This week's 'Un dimanche à...' was spent in London, passing one of the most magical Sundays.

The day started with a 6am taxi pick up, destination Hyde Park, to watch my mum compete for Australia at the world triathlon series; not a usual Sunday, nor any day for that matter, occurrence.
The day ended on the other side of the city, and the Thames, with one of the best 'Sunday roasts' I've had the pleasure of devouring at the pup-friendly 'Cutty Sark' pub, named for the British ship that would often frequent Australia in the late 19th century, and a grand stroll around the Greenwich observatory. Mr M and I have decided that we'd very much like for this part of the world to be our home in the not too distant future...

This post marks the first in a few I'll post as a series on the trips I've recently taken and will take shortly. After working my little tush off all summer I had managed to plan, book and take four trips over the course of 28 days. I'm currently three trips down, I'll go with my mum on Saturday to Belgium for the weekend. It didn't really dawn on me that I would be away so often and frequently until it started to feel like I was never here! Which I actually haven't been, on this little blog, but that'll be changing soon, for sure.

The Cutty Sark Pub & Eating House

4-6 Ballast Quay
Greenwich, London, SE10 9PD 

www.cuttysarkse10.co.uk

xx

Real British Fish & Chips :: The Bay Restaurant, Dover

When Mr M and I agreed to cross La Manche again for the second time this year I was adamant that we'd stay closer to Dover so we could go explore its famous white cliffs which we had missed out on doing last time. No, I'm not about to post more pictures of cliffs - instead, as the title of this post suggests, I'm sharing the fantastic place we miraculously found while aimlessly driving around to try and find exactly what it is that we had found.

The White Cliffs Hotel and The Bay Restaurant sit almost at the top of a very narrow, windy road that cuts right through a gorgeously named suburb of Dover, Saint-Margaret's-at-Cliffe. Its off-street parking and large, clean, weather-boarded facade struck us first as being a suitable place to stop; its invitation to enjoy the large garden out the back had us walking through to take a seat. The inside of the restaurant struck me as being quintessentially British, with its eclectic and colourful cushions, fire place and large arm chairs. The Union Jack bunting hanging from the cross-beams and door frames themed the place beautifully without making the interiors seem too contrived.
The garden, shared with the Hotel and its guests, contained the most amazing teepee I have seen in my life, decked out with fairylights on the inside, several deck-chairs for mid-afternoon snoozing, and a vintage foozeball table that is sure to be popular with fussy teens stuck on a trip to the seaside with the family.
I'd actually recently had fish and chips for lunch in Paris, but the experience left me less than satisfied so I was very much looking forward to replacing it with a real British 'fish & chips' meal, possibly with also a glass of  Pimm's and a huge serving of cheery English hospitality. And we got it all. Including a complementary starter of olives and home-made sun-dried tomato bread due to the "bit of a wait" we had for our food (hardly at all!)

Almost never do I research a place to eat, drink or stay when Mr M is organising a trip, mostly because I'm happy to be "whisked away" and surprised. Additionally, if I'm given just the slightest opportunity to contribute to the planning of a trip I would completely take over, like the total control freak I am, and as Mr M was driving on this trip it's always best to leave it to him. But should I have gone researching for a place to have our first lunch in Dover, The Bay Restaurant is exactly where we would have gone. It was the best meal I've had in a long time, which could not all be attributed to the food; the rest to the lovely ladies at The Bay, the teepee, the bunting, the village Saint-Margaret's-at-Cliffe and the blackberry & elderflower Pimm's, mmmmmm!

The White Cliffs Hotel and The Bay Restaurant

High Street, St. Margaret's-at-Cliffe, Dover, Kent CT15 6AT, ENGLAND
T: +44 01304 852 229
E: mail@thewhitecliffs.com

Site - please do visit their site - listed in immense detail are all the producers, farmers and nearby Kentish regions that they source their produce and ingredients from. I had no idea about this while in their restaurant but since reading it it has given me a new-found appreciation for the great food we enjoyed.

xx

England to France with a dog (video)

This afternoon Mr M, Daisy and I arrived back from a quick, overnight jaunt to England to collect a friend and her puppy who are making their way to Greece for the summer. To travel between England and France, with pets, the most simplest and quickest way is taking the Eurotunnel, which connects Calais and Folkestone. We three did this trip back in January when we dropped the same friend to London to live, and I filmed it, which I thought fitting to share here today as it was fun to revisit and relive the journey. 

xx

First-timer's Kale Salad

I can't quite remember how I stumbled upon Kristen's blog 'The Kale Project', an online documentation of an inspired endeavour to reintroduce her beloved vegetable, which had ceased to exist, to France, her newly adopted country. I was immediately hooked on following her crusade. The very idea of taking the seeds of an edible-plant from one country (The Netherlands, where she sources them locally) and introducing them to farmers in another (here, in France) struck me as absurdly daring - probably because I come from a country that has the strictest quarantine laws on earth. Additionally I'd never, ever, heard of kale before in my life - and I used to work on food magazines! - so I was very intrigued as to what the fuss was all about.

 The unsuspecting kale

A quick Google search for "Kale Australia" brings up a magnitude of "where do I find kale?" queries in various forums and a couple of articles on how Australia's favourite horticulturalist Peter Cundall cites kale as being the reason he's still rubbing soil through his fingers at 85. There are couple pages on how one grows kale and a few more outlining its availability at selected farmer's markets around the country, which explains why I never saw it as I did all my shopping at Harris Farm and if something wasn't available there I didn't eat it.

 No kale results at Harris Farm

I had been following The Kale Project for a good little while before I got to meet the lovely Kristen and her kale at last year's Cupcake Camp Paris charity event. She'd made beetroot and kale cupcakes with coconut icing. I saved mine for a picnic the next day and it was delicious. I then started the hunt for kale at my local bio (organic) markets but every time I'd point to a leafy, cabbagey vegetable and asked if it was the infamous kale the Frenchie manning the stand would just raise an eyebrow and shake their head.

Kristen's Kale Kupcake ready for a picnic accompanied by home-made tomato jam and curried egg.

Which is why when I recognised kale sitting in a crate, outside a tiny fruit + veg market in Folkestone, England on the weekend I kind of lost it. Mr M most definitely thought I had. It didn't look like most of the kale I'd seen on Kristen's blog, but the man inside assured me it was. So we gave him a couple of pounds and onto the back seat of the car it went.

I emailed Kristen right away to ask her for recommendations on how to best prepare a kale salad for first-time consumption, suggesting perhaps with sliced radish, roasted cherry tomatoes and a lemon vinaigrette similar to what I'd seen in recipes on The Kale Project. Kristen agreed, especially with the roasting of the tomatoes to make more wintery, and also suggested a kale salad with steamed carrots or squash, toasted almonds and Parmesan cheese, which I'll definitely be trying next time I get my hands on the stuff!
The kale is a lot meatier that I thought it would be and extremely filling. As compensation for seeing so much salad on his plate Mr M insisted we serve it alongside pork sausages we also picked up in England - not my ideal choice of accompaniment but it didn't matter, we both very much enjoyed our first kale salad.

First-timer's Kale Salad
Adapted from recipes found at thekaleproject.com
Serves two people

Ingredients
10 x stems of kale - I used the 'curly' variety
10 x cherry tomatoes
10 x radishes
1 x lemon
1 x desert spoon of good quality olive oil + a little extra for roasting
Sea salt
Freshly cracked pepper

Prepare the roasted cherry tomatoes
Preheat the oven to 180°C. In a small baking tray place the tomatoes and sprinkle on some salt and pepper. Drizzle a little olive oil and shake side-to-side so the tomatoes are well coated. Put the baking tray in the oven for 15 minutes. When ready remove the tomatoes from the tray and leave to drain on some paper towel should you not want your salad too oily.

Prepare the salad
Tear off about 10 leaves of kale and destem by making a slice either side of the stem and tearing it away from the leaf. Wash each destemed leaf well and pat dry with paper towel or use a fancy spinning lettuce dryer bowl thingy. Chop the kale so the largest pieces are about 1 cm square in size and place in a large mixing bowl.

In a smaller bowl put a dessert spoon of olive oil, some sea salt, cracked pepper and the juice of a lemon and stir to combine. Increase or decrease amounts depending on preference of taste.
Pour the dressing over the kale and mix so that all the kale is coated. For 2-4 minutes massage the dressing into the kale using your fingers - this makes the kale more tender and palatable, and more yum!

Leave the kale to marinate while thinly slicing the radish.
Mix the radish through the kale and place the roasted tomatoes on top when you're ready to serve.

Folkestone, Kent and driving to England

Folkestone is a sleepy seaside fishing town one hour's high-speed train ride south-east of London, into the county of Kent. Once upon a time, as with most English seaside villages, it used to be a very popular resort town and boasted a grand amusement park right on the shoreline. Throughout its history, Folkestone, due to its proximity, played a significant role in England's defense against the constant threat of the invading French. Which strikes me as rather ironic as the town is now most renowned for being the first port of call for the Euro Tunnel train which in 35 minutes takes you and your car from Calais in the north of France to England.

A week ago friend of mine and Mr M's asked us to drive her and her little dog to London so they could experience life there for a little while. We jumped at the chance for the adventure, and took our little pup Daisy along to say goodbye to her best dog-friend. After a very delayed start - it's still beyond me how our friend thought leaving the morning after Australia Day was a good idea - a visit to the wrong hirecar office, a detour through Bastille for a forgotten passport and an hour of scenic-route driving because our GPS was kind enough to avoid the tolled roads, we were on our way.

Beautiful Art Nouveau shop façades and weather-beaten houses fit for Miss Haveshim

As romantic as roadtripping through France may appear, unless you have a great deal of time to avoid the A roads it will be all motorway and truck stop stations. Every motor way in France is tolled, and quite heavily at that, so getting around the country can actually end up quite expensive. From Beauvais, where we finally got on the A16, to Calais, a two hour drive, cost us about 15€ in tolls. In saying that, a day trip from Paris to the Loire Valley or Champagne region, passing through all the small and quaint towns in between is well worth it. Especially for the brocantes along the way! But that's another post...

That, there, in the yellow crate is KALE! Was so so super excited to find it, Mr M thought I was having a fit!

Once we arrived at Calais the pups had to go through quarantine, then we all have to drive through customs - it is very bizarre handing over your passport as you would change at a 'Maccas' drive-thru - and then line up to be ferried onto the train. You then drive up and then down some ramps, onto a platform, next to it stationed a train with a gapping hole in the middle of its carriages, and drive onto and into the train, which looks likes like something from a Luc Besson film. They lock you in, four to a carriage, and about half an hour later you're in cheery ol' England.

 The Folkestone Leas Lift, servicing beach visitors on weekends only.

There was no way Mr M and I were going to make it back to Paris the same day so Mr M booked us into the most charming 'public house' situated close to the coast, with a pub downstairs and small but comfortably furnished rooms above.

 Castle Hotel, Saltwood

The next day, before our train back to the continent, and after a quick trip to Sainbury's - lavender earl grey tea for me, pork sausages for him, and Pimm's for summer - we got to explore picturesque Folkestone. And to see the ocean! I forget how much I miss and long for the sea until each time I see it again.

Before we knew it our jaunt across the pond was soon over but it made us realise, while long, how super easy it is to pop over by car, which we've already started planning to do again soon. And if you happen to be interested in viewing the trip back via train for yourselves (and meeting myself, Mr M and Daisy) I made a little video that I've posted on Vimeo here.

Euro Tunnel / Le Shuttle

Website

Castle Hotel

The Green, Saltwood

Hythe, Kent 

CT21 4AJ

United Kingdom

+44 1303 266311