Friday night toast at Noohn!

Where to go on a friday night? Of course at Noohn!

It's between 8.30 and 9.00 pm when me and my girlfriends meet at Noohn on a Friday night, where else? Since its opening, Noohn has had me and my friends as very trustful good customers...especially when it comes to prosecco!

Now, my friends also call me Lady Prosecco, first of all I am italian and secondly I love it;-)

But I almost forgot all about my prosecco when I was in Australia! Unfortunately australians don't know Prosecco very well, so instead of ordering Prosecco you just order Sparkling wine or Champagne.

Of course there is a price difference if you order Champagne, therefore you just go for a bottle of sparkling wine, no label (something I only saw in Australia so far)!

Another important point to make about Noohn is the loss of good management. 

What happens is that me and my friends meet in the self service area part, where you need to go and pay for your drinks at the cashier first, get the jetons and order at the bar.

Now this long procedure does not make sense for me, it turns that customers are queuing for no reason, would be good to instruct people at the bar to be  more efficient in order to avoid senseless queuing!

Girls dinner at Harriet's place...

how nice is to get together on a weekday at a friend's house and have a girlie chat, especially when a friend like Harriet sets a wonderful lime green decorated table for the 4 of us and serves us great italian food, meaning prosciutto with melon as a starter, spaghetti with fresh tomatoes and basilico and juicy reddish sweet strawberries...

Thank you Harriet and S.

bunnies in the air;-)

the best gift for a spontaneous dinner invitation at friends house, is this wonderful, elegant and delicious easter bunny - Only from Lindt of course;-)

a quick lunch at home!

Sometimes you just don't feel like eating crap or quick food over lunch...so this is what I did, coming back home from my hairdresser appointment today, I checked my fridge and I saw that I had some zucchini and some pancetta left.

The orecchiete plate with tomato sauce, zucchini and pancetta is an absolutely success!!!

very very tasteful;-)

If you want to do it the proper traditional puglia way, you should cook the orecchiete with "cime di rape" - broccoli rabe!

A wednesday night dinner out in basel!

Coming back to basel was a good thing, especially after having spend 2 months downunder....I have started to reappreciated lots of things here in basel.

Eventhough I still miss the nice weather sometimes and the vibe of a big city like sydney, basel can give you that warmth of being home like no other city can.

So this evening I went out with my closest friends to a nice italian restaurant "Mamma Enza", close to Erasmus Platz in Klein Basel.

I ordered the ravioli filled with avocado and cheese "halbe Portion" and I must say it was just delicious... a nice glass of red wine and my closest friends, what do you want more? This is what I say - that's life!  Basel my hometown I missed you a lot;-)

sydney nightlife!

One of the most amazing street of sydney for me was Oxford Street of course, I have been living for almost 3 weeks in the paddington area, one of the most fancy and elegant area of the city.

If you want to indulge yourself with clothes, fashion, hairdresser and groovy people this is where you need to go! Sydney the city that can make you happy;-) especially if you have lots of credit cards;-)

The night is a baby in sydney, so two places I spotted out were:

Establishment - also called the dry cleaners - which explains why all the guys wear suits and ties. Very interesting on a thursday evening when ladies get special concessions on free prosecco drinks between 06.00-07.00 pm. So you better make sure you drink fast;-)

After Establishment the crowd moves to Ivy Bar, another trendy sophisticated place for all the "want to be seen" people. 

Recommended drink here is the  - strawberry caipirinha or also called caipiroska!

take a look at the australian video "hot hot summer" - that should give you an idea of hot sydney!

chilli crab in singapore - what a messy experience!!!

Foodies, if you did not taste the singapore chilli crabs yet, I tell you you are missing  something!

After taking the short 5 hours flight from Perth to Singapore with Tigerairs, I touched down in hot, humide Singapore completely tired since it was only 05:00 am - that's the disandvantage of low cost flights!

Of course I met a very funny singaporian taxi driver who took me to the 4 season Regent Hotel, the only problem was that he did not stop talking!!!

He was asking me if I had a boyfriend and why I was not married, and by the time we approached finally the hotel he gave me his blessing saying that buddah was going to find me a husband...funny story, eh?

Anyway on that evening me and my other two friends decided to go try the chilli crabs at one of the many restaurants at the esplanade, each of us ordered a different dish. Reda went for the classical chilli crabs and I went for the hot pepper crabs. 

If you are a fast eater, you learn how to eat slow with crabs since you have to be patient and take out the meat with those long forks...at the end of the evening our hands were all dirty because we gave up eating with forks and went straight with our hands;-)

Margaret River - best Chardonnay ever!

If you want to indulge yourself in one of the most recognized winery estate places of Australia, come to visit Margaret River, down south of the east coast.

You have to stop at the must visit restaurant "Arc of Iris" and order a plate of lentils, especially after having eaten too many "hungry jack's" hamburges;-)

Since it's a BYO restaurant, stop first at a local wine shop and buy a voyager or a leeuwin estate chardonnay bottle.

Next day, get up early in the morning to go to the beach all day and enjoy one of the most spectacular sunset ever!

Cheerio;-)

Aussie breakkie

As already mentioned, I recently came back from downunder with a bag of new recipes to share with you.

My aunt Eleanor and uncle Fabio manage the Hubbles coffee shop in Fremantle, Perth, West Australia!

This explains how I became also a foodie like them and started to open my own food blog!

Now, I am the type of person or at least used to be, that gets up in the morning and as a typical italian drinks her mocca mashine prepared coffee, and that's it! 

But being in Australia, that does not work at all!!! So I learned to be a typical Aussie and get me a full breakkie in the morning with scrambles eggs or filled omelets witch cheese and bacon and mushrooms...and I really enjoyed it!

So if you want to start up your day with a rich aussie omelets experience, first of all

- reserve yourself 20 minutes time

- grab 2/3 eggs out of your fridge

- take a no-sticky frying pan, or just put enough oil so it does not stick

- splash the eggs into the pan and mix them

- put some cheese and 4 slices of crumbled bacon and some mushrooms

et voilà, if you can make it look an omelet by turning it over even better;-)

and if you have guests, pls serve it with a little bit of salad decoration on side and some tomatoes, the eye wants also its part!

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Welcome to delicious stuff!

First of all I would like to introduce myself, my name is Diana Lagalante, I am a 30sh young woman passionate about the origins and cultures of food.

Being half swiss and half italian and a little bit australian (almost my third home), I have learned about different cultures, languages, mentalities and of course also recipes.

 I grew up in Italy until the age of 14 where my daily diet was pure mediterranean, meaning lots of pasta, vegetables, fish, fruits and especially OLIVE OIL.

Moving to Switzerland afterwards, has totally changed my diet to a more carbs rich one, meaning potatoes, cakes, pies, etc..

last but not least my ultimate experience has been downunder, having lived there once for 9 months and 14 years later for 2 months.

Australia is a country of melting pot cultures, what has surprised me was the reeconunter with the mediterranean flavours, but this time prepared in a non-traditional way, meaning more modern like e.g.  low GI, low Carbs.

The most incredible experience that has awaken a new taste in me was the asian food in Singapore, a mix of malaysian, thai, chinese, japanese and indian food that has made me not wanted to leave the country anymore. 

So, if you are ready we can start the journey into my world of culinary experiences around the globe...enjoy the meal;-)