Last Saturday, on October 6th it was two years ago since C and I got engaged, the date is especially meaningful to me as it would have been my Grandfather’s 96th birthday as well. For these reasons, and the fact we hadn’t ventured out of our neighbourhood yet, I decided that C and I needed to get dolled up, go to a nice restaurant, eat some good food and enjoy some strong cocktails!
I made reservations at Taypá, a Peruvian Restaurant that I had heard good things about and has won a number of local Restaurant awards over the years. Located in the south of the city, it was about a 20 minute taxi ride from where we live (which in Brasilia is quite a far distance!) Keep Reading
There hasn’t been a lot of food blogging going on here at The Travelling Chopsticks, and for this I apologise. However, now that we have settled into Brasilia and there are no massive travel plans until Christmas, be expecting a lot more goodies to come out of our kitchen :)
None of our kitchen stuff has arrived yet – they will most likely be arriving by November! Although with this bloody government shut down, God only knows when I will see my things again (Republicans…can you guys get your shit together and vote!?!) So it means for the time being I am cooking with rather crappy pots and pans, dull kitchen knives and no fancy, schmancy Kitchen Aid! However, I shouldn’t complain, at least I have the basics and with that you really can make anything!
Tonight we made pork chops in a dijon mustard sauce and they were good :)
Today at midnight I would have been in Brasilia for exactly 3 weeks, it is amazing how quickly time flies. I really feel as though I have settled in rather well and am already feeling quite at home here.
Naturally when I talk to my friends and family, they all ask me what my first impressions are of this city, and they are all surprised by my answer.
Brasilia reminds me of Singapore! No wonder why I am feeling so at home!
In August on our way to visit my family in Sweden, C and I decided to stop off for a few days in Paris. C had never been to Paris before, and the last time I was in the ‘City of Lights’ was when I was backpacking around Europe with two of my very best friends after high school. Let’s just say we had different interests and budget back then, which mainly involved drinking in various European Capitals and being chased by persistent Italian men! So Paris, has always been a place that I wanted to return to and explore as a ‘grown-up’.
What started off as a rather timid blog to keep my friends and family posted on my life in Mexico, it has slowly gathered momentum and morphed into the cooking and travel blog that it is today.
It has turned into my creative outlet and something I am immensely proud of. A project that is ever evolving, ever growing and in a way taking on a life of its own. What has been incredibly encouraging and rewarding is the warm reception that the TTC has received from my friends and family, and people who have stumbled upon it all over the world. Your comments and enthusiasm has really motivated me to keep on going. Thank you :)
As I was rather shy and self conscious in the beginning of sharing my blog with everyone, I feel that there is some really good content that has been overlooked, so as a little birthday homage to The Travelling Chopsticks, I have put together a list of all my favourite and most memorable posts I have written over the years and thought I would share them with you.
1. Hello World: My first ever post, written almost a month after I set up The Travelling Chopsticks as I was so nervous about writing in a public forum.
10. Roast Duck: A tedious recipe but one where I was very proud of the outcome
11. Tamales: One of my absolute favourite days in Mexico City, where my colleague opened up her home to me and taught me how to make tamales with her family.
Once again – thank you to everyone for all your support, encouragement and kind words. The last three years has been such an interesting journey and hopefully we will go on many more adventures together in the future!
Skål!
P.S The Travelling Chopsticks now has a Facebook Page…I know, I’m finally getting on this Social Media bandwagon! If you would like to see mini-updates of my life in Brasilia and around Latin America, please go ahead and ‘like’ my page :)
For the last few posts I have been rather egotistically rabbiting on about C and my move to Brazil. However, something that you guys might not have been aware of is that we did in fact up-root two other little lives with us as well!
Meet Khloe and Pixie, our two Mexican Beauties (admittedly one is more of a beauty than the other…).
On midnight between Tuesday and Wednesday last week, our plane touched down in a very wet and rainy Brasilia.
The last few days have been aimed entirely at trying to settle in, acquaint ourselves with our new city, and get our life up and running. I have to say, that I am pretty proud of C and I, within 4 days of being in an entirely new country, city and language, we have accomplished the following: Keep Reading
According to the UN’s Annual World’s Happiness Report, Scandinavia (Sweden, Denmark and Norway) as well as our Nordic neighbours (Finland, Iceland, Switzerland and Austria) are ranked within the Top 10 happiest countries in the world.
To be honest this does not come as a surprise to me. The older I become and the more I work and experience living in other countries the more I realise what a fantastic country Sweden is, and what amazing opportunities the country has for it’s citizens. I am a very proud Swede =)
So keeping with the above theme, I thought I would share with you some of my happiest pictures and moments from Sweden. I hope you enjoy them and they make you happy as well:
When I first moved to Mexico 3 years ago C’s colleagues invited me to the office for breakfast one day. One of his colleagues Luis, was going to prepare a special breakfast of green chorizo for us.
I had never seen, let alone heard of green chorizo before and I was excited – it turned out to be one of my most memorable and enjoyable breakfasts I have had in Mexico. When I told Luis this a couple of weeks ago, he insisted he would make it for us one more time before we left.
About six month ago, C and I found out that our next post was going to be Brazil, more specifically Brasilia. Although that was a bit of a surprise to us as we both had our heart set on Tokyo, however what really threw the spanner in the works, was that instead of moving in the summer of 2014 which was the original plan, they wanted us there this year. I felt robbed! Robbed of my 1.5 years left in Mexico. My 1.5 years left of exploring this wonderful country. My 1.5 years left of working and earning money. Our 1.5 years left with the great friends we have made here. Nevertheless this is the nature of the beast, and it is a lifestyle that both C and I got involved in with our eyes wide open. Keep Reading
The Travelling Chopsticks 