The Felix Meritis is the independent European centre for art, culture and science and an international meeting place in Amsterdam. They cleverly turned these concrete building shields into mini tables, added some chairs and voila, a mini patio.
Ate dinner at this cafe off brick lane near the Truman Brewery and Vibe Bar where we were having a Tuaca event. Tuaca is an Italian liqueur flavored with vanilla and citrus.
Pasta with garlic and olive oil -recipe posted already here, but took this pic on the weekend. Garnish is fresh mint from the garden.
A mother's love for her sons was a topic of conversation yesterday. It is a great thing to hear about or witness first hand. A & I spoke about it over lunch at Mercatto on Toronto Street (yum!), he mentioned how he really appreciates his mother and really can see how much she means to him more and more as an adult.
Not sure if this is completely accurate but perhaps, like fine wine, men appreciated their mothers more with age?
Located in the TD Tower on Wellington Street the Duke of Devon is a favourite of many city boys in Toronto. Not because it has an ok selection of Brit-inspired grub, or that is has traditional pub art (fox hunting prints and iconic old British countryside stuff) hanging on its walls, or that it serves Guinness - it is probably because it is a Hooters wannabe.
Now I know why my friend took me there, although he said this pub is his favourite for other reasons - am sure it is the smell of the hand wash in the men's toilets or something like that?! C'mon men, why do you try to fool women, we know the real reason. My question is why is there not the same number of places for women to appreciate a fine looking male, if there are such places at all?
Dining al fresco on a bridge overlooking a canal and the relaxed and liberal attitude to sex, drugs and rock 'n roll makes Amsterdam a really chilled out place.
Did you watch The Smurfs? When the characters went to Smurf village they all went into their mushroom homes. They did live in the deep forest and could never be found by humans - the only way someone could find Smurf village was if one of the Smurfs led them to it. Ahhh the mystery! 
When I saw these mushrooms at the market in Amsterdam I thought of Smurf village. They are wonderful to look at - the stall was only selling different varieties of mushrooms. The smell was great and they were quite busy. I especially like the pink and yellow ones (which I think are a type of oyster mushroom) and the little Piopinos.
The entrance - below the restaurant are artists' studios
The restaurant
Prawn lasagna
The diagrams in the women's toilet -very educational
Our Dutch friend Talia and the screens showing various art installation videos - one particularly interesting one was the whole screen was cut into 5 sections and in each box a woman was having an orgasm- but all you could see was her face...some of the diners didn't get that - they just thought the women were making strange faces.
My oyster starter - I do love oysters!Shoppers go nuts for squirrel pasty
(not sure about this but it could become a trend....there are lots of squirrels in TO!)
There are about 2.5million grey squirrels in
It will be a gastronomic adventure! Chinese food is always very interesting and these pictures depict how interesting it can get. Although, I always thought sea horses were magical and fairy tale-like - to see them skewered on a kebab stick shatters some childhood images. 
We had a dead starfish in our rental car when we went to Disney World as kids, who knew we could've deep fried it and ate it if we got stranded anywhere in Orlando!
I think this is a joke created by Banksy or his artsy friends. It is disgusting and interesting at the same time. Their website is very cleverly made if it is a hoax, which I think it is! Check it out as it is amusing to see the different bottle labels and descriptions. http://dinnerinabottle.com/
Fried food out of a machine...mmmm! You can find these Febo fast food outlets all around central Amsterdam. They are always quite busy too. Not sure what is in each of the little boxes, I think some were fried cheese, deep fried hamburgers and others friend cheese and meat. 
At the counter there was also a clear box with some disgusting looking chicken legs and very oily French fries. Needless to say, all of it looks questionable, it is definitely grease laden, has maximum cholesterol potential, is fatty and calorific! Proper heart-attack food.
This is not a food posting but it has been a busy week. So if I say that Grace Jones is a cow that relates to food, non? The legend was scheduled to perform at the Scarlett Launch party on Wed and at the last minute didn't turn up and demanded another £25K to leave her hotel room to come and perform. In the UK people call mean women cows, for all you international readers.
The party was for a new TV series - but there was a clever marketing twist as it wasn't a new TV series but a launch for a new series of flatscreen TVs. by LG...good one Ms. Lima & co.!
Bara brith, also known as 'speckled bread' (the literal meaning of the original Welsh-language name), or Welsh cake, is a yeasty doughy type bread stuffed with dried fruit. It is traditionally made with raisins, currants and candied peel.
