Month: April 2011

Lobster at Le Saleya

I’d seen magret de canard on their specials blackboard as we passed Le Saleya earlier in the day.  Now as dinner time approached I was tempted.  Three of us popped in for a glass of wine first to Resto, Wine, Notes, then went on to La Saleya.  I had...

One from the Vaults: 30 April 2006

In honour of the anniversary of the anotherfoodblog.com I foraged back in time to find a typical meal in the life of Xander circa 2006. Oh to be an impoverished student again. On this day in April 2006 I wrote: Saturday – must go shopping… Yesterday I ate: 1...

A distant wedding celebration

The royal wedding of William and Kate took place while I was in the South of France.  This did not, however, prevent it being celebrated.  I invited a couple of friends who were also visiting Nice to join me for a balcony ‘street party.’  I draped union jack bunting...

Golden wine seduction

This golden label has been catching my magpie eye for months now. Sitting on the shelf in the co-op and winking at me like a tart in a window in Amsterdam. Regularly priced at £15 I’ve always shied away, knowing that the golden label is probably writing a cheque...

Squid on the harbour

I went to Villefranche with two friends.  We tried for a table at Les Corsaires, but there were none left under sunshades, so we went to Achill’s instead, overlooking the harbour instead of being next to it.  I ordered the calamari, which was very nice indeed and which came...

Quite a plateful at Chez Freddy

In the Rue Saleya we ate at Chez Freddy.  My two friends had 3-course meals from the day’s ‘menu,’ but I settled for a single plate of fritto misto.  It was enormous.  I ploughed steadily through it, but suppose I managed somewhat less than half of it.  Fortunately it...

Roast duck

Half price duck. £8 seemed a fairly reasonable price for a duck, that’s about twice chicken – discounting the  ‘2-for-a-fiver ‘ chickens deemed unethical by the wellington boot brigade. The regular price of £16 for the above pictured duck seems somewhat pricey, at those prices I’d plump for roast lamb...

Duck baguette

The roast duck from the day before was sliced into small pieces, as were the parsnips and roast potatoes. I ‘freshly baked’ some baguettes. Half-baked baguettes, available in most supermarkets, take about 10 minutes in the oven to become fresh, warm, crusty and delicious baguettes which make a mockery...

Non-stick frittata

Frittatas are notorious for sticking to the pan and involving much cleaning and scouring afterwards.  This is why I always use baking parchment to line the pan – no cleaning, no scouring.  This frittata had three large eggs, two dessert spoons of ‘thick’ cream (crème epaisse), one of yoghurt,...

Pistachio ice-cream

It’s not something I would have thought of buying for myself, but quite often friends who stay in my flat leave interesting stuff in the fridge or freezer.  I found this Casino crème glacee a la pistache, or pistachio ice-cream. Crucially it has “morceaux de pistaches,” or pieces of...