away. The prices are very reasonable and they're open all day long from 9:00 a.m.

After breakfast today, we stopped by the English bookstore - Bookworld to have a look then walked over to Prensa Vicky (wide range of national and international of newspapers, magazines plus funky beach bags and espadrilles). We bought our usual stack of weekend newspapers (FT Weekend, Sur, Marca) and magazines (Grazia, Le Point , Vanity Fair).

Ice cream time

Now that summer's here, we have a permanent stash of ice cream in the freezer usually a couple of pints of Haagen Dazs - Belgian Chocolate and Vanilla Bean . For some strange reason, Haagen Dazs Spain doesn't sell pints of vanilla ice cream (I checked their website) so we have the Macadamia Brittle instead.

When we want a real treat though, we head to Marbella where we always end up at Giangrossi which opened soon after we arrived here. It's an Argentine-style ice cream parlor with modern interiors and Lavazza coffee. Favorite flavors: Dulce de Leche granizado (Dulce de leche with chocolate bits)and Chocolate amargo (bitter chocolate).

So, where else have I had really good ice cream? Try these places:

Le Bilboquet in Montreal (1311 rue Bernard Ouest, Outremont) where lines snake outside the door and onto the pavement in the summer months sometimes even until midnight. Favorite flavors: coconut and chocolate orange.

Paris' Berthillon on the Ile Saint Louis has so many flavors of ice creams, from white chocolate to gingerbread and sorbets, from passion fruit to lychee. Buy a cone, sit right by the Seine where you'll have a close-up of Notre Dame. Favorite flavors: Moka, Chocolat noir and mangue.

In Buenos Aires, there's an ice cream parlor in almost every corner but set apart from the rest is Freddo which opened in 1969 and has recently undergone a makeover. The homemade charm is gone but the ice cream is as good as ever. Favorite flavor: dulce de leche (could there by any other?)


If you want to try and make some of your own, check out David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop - a real ice cream bible.

Nigel Slater's THE KITCHEN DIARIES

My favorite cookbook is Nigel Slater's "The Kitchen Diaries". It's almost always off my shelf because I skim through it looking for ideas and seeing what I can make from what's in season. His love for food really shows through in his writing and his recipes are foolproof. It's the kind of food I love to cook on a daily basis and shows how uncomplicated and unfussy good food can be. The photos are lovely as well. Here's an extract from the Harper Collin's website plus some seasonal recipes from Nigel Slater's website.