A Very Quick Sunday Supper

If you tried to avoid all the dodgy looking streets in Barcelona, you wouldn’t get anywhere. You just clutch at your bag a little tighter and hope for the best. Then much to your surprise as you step over your second pile of some indeterminable and foul smelling goo, past the hobo’s and graffiti, you might happen to pass by a small entrance leading into a dark but quite well crowded tapas bar. If you adjust your eyes to the gloom enough to peer in, you can tell by instinct, this is where the people of Barcelona go for Tapas. This is a good place. A cool, dark little gem, unknown to the tourist. So you make a mental note of the name of the bar and if you’re lucky, the street name and continue on your way home via many other dodgy and smelly little allies with the intention of returning and sampling what must be a great cocktail and selection of tapas,  like a smug and knowing local. If you don’t want to be ‘in the dark’ in Barcelona it would appear you have to seek out the darker corners of the streets.

Of course you never do. You will never find that place again. It is lost to the rabbit warren that is Barcelona. We’ve been here for a month now and I have barely scratched the surface of brilliant places to eat and drink. To be honest, I’ve done well and admittedly we’ve been doing a lot of eating in lately because we’d be broke and fat otherwise. Tonight is Sunday night and it is way too hot to cook a roast and quite frankly my little Force Ten oven and I regularly fall out over roasts so why ruin the peace?

For my mate Liz who has 4 children, 2 of which are babies, I’m doing the easiest, put-it-in-a-pan-and-run-away method of Sunday supper; and for my mate Liz, it only has 2 ingredients. I first saw this recipe in ‘The Flavour Thesaurus’, by Niki Segnit, an amusing and very interesting book. I have made wee adjustments to the recipe in the book but essentially it really does just have the 2 ingredients. This also makes this a great recipe for any strenuous, rough-seas cooking on a boat too and it is surprisingly delicious. I just had a huge bowl-full to prove it for you. Aren’t I good?

For a Sunday meal of chicken and bell peppers for 6 you will need;

8 Chicken thighs, bone in and skin on (I had 4 thighs and 2 large breasts and it worked just as well)

6-8 red and yellow large bell peppers

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped (optional)

Method;

• Begin by heating a very large, non-stick pan with a dash of olive oil and browning the chicken pieces, a few at a time over a medium heat. They just need to be lightly browned all over. Once they have all been browned, set aside.

• Deseed and roughly chop the peppers. Add some more oil to the pan and turn the heat to high. Add the peppers to the pan and let the peppers start to sizzle. After a few minutes add the chicken back to the pan.

• After about 8-10 minutes the peppers will begin to release their lovely oils and juices. Give it all a good stir, adding the roughly chopped garlic then put the lid on and turn the heat down to low, letting the chicken and peppers cook for another 40 minutes.

• After 30 minutes, I took the lid off and turned the heat up for another 8-10 minutes to reduce and thicken the sauce a little. It’s surprising how much sauce there is. Season generously with salt and pepper.

• Serve with some fluffy rice and lots of bread to mop up the juices. I made some paprika sautéed potatoes with lemon and red onions and would have added some spicy chorizo if I had any. All good things to serve with the easiest dish in the world.

In Niki Segnit’s book, she does literally say to put the chicken and peppers in together without browning the chicken first, which did work very well and is even easier. But next time I cook this it will be as the recipe above.

I think that may well have been our last weekend off for a while. By Friday we’ll be in Palma for our next regatta. I think I’ve just about recovered from the last one…

Hope you all had a great weekend too.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers!

P.S Apparently it isn’t a good idea to use a roll of kitchen paper towel as a makeshift tripod for your camera near a naked flame…    Who’d of thought?

Ketchup Confidential

When my sisters and I were a lot younger, we used to receive personalised foodstuffs in our Christmas stockings from Santa. My little sister always had a huge box of her favourite Crunchy Nut Cornflakes; until the mice under the stairs found where Santa hid all the presents. Apparently mice love Crunchy Nut Cornflakes too.

My food present in my stocking was for years, a huge bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup. (Once it was a large jar of pickled onions, all of which I ate before breakfast, washed down with some chocolate money. I wasn’t very well and Santa never did that again) But ketchup was my favourite and I will fully and openly admit, still is.

Isn’t it funny how food snobs get all sniffy about ketchup? I’ve been ‘sniffed’ at on more than one occasion by snobbish foodies as I generously pour ketchup onto dishes like cauliflower cheese, macaroni cheese or even lasagne. I will have more than a little panic if I’ve made some cheese on toast and have discovered there is nought but an airy red mist left at the bottom of a squeezy bottle. Cornish pasties are fantastic accompanied by some red sauce and there is simply no point in eating fish and chips or sausages if there is no ketchup.

It’s not just me. I know you’re out there too. And we have a ketchup history to be proud of, oh fellow ketchup lovers! There is good reason why 97% of American households have a bottle of ketchup and that ketchup sales in 1992 reached $723 million. 

In the 17^th century a sauce made with pickled fish or shell fish and spices known as koe-chiap, kechiap or ke-tsiap, probably originating in Indonesian and Asian culture, became popular with Chinese traders. British explorers took it home and by the mid 18^th century it had become a British staple.

Ketchup was then a very different substance to what we know today. It was a thin, brown sauce which probably tried to emulate the fermented fish sauces of the ke-tsiap origins; more like a Worcestershire sauce and had many and various recipes which included mushrooms and walnuts. Tomatoes weren’t added until New-Englanders in the 18^th century started to include them in recipes and it wasn’t until another century later that it was sweetened. But that is why ketchup is sometimes still called Tomato Ketchup or Tomato Sauce.

Your brief ketchup history lesson over; nutritionally ketchup contains lycopene, an antioxidant that can help fight off some cancers and organic ketchup can contain up to 3 times the amount of lycopene. Although generally ketchup’s health benefits could possibly be the tiniest, teensiest bit offset by the high sugar and salt content.

But whatever! Ketchup is great and great even to cook with. One of my favourite ever recipes involving quite a lot of ketchup is a sticky-pork-ribs recipe, fantastic for barbeques and parties. The meat practically melts in your mouth if it hasn’t already fallen off the bone and the sauce is deep and rich and smoky and very, very addictive. I used to make these ribs in a restaurant I worked in as a chef when I lived in South Africa. Needless to say, I’ve changed the recipe a bit but the basics; a bottle of oyster sauce and a bottle of ketchup still rule the roost with this one. I used this recipe for the ribs of the wild boar I butchered over the winter in our crew house. I’m not sure how easy it is for you to get hold of wild boar but if you can then I suggest you do. If not then normal pork ribs are excellent too. Obviously outdoor reared, happy, English pigs are better than anything else for flavour.

So for the best sticky pork ribs you will need;

For the ribs and stock;

2 racks of pork ribs. (feeding about 5-6 people as finger food or 4 as a main meal)

1 pint of apple juice

1 onion, roughly chopped

5-6 cloves of garlic, smashed

6-10 whole black peppercorns

1 inch knob of ginger, roughly chopped

1 stick of celery, chopped

For the sticky sauce you will need;

1 bottle of oyster sauce or 300ml

1 small bottle of ketchup or 200ml

Peel ginger with a teaspoon. Easy.

2 tbsp runny honey

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 small onion or shallot, finely chopped

1 inch knob of ginger peeled and grated

1 tsp chinese 5 spice

½ tsp cinnamon

Grinding of black pepper

Method;

• Begin by dividing the ribs into singular or double fingers with a sharp knife. Put into a very large saucepan or stock pan with all the other stock ingredients and cover with the pint of apple juice and top up with water to cover the ribs and stock ingredients well. (I didn’t have any apple juice so I cut up an apple instead and just used water which worked well)

• Bring slowly to the boil and then let simmer for up to an hour.

• Lift the ribs out of the stock using tongs and place in an oven dish. Pour the stock through a sieve into a large bowl and save a good ladleful for the sticky sauce. The rest can be frozen and saved for a soup or pork casserole.

 

• To make the sauce, sauté the shallots or onion gently with the garlic and ginger. When they have softened and started to brown add the 5 Spice and cinnamon and let the aroma start to strengthen, about 2-3 minutes. Then add the oyster sauce and the ketchup, the honey and the saved ladleful or cupful of stock. Grind in some black pepper and stir well. Let this simmer gently for 5-10 minutes.

• Heat the oven to about gas mark 4/160c. Cover the ribs generously with the sticky sauce and drizzle with a little olive oil. Place the oven dish on the middle shelf and cook for about 40 minutes to an hour, turning and basting the ribs frequently. The sauce should caramelise and reduce nicely. 

• Either serve the ribs as they are or if you are barbequing, a light grilling over some charcoal, basting with extra sauce will help to make the ribs even stickier and smokier. Or you can use a griddle pan on a high heat to finish the ribs, again basting with any extra sauce if you have it.

• Serve with many napkins and not over a white carpet. And don’t expect there to be any left-over’s.

Now that wasn’t an easy recipe to give away, or for that matter was it easy to go public with my love of ketchup. I’m not ashamed though. Food is a very personal matter, I’ve no one to impress and food snobs will probably already have pooh-poohed this blog quite some recipes back. Who needs them anyway?

We have one weekend left here in Barcelona. Then we set sail for Palma for our next classic yacht regatta. It is great here but I’m looking forward to moving on and racing our mighty Mariquita once again. We still have 5 regattas left to go; Palma, Mahon then Monaco, Cannes and St Tropez. Cool.

Thanks for reading. I hope your summer eating is full of fun and exciting seasonal grub and barbeques and parties!  And I’ll take a bet that at your barbeque a bottle of ketchup will make an appearance somewhere. I would if I were you for those folk like me who simply struggle to eat a sausage without sauce.

Cheers and see you soon!

Fabulously Full on Falafel

I’ve got some news; it’s almost August.

I know! I was just settling into July and then I looked at the calendar. I haven’t even remotely reached that goal weight; saved that money or done all the cool stuff I’d planned to have done by the end of July. And after August there’s September and we’re seriously getting into autumn territory by then so my planned summer bikini-body, might have to go up a size. Shucks.

Well, faced with that sort of reality I suppose there would be nothing wrong now with having a little bit of that whole almond, dark chocolate I squirreled away in the fridge earlier. Dark chocolates good for you, we all know that.

Yesterdays lunch was very healthy too, even though we all ate too much of it and felt like sleeping for the rest of the day. Falafel is a huge crowd pleaser, requires many tasty, fun and easy-to-do side dishes and is great for the budget.

So there we go; healthy food for that bikini-body (or tankini-body, up to you), saving money and cool fun to do… see! All my goals for August right there in a Pitta bread.

I’m trying to think positively.

Falafel is a vegetarian meatball made with chic-peas. And as George Clooney said in that episode of ‘Friends’; ‘God bless the chic-pea’.

They are the tastiest little dumplings, truly very easy to make and versatile enough that you can play with the ingredients to suit what’s in your fridge. You could add spinach, extra chilli, grated courgette, some chopped apricots etc.

And most importantly the crew love them. Even the, ‘where’s-the-meat?’ types love falafel. You can’t lose. Even if you haven’t achieved your monthly goals, everyone’s stomachs are happy.

To make enough falafel for 8 people you will need;

2 small onions, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

800g chickpeas from a can or jar, washed and drained

2 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 bunch of coriander, tender stalks finely chopped, leaves roughly chopped

1 large egg, beaten

Salt and pepper

Method;

• Sauté the onion in a frying pan with a tsp of sugar till softened then add the garlic and finely chopped coriander stalks. Sauté for a few more minutes then tip into a large bowl that will hold all of the above ingredients.

• Add the chick peas and a good pinch of salt and grinding of black pepper and all of the spices and using a potato masher or fork, mash the chickpeas up as much or as little as you wish. I gave them a fairly good mash but kept some texture.

• Mix in the beaten egg and if you think its too dry, beat another egg and add a little of that at a time till the consistency is just right. It needs to be moist enough to hold together but not wet.

• Take small portions of the mixture and shape into little dumplings, giving them a bit of a squeeze to flatten them ever-so-slightly. They should be slightly smaller than walnut size.

• Heat 3 tbsp of sunflower oil in a frying pan and when the pan is hot add the falafel and brown on both sides. Do this in batches setting the browned falafel aside in an oven dish. When all of the falafel are cooked pop them in a hot oven for 5 minutes.

• Serve the falafel with a bowl-full of Greek yoghurt mixed with 1 tbsp of tahini paste, 1 tbsp mint sauce and a good squeeze of lemon juice and its zest. Warm some pitta breads and arrange a platter of extra fillings. I did some grilled courgettes with cumin seeds and lemon juice but roasted cumin carrots or stir-fried cauliflower with spices can all be piled well into falafel-filled pitta bread.

Yummy.  The above amount made about 4 falafel each. Any more and you will need to plan a siesta into your afternoon. I think we should all do that anyway. Someone recently told me that people who have regular siestas live longer. I believe that. Mind you; could mean even less time getting those monthly goals achieved.

I guess I’ll see you in August then if not before. Enjoy the rest of your July.

Thanks for reading and Cheers!

Sightseeing and Sushi

A small section of view from the rooftop bar at the Hotel Majestic. Gaudi's Casa Batlló on the right.

I’m staying in this week. For the sake of my wallet and my health I’m eating home cooked food and will not consume any alcohol or junk and I will be going to bed every night at an extraordinarily reasonable hour.

How about that then.

I might also be kidding myself because my friend Robyn has agreed to show me some very cool and exciting things like a cupcake shop, the best place to drink tea and the best bakers here in Barcelona. But then, that all sounds like fairly wholesome stuff.

There is so much to do and experience here. However I’m coming to the conclusion that if I neglect to see every good restaurant, museum and cocktail bar then I have a very good excuse to keep returning in the future. If I try to do it all now, I could possibly do myself an injury. Three banana daiquiris, though delicious and a fun new experience, were more than likely the root of my Sunday morning unproductiveness

And before you start to wonder if my idea of culture is limited to food and drink, never fear. I visited Gaudi’s extraordinary Casa Batlló at the weekend. Antoni Gaudi, Spain’s most famous architect remodelled the building, owned by Joseph Batlló, between the years of 1904-06. It is known locally as the ‘Casa dels Ossos’, the House of Bones because of its skeletal quality.

Inside it is hard to find a straight line and even though the woman speaking to you through your hand-held 'speaking guide' tells you there are few, if any straight lines; if you’re like me then the challenge is on and you will be seeking straight lines in every nook and cranny. So if you get to go then at least you can relax and enjoy the tour because apart from things like furniture and stair treads, there really are no straight lines. I've done it for you. Phew. 

 It is truly stunning and a pleasure to visit and even George, my boyfriend enjoyed it a lot and he’s not great at sight-seeing.

 

This was the day after the sushi night. Our second visit to the ‘Matsuri’, Southeast Asia restaurant in the Barri Gotic region of Barcelona.

It really is the best sushi I have ever eaten. It’s the rice more than anything. If you’ve made a lot of sushi you will know that getting the rice perfect makes the biggest of differences to the final result. The sushi at Matsuri has a creamy, melt in the mouth effect and is neither heavy nor compact. The rice is on the light side of the ingredients and the filling shines through as a fresh and exciting little revelation. Like the mango in the spicy tuna sushi and the prawn tempura in the Tokyo. The California special is a must and if you’ve never eaten your own body weight in sushi before let me advise you that it is totally possible if you eat it here. Matt Barker, the owner and Captain of The Blue Peter, has admitted to eating there ‘practically’ every night so far. But then he’s allowed. He’s about to run in the New York Triathlon. I would seriously consider entering it too if it meant eating sushi every night. Hey, its healthy stuff!

The restaurant is very chic and pretty ‘zen’ so works well for crew and ‘guest/owner’ nights out alike.

After our visit to the Casa Batlló the next day (conveniently around lunch time…), we decided that since we were just down the road from the Hotel Majestic, we may as well pop-on-up to the tenth floor to visit ‘The Gourmet Bar’. It is a very elegant rooftop bar that has panoramic views over the city. Comfortable chairs too, Philippe Starke you know. 

So of course because we were up there it felt rude just to look at the view and leave giving nothing but our ‘oohs’ and ‘aaghs’; so we sat down to a few glasses of Cava and a little light lunch.

Then I think that day might have evolved into what was the banana Daiquiri night…

And here I am now, glad to be on the boat with a mug of tea and a cooling fan and no where to go for a while. Lovely. Well, we’ve still got a little time left here for a few more Barcelona adventures so one would be wise to pace oneself I reckon.

Thanks for reading! Hope you tried out the Pimms and Paella party idea?! Let me know.

I have a great little recipe for you next. Good, easy, cheap and very tasty little lunch idea.

Join me then. Cheers!

Skateboarding is where it's at in Barcelona

Paella Performance and Cocktails.

Do you know, I don’t think I’ve made paella since (long pause) crikey, cookery school, 10 years ago. And how much better is a freshly made paella then those stodgy, hours old, tourist grabbing, yellow glowing paellas that practically have a bottle of factor 30 in hand, they’ve been sitting in the sun that long.

I’m sure there are some jolly nice paella restaurants out there (in fact there is one here that specializes in them, don’t worry I’ll try it out). It’s just that it is such a great dish that should be served and enjoyed uber fresh and hot off the stove.

I could have bought a huge paella pan to make mine in. Oh the temptation! There they were, from small to about 1 meter across, hanging off the wall of a lovely kitchen shop in town. I was busy justifying the expenditure and locating secret hiding places in the bilges or the lazerette that could house a massive paella pan, disguised maybe as a vital bit of boaty equipment. Give it a rollick and an oar and you could probably row some considerable distance in it; who would question it? But before I got too excited I had to remember that firstly I would have to cycle back to the boat with the thing possibly balanced on my head and most importantly my cooker is less then 2 ft square and I have no room at the inn for any more pans or fun equipment and certainly not the budget.

Dull.

Hey-ho. My stainless steel saucepan would have to do. It’s best not to use non-stick pans and use the frying pan with the biggest flat base that you have. It shouldn’t be too heavy or cast iron because they retain their heat too much which will mean that when your resting your paella, once you have finished cooking it, the rice will still be cooking on the bottom. So it needs to be a pan that cools quite quickly. Either that or stick the base of the pan into a sink full of cold water. The important bit of the paella is the crust stuck on the bottom where the rice has toasted onto the bottom of the pan. So non-stick pans are not helpful for that.

Making paella is fun. It’s a dish you can be as traditional or as simple or as experimental as you dare and it always tastes lovely. Looks pretty good too. A feast for the eyes.  I stuck with a fairly traditional recipe using pork, chicken and seafood, peas and parsley and lots of lemon zest. They can be vegetarian too. And I made mine a little bit spicy but then I knew my audience.

Have a party! It’s summer and the evenings are long. Paella is best cooked on the barbeque or a grill where the heat will cover the entire base of the pan so that’s your perfect excuse to get some mates round for some paella and sangria in the garden. Actually I’m thinking Paella and Pimms evening, loaded with fresh mint…The old salad and crusty bread accompaniment and what a lovely evening.

I would if I were you.

For traditional (I think!) Paella for 6 people you will need;

2 medium brown onions finely chopped

1 large red pepper finely sliced

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 large bunch of flat leaf parsley

1 small red chili (optional)

3 large tomatoes deseeded and roughly chopped (and skinned if you can be bothered)

2 chicken thighs, 2 drumsticks and 2 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces.

8 rashers of bacon or a chorizo sausage or 2 pork chops, roughly chopped

400g paella rice (most supermarkets stock Spanish paella rice)

large pinch of saffron (optional, it’s expensive)

Saffron

2 tsp sweet paprika

about 2pts, 1.2 litres of vege stock

12 fresh mussels all cleaned of beards and barnacles                     

1 small pack of cooked peeled shrimp

12 raw prawns with their shell

1 cup of peas

any other fish or shell fish that you fancy that’s in season

Method;

• Begin by sautéing the chicken pieces in some oil until lightly browned all over and then set aside.

• Using the same oil, fry the pork/bacon pieces until lightly browned and set aside.

• In another pan, steam open the mussels and discard any that remain closed and set aside.

• Back to the paella pan using the bacon fat, sauté the onions with a tsp of sugar until softened but not too coloured. Add the red pepper slices and chopped tomatoes and continue to sauté for a few minutes.

• I finely chopped the tender parsley stalks and added a good tbsp. Then stir in the paprika, and chorizo if using.

• Now pour in the rice and stir well to combine with all the lovely ingredients over the heat and sauté like this for 3-4 minutes. Then pour in the hot stock and add the pinch of saffron.

• Return the chicken and bacon or pork to the paella and bring to the boil. Give it all a little seasoning with salt and black pepper. Then turn down the heat to a gentle simmer and stirring occasionally let the stock be absorbed by the rice. This will take about 20 minutes.

• Before the 20 minutes is up, add the raw prawns and peas to the paella so that they have a good 6-8 minutes cooking time and have gone a nice pink colour. Once they have gone pink and the rice is almost cooked add the chopped parsley, lemon zest and cooked prawns and mussels to the paella giving it a brief and gentle stir, kind of more of an incorporating wiggle.

• Serve with lemon wedges and salad.

So apparently the first paellas were made with Water vole meat, eels and snails. Probably wise to stick to chicken and/or fish I reckon. Not sure where to get Water vole. Saying that you can get some ‘out-there’ things at the markets here. They have a fair amount of offal for sale. Any part of any animal you’d like to munch on is available…

Like I said; I’ll stick to the chicken and fish.

Thanks for reading. Hope you have that garden party with paella and Pimms. Let me know how it goes. Don’t forget the fresh mint.

Cheers!

The night lights of Barcelona

The Storm

I found this piece of English homework I wrote when I was 14 or 15 years old. You could say that my working on a classic yacht now is no huge shock really. Sailing and boats definately become a part of you and I clearly had a vivid picture in my mind of the scene I was writing about. I also quite clearly was enjoying thumbing through my thesaurus at the time of writing. Some big words to impress my English teacher. Mrs Gibbs was her name. She was lovely, I wonder where she is now.

It is Sunday and we the crew are absolutely shattered. Some precentage of that is from having had 5 days classic yacht sailing and I think another huge percentage is from having such a great time of it in Barcelona. It was a brilliant regatta. We came second overall. Moonbeam 3 came first and well done to them. Yesterday the wind really blew and we wore harnesses and life jackets and reefed our huge mainsail. It was no storm but my staysail team and I were hauling on the jigger up to our waists in water for alot of the race. Awsome. We had our one win and a first over the line so we were very happy with our performance this week.

Drying out the foulies and shoes after a pretty strong day on the water.

3 Regattas down, 5 to go. But for the mean time we will stay in Barcelona and rest our weary bodies and take care of our very old but beautiful boat. 

Mariquita heading downwind

The Storm

The dark blue universe of sea was a reflection of the clear blue dome of sky above it. The lustrous dazzling of the sun's rays beat down upon the silently calm, mirror-like water, increasing the resplendent glow.

In the midst of this mysterious world, enveloped in the remote and solitary haze of this huge expansion of water, a small wooden yacht leisurely made its way across the slack waters, heading for the misty horizon. The sails slightly yellow in colour from years of hard use, storms and strong winds, flapped lazily in the now idle and reluctant breeze. The rigging tapped rhythmically against the mast and the tame water lapped against the boats glossy hull which moved with sluggish apathy towards its destination.

Aboard the yacht, sitting in the cockpit of the boat, was an old man, tanned and worn like the sails from endless years at sea. Wearing only a pair of shorts tired with overuse, his naked flesh, brown and drained of its youth was covered with salt, encrusted in the crevasses and folds of his old skin. Beads of sweat were emerging from his brow in the sweltering heat and the pungent smell of old tobacco lingered in the air around him. His white hair and beard were matted and salty from neglect. With skill his experienced hand held the wooden tiller. His bloodshot eyes, full of wisdom and knowledge of the oceans, looked on in anxiety towards the distant horizon.

As the sultry day advanced, the glaring sun eventually began to descend from the sky, its brightness steadily altering to a soft orange glow which discoloured the sea beneath with its reflection. The orange globe looked down at its destined journey, unknown to anyone but the sun itself. It pondered as if in thought before reluctantly diminishing behind a wall of black which hung over the horizon, dark and oppressive. As the sun disappeared the wind awoke and a harsh breeze crept silently upon the small boat, filling its sails. The boat reacted swiftly to this newly found power and was aroused into acceleration.

Whispery clouds began to form in the darkening atmosphere above and the man knew that behind their mask of innocence these clouds were the worrying sign of an ever advancing enemy. And this battle was to be the hardest of battles at sea.

The man adjusted the sails and began to prepare for what was to come. For as the power of the wind became stronger, so did the forebodings of a storm.

P.S Better tell you about the best sushi restaurant I have ever eaten in Thanks to my mate Robyn from the classic yacht, Halloween; and it is right here in Barcelona. Just for you guys I will return there to take photos and sample more of the menu so that I can blog about it. Now don't let me hear you say I never do anything for you.

Thanks for reading. I'll be back soon with recipes and restaurant reviews! It's a tough life at 33 degrees...

Cheers!