Recipe - Fried egg and sauteed garlic spinach on toast

I should have taken a picture of this because it looked really nice. The problem was it tasted even better and I was hungry, so there was no time to waste!

Recipe: Sautee spinach with a chopped clove of garlic in a frying pan, seasoning with lemon juice and s + p. Meanwhile, cook an egg with a runny yolk in your preferred format (I went for fried). Pop half a slice of wholegrain or other chunky bread in the toaster. When all is cooked, spoon the spinach on to the toast and drop the egg on top. I drizzled a teaspoon of olive oil around the edges to give a 'little something' for the mop up operation.

5/5

PS - See how generous I am with my scoring system. You should not mistake this for a Michelin star type guide - I would make for a very bad critic as I have a pretty wide tolerance and my 5 star threshold is pretty low ... it's just that I like almost everything, apart from fresh ginger - man how I am hating fresh ginger these days.

London - playing tourist in my own city

On my walking tour, I started to appreciate that London isn't a world apart from Paris. We share similar metro/underground systems and we both have a river cutting through our cities in a similar fashion. London even has a semi-decent cafe culture these days and there are many public parks where people can lounge about in the sun. I do think the average level of civility seems a bit lower in London than Paris, but then I was surprised to see pianos left outside in the open air for public use, both at The British Library and Leicester Square.


As I mentioned earlier, London appears to be more diverse when it comes to both people and prices. The large slice of pizza pictured above cost a mere £1.90 in Leicester Square, for example. However, Paris is far more aesthetically pleasing with a much higher ratio of boutique stores versus big name chain stores. Contrast that with this image I took in a street in London. It isn't very clear but in a row we have: KFC, Starbucks, Costa, McDonalds, Pret A Manger, Flights Express, WHSmith, and Tesco. Pretty bland but I guess it's what customers want, and if it means lower prices you can count me in as well.

Paris - Day 4, bonus day

Completing the Paris notes collection, here are some images from Gare de Nord after we missed our flight back home:

On the third day in Paris I was struck with a severe bout of hayfever that felt like a mild flu. It's quite common and it even struck a few weeks ago so I knew exactly what to expect. Symptoms included excessive sneezing, a feeling of lethargy, itchy eyes, and worst of all a headache which clearly caused some seriously fuzzy headed thinking. I knocked back a paracetamol and a second hayfever tablet but to no effect. Applying a cold McDonalds orange juice to the forehead helped a little but clearly it wasn't enough, for after I made sure that we had checked in on-line I just kind of laid back and let events take their course.

Due to what can only be described as a strange mental lapse, we found ourselves racing to the check-in desk with zero minutes to spare and we were at the wrong end of the airport! A mad sprint to the correct check-in desk proved futile and although we were just five minutes late, nothing could be done. It was 'game over'. Without the fuzzy headedness, I'm sure I would have been on the ball but that's hindsight ... ah, yes, good old hindsight, the psychological salt that rubs itself deeply into one's wounds of regret.

Anyway, there we were, stranded. We ended up taking the train back to Gare de Nord (Eurostar station) and camping there until the early hours, when a security sweep of the station landed us in the streets. Fortunately, the cafe's across the road were all open and the La Maison Blanche cafe/restaurant provided refuge for the price for a hot chocolate. It wasn't cheap at 5 euros, but they kindly let us nurse our cups for three hours until the station re-opened.

Despite the relative disaster, we had much in our favour: Gare de Nord station opened nice and early the next day, the cafe was provided a pleasant and safe refuge in the interim hours, the weather was perfect, and we had the option of catching the Eurostar back home. I also had a couple of interesting conversations that I wouldn't otherwise have had. The first was a conversation in broken english which a Chinese man from London (pictured above sleeping on a bench at the airport). Mr Willis (not his real name) told of his life, children, divorce, etc, and how he was venturing around Paris for a few days. How much of it was true I don't know, but at least he provided a bit of colour on a long, long night - I'm pretty sure it was the first night where I've gone without a minute of sleep. Then, for breakfast, I went to a pastry shop where the French-Vietnamese girl who ran the shop and spoke good english was happy to engage in conversation for half an hour or so while I ate my croissant and coffee.

It's easy to put a negative spin on such events but things could have turned out so much worse, and if there is one thing my short trading career has taught me it is how to handle stressful situations with a calm, measured approach and how take a loss like a man: you take it on the chin, learn what you can from it, and move on. It's okay to fret and beat yourself up for a short while, after all emotion is a big part of being human, but the sooner you can move into a positive mindset the better. The biggest lesson I have to take away from the experience is to always act according to the stakes and not to be deceived by the mundanity of the procedures which can lull you in to a false sense of security. It is not about always paying attention to the small details but paying great attention when it matters most. This is a bit more difficult when you aren't thinking straight to begin with, although I should have at least had the self-awareness to recognise this in the first place!

As it turns out, when I took the Eurostar back to London I had an excellent day out and got to view the city from a fresh perspective by wondering about on foot. This was particularly valuable as I'm not sure I would have attempted it had I not missed my flight back. However, because I had little money and much time it was the perfect opportunity to see how far I could get on food before tiring and taking the tube.

As it turns out, London is a lot smaller than I thought and within half a day my trek had taking me from King's Cross to:

- The British Library
- The Wellcome Trust Exhibition Center
- Regent's Park
- Marble Arch, Hyde Park and Edgeware Road
- Leicester Square, Chinatown

As the photos in the next post will attest, I wasn't at all rushed and I'm pretty sure I could have walked back to King Cross had a businessman not put the fear in me by saying it was many miles away. Just as in Paris, I found that the good weather to be conducive to much good spirit and people were more than happy to provide directions etc. Photos coming up in the next post.

Film: Big Night

That's some good eating right there:

Fry light when the time is right

I think oil serves two main purposes and it's important to know the difference:

- The first purpose is as a ingredient in and of itself, where oil or some other fat is crucial in adding to the taste and flavour of the dish. Think of a salad with an olive oil dressing, or The Elvis peanut butter sandwich, which is heavily buttered on the outside as well the inside, or butter fried mushrooms where you want to experience the taste of butter in the end product. In these cases, you can only skimp so much on the fat before it takes the edge off the dish.

- The second purpose is purely functional, where oil acts as a non-stick surface or as a medium for spices to release their flavour. Examples include buttering cake trays, frying eggs in oil, stir-frying, and cooking the spice base for many curry dishes. In all these cases, I find you can reduce oil to the absolute minimum needed to get the job done. The calorie saving can be quite surprising. For example, when frying an egg a few squirts of Fry Light, or a home-made oil-water spray, add about 10 calories to the dish, whereas a teaspoon of oil adds 40 calories. A desert spoon of oil would add 80 calories, which is about the same as the egg!

PS - We've used a bottle of fry light for half a year now, mainly for frying eggs, stir-fry, etc, and there's still some left in the tank.

Knife making and the fine art of practice

In an article about knives on the Channel 4 Food ('The Knives Are Out'), Jay Patel of The Japanese Knife Company describes the knife making apprenticeship process. It is straight out of the Mr Miyagi, old-man-teach-young-grasshopper training academy:

"The first six to nine months you're carrying water, after that you're allowed to cut the coal to the right size for the forges – that takes three to four months. Making the handle takes a year to a year and a half. Making the rivot takes another six months to learn. Making the bolsters takes another year. Actually forging and tempering the blade is almost four years long. My original plan was to do six months, a year maybe to learn about knives. I ended up spending seven years with Mr Murata. The process is very long and very arduous. After that I spent two years learning how to sharpen them in Kyoto with a gentleman called Terakuba who runs probably one of the most famous knife shops in the world, called Aritsugu. After nine years, I was happy to learn how to use them and spent just over nine months at Tsijiki Fish Market in Tokyo – the largest fish market in the world. I then came back and set up a small business here in 1998 selling knives to people who had a passion for them."

Talk about getting intimate with every step of the process. I consider myself fairly patient but this is something else, total commitment and immersion.

Another quote:

"Most good nokaji don’t really come into their own until their mid-60s. Most of those we work with now are in their 70s and 80s. One, called Hokiyama, is 102 and still making knives. He said, 'I will stop making knives when I stop learning something new and I haven't stopped learning in the 90 years I've been making knives'. They're perfectionists."

Imagine. You practice day in day out. Weeks pass, then months, then years, then decades. And you are still a not considered to be 'good' at your trade. I find Hokiyama's comment about continuous learning particularly insightful as it reminds us that a path of continuous (infinite) learning can be found behind most activities. Related to this, I sometimes feel I am overly focused on the end result and not the process, and that if I spent more time on the process then life may be a more fulfilling experience. As is probably the case with most people, life's options feel too many to restrict ones time to truly mastering a specific task, but there is still much to learn from these masters from a distance. Step one: pay attention to what you are doing. Step two: practice.

PS - The Japanese Knife Company web-site may not be the most attractive, but it does hold some very useful and detailed information on there about knife making and care.

Anchovy Festivus

After reading about the famous anchovy paste called Gentleman's Relish I went back to the store cupboard and dusted off our bottle of Worcestershire Sauce, another wonderfully enriching anchovy based sauce that works magical wonders on cheese on toast, curry's, beans, eggs, etc. Then I went to the market and picked up a small jar of anchovies, thinking they might be nice on toast, or added to tomato sauces in pasta, etc, and indeed they are. Then we bought a jar of Branston's Pickle (I just felt the need to try it) only to find anchovies listed amongst the ingredients, and it quickly became a staple requirement.

So much use from so humble a fish.

Magic avocados

I bought nine avocados from the market for £1 about three weeks ago. Yesterday, I found a couple left in the fridge and I was pretty sure their time had passed. However, when I cut them open all was well. Bonus.

Slapped onto some crackers with a bit of chopped onion and tomato, and a little seasoning, these made for a nice and healthy tea time snack.

Nice movie mash-up poster

(via Empire magazine)

Egg and chips, with a twist

Just had this good, wholesome fare for lunch:


We needed to make some space in the freezer so I emptied a bag of frozen chips on to a tray (you could just chop a couple of potatoes and rub with olive oil), and seasoned with salt and pepper, a generous quantity of smoked paprika, and a splash of lemon juice, and then let cook for allotted time.

Once cooked, I took the tray out, sprinkled some spicy mincemeat over the top along with some chopped chillis and a moderate amount of grated cheese. Then it was back in the oven for 4 or 5 minutes.

Served with a fried egg and a squirt of ketchup, this was delicious.

5/5

Body fat chart

My body fat fell by almost half (47%) over the course of the experiment, starting at 17% and ending at 9%.

The final weigh in

Waist, hips and biceps measures

- After the 30 Days Down experiment, I had to buy some new trousers because my waist had shrunk by around 3 inches. When I first tried the new trousers they felt slightly tight but they loosened up over time. I thought this was just a result of wearing in but I put a tape around my waist this morning and found I had lost another 2 inches, making a reduction of 5 inches over 90 days!

- Because my hips only reduced in size by half an inch, my waist-to-hip ratio fell quite a bit to 0.82.

- Regarding muscle wastage, after the first 30 days my biceps shrank by 2.5 cm. At the end of the 90 days, they had lost another 1.5 cm, making for total reduction of 4 cm, or 13%.

BMI chart

I now fall in the 'underweight' category. However, I understand this is a generic scale for Europeans. For men of South East Asian origin - who tend to dangerously collect body fat around the belly area versus dispersing it around the body - our BMI recommendations should be a shade lower.

That said, I do feel like little more than a head on a stick these days. Also, there are but a few millimetres separating the upper edge of my hip bone from the external environment, and my grandmother has hailed much abuse at me for shriveling up since her last visit.

Raising my weight won't be an issue but I do believe it is significantly easier to lose weight for most people than it is to try to raise one's weight in a healthy manner. If you are coming from the overweight side, it's just a matter of reducing calories. However, if you are coming from the underweight side of the ledger, doing the opposite will likely just lead to an increase in body fat, which is not what you want. Thus, the ratio of exercise or diet for people looking to gain healthy weight must surely be significantly higher for people looking to add mass. Oh, and of course you also have to adjust your diet by a higher percentage than you would otherwise because weight training exercise burns around as many calories as cardio work, and you'll need to eat this amount just to get back to break-even.

To provide a bit of perspective on BMI and mortality, take a look at this chart from a Swiss Re report on obesity:

While you can ask many questions about the date behind this bigger picture investigations, one of the reminders this chart clearly makes is that being underweight can be highly detrimental to one's health. Just look at how mortality lines swing sharply higher as soon as you move into the underweight zone.

Weight loss chart

Woo hoo ... the weight loss experiment is over! Here is a chart of my body weight in recent years:

In trading speak, there is a 'peak-to-trough drawdown' of 26%.

Having withered myself down to a relatively paltry level, I plan to gradually raise my weight to around 9.25 stone through a combination of healthy eating and weight-bearing exercise. This is where monitoring one's body fat every now and then comes into its element because it would be all to easy to put the pounds back on by eating cake - certainly the least healthiest approach, although probably the tastiest!

Wimbledon finals dovetail with my final days of weight loss

I decided to kill two birds with one stone over the weekend and watch the Wimbledon finals at the gym while doing some stationary cycling. The ladies final between the William's sisters turned out to be a pretty damp squib but at least it was good for burning around 500 calories.

When I went to watch the men's final between Roddick and Federer on Sunday, I figured Roddick would put up a good fight. However, while I was rooting for him I didn't expect Roddick to take more than a set against Swiss precision machine and I reckoned the whole thing would be over in about 800 calories. In the event, the whole affair turned out to be a lot closer than everyone expected and the final was a real crowd pleaser with Federer battling it out to the last to take the prize. The match went on for a record breaking 77 games, taking a full 4 hours and 16 minutes. Federer established himself as the world's best tennis player as the tennis gods watched on (Sampras, Borg, Laver), while Roddick fully proved his worth as an all-round tennis star of the highest calibre.

While Federer broke new records on the tennis courts, I broke a new personal record for my longest non-stop cardio session: I pretty much cycled for a full 4 hours, only really hopping off the bike to to sprint to my car and renew my parking ticket, which had a three hour expiry. At the end of it all, I had burned around 14,500 calories and I managed to close the day my first ever net negative calorie balance (i.e. after food intake) of -50.

When I weighed myself after this mammoth session I had lost almost a kilo and had hit my 8.5 stone target. However, almost all of this weight loss would have come from moisture evaporation and in order to make sure that I would hit my target the following morning I had to pull out calculator. I calculated the difference between my evening weight and morning weight over the past week. The minimum weight that I lost overnight was 0.6 kg. That meant I had 0.6kg to play with and I would still hit my target. 0.6kg of food sounds like a lot but after 4 hours of cycling it really isn't that much. I had a small slice of toast doused in olive oil (low weight, high calorie) and some dense sugary snacks. Dinner was a bit of mince and salad in a tortilla, and I had a couple of cups of tea. I went to bed weighing exactly 54.6 kg.

I stepped on the scales with some trepidation this morning but I need not have worried for my weight was 8.49 stone (53.9 kg), a shade below my target. Voila, that's it. 90 days after keeping a food diary, a calorie count, and recording my morning and evening weight, it's all over.

Review: Pepperidge Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - update

Re the earlier comment about heating up the cookies in the microwave, all I can say is

"Om nom nom nom!"

Another five out of five cookie is Teoni's Butter Shortbread Cookie. Whereas the Pepperidge bad boys have a list of ingredients as long as your arm, Teoni's cookie lists just three ingredients. These are flour, butter and sugar. They really are quite amazing, although when I saw 'Made in Devon' on the packaging I new they were going to be good, for this is the land of the superb cream tea's and scumptious clotted cream ice-cream. This stuff is their forte.

Review: Pepperidge Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

You get eight cookies per pack and boy are they nice. After my Krispy Kreme experience I feared American sweets would be too sugary, but these are spot on. They are soft and moist and I imagine they will go down great with a glass of cold milk.

I haven't tried it yet but the cookies can also be heated up in the microwave for a few seconds to give them a freshly baked vibe.

5/5

Review: Selectspecs.com 5/5

My Selectspecs order came through a couple of days ago. The bundle came all the way from Hong Kong, with a postage cost of just £3.50. It took a couple of weeks, which is a pretty good turnaround in my book. Also, Selectspecs' communication was first class - they kept me well updated with the order via e-mail and they even left a few comments on my blog.

As for the actual glasses, the pair on the left look good but they don't fit my face all that well so I won't be wearing them. However, the funky ones on the right are pretty darn good and will work perfectly well as a back-up pair - I would have loved to get these made up as prescription sunglasses. The quality is more than reasonable for the super low price (if I just ordered the glasses on the left, they would have cost £8.50 including postage!).

That one pair of glasses didn't suit is not the fault of the company. I don't know how well they handle complaints, returns etc, but but based on my experience, their service was top notch. Another company called GlassesDirect have a 100% no quibble guarantee so if you are haven't tried the glasses on before or you are spending quite a bit of money, or if you not 100% sure about your pupillary distance and have a strong prescription, it may be worth going with them - I have used these guys before and would also give them 5/5. However, Selectspecs is much cheaper and is well worth a punt for a few cheap pairs, or if you have a particular frame in mind.

5/5

Murray vs Roddick

I have a lot of respect for Andy Roddick's resilience and determination, and am very happy to see him through to the final, even if it involved taking out the British hopeful. Whereas Roddick probably doesn't have that many years before left his competitive career comes to a close, our man Murray should have many more shots at the Grand Slam titles in the years to come, so there isn't much to fret over.

I do think Murray would even have had the upper hand today if Roddick played his standard, high-powered service game. However, Roddick impressively delivered the full package today, and while Murray may have beat Roddick for finese, he just didn't have as complete a game. An area that I noticed in particular was Murray's notably weaker forehand. He has a cracking, deceptive and powerful backhand but the forehand would have got absolutely ripped apart by Federer if he had made it through to Sunday. However, should Roddick play as he did today, and if the stars are aligned in the right order, and if he has said his prayers, and if his team have sacrificed the various necessary animals to the gods, then he just might have a chance against Federer, who has so far just walked through the tournament without dropping even a single bead of sweat.

Let's see if Roddick has what it takes to at least ruffle Federer's feathers.

Film Review - Blood: The Last Vampire

The best thing about going to watch 'Blood:The Last Vampire' was that the cinema was nice and cold, providing a welcome refuge from the stifling summer heat. Alas, there was very little good about the film and I walked out after half an hour. I wanted something dark, with realistic action scenes in the style of Old Boy. Instead, I got a film that is directed squarely at Buffy fans, only with bad acting, a poor script, excessive CGI and wire-fu, and a terribly unoriginal story.

Next up on the watch list is Public Enemies. Michael Mann has produced too many bland turkeys in my book and he has got worse with time: Heat just about passed muster, Collateral fell short, and Miami Vice verged on unbearable. Let's see how Public Enemies fares.

Return of the sparrows

There are definitely more sparrows around than last year, when they almost disappeared from sight. Also, when I was in Paris I noticed loads of these little birds flying around the Louvre.

Sparrows are still on the RSPB's conservation 'red list' though. The site provides some colourful background on the birds:

... "From the mid-18th century most parishes had sparrow clubs with the sole objective to destroy as many sparrows as possible. Bounties were paid for sparrows until the late 19th century, when it was accepted that the control measures did not work. Similar failures were recorded in a number of other European countries.

Ironically, as people in Europe were paid to kill sparrows as pests, others deliberately introduced them to places as far apart as Australia and New York. Initially they were welcomed, although later appreciation turned to serious concern for the impact on crops."

... "Sparrow populations have fluctuated greatly over the centuries, with a gradual decline over the last 100 years. Change from horse-drawn vehicles to motorised ones caused the sparrow population in many cities to drop by two thirds, with the removal of an important food supply - the cereal fed to horses.

Recent declines have been caused by a combination of reduced plant food in winter, reduced insect availability for chicks, and reduction in available nest sites. On farmland, these are attributed to changes in agricultural practices.

Housing of livestock in inaccessible buildings, mechanisation of grain harvest and more effective storage of grain and animal feeds all reduced sparrows access to food. Recent cereal hygiene regulations mean that farm buildings are sealed, and therefore offer fewer nesting sites."

£2000 scrappage scheme - what a waste

I wrote this rant after getting my car MOT's but forgot to hit 'send'.

In true blogging style and as someone hateful of waste and misallocation of resources, I am compelled to rant about the government's £2000 car scrappage discount scheme.

When I was being driven to the Audi dealership yesterday to pick up my car, I had an interesting conversation with the driver about the government's car scrappage programme. The scheme gives new car buyers a £2000 scrappage discount for their old cars (must be at least ten year old). The driver, who enjoys restoring of old cars, told of how a classic MG was recently brought in to Audi to be scrapped for the discount and how he couldn't save it. It had to be scrapped to get the discount. The MG still had an MOT and it was even roadworthy. I thought this may be a special Audi rule, that they can't or don't want to get involved in old bangers, but this is not the case:

- The cars to be scrapped must have a current tax disc and current MOT certificate. In other words, by law the cars must be perfectly road worthy.
- In order to qualify for the discount (read 'government subsidy') the dealer has to provide a certificate of destruction. There is no saving these cars.

Many cars will be on their last legs but a good portion will be like the MG, perfectly good runabout for a few years longer. They will all be scrapped. To make matters worse, not only does this type of interference severely distort the market but the whopping £300 million size of the government's contribution to the scheme represent a woeful waste of taxpayer resources. Unfortunately, 'solutions' like the car scrappage discount scheme are easy to sell to the public as assistance provided to car buyers and the car industry, but the truth is that it is but a transfer of £5 from each person's wallet (approx UK population is 60 million) to the car buyer and car seller, supporting an inefficient transaction that will often involve scrapping perfectly good cars. The EU rules are that we can't just subsidise the car industry, and rightly so, but this is worse than a subsidy because it encourages inefficiency. In a heavy recession, prices are the best signals for an efficient allocation of resources, and the price mechanism eventually lifts us into a recovery. When prices are rigged like this and when £300m of spending power is misdirected in such a fashion, little good can come of it. I'd rather keep my £5 and spend it as I see fit. Simply giving it away to the first person I see would be more effective than the above scheme because it doesn't involve crushing perfectly working durable goods in the process!

Grrrr short-sighted, self-serving politicians!

Best cherry crop

Our little cherry tree is heaving with cherries like never before.

The CDs? Their reflection wards off the birds. They seem to be working really well.

Parsley oil update

Just had a half slice of wholegrain toast with a good spoon of Mario Kassar's Parsley Salvation Oil, which I made a couple of weeks ago. It tasted fantastic and further supports the idea that many foods get better over time versus being eaten when freshly made. Yes, like the first Terminator it has morphed into a classic with time.

Pan fried aubergine in quarky tomato sauce

A very healthy and versatile dinner recipe of my own making that worked out rather well:

1. Cut aubergine/eggplant into half centimeter disks and pan fry for 4-5 minutes on either side, using liberal amounts of oil spray. Season with salt, pepper, lemon, and some chili while cooking. Add a few tablespoons of water at the end and cook for short while longer on a low heat, until the aubergine softens up. Set aside.

2. Chop garlic, onions, onion shoots, chives and fry together for a few minutes. Add a tomato or pasta sauce and season as you wish: I added the seasoning used earlier, along with a splash of soya and some chili flakes. Stir in a few spoons of quark cheese to transform it in to a tomato cream sauce. Mix in aubergines and serve on cous cous, rice, with pitta bread etc. It goes very well with a big dollop of yogurt and side of salad.

Paris - random observations

- The very first thing I noticed when I set foot in Paris was this drinks machine:

It's the first time I've seen a machine where the drinks are held upside down. Also, the high price (2.5 EUR) was a sign of things to come.

- The general level of civility in Paris seemed a bit higher than in the UK:

• Beggars on the metro walked through the carriage, placing cards next to each person carrying an explanation of their situation and asking for a little money. When they got to the end of the carriage, they turned around and headed back down to collect the cards and any donations.
• Paris is positively brimming with bookshops, all of which seemed to be run by independent operators. It's a stark contrast to the Books etc, Waterstone's duopoly in England and it certainly lends the city a scholarly, learned air. We even noticed that in the Latin Quarter the fashion amongst teenagers was to have slightly long, fashionable scruffy hair that can best be described as scholarly in appearance.
  
• Advertisements hang loose in the metro trains. I reckon these wouldn't last more than a few days on the London Tube before being pulled down by some yahoo.

• In Montemarte, an artist propositioned me for a portrait commission. I kindly declined and she happily responded with 'Maybe next time' - I thought I was supposed to say that.
  
• Egalite! Beyond the homeless people you expect to find in any city, I found the French to be much more uniform and equal in appearance. Perhaps this is suggestive of a greater level of equality than is found in London. I wonder if this commonality may be part of a greater sense of union and feeling of belonging together as a people. This is certainly less the case as you move away from the center of Paris, but it contrasts with the main streets of London (e.g Oxford Street) where the people appear much more diverse with respect to their social background, style of dress, etc. I enjoy the independence and diversity that London has to offer and believe it is a better celebration of the self, but the price we pay for the wide-ranging diversity is a higher number of people who feel excluded and form their own rebellious tribes (e.g. chavs).
  
• The chairs in the public parks were of excellent quality and they they were not monitored by security guards or CCTV, nor did users have to pay for the privilege for a good sit-down. Contrast this to the UK, where public deckchairs cost a pound or two for a few hours of use, and where public furniture not being steadfastly fixed to the ground leads to its quick disappearance.
• At the end of the working day in London, bins often have free newspapers scatted about them in such a way that suggests some people aren't even aiming for the bins. In the Paris metro, I noticed the a bin was stuffed with free papers that had been carefully rolled up and slotted in, with not a single paper on on the floor. One would need to control for the number of bins to make a fair assessment as Paris seems to have a much higher number of bins per head, but I'm sure the point would still hold. I took this picture when I got back to London:

• Even the graffiti was a notch above, although this was in the artists district of Montmartre:

- While the public chairs are free to use, the cafe's charge a small fortune if you want to sit down and watch the world go by. It's an effective form of price discrimination as locals often drink their coffee and eat their pastry quickly at the bar before heading on to work, whereas tourists want to linger about for much longer. That said, it still feels weird coming from London, where you pay a only a fraction more for the privilege for eating in versus eating out. Also, there is no price difference based on where you sitting if you do decide to eat in. As for the average quality of the coffee, Paris wins hands down.

- Crepes and snacks in the tourist areas don't seem much more expensive than in the side streets. It's almost as if the food and drink vendors have colluded to offer their produce within a fixed, high price range. In London, there is a much higher diversity of price, even around the key tourist spots such as Leicester Square. I wonder if the lack of price diversity is matched by a lack of price flexibility? Despite the disappointing expense of eating and drinking out, the supermarkets really do save the day, and if the weather is nice it's a pleasure to eat a picnic type meal al fresco. I have written a bit more on Parisian price observations over at Daily Speculations.

- C&A is a clothing store from my childhood years. When it disappeared from the UK high street about a decade ago I just assumed the company had gone bankrupt. Not the case:

Paris food photo collage

Not one for the low-carb brigade!

How to do Paris on a shoestring

'Paris on a shoestring'. That's what I Googled before departing for France. With a strong euro, a weak pound and no income flow expected for a couple of months, this break was always going to be less in the style of the rich and famous living it up at The Ritz and more like George Orwell in 'Down and Out in Paris' (okay, not quite that extreme but you get my drift).

As it turned out, a frugal approach paid many dividends:

- Venturing around on foot better opened my eyes to the real Paris. Needless to say, you had better enjoy walking if you wish to take this approach.
- Avoiding the long queues for the major sights (already visited on a previous visit) meant there was very little of the frantic rushing around so typical of short vacations.
- The money saving definitely added up over the three days and it helped to put a good sized dent in the price of the emergency Eurostar ticket I bought to get back to London after missing our flight, but more on that later!
- We made the most of the perfect weather conditions.
- Learned that Paris can indeed be done on the very cheap but not if you take the 'box-tickers' approach to holidays. Also, I'm not sure if I'm different to most people in this respect but I find that a great many free and cheap pleasures yield almost as much satisfaction as the ones I pay good money for. You can't beat a nice cup of tea or coffee, a good sit down, a simple bit of bread and cheese, etc.
- I gained an appreciation that it isn't always necessary to take the metro/tube when venturing about a city. When I arrived back in London I managed to cover a large swathe of the center of the city by foot, in just half a day.

Let's see how a short stay in Paris can be achieved on a shoe string budget:

Day 1

- Landed at the Charles de Gaule airport (CDG) in the morning, where we picked up an excellent free street map of Paris, and caught the RER train to central Paris for 9 EUR. Note, Eurostar would be more convenient as it takes you directly to the Gare de Nord metro station, from which you can walk around Paris without the need to catch a main line train. Also, travel light and there is no need to go to your hotel until the evening. This saved us valuable hours.
- Using a small guidebook that had several walks plotted proved invaluable for bearings, snippets of historical context, pointers to key buildings, etc. I have to say, contrary to widespread opinion the locals seemed more than happy to provide directions.
- Wondered around the Jewish quarter (Le Marais). Bought a Macchiato (1.7 EUR). Lunch comprised a baguette and soft cheese in true Parisian style, and was bought from a supermarket for just over 1 EUR. Water purchased for 0.50 EUR. Enjoyed lunch in one of the small parks that dot the quarter.
- Made our way south to the river, where we visited the two islands out of which Paris grew. Here you find the supremely gothic Notre Dame.
- Keep on south for the Latin Quarter, home to the Sorbonne and a highly scholarly and cosmopolitan atmosphere. Food of all varieties can be found in this quarter. It isn't particularly cheap but supermarket type shops hold a variety of cold snacks which will fill any hunger holes. Bought a tub of cous cous for a mere 1.5 EUR and a freshly baked raisin roll for 0.50 EUR. Enjoyed food in a large park (Jardin de Plantes) after visiting the nearby Mosque de Paris, which has a beautiful but pretty expensive restaurant in the Moroccan style.
- Train to hotel for EUR 1.60. Single tickets take you anywhere on the Paris metro, unlike the London tube which charges more the further you travel. If you are only staying for a few days it's probably worth buying a Carnet of 10 single tickets, which works out to around 1.10 EUR per ticket - the Carnet is also pretty flexible as the tickets can be used over several days. Note, the once popular 'Carte Orange' travelcard is no more and has been replaced by a Navigo card, which is more expensive but may be worthwhile for longer stays.

Days expenditure: around 16 EUR, (or 7 EUR ex train from Eurostar). The above itinerary is great if you want to do Paris in day and head back in the evening, and you wouldn't even need to step onto the metro.

Day 2

- Buy a Carnet and split tickets between the two of us, at 5.6 EUR each.
- Buy bottles of water at the supermarket for 0.18 EUR and 0.50 EUR.
- Travel to Monmartre in the north to visit Sacre Coeur, then down to Montparnasse and back to the center, where we relaxed on the most comfortable reclined chairs at the beautiful Jardin Tuileries. In the evening we checked out the very grand Grand Opera and then headed down to the main theatre in Bastille. Nothing good showing but the weather was great and we wondered down to the Seine and all the way back to Le Marais.
- Ate a variety of breads and some cheese which we bagged at our breakfast buffet, although to buy these at the supermarket would have only cost around 3 EUR.
- Enjoy one of the best salads I've had in a while for a mere 3 EUR, accompanied with hot bread. Nice way to end the day.

Day 3

- Deciding to step it down a gear, we wondered along the Pont Neuf bridge, saw the postcard picaresque book and picture sellers along the river front, and visited the spectacular Louvre which is situated on a nice area of parkland and is worth seeing even if you don't plan on going inside. From here, it was back to the far end of the Tuileries park, where we relaxed for several hours. Expenditure was about 5 EUR in Paris on drinks and an ice-cream. There was no smuggling of breakfast buffet items this day, but we ate so much in the morning that I'm sure I could have gone without for several days (photographic evidence of my largest ever breakfast can be found here). From here, it was a 9 EUR ticket to CDG airport.

Theoretical spending* on the holiday excluding the main train rides to CDG worked out to around 10 EUR a day, which is pretty darn cheap. I've excluded travel into Paris as this depends on your location, and our hotel expense, which was about £63 per person for three nights, although this included a very good value hot breakfast buffet. Just as George Orwell lived on his 'tea and two slices' so our approach was heavily bread based, although this was through choice as other items could have been bought from the supermarket at low cost. To save money you have to use the supermarket as the cafes and restaurants tend to be eye wateringly expensive, with a croissant, orange juice and coffee easily costing £5. In most cafes, a single coffee can set you back 4-5 EUR if you want to sit down and watch life go by, but the same drink may be a third of the price if enjoyed at the bar (most places have stools so you can still sit down).

Key tip: If you want to experience Paris in all it's glory and at low cost, make sure the weather is nice. It was perfect when we were there, allowing us to explore by foot, buy picnic type foods from the supermarket, and eat al fresco. Without good weather, it would have been a struggle.

* I say theoretical spending, because things took a turn for the worse at CDG and we missed our flight! Suffice to say the Eurostar return the next day blew a slight hole in the budget.

Recipe: balsamic egg

Lest I forget, a gently fried egg makes for a perfect sauce for left-over rice dishes. Today's lunch featured left-overs from several meals and it brought back the question of whether freshly cooked food is highly overated - I find the flavours in most dishes develop really nicely when foods are left alone for a few hours, or overnight.

Anyway, I digress. Back to the wondrously simple egg. I sauteed up some freshly chopped chives, onion shoots, and half a red onion, before adding a couple of eggs to the mix and seasoning with salt and pepper. When the eggs were lightly fried, they were flipped for a mere 20 seconds to seal the yolk without cooking it (you want to preserve the sauce!) and placed atop the rice and curry. A tablespoon of balsamic vinegar was added to the pan to deglaze it and to combine with any leftover onions and shoots, and then drizzled onto the eggs to give them a tangy kick. Very fast and very nice indeed.

Omelette

Just ate this for dinner, wrapped in a tortilla, and I had to blog it for posterity. Not sure what made it taste so nice. A dollop of quark gave it a creamier than usual texture while a splash of oyster sauce brought out the flavour of the mushrooms really nicely. If I could replicate this level of omelette every time I'd be a happy man.

What would life be like without eggs?

Paris photos - grand dejeuner?

"Breakfast is not very copious ..." - Thomas Cook Traveller's Guide to Paris

This was the breakfast buffet to beat them all. On the first day we were simply blown away by the amount of choice. Due to incomplete information, we failed to appreciate that certain pastries were sweet, and we ended up combining sweet with savoury throughout the meal. We even made the rookie error of mistakenly eating a portion of heavy muesli too early on. However, carefully selecting a table behind a large screen meant we were hidden from public view and could engage in our random eating frenzy with abandon, and it also enabled much food to find its way into to our bags for later in the day, a welcome bonus. Yes, a good quantity was consumed but there was just no method to the madness. We needed more order and more discipline if we were going to make our mark.

On the evening of the first night I put a business breakfast buffet plan together, plotting out an effective multi-stage business breakfast eating strategy, maximising food input and minimising wondering between stations. We would also replace the pile 'em high approach with multiple visits, maintaining a semblance of decorum about the whole affair. Perhaps you think I jest? But no, this is a most serious affair monsieur. Click on the image below and see the bottom right quadrant:

It is titled 'Breakfast Plan of Attack Strategy'. The plan was designed to front load the protein, which came in the form of eggs. Mid-way through, we would clean our palates with yogurt and prunes. Then we would take down the savoury breads before striking hard on the sweets. The muesli would also star in the back half of the plan, playing a role as a filler and blocker to keep us going through the day. If new items were available we would improvise.

Execution was close to the script and proved highly effective. Eating time ran to about 1.5 hours, and when I turned to get more milk for my cereal they had shut up shop, with the head of the breakfast service dealing us a cheeky, knowing grin. However, by then our work was largely done. Here's how it went down:

As far from petite dejeuner as you can get

Tray 1: Potatoes, Scrambled Egg on Toast, Tea, Milk.
Tray 2: More Potatoes, Scrambled Egg on Toast, Boiled Egg, Coffee, Orange Juice.
Tray 3: Two Croissants with Cheese, Yogurt and Prunes and Honey, Capuccino, Grape Juice.
Tray 4: Large Plate of Scrambled Egg on a bed of Potatoes, with sauce. Bowl of Muesli, Hot Chocolate, four Sweet Pastries. Oh, and another Orange Juice.

I ate it all, nothing was bagged and nothing was wasted apart from a little bit of the muesli, which would have been eaten had I found more milk! I will remember this for a long, long time.