Chez Marianne, 2 Rue des Hospitalières Saint-Gervais, 75004 Paris

As a child I was frequently told off for being impatient. I still struggle with it. Waiting for a table isn't something I do well, particularly as was the case at Chez Marianne, when faced (quite literally) with an array of pastries (pictured below), just inches from my nose, on one side of the queue, and a counter of take-away falafel on the other.

We looked enviously onto those lucky enough to have tables in the tiny dining room, the walls filled from from floor to ceiling with wine bottles (is there a better way to decorate a room?), trying to spot the people nearing the end of their meal, mentally urging them to leave.

My resolve weakened a number of times, as I debated internally on the likelihood of whether the queue would operate in a fair and proper manner. About 15 minutes into our wait, I even suggested that maybe myself and Pam should cut our losses, and opt for takeaway falalel instead (we'd sampled the best takeaway falalels I'd ever had, just round the corner on a previous visit to the Jewish Quarter a couple of years ago). Pam assured me that I wouldn't want to miss the delights on offer at Chez Marianne, so stomach rumbling (my hunger slightly surprising given the huge freshly-baked crossiant (avec extra beurre) I'd had for breakfast just a couple of hours previously) I took a quick walk round the block in a hunt for a cash machine, in the gorgeously cold but sunny weather, in the hopes that we'd have a table by the time I returned.

A short while later, we were intriguingly tapped on the shoulder by a waiter who gestured that we should follow him outside. "Great" I thought. "We're being forcibly ejected for being too hungry looking."

But all was well! We followed him outside and were led to an entirely separate dining room a little further down the street - how wonderful! Busy but feeling more roomy. No wine bottles decorating the walls, but mandolins (not bad). The food is Middle Eastern/Jewish/Kosher and mezze seemed to be a fantastic plan for lunchtime.

The system was for a plate of 4, 5 or 6 mezze choices each (or 10 for two people sharing) from a list where everything sounded delicious.

Sadly they were out of mushrooms, but I was still very utterly delighted with my plate when it arrived. My choices: falafel (just fried, so wonderfully hot and crispy), hummous and tzatziki (a joy to eat with the hot flatbread) and heavenly aubergines. Pam's plate varied from mine slightly with her pastrami and feta options.

The huge portions meant that we struggled to finish the misleadingly named 'petit' plates, but also resulted in really very good value for money. There was no space at all for any desserts (especially as we knew we had an afternoon at a spa ahead of us), but my day had already been made, and I was most definitely in agreement that this had been well worth the wait.

Pornstar Martinis and other delightfuls - Level, Pannekoekstraat 76-A, Rotterdam

Preparation...

The infamous 'Pornstar Martini' - gorgeous vanilla infused vodka, with passionfruit sours and vanilla syrup, served with a shot of prosecco. We had six.

Caipirinha (we had 5)

The 'Cookie Monster' - don't be fooled - it was very potent

Boozy blog post for you tonight...

Far too stylish for us, we soon scared off the few other Monday night drinkers with our noisy demands for Pina Coladas. Almost luckily, the lack of our usual team drink meant that we were able to sample a wide range of other boozy delights. Full cocktail menu here. Shulaika may not be able to return for a while, but I can highly recommend!

www.levelrotterdam.nl

Pannekoekstraat 76

A3011 LK Rotterdam,

Netherlands

Beijing Chinese Restaurant, 103 Old Wokingham Road, Crowthorne, RG45 6LH

Open-ended plans often feature high levels of indecision. Luckily, due to a winning combination of well-reasoned logic, recommendation, proximity and hunger we found ourselves making a short walk to Crowthorne's 'Beijing' Chinese Restaurant.

Visiting someone's local favourite is always a good plan - for both good food and insider knowledge (Free takeaway delivery? Of course! However, as Sharon enlightened us, there's never a driver available to do the delivery!)

Whilst packed on Friday nights, we were almost the only diners on a Wednesday evening, but the atmosphere remained relaxed. Service was attentive and the menu was extensive. Whilst the 'Baked spare ribs - capital style' sounded like they were going to be a main meal of deep-fried joy, we opted for the less adventurous but very enjoyable spring rolls and satay chicken. All great, but really, there's just one dish I want to talk about - and disasterously, the picture I have of it just doesn't do it any justice, so I'll let you form a mental picture. Beautifully thin slivers of lamb marinaded in a sticky sauce with ginger, cooked to perfection which slightly crunchy spring onions and peppers. Utter deliciousness.

The staff were very sweet and eager to please - I asked for a take away menu and was given about 50. Upon hearing that one of our party wouldn't be taking a menu as she lived in The Netherlands, we found the waitress enthusing at length about how lovely tulips were. Which was quite endearing.

All in all - a brilliant discovery and the best lamb dish ever.

Maia Restaurant, 158 Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin, Ireland

The sun was shining in Dublin today, and unexpectedly there was time for a lovely lunch at Maia. Should you find yourself in the Ballsbridge area of the city I can strongly recommend a visit to this consistently good eatery. The food quality is brilliant - this feels like a place made for foodies (and they do a roaring trade in take away lunch options too, especially as they offer gourmet sandwiches and other options including soup and risotto). The restuarant was busy without being hectic, and the stylish and modern surroundings make for a lovely atmosphere. The menu (which is a mixture of cuisines) is varied and changes frequently - a delicious lunch menu was coupled with a range of pizzas. Joyce's 'Momma Maia' Pizza (above) was incredibly good - goat's cheese, pine nuts, basil and caremelised onions - sometimes a combination that is cloyingly sweet, but in this case it was slightly more savory, which worked perfectly. My own meal - chunky rigatoni with smoked chicken, sun dried tomatoes, peppers and pesto cream - was also very very tasty. Portions are huge - I expected to struggle to finish it but it tasted so good (and managed not to be too rich), I managed to polish off most of it! Good service and pretty good value for money - this is highly recommended!

Cake of the Day: Sharon's Soul Soothing Flapjack

When times are sad, friends, flapjack and tea, help make things seem a little better.

Come Dine With Me 2010: Part 1: Alex and Jessica's Twisted Tea Party, Taggs Island

I first came across Come Dine With Me in 2005 in my final few months as a student and was instantly taken by the concept. The programme's subsequent notioriety in the last few years, has spawned a phenomemon of competitive dinner partying amongst groups of friends, in the style of the TV format. My friends and I, 1) love our food, 2) love being on-trend and 3) love being competitive, therefore the idea that we should host our own competition in 2010 was a source of great excitement and anticipation.

The first of our five dinner parties (with 8 of us involved, we imagine this competition will take approximately a year to compete), was hosted by Alex and Jessica. Expectations were high - Alex has long been known as easily the most accomplished of the group in terms of his culinary skills, (in fact I would say he taught a number of us (me included) how to cook when we lived together as students), and Jess is one of the most creative people we know (she has fantastic ideas which she pulls off in a beautiful way). However, we'd almost been lulled into a false sense of security when we were emailed a relatively simple menu (distributing a menu in advance is one of the pre-requistes of the competition):

MENU

Starter- Chestnut Soup

Main Course- Butternut Squash & Goats Cheese Lasagne

Dessert- Lemon Meringue Pie

Dress Code- English Tea Party

It sounded simple - all dishes with mass appeal. I struggled to understand how an evening meal could be carried out in the style of an 'English tea party' but nonetheless, I was eagerly anticipating the evening. The location was also going to be idyllic - on a houseboat on the Thames near Hampton Court Palace.

I was first to arrive (apparently as predicted by our host and hostess). I was immediately struck by the gorgeousness of the elaborately laid table.

Attention to detail and beautiful presentation characterised the evening. As the other guests arrived we caught a glimpse of just some of the preparation (some very complicated looking checklists) that had gone into the (weeks) of planning for the evening. That was when the competitive among us began to worry...

Our fears for how high the bar had been set in terms of the competition felt completely justified as we each unrolled the individual scroll menu waiting for us on the table. It seemed that the previous menu, whilst technically correct, had acted as a decoy! The full menu was as follows:

Appetiser
Warm Gin Punch
Cucumber Sandwiches with Soy and Wasabi
Chestnut Soup with Bacon and Thyme Croutons

Palate Cleanser
Shots of White Russian and Bloody Mary

Main Course
Butternut Squash and Goats Cheese Lasagne
Leafy Salad with Rosemary Dressing
Fresh Bread Buns with Roasted Garlic Butter

Dessert
Individual Lemon Meringue Pies

Drinks and Petit Fours
Earl Grey with White Chocolate Strawberry
Coffee with Port and Stilton Truffle
Hot Chocolate with Home-made marshmallow
Jasmine Tea with Orangette

We were left open-mouthed in amazement and delight, as we sipped on our warm gin punch from beautiful china cups. Whilst we marvelled, yet another surprise - the unveiling of a special guest (the one and only Woo), who would provide the entertainment for the evening in the form of tricks and and fortune telling!

The cucumber sandwiches (crustless and triangular of course) were a perfect juxtaposition of daintiness with an intensely good wasabi kick (considerately served separately so that the wasabi could be added to each guest's individual taste). There was a short break whilst the croutons were prepared for the soup, but we were kept entertained by a puzzling Portuegese box game supplied by our entertainer Woo. The croutons were most definitely worth the wait - they made a very pleasant soup fantastic. The combination of bacon and thyme worked wonderfully with these crispy on the outside and squigy-in-the-middle cubes of fried bread in the chestnut soup. Many of us learned for the first time that chestnuts are available from supermarkets in tins. Truly, you learn something new every day!

We began to fear that we would be full before the main course arrived, but the miraculous effect of the palate cleansers appeared to remedy that. A creamy White Russian with a perfectly tangy Bloody Mary, served in polka-dot espresso cups and trendy test-tube style shot glasses respectively, created much delight and added to the atmosphere of merriment. (Suddenly the conversation seemed much more hillarious...)

Before we knew it, our stomachs were ready for the next installment of food - the main course: Jessica's Butternut Squash and Goats Cheese lasagne (originally Nigella's although she uses pumpkin), served with some much needed (to abate our feelings of gluttony) salad with wonderfully crunchy pinenuts.

We were utterly stuffed with wonderful food yet still not at the end of our meal! Thankfully our hosts had anticipated that a break would be appreciated at this point by their over-indulged guests and took the opportunity to prepare the meringue element of the dessert, whilst our fortune cookies were skillfully read to us in a comedically entertaining fashion.

As the delectable looking individual desserts were served (with candle adorned birthday versions for Alex and Amie), our delight was tempered with our competitive natures - others in the group had planned to employ the 'individual dessert' strategy after a strategic conversation with a friend in the catering industry!

We'd eaten so much, yet every ramekin was left empty as we savoured the perfect combination of pastry base, lemony filling and meringue.

The meal was still not over - we were intrigued as our after dinner hot drink order was taken, as Alex explained that each petit four had been specifically created and chosen to complement the hot drink chosen. We pondered for a moment...what if we all chose the same option? "Alex, do you actually mean to say you have created 36 of each of the petit fours?" we questioned incredulously. To which Alex responded with more than just slight hysteria in his voice, "Welcome to my world!"

Truly, this time Alex had surpassed himself. The strawberries had been dipped in a thick layer of white chocolate and chilled. The deeply chocolately truffles had the smallest hint of stilton adding to their luxurious flavour. The marshmallows were the first home-made variety I'd every experienced and were professionally light and fluffy. The orangette were tiny slivers of meticulously cooked and prepared orange peel dipped in dark chocolate. We helped ourselves to ample amounts of them all.

Finally, the wonderous feast was at an end. We slipped off to film our video diary responses and scores for the evening (which are not to be revealed until the very end of the competition). This really was one of the most amazing meals I'd ever had. Our hosts had been able to entertain us all whilst producing such intricately planned food and drink - all of which tasted fantastic. Even the intially intriguing tea party theme had been a really coherent concept that naturally suited the evening. The rest of us will now have to battle for second place - assuming there has been no tactical voting, first place it seems has already been won. Given how much I enjoyed the experience - I don't think I mind.

Astrid's Recommendation: Antoine, 10 Avenue de New York. 75116, Paris

Astrid's recommendation for an exquisite Parisian Fish Restaurant, is Antoine, located on the banks of the Seine with a brilliant view of the Effel Tower. Pictured above is the St. Peter fish with mushrooms and Topinambur potato. Truly luxurious!

Antoine, 10 Avenue de New York. 75116, Paris