Lunch by bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, Scotland

Well , we had lovely and big dinner at Sarti a night before and since we had a day off the following day, we decided to go for a lovely lunch at Duck Bay Marina by Loch Lomond (www.duckbay.co.uk) with younger daughter Maria.

We sat by the window looking out lovely Loch Lomond.  Because it was during the week (Tuesday), the place was not too busy and we could relax, watching boats going by.

My husband ordered scampi and chips with vegetable coleslaw.

Maria had Malaysian Chicken Crepe with chips and salad.

I had vegetable fajita, mmmmm.

We all had a lovely lunch, enjoyed the lovely scenery of Loch Lomond. We do take it for granted and forget how lovely Scotland is!

Sarti's Birthday Dinner

Monday, 20th August 2012 was our favourite Italian restaurant, Sarti's 20th Birthday, so my husband and I went to the restaurant for their special dinner.  The place was packed with regulars.

As aperitif, we were served a glass of rose procecco, a basket of focaccia and a bowl of olives.

We then ordered my favourite Sicilian white wine to start with our course, and half way through we ordered another one!!!  Just as well we took a day off the next day!

The first course would have been a meat platter however as we don't eat meat, the chef gave us a big plateful of grilled vegetables with mozzerella, crostini with pesto and tomatoes with basils etc.

For main course I had grilled sea bream with garlic roasted potatoes, courgetts and some greens (the name of this escaped me...).  The fish was grilled to the perfection!

My husband had mushroom risotto, which was very creamy and tasty.

For dessert, we were served tiramisu.

At this point it was getting late and we were so full (and a bit tipsy???) we could hardly walk, so we ordered a taxi to go home. The taxi came in 5 minutes so we had to leave right away. Just as we were walking toward the door, they were about to serve Birthday cake so we missed this. I wish we stayed a bit longer for this but maybe just as well as we could not possibly eat anything further at that point.
Anyway, we had a lovely meal.

Craig's food adventure in Korea

My older daughter, Emily's boyfriend Craig is in South Korea for business at the moment. I think he is somewhere near Pusan, where big shipyard is and he will be posted there for a month!

He has just sent his first photograph of the proper Korean food he has eaten.  It's Korean BBQ cooked on the table and looks very interesting.  Lots of meat so I am sure he loved it.

Looking forward to see more food photos from Korea, Craig!

That's a wrap!

What's in your lunch box?  I usually take salad, pasta salad or left over from a previous night but hardly a sandwich. If I must, because I run out of things to put, I may make sandwich but always cut the crusts off. I just don't like sandwich crusts. They taste so boring. In fact I am not that keen on sandwich breads all together.

When I was in elementary school, we were all served with lunch at school (and no option of packed lunches from home).  We had to finish eating everything served on the tray otherwise we could not go out and play during lunch hours. Usually we were served with 3 slices of white sandwich bread.  I just could not eat them unless they were properly toasted and of course there was no such thing like a toaster available for children at my school then.  I was always one of the last to finish eating my lunch, but occasionally I used to hide some of slices, stuffing them to the back of my desk drawers so that I could go out and join my friends on the play ground, and took them home for disposal later.
One day I completely forgot about them and our teacher noticed collection of dried sandwich breads inside of my desk drawers, some with mould on them (yuk!) during their weekly desk check.  I don't remember at all having been reprimanded for this, in fact I remember the teacher was telling my mother about this incident in front of me when she came to school for one of usual parent's meetings and they were both laughing about it as they thought it was so amusing.

Anyway, back to lunch box.  Today, I have taken a tortilla wrap with prawns, salad with sweet chill sauce for lunch to work.  You basically spread mayonaise thinly over the tortilla, top with mixed salad leaves, either king prawns or small prawns (already cooked), few strips of red and yellow (or green) peppers as garnish, drizzle sweet chill sauce over them and peppers to taste.  You just then roll it up, wrap them with kitchen foil (not cling film) to keep the shape and ready to go! Sooooo easy and tasty. 

Yeah, that's a wrap!

Where to eat in Sorrento, Italy

First of all, my sincere apology if you are reading this.  I have been so engrossed watching Olympics and I have not got around to update my blog.  I especially liked watching swimming - how wonderful Missy Franklyn and Michael Phelps were and there were so many good Japanese swimmers but unfortunately just could not get gold!!!
Now it's over (I mean swimming), I am having withdraw symptoms ....

Anyhow, the day my younger daughter and her boyfriend are going to Sorrento, Italy is now tomorrow!  Even it it's not me going, I feel really excited!  The company director of the Italian restaurant we often go has given them advice where to eat in Sorrento. He is Italian and from Sorrento, and he has always in catering business so he knows so many people. He has sent us email to advise where they should go while in Sorrento and 'just mention my name', he says....

Here are his recommendations:

• The Fauno Bar in the main square Piazza Tasso for aperitif
• La Favorita for a nice and fancy atmosphere (and his father works there too!)
• Lanterna in the historic centre (one of his favourite)
• Leone Rosso Pizzaria, near the train station - not fancy but the best pizza in the town and not too expensive.
• The Delfino, seafood restaurant in the Marina (We went there, yeah, see my earlier blog!)
• Praiano for nice and unique evening and eat at the pirata (....? don't know what this means but perhaps he means 'on the shore'...?) - it's somewhere on Amalfi coast so you need a taxi to get there...
• Caruso (his favourite, and yeah we went there too, please also see my earlier blog!)
• Have fun at the Chaplin pub on Corso Italia
• Il Verginiello in Capri Island

Wow, I wish I could go all these places, eat lovely food and take lots of photos.......

I can only hope that my daughter and her boyfriend will manage to get to some of these places  whilst they are there, and I definitely want to see photos of food they eat.  I am sure my daughter would take photos - I have well trained my daughters to do that, ha ha ha. 

Well, whilst they are going to Sorrento, my husband and I are going back to Sicily next month.  I have already bought some books of Sicilian dishes and have marked all the food I definitely wish to try with bright yellow marker like a school kid. You can tell how much I am really looking forward to this trip.

One of my favourite Sicilian dishes which I just can't get it right (and many other dishes...) is Caponata.

So I have made an attempt to create my version of Caponata - well it ended up more like cross between Peperonata and Caponata, and did not taste like the ones I had in Taormina or at our favourite Italian restaurant here.  Perhaps, I might have put a bit too much vinegar in it and I should have put more aubergenes however it still tasted nice and even better the next day!  I added slices of mozzarella, basil and drizzle of 'Sicilian' olive oil!!!  Can't wait to go back to Sicily and eat the real stuff.