I got asked the other day what I ate on my vacation and I had to think about it for a minute.
It feels like ages ago now, being a vegetarian and a picky eater, I try not to make too much fuss about the food I eat.
Luckily I had some really great food; even though I didn’t always have time to sit down to a proper meal.
I drank a lot of Lucozade for all those times I was running around.
I had foods I hadn’t eaten in ages, foods that reminded me of Ghana and other far off places; I drank real ginger beer like the kind I used to drink at Paa Amadu’s.
Here are a few of my favourite culinary experiences, not included are those scrumptious foods of friends and family because… well, I wouldn’t want you to show up at their door.

Base Brasserie & Cafe – Baker Street, London
I found Base thanks to the Google Places app on my phone, it’s very close to the tube station, I was hungry and the reviews didn’t suck.
I had lunch there, the atmosphere is charming and stylish and the food French/Mediterranean.
I had a really good pan-fried aubergine wrap with humus.
The service was amazing; our French waiter gave us valuable tips on what to do in Paris.

Caffé Nero – Various locations
I feel I have to give this chain its due, travelling with a heavy coffee drinker we made a lot of coffee stops and the drinks were always consistent here.
And that was a good thing.

La Frégate – 1, Rue du Bac, Paris
Very friendly and attentive service here, I had the salade végétarriene which was amazing!
I never thought a simple salad with Dijon mustard dressing could be that good.
They also have a great selection of good wines.
It’s in a central location close to Musée d’Orsay and the Louvre, and right by the Seine.
The décor is stunning, just like you’d imagine a brasserie in Paris.

Publicis Drugstore – Av des Champs-Elysées, Paris
This isn’t just a drugstore; it has two restaurants, cinemas, boutique, bookstore, wine cellar, room humidor, grocery store and a fancy drugstore.
We had drinks here at the bar; it was worth it just for the location.
It’s at the top (or is it end) of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, close to the Arc de Triomphe.
The patio is great for relaxing and people watching. Nice ambience too.

Pierre Hermé – Publicis Drugstore
Guy says macarons are an excuse for grown adults to eat happy colourful sweets often meant for children.
But I love macarons! I would live off macarons if I could except it’s really hard to find good macaron in our part of the world (not that I’m an expert or anything).
Fortunately, Paris is the land of pastries and Pierre Hermé the Picasso of macarons.
There’s a small Pierre Hermé shop in Publicis, and there are no queues as there are in his other shops, although the selections are probably limited here.
His macarons are simply inspiring, delicious and bewitching, the rose and quince macaron is possibly the most exquisite thing I’ve ever tasted.

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A great way to learn about a city is to learn about its people.

Every house or building has a story to tell, a story about the people who once lived there and the people who live there now.

One of the exciting things about walking in a historical city like London is finding blue plaques, some on majestic buildings and some on modest buildings.

A Blue Plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event, serving as a historical marker. From Wikipedia

I found a few interesting blue plaques while walking around in London.

The composer Sir Julius Benedict lived in this house in Manchester Square.

James McBey was a Scottish artist who also lived in North Africa.

Walter Crane, the children’s book illustrator once lived in “The Old House” on Holland Street.

Author Radclyffe Hall also lived on Holland Street. She wrote the 1928 lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness

John Hughlings Jackson was a neurologist, and one of the founding members of the National Society for Epilepsy.

He also lived in Manchester Square.

The composer Muzio Clementi, once lived on Kensington Church Street.

There are about 800 plaques throughout London, an extensive list of all plaques is on the English Heritage website.

Next time, I’m going to find Kwame Nkrumah’s plaque in Camden, he lived at 60 Burghley Road for two years in the forties.

Fun fact: I read somewhere that the cool and super talented @stephenfry is on the Blue Plaque committee.

I can’t believe that it’s been a month already since I got back from vacation.

I barely just got all my pictures uploaded on to flickr.

I got an email about a picture I took of the Aeroflot offices on Piccadilly which got me thinking about airlines from my childhood.

Many of them are now defunct, anyone remembers British Caledonian?

In its heyday (back in the Soviet Union era) Aeroflot was the largest airline in the world, it’s also one of the oldest airlines.

By the eighties, it was flying to all five continents; Aeroflot was quite affordable back then but had a terrible reputation for having old Russian planes, being noisy and highly unreliable.

At school I was friends with two sisters who lived with their grandparents, occasionally they’d spend summers with their parents who lived somewhere in Europe.

They usually flew Aeroflot.

The sisters had this nightmarish encounter that really made me fearful of flying when I was a kid.

Basically, while on an Aeroflot flight the younger sister lost her passport, she just couldn’t find it.

They wouldn’t let her off the plane at her destination; the plane took her to Moscow where she spent a day alone being interrogated by “communists”.

Her passport was found the next day wedged somewhere between the old seats.

As an adult I’m not sure how factual this story is, but as a child the whole scenario scared the heck out of me.

Seeing the Aeroflot offices had me reading up on the airline, it has revamp its image – added a modern fleet, and improved customer service.

I think there’s a lesson in there to be learned for life.

Westfield London, the largest urban shopping centre in Europe is celebrating its first anniversary this weekend with a series of events and activities.

I bet opening a retail centre developed at £1.6bn amidst a recession last year wasn’t lost on the finance-types or the owners.

It seems like it’s had a good year so far, managing to establish itself as London’s most exciting shopping destination.

My BFF J. mentioned several times how stunning the place and wonderful the shopping experience was.

She was very excited and couldn’t wait for me to see it.

To be honest, I didn’t really share J.’s excitement.

I cringe a little whenever I hear another supermall has opened somewhere in the UK, because I feel it diverts� from quaint High Streets, which I prefer and feel is more British.

Also, I couldn’t imagine how excitingly different a shopping mall could be, I use to spend a ridiculously insane amount of time at Westfield Montgomery, (when it used to be Montgomery Mall) a lifetime ago.

As for upscale, I imagined Tyson’s Galleria – which National Geographic called “the Rodeo Drive of the East Coast”, an out of the way suburban shopping centre with very exclusive shops.

Thankfully Westfield London turned out to be a little different… in a good way.

It has a� distinctive set up.

It combines shops, restaurants, bars, exclusive services and public services in an architecturally beautiful complex located in an urban location.

Its central location makes it easy to get to; it was a short ride to Shepherd’s Bush tube station for us.

There are about a dozen or so restaurants outside lining the terrace on one side, and an informal sitting/meeting area.

The Village is an exclusive section of the mall with high-end retailers like De Beers and Prada.

At the centre of the Village is an elegant champagne bar by Searcys.

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Our final days in London were a bit of a whirlwind. There still seemed so much to do and yet time was closing in on us.

Feeling inspired after the Paris trip, we decided to fit in a little shopping.

It was long overdue, I’d been running around for days with a list of things I absolutely had to have and yet I hadn’t actually managed to buy a single thing.

Things I’d convinced myself I needed so badly and couldn’t find anywhere in North America.

We took the tube to Bond Street Station, walked a few feet west and found ourselves in every shopaholic’s dream.

Bond Street has the most luxurious, elegant and unique shops in London, it’s worth just the browse.

We set off from New Bond Street, I was determined to try on everything! especially stuff I couldn’t afford.

I tried on shoes, jewelery, clothes, perfumes and everything else in between.

Look who we found! ‘Allies’ Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, The sculpture is by Lawrence Holofcener.

I was almost talked into trying on an £18,000 wedding gown – but I had to draw the line somewhere.

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