I felt like popping in to Paris and seeing Moka for quite a few months, but it took time, her dad died, our catch- up had to wait. But I got there in the end, last Friday.

We spent a very nice weekend together, we still have the connection, like did 25 years ago at college. Vino still tastes great together, the things we talk about changed a bit ( peri-menopause!….:-).

Moka patiently took me around Paris, we ate well, as always. Saturday morning I inhaled 2 wonderful croissants, nevermind my wasteline. I’m pleased to say that mine are not far from the French ones, if only I had that wonderful French salted butter.

We stopped for coffee and some more pastry, as Moka said I had to try a cinnamon bun full of butter ( surprise!), sprinkled with sea salt flakes, divine, we shared it and struggled to finish it, after the tiny breakfast we had.

For dinner Moka led the way to a Lebanese place, a first for me, as I don’t know much about middle eastern food, but I liked it a lot. Never had confit lamb before, this one was as soft as you like, gently, but confidently spiced. Hummus, different than mine, moreish, excellent with Malbec.

Then, for Sunday lunch we went to Vaudeville, a traditional French, popular spot, which I loved before I even tasted anything. Such nice ambience and always a pleasure to watch a well trained waiter at work. This place was full them. We shared some duck pate with green salad, then cozze for Moka, beef tartare for me, wonderful fries.

We then saw a waiter passing by with a stunning looking dessert, which I had only seen on Masterchef before, but I knew this was the place and time to try it, so we shared a floating island. Drizzled with salted caramel and sprinkled with well toasted almonds, what a treat that was.

Possibly the best thing I had during the whole weekend.

Orly airport had a lot more to offer than Pisa one, I wasn’t surprised to see a Laduree shop there, but I didn’t go in, not a single macaron this time, my sweet tooth and an obsession with them belong to the past. For the best I guess.

Most delicious weekend. I hope we’ll do it again soon.

For our second mid week trip in search of great food with the Svedesi, we invited Molly and Enrico along. Enrico crashed out last minute, but Molly came and having dropped off the kids at school at 8.30, we boarded tesla and headed to Bolgheri. For us it was the second time. Beautiful, warm day in excellent company.

Having had a coffee and a walk around town, having purchased some vino, we started paying attention to the menus displayed outside of the restaurants and ended up in La Cantinetta di Bolgheri.

An absoluetly superb service. The owner, a chunky lady with a good sense of humour looked after us really well, made sure Molly was taken care of with her dietary requirements, served us 2 bottles of great Bolgheri with lunch- it was the third choice of wine, as the other two, we were told were out of stock.

We started with a tagliere of meats and cheese and some bruschetta. Beautifully presented, delicious, especially the artichokes.

Daniel had a plate of pasta, Molly some eggs, then baked aubergine, I have fallen into a trap of tagliata di “wagyu”. I should have known better that at 25 euro it ain’t no wagyu, but I still did. The meat was chewy, had zero marbling, a bit of disappointment. Courtney and Daniel chose a beef cheek in a sensational wine reduction, of which I had tasted a bit and I wished I had chosen it. It wasn’t as soft and gelatinous as the cheeks I used to cook in England, but it was delicious and I’m thinking maybe a visit to macelleria will be in order soon.

Florek had gone for a beef tartare with truffles in a freeky charred bun, that was a very pretty plate.

Excellent meal with lovely people, Daniel did Sergio’s trick and paid the bill on the way to the loo. Grrr!!!

After the coffee we were so stuffed that in the evening we skipped dinner altogether (apart from Izzie) and had only some green tea. Oh, and towards the end the owner brought us a bottle of wine we ordered as a first choice, turned out there was one last bottle and it was given to us free of charge. Will be enjoyed next Saturday while we celebrate Izzie’s birthday.

Last Sunday we were invited to Casa Linden for one of those great, Italian lunches,where, after 4-5 hours of eating and drinking one just wants to have a nap on a sofa somewhere, so it’s time to go home. Courtney and Daniel prepared a selection of delicious things to start with and then we all made our own pizzas, which were then baked in the oven on the terrace. The kids had a blast, fun and creative way to get them involved.

Molly made an appearance with her brand new short haircut, away went the wig, she looked radiant and healthy, but continues on a strict diet, so with Courtney they had a pumpkin soup with wonderful fresh eggs, of which we also got a few.

Later in the evening I started a new WhatsApp group for us, Boaratis and Svedesi, we had such a good time together. Next time we’ll repeat this here, Izzie’s birthday will be an excellent excuse to have them all around.

Last week we were mostly child free, as The Child was enjoying some skiing up in Sestola, school trip. I had made some plans well ahead and thought it would be great to finally go and see Modena, a bit more than 2 hours drive. We invited The Swedes along and ended up having a great day out together. The Swedes are always a good bet when it comes to company; they eat, they drink, they’re great to talk to and are severely allergic to any sort of bullshit, one of the reasons we get along well.

So we drove to Modena, parked the car and walked up to Piazza Duomo, past Bar Pavarotti, took a few moments to enjoy the views and went to Mercato Albinelli, following the footsteps of Robert Maklowicz, it was lunch time afterall.

We had a delicious lunch of some smoked fish- never before had smoked tuna or smoked swordfish before, both were fantastic. After that fish based secondi, nicely watered down with some Lambrusco ( when in Emilia Romagna……).

Next stop was Azienda Agricola Moscattini, which I had booked a couple of weeks in advance. We wanted to see one of many places where parmigiano reggiano is being made. And we ended up having a private tour, just the 4 of us and lovely Alessia. We were shown the process of cheese making, cheese storing and then sat down to cheese tasting; we were given parmigiano of 12,24,36 and 50 months old, some cured meats, honey, local bread and a bottle of Lambrusco. We ended up bringing home a piece of 50 month old parmigiano and some honey, among other treats.

The plan is to make this sort of trips more frequent together, hopefully we can make this happen. 🙂