Here are my ‘Brèves deComptoir’, new monthly for 2014, every end of the month.

‘Brèves de comptoir’ are authentic quotations collected from everyday life and particularly gossips at the bistrot. Absurd borders on humour or poetry, news and sometimes philosophy. Mine are of course food oriented, a concentrate of what feed my life, what I swallow every day, what I read, hear, try, taste… In London and the world…

– One of the cutest kitchen tool is the ‘Yolkfish’ from Peleg Design, to separate yolk and white egg, it’s easy and pretty so no need to struggle anymore or to do it Nigella’s way with both hands, long nail full of yolks, whites dripping on your hands… there is now more elegant and pretty.
http://www.peleg-design.com/     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR0ZESjh0lE

– Rubbing the inside of a banana peel on bug bites are said to relieve itching and inflammation.

– The restaurant guru Alan Yau is about to open a new empire : ‘Duck and Rice’, ‘Park Chinois’ and an unanamed yet Turkish restaurant in 2014. All in Mayfair and Soho of course !

– The SRA Awards (Sustainable Restaurant Association) took place last week and amongst the list of Scottish sustainable restaurant’s winner, SRA Award for sourcing etc… The international sustainable restaurant of the year is French (I have to stop to be chauvinist) in a little town in West central France. Check out the winner list in full :
http://www.thesra.org/some-good-thing/sustainable-restaurant-awards-2014/

– The ART14 at Olympia Grand hosts 4 chefs who will oversea the food at the fair. One different chef every day will cook their signature dishes. Yesterday was Florence Knght from Polpetto, today and the last two days will be Reiner Becker from Zuma, Jason Atherton from Pollen Street Social and Richard Corrigan from Bentley’s and Corrigan’s. This global art fair is a lovely mix with another art : cooking.
http://www.artfairslondon.com/

– Opened 3 weeks ago ‘La Patisserie des Rêves’ is the temple of French gâteaux and viennoiseries. On Marylbone High Street between posh French shops, LPDR, to try absolument !
http://www.lapatisseriedesreves.com/uk/

– Hoxton Street’s new Monster Supplies are the ‘Human preserves’ in line with the ‘Creeping Dread’ and the ‘Milk Tooth’ chocolate you can now eat the ‘Organ Marmalade’ or ‘Thickest Human Snot’, ideal fun gift. Gift from £1.5 at the Ministry of Stories and Liberty.
http://www.monstersupplies.org/

– The meat scandal has reached Sweden. The last scandal reveals that 2,9 tonnes of horsemeat imported last year, could have come from France with falsified papers (not chauvinist anymore).

– In Hong-Kong, the most popular street snack is egg’s waffle. Also called eggette, it’s made from eggs, sugar, flour and evaporated milk. Cooked on a hot griddle with small ‘wells’ it’s consumed in the street and very often plain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HK_Lower_Wong_Tai_Sin_Eatate_Tung_Tau_Tsuen_Road_n_Ching_Tak_Street_%E9%9B%9E%E8%9B%8B%E4%BB%94.JPG

– The first cat bar in London is opening tomorrow the 1st of March ! Very famous in Japan, it will be tea time while listening to cats purring around. The felines are known to have a soothing effect. Rescued cats only at Cat Emporium in Shoreditch. If I understood well, you have a lot of advantages if you are a member, the tables are for 2 hours only… I feel like I am in the middle of Mayfair in a trendy-pretentious member’s club but this time it’s for a good cause !
http://ladydinahs.com/