St. Petersburg, home of the £500 lunch!

Not my favourite destination, but before I got there, somewhere I'd always wanted to visit, because of it's deserved reputation for beauty. In the couple of days I spent there, that beauty seemed to be more of a surface thing. I wouldn't describe it as the friendliest of towns, but a very interesting one. My visit was quite a humbling experience, due to the city's enthusiastic disdain towards visitors.

Another stupid hat.

Homo-eroticism aside, what was not so obvious about the banya from the programme was its side room complete with bar, flashing lights and stripper's stage, with pole.

We'll always have Leningrad.

The Ladies of the Bread Counter.

The meat girls were not so friendly.

Mushrooms for shoes.

St. Petersburg!

From St. Petersburg

Food Fauxtography

Carl Warner's world of food

Norway!

Playing with my food.


Ever since visiting Svarlbad and Tromso a decade ago I have wanted to come back to Norway, it's different in subtle ways to the rest of Europe, not exotic but has a parallel universe feel to it. Absolutely one of the best places I visted on the Rough Guides, also one of the most expensive, they are oil-rich [North Sea Oil - remember that? I think it bought some tax cuts for the well-off here in the UK in the 1980's] and their currency is separate to the Euro and consequently very strong. Alesund is billed as an Art Deco town, very pretty and friendly, and it gets rather wild in isolated pockets at the weekend. Delicious food but bring your own everything if you are even thinking of being on a budget there.

If you want to stay on a lighthouse or fly up a fjord,
this is a good place to start

What lurks beneath.

Taken in the admirably North Sea-focused Alesund Aquarium where, instead of the usual tiny sharks and tropical celebrities, they have mainly cod and plaice on display, because that's the kind of fish you need to know about if you live there. That's Norse efficiency for you not so much puritan, as practical.

The fish?

I dunno, some kind of deep sea bastard fish I reckon. Looks like a cross between the
Coelacanth and Alien.

The master bathed in God's Holy Light.

The Chef from Maki who cooked the most delicious spread of fish

I ate this, otherwise it would have eaten me.

The proper chopper.

Another fucking sunset.

Bleeding Rust.

Post Card

Runde Island is clean, neat and sweet, but still feels real, not like the Cotswolds, now so manicured and expensive, you can't afford to live there if you work there.

Big sky country and big sea water.

From Norway

Runde Island, see sea bird central.