SUNDAY CHICKEN; Coq au Vin

If you’re ever stuck wondering what to make for dinner on a Sunday night try this really easy recipe. This would be ideal if you have any leftover vino from the night before …

Chicken Thighs (with bones)

Carrots

Onions

Thyme

Rosemary

Bay leaves

Chicken Stock

Salt and Pepper

Red Wine

I don’t weight out the ingredients – because I believe that my best dishes are always an incidental discovery. Trust your tastebuds!

So this is how it’s done;

- Heat a pan and fry the chicken until it’s golden. You don’t need any oil for this!

- Then add the chopped carrots, onions and the herbs. Cook for about 5mins

- Add the chicken stock and red wine (if your pan is not deep enough, you may, at this point, need to transfer the cooking ingredients into a pot)

- Let it stew over low heat for 2-3 hours and voila .. it’s ready to be served.

But this dish, it’s hard to go wrong and even if you think you’re ... you can use my rule of thumb; if in doubt just add more wine!

Showing this photo to a friend yesterday got him to suggest cooking it with ‘vino blanco’.  Next time I’m cooking this, I might just have to try that!

If anyone has tried this before, I’d love to hear your thoughts

A SLUMBERING GIANT

Stepping out onto quiet streets filled with fallen leaves of a sleepy Sunday morning London reminded me of how enchanting a city is when its inhabitants are still wrapped up warmly, unstirred from their nightly hibernation.

There’s something magical about experiencing a city waking up from its slumber. Last September, at the crack of dawn of the 5^th day of our European Escapade, my gastronomist friend, Tom and I touched down at Seville Bus terminal at 4:45am in the morning.

A very spontaneous trip turned epic epicurean adventure, and Seville, was where we discovered the freshest orange juice and, I kid you not, the best Spanish Iberico ham sandwich in an likely venue, a grungy smoke-filled bar (that was sill open at 5:30am) just on the boarder of suburban Seville.

Between not being able to check into the hotel until after mid-day and having stuffed our faces with 2 rolls each we began our slow stroll towards the waterfront … wandering aimlessly through warrens of cobble streets and alleyways made up of towering doors and maze-like side streets as the sun stirs the city to its awakening. By the time we reached the watchtower by the River, the early morning rays softly kissed Torre del Oro revealing the secrets to its name, the ‘Tower of Gold’

Seville is sublime. Years of intercultural influences left me mesmerized with its Moorish, Arabic and Franco inspired features everywhere we go. If you want inspiration go to Seville …

A Slient Manifesto

Through random googling while researching for our upcoming textile project, I came across TUMBLR.

Just another platform for microblogging, but it's really really good for those who enjoy my photographs sans the blabbering ...

Follow my silent manifesto at: http://lovelifelivelaugh.tumblr.com/

Holiday Withdrawal Syndrome

... might be the only drawback of going on a holiday/mini break/get-away ...

Even missing my connecting flight from Istanbul to Adana last week couldn't dampen my spirit knowing that my adventure has already begun the day I knew we were going to Cappadocia.

I have just finished a book, a very interesting chapter titled "Going Away" outlined why people shouldn't really "go away" if they needed to "get away" .. going on a "holiday" doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to wind down, get the rest that you need or be with yourself. Sometimes it's actually require more effort, you ended up being more tired than before you set off and you still haven't had time to be with yourself. You would have never been "away" at all ...

That is why I would always refer to these trips as .. "adventures" because I'm not going away, I don't need to get away. It's not about the destination, but the journey.

Here are some more photos from this "adventure" ...

Cappadocia: Real Life Bedrock

If The Flintstones were ever house-hunting, I'd tell them to look here ....

Cappadocia is filled with geological delights, mesmerising underground cities and their citadels. Wondering up, down and along warrens of cavern systems carved out in the soft under layers of volcanic rocks in this vast landscape was breathtaking.

To have a "pulsating feet" ...

There’s a saying in my mother’s tongue (theep-pha-john-lhong-taow) which literally translates as “to have pulsating feet”. If a Thai person labels you as this, don’t smile. It’s not meant to be a compliment!

This so called effect of "blood rushing to the feet" is a reference to a person with an inability to stay in one place for a long time. If you were to have such 'condition', like me then, you are likely to have this constant urge to travel or move about in different places, looking for an adventure. How I’ve caught this Travel Bug is another anecdote in itself, but there’ll be another time for that … but for now;

I have been meaning to share some of my adventures, thoughts and random drawings with you but never set my foot down in doing it. And what a perfect time to start writing for my first posting other than now at the altitude of 37,139 feet above the Croatian mountain range.

This time, the destination is Adana, Turkey’s 5^th largest city and… probably not on a lot of people’s list of must visit, but if it is going to be 10C warmer than London, I can’t complain.

According to Jan, there’s not much to do but I’m going to prove him wrong. There is ALWAYS something to do. Failing that, there’s always … Cappadocia tomorrow!