I was very much looking forward to my lunch while in the walled city of Mdina in Malta. Very close to the main gate of the city is a Relais & Châteaux hotel with a lovely trattoria where I had made a reservation.
These pix do not quite do justice. All the food was really really good, especially the local sea bream.
After a 12-hour flight from Seoul ICN, arrived in Rome FCO last night, was picked up at the airport, taken to my B&B near the airport, where I immediately had a big Italian dinner. The popular restaurant attached to the B&B was packed with locals, mostly big family groups, its being a Saturday night before a long weekend.
My starter
Piazza Margherita as my main.
This girl kept chasing the house(?) dog.
Interestingly enough, the very nice B&B does not serve breakfast and the option is the above breakfast basket for 3 Euros!
My short trip to Penang, Malaysia was over as of December 30th in time for me to be back in Tokyo for the new year celebration, the most important of the holidays and very much a family event in Japan. The Penang report will continue later but here is a post to wrap up the year 2016 with scenes from my monthly “eating around the world” get-together with a couple of very good friends. The rule we try to keep is that we go to a place managed by someone from the region (not always possible but we manage for the most part) and we try not to repeat the same region.
Here we go.
January: Paraguay
February, nao’s birthday month: Hong Kong
March: Moldova
April: Afghanistan
May: Kenya
June: Palestine
July: Spain, the first time to repeat a country though in a good way to celebrate taka’s birthday
August: Pakistan
September: Tibet
October: Basque Country, my birthday month
November: As with every year, this month is saved for “Beaujolais Nouveau”
December: Christmas which we save for French or Italian dining every year and try to choose a restaurant where we are not forced to eat a Christmas menu. Italian it was for 2016 managed by a chef from the south of Italy.
Happy new year’s eve!!
A grown-up girls’ night out is what it was. So much fun, so much good food with two other independent ladies from the same industry in a never-tried-before Italian restaurant which turned out to be fab.
Having performed my duty as a panelist the previous day, I had little worry for the final day of the convention I was attending in Singapore this week. Started the day by going back to the food court inside Marina Bay Sands for an Indian breakfast.
Vada
Heard a few panels in the morning. Insightful.
And then it was already time for my lunch meeting. I insisted we had to go somewhere where there was Tiger Beer on tap. My wish was granted.
Two more meetings at my hotel in the afternoon and then it was cocktail hour at the “Long Bar” at the Raffles Hotel, the home of “Singapore Sling“. I had the slightly different “Sling 1887” which had sparkling wine in the mix.
Decided to dine at the hotel.
Lemmongrass jelly. Very nice.
Souvenir shopping at the hotel’s gift shop.
Walking back to my hotel a couple of blocks away which was tricky because of all the road blocks due to the scheduled Formula One.
Fast forward to the next morning at 4:00 am, arriving at the Changi Airport for my 5:50 am flight which got pushed forward to 5:35 am.
Good week!
A blog by Ayako Mathies 