I was out for tapas on Friday night with friends at a local venue on the mountain, Aerie – what a buzzy place that is. Delicious tapas and a good selection from boutique distilleries and wineries. If you haven’t been, do yourself a favour and head over. The weekend was ‘birthday weekend’ – all families have different traditions, and this is one of ours, with birthdays two days apart my children have always celebrated together. We are all foodies so you can imagine…

First off was The Green in James Street (Brisbane) for brunch – an industrial site that has been transformed by imagination and plants. Dinner found us at Southside in Fish Lane – one of several restaurants in the area; Southside specialises in elegant Asian fusion. Sunday morning was brunch at the Calile in James Street. Needless to say, I have returned to the Mountain for a few days of boiled eggs and toast!

Food is one of the great joys of travel, giving you a chance to interact with locals and to pick up on the feel of the region you are travelling through. A friend was asking me how we always found such wonderful places in new destinations, and I guess the answer is research. We always search online and pre-book, and we also always talk to locals – it is hard to beat a good hotel concierge.

Talking about this triggers so many fabulous memories. The extraordinary Central in Lima, which we had to book three months in advance – this Michelin-starred restaurant reflects Peru’s regions in local cuisine, exquisitely. La Cave De L’ange Gardien in Beaune, a medieval provincial centre in Burgundy, where the restaurant is established in the arched tunnels below the walled ramparts of the town. The Cow in Queenstown is as much fun now for pizza and pasta as it was when I was a student. Ristorante La Cappannina is on the edge of the Roman ruins at Aquileia, northeast of Venice. Or Osteria Oggi in central Adelaide, whose understated entrance leads to a sun-filled courtyard. 

The list goes on and will no doubt continue. It can make a difference to how you feel about a place if you stop for a wonderful coffee, or the inviting looking place you stop at simply serves up something slightly better than Nescafé. Yes, when travelling we even look up coffee shops! Wouldn’t you be disappointed to find out that you had missed the world’s most famous Persian love cake by ten metres!?

We also take cooking courses – one with Luke Nguyen in Ho Chi Minh was memorable. Also, the game cooking course in a manor house near Cambridge. The locals were amused at my reaction to the crabs they served for lunch on a small island off the coast of Malaysia...

Thank goodness I love to walk... it helps to balance the fabulous foodie trips we take. What’s your passion when you travel? 

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