A picnic in the Jardin du Luxembourg

In Paris we stayed in the 6th Arrondisement - near the Jardin du Luxembourg and Le Grande Epicerie at Le Bon Marche - perhaps Paris' answer to the Harrods food halls!  We had a couple of picnics in the Jardin du Luxembourg after some food shopping.

Licorice allsort coloured pasta

so much smoked salmon to choose from

You can buy all kinds of pre-made foods that we don't in Australia - gazpacho, confit duck and cassoulet

A small selection of Macarons

A bread kebab - a great way to try a few of the loaves, in miniature form

Our picnic

G's favourite - terrine

The produce at Borough Market

I don't know if you have heard the hype about Borough Market in London, but it is a much talked about food market, that I managed to convince G to go to on Saturday morning in London.

British strawberries in summer are so good

So many people had told me "there's a great cheese shop at Borough" - wrong, there are several great cheese shops at Borough!

Oysters shucked, ready to eat with shallot vinaigrette or tabasco

 We do not recommend the goat's milk ice cream - ours was not nice, and I saw someone else throw their scoop out.

So much bread - we only took home a couple of mini loaves

Jamon sliced to order

If you are in London on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday I highly recommend making the trip to Borough (near London Bridge) and picking up some picnic supplies and a few things to try as you enjoy your wanderings.

Lola's cupcakes

The cupcake craze has hit London!  We found Lola's Cupcakes in Topshop on Oxford St - that's right, inside a clothing store.  It sounds pretty messy - but it is right in the middle of 2 sections (one of those is stockings in packaging, so no drama if you get icing on the plastic I guess) and then they get all wrapped up.  G and I bought these last to keep them safe.

Anyway, G and I bought 4 small cakes to give Lola a good road test - nice cake texture, though the outside was quite "crisp" and the icing was super delicious - and good flavours, no fake fruit flavours here!

Lunch with Joel

Continuing our theme of eating fancy lunches (at less than half the price of dinner) at michelin starred restaurants, G and I ate a L'Atelier du Joel Robuchon in London.  We opted for the 2 courses with matching wines, as well as the amuse bouche and a cocktail to begin.  As part of our trip we have been enjoying some fancy lunches - lunch is way more affordable than dinner!

A cocktail to begin

 The mackerel rillettes - amuse bouche

 My lamb steak with tempura beans and onions

Geoff's mackerel with saffron foam

 Finally, G's cheese selection and my tart selection below.

Tsukiji

Tsukiji is the largest seafood market in Asia, and is famous for its tuna auctions.  Tourists used to be able to go and watch the auctions, but are no longer allowed - apparently there were problems about people touching the tunas. To purchase tuna in the auction you must be registered, and you are allowed to on-sell the tuna.   As well as tuna auctions there is also the wholesale section of the market, selling the biggest range of seafood that I have ever seen.

Given the lack of tuna auction viewing, G and I arrived at about 8am for a breakfast of sashimi before some intense seafood admiring.

Then it was time to let the seafood admiration begin!

The last thing we saw, possibly the most unique thing we saw, was the ice man.

Although the little carts the dudes drive around on are also pretty unique - like barrels on little flat go karts.

Train sushi

G and I enjoyed some sushi from a train sushi restaurant in Tokyo - though were put to the shame by the number of plates the other (Japanese) customers were able to eat.

No train sushi restaurant is complete without huge bits of melon floating along the train in between the sushi. 

Pickled eggplant sushi

Tuna sushi (low in fat tuna)

Some of the fish on display

One of the chefs

Better (fattier) tuna

Our 8 plates - 2 pieces of sushi per plate.  There were couples in there with closer to 20 plates between them!