Accra, Ghana

It's always difficult to sum up a trip to Africa in words, so I'll just include an overview of what we did during our five days in Ghana and hopefully that will give you a good flavor of the country. There are pics up on Flickr, but we didn't take as many as we normally do for some reason. I'm very self conscious about taking pictures of people (becuase they usually don't like it) and we didn't do a safari in Ghana (animals don't care if you take their pictures), so most of the photos are from our short trip to Cape Coast.

Wednesday - we arrived in Ghana around 10:30pm on Wednesday night after a 6 hour flight (and 1 hour delay leaving Heathrow). There was a shuttle at the airport to take us back to the hotel. We stayed at the Labadi Beach Resort, which was absolutely gorgeous. Definitely the swankiest place we've ever stayed in Africa.



Thursday - The bride had invited me to her "hen do" (aka bachelorette party) so I was up early on Thursday morning and joined about 40 other girls for an hour and a half bus ride to White Sands Beach Resort. Another very nice place, White Sands is a private club in a little bay. We were there for most of the day, had a delicious lunch, and watched a group perform traditional Ghanaian music and dance.









Ric got a car from Accra and picked me up at White Sands (about 2 hours late after the driver missed the turn and drove an hour too far). We then went on to Elmina for the night, which is a little fishing village on the coast. We arrived at night, so it was pitch dark and had to drive on a dirt road for what seemed like miles to this out of the way "rustic" hotel. We were both a little nervous upon arriving, but once we saw that Will Smith and Serena Williams had stayed there we felt much better. Had another delicious dinner - Waakye, which is a traditional meal made of black eyed peas and rice, with a meat on the side in spicy red sauce.



Friday - Our driver took us into Cape Coast, the fishing town next to Elmina. We toured the slave castle, which was a very moving and sad experience. This was a place where hundreds of thousands of men were kept before being sent on ships to the new world (a third of the men went to Brazil, a third to the Caribbean, and the rest to the Americas). It was appalling to see the conditions they were kept in for up to three months and chilling to walk through "The Door of No Return" where they set foot in their home country for the last time before being put on boats and sent abroad. After the slave castle we decompressed a little bit by walking around the town of Cape Coast. It was vibrant and bustling, with tons of people on the streets, lots of little stands selling odds and ends, and lots of women walking around with huge baskets on their heads full of fish, fruit, water... After a nice lunch on the beach we started the 3 hour drive back to Accra.









Once we were back in Accra we showered, had dinner, and were then onto the next event - a night of dancing at Bella Roma, a hot nightclub in Accra. We are not club people, as you probably know, but this was a very laid back place and we ended up dancing until the wee hours of the morning. I woke up the next day with sore knees and an aching back. If that's not a sign I'm getting old I don't know what is!

Saturday - We were able to sleep in Saturday morning, which was very nice (and very necessary). After an early lunch we got ready for the wedding and left for the church around 1pm. The wedding was held in a "normal" church and was very much like a Southern church service. There were tons of people there, it lasted a while, lots of hymn singing, etc. Following the service there were refreshments served behind the church, then we went on to the actual reception. More good food, lots of people, traditional Ghanaian music and drums... it was a very fun night. And I couldn't get over how well everyone was dressed! It was the creme de la creme of Ghanaian society (the groom's mom has been a supreme court judge her whole career) and a huge group of fancy Londoners.

Sunday - We didn't leave until 10:40pm Sunday night, so we had another nice day in Accra. We walked on the beach outside of our hotel, had a little down time at the pool, went to the groom's mom's house for a lunch reception, and stopped by the cocktail party before heading to the airport. We couldn't believe how many activities were planned throughout the week. It was amazing, but I'm sure the bride and groom were exhausted and ready for everything to be over with!







Monday morning - arrived home around 6:30am and were very excited to see the little man! He cried when he first saw us, but once he got used to us again he was his normal happy self.

James and Mammy

James had a wonderful time with his Mammy while Ric and I were in Ghana. But I think he officially wore her out. We always thought he was an especially active baby, but it is nice to get confirmation from an outside source. He's DEFINITELY active. Or energetic. Or full of life... Whatever you want to call it - the kid just doesn't stop moving all day long. From the second he gets up to when he goes to bed. Other than during his naps, he's on the move!

Mammy did a great job and we didn't have to worry about him at all. He started fully crawling the day after we left and now he won't stop! He can also pull himself up on things now, like his crib or the table in the living room. And, most importantly, he had his first chocolate chip cookie homemade by Mammy! He didn't seem to notice much difference between that and the toast pieces he was eating, but I'm sure that deep down he's hooked... it's impossible not to be.

Thanks again Mammy - hope you get some rest when you get home!

SF boom in new restaurants

Great article by famous San Francisco food critic Michael Bauer on how many new restaurants have opened up in the city this year. Interesting that he notes how different things are in New York - where they're having a horrible year for new restaurant openings. Although he doesn't hazard any guesses as to why this might be the case.

This article definitely makes me miss the city by the Bay and all the great food that goes along with it!

http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/michaelbauer/2010/08/19/its-a-boom-time-for-new-restaurants-in-san-francisco/

It's a boom time for new restaurants in San Francisco
August 19, 2010

I’ve been so busy running from restaurant to restaurant that until now I haven’t really spent much time thinking about the larger picture of what’s happening in Bay Area dining: The economy may still be on life support, but the restaurant business is booming.

I’ve been in San Francisco for nearly a quarter of a century, spanning several boom and bust times, but I think we may be hitting an all-time record for new openings.

It’s a confluence of many factors: Places like Prospect and Des Amis, for example, have been in the works for years; when financing opportunities went south in 2008, so did construction on the projects.

I’m seeing a lot of exciting personal restaurants opening, which I haven’t seen in some time — places like Saison, Sons & Daughters and Benu (which I haven’t experienced firsthand yet).

I sat down to schedule my weekly reviews through the end of the year and all the places I need to go are backed up like commuters on the Bay Bridge at 7:30 a.m. But, this is not necessarily the case elsewhere. Steve Cuozzo wrote in yesterday’s New York Post that “2010 is the worst year for new restaurants since Ice Age investors opened the first mammoth house. ”

Here’s a quick rundown of what’s already opened in the Bay Area in 2010, followed by some of the places expected to open before the end of the year:

Saison: Joshua Skenes’ “pop up” restaurant in the Mission became permanent a few months ago, offering an eight-course fixed-price menu. I’m reviewing it in The Chronicle’s Food & Wine section on Sunday.

Wayfare Tavern: This all-American place in the transformed Rubicon space is the first of Tyler Florence’s new Bay Area ventures.

Prospect: Nancy Oakes, Kathy King, Pamela Mazzola and Ravi Kapur are a formidable team at this new hot spot in the Infinity Towers.

Thermidor: Spork’s chef Bruce Binn is doing a mid-century number at Mint Plaza, also home of Chez Papa Resto and 54 Mint restaurants. Think Chicken Kiev and Lobster Thermidor, of course.

Sons & Daughters: Two young chefs, Matt McNamara and Teague Moriarty, have taken over the Cafe Mozart space creating a regularly changing fixed-price menu.

Hog and Rocks: Scott Youkilis of Maverick combines pigs, bivalves and cocktails at this new Mission restaurant.

Zero Zero: Bruce Hill brings his Pizzeria Picco show (and more) from Larkspur to San Francisco in the former Azie space next to LuLu.

Commonwealth: The latest evolution of Mission Street Foods under former Bar Tartine chef Jason Fox offers an a la carte or a $60 tasting menu, where a portion of the proceeds goes to charity.

Benu: This is the first venture from Corey Lee, former chef du cuisine at the French Laundry, who took over the space that once housed Hawthorne Lane and Two.

Des Amis: The Bacchus group folks from Spruce hope this will be the West Coast version of Balthazar.

Ippuku: This Izakaya in downtown Berkeley features small plates and sake from Christian Geideman.

Morimoto: Chef Masaharu Morimoto has opened a namesake restaurant in Napa featuring his distinctive brand of Japanese-inspired food.

Spoonbar: Rudy Mihal does the food and Scott Beattie turns his immense talent to cocktails at this Mediterranean restaurant in the new h2 Hotel in Healdsburg.

Locanda da Eva: You’d think former restaurant critics would know better, but Robert Lauriston is taking his shot at culinary fame at this spot that once housed Zax Tavern in Berkeley.

Dish: Some of the people from Buckeye Road House have opened this family-friendly restaurant in Mill Valley.

Rustic: All of Francis Ford Coppola’s favorite dishes can be found on the menu at this restaurant, part of his new winery in what used to be Chateau Souverain in Geyserville.

Many more places are expected to open before the end of the year: Michael and Lindsay Tusk’s Cotogna next to their flagship, Quince; Alexander’s Steakhouse from Cupertino in the Bacar space; Una Pizza Napolenta from Anthony Mangieri, who closed his New York shop to open here; Locanda, a Roman eatery from Craig Stoll of Delfina; 25 Lusk, the impressive 10,000 square-foot space being designed by Cass Calder Smith in an alley off Townsend; Plate Shop in Sausalito from Kim Alter, formerly of Manresa and Ubuntu; Zut in the old Eccolo space in Berkeley; Plum, Daniel Patterson’s Oakland outpost; Michael Mina in the old Aqua space; Bourbon Steak in Michael Mina in the Westin St. Francis Hotel; Shimo Modern Steak, Douglas Keane’s new steakhouse in Healdsburg; Fish Story, from the Lark Creek Group, with Stephen Barber as chef; and Tyler Florence’s Rotisserie and Wine.

James's photoshoots

We got the pictures back from James's photoshoots - the first was at Portland Hospital a couple days after he was born, and the second was at our house when he was about seven months old. I've posted all the photos on Flickr - so check 'em out! Grandparents - your Christmas present this year will be a large print of one of these photos, so let us know which is your favorite!

Here's a sneak peek:

Happy Birthday @ Zucca

Ric and I celebrated his 3rd decade at a new Italian restaurant called Zucca last night. It's in Bermondsey, which is about a 10 minute walk from the London Bridge tube stop. I read a review of the place on food blog, The London Eater. It got a great write up and the pictures looked amazing... So we thought we'd give it a try. Plus, it fit nicely in with my themed birthday for Ric - wine glasses, an Italian wine tasting evening at Berry Bros, and dinner at an Italian restaurant!



We started off with sea bream carpaccio and San Daniele with figs. Well, actually, we started off with a glass of Proseco and then jumped into the appetizers... Both were simply amazing. Not too fussy, very simple dishes, but the balance of flavors was perfect. And they looked pretty too!



We then went onto a pasta course, both ordering the Rigatoni with courgette (zucchini) and ricotta. The cheese was as light as air, and the pasta had obviously been made fresh. There wasn't a "sauce" per say, and neither one of us could figure out where the wonderful flavors were coming from. Again, it seemed so simple, but there was a lot more going on than you'd imagine at first glance.



After the past, in true Italian style, we moved onto the main course - rabbit for Ric and a veal chop for me. At this point in the dinner we were so consumed by the meal that we totally forgot to take pictures. The London Eater blog I mentioned has a nice one of the veal, though, if you're curious.

Since it was a celebration, we couldn't stop without dessert. I went the healthy route (to balance out the three courses I just ate) and got fresh fruit. Ric went more decadent and had a blackberry tarte. Both of which were great. The Vin Santo dessert wine didn't hurt either!



All in all, it was a truly memorable meal, and the total bill was much less than we've paid before, for much more mediocre food. We'll definitely be going back!

Here one day, gone the next

One week before we are scheduled to fly to Ghana for a friend's wedding we see this article, stating that the national airline, Ghana International Airlines, has ceased operation. There isn't any official information about this, no one is answering questions, and there aren't any alternatives being offered...

Luckily, we chose to pay a little bit extra and fly British Air.

Unluckily, there are planned strikes at Heathrow over the bank holiday weekend, which threaten to shut down the entire airport.

Air travel certainly isn't what it used to be (i.e reliable). And for anyone traveling internationally, it definitely pays to make sure your travel insurance covers you if your airline goes out of business (note to self: check our travel insurance to see if we're covered when airlines go kaput).

Doctor update

I took James to the doctor yesterday, just for a general check up. There isn't a normal doctor's visit at this point in the UK - the next one isn't until 1 year (I think US babies go in a 6 months), but we hadn't been in a while and it was a good opportunity to ask a lot of questions. The doctor was "delighted" with James. Said he is growing very well, all of his developmental points are right on track, and he seemed like a very happy baby. Which is he is of course!

Here are James's vital stats, at the 8-month mark:

9.2 kilos = 20.3 pounds (a little higher than the 50% percentile)
70 centimeters tall = 27.6 inches (right at the 50% percentile)
46 centimeters head circumference = 18.1 inches (75% percentile)

And here is what the doctor said in response to my questions, in case anyone else is interested :) I know there are LOTS of opinions about most of these things, and often times no "right" answers, but according to our doc:

• James only needs about 17 ounces of formula a day now - we had been giving him 21 ounces, but he wasn't always finishing the bottles and he spit up a lot after eating at 3:30 (probably because he was too full!). Now we do 7 oz in the morning, 7 at night and just 3 or 4 at 3:30 (in addition to his real "meals"). I tried that yesterday and it worked well. No more spit up, yay! This amount will continue until 12 months, when it can be reduced to 12 ounces total
  
• We still need to sterilize bottles, but not anything else (like cutlery, etc) - mainly becuase the bottles hold milk, which can go bad easily, and they're not always washed out immediately after being used. Should continue to sterilize until 1 year
• Really the only foods that James can't have at this point are eggs and real dairy milk - not until 1 year. He said honey was ok, but I think we'll still steer clear of that until 12 months
  
• He said it was ok for James to continue to drink his milk out of a bottle (rather than a cup) until he was a year or year and a half
• I mentioned that James doesn't like to drink water, so we're going to try water plus a little juice - we'll give that to him in a sippy cup to try and get him used to it. Right now, he loves the sippy cup, but only becuase he can chew on the end. Not actually for its drinking purpose.
  
• I guess there's a debate going on right now about nuts and how soon kids should (or shouldn't) have them. One side thinks that nut allergies are on the rise and becuase of that kids shouldn't have any nuts until they're 2 or 3. The other side thinks that nut allergies are on the rise precisely for that reason - becuase kids aren't being exposed to them early enough so their bodies aren't used to them. There are some cultures where peanuts, etc are eaten from a very early age and they have almost no incidents of nut allergies at all. I tend to fall in the latter camp, and our doctor agrees. Although a major study to try and answer this question one way or the other is currently underway
  
• The topic of crawling came up too - lots of people and articles say this is an important step that shouldn't be missed developmentally. Our doctor doesn't agree with that and says that crawling is the only thing that it's actually ok to skip. I think James will end up crawling first so it won't be an issue, but it's always interesting to hear where people fall in this argument. As of this morning, J was pushing himself up on all fours and kind of rocking forwards and backwards. He can take about one step, then collapses on his tummy and pulls himself around. We're very close... which means gates, cabinet locks and padded corner protectors need to be purchased asap!
  

So, that's all! Lots of probably un-interesting information, but thought I'd share (at least as a reminder to myself in case I forget what we talked about!)

Pic of James on our way to the doctor's office. He was very excited about being in a car:

Hamptead haps: UPDATED

Thought I'd give everyone a quick update on what's happening in the neighborhood this summer... Lots of changes on the high street.

Melrose and Morgan - This is a new food shop that Ric wrote about a few months ago. We've been regulars since it opened and especially love dropping by on the weekends to pick up odds and ends for lunch. It's not a grocery store by any means, but they do have a nice selection of pre-made meals, specialty food items, and cheeses.

The Hampstead Butcher opened in April and it's amazing (this went in where Rosslyn Deli used to be). We LOVE having a place to get "real" meat, other than Tesco, and their cheese counter in the back is expansive. Another perfect place to stop by when you're putting together a picnic for the Heath. There's also a really nice Australian guy who works behind the counter and has a son about the same age as James, so we always swap baby stories.

Yogurty - to draft off the success of Slice of Ice we have another contender in the "frozen snacks" category. Yogurty went in next to Waterstone's where the HiFi store used to be. Their sales pitch is around the healthiness of their frozen yogurt - it's all zero or low fat. Haven't tried it yet, but might be a good option when the line at Slice of Ice is too long to handle.

The French Infusion - this isn't totally new, but I just read an article in Elle UK about "hot new brands" to be on the lookout for. Most of them could only be bought online or at fancy department stores like Selfridge's. But 3 out of the 10 are represented on Hampstead's High Street, and they're all French brands. Zadig & Voltaire, Comptoir de Cotonniers (one of my favs) and Sandro (the newest addition). Not bad for sleepy little Hampers!

The Duke! Thanks to the efforts of our friend Rob and his Save the Duke website, the Duke of Hamilton has gotten a reprieve from it's demolition. It was a technicality in the end, and it's not a done deal, but for now the pub will stay open (thanks to an old, old tree on the property that can't be cut down to make room for a parking garage). There is still a lot of negotiations happening, and deals to be made, but we're hopeful that we won't have to say goodbye to our favorite true pub.

Closures - A number of high street shops have closed recently, including Crabtree and Evelyn which was right across from Gail's, the clothing store next to the Post Office (not a huge loss), and the Turkish place on the corner of Flask Walk. Not going to miss any of those places really, but do hope interesting things fill the spaces soon. There's also still an empty spot next to Ritz pharmacy. Lots of room for fun new things!

Watch this space...

UPDATE: Thanks to the tip from Rob who noticed that Euphorium Bakery in South End Green has also closed. Again, not totally surprised given the density of bakeries within a 10 block radius. And the fact that there is another Euphorium Bakery just down the hill in Belsize park.

I also forgot to mention the roadworks that are currently overwhelming our little village. They're supposed to continue for three months and have shut down the High Street and Heath Street at different points. Between that and the August summer holiday, it's been eerily quiet in Hampstead this month. I'm actually enjoying it quiet a bit! Maybe we should barricade the neighborhood off for good! :)