There’s no dish that reminds me more of my childhood than porridge. This humble and often much-maligned breakfast of oats, soaked and cooked in milk or water, was a winter favourite for my family when I was growing up in Australia. Turns out that oatmeal porridge in Edinburgh is quite a thing, so much so … Read more
We had a distinct feeling of déjà vu when we arrived at our apartment rental in Berlin in Prenslauer Berg. It was our Krakow arrival all over again. We’d just spent another ten hours on a train – the heating and electricity off for part of the trip – we were tired and a little … Read more
I have to admit that it was a hard slog up five floors of stairs to our Kraków holiday rental apartment. Perhaps it was the 6am wake-up after just a few hours sleep, combined with the 10.5-hour train ride from Vienna, but I was exhausted, I was battling a cold, and because of the stairs, … Read more
Ever since I first tried truffles in a restaurant in Zurich, I get excited when the Northern Hemisphere winter comes around and I can look forward to fresh black winter truffles. Many years ago, when I worked in publishing in Sydney, my right-hand-man had a rather tempestuous relationship with his girlfriend who was head chef for … Read more
Asian supermarkets, a mouth-watering gourmet market, vintage clothes shops, retro furniture stores, smoky bars, and pool halls, the 5th district location of our latest ‘home away from home’ in Vienna is about as far removed as you can get from Sacher tortes, Spanish dancing horses, and the Vienna Boy’s Choir, yet, if that’s what we … Read more