Chez Moi

August 22, 2016

Travel Journal | Santiago, Chile

We flew into Santiago in the early afternoon after a dark night suspended over the Pacific Ocean. Our breakfast had just been cleared and then all of a sudden the plane dipped below the clouds revealing the towering Andes Mountains and the city sprawling at their feet. A short taxi drive later we arrived in the CBD and checked into our hotel. We had been given a room on the 22nd floor: “the penthouse”, we joked with staff; but the joke was on us, as the room turned out to be shabby and poorly cleaned with a pungent smell lurking in the hallway outside. Thankful that our long flight was over, we decided to overlook these discomforts and soak up the amazing view from the tiny balcony:

After a short rest we headed out into the streets to explore. We ordered large coffees and then wandered about, taking in the feel of new city streets and unfamiliar faces. We soon found ourselves in the main square, Plaza de Armas, which bustled with locals on their way home from work. A crowd had gathered around a pair of dancers; a young huaso (cowboy) wearing a poncho and hat, whose formal movements were answered gracefully by his parter, a woman wearing jeans and waving a white handkerchief (cueca – Chilean folk dance). It wasn’t until the dance ended and the woman kissed another man that we realised she wasn’t officially part of the act, but a stranger pulled from the crowd.

The sun was low and the temperature falling so we decided to head home. We thought we knew the way back (the streets are organised in a grid after all) but we spent a good hour trying to reconcile our tourist map with the landmarks etched into our memories. We were cold and hungry by the time we found our hotel but restaurants typically don’t open until 8pm or later. At a supermarket nearby we stocked up on fruit, crackers and a bottle of Chilean red wine, which I soon spilled all over the bed. One bar of soap later, wet sheets were draped all around the room, but then…finally, the Japanese restaurant across the street was open and we were face down in bowls of steaming udon soup.

After a sleepless night we headed out for breakfast then met up with Chloe from Foto Ruta whom we had booked for a photographic tour of the city. For the next few hours we enjoyed the warm winter sunshine as Chloe dispensed creative tips and local knowledge in equal part. From Chloe we learned how to buy still water (sin gas, not con gas) and why many of the street dogs wore little jackets (a local charity funds this every winter). At the end of the tour we sat in a cafe with glasses of wine while Chloe critiqued my photos, drawing attention to many little habits that I hadn’t noticed before (like forgetting to ensure that my shots are straight!). It was a beautiful day and the tour was a perfect, relaxing way to get our bearings and learn about the city. Some of my favourite shots from the day include:

Later that night we headed to the Costanera Centre in Providencia to meet up with Marta and Werner (we had met Marta five years earlier when travelling in Halong Bay, Vietnam). We enjoyed a fantastic dinner at the Peruvian restaurant, Tanta, sampling ceviché (raw fish), octopus with fried potatoes and pesto, an outrageous dessert platter, our first pisco sour (the first of many), and delicious Chilean Carménère. That night Chile beat Mexico 7-0, winning the semi-final of the South American football championship. The taxi ride home was punctuated with cheers and tooting horns, as the locals took to the streets to celebrate.

After that first day, Santiago was enveloped in dense smog which prevented our planned visit to Cerro San Cristóbal, the steep hill in the centre of the city. Instead, we roamed about the city, usually with no real plan in mind. We moved to a better hotel (sans stench and dirt), took a half day tour to a winery (more on that later) and a full day tour to the Andes Mountains (more on that later too). It was very cold and we were glad that we had invested in thick winter jackets and scarves, even though the sight of homeless people sleeping on park benches and shivering street dogs invoked the inevitable pangs of guilt. We gradually grew more confident to navigate the streets without a map (well, at least Colin did) and we worked on our meagre Spanish every time we stopped for hot coffee or steaming empanadas.

I finally got over my jet lag five (!) days after we landed. Despite my exhaustion, I loved Santiago and wished we could have stayed longer to see more of the sites and museums. The morning after that blissful sleep (the sleep of the dead) we were due to fly out to Buenos Aires. We had a couple of hours to spare and squeezed in a walk around Barrio Bellavista, a bohemian area just across the Mapocho River. It was early for Santiago (nothing really opens until 10am) and we had the colourful streets almost to ourselves, except for a few elderly ladies walking dogs and a friendly chap who offered to sell us weed. All too soon, we were in the taxi heading for the airport, already nostalgic for Santiago de Chile.

A few travel tips for those headed to Santiago:

Few people speak English in Chile, but we managed to get by with the Google Translate app. Hotel staff and tour operators are generally bilingual; waiters generally aren’t.
Bathrooms (baños) are hard to find when out and about. Stop for a coffee and use the patrons bathroom. Public bathrooms are sometimes available in the CBD. You’ll have to pay to use them, but they are scrupulously clean. Don’t flush the paper – use the waste baskets provided.
Taxis are notorious for ripping off tourists. Uber is widely available and a safer option.
Free wifi is readily available at all cafes and hotels (just ask for the password), but when we were out walking we had to go low tech and use maps. We did buy local sim cards (cheap) but never found a way to purchase pre-paid credit (the sim card vendor couldn’t sell credit).
Santiago was more expensive than we had expected, especially eating out. It’s possible to save a little money by buying snacks at the supermarket and empanadas from local bakeries. Complementary bread and spread (usually a mild pickle or fresh cheese) are provided at every meal, so after a while we started to order less food with this in mind.
We loved the second hotel we stayed in, Hotel Altiplanico Bellas Artes, which was a beautifully restored colonial building. The best food we ate was at Tanta (Peruvian cuisine).

July 28, 2016

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“Through falling leaves I pick my way slowly”

Growing up in a small rural area was a privilege for which I will always be grateful. I spent nearly 18 years living in a beautiful valley with a river below the house, surrounded by farms (see above), with the bush close by and my school by the beach a mere 10 minutes away. At night all you could hear was the chirp of insects, the distinctive call of the morepork (a small native owl), and occasionally the faint revving of an engine as someone carved doughnuts in the gravel down by the cattle saleyards. We drank rainwater out of a tank, ate homegrown vegetables and home-killed meat, and felt lucky that we got to eat McDonald’s once a year when we passed through Whangarei, a full two hours drive from home.

I’ve now lived more of my life in cities than I ever did in the country, but green places with clean air and bright starry skies will always be my spiritual home. Because of this, I was delighted when a Facebook friend recently nominated me to upload one photo of nature every day for seven days. It was a great excuse to trawl through old photos, re-live some beautiful moments, and I quickly found a large collection of favourites to share. In fact, after my seven days were up I voluntarily extended the challenge to 30 days so that I could upload 23 more photos. Most of the photos I selected have never featured on this blog, so I have put together the top 16 here and I hope that you enjoy them.

In case you’re wondering, the title of this post is the opening lyrics of Wayne Mason’s song “Nature”. This gentle, lyrical pop song went to number one in the New Zealand charts in 1969 and was later voted the best New Zealand song of the 20th century. Little Wayne was only 19 when he wrote “Nature”, and he says that he wrote it “in an hour on the front porch of my mum’s house, looking out on a beautiful day with trees and stuff. Bees were buzzing and my heart was fluttering” (source: here). This is probably the most wholesome thing that a member of a band has ever said about their hit song, but really, this is exactly why most of us are drawn to nature – for its buzz and its flutter and our deeply-felt response to such purity. We could all use a little peace in these chaotic times.

Above: Butcher Bird in Maleny, Sunshine Coast, 2012

Above: Stormy skies in Brisbane, Australia 2013

Above: The cave at Te Henga (Bethells Beach), 2014

Above: Lupins at the Auckland Wintergarden, 2010

Above: Rice fields in Pai, northern Thailand, 2011

Above: Genghis (the Irreplaceable), our wonderful ginger cat, Auckland, 2008

Above: Taipa Beach, Far North New Zealand, 2009

Above: Spiky shadows at the Auckland Wintergarden, 2010

Above: Waterlilies in Ho Chi Minh City, 2011

Above: Ta Som Temple, Siem Reap, Cambodia, 2011

Above: Beautiful Far North New Zealand, 2009

Above: At Phi Phi Islands, Thailand 2010

Above: Just another rural sunrise, Far North New Zealand, 2014

Above: Sleepy koala at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, Brisbane 2014

Above: Bonsai inside the Citadel, Hue, Vietnam, 2011

July 20, 2016

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Winter Salad | Pickled Fennel, Grapefruit, Avocado

So it’s been a little quiet on the blog for the last couple of months. My usual excuses for a blogging-hiatus run on the predictable theme of work/life overload, but in this case, I am pleased to say that I have been otherwise occupied with a holiday in South America.

I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to write that! I started this blog five years ago when we left New Zealand and embarked on a three-month trip around South East Asia before arriving in Australia. Since then we haven’t really travelled at all. Sure, there have been multiple trips back to New Zealand (which I generally hesitate to refer to as holidays), a quick jaunt to Rarotonga for my sister’s wedding in 2011 and a few short breaks around Australia, but we hadn’t actually travelled for longer than 10 days or visited a new country for five long years. I’m trying (and probably failing) to avoid sounding brattish here – the travel that we’ve done is still a whole lot more than many people get to do – but there’s just nothing like being lifted out of the everyday into a completely new culture to really shake things around in your head. Asia shook me well and good but that was a long time ago. With the added excuse of needing to celebrate a significant birthday in a significant way, finally and joyfully, we booked our flights and went.

Travel posts will come in due course but I don’t feel like writing yet. There’s a bit more digestion to be done and some photo-rescuing to do as well (I had a memory-card problem over there). Meanwhile, there is this salad, which is exactly what I want to eat right now. It feels cleansing, detoxifying and energising, and let’s face it, holiday diets rarely boast such virtuous properties. Now that we’re back and battling some winter lurgies its time to balance things out again. This beautiful salad tastes as vibrant and life-enhancing as it looks and will be equally as good for reviving a jaded winter palate as for boosting a travel-weary immune system. Le deseo salud y felicidad!

Winter Detox Salad with Pickled Fennel & Grapefruit

Servings: 2
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Very slightly adapted from Sarah Britton My New Roots

For the pickled fennel:
1 large fennel bulb
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp maple syrup or runny honey
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup water
1 small orange, preferably organic
5 whole star anise
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, very finely chopped

For the salad:
1/4 head small red cabbage
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1-2 pinches sea salt, to taste
1 grapefruit (pink or regular) and/or 1 orange
1 avocado

To serve:
Italian parsley (leaves picked whole), crushed pink peppercorns (optional), more olive oil

The pickled fennel needs to sit, undisturbed in the fridge for 24 hours before it is eaten, so prepare this the day before you wish to eat your salad. Slice the fennel very thinly, ideally using a mandolin or otherwise a very sharp knife. Slice the orange (leave the peel on) into thin slices about 3mm thick. Place two slices of orange in the base of a clean 1 litre jar and top with one-fifth of the prepared fennel. You may want to press the fennel down firmly using a wooden spoon or spatula. Scatter over a little of the chopped ginger and one star anise, then continue to stack orange, fennel, ginger and anise until you reach the top of the jar.

Combine the vinegar, maple syrup or honey, salt and water in a jug and stir well to dissolve the salt. Pour the brine into the jar, ensuring that the contents are completely covered, discarding any excess brine. Press the top layer gently with a spoon to help release any large air bubbles, then screw the lid on the jar and place in the fridge for 24 hours. The fennel should be fine to eat for up to three weeks. It is fantastic with cheese and crackers as well as salad.

To prepare the salad, use a mandolin or sharp knife to slice the cabbage thinly. Place the cabbage in a bowl and add the olive oil, a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of pickled fennel brine from the jar. Toss to combine. Slice the rind off the grapefruit or orange and segment the flesh. Peel and slice the avocado.

Arrange the cabbage, grapefruit, avocado and pickled fennel on a plate. Add some parsley leaves and crushed peppercorns for colour and another drizzle of olive oil if desired.

May 23, 2016

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Saturday Soup | Pumpkin, Coconut, Lemongrass

Saturday mornings always meant soup during the winters of my childhood. Mum would get the pot boiling early, using bowls of split peas that had been soaking overnight, huge pumpkins that practically required an axe to split and tear-inducing onions that misted up her glasses. She always made an enormous pot of soup which, bulked out with bread and scones, would feed our family of six for the whole weekend and sometimes longer.

My favourite soup was Scotch Broth, deeply flavoured with mutton bones and thick with barley. I also loved Mum’s Pumpkin Soup (a staple option), a pale Choko and Potato Soup (made very rarely), and a delicious smoked fish soup made with tomatoes and potato which appeared once or twice each year. Stick or immersion blenders weren’t available back then, so Mum used a large mouli (hand mill) whenever she wanted to make a smooth, blended soup.

The best Saturdays were those in the deep of winter when it was cold and wet. We would be shut up inside to avoid the damp, with the simmering soup fogging up the kitchen windows and a couple of lights on against the darkness. Fresh, hot soup on such a day has to be one my greatest culinary memories; a ritual cemented by years of weekly repetition.

Here in Brisbane it is slowly, vaguely, finally getting cooler. Last Saturday I attempted a little witchcraft, trying to coax winter closer by making my own giant pot of soup. It was pumpkin, which was only right, and boldly spiced with Thai flavours including bright lemongrass, salty fish sauce, sour tamarind and hot chilli, all mellowed by cooling coconut milk. It was comforting and head-clearing all at once. True to tradition, we ate it for days.

A few notes for the cook: there is a long list of ingredients in this soup, but you can get away with fewer. The kaffir lime leaves are optional and the lemongrass too (if you must), but don’t try to skip the lime. A teaspoon of powdered turmeric is fine if you can’t get fresh, and the tamarind is also optional provided that you amp up the lime juice to add a sour note. The soup easily becomes vegan if you substitute vegetable stock for chicken and tamari for fish sauce.

The most tedious part of this recipe is preparing the ingredients. Once that’s done, the soup comes together very quickly, so it is worth having everything washed, chopped and ready to be thrown into the pot at exactly the right time.

And finally, fresh coriander is often quite gritty so I wash it thoroughly by filling a large bowl with water and swishing the leaves gently about. The grit quickly falls to the bottom of the bowl and a second rinse with clean water will remove any final particles. Spread the washed coriander on a clean tea towel to air dry before roughly chopping. And leftovers will store in a sealed container in the fridge for a couple of days.

Thai Pumpkin Soup

Servings: 6-8
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Adapted from Eat Drink Paleo

2 Tbsp coconut oil
2 onions, diced
2 stalks lemongrass, cut in thirds
2-3 long red chillis, deseeded and sliced
1 bunch fresh coriander, stalks removed and diced; leaves reserved
2cm piece fresh ginger root, peeled and finely diced
2cm piece turmeric root, peeled and finely diced (or 1 1/2 tsp ground turmeric)
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
1.5kg pumpkin, peeled and cut into 2-3cm pieces
4 kaffir lime leaves
Peel from 1 fresh lime, removed in large strips
4 Tbsp fish sauce (or tamari)
2 tsp tamarind puree
2 litres chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
1 can (400ml) coconut milk or cream (reserve 50ml to serve)
Fresh lime juice and chopped fresh coriander leaves to serve

Once your ingredients are washed and chopped as directed, heat the coconut oil in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. When the oil has melted and starts to shimmer, add the onions to the pan and sauté for 3-4 minutes until lightly softened (do not brown). Add the lemongrass, chilli, coriander stalks, ginger, turmeric and garlic to the pot, and sauté for another 3-4 minutes.

Add the pumpkin, kaffir lime leaves, lime peel, fish sauce, tamarind puree and chicken stock to the pot. Cover with a lid and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes, or until the pumpkin is soft.

Using tongs, remove the lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves and lime peel from the soup. Puree the soup until smooth, using a stick blender, regular blender or mouli, then add the coconut milk or cream. Taste, and adjust the flavours. I typically add extra fish sauce, extra tamarind puree and sometimes extra chilli (in the form of Tabasco Sauce) until the flavours are just right. Serve the soup with wedges of lime, a ripple of coconut milk and fistfuls of fresh coriander leaves.