Home for the Holidays

In good corporate fashion, our project practically shut down from December 18th through January 2nd giving me ample time to do a lap around the States. I was even able to sneak out two days early thanks to South Africa's "Day of Reconciliation." This holiday is remembered by the Afrikaner community as a day in 1838 when they defeated the Zulu army in the Battle of Blood River, while the ANC [African National Congress] commemorates it as a day in 1961 when they first armed their soldiers to overthrow Apartheid. Either way, I reconciled myself to skip town early.

Stop 1: Dakar, Senegal

The flight to New York is just too damn long, so the plane made a planned re-fueling stop in Dakar, Senegal. Unfortunately, no passport stamp, no pictures, and not even a breath of the warm desert air. 

Stop 2: New York, USA

18 hours and 41 minutes later I landed at JFK where it was a starkly different 18 degrees (it was 85 in Dakar 8 hours earlier). I grabbed a cab and was excited to see Courtney and get into the Christmas spirit (summer in December just doesn't set the mood). We spent the weekend watching [American] football, saw Elf on Broadway, tried some new restaurants, attended Christmas parties, and saw friends.

Stop 3: San Francisco, USA

Home for the holidays! The family met me at the airport and we enjoyed an evening in San Francisco walking the streets, shopping, and having dinner. Christmas came and went too quickly... but I had all the best of friends, family, and Dad's never-ending yard work. Plus, I was the only one to successfully elude Drew's cold.

Drew's first Chirstmas and first red wagon

Nana and Drew

Courtney met up with us in San Francisco for a couple laps around the Lafayette reservoir, friends dinner in SF, family dinner at Round Hill, and in a flash we were on the move again to Los Angeles.

Stop 4: Los Angeles / Pasadena, USA

The final stop of my U.S. tour was the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Courtney's brother Cale plays for the Rose Bowl newcomer, TCU, which meant I needed to find something purple quickly. We made our way to the team hotel and met up with the rest of the Patterson clan.We had a fun couple days and New Years, but we were there for a football game and TCU came to play!

In purple with CP1 and Gary
(Gary?? ..where did he come from?)

GO TCU

CP3, CP2, CP1

Dalton back to pass

TCU Gloves

FROGS WIN!

CP1 and me

CP4 and CP1

The Patterson Eight

Post-game celebrations with the team
Texans stood out a little bit in LA

In, undoubtedly, Gary's most spontaneous decision ever, he boarded a plane within two hours of finding out there was an extra ticket, good work. Special thanks to the Patterson family for allowing me to partake in "The Granddaddy of Them All".

Stop 5: London, UK

Between the back to back overnight flights I stopped in London... nothing to report. However, I think that traveling for 35 hours was the most relaxing thing I did over the quick trip home.

Office Interior_done for a friend

Kenya - 2011

Residence_Ekhaya (Swaziland)

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Czech Club Restaurant

74 West End Lane

West Hampstead

London NW6 2LX

0207 372 1193

1 Potato pancake

1 Roll mop

1 Cream, cabbage, sausage soup

1/2 Goulash + dumplings

1/2 Wild boar + dumplings

1/2 Goose + Fried potatoes

Our London Czechoslovakian experience was surreal to say the least. Though incredibly enjoyable. It has been my favourite to date in this process of eating the whole world (in London). 

We entered what could have easily been a movie set. It felt Czech, well how I imagine Czech things to look like. The large house which homes this restaurant is also used as quirky Czech bar and hotel. It seems to be a meeting point for Czechs to come and hang out, so we were certain we'd be served up something authentic (whether good or bad was uncertain). The place had a worn feel to it, we knew that it was steeped in stories; Czech poker nights, romances, affairs, scandal, debates over dinner about military coups, lovely! 

The contrast of simple well used wooden chairs, to that of golden framed grandiose paintings of people who appeared to be sergeants of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was amazing. 

Now onto the food, the setting was so good that we would've been happy just having a beer and breathing in all that Czech-ness. Now on to the food, we really were transported to some other dimension which felt far far away from London. Oh, it is hard to forget the surreal setting and speak about the food though it does deserve a mention - it was rich and flavoursome. The dumplings were slightly overwhelming, they are big slices of bread as opposed to what you may expect from dumplings, don't over order on that front. The boar went down a treat. The best way to try a variety of dishes without falling into a food coma is to go down the half portion options. Půvabný - Lovely.

Go go go go go go. Neda

Atmosphere - 9/10

Food - 8/10

Value for money - 8/10

Service - 8/10

Decor - 9/10

BURMA

DAMN YOU BURMA





MANDALAY WAS CLOSED

ANDORRA

Andorra. This is going to be a hard country - only 80,000 odd people live there.

Wrote to the Embassy in October but still haven't heard anything back.

Just sent another email, a polite prod.

Hopefully we'll be eating trinxat, xai and coques very soon.

Com'on Andorra.

To: andorra.embassayuk@btopenworld.com

Hi again, Wonder if you can help. My girlfriend and I are trying to eat a meal from every country in the world without leaving London. Have a look at our blog, early days but Andorra being an 'A' country is high on our current wish list. http://cuisine-jamming.blogspot.com/ We're still searching for a Andorran restaurant or cafe in London, or even someone who works in an restaurant that could cook us a meal. Any leads would be greatly appreciated.



J and Neda

ITALY

Due Amici 

11 Royal Parade

Chislehurst, London BR1 7NR

0208 467 4496

Neda vs Emma

Battered, blood drawn, aching and half here and half on planet ouch we put aside our memories of the paint-balling war only after a matter of hours and dragged ourselves out to eat.  All for the crucial cause to provide our readers a speedy review of where to get authentic Italian cuisine in London. 

From the off set we could see olives, overly expressive gestures and an abundance of food, perfecto. I'd very much like to say that the decor fitted into the charming-eclectic category but it looked a bit like an 18 year old girls bedroom. A random black and white poster of legs blue-tacked on a wall. Some coco cola memorabilia dotted around the place, nonsensical beach side postcards draped across furniture (photo below), bad water paintings that even your auntie would steer clear of and the crowning glory was the framed signed English football posters on the walls. Then behind us was what appeared to be stock; boxes upon boxes of biscotti (in their defence they were neatly arranged). I have to backtrack slightly, the overall feel of the place was elegant, however on closer observation these funny elements popped out at us. 

The highlight of this restaurant was above all else the staff, they were friendly and oozed italian charm. They were all sexy grey haired men who flashed ian their shiny whites when we asked for a photo (below). 

The grub was hot, the service was good, though the food wasn't anything spectacular. I'd recommend going for the seafood, the whitebait was gorgeous. Don't overdo the mains, save room for desert, as the desert options looked magnificently superior to the mains. If you live in south east london then a visit to Due Amici in Chislehurst village is worthwhile, if you don't live in south east london then I wouldn't break a sweat getting there. 

Emma won the eating contest.

Neda 

Atmosphere - 7/10

Service - 9/10

Food - 6/10

Decor - 6/10

Value for money - 5/10

FRANCE

1 Calamari

1 Monkfish/Prawn Kebab

1 Guinea Fowl in Cranberry sauce

Sacre Coeur

18 Theberton St,

Islington, London. N1 0QX

020 7354 2618

France an 'F', but not the way we wanted to cross it off.The food was okay. The staff was okay. The place was okay.The highlight was the two bottles Kronenburg, which were as good as any bottle of Kronenberg I've had anywhere in the world.

F'in average.

Us 2 REST OF THE WORLD 193.