Paris, Tu J’adore !!!!

I came to Paris to do many things.

Work, study, eat  for sure but work on one of several novels, foremost on my mind.

The thing is, the beauty of Paris , washes my mind clean of the rigors of life which are the cornerstones to a novels depths.

The disillusionment, the difficulties the injustices one sees on a daily basis living “at home”, which give rise to so many concepts for a writer, are just melted away amid the beauty of Paris.

(by the way I wrote all that with a box of Pierre Herme macarons sitting half empty beside me, and this is just the first day!!!)

LOCKS ON MY FAVORITE BRIDGE........PUT YOUR LOCK HERE AND YOU WILL ONE DAY MARRY TO ONE YOU LOVE and RETURN TO PARIS.

FRESH HERBS ON THE SIDEWALK

TAKES A STRONG MAN TO SIT IN PUBLIC WEARING BRIGHT RED GLASSES AND PURPLE SCARF, A BERET AND SMOKE A CIGAR.........BUT IN FRANCE ITS NORMAL....YOU JUST HAVE TO LOVE THIS PLACE

THE NEWEST AND MOST AMAZING CHOCOLATE SHOP ON EARTH...MAISON GEORGES LARNICOL on BLVD ST GERMAIN

ONE SUNDAY IN PARIS.........JUST AROUND THE CORNER FROM LARNICOL IS THIS AMAZING CONCEPT STORE COMBINING SEVEN SHOPS IN ONE..........SPEND A SUNDAY AND FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF.

I wanted to sit at my usual coffee shop (I’ve been coming to Paris for 23 years now, the past ten I have always drunk coffee at the same store on the first day of my arrival), and write, but American tourists are everywhere. My quiet café bloated with English language, enough to kill the writing mood in anyone.

A baguette for lunch of “fromage et jambon” may seem quite banal for a chef to enjoy but consider the fact that “jambon” is not readily available in the Middle East makes this is a treat “par excellence”.

I do intend this trip to enjoy numerous restaurants and bistro. It’s my job anyway, to eat the world dry!!!

(I knew I should have bought the bigger box of macaron- six little delicacies left-which one is it going to be…)

Anyway, I learnt today (well not really learnt today per sae!! ) but it all came together today. That for many years (remember 42 single, never married, no kids) I have sought the beauty of women in the incorrect manner.

I may be overweight, but failing that little 30kg hiccup, I’m a pretty good catch . Stable, reliable, sweet as sugar and with emotions in tact. The problem is that I have sought youth and beauty when I have dated. And walking the streets of Paris I have realised that ,"One can not live with youth and beauty alone."

Eventually one seeks “relations” of a different nature- of the mind!!!

Stimulation of the brain. Someone to make you feel alive, someone who can make you feel worthy of their love, worthy of being in a relationship, someone who’s face literally lights up when you walk into the room because they have something mentally stimulating to share with you - along with a kiss. I’m tired of forced half conversations with people barely able to remember the English language and who have no idea that there was ever a world war? 

Give me a scholared brain that has a depth to their character through experience. These are all qualities I have failed to seek or even consider…..until now.

But believe I have met ….THE ONE!!

Life throws us curve balls not straight hitters. 

Alone with the ‘Package” comes pain, comes reality and baggage!!

For 28 years, (don’t do the math-it was a different world back then) I can safely say I would have run from pain, reality and baggage. In fact I’ve run several times around the planet away from partners. But this time I stand true. I claim the ground under which my love stands this time.

I have met “The One”, (LFAO) and if we can transport the relationship through the chasms of anguish we are sure to face together, then life will be everything that the movies portray of romance in its enth degree.

Some say that love is blind. 

In this, it is not blind but a choice not to look too hard into it, that may keep the relationship living.

I accept imperfection, I accept that a persons past is their own.

Why shouldn’t I, she will have to do the same. I am far from perfect and come with baggage too. A relationship must accept the past and move forward bringing a better result for the future for both parties. Why dwell on things you can never change nor had any hand in, in the beginning.

I have waited long. The road is narrowing up ahead though and soon my stop at the station of “perfect relationship” will arrive.

The only question remaining is who will be the first to press the buzzer for the next stop?

Who will it be that gets off first? Or do we both actually have the nerve to take the trip to the end of the line together, nerves in check, to travel the road of obstacles that we know are out there.

Arriving together, at the end, happiness intact.

One hopes we do. Stay tuned.

Stepping Back Into The Fray

Wow what a day.  March 12th 2011

I stepped away from the glitz of publishing for more than a decade and today was my first foray back .Thanks to the success of Arabian Dreams cookbook, not because I truly wanted to step back in.

I’m just not media hungry like I was at 20 years old.

Still. . .There I was sitting in the Green Room before the ALLURE OF THE EAST - FOOD PANEL went on stage at the Emirates Airlines Dubai Literary Festival, it was hard not to remember the days when I traveled to many of these events back between publishing books one to fourteen, somewhere in the 90’s. Today I’m definitely the outsider. Not the oldest, quite young compared to other authors, but definitely still the outsider. One book in ten years and I am sitting in the same room as the amazing Margaret Attwood and truly accomplished best selling Madhur Jaffrey…wow…out of my depth.

It was an honor to have been asked to speak at the Emirates Airlines Dubai Literary Festival and the subject matter really does appeal to me…What is the ALLURE OF THE MIDDLE EAST when it comes to food?…for me it’s the traditions and simplicity of some of the dishes. So simple that they are easy to mess up? How can this be! Well as a chef we over complicate matters by thinking rigidly. We think of skills and methods taught us through schooling and our own practices. The truth of the matter is, we often need to set them aside and remember that many Arabic mothers and grand mothers still to this day do not have modern machinery in their homes with which to cook with. It is that “touch of the hand” that my fellow panelists Madhur Jaffrey, Susan Husseini and Ariana Bundy(wow! now there is a great and amazing looking fellow pastry chef) all spoke so eloquently about. The “touch of the hand” is the truth of the Arabic food secret....."If you feel the food, love the food and have passion for the food, the food will be successful and tasty, no matter how simple or complex your recipe."

I agree. Some chefs I have worked with just don't have the touch of the hand and you can see it immediately. It's the difference between cooking being a JOB and cooking being a CAREER.

Book signings after the panel finished up, was a humbling session especially sitting beside Madhur Jaffrey. She can outsign anyone. About ten books to one.

Lunch after the event was with my publisher at Jamies Italian in Festival City. Wanted to try this as rumors are that Jamie Olivers Italian restaurant will soon be for our shores of Bahrain.

Honestly I went with the attitude that I did not want to like it. Truth is I loved it. Glad I did not pay, as it was pricey, but seriously nice food. I just hope the waitresses they have in Dubai, come to our shores.

My friends and I will be regulars for sure if that’s the case.

Discussed future book titles today, so please stay posted and by the way, book sales are better than even the author could have imagined, so please tell everyone about ARABIAN DREAMS cookbook, inside and outside of the Middle East, Book Sales are testament that this book has legs , as it is walking out of the bookstores everywhere.

Reprint is a word I love, and we are awfully close my friends so please keep the numbers ticking over. (And a huge thank you to those who have supported the belief that Middle Eastern Desserts deserved their own book.)

To top off a most amazing day I picked up a copy of the BBC Food Middle East Magazine and found that there list of top ten food trends list ARABIAN DREAMS as number 8 beating Gordon Ramsey’s Chefs Table at Verre Dubai, which came in at ten.

Last week we received BEST ARABIC TITLE IN THE WORLD, this book is just about the proudest achievement in this 42 year olds life.

Anyway, a great day done, I flew to Bahrain , touching down for just 5 hours to change the luggage and then run back to the Bahrain International Airport once again ….next stop…. Paris.

Will post pics soon to anyone following these screeds.
But the ones of Dubai, the ALLURE OF THE EAST and the Book Signing in Dubai will have to wait (sorry, forgot the right cables for the wrong camera!!!)

Remember “Love All-Serve All” , not my words, but from the palace of musical history, Hard Rock Café, since 1971, but truer by the day the world over.