duck, chestnuts, and Bordeaux wine

Wishing you all an incredibly merry Christmas and a happy 2012. My confit de canard recipe coming up this week. Import from France, coupled with a fine Bordeaux wine, and for dessert, diples straight from Athens. Chestnuts straight from my farmer's market in front of my place in Maroussi. Also more photos to come from my weekend trip back to Athens where I had an apéritif for friends and a big fat Greek family dinner.

Health and peace and joy to you and your loved ones.

fonduing my way around Switzerland

Bonjour mes amis. Back in the land of blogging. Have been working very hard, and have had some exciting travels on the weekends. Pics to come from the 10,000 weddings I attended this summer.

Here's a picture from a Swiss cheese fondue from last night. Good friends and good wine (Geneva Chasselas to be exact). Nothing better. This little place is located in Geneva's Junction. Typically, the fondue comes in a specialized pot. This one comes in a big bread bowl.

Mykonos

I'd like to post food pictures from the greatest place on earth (soon).
More to come.

Guess who this is?

Dinner for anyone who figures out who the guy on the left is?

and yes, Lyon was....

legendary. Nothing like good wine, good food, and good friends in a Lyonnais bouchon.

i'm lame

So between organizing an international AIDS conference, and going to weddings, I have been lame in giving you all updates. 'The Cooking Odyssey' back in the US is being happily received by television audiences, the family is doing well, and to show you how busy I am, I haven't experimented with any recipes in over a month (perhaps two).

I did eat extremely well in Paris however two weekends ago when I went for a friend's wedding. Also, I'm convinced the epicentre of the universe is Le Marais (after my village).

Please do follow our work at the 6th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2011) - which begins in Rome, Italy this Sunday. Lot's of exciting work being presented on ARV-based interventions (i.e. PrEP), elimination of mother-to-child-transmission, and of course - HIV cure research.

Off to Lyon this evening. At last.

I have been talking about this since I was born. I'm off to the food capital of France tonight for the experience of a lifetime. Driving there with my mate Simon-Pier and staying at a friend's place. We will hit up a bouchon bistro in the old town I reckon. Bon weekend, mes amis. And tomorrow evening, dinner with the family across the pond.