The World Is an Oyster

Cruising Memoirs of a Wanderlust Soul. A Travel Blog

The World Is an Oyster
Bread Maker Italian Panettone 22

Italy / Savour the Flavour

Perfect Bread Maker Panettone – Christmas Made Easy

The Bread of Toni As is the case with everything Italian, the nation’s Christmas traditional dessert, Panettone, has its own history that goes back to the fifteenth century.  A legend has it that one Christmas Eve, while the entire court and guests of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan were sat at the festive table, disaster stroke in the kitchen. The cook managed to accidentally burn the dessert!  Mamma mia, che dolore che faccio ora il duce mi va cortare il capo! (Oh, dear God, what a disaster, the duke will chop my head off!) While the unfortunate cook was pulling his...

cheese pie 37

Romania / Savour the Flavour

Sweet Cheese Pies. Easy Desserts from Mom’s Recipe Book

Sweet Pockets Cheesecakes are widely present in international cuisine. The ones I’ll talk about today are a traditional Moldavian recipe, from Northern Romania. Mom made them countless times when I was a kid. Since I discovered how easy they are to bake, I gave these pies many a try as well. The Romanians have called these pies “poale’n brâu” for centuries. That translates literary to “the bottom of the skirt raised to the waistband”. Why? Perhaps many years ago, women would wear their skirts as improvised bags to carry whatever they would forage in the forest or a small bunch of twigs for the...

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Romania / Savour the Flavour

Biscuit Salami. Easy to Make Goodies From Mom’s Recipe Book

The Taste of Childhood The first time I made a biscuit salami – a simple but incredibly tasty dessert, I was eleven years old. It was in the good old days when the parents would go to work, and the children would spend the three months long summer holiday at home doing whatever they wanted. We would mostly go outside to play with other kids (we had a key we wore on a necklace), come back for lunch (yep, we were taught from an early age how to heat a soup without burning the house down) and go back outside...

Spooky house 30

Travel Wisdom

All Hallows Eve. Reasons to Throw a Halloween Bash!

Release the Ghosts! The Americans alone spend $9 billion on Halloween. Those familiar with my posts would understand why my face “fell off” when I read this fact in a news article. My otherwise fierce courage deserted me in my hour of need: I dared not look for a global statistic. I care about my face! 😄 Well, I understand the societal consumerism and the urge to party for whatever reason. I get it even more in the fateful (first) year of the pandemic. I accept both reasons even when they apply to nations that until a decade ago had...

Autumn foliage forest 39

Travel Wisdom

An Autumn Walk in Time. Born in October

Nature Is at Its Most Beautiful in Its Dying Hour We all love an autumn walk and dragging our feet through the rustling carpet of colourful leaves bedding a forest path in fall. Ochre, crimson, copper or brown, depending on what stage of decomposing they were when they fell from the trees, the dead leaves work their magic on us.  We greedily take in the soothing feeling selflessly provided by nature, the bit of sanity so much needed and the escape provided by a few hours hike to recharge our batteries. We selfishly don’t give anything back, though. We walk,...

Spinach and ricotta cannelloni recipe 11

Italy / Savour the Flavour

Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni – An Easy Dinner Idea

Italian Is Always Best! Cannelloni are in essence pasta tubes filled with ricotta and spinach or cooked mince meats. Even if Italy’s history of pasta goes back to the 4th century BC, to the Etruscans times, cannelloni seem to be a bit younger, their origin traced somewhere in the 8th century CE. There are mentions of this dish in Toscana and Campania around the same time, even if there is some distance between the two regions. Today, all supermarkets sell packs of dry tubes, and this saves time in cooking cannelloni. Nevertheless, the Italians praise themselves for making fresh pasta...

Mum's apple cake filled with nuts 10

Romania / Savour the Flavour

Mom’s Apple Cake: The Best ‘Welcome Home’ Delight!

A Symphony of Scents and Flavours Disclaimer: Know your allergies and adjust this recipe accordingly! My cruising job contracts were normally six months long. That meant a lot of exploring the ports of call or floating at sea in between destination.  Of course, that involved some office work (the small Shore Excursions department onboard usually made either the first or the second-largest profit per cruise after the Casino). It also meant an early morning start to dispatch the tours and send the passengers to see the wonders they wanted to see on their cruise.  Most of the times, though, early...

Space ship 20

Travel Wisdom

Time Travel

“Meet Me on a Starship!” Three years ago, my friend decided to die. He said he’d had enough; eighty-six was plenty of time spent in this world and needed some rest from it. A week later, he was gone, just like that. It was not the first time I saw someone setting their mind on departing and succeeding. I had seen it before in old age. All seems good, and suddenly people decide enough is enough. In a few days, their bodies shut down quietly, and they pass peacefully. I was amazed at first. I thought humans have no control...

Rosemary Pita bread recipe 10

Greece / Savour the Flavour

Pita Bread. Bake The Fun And Easy Way!

The Side of All Greek Appetisers and Mains There is no more straightforward recipe to bake nor yummier than pita bread! With origins going back to the first farming settlements in the Middle East, pita can be considered a prehistoric type of bread.  Our ancestors used to bake this flatbread directly on the fire. Later, the stone ovens came in use. Today, we bake in the oven or fry it in little oil, depending on how much time and effort we want to put in preparation. In time, the method has changed, as has the name. Apparently, as its use...

Istanbul Twilight 18

Mediterranean Sea / Turkey

Istanbul. The Night’s Mistress On The Golden Horn

The Spell of Twilight Music: Nemo, Nightwish Movie: The Promise (2016) Book: The Bastard of Istanbul, Elif Shafak There are those places in the world that are impossible to grasp in one sentence, to see in one day or to ever forget. Istanbul is one of them. Stretched on two continents, Europe and Asia, at the mouth of Bosporus Strait that connects The Black Sea to The Sea of Marmara, sat on layers upon layers of history, Istanbul is a tempting mistress that wraps you in her voluptuous mystery like an alluring siren’s song. Wherever you turn your head, the skyline is bristled by...

Greek moussaka 6

Greece / Savour the Flavour

How to Make Greek Moussaka the Easy Way

A Greek Dish With International Influences Greek moussaka is a must-have dish if you travel to Greece, just as it is proper to try Greek coffee. The flavours are unique! As you sit on a tavern terrace and (preferably) enjoy a fabulous sea view, remember that the stress is on the last syllable when you ask the waiter for moussaka. Original from the Levant and updated by the adding of a posh French sauce, moussaka is today known as a Greek dish, cooked with variations in most of south-eastern Mediterranean and not only. Romanians and Bulgarian also love it.  My...

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