Lunch at Chateau Mcely

Before moving to Europe, lunch was neither a meal I would look forward to nor a meal that could last a couple of hours.  Maybe it is a Canadian thing but we don’t do long lunches.  I can eat a sandwich and salad in under 30 minutes and continue on with my day.  Not here.  I am slowly learning that long lunches are celebrated around Europe.  Long, leisurely lunches are certainly not a weekly occurrence in my life but a couple weekends ago,  some friends and I decided to dress up, and venture out of the city for a special dining experience: Lunch at Chateau Mcely.

I had afternoon tea at Chateau Mcely once before and after such a positive experience, I was curious about their non-sugary fare.  My guests and I each ordered a starter and a main (no, all the food you just looked at was not just for me!) and the consensus was that everyone enjoyed their meals.  The service was a bit slow and overly formal, however we were at a “Chateau” so I guess formal service is expected.  I ordered the carrot and sweet potato soup and fish that was sliced in half and “filled” with roasted root vegetables (see photo above)- both were fresh, flavourful and light.

Our meal + mini road trip was a really nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  If you haven’t done something like this before, I would highly recommend it.  In some cases, long lunches beat long dinners.

OvenLove

I saw this project on Behance Network from designer, Stuart McQuarrie (Artlstudios) in Glasgow, Scotland and had to share it with you all.  If you love kitchenware I think you will appreciate the branding for OvenLove 🙂

Photo Source: Stuart McQuarrie on Behance Network

What I can’t figure out, is whether this project came to fruition.  I searched high and low for an OvenLove site but nothing turned up.  Either the company is in serious need of SEO or it was just a design project.  If someone knows the answer out there in the blogsphere, I would love to know.

Exciting News: One Month To Go…

How exciting is this?

One month today and I am getting married to someone I have been with for almost seven years!!!

I can’t believe the “big day” is almost here.  It feels like we have been planning this wedding for months and months.  It is kind of scary and I wonder whether all the planning will come together in the end?  I am curious to see what all the details will look like set up in the venue and whether the vision in my head can be translated into reality….

I will be sharing more wedding details over the next couple weeks, so be sure to come back soon.

Any advice for the bride to be?  Leave me a comment 🙂

If you want more wedding ideas, or a sneak peak into the wedding aesthetic in my head….I’ve been pinning up a storm on Pinterest here, here and here.

Veltlin

I have been giving some thought to what makes a neighbourhood amazing. What things does a community need to make its residents feel proud of where they live?

I admit, my philosophical questions are directly influenced from the strong urban planning bent of my favourite print magazine, Monocle.  Monocle’s July/August issue did a great job discussing this topic and even put forth a hand picked fictitious neighbourhood containing the best services, stores and restaurants from around the world.  I think a large portion of creating a welcoming street vibe comes down to having an optimal retail and service mix (not too many chain stores and lots of interesting local businesses) plus green space and landscaping.  People are on the street from morning till night in my neighbourhood because there are things to keep people engaged.

One business that just made my neighbourhood a little bit cooler is a wine bar named Veltlin.  Every community needs one of these: An adorable, themed, wine bar with fabulous furniture, modern lighting and a beautifully illustrated mural.  Fortunately for me, one such wine bar opened in my neighbourhood within the past two months.  The business name Veltlin, comes from an important grape in the Central European wine growing region: the Gruner Veltliner, a white grape that is grown in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary.

Veltlin is a wine bar that is themed on the wine regions from the former Hapsburg empire in Central Europe.  I have been to Veltlin several times since it opened and each time, the chatty staff were happy to help me navigate the regional wines by the glass or by the bottle. I watched this place like a hawk while it was under renovation (pre-opening).  I could tell it was going to be something cool when I saw the mural, wall paper and lights go up.  The mural, as the owner explained to me, was illustrated by a local artist and is a map of the Hapsburg empire.  You then have smaller vignettes on the wallpaper around the bar that give the joint a modern feel.  Another interesting aspect that I appreciated was the actual bar: it is a plexiglass case made up of various soils from around the wine growing regions Veltlin carries.

This is a great little spot to stop in for a glass of wine when the evenings are hots.  They also serve small snacks, which I haven’t tried yet but will report back when I do.  I noticed there is another retail slot being renovated across the street from Veltlin and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will be a bakery or green grocery- two things Karlin is missing.

Veltlin’s Facebook Page: here

Veltlin’s Website/E-commerce: here

Shakshuka @ Neni

When asked what food I miss most in Toronto, it is usually a toss up between Chinese food and Israeli/Middle Eastern food.  For that reason, I made a beeline to  Neni, the hip Israeli cafe located in Vienna’s Naschmarkt.  I went not once for breakfast at Neni that week but twice! It also helped that the hotel I was staying at was only four blocks away from Naschmarkt, so it was a quick walk over.

Neni is a chic Israeli cafe furnished with light wood tables, modern industrial furniture and no walls, which gives it a nice outdoor cafe feel. For my first breakfast I ordered their Shakshuka.  It was spicy, flavourful, messy and everything Shakshuka should be.  It came with a bag of pitas packed into a cute cloth bag. The pita, is a necessary accompaniment to sop up all the gooey egg yolk and tomato sauce you can’t get on your fork.

The second day I sampled the muesli which was decent but not the best I’ve tasted.  I would stick to the Israeli food here!  After eating my somewhat disappointing yogurt and oats, I wish I had ordered the Israeli breakfast or the Jam breakfast but because it was so hot outside the second morning, I opted for something lighter which was probably the better decision in hindsight.

If you have never tasted shakshuka, keep your eyes open for this dish where ever you live.  You don’t have to get on a plane and fly to Tel Aviv or Vienna!  However I will warn you, for some reason, shakshuka is not one of those brunch items that pops up often enough on menus.  This is a shame because as a dish it is filling, healthy and blows your taste buds away with its winning combination of herbs, spices, tomatoes, eggs and peppers.

On the weekends, my fiance and I make one “special” breakfast and we decided, after eating shakshuka at Neni, we are going to test out replicating it at home for our Sunday morning breakfast treat.  We’ve been on a pancake run for about two months now (well he has- trying to perfect the perfect pancake recipe) and we were looking for our next experiment.  I think shakshuka is it.

For more shakshuka inspiration:

David Lebovitz just wrote a great post about Shakshuka earlier this month: Israeli Breakfast

Epicurious posted THEEEE Dr. Shakshuka recipe from the famous Tel Aviv restaurant: Shakshuka a la Doctor Shakshuka (or fly to Tel Aviv and taste the real deal yourself!)

Or if you are looking for something a bit more modern, try Yotam Ottolenghi’s version published by the Guardian: Shakshuka recipe or this one from the LA Times.