Favourite things, September 2012

A WWII bomb shelter in the basement of a house in Lord North Street, Westminster

• London. London Walks. Immersion in history. Westminster. The Shakespeare: Staging the World exhibition at the British Museum

Kilchurn Castle, between rain showers

• Scotland's castles
• This dual biography of Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I 

Exploring Edinburgh's Old Town.

• Edinburgh. All of it.

Dumpling and noodle heaven in Edinburgh

• Dumplings at Chop Chop restaurant in Haymarket

French cheese board a La Fromagerie: Saint Maure, Olivet, Morbier, Crayeux de Roncq, Fourme D'Ambert (and housemade caraway, charcoal, oat and rye biscuits).

• La Fromagerie in Marylebone: my new favourite place to sit and sip and eat

Our SW6 neighbourhood café, Al Santo

• Breakfasts at Al Santo in Fulham
• Duchy Originals biscuits. I stock up on these each time I pass through the UK; sadly they're only available now at Waitrose, so impossible to pick up during brief Heathrow stopovers
• "I shop at Waitrose because I once heard a dad say 'Put the papaya down, Orlando'"
• Roaming London's fabulous LRB and Daunt bookshops
• Downsizing and simplifying in preparation for our move to a tiny terrace house in Georgetown. It's an emotional (my Bialetti!) yet liberating process. I'm even cutting back on my email newsletters. Must be that spring clean spirit taking hold.

Favourite things, July 2012

Exploring Reef Beach on Sydney Harbour, which Jem and I reached by kayak from Manly.

Garfish at Manly: incredible seafood.

Garfish seafood platter.

• Returning to Sydney to be reminded how we should live: surrounded by physical beauty, spending part of every day in nature, eating the world's best and freshest food (including meals at Garfish, Burnt Orange, Hugo's Manly, Nilgiri's, Kitchen by Mike and those cooked by Peter H. at home) access to culture (harpist Victor Valdes at the Camelot Lounge) and intellectual stimulation, and sharing it all with some of my favourite people. Australia's fresh air and beautiful pink-gold light really struck me this visit, as did the pure joy of waking each morning to hear native birdsong. 
• ICIJ's Skin and Bone project and video was published all around the world, particularly in the Daily Mail online and NBC
• White sangria: Sauvignon blanc, apricot juice, sparkling water, peaches
• Danielle Polen's yin yoga to keep me sane when work deadlines amped up the stress levels
• Mark Bittman's "Got Milk? You Don't Need It" NYT piece on milk
• There's nothing like going home, but when it begins with a glass of Taittinger the pleasure is elevated to new heights. I finally sampled the Qantas A380 international business class: a sublime experience from start to finish. Perfect comfort, terrific food and wine, great entertainment. Even from the outside, the plane still inspires awe. We drove alongside a Qantas A380 on the shuttle bus transferring us to the international terminal at LAX, and each head on board swivelled wordlessly to take it in as we drove by, a look of awe on each face.

Flying into Sydney from Brisbane, on my way back to the US.

Which wines work with curry?

You've heard some of The Rules associated with wine drinking, such as no red wine with fish, wine tastes better aged and French wine is the best of all.

If it's one thing I enjoy it's a bit of mischievous rule-breaking, or, in this case, myth-busting, so let's tackle the Rule which holds that spicy Indian curries are impossible to match with wine. Stick to beer, the experts declare. No thanks.

Curry is one of my favourite foods and there's no way I'd miss the chance to enjoy a bottle of wine alongside the meal. Furthermore, why should we be dictated to by tyrannical food-and-wine-combination police? I'm here to reassure curry-lovers that you can indeed drink wine the next time you tuck into a korma or a rogan josh with garlic naan, and that it can be an exquisite experience.

Favourite things, June 2012

• Are you a Newddhist?
• This recipe for vegetable lasagna with cashew cream. Even Gerard loves it.
• Reading the latest research about the human microbiome in Science: 'Microbiota-Targeted Therapies: An Ecological Perspective' and the New York Times: 'Tending the Body’s Microbial Garden' and 'In Good Health? Thank Your 100 Trillion Bacteria'.
• These vanilla macaroons by Hail Merry. Yummy straight out of the fridge.
• Yogitunes for free music and excellent music for sale. They turned me on to The Perfect Hour by Black Buddha: highly recommended for aural stress relief.
• Completing a 21-day challenge at my yoga studio: 21 classes in 21 days.
• Nama yoga mat spray. I'm becoming American - now I carry my own sanitizer! It has a minty fresh smell to savour during poses which bring my face to the mat, although I suspect the alcohol may be breaking down my yoga mat. I frequently find specks of teal blue rubber on my yoga tights post-class now 
• Digital library loans through Amazon's Kindle store. No more schlepping books back to the library
• Miracle noodles. You'd never mistake them for pasta but they are satisfying without the bloat
• This article about how to determine if a statement is scientifically correct 
• Livemocha: learn languages for free

Tips for the perfect wine tasting

A while ago I wrote about the impossibility of structured wine tastings: how the bold and more alcoholic examples overpower the subtler ones by the end.

But they're also tremendous fun, especially when you organise your own.

Not to mention a subsidised way to drink some decent wine.

Here's how to do it.

Favourite things, May 2012

• The American Ballet Theater's La Bayadère at the Lincoln Center. The red velvet-lined Metropolitan Opera House is just the place to sip a $19 flute of champagne whilst eyeing off NYC's bourgeoisie at the Grand Tier restaurant.

• Eataly. For the joy of standing in a marble hall, nibbling on Parma ham and parmiagiano with a chilled glass of rosé. For their lattes as good as those in Sydney, and divine apple tartlets. For their perfect pasta and jaw-dropping grocery aisles.

• Zainab Salbi's memoir, Between Two Worlds
• Mad Men season 5 - every episode is increasingly explosive. Season finale next week.   
• Launching a website for the ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) (www.icij.org) and a new digital product, the Global Muckraker (www.icij.org/blog) 
• Watching this video of my Sydney yoga teacher Susanna cycling through my beautiful home city:
• Jouer lip enhancer - no sting, and a pretty, sheer veil of pink.
• Algenist regenerative anti-aging moisturizer - finally, an effective anti-aging product.