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We’ve had a cracking weekend at The Samling in Ambleside. The Samling is a luxuriously comfortable hotel high up on the banks of Windermere.

We stayed in the Tyan room, with it’s striking blue Lake District wallpaper.

This room has a gorgeous view over Windermere, which was particularly special while eating a full breakfast brought to our room.

The hotel has a fantastic restaurant, with a coherent and complex menu featuring the best ingredients. We ate from the same menu on both nights:

Canapes: bread sticks and dips
- parmesan & green pesto
- beetroot & sour cream
- cumin & curried aubergine

Amuses bouche:
- boiled egg, white bean creme, chorizo
- pesto, red pepper, parmesan foam

Chicken mosaic with leek, prune & lentils
Roast scallops, chicken oysters, celeriac puree
Slow cooked Gloucester old spot, langoustine, celeriac puree
Red mullet, minestrone, crushed ratte potatoes

Wild venison, dauphinoise of roast vegetables, cabbage
Braised Herdwick mutton, shoulder, shank, langoustine, artichoke puree, potato
Fillet of brill, curried parsnip, kipper tortellini

Cheese (for one night only!): 5 Northern English cheeses

Pre-dessert: Cinnamon tuile, sherry jelly, catalan creme, acacia honey sorbet

“Apples from the Samling garden” - apple pie, apple parfait, apple brulee, apple sorbet
Chocolate delice, fennel ice cream, mandarin jelly
Poached pear, olive oil ice cream, upside-down pudding

Coffee & petit fours
- lemon meringue
- lemon & thyme shortbread
- blackcurrant jelly
- chocolate & hazlenut cluster
- madeleine

Phew!

To walk off the effects of this meal, we had some spectacular, although slightly snowy, walks, particularly from Patterdale

and above Windermere

I was in Cannes this week at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, held in the conference centre next to the beach.

While the daytime was all work (honestly), I used the evenings to explore Cannes, walking along La Croisette promenade, climbing up through Le Suquet to the Tour Castres, eating wonderful fresh seafood - the best was Astoux & Brun near the Vieux Port.

Antibes is only a 15 minute train ride from Cannes, so I went for an explore there one evening. It was nice to sit outside a cafe drinking beer on a November evening. Can’t do that in Glasgow. And again, I was able to discover a good small restaurant which served really good fish.

A brilliant 2 night stay at The Samling. We stayed in the Tyan - a large room decorated in a traditional Lake District blue pattern - very like something produced by the Timorous Beasties. Usual sumptuous bathroom, great to relax in the bath after walking round the Fairfield Horseshoe.

The best thing about the Samling is that they serve breakfast in your room - we therefore had breakfast overlooking Lake Windermere both mornings - see the picture for the view. We ended up ordering most things on the menu, but the French toast, maple syrup and fresh fruit was the definite highlight.

The restaurant is quite good too - the particular highlight for us was the roast fig with goats cheese ice cream, which we each had both nights.

Friday
Cheek of Gloucester old spot, langoustines, celeriac puree.

Noisette of lamb
Sea bass, lasagne of Cornish crab.

Whole roast fig, fig turnover, goats cheese ice cream.

Saturday
Ballantine of ham, piccalilli, souffle of Mrs Kirkham’s cheddar.
Foie gras.

Venison (loin & shank), haggis ravioli, neeps & tatties.

Whole roast fig, fig turnover, goats cheese ice cream (again)

Service was excellent throughout the weekend. The staff were really friendly and approachable, and made the stay a real pleasure.

We’re just back from a brilliant weekend in the Lake District. The sun shone all day for three days in a row, and we managed a good balance of luxury (The Samling - more later) and exercise.

We managed three excellent walks (forgot camera, so had to make do with mobile phone):

A low level stroll along Derwent Water and up to Castlerigg Stone Circle near Keswick, just to get the legs stretched.

As Saturday was a promising clear day, with no mist on the fell tops, and as recommended by Roger a couple of years ago, we walked round the Fairfield Horseshoe from Ambleside - 10.5 miles/3250 ft climb (or for the metric-minded, approximately 14 km/1000 m climb). We certainly earned our dinner that evening!

And as a gentle follow-up, we went for a nice low-level walk through Borrowdale on Sunday. As it was the first weekend of the school hols, the place was mobbed!

Throughout 2006 we continued 2005’s habit of going away for more weekends and holidays. There was a lot of repetition of 2005 (if you find a good thing, why change it), and these were the highlights:

Best Restaurants

We usually try to go to two or three restaurants with Michelin stars each year, these are the best…

1. Hibiscus, Ludlow. Still the best restaurant ever, although this year may have been our last meal with them, at least in Ludlow, because they are rumoured to be closing around Easter 2007 and moving to London or the SE in the middle of the summer. The highlight for 2006 though was the savoury ice cream of foie gras, warm emulsion of brioche, balsamic vinegar caramel.
2. L’Enclume, Cartmell. Simon Rogan’s Introduction menu gave us 12 courses of gastronomic genius. Very experimental and unusual.
3. The Stagg Inn, Titley. The Stagg normally marks the start of our Ludlow holiday each year. The bar serves the same food as the restaurant in a more informal setting, and the food is predictably excellent - in fact the Stagg was the first UK pub to be awarded a Michelin star. The beef this year was superbly tender.

Best Cheaper Eats

This category is for more “normal” eating out!

1. Water Prince Corner Shop, Charlottetown, PEI. Superb lobster supper - bread roll, mussels in white wine broth, boiled lobster with drawn butter and potato salad.
2. The Old Fish Factory, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. The best seafood chowder with biscuit followed by boiled lobster and drawn butter. It might be touristy but the food was good.
3. Red Onion, Glasgow. Jacqueline went there for her work Christmas night out and had an excellent meal with good atmosphere.

Best Hotels

Places we have enjoyed staying in this year.

1. Trigony House Hotel, Thornhill. This is a small Edwardian country house in the Dumfriesshire countryside, with comfortable rooms and good food. A great place in the autumn with views over the garden to the misty hills. Two things particularly impressed me this year - the first was that although we had to curtail our trip to one night because Jacqueline had been taken ill, the hotel only charged us for the night we stayed; the second is that because of the Scottish smoking ban it is now completely non-smoking (hurrah!).
2. Le Germain, Toronto. Luxurious modern hotel in the heart of Toronto’s entertainment district.
3. Shipwright Inn, Charlottetown, PEI. Run by English couple, Trevor and Judy Pye, this is a welcoming B&B with sumptuous rooms, big baths, good breakfasts and an all-day supply of tea/coffee/drinks & cake.

Best Breakfasts

1. Trigony House Hotel, Thornhill. A full Scottish is their speciality, including a really good haggis.
2. Shipwright Inn, Charlottetown, PEI. The breakfasts varied each day and included fresh PEI fruit, home baking - bread, cinnamon buns, muffins - and delicious hot breakfasts.
3. Le Germain, Toronto. In keeping with the hotel’s urban ambience, breakfast is a relaxed affair - cappuccino, fruit, cinnamon buns eaten while sitting at tall tables reading the Globe and Mail.

Best Food Shopping

1. Fencebay Fisheries at Glasgow Farmers’ Markets. Fresh fish, great hot smoked salmon - the arrabiata is particularly good, dressed crab, home-made salmon and trout pate. Where we buy most of our fish now.
2. Iain Mellis. I’m only permitted cheese a couple of times a year (to keep cholesterol and blood pressure down), so visiting Mellis is a fantastic treat. Just as well we don’t live around the corner any more!
3. Jo-Ann’s Deli Market and Bake Shop, Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. Serves the most wonderful sandwiches (in particular their lobster sandwiches) and cakes. Local fruit and veg is also fantastic.