Celebrating with hiding smiles

In the last 24 hours, there’ve been lots of changes.

The feeling of happiness will arrive soon, I am sure, when the smile nestled deep inside me eventually finds its way to my face. Meanwhile though, I was surprised by a rush of emotion last night, an erosion of all the stability and calmness I had felt just a few hours before.

I’m still recovering.

I had planned to share some other things with you today, but the words aren’t coming out. I do want to say Mom and I loved dining at Le Canard last night (an early Mothers’ Day celebration) – the radiant face of our maître d’, the hearty, delicious food and the air fragrant with ribbons of enjoyment all contributed to this – and if you are in Wellington, I hope you don’t deny yourself the pleasure of dining here. Suffice to say, I thought of Julia Child as I brought the first spoonful of fish soup to my mouth – whatever once curled around her soul and enticed her into a permanent love affair with French food/cooking and all, wrapped itself around a corner of my heart last night. This was especially the case as memories of our trip to France a few years ago came rushing back to me…

Mom’s order:

La Planche du Canard (a trio of duck liver mousse, rillettes and terrine of duck with fig and walnut)

Poisson du jour (line caught fish of the day with champagne and oyster sauce, leek fondue and oyster gelée)

Bavarois a la rose, rhubarbe confite (rose flavoured ‘Bavarois’, pistachio meringue and crystallised rhubarb)

My order:

Soupe basquaise & sa garniture (fish soup from the Basque country with rouille and croûtons)

Filet de Boeuf, beurre du canard (South Devon organic beef fillet with Le Canard butter and crispy celeriac galette)

Le Café Canard (espresso coffee with Calvados and sugar cube)

I really loved every morsel of our dinner, almost as much as I enjoyed walking back to the hotel with Mom afterwards in the light drizzle, talking about all sorts beneath the velvety blanket of night…

Now, the rest of this post will be told with pictures… a little glimpse into some parts of my world.

Singapore:

Wellington, New Zealand:

Bonne nuit! (Goodnight!)

Le Canard – 10A Murphy Street, Wellington – Phone: 04 499 5252