I had a small, unopened jar of salted butter caramel sauce from France begging to be used and Valentine’s Day was the perfect excuse. Salted caramel cupcakes were an option until the thought of hot brownies with salted butter caramel & vanilla ice cream won hands down.

After a quick  search, I came across Nigella’s recipe for ‘Everyday’ Brownies, originally published in her book, Nigella’s Kitchen. These brownies are an alternative to a richer(!!) version that she has published in the past.  Still a very misleading name though as one should most certainly not be eating these brownies every day. 😉

I had my food blogger lens on throughout the Paris trip and what really caught my hungry eyes was the stunning food displays at marches, patisseries and shops around town.

The beautiful presentation made the simplest of foods seem even more enticing. Have a look at these drool-worthy shots and you will see what I mean.

Mont Blancs at Angelina Paris

Macarons at Angelina Paris

Normandy Oysters at a Marche in Marais

Colourful seafood at a marche in Marais

Lovely looking greens in Marais

Berries, anyone?

Flavoured butter at Breizh Cafe shop in Marais

I braved the crowds at Harrods over the weekend and oh my goodness, what a nightmare!! There are way too many people out and about this time of year and I left Knightsbridge feeling extremely thankful for online shopping. 😉

My Top 5 Beauty Gifts blog last week was popular and I hope you all found it useful. Today, I am sharing some delicious foodie gift ideas. As you can imagine, it was quite a challenge to stick to a list of five as there are some fabulous options out there. I could have easily gone on and on and on…

I attended the BBC Good Food Show held in London this past weekend with my first ever Press Pass for Hungry Aphrodite! This was definitely a milestone for my blog and I was super excited to experience one of London’s largest gathering of food lovers.

A view from the top

The BBC Good Food Show is an annual event held in London, Birmingham and Glasgow. The London show held at Olympia featured interviews with famous chefs, live demonstrations, wine tastings, and a Producers’ Village showcasing some of the best food products and gadgets in the market.

My dear hubby surprised me with a quick getaway to Brussels over the weekend. We had been talking about a Eurostar train trip for quite some time and as much as I LOVE Paris, I was excited to explore a city that I had never been to before. My excitement multiplied after hearing about all the Belgian culinary treats on offer. Chocolate, waffles, fries and other yumminess…I knew from the beginning that this was going to be a delicious trip. And, oh yes, it was!

Here is my foodie guide to Brussels!

Belgian Chocolate

It is my birthday today!! And I have had too much fun and a shameless amount of dessert over ‘birthday week’ that kicked off with a delicious meal at Sushi Samba London a few days ago.

My American readers may be familiar with Sushi Samba, a popular Brazilian-Peruvian-Japanese fusion restaurant with locations in New York, Miami, Las Vegas and Chicago. Sushi Samba used to be one of my favourite restaurants during my NYC days and naturally, I was beyond excited to finally try out their new London branch.