The easiest way to cook eggplant

I'm writing this post sitting in a nice café in Biarritz facing the ocean :))
I should write every post in this condition ;)

We came here for a long weekend for surfing & to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary!!! (I can't believe how time flies).

We haven't surfed since Easter, when we went to Essaouira - post about surfing Morocco coming soon ;)

So it's been a super good week-end & Biarritz is a pretty cool place! (I'll write about that too).

Anyway, from the title of the post, you already know I'm not going to talk about wedding or surfing but about eggplant. It's the season ;p

I love eggplant, it's good and reminds me of hot, summer days spent in the sun in Positano.

But apart from the good memories, eggplant is a very healthy food : it's a good source of fiber & contains several minerals & vitamins (potassium, calcium, magnesium, vitamins C, K, B1, B6,...) as well as some essential phytonutrients which have antioxidant properties & improve blood circulation. Just remember that all the good stuff is concentrated in the eggplant's skin, so you shouldn't remove it.

All that for only 35 cal. for 100g.

However, in the south of Italy, we traditionally tend to cook eggplant in a quite heavy way, e.g. fried with lots of oil... Anyway, it's pretty clear that in that case eggplant is not that healthy ;)

Plus, it take forever to prepare it & I don't like to spend ages in the kitchen!

Here I have the easiest way to cook eggplant, still yummy and healthy.

It's just quite long to cook, but it takes 2 minutes to prepare and it's super simple. Just make it when you know you're gonna spend sometime at home ;)

Ingredients :

- 2 (or more) eggplants

- 2 spoons of olive oil

- Grated garlic

- Province herbs (or other mixed herbs depending on what's available where you live)

- 1/2 glass of water

Wash the eggplants and cut them in little cubes.

Put the cubes in an oven plate

Add the olive oil

the grated garlic & the mixed herbs

& half a cup of water, to avoid the eggplant to burn & not to put too much oil

Mix the eggplants in order to distribute the seasoning and put in the oven preheated at 180° for about one hour (I told you it was long for cooking, but honestly how long did it take to chop & season the eggplants?)

Now you can return to your occupation & forget about it.

Ok, it's better if you stir the eggplants a couple of times, but if you really forget about them for one hour, it's no problem.

When the eggplants are tender & a bit burned they're ready!

You can just eat them like that as a side dish or add them to your bowls & salads (I particularly like to mix eggplant with green vegetables in my rice bowls). 
& they're good even cold.

And you can keep it in the fridge for a couple of days.

So what do you think, isn't it super easy & yummy?

How do you like to cook eggplant?

One year ago...

One year ago today, I said yes to the love of my life.

I can't believe it's already been one year... it seems like yesterday... We're still over the moon :)

It was such a magical & wonderful day, full of love & joy, surrounded by all our friends & family in Positano.

I am so grateful for how lucky I am & for the beautiful & happy family & life we're building together ❤️

Weird casting calls

Film industry is a strange business, really. There are wonderful people in there, but also the weirdest one I ever met.

Some are serious some have strange ideas & crazy projects.

Just sitting at my desk, checking casting calls on the web, I come across the strangest requests.

Here some of the most weirdest casting calls I found lately ;)

• Actresses accepting to shoot naked. They will pretend to sleep & let someone move their arms, legs & heads in different positions, without waking up. 

• An actress accepting to be deformed by plastic surgery operations (fake boobs, etc...). Honestly???!!

• Extras who would accept to bathe in the Seine. Not in a clear, fresh mountains river... in the Seine! To be clear, the river running through Paris, a quite polluted place. Ah yes, and without being paid of course. Well, not that by being paid, I would accept to happily splash in the Seine.

• An actress to play a girl who accepts to sexually obey to a stranger. Of course, du to the movie's subject, there will be explicitly pornographic scenes.

• And, same kind than above, actresses willing to try some extreme situations shooting, e.g. naked scenes, sexual acts simulation...

Well, all that doesn't make one want to be an actress, does it? 

Best breakfast in Prague: Café Savoy

We had high hopes for our last morning in Prague. 

When we failed to visit the Jewish neighborhood on Saturday, we had planned to go back on Sunday morning. 

This was before going out to dance the night before & wake up later than planned & completely out of phase.

Oblivious of all the cultural visits, the only thing that could make us to go out was the idea of a huge, fat brunch. 

Possibly in a beautiful place.

Which we found in Café Savoy, probably one of the best places for breakfast & brunch :)

The place itself is wonderful, it's like being back in the 19th century. All in wood, the interior is dominated by a magnificent Neo-Renaissance ceiling dating back to 1893. 

Waiters wear black & white suits & there's a very nice clientele.

There are several brunch menus or you can compose your breakfast yourself, choosing from a varied selection of mouth-watering pastries, different styles eggs & hot beverages.

We went for the French breakfast & I also planned to have an additional dessert after the breakfast, as pastries were too good looking & I was very hungry - obviously, I couldn't.

I could not even finish my breakfast. But honestly it was so huge. Look  for yourself!

First you have the best latte I ever had, orange juice & a croissant.

It even deserves a close-up!

Followed by a salty plate with eggs, sausages, cheese, meat, french fries & a selection of breads.

And French toast. The only thing is that they serve the French toast at the same time than the rest, so by the time you finished your first dish, the French toast is cold...

We spent the morning there relaxing, eating & chatting until it was time to leave to go back home.

I highly recommend a visit to Cafe Savoy while in Prague, it really is a beautiful place.

But as all beautiful places, is often full. I suggest to book in advance (which we didn't, but we've been very lucky to have a table. Most of the people who arrived after us couldn't have one).

We walked along the river to go back to the hotel to take our luggages & go to the airport, enjoying some last views of this beautiful city. 

Thanks Prague for the beautiful time for our first, but not last, cousins week-end! :)

A night out in Prague

As you know, due to the noise, we were obliged to switch to another hotel while in Prague.

Not a big issue, the manager kindly found a new place for us, the only problem being that with this change & the new hotel being a bit less centrally located, we were quite late for dinner ;p

We had a list of local restaurants given to Elena by one of her colleagues, but checking them on internet, we realized that most of them were closing at around 10pm... 

We searched a place on Tripadvisor then and a bit disappointed - it's always better to follow suggestion by locals - chose this place called Kotleta. & I must say it was a really good pick! :)

Food was really good & they have many local specialities, waiters were really kind, the place is simple & nice & it's open late! 

We shared a goulash soup for entré which was really delicious! Ok, I must say it was the first time in my life I had goulash so I cannot really compare, but Elena said it was one of the best she's ever had! 

We then had one of the dishes of the day, salmon with asparagus. They had an asparagus-based special menu, as it was asparagus season, even one of the dessert was made with asparagus!

& a more classical chicken schnitzel. 

All washed out by beer - obviously ;)

After dinner, we stroll the Old Town to head to Karlovy Lazne, apparently the biggest club in Europe!

I was expecting a place too crowded with ugly people, with no space to dance & smelling sweat... 

& when we arrived at the club and I saw people queuing in front of the door, my expectations didn't get any better...

But I was happily wrong! ;)

First thing the queue moves really fast & while waiting, you can enjoy a nice view over the river & the castle at night.

Once inside, yep there are a lot of people, but the place is so big that it's actually not a problem :)

There are 5 floors, each with a different ambiance: radio hits on the first floor, dance music on the second one, old songs on the 3rd floor, RnB on the 4th one & lounge on the last one.

We obviously danced on each floor 

before stopping at the old songs one, spending all night dancing on Michael Jackson, Grease, Take That (!!!), Britney Spears, songs from the '80... #superfun!

& drinking some more beer... #wheninPrague ;)

& chatting with people that kept on asking what I was studying at university. Imagine their faces if I had answered "Hmm, actually I finished college like 10 years ago", which I obviously didn't say! Ahah! (Omg - 10 years!!!!!!:s)

Anyway, we ended up happily dancing until sunrise, which made the hotel change totally useless, as we came back after the club's closing... but honestly who would have thought the the biggest club in Europe was that fun? ;)

Prague: swans, Charles bridge & the Dancing house

Let's continue our walk through Prague, shall we?

From the Old Town square, we crossed the river, to go to one of major Prague attraction, Charles bridge.

Although heading there we stopped at an attraction I found even better: a tiny beach packed with beautiful swans.

We sat there in the sun for a while, observing the swans & ducks...

The children playing with them...

And one girl wearing a wedding dress... ?

We continued to the imposing Charles bridge & crossed it, to go back to the Old town.

The bridge is beautiful, there is a tower on each side of it and baroque statues all the long. 

The view over the river & the city from the bridge is equally beautiful. 

Artists, dancers, musicians & souvenirs sellers line up both side of the bridge.   

Nevertheless I felt, as often in Prague, that the place was really too crowded to fully enjoy it.

Anyway, it's time for an afternoon snack. 
Since we arrived in Prague, we saw people eating a cinnamon rolls stuffed with chocolate, ice cream, fruits, whipped cream... The trdelnik - nope I can't pronounce the word neither..

We compared a couple of stalls, choosing the one that looked nicer and ordered 2 chocolate cinnamon rolls. It's really the perfect afternoon snack, when in Prague :)

Eating our roll, we followed the river to the Dancing House.

Everywhere we looked, people were enjoying the warm sunset on the river banks or on little boats.

We were particularly tempted by these big balloons to walk on the water. 

Before I started to worry that once inside, I wouldn't have enough air to breathe...

Anyway, we were supposed to be at 7pm at our hotel so that the concierge could walk us to our new hotel, so we didn't really have the time to walk on the water...

We continued our stroll then, looking at the beautiful buildings...

until we arrived at the Dancing House.

Also known as Fred & Ginger (from Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers), the Dancing house is a building remembering a pair of dancers, designed by the Croatian-Czech architect Vlado Milunic & the Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry. 

A charming & funny place :)

The afternoon coming to its end, we went back to our hotel to prepare ourselves for the our last night in Prague - do you know that in Prague there is the biggest club in Europe? But this is tomorrow story ;)