Providore, Margaret River by Gneb

Providore is a shop in Margaret River that specializes in gourmet food. It has a restaurant inside, a bar for wine tasting and other food stuff in attractive packaging. This is definitely a shop that you don’t want your wife or girlfriend to be in, or they’ll be in there the whole day!

The interior is contemporary and chic. This is the restaurant overlooking the vineyard. Since we only had our lunch, we did not dine at the restaurant. We would have though, if we had not.

Some of the confectionaries sold at the restaurant.

The olive oils and the wines sold in here.

I really like the display of the goods. The shelves below for example, are clearly labeled. There’s also recipe (printed on paper) beside each of the bottles that you could tear down and take home.

Different types of pastas

One of the best things here – you could taste the food before you buy. Here’s a sample of the pastes and olive oil…

Hui Lau Shan (许留山), Hong Kong by Gneb

I was going through my Hong Kong vacation photo album and found these colourful pictures of Hui Lau Shan’s desserts. They definitely bring back good memories.

Hui Lau Shan is a Hong Kong dessert chain (specializing in mango puddings) and you can find them all around Hong Kong. Hui Lau Shan is very popular especially amongst youngsters and tourists (like me), so there’s usually a long queue in front of the shops. The shops are typically small (hence crowded), well mind you, what shop is not crowded in Hong Kong?

The mango puddings are so colourful and refreshing!

This is mango flavoured jelly with mango slices in it, topped with mango flavoured syrup.

This is mango freeze with glutinous balls (tong yuen) in it. The “tong yuen”, when eaten with the mango freeze, are simply smashing!

The big bowl is mango ice cream with glutinous balls and mango slices. The star shaped bowl is yam and red bean jelly.

Strawberry freeze with strawberry slices.

So, Hui Lau Shan is definitely a “must go” whenever I’m in Hong Kong. I just wish that Hui Lau Shan would come to our shores one day.

My scores (out of 5):

Taste: 5

Environment: 4

Service: 3 (busy but generally friendly staff)

Price: 4

Address: You can find them in Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Territoties.

Italian Food in Italy by Gneb

People say when in Rome, do as the Romans. So, I made sure that I tried out the delicious Italian food in a way as Italian as possible.

Apparently, the Romans drink coffee almost anytime of the day. Some with more time to spend, will sit in the café and sip their hot cappuccino slowly. Some, who are rushing, will just stand by the bar and chug down a cup of espresso. A frothy cup of cappuccino below is definitely a great way to start one's day.

The Italians really emphasize on work life balance. You can almost never find a restaurant that’s open after 2pm as it’s their time for siesta. You’ll have to make sure that you’re well fed at breakfast time or like me, resort to pastries otherwise.

Luckily this pastry shop is open or I’d have starved to death..

When the shops / restaurants finally re-opens at 4pm, Rome has turned into a lively food scene altogether.

Italian Pizzas – most of the pizza shops in Rome are run by people from the Middle East or even Indians!

This is a shop near Vatican City – I like that puffy looking pastry in the picture which has very nice savory filling. Not sure what it’s called though..

Different types of Pasta

Hams sold in supermarket

This is one of the restaurants that we went to in Rome, dining in the Italian way at the sidewalk.

For a more rural flavour, this is a restaurant in Cortona. It is a quaint little restaurant with middle aged setting located right on top of the hill. Dining in here feels like “living” in the Robin Hood story a bit…

The lovely pastas..

Casa Coccola, Cortona, Italy by Gneb.

When I was being asked to select the villa (from an internet booking website) that we were going to stay in Tuscany, I immediately fell for Casa Coccola upon seeing their pictures on the website. I know the cliché that you shouldn’t trust what you see on the website until you see the place for real, but Casa Coccola is definitely what you see is what you get.

Casa Coccola is located on a hill in a village called Terontola, approximately 9km from the historic hilltop medieval city of Cortona. In order to get to Casa Coccola, you’ll have to go through a narrow, steep yet winding road up hill. The Beatles’ hit – The Long and Winding Road kept playing in my mind all the way up hill.

Well, the long and winding road definitely leads to the lovely door of Casa Coccola. I was definitely very surprised to see how fabulous and beautiful the villa is.

Casa Coccola is owned by a friendly elderly couple – Gionavani and Silvana, both live in the nearby village. They would come up here to greet the guests when they check in and show them around the villa. Casa Coccola is also surrounded by an olive farm (also owned by the couple) that they come up to upkeep from time to time.

So, you’re basically high up on the hill surrounded by beautiful landscapes and quaint farm houses, under the blissful Tuscan sun!

This is the view from our garden, isn’t this amazing?

The patio that I’d come out and sit in the morning or early afternoon, enjoying the above mentioned view and a cuppa tea.

This is the swimming pool, at the other end of the garden.

The villa from another angle.

There’re even some antiques in the garden, not sure what’s this though..

The garden is also full of different kinds of flowers and fruits, these are just a few..

Our rented Fiat Ducato in the driveway.

This is the barbeque area, although I think the only sensible time to eat out here will be summer. It gets quite cold up here at night.

Strike the bell when dinner’s ready..

Casa Coccola in the evening.

The interior

The interior of Casa Coccola is equally as impressive (if not more impressive). This really lives up to my expectation of how a typical stately Italian villa should be. The villa is also equipped with all modern day amenities that include central heating, DVD player, CD player, printer and laptop (with internet connection). I was very happy that I could log into my Gmail account and the internet to stay connected with civilizations.

The drawing room..ahem..living room..

“A Room with THE View”

The living room is full of antiques and knick-knacks, like these 3 Chinese figurines

And this antique chest.

There’s laptop and printer in the villa. This is so that you stay connected with the rest of the world, even though you’re remotely high up on a hill in the Italian countryside.

The hall upstairs.

The dining room with a real fire place

The logs for the fireplace

A corner of the kitchen

The corridor leading to the dining room.

This is bedroom no.1 and the attached bathroom

Bedroom no. 2, also with en suite

Bedroom no 3

Hmm..How I wish I owned the villa.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.casacoccola.com/