Two years ago our Christmas got canceled on Christmas Eve — well the trip we had planned to Switzerland did anyway. It was our first Christmas with a child and you know how important they are! We were devastated. I think the only thing that saved us was Melrose & Morgan, our local deli in Primrose Hill (where we lived at the time). We turned up at 12pm to a packed store of everyone collecting their orders and they thankfully managed to make us up one of their ‘Christmas’s in a box’. It honestly saved the day.
But Melrose & Morgan is not just for Christmas, their fantastic home-cooked meals are perfect to take home, heat up and make you look like a domestic goddess. Sadly my better-half isn’t easily fooled – Melrose & Morgan’s food is just that bit too delicious for him to believe it was made by me whilst I had 2 children hanging off my arms.
Each day the kitchen prepares a different menu using seasonal, locally sourced ingredients. Additionally they have a range of staples including their home-made pies, freshly baked bread, mouth-wateringly delicious cheeses and sweet treats for every occasion. I keep one of their pies and some of their home-made ice cream in my freezer for those “its 6.45pm, there’s nothing to eat in the house and the kids are going crazy” evenings (of which we tend to have 4 a week).
I’m not big on branded merchandise but my one exception is Melrose & Morgan’s mugs, aprons and my favourite canvas shopping bags with their simple red font spelling evocative foodie words such as ‘picnic’, ‘cheese’ and ‘custard’ (I love that one in particular!).
Melrose and Morgan is at 42 Gloucester Avenue, London, NW1 8JD. Nearest tube Chalk Farm or Camden.
The only thing marring the great pleasure I get from my take-away morning coffee is guilt… and I don’t mean the guilt I feel when I add my two teaspoons of sugar! Rather the guilt I feel when I toss away my disposable, un-recyclable paper coffee cup. Australians use approximately 500 million disposable cups a year and discard 1.36 million disposable cups a day into landfill! Staggering isn’t it? Indeed, our love of take-away coffee is costing our environment dearly. Now, imagine this on a global scale!
With guilt in my heart and these figures in mind, today I purchased a KeepCup.
Designed and manufactured in Australia, the KeepCup is made of recyclable propylene and has a life span of four years. It is dishwasher safe, microwaveable, stackable, BPA-free and unlike those of the porcelain variety, very lightweight (so it is easy to tote around). It doesn’t leak and comes in three ‘barista standard’ sizes, so even your barista will love you for it!
Sustainable coffee cup consumption means zero guilt …now I just need to address my excessive sugar consumption!
I really try to avoid taking my twins out to eat. It is nothing short of torture for me. Seriously….it’s like the minute they see that dilapidated cup of crayons and sad coloring placemat coming at them they start to make a scene. Chelsea Market, on the other hand, is now a destination of mine to eat with the girls on sunny days with the stroller in tow. I can only describe it as an underground culinary fantasy land and one where I am at complete ease dining with two three-year-olds. There’s a huge selection of delicious gourmet places to eat – all in a cool and low key setting. Kids can choose from homeade soup, sandwhiches and pasta and then watch fresh bread being baked, visit a fish market and toss coins into an indoor waterfall. Even better are the places to grab dessert – Eleni’s cookies, Sarabeths and Fat Witch Brownies. On the weekends they oftentimes have musical performances for kids so check the schedule and make a morning of it. And while the weather is still nice grab a coffee and check out the new and ultra-swank Highline where you can sit and watch a parade of New York’s hipsters saunter by.
This weekend, I plan to treat my kids to a mini cupcake at Little Cupcake in Delgraves Street, Melbourne — a delightful strip in the city renowned for its gorgeous hotchpotch of eclectic shops and cafes. Little Cupcake is a quaint haven for sweet tooths, dedicated entirely to cupcakes! Think mini cupcakes smothered in heavenly buttercream in a size perfect for cramming the whole thing in your mouth. As I devour my cupcake, I will float back on a nostalgic cloud to my childhood and regale my children with tales of the ‘good old days’ when the delicious aromas of Grandma’s warm gooey homemade cakes beckoned us on our weekly visits. They will probably completely ignore me, cupcake heaven beckons afterall. Oh, who can blame them?
Little Cupcakes is in fact so ‘mini’ that queues regularly spill out the door and way down the road. Timeless classics are on offer including vanilla, lemon, mint and strawberry as well as other inviting concoctions – ‘creamy coconut’, ‘Belgian button chocolate’ and the dreamy ‘Red Velvet’- my absolute favourite. Cupcakes are available in 2 sizes ‘small’ and ‘extra extra tiny’ and served on a wooden tray. Offered with an array of coffees and teas, served in pretty teapots. Who can resist? Anyone care to join me for some afternoon tea?
First it was low-carb, then it was no-carb and now it’s all about doing a “cleanse”. We all know of someone who has done it, wants to do it or plans to do it. A juice fast can do the body good every once in a while – even if it is just for a few hours (which is about all I can manage to do). It is especially great for kicking off a new eating routine (i.e.: breaking the coffee/sugar habit) and for those of us whose meals consist mainly of discarded nuggets and pre-chewed food that your kids have flung on the floor. The juices at liquiteria are the best in the city – fresh, delicious and extremely well priced, and if you swing by to talk to one of the owners they will customize your very own cleanse. I highly recommend ‘The Grasshopper’, ‘Beets Me’ and ‘The Killer’.
I was asked to bring a treat for a birthday party at the girls’ pre-school last year, but with all the food allergies out there these days filling that request can be downright terrifying. Ok…so let’s see….that leaves me with what options?….rice cakes? …a fistful of raisins? What “treat” on earth is going to be wheat, nut, egg and dairy free?
I then remembered BabyCakes – an adorable little shop on the Lower East Side which is, incidentally, New York’s first and finest dairy, egg and gluten free bakery! They make picture perfect cupcakes, cookies, brownies and even pie – all of which can be scarfed down guilt free. But how do they taste you ask? Delicious! And what’s better, I feel like I am beating the system somehow when my kids eat them.
Courtney and her family were over in Paris visiting from London and we wandered around the North Marais, doing a bit of shopping, people watching and coffee drinking. It really reminded me about how much I love this little area. I want to write a thousand and one posts on all the lovely little places you can find around here…
I cannot believe I have not written a post about the Marché des Enfants Rouge yet. It is one of the oldest markets of Paris, founded in 1647 and has been converted into a fabulous market/food hall.
Food from all over the world is available… from Morocco, the Caribbean and Japan and it all gets consumed on big communal tables outside the food stalls. There is also a great organic fruit and vegetable stall and a beautiful flower stall.
It has a great atmosphere and is the perfect place to take kids as it is very lively, so a couple of extra noisy little people fit in perfectly….
The food can also be taken away and there is a great little park called the Square du Temple just down the road if you need to give your kids a bit of time off from culture and shopping!
Marché des Enfants Rouge
39 Rue de Bretagne
Paris 75003
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 8.30 – 13.00 and 16.00 to 19.30
Friday, Saturday 8.30 – 13.00 and 16.00 to 20.00
Sunday 8.30 -14.00
Have you noticed how cupcakes are the trendy dessert of the moment? Bakeries are popping up all over the US and abroad, it seems. I first heard about DC-based Cakelove from a cooking show on tv, and was intrigued by the lawyer-turned-chef Warren Brown– someone who was truly following their bliss to open a bakery. I finally succumbed to the cupcake craze yesterday when I passed by one of Cakelove’s bakeries – I got one for my daughter and her friend, a lovely vanilla cupcake with strawberry frosting. I have to say that it was quite possibly the best cupcake I’ve had. (I had to have a bite in the name of research!) The frosting was real, made with chunks of real strawberries, and not sickly sweet like some frostings. Cakelove now has 7 locations in the DC area, and also does big cakes and other sweet treats. I am looking forward to my daughter’s next playdate to try out another flavor!
I stumbled across the Michelin’s top ten bakeries in Paris report recently and was almost disappointed to see my favourite bakery in Paris listed as the first of the top ten. I thought it was my little secret that no one knew about! Though Du Pain et Des Idées is a tiny, unassuming bakery, the bread and patisseries are out of this world. I found it purely by chance: I was working in a studio on the same street and was looking for the local bakery to take home a baguette one evening… and I was in for a surprise. The baguette had a wonderfully crisp, but not hard, crust and the inside was so delicate!
Christophe Vasseur, the owner of Du Pain et Des Idées started off as a fashion house sales executive when he had a change of heart at the age of 30 (as you do) and decided to become one of the top bakers in the capital. He has more than succeeded. Voted best baker of Paris by Gault and Millau (a famous food magazine) last year, this year he was voted one of the 10 ten bakers in Paris by the Michelin guide.
If you are ever in the area I personally recommend the baguette, the orange blossom brioche called a ‘mouna’, or the apple turnover with a whole baked half-apple in it.
My favourite pizza place in Paris goes by the original name of Pink Flamingo. The first outpost was out by the Canal St Martin, but a new venue has just opened, in the middle of the Marais. Why do I like it so much? The pizzas are great — the Pink Flamingo crew has decided not to recreate Italian classics badly, but to successfully take pizza to a new level. Our two favourites are the ‘Basquiat’ which is covered in blue cheese and figs and the ‘Aphrodite’, a houmous and aubergine pizza. (At the moment there is even a Hawaian inspired ‘Obama’ pizza…)
Not only are the pizzas great but there is something else that makes the “Pink Flamingo” our family’s favourite: Their Pink-Nik service! You order the pizzas in the restaurant. You are then given a helium-filled pink balloon and tell them in which park in the area you are going to be. Fifteen minutes later a pizza delivery guy will come and find you. The area has lots of little parks with playgrounds so your kids can have lots of fun while you kick back and relax. Granted, it is a bit cold for this at the moment, but spring is just around the corner…. The restaurants are really cute too, in a retro-kitsch kind of way!
I have a new addiction and it is the food from my new favourite Cookbook: Leon.
Lets wind back a few years when we were all living in London. I was working in Soho and deploring the fact that it was almost impossible to get good take-away food. Try as I might, I never managed to get up in time to prepare sandwiches to take in with me. So my options were greasy spoons and sandwich chains that put so much mayonnaise into their sandwiches that it was had to figure out what else was in the sandwich.
Then, one fine day, Leon opened: fresh salads, soups, wraps… all I ever could have dreamed of was suddenly available just around the corner from me! I never went anywhere else…
Finally my favourite take-away has published a cookbook and I am loving making my own take-away food (The family is loving it too, by the way)!
In France we are so proud of our pâtisseries that I never thought this day would arrive…. the first cupcake bakery in Paris has opened its doors! Luckily for me it is right beside my daughter’s favourite playground on Rue de La Forge Royale in the 11th arrondissement.
Cupcakes and Co. is the brain child of two sisters Maddie and Rebecca, a trained patisserie chef. They spent years baking cupcakes for their family and friends and decided to turn their hobby into a business.
And the time was right. Cupcakes and Co opened in September and they have been overwhelmed by the response. Last week they were able to showcase their cupcakes at Colette, and in January they will be at Gallerie Lafayette, and the list goes on and on. It seems that the whole of Paris has been secretly yearning for cupcakes….
What I love about this place is that they stock classic cupcakes like carrot, chocolate and vanilla, but they also continuously come up with new ideas like a moelleux au chocolat cupcake or a violette flavoured cupcake. You never know what flavour you are going to find when you go to the shop, but you know you will never be disappointed….
Last but not least, the cupcakes are made out of organic ingredients, without any additives or colorants. There you go: the perfect excuse to indulge yourself…
If you want to taste quintessential New York, in my opinion, it starts with the bagel. Personally, I like mine with cream cheese (just the right amount), lox, raw onion and a couple of dashes of fresh pepper. Of course, the bagel is completely ubiquitous in this city, and if you’re looking for a standard bagel with cream cheese or butter you can walk into any deli, grocer or coffee shop and be pleased (more or less) with the quality of the taste. But, if you want to experience New York and one of its many delicious traditions, I would suggest a trip to the Lower East Side to visit one of the city’s institutions: Russ and Daughters. While Russ and Daughters might be better known for the quality of their smoked fish and caviar, I would argue you that their bagels are the real deal, too. Of course, many people think that H & H Bagels, located on the Upper West Side at 80th and Broadway, are the best in the city. I suggest you try them both, take a position and join the many New Yorkers who love to debate this kind of thing. Anyone recall the Seinfeld episode, when Kramer tries to return to work at H & H Bagels after a 12-year strike?
I never thought I would be upset to learn that I needed to eat more sweets! I was a little over 3 months pregnant when I hopped onto the scale at my doctor’s office to discover I had not gained any weight. Not as much as a pound! That’s when I started to cry. Of course, we all know that when you’re pregnant your emotions can run away with you. But I should explain that my tears were partly a reaction to my first son being born underweight because of a complication in utero. He is absolutely fine now, perfectly ornery, and the complications that caused him to be underweight were not in any way related to my weight gain. Quickly, my doctor came to my side reassuring me not to worry, but then just as quickly proceeded to tell me to begin a new diet: one that included many high calorie foods from my “guilty pleasure” list. When I replayed the afternoon for my husband, aside from sharing his concern, he had two words for me: “DOUGHNUT PLANT”.
Doughnut Plant is the maker of the fancy doughnuts that have become a favorite treat for us at Dean & Deluca, and they also have their very own shop hidden on the Lower East Side. So the next morning I made a beeline for 379 Grand Street to check out the Doughnut Plant digs. Of course, if you don’t want to hoof it all the way to the Lower East Side, you can also find them at Zabar’s, Joe’s Art of Coffee, Citarella and Oren’s Daily Roast. The Doughnut Plant story is a compelling one of how the owner, Mark Isreal, started in a basement tenement building — a one man show, baking all night and then bicycling his deliveries by day. The fact that his Grandfather was a baker, starting in WWI and that some of these very recipes live on today adds to the richness of these extraordinarily tasty delights.
Aside from the cool history, the doughnuts are just superior! Take the vanilla bean cake doughnut, made from scratch with real vanilla bean, a personal favorite of mine. Or the peanut butter glazed jelly-filled square doughnuts with jams made of fresh, seasonal fruits — amazing! All of the doughnuts are made with all natural ingredients, free from trans fats, preservatives and artificial flavorings. Now, I know that doesn’t make them the ultimate health food snack, but it sure makes me feel better when I reach for my second doughnut!
By the way, I did manage to gain plenty of weight in the past couple of months, and not from an entirely ‘doughnut diet’, either!
When I was pregnant in London I was addicted to Innocent smoothies. My favourite was the yogurt and vanilla one, and I could not start the day without picking one up before getting on the tube. Interestingly the company was based in the area I was living in, so I would often see the cute Innocent mobile scooting past.
Last year I was sitting in a café in Paris and suddenly saw a familiar site – the innocent scooter! My favourite smoothies had arrived in my favourite city! Now my daughter is addicted to them. They are super easy to drink, and the packets are easy to recycle, so reasonably environmentally friendly, which is more than one can say for most packaged kids’ drinks.
The design addict in me loves the packaging, which is really cute and cleverly designed. For example, the list of ingredients on the back of the pack has illustrations of the fruit in the drink so that even my two-year-old understands what she is drinking.
Yesterday I took my little family for a treat: we went to ‘De Taart van m’n Tante‘ (Cakes of my Aunt) for coffee and cake. ‘De Taart van m’n Tante’ is not just an ordinary tearoom with your everyday kind of cake — in fact, it might be the most kitschy tearoom of Amsterdam, with the most spectacular cakes!
The men behind ‘De Taart van m’n Tante’, Siemon and Noam, strive to make everybody (young and old, conservative and hip, Sikhs and nuns) at home in their cake parlour, and in my opinion they have succeeded. I especially love the grandma-style sofa and coffee-table in the back!
The cakes are yummy (my daughter was very happy to find out that they serve a super sweet strawberry cake entirely covered in pink marzipan – exactly to her taste!) and the owners really easygoing. They didn’t seam to mind at all that my little boy was screaming for cookies – in fact, they just gave him a plate full of them!
If you want to order a cool cake for a birthday, baptism or Bar Mitzvah, they will happily custom design any sort of cake (I mean ANY sort). But make sure you order well in advance! (Cakes from their regular assortment can be ordered 24 hours beforehand).
Ottolenghi is a restaurant/café here in London that is famous for its eye-catching window displays of scrumptious treats as well as for their take-away food and coffee. I used to live around the corner from their Notting Hill branch, and it was such a luxury: fresh muffins and scones in the morning, great sandwiches for lunch, and the most delicious take-away food for dinner! My husband actually joked that our dinners were more often made by our friend, “Otto” than by anyone else!
Ottolenghi is also our ‘go-to’ place for party food and canapés. It’s all so good!
So, imagine my delight when I found out they were making an Ottolenghi Cookbook! And, imagine the sheer joy of receiving the new cookbook from my friend, Sally, for my birthday! The perfect birthday present! With photos accompanying the recipes, the cookbook is both beautiful and inspiring. Now, even though I don’t live around the corner, I can have Ottolenghi treats whenever I wish!
And you can too, because it’s now available from Amazon. Hooray!!
Monday:
Take it easy on Monday morning, as so many things are closed! Go to a nice bar and have the typical Italian breakfast: cappuccino and cornetto (the italian croissant) and get a babyccino for your kids. To get the full experience you should have it quickly and while standing up, but that may not be ideal with children in tow.
Wherever you are you should not be too far from a stop of the 29/30 tram line: it’s a line that does a complete loop around Milan following the (now inexistent) Spanish walls. The trams in service on this line are very old, similar to San Francisco’s cable cars, and children love them! Wait until rush hour is over and board one, tickets are 1 euro and kids below 10 go free.
Get off in Corso Vercelli, one of the nicest shopping streets in Milan. Corso Vercelli, together with its continuation Via Belfiore and Via Marghera is probably one of the best places for shoes, kid’s shops and jewellery (together with everything else). Take a break and have a gelato at Grom, undoubtedly the best ice cream in the world! Reboard the tram and complete your tour.
Tuesday:
Head to Leonardo da Vinci Science Museum, where the highlights are the models of the machines designed by Leonardo and a real submarine. The Toti is a war submarine, built in Italy in 1967 and is over 46 meters long. Its transportation to the Museum took place in the middle of august and during the night to minimise disruption. It was very spectacular! Tickets can be booked in advance or bought at the Museum entry.
Unfortunately the cafeteria is closed until further notice, so you can walk down Via San Vittore and have a sandwich in one of the many cafés or have a slice of pizza or focaccia from one of the bakeries.
After lunch have a stroll around the Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio. It’s the quintessential Milanese church, very austere and elegant. Kids can run around in the porch if they still have some energy to burn off after the Museum visit.
Take Corso Genova, a nice shopping street, and walk towards the Navigli. These canals are what is left of the whole canal system that existed in Milan in the middle ages. The neighbourhood is very characteristic, a bit bohemian maybe. If it’s summer the streets along the canals will be pedestrianised and all the bars will have tables outside. You should have an aperitive, this is the ultimate Milanese habit. You get a drink and the bar provides so many snacks that you may as well skip dinner. Try to go early in the evening, so that it’s not too crowded.
Wednesday:
Go (window) shopping in what is know as “fashion quadrilateral”. All the streets around Via Montenapoleone and Via della Spiga are lined with the boutiques of all the designers you can think of, Italians or not. You could have a quick stop for an espresso either in Cova or in Sant Ambroeus. Both patisseries are extremely posh, but an espresso or cappuccino taken at the counter will cost more or less like in any other bar. Then walk down Corso Vittorio Emanuele until Piazza Duomo. Get the elevator (or climb the stairs if you feel sporty) to the top of the Duomo. Here you can walk on the roof among hundreds of statues and all the spires; the tallest of them measures 109 meters. You also get a great view of the city, if it isn’t too cloudy.
You can have lunch on the 7th floor of la Rinascente, the best department store in Milan. They have nice restaurants, not too expensive and with a terrace that faces the big stained glass windows of the Duomo. As an alternative you can walk around the corner and have the best panzerotto in town from Luini; unfortunately there’s no seating, but they are yummy and quite inexpensive!
Thursday:
Take your kids to the Castello Sofrzesco, a true castle in the center of town! You can walk around the courtyard and then enter and visit some of the permanent galleries. Children may not be too interested on what’s on show, but they will love walking in the big corridors of the castle.
The castle borders the Sempione Park, one of the only two (decent sized) parks of Milan. Nothing compares to London parks, but your kids can run and play. There is a playground towards the other end (you can reach it in 10 minutes) and also an electric little train that children love to ride.
You can stop for lunch in Bar Bianco in the middle of the park; they serve sandwiches and a selection of warm dishes. If the weather is nice it is definitely a good choice. If it’s raining, head for the Triennale, where you can have lunch at the Design Café. The cafeteria is now being refurbished, but it should open in April and the mind behind the project is Carlo Cracco, one of Italy’s most well-known chefs.
Friday:
Take the underground and go to Piazzale Loreto, then start walking down Corso Buenos Aires to get the Italian high street experience. Continue down Corso Venezia, an extremely elegant street bordered by luxury buildings. You will get to Giardini Pubblici — the other nice park in Milan. It hosts the Natural History Museum and the Planetarium. Together with playgrounds, merry-go-rounds and electric train you can also find a little coach with horses and ponies that children can ride. You can have a sandwich or coffee at Bar Bianco nearby.
Exit from Via Palestro, you will be facing the Villa Belgioioso Bonaparte (known as Villa Reale) and the Contemporary Art Museum. On the side of the main entry there is a gate that leads to a little garden where adults can enter only if in the company of a child. It is very small, but it is extremely well kept and if you have a crawling child you can let him free without fear of dog poo, cigarette butts and the like.
-Michela
P.S. A big ‘thank you’ to the Rookie Moms for featuring our four cities on their site!
Monday:
Head over to the Louvre for some culture. Older kids love the Egyptian collection with sarcophagi and amazing statues, and the whole museum is full of lifts and ramps so taking a pushchair along is no problem. There is even a special queue for moms with pushchairs so you can skip the crowds (if there are any).
Then, as an antidote for the kids, walk over to the Tuileries Gardens. They have trampolines (for kids over 2), and a merry-go-round situated in the middle of the gardens. Try to go before 4pm as this is the time school finishes and the parks get packed. To treat yourself, go for a hot chocolate at Angelina’s (226 rue de Rivoli). Rumour has it, that this is the best hot chocolate in the Northern Hemisphere….
Tuesday:
Treat yourself to a spot of shopping on one of the shopping hotspots of Paris, rue des Franc Bourgeois and rue Veille du Temple in the Marais. There are numerous little parks around these streets (places des Vosges and parc Royale), so you can let the kids have a quick play in-between shops! Go for lunch at Le loir dans la Théière (3 rue des rosiers 75004 Paris Tél. : 01.42.72.90.61). Ironically all the antique highchairs there are purely for decoration, but it is a really kid-friendly place with big leather sofas. Nobody rushes you, even if there is a huge queue in front of the door (and the lemon tarte is something to behold– its meringue topping must be at least 15 cm high)!
Wednesday:
Head over to the Jardin des Plantes. La Menagerie is a little old-fashioned zoo inside the park. It is very cute and has all the animals kids could possibly want to see. The café inside is decent and very good with kids. In true French style you can order anything… from a croque monsieur to escargot! If it is raining, the Natural History Museum is also in the same park. It is maybe not the most impressive stuffed-animal museum of all times, but definitely worth a look.
Thursday:
Time to treat the kids to some shopping. Some of the best kids clothing and toy stores in Paris are concentrated on the rue Vavin and the rue Brea in the 6th, just south of the Luxembourg gardens. Petit Bateau have a lovely shop there as doDPAM and Jacadi, and there are lots of individual children boutiques. After that you can go to the playground in the Luxembourg Gardens, which is one of the best playgrounds in Paris. There are swings for bigger kids, and the highlight for all the kids are the sailboats you can rent at the fountain, which you push around with sticks.
Friday:
Make your way over to the bois de Vincennes. It is a beautiful park/woods on the outside of Paris but in easy reach by metro (line 1). You can rent little boats to row around the lake and there is a little city farm, which is worth visiting especially in the spring when all the animals have just had their babies. The playground in the Parc Floral is huge and great for all ages.
If you still need to get a bit of shopping out of your system head back into town to the village St-Paul a little maze of cobble stone courtyards full of little antique and design stores. It is actually a lovely place to go with kids as the courtyards are all interlinked and pedestrianized.
One of the things I would miss the most if we were to move away from Paris would be the Parisian food markets. Every single neighbourhood has at least one, if not two, that are open at least a couple days a week (check out the link to see the locations and opening times). They are amazing, especially if you are used to shopping in supermarkets as I was after 10 years of living in London. The food is always fresh and beautiful to look at, and you can find anything from lamb brain to incredible smelly blue cheeses and fresh lobster. The best part is that after going for a while you get to know the market sellers and they get to know you. My daughter comes home stuffed full of goodies when we go to the market as everyone is always trying to fill her up with cherry tomatoes, little bits of cheese and chocolate. She gets really upset if I even think of going without her.
My personal favourite market is the Sunday market at Bastille. It is lovely to stroll down there in the morning, purchase some beautiful fresh food and go home and cook up a storm! The market itself is something to behold; depending on the season, there is a stall which sells freshly harvested sea salt and another only selling the most succulent looking mushrooms.
These markets remind me of the good ol’ days, as they have a great neighbourhood feel to them. They are a place where everyone still does know your name.
Two years ago our Christmas got canceled on Christmas Eve — well the trip we had planned to Switzerland did anyway. It was our first Christmas with a child and you know how important they are! We were devastated. I think the only thing that saved us was Melrose & Morgan, our local deli in Primrose Hill (where we lived at the time). We turned up at 12pm to a packed store of everyone collecting their orders and they thankfully managed to make us up one of their ‘Christmas’s in a box’. It honestly saved the day.
Mo in London
March 8th, 2010
3 comments
Courtney and her family were over in Paris visiting from London and we wandered around the North Marais, doing a bit of shopping, people watching and coffee drinking. It really reminded me about how much I love this little area. I want to write a thousand and one posts on all the lovely little places you can find around here…
! And, imagine the sheer joy of receiving the new cookbook from my friend, Sally, for my birthday! The perfect birthday present! With photos accompanying the recipes, the cookbook is both beautiful and inspiring. Now, even though I don’t live around the corner, I can have Ottolenghi treats whenever I wish!
Monday:
