Raymond Blanc’s “first great food experience”

During a weekend visit to Besançon in the Franch Comte region of France we enjoyed dinner at Le Poker d’As restaurant. Raymond Blanc said this was where he enjoyed his first great food experience in Besançon at the age of 14. As a longtime admirer of Raymond Blanc, I just had to try it!

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Hanoi, Vietnam

Hanoi Street Food Tour – The first thing we did was take a food tour – one of my favourite things to do and a great way to discover the culture and vibe of a new place. I booked a private morning tour with Hanoi Street Food Tours. We took a taxi and met at their offices downtown. What a great street food tour! we met our lovely friendly guide Loan who then spent the next few hours proudly guiding us through our introduction to Vietnamese food.

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A Weekend in Chiang Rai

A pictorial account of a fabulous weekend away in Chiang Rai, Northern Thailand. Visiting a White, Black and Blue Temple, meeting villages tribes and seeing the famous clock tower. All before a great lunch at Moom Mai Restaurant – Taste of Savoie Travels!

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The Villas of Benicassim Castellon Spain

What an enjoyable day out this was to see The Villas of Benicassim.  Along the Orange Blossom Coast or Costa del Azahar in Spain is a wonderful beach resort with 6 kms of sandy beach all linked by a promenade.  Along the beach front promenade walking from the Hotel Voramar there are beautiful traditional villas with an amazing history of the highlife of the arts and theatrical society of the 1920’s.   The 27 prominent villas all with lush green gardens and built in a French villa style have a romantic look and maintain their traditional style. 

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Puntarelle Salad in Milan

What’s a Puntarelle you ask…this was a new for me too! It is a salad ingredient from the chicory family and seems to be unique to Italy. It is sometimes known as asparagus chicory and indeed when a local at a nearby table could see me trying to work it out with the waiter in a mixture of broken French, Italian and English, he stepped in and said this is similar to asparagus.

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