Marrakech, probably the most famous of Moroccan destinations – souks filled with spices, textiles, leather and glassware; beautiful architecture covered in brightly coloured tiles and carved plaster; an abundance of rooftop cafes and bars. All of these things meant I was sure Marrakech would swiftly become one of my favourite destinations, but in reality I found it quite tricky to travel as a solo female.
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Too short a time in lovely Toulouse, but enough to get a good taster of this pretty pink city. I’d need to go back for a proper mini break for a decent length travel guide, but there are absolutely some gems worth passing on here, so here’s a bite sized version for you.
There are enough ‘must eat’ restaurants in New York City to keep you going for months on end, so it’s hard to know how to whittle it down to the truly great ones, especially when you have limited time stateside. One place that comes up repeatedly as an unmissable is Katz’s Deli on the Lower East Side – also known as the place where Meg Ryan faked that orgasm in legendary rom com ‘When Harry Met Sally’.
Frequently cited on the New York tourist ‘top places to eat’ lists, I’m now ashamed to admit it took me five trips to the Big Apple to make it to Katz’s for one of their absolutely massive pastrami sandwiches. That was a mistake and I hold my hands up; this should be on everyone’s first time NYC hit list. I wasn’t even sure how I felt about pastrami until I went to Katz’s, and now I’m thinking about where I can get my next fix back in London; I have seen the light. Each sandwich is made to order in front of you at the counter, and they’ll give you a few slices of the beautiful red meat to try whilst they work to compile what has to be the biggest sandwich you’ve ever seen in front of your eyes – fitting that much meat between two relatively thin slices of rye is a feat in itself. I find that some of the ‘must eat’ dishes in New York can be faddy, but the pastrami on rye at Katz’ is anything but. From the first taste of that melt in your mouth meat I was a goner. It is hands down one of the best things I’ve eaten in NYC and certainly one of the best sandwiches of all time.
Considering the fact this place is by all means a (very large) deli and you’re being served up your food on a plastic tray, it’s not cheap. A pastrami on rye with mustard and pickles on the side will set you back around $25, but this is New York and honestly you and the big city will get on a lot better if you immediately anaesthetise yourself to the cost of everything from the moment the wheels of your Boeing 747 touch down at JFK. At least you get your monies worth; the obvious advantage of Katz’s sandwiches being so big means you can take the other half away to eat later – or go and split one with someone else. Either way, I’m reckoning Sally ordered the pastrami on rye, and you definitely want what she’s having.
205 E Houston St, New York, NY 10002
As usual when on holiday, I want to eat outside. I want to sit under a parasol basking in the heat of the sun, sipping on a cold glass of something that will swiftly make me heady as I lazily watch the world go by around me. So if I hadn’t been recommended Ristorante Angiol d’or specifically, I would never have chosen to eat there – I may not have even noticed the place, the restaurant not having any tables spilling out onto the piazza where it lives. There is a covered indoor terrace area which I imagine would be lovely in the evening, but during the quiet of August on a Sunday lunchtime the main indoor area was the only option for a table. In hindsight, with temperatures nearing 40 degrees outside and the inside very much indulging in air con, this was nothing but a good thing. Besides, with a large open window looking straight onto Piazza del Duomo and the Baptistery of Parma beyond, you may as well have been outside.
Now I’d actually been sent off to Ristorante Angiol d’or with some specific dishes to order, and a couple of them blew me away so much I’m going to instruct you to do the same. To start off what will undoubtedly be an incredible meal, order the plate of Parma ham aged for 30 months because guys – you’re actually IN Parma, no excuses. Let’s face it, Parma ham is always good – in Parma it’s phenomenal. So soft – almost buttery – it practically melts in your mouth. Team this with another must order, the traditional fried bread (€4), and I guarantee you your eyes will roll back in your head whilst you eat. These fried breads are all puffed up and hollow inside, and whilst certainly fried, not greasy how you may imagine. Served hot, pulling them apart to stuff with parma ham and then washing it all down with a perfectly chilled locally produced glass of white is an experience I’d happily repeat each week. And as you may know by now I did dine alone on this trip, and yes, I ate it all – I couldn’t leave any of that Parma ham, though they do an assorted plate including salami, copper and cicciolata for the same price (€11), should you want to mix it up. Or hey, get both! When in Parma and all that.
As ever in Italy, I find it hard to manage the four courses that is standard for Italians – try as I might – and usually opt for either the ‘first course’ in the form of a pasta dish, or the skip straight to the meat course. I’d been recommended a pistachio encrusted beef burger which spiked my interest even though I would never usually order such a dish in Italy, but it wasn’t on the menu during my visit, so I opted for the more traditional gnocchi with duck ragout, julienne vegetables, spinach and thick shavings of parmesan (€12). A bit of a rogue choice for me as I would usually opt for ricotta tortellini (€10) and was admittedly tempted by the spaghetti carbonara done in the ‘Angiol d’Or’ style (€11), whatever that may be, but I learnt something about gnocchi that day. Gnocchi is supposed to be light. I genuinely had no idea that gnocchi can or should be anything other than the fairly stodgy situation we tend to get in the UK. It goes without saying the Italians would of course do it better, but just how well they do was somewhat of a revelation; it was a beautiful dish.
A fellow diner confided that the tiramisu was exemplary should you be so inclined, but with no room for desert I settled on an espresso to perk me up for wandering through Parma during the afternoon heat. Because Italy is very much that grandmother who will insist on feeding you up as much as possible and then force leftovers into your hand as you leave, my espresso was served with morsels of cake and biscuits. The floury chocolate cake was particularly good.
When in Parma Ristorante Angiol d’or is a must, and it’s no surprise that it sits firmly in the Michelin Guide. Go hungry, and go with people so you can try as much as possible. Do not under any circumstances forget to order the fried bread. Thank me later.
Via Scutellari, 1, 43121 Parma PR, Italy
+390521282632
Closed Mondays and Tuesday lunchtimes
It is a truth universally acknowledged that you cannot go wrong with a food recommendation from a local, and after some of the top restaurants on my Bologna hit list turned out to be closed without warning for summer holidays (sob), I was lucky to have some extra tips to explore from my lovely Air BnB host, Marco.
Ideally, one of these recommendations happened to be right opposite my apartment in Mercato delle Erbe, the grocery market favoured with locals that dates back to 1910. The market has an abundance of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and fresh handmade pasta, and also has several food stalls and cafes where locals flock to for lunch and dinner, tucked away to the side of the market stalls in the wings of the old building. If you saw Rick Stein’s Long Weekend in Bologna, Mercato delle Erbe may ring a bell: the market featured on the tv show and was home to the location where Rick tried stuffed squid at Banco 32 – another restaurant also recommended by Marco, though I opted for his other tip in the market: Altro?
Altro? was the spot for my first meal in Italy on this trip, and what better way to start a weekend of eating your way around an Italian city than with a steaming bowl of tagliatelle al ragu (€10) and a couple of glasses of Sangiovese? Seeing as I came to Bologna specifically to eat, there was a lot riding on this first meal to live up to the high expectations I’d built up around the food of Bologna, and I wasn’t disappointed. Altro? served up one of the best pasta dishes I’ve ever had: the pasta fresh and perfectly cooked al dente (and you should hope so in the land of pasta), the ragu rich and plentiful. Parmesan served in a shaker on the table allows you to keep piling on the good stuff as you make your way through your meal as you go, something I appreciate over posher establishments where the waiter is in charge of your cheese distribution.
I was actually so impressed with Altro’s version of the most traditional of Bolognese dishes that I returned a few days later for another go at it. This time around I started with the burrata (€10), which hands down overtook what I thought was the best burrata I’ve had. Sitting in the cream sauce of two varieties of tomato, Altro’s was ‘eyes rolling to the back of your head’ good, particularly mopped up with the bowl of fresh sourdough brought over to me at the start of the meal. If you’re even the slightest fan of burrata, this dish is unmissable. Pleasingly, the tagliatelle al ragu that followed kept up the high calibre of a few days previous.
Whilst dishes here can be slightly higher in price than those in many of Bologna’s trattorias, the quality is clearly worth it. The food excelled, and I would happily return to try many of the other dishes on the menu. In hindsight I was particularly disappointed in myself to have not found room to try the desserts they had on offer. I would love to return in the evening in order to take longer over my meal and enjoy the atmosphere around Via Belvedere afterwards. In the evening, the restaurants of Mercato delle Erbe and the surrounding bars spill out onto the pedestrian street, animated with scores of young professionals drinking aperitivo into the night. The night time atmosphere is wonderful on this stretch, even in the quiet of August, and Altro is the perfect place to eat before settling into a night of Aperol in the balmy air. Returning to a restaurant in the relatively short space of a long weekend is something I never usually do, keen as I am to try many different places to eat as possible. In a city of unfailingly good food such as Bologna, it is the highest of accolades.
Mercato delle Erbe, Via Ugo Bassi, 23 – 25, 40121 Bologna, Italy
+39 351 014 4191
Open every day 8am – 12am except Sundays
As a general rule, I can’t eat when I’m hungover. I know, it’s like being robbed of the only pleasurable thing about the morning after the night before: the sheer speed at which you can get through the contents of your kitchen without even considering it, let alone without feeling remotely guilty about having eight meals in a day. So to say that I finished this burger, chips and milkshake off on a killer hangover – that, my friends, is a high accolade.
After a few too many wines in San Francisco the night before, I’d dragged myself around Alcatraz, of all places, before collapsing in my dorm bunk for a well earned nap. Waking a couple of hours later, not overly hungry but having promised myself a Super Duper Burger at some point during my time in San Fran, I dragged myself off to the nearest store of theirs just in time before they closed for the night. After all, burgers are a must eat to complete any trip Stateside.
What I instantly loved about Super Duper before I’d even tried their food, is that two burger patties is the standard order, so a bun with only one burger is called the Mini. How brilliant is that – a regular sized one patty burger is considered mini. It’s just the most American thing ever. Burgers here come with free toppings in the shape of lettuce, sliced tomato, red onion, grilled onions, jalepenos and housemade pickles – or any combination of those you fancy. It’s extra for cheese and bacon (either 50 or 75 cents for the former depending on if you’ve opted for the standard or mini, and $1 for the latter); as well as between $1 and $1.50 for the following additions: avocado, mushroom, egg or blue cheese. I went in for the Mini with cheese and bacon and could absolutely be convinced to go full American next time with two patties as standard, because man, Super Duper know how to burger.
If you’ve got room (and you should make room), their skin on fries ($2.75) can be pimped out with cheese and garlic for some serious indulgence ($3.25) and frankly you’d be a fool not to wash it all down with one of their deliciously thick milkshakes made with organic soft serve ice cream ($4.75 for a regular, $5.75 for a super shake). Super Duper are also well known for serving up excellent egg sandwiches and donuts for breakfast, but the sheer number of amazing brunch options on offer in San Francisco meant I didn’t have time to squeeze that in, but it’s worth noting.
Interestingly, whilst Super Duper are very much a fast food outlet, they reflect slow food values, and a part of their ethos is that burgers shouldn’t cost $3, so their prices are above the likes of other fast food places such as In-N-Out. The higher prices allow Super to source sustainably and locally, with high quality at the forefront of their priorites – not just when it comes to ingredients but also designers and sign painters for their store interiors. All this and their packaging is 100% eco friendly and compostable. Pretty great right? It doesn’t even add that much to the price, with the standard double patty coming in at $7.70 and a mini at $5.50. Mini, I mean really. Never change, America.
Several locations in and around San Francisco, visit website for further details.
So as you may know I’ve been writing up about some of the brilliant places I was lucky to eat at in Ibiza recently, but what you may not know is that Ibiza wasn’t just any ordinary holiday – it was my best friend’s Wed Week. This incredible week full of fun, laughing, a fair few hangovers and of course, chock full of love, culminated in a stunning wedding of two of my closest friends at the beautiful Amante Beach Club.
It being my best friend’s wedding, of course I had stalked photos of Amante online a lot, and another good friend of mine who had shot a wedding there last year confirmed it was an incredible location, but honestly I wasn’t prepared for just how amazing it would be until I arrived one morning before the big day for a run through. The other beach clubs I’ve been to in Ibiza are next to others yet Amante is totally isolated in a small bay, built up on the rocks with panoramic views of turquoise waters that melt into azure blue toward the horizon.
When we got there, one of Amante’s yoga and breakfast mornings was in full swing, and I cannot think of a more perfect spot to start the day. Classes start at 9am and are conducted in both English and Spanish, with a healthy breakfast buffet of fresh fruit, eggs, natural yogurt, cereals, dried fruit, freshly baked wholegrain patisserie and freshly squeezed juices to wash it all down (€30 for yoga and breakfast). I can’t report back on the quality of breakfast but it all looked great and if the food I have had at Amante is anything to be judged on, it’ll be fantastic.
Which brings me to talking about just that – the food. Given, I’m writing about a set menu at a wedding, but everything served is available on their a la carte and is clearly shows the quality on offer at the beach club. To kick off proceedings, tuna tataki canapes were a favourite, washed down with the most refreshing of expertly made mojitos. The drinks and canape reception allowed everyone to take in the – quite frankly – ridiculous views that Amante has to offer. It’s impossible not to be enthralled by the place, even if you were to simply go for a drink. But it would be foolish to miss out on Amante’s food, so back to that.
To start we had sharing plates of Iberico ham, the creamiest burrata I think I’ve ever had, and a delicious fish stew of sorts. Beautifully presented, the burrata was served with a basil infused cream and a scattering of cherry tomatoes with olive oil and balsamic pearls. I could’ve eaten the entirety of the seafood dish by myself, the standout element being the plump, perfectly cooked scallops among the calamari and king prawns, complemented well by a tomato and saffron sauce.
For the wedding breakfast main, we had a choice of baked cod – which was excellently cooked – served with tomatoes, garlic and baked potatoes, or Tenderised Galician beef with parmesan potato gratin, black truffle oil and vine ripened tomatoes, which was perfectly sized and married together well. On the a la carte menu there are of course ample more dishes to choose from, the tuna fillet dish and the slow cooked suckling pig, sounding particularly good to me. The perfect excuse to return.
Being the location of such a happy day for me and my friends, you may think I’m biased on Amante being a pretty special place, but I genuinely think the photos speak for themselves. There’s something magical about this beach club set into the rocks; the seclusion from everything else and the panoramic views make this a must stop during your time in Ibiza – just remember to check in advance the place hasn’t been hijacked by another wedding!
Cala Sol d’en Serra, Calle Afueras, s/n, 07849 Cala Longa, Ibiza
+34 971 19 61 76
Open every day from 11am until 2am; yoga mornings from 9am on weekdays
Whilst we’ve established that Ibiza is not all about clubbing and the San Antonio ‘lads on tour’ scene, you may not know that it’s not even just about the beaches. Ibiza is full of rolling fields and stunning vistas that overlook the hilly countryside, and La Paloma is an excellent example of a quiet hillside set restaurant in the tiny inland village of San Lorenzo that takes in the beauty of this side of the island. The restaurant is set in the middle of citrus orchards and run by an Italian family who swear by home cooking fresh ingredients just the way they like them, and we were lucky enough to eat there amongst the fairy light strewn trees one evening.
Starting off with a round of strong and refreshing dark rum mojitos, we settled down in the candlelit courtyard area outside at dusk. The courtyard is all mismatched chairs and wooden tables, with pretty cut flowers in vases sat amongst vintage crockery. The menu isn’t large at La Paloma, which can be a bit of a blessing if you ask me – too much to choose from can become overwhelming, and the ethos behind this small menu is it allows the chef to deliver higher quality through smaller quantity. The Italian family that own and run La Paloma ship many of the ingredients they use direct from their home country, including capers from Sicily, antipasti from Tuscany and of course their aged parmesan. They do also try to use local products as much as possible too however, even getting their mozzarella made by an Italian who lives on the island, and everything is organic where it can be. Homemade focaccia is made at their own bakery and the restaurant grows their own vegetables – it is clear that quality and sustainability is of the utmost importance at La Paloma.
As may be expected given La Paloma’s roots, there is a distinct Italian vein that runs through the food on offer among the starters as well as the mains. As favoured by our group, we ordered starters to share: bruschetta (€6), aubergine parmigiana (€12) and goats cheese salad (€16). It turned out there was a bit of a translation problem as the goats cheese was definitely blue cheese, which made it off limits for me, blue cheese being one of the few foods I can’t stomach. It went down well with everyone else however, the pear and hazelnuts adding an interesting layer to the dish, so I’m told. The bruschetta was lovely and the aubergine parmigiana was particularly good, and something I’d definitely order should I visit again.
For main I had their famous fillet of steak with balsamic and thyme sauce, served with roasted potatoes and vegetables (€31) which made me the envy of the table. The fillet was huge and perfectly cooked to rare, though due to the sheer size of the steak I would have preferred more potatoes to have been served with it to balance the dish out more. Okay yes, it seems wrong to complain that a fillet steak is too big! The rack of lamb marinated in soy, ginger and honey served with sweet potato and mint sauce also went down well in our group, and the seafood pasta was cleaned up equally quickly. It’s worth nothing that there are always vegetarian dishes on offer on the weekly changing menu, and vegans are also catered for. To round off the meal, I had an exemplary chocolate fondant with Madagascan vanilla ice cream (€9) which finished off the evening perfectly.
The al fresco setting with fairy lights strung through the trees is a real pull of La Paloma, and the unique location in the hills is a refreshing change from the beach clubs that Ibiza is so well known for. Unlike many other restaurants on the island, La Paloma is also open through the winter months, when their intimate indoor dining spaces are lit by cosy fires. The balance of locally sourced ingredients and those direct from Italy of which the quality cannot be beaten on Ibiza itself forms an excellent and carefully designed menu, whilst the decor is as welcoming as you could want – it kind of feels like you’re sitting in a friend or neighbour’s garden, it feels that homely. The thought that has gone into the La Paloma experience is clear, and the result is a beautiful, relaxed setting with lovely food.
Calle Can Pou, 4, 07812 Sant Llorenc de Balafia, Ibiza
I’m genuinely considering setting up some sort of campaign to get Eggslut to open in London. Eggslut is truly the hangover cure people need, and Londoners need it now. Don’t be so greedy, America. Having read about this spot as a New York must eat among, well, thousands of New York must eats, I was thrilled to find out there was an Eggslut in Las Vegas…right in my own hotel. Nothing could be more ideal to sop up the endless debauchery of sin city.
Waking early with jet lag on my first morning Stateside, it conveniently meant I could skip the queue that snakes from Eggslut inside the Cosmopolitan Hotel to grab my first Eggslut breakfast. After much debate over the small menu, I landed on the sausage, egg and cheese on brioche, made with turkey sausage, cheddar and the genius addition of honey mustard aioli. The best way to describe this creation is a) heaven and b) like a pimped up Sausage Egg McMuffin sandwich, but one hundred times better – and I’m a fan of a Maccy D’s breakfast, believe me. The egg is cooked over medium, so bursts when you bite into the buttery brioche and is a total, messy joy to eat. The honey and mustard add another level of delicious and the American cheddar brings the McDonald’s-esque filth to the bun. If you prefer to get your regular pig in the morning, there’s a bacon version served with chipotle ketchup instead of aioli.
For the veggies amongst us there are two options on the menu: the Fairfax which sounds so good I nearly ordered it before realising it was veggie (I like meat in the morning…) – soft scrambled eggs and chives on brioche with cheddar, sriracha mayo and caramelized onions; and the Egg Salad made with hard boiled eggs and honey mustard aioli. There are two further meat options on the menu – the Gaucho, with seared wagyu beef, egg, red onions, rocket and chimichurri, which my friend absolutely raved about, and an Eggslut cheeseburger which includes bread and butter pickles, of all things.
If you don’t fancy a bun, or you’re gluten free, you can either have salad with any of the above, which admittedly could be a bit odd, but it’s an option. You could have their coddled egg on potato puree, or one of their house-made buttermilk biscuits, served with butter and maple syrup. But I wholeheartedly and with true passion recommend one of their fancy McMuffin style buns. Sadly to get one of them you’re going to need to take a long flight since Eggslut isn’t in the UK (yet..please?), have closed their NYC pop up and now sits firmly back in their original spot on the West Coast with three spots around LA and one in Vegas. Worth the journey though.
Los Angeles:
Downton LA: inside Grand Central Market, 317 S. Broadway, Stall D-1, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Venice: 1611 Pacific Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90291
Glendale: 252 S. Brand Blvd., Suite D, Glendale, CA 91204
Las Vegas:
Inside the Cosmopolitan Hotel, 3708 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Las Vegas, NV 89109
If you’re not eating dinner by the ocean, are you even on holiday? I was lucky to spend a week on Ibiza recently, five years after my first holiday there and let me tell you, it is NOT all clubbing and rolling in at 7am from Pacha. Who knew? It turns out – many people clocked onto this long ago, I was just left in the dark. You can do Ibiza so many different ways, and one of them is spending a fair whack at some of the island’s renowned restaurants among beautiful settings; so that is what I did.
Being in the midst of a wedding week, there were roughly around 20 of us who went down for dinner at BEACHOUSE Ibiza on the sands of Playa d’en Bossa one evening. There being such a large number of us we launched in by ordering the vast majority of the starters on the menu to share, and it was absolutely the right decision. Beachouse has one of the strongest starter menus I’ve seen, and this is where the true quality of the food came through. First off, I can say with confidence that the guacamole, of all things, was one of the best I’ve had – and Beachouse is an Italian restaurant, so I wasn’t expecting that. The guacamole (€18) is expertly prepared at the table and perfectly balanced with just the right amount of kick from the chillies. The Italian burrata served with antipasti of marinated artichokes, olives, capers and tomatoes (€22) was another big hit, as was the Tuscan tomato panzanella salad (€18.00). Delicate slices of octopus carpaccio served with the daintiest brunoise vegetables and lemon oil (€22) looked like a work of art, whilst the Jamon Iberico (€44) went down as well as it ever does – i.e, the plate was cleared within two minutes of landing on the table. Calamari with an in-house made tartare sauce (€24) completed the seafood offering, whilst the thousand layer aubergine parmigiana with 12 month old parmesan (€19) paid tribute to the Italian roots of Beachouse. Washed down with plenty of crisp rose as the sun set over the sea, this course of starters was a huge highlight of eating out in Ibiza.
And then the mains happened, and unfortunately Beachouse let us down here. By the time the mains did come around, the wait staff seemed to have depleted by half to being just one person serving each large table. Which may have been fine apart from it took well over half an hour for ordered wine to reach us as the sole server was also in charge of deboning the fresh sea bream at the table (which ended up being dry anyway) and had no help in serving the rest of the mains or drinks. I can understand when restaurants are very busy and accept we were on a large table, but the restaurant was mostly empty at this time and I could see someone who I believed was the manager standing around doing nothing to help. All said, those who ordered pasta dishes such as Tagliatelle alla ragu Bolognese (€22) and Lobster linguine with tomato and chilli (€72 for two) raved about their meals, which you would hope for at an Italian restaurant, so I was pleased to see that not everyone had a negative experience with their main. It was a bit of a surprise after such a strong start to the meal, but there you have it.
I almost never write about places where I’ve had any negative experience as that’s not what First We Eat is about – it’s about recommendations I’d be happy to send my friends and family off with. Yet I would still list Beachouse to eat at in Ibiza based on the sheer quality of the starters we had and the stunning beach setting. I feel we were unlucky in that they may have had some servers finishing their shifts whilst we were still in the midst of a 20 person strong meal, but I don’t think this would be a problem if you were on a smaller table, and sometimes you do have to expect that things are slower for a large table. But Beachouse: just remember to keep the wine flowing and everyone will get over it fairly quickly!
Ctra. de Platja d’en Bossa, 2, 07817 Sant Jordi de ses Salines, Ibiza
+34 971 39 68 58
Open every day 10am until 2am