Afternoon Tea at The Orangery, London

One of the best things about living in Devon is that you can have a clotted cream tea anytime. And the clotted cream in Devon is the absolute best! I really did not appreciate this when I lived there....having said that, perhaps that is a good thing. Otherwise, I would have had a cream tea every week and my thighs would be even bigger than they are now. I've since found that clotted cream does not travel well. That is why, you never find it in countries outside of US. I bought a jar once in Hong Kong but my stomach felt terrible afterwards...it spoils very easily. In fact, clotted cream is so rich, it would be labelled a "butter" in US! So when in London, afternoon tea was an absolute given. After some research, I settled on The Orangery in Kensington Palace. The venue did not disappoint - beautiful garden outside and a large stately tearoom with high ceilings and a mini orange tree on every table. A great place to take the parents. The tea sandwiches were good and the tea - a rooibos blend with orange peel was excellent. Although, the clotted cream was tasty, it was a little too thin by Devon standards. Good but not fabulous by Devon standards. The moral of the story here: when in Devon, enjoy your cream tea!

Le Petit Cler, Paris

Finally, we are in Paris! Armed with a fistful of Euros and numerous restaurant recommendations, we attempt to eat our way around Paris. On the way to Tour Eiffel, we walk down rue Dominique and find rue Cler. We are pretty famished and although there are some famous eateries in the area - were not up to finding them. We did find a fairly popular cafe that looked nice and a good number of customers enjoying some Parisian sun with a coffee and cigarettes. I'm so thankful that restaurants banned smoking but even walking along the sidewalks in Paris feels like a toxic respiratory attack. Le Petit Cler was a super little cafe with standard cafe menu. I had the croque monsieur on granary bread - the gruyere cheese was thick and luscious. Paul had the day's special, canard parmentier. We had no idea what it was except that it would have duck in it. Luckily, it turned out to be delicious, duck confit with carrot on a bed of mashed potato. Later, I find out parmentier is a French shepherd's pie - typically made with minced beef, not lamb as in the English version. I also only found out later that rue Cler has been championed by Rick Steve (an English chef/food writer) as a street with individual food stalls for everything - a cheese shop, bakery, butcher, fishmonger, greengrocer etc. etc. Now I wish I was paying more attention when I walked down the street!

The Harwood Arms, London

This gastropub in Fulham has been awarded one Michelin star. Although, the surroundings are unassuming and casual, don't be fooled. The food was good...very good. You do have to bear with the pub-like atmosphere and noise but hey, it's a pub. Albeit, one that does posh nosh. When we arrived around 7-ish, we were not given menus. They were still printing them up! All the food we had - such as a Cornish crab salad with apple and pickled sea purlane or the rhubarb donuts with sour cream were great but award for the most succcessful dish of the evening has to go to Paul's roe deer served 3 ways. Observe chops, crispy shoulder and Cumberland sausage of roe deer served with pickled red cabbage/field mushrooms and garlic mushrooms. There is also a little pot of mustard. Apparently, the owner chef goes hunting for the deer himself. A rustic meat and potato lover's dish!

The English Pig, London

Perhaps it was high expectations but the food at The English Pig was just bearable for the price. The 21 hour pork belly sounded amazing and did not disappoint. However, the starters were hit and miss - the sardines were over-salted to the level of inedible. My theory was that they were seasoned twice by mistake. At first, I thought my seabass was over-salted too but my first bite must have contained all the sea salt crystals. The rest of the fish was fine and went well with the roasted fennel. If you work in the Barbican area, by all means, pop in for a working lunch or a bite after work. But it's not a destination restaurant.