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

Kam Tong Restaurant, 59-63 Queensway, Bayswater, London, W2 4QH

Lately, I've really struggled with Sundays. I can start the day early and full of good intentions to make the best of the last day of the weekend. The pressure to do something both fulfilling and exciting inevitably leads to timewasting and nothing of any worth gets done until about 11.30pm where I try and assuage my feelings of guilt with some late night hoovering (quite antisocial in a flat with mostly wooden floors).

My neighbours will have been pleased that last night, some uncharacteristic decisiveness led us to a Cantonese / Szechuan restaurant, which (along with some very good company) was a perfect antidote to the cold-damp-January-Sunday-night blues.

Almost every other restaurant between Queensway and Bayswater tube is a Chinese place. Luckily, Ying had been recommended Kam Tong by a friend (not by name - but by the description that it was 'the one with the big red sign'), so we avoided facing a conundrum of having too much choice.

The very old and naff looking paper menus were quite endearing (but incidentally, the take out menu I grabbed on my way out is exceedingly classy), with pages of dishes to choose from (some delicious sounding, and some a little too adventurous for a Sunday night ('Spicy Intestine Chilli' anyone?)

I was more than happy to let Ying order for me (definite bonus when someone in the know can order for you). Instead, I mostly drank the complimentary green tea (much appreciated in the freezing conditions) and giggled in an immature manner at the 'Morning Glory' vegetable dish (which we ended up ordering).

Slightly bizarrely there was no alcohol on offer tonight (due to a 'problem' of some description) but this didn't bother me. I was enjoying the tea and the way that the staff were determined to spill as much of it as possible whilst topping up our cups. Not to say the service was bad. They smiled at Will's attempts to remember the Chinese that he had allegedly been fluent in the week before.

Ying ordered us some Roast Pork and Roast Duck (it seemed rude not to, given the huge slabs of meat on view in the window). We also ordered spicy chili chicken, salt and pepper tofu for vegetarian Will, the aforementioned morning glory vegetables, and a couple of rice dishes. Out of habit I added some spring rolls to the order, which sadly wasn't a good move-they were the only non-enjoyable dish of the evening)! The Roast Duck and Pork was amazingly juicy and delicious, dripping in flavour.

The salt and pepper tofu was deep fried so it had a crispy coating but was soft inside and had a great kick to it.

The chili chicken was great: covered in chunks of chilli and Schechuan peppercorns.

Once I'd finished giggling, the 'morning glory' veg was nicely green and crunchy.

Overall

Nicely busy for Sunday night, and pretty authentic for Ying to enjoy it (and the majority of the other diners were Chinese). About £15 a head so pretty good value for money, (although this varies - the Roast Duck and Pork was only a fiver and was the best dish). A good place to be cheered and warmed by a tasty and spicy meal with friends on a miserable and damp January Sunday night.

Cake of the Day - Jaime's Intensely Chocolately Cake

Truly, this deserves the accolade of Cake of the Day.

It's cold and miserable outside. There's more snow heading our way. It's only Wednesday morning, although it already feels like it should be Friday...

...And there is a joyous shout: 'Ushi, there's cake in the kitchen!'

Unexplained cake? How delightful.

But, this is better than delightful. Expecting some cake of the shop bought variety, I discovered this huge, beautifully home made, decorated chocolate cake in the tiny office kitchen. Salivating already, we soon found out that this was John's birthday cake, made by his very talented wife Jamie.

Whilst 9am is usually too early for cake, I wasn't able to resist trying a little, and it truly was the most incredibly intensely (dark) chocolately cake experience.

So, thank you Jaime - your cake has made my day, and is cake of the day.

Nostalgic Trip to Wimpy, High St, Marlow - 3rd January 2010

"I'm worried you might be setting yourselves up for a huge disappointment" - my words of warning to my over-excited sisters as decided to revisit our youth in the Wimpy in Marlow. The majority of Wimpy Restaurants in the UK became Burger King in 1990, but in Marlow-on-Thames, it staunchly remained. (A Burger King in Marlow dahling? How preposterious!) Throughout the nineties and and noughties it existed in its own bubble of 80s decor, until a revamp about a year ago.

My sisters and dad had been struck with the idea that they wanted to celebrate the start of 2010 with a family trip there. We hadn't visited in years and years, and despite my slight cynicism, I allowed myself to be dragged out of bed early on Sunday to join them.

And I'm glad I did...

The table service and proper cutlery and crockery makes it a pretty civilised affair. The service was really quite exceptionally friendly. The food portions were big, well presented and very tasty. No one was disappointed. I don't normally write about chain restaurants on here, but for this one I will make an exception.

Satisfyingly large pot of tea each, marred only by the fact I wasn't able to drink much of it after my dad managed to drop a baked bean in the milk (I won't be bringing him again).

We were offered a variety of condiments - condiments are good.

My dad's immense all day breakfast. He doesn't like beans - he was trying to give them away, hence the bean/milk incident.

And now...Wimpy even serves booze! What's not to love?