7 books for bakers

Last weekend I had some time to kill so it gave me the idea to go in town and do a "cookbook hunting". So here are 7 books that amateur bakers will love:

- "Have your bake & eat it" - very nice book with all the British cakes and desserts you need to know.

-"Primrose Bakery celebrations" -  All the delicious cakes of this famous London shop won't have any secrets for you.

- "Mary Berry's complete cookbook" - THE BIBLE!

- "The Hummingbird Bakery home sweet home" - Another famous London shop. Before you were drooling in front of their windows, now you can do it at home!

- "The Pink Whisk guide to cake making" - We offered me this book last Christmas and I love it. It is easy, well explained and full of tips.

- "Simple and delicious desserts" - Very nice and simple book!

- "Grandma's best recipes" - It is a "must have" for all bakers who haven't inherit of their grandma's original recipes.

Bath

Finally visiting Bath!! I was supposed to go last November but several reasons delayed this trip.

SO last Saturday, Lola and myself took the train for Somerset. After all this disorganisation at the railway station, we arrived for lunchtime at last. We quickly ate our takeaway food and with the map in our hands walked along the river Avon. We stopped a moment to have a look at the Putney Bridge and we carried on our journey. Wandering in the charming streets of the city, we took some pictures of Bath Abbey and seeing many tourists queuing next to it we guessed the Roman Baths were here. We then went and checked the ticket prices. To be honest it was a bit annoying to pay £14 but you can't go to Bath without visiting the biggest attraction. It's like going to Paris without visiting le Louvre. As we were inside now, we decided ti visit it. Surprisingly, the £14 are completely worthy!! I thought it was just to see the baths but before that you have an interesting museum telling you more about the Roman times. 

Two hours later, we finished the Roman Baths and went on walking around looking for the Circus and Royal Crescent. Once we went to these two places that was it!! Bath is a small city that can be discovered in half a day. Indeed, this beautiful city is quite quick to visit. Of course you also have lots of attractions about the writer Jane Austen and I also heard Bath was a good place for pub crawl but we were not interested in it this day. 

I highly recommend you to give a try to Bath because even with a cloudy weather, the city looks really clean and charming.

 

Feeling good

"Suddenly, in the space of a moment, I realised what it was that I loved about Britain - which is to say, all of it. Every last bit of it, good and bad - Marmite, village fêtes, country lanes, people saying "mustn't grumble" and "I'm terribly sorry but", people apologising to me when I conk them with a careless elbow, milk in bottles, beans on toast, haymaking in June, stinging nettles, seaside piers, Ordnance Survey maps, crumpets, hot-water bottles as a necessity, drizzly Sundays - every bit of it.

What a wondrous place this was - crazy as fuck, of course, but adorable to the tiniet degree. What other country, after all, could possibly have come up with place names like Tooting Bec and Farleigh Wallop, or a game like cricket that goes on for three days and never seems to start? [...] What other nation in the world could have given us William Shakespeare, Christopher Wren, Windsor Great Park and the chocolate digestive biscuit? None of course. [...]

Here is the country that fought and won a noble war, dismantled a mighty empire in a generally benign and enlightened way, created a far-seeing welfare state - in short, did nearly everything right - and then spent the rest of the century looking on itself as a chronic failure. The fact is that this is still the best place in the world for most things - to post a letter, go for a walk, watch television , buy a book, venture out for a drink, go to a museum, use the bank, get lost, seek help or stand on a hillside and take in a view.

All of this came to me in the space of a lingering moment. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I like it here. I like it more than I can tell you."

- Notes from a small island by Bill Bryson

Gallery: Natural History Museum + Regent's Park

 

10 present ideas for a traveller

My birthday coming soon, it gives me the idea of this post. So if you have relatives or friends who loves travelling here is a list of ideal presents for their birthday:

• SCRATCH WORLD MAP (Urban Outfitters) - a funny way to list the countries you have already done.

• Notebook (Paperchase) - because a good traveller always has something to say or to write.  

• Passport holder (ASOS)  

• Photo album (Paperchase) - for memories
  
• Smartbox (Smartbox) - original weekends, skydiving,... You will defenitely make your traveller happy!
  
• The Earth from the air by Yann Arthus-Bertrand (Amazon) - for inspiration.

• A sweater for adventurers (RAD)
  
• Nike shoes (Nike) - believe me! A good pair of shoes is a necessity for travellers.

• A ticket/voucher for an attraction, a city... (Groupon)

• Cork board world map (GettingPersonal) - a nice way to pin your memories

New name!!

Indeed, fromfranceto becomes hungry-explorer! I thought this username makes more sense as my blog mainly talks about food and travels. You can receive the updates on different social media such as:

Twitter: @hungry_explorer
Facebook: The hungry explorer
Instagram: @hungry.explorer

I really want to dedicate more time to this blog and to give you a nice website to read, to help you and maybe make you happy. I will try to update more often and give you more tips and delicious recipes. 

Hope you will still enjoy this blog,

Alf.

Dublin

My friend Sophie and I finally went to Dublin last weekend. It's been so long we wanted to go. So we took the plane on Saturday morning to arrive in Ireland before lunchtime. Once arrived in the city centre, we dropped our bags in the room we found on Airbnb and we tried to figure out how to start our weekend in the Irish capital.

As the Guinness Storehouse is the furthest attraction, we thought it would be better to start visiting it. It was very interesting and interactive. The best part of the visit was obviously tasting the famous beer at the top of the building offering a 360° view of the city. If you go to the Guinness Storehouse you will notice you can have your pint of Guinness on different levels but I think the best decision is to wait for the bar at the top. And it is not a legend, the Irish Guinness is defenitely the best! The taste is so different from the one you can drink in other countries.

Afterwards, we walked to the core of the city where you can find most attractions. The day before we arrived Ireland voted for (or against) gay marriage. So when we were on our way to the castle hundreds people were waiting at the gate for the confirmed result. The 'YES' won. We didn't see much of the castle but we were happy to see cheerful folks and to be part of History.

Keeping on walking, we arrived in Grafton Street and not far from there we stopped in a pub for another pint and to have dinner before we head to Temple Bar. The pub was called O'Donoghue's located on Suffolk Street. The food was really good and cheap (around €10). 

Once the dinner and the pint finished we wasted no time to go at Temple Bar for a pub crawl. We arrived at eight o'clockish and the pubs were already full. We went inside 'The auld Dubliner' and the atmosphere was exactly what you expect from an Irish pub. A singer playing mainstream songs but making them sound Irish. People around were clapping hands, singing, dancing,... And the following pubs we did had pretty much the same mood. We didn't go back to the flat very late because we were tired. 

Sunday morning, 9 o'clock and ready to go! Sophie spotted a restaurant named Sophie's (coïncidence? I don't think so.) which promises you a view of Dublin while you are eating your brunch. Well the view is not great but the food was good. 

Our bellies full, we went to Merrion Square because I really wanted to find the statue of Oscar Wilde. We hardly entered the park and here he is to the left. A snap and hop! let's see Trinity College now. Unfortunately we didn't visited the library with the Book of Kells because the waiting line was massive. It was our last hours here so we didn't want to waste this precious time. 

We went back to Temple Bar because Sophie wanted to hear traditional Irish music so we stopped by the famous Temple Bar Pub. It was about one o'clock and three musicians were playing in the corner of the pub.  The atmosphere was still the same as yesterday night; joyful customers enjoying their pints, clapping hands, singing and dancing... The typical cliché of Ireland. 

The last attraction we did before heading back to the airport was the National Leprechaun museum. This is a guided tour telling you all you need to know about the famous Irish creature. It was interesting and a place to go if you are fed up to wait hours for your tickets. It does not look like a famous attraction but I highly recommend it. 

Finally we had some time to kill so we had a look at souvenir shops and went in a pub for our last pint in Dublin. We were really sad to leave. We wished we could have at least one more day to visit Howth or Wicklow Mountains. The architecture of the city is not incredible but the atmosphere is unique. I am really happy to have discover this city and its citizens. 

Tips:

• If you take Dublin Bus you need the exact amount of money and only coins are accepted.

• When you are a pedestrian and it is not your turn to cross the road, I would advise you not to wait for the green light. Just look to the left or to the right to make sure you can cross otherwise you will wait ages and waste your time because the zebra crossing lights are really really long for pedestrians.