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Being a vegetarian in France is always a challenge - but at Le Grenier de Notre Dame, within a lentil's spitting distance from the Left Bank (18 Rue de la Bucherie, ironically enough), veggies will find on the menu not just edible, but interesting.
I enjoyed an Algerian dish - and the point is that you still get the experience and joy of a good French restaurant, without the endless array of meat. Yum!
Pascal le Glacier specialises in some of the most luxurious ice creams in the city.
The secret of this family run business is its superb ingredients and a long tradition.
The ice creams come in a mind-boggling array of more than 50 flavours - with more flavours on the way apparently.
Rhubarb, white peach and blood orange are among the crowd favourites. Evian water is used along with fresh fruits, which makes the ingredients sparkle. The beauty of this place is that you can enjoy the ice cream in the busy but never crowded - and always beautiful - Luxembourg Gardens, which is just around the corner.
Paris dining can be an intimidating experience: the city’s culinary supremacy can easily strike fear into the hungry gut of a simple étranger.
A welcome antidote to this is Au Rocher de Cancale. This friendly bistro, with its beautiful neo-Renaissance façade, dates back to 1846 – when the oyster market was at its peak.
Thankfully, the ambience has remained: it’s easy to imagine former diners such as Balzac settling in for a satisfying feast. The food is served with integrity rather than vanity – Brittany’s best oysters, roast salmon with basil sauce, and generous, fresh salads all designed around quality ingredients.
Splash out at the Effiel tower by having the set lunch at the Jules Verne restaurant.
You avoid the queues to get up the tower as they have a private lift. There is excellent food, brilliant views, and they'll let you out to go higher up the tower and let you back in so you use their exclusive lift to get back down.
Restaurant Georges, 6th floor Centre Pompidou is a great place to lounge on a warm Sunday afternoon.
Stay in the Hotel des Alpes, in a little corner just of the Place d'Italie. Walk down the Avenue de Choisy into Chinatown, or you might not even get that far.
There are tempting south-east Asian cafes along the avenue. One specialises in noodle soup in the style of Hue, the ancient capital of Central Vietnam.
Romantic brunch or pre-dinner cocktails at Le Fumoir just behind the Louvre! Artists, writers, couples - you'll see it all!
Place St Marthe in the 12th Arrondissement is a lively square with two great restaurants, surrounded by many little known artists' ateliers to browse through.
There is a great South American restaurant just off the Place too.
Head for the Cafe de la Paix for the best cafe in Paris, situated at place de l'Opera (boulevard des Capucines). It's great for food and has great views!
Go to the Parc Buttes-Chaumont, with some cheese, bread, wine.
You may be entertained by an acoustic guitarist or a man dressed as Jesus carrying a cross. Or just marvel at the waterfalls, cliffs, and the lake - it's amazing!
A wonderful building with a fabulous courtyard which has a history of the chair as a permanent exhibition (not as dull as it sounds) with a lot of Arne Jacobsen alongside Kaare Klint.
Oh, and it has the best museum cafe I have ever eaten in.
Bredgade 68
1260 København K
Phone 33 18 56 56
kunstindustrimuseet.dk
Highly recommended is Rasa (Malaysian) on Cuba Street. Take your own bottle of wine (BYO) for a cheap, but delicious dinner. Also, the Matterhorn where you can listen to local bands while eating delicious food and drinking cocktails. It's a funky place (but popular!).
Matterhorn:
www.matterhorn.co.nz/splash_flash.html
This lovely restaurant is an oasis of calm and quiet (Khajuraho's main street can get hectic!) where you can chill out after temple-gazing in a pretty courtyard with yummy food or watch the setting sun over a lake from the roof terrace.
At dusk thousands of chirruping green parrots fill the sky, pull up a chair and be amazed. Lovely owners Charlie and Sanjay also have a very good guesthouse, and are sweet and helpful hosts. I can't recommend this place enough!
Next to the Archaeological museum (cross the little square on the corner) corner of main road and jain temples road
The best burgers in the world - we found the counter down a back alley, and were shocked to be given homemade aoli with our chips! Not the food we were used to as backpackers.
So good there is even a Facebook group devoted to it.
Queenstown
Delicious real Fijian food in the heart of Suva in an old colonial cottage. The prices are very reasonable.
47-49 Carnavon St, Suva
Phone 331 2134
Gisborne is on the east coast of the North Island and is a place few tourists venture to. I love it because the coastline is so beautiful.
Ignore the main beach in town. Instead head north through the township and stop at Wainui beach or go over the hill to Makarori (where the surfers go).
Both beaches are beautiful and are sandfly-free (really!). There are some fantastic restaurants in Gisborne, and one of the best bookshops in NZ (Muirs). The whole East Cape is beautiful, and worth a visit if you have the time.
Travelling through Central Otago in summer, especially around Cromwell, Queenstown, and Roxburgh, there are plenty of opportunities to stop and buy fruit.
Browse through the boxes and search out succulent apricots, peaches, nectarines, raspberries, gooseberries, apples or plums to refresh your journey. It's worthwhile buying a large chilly bin (cool box) for storage if you're driving.
Burger joint in Queenstown. The tagline goes that Ferg gives good burg. Well, he certainly does.
42 Shotover st, Tel: 03 441 1232
www.fergburger.com/
Some really good bars, especially the Alice May, and restaurants and the perfect place to set off and climb a glacier - save the carbon footprint by not using the chopper - it's much more satisfying to get to the top by your own power, helped of course by very good guides. Don't forget to buy the T-shirt.
A really good buzzing little town on the West coast of S.Island.
The best eggs benedict on Ponsonby Rd, cheap and set in rather odd surroundings at the Freeman's Bay end of the street. A great place to laugh at the Sunday Star Times of an afternoon. Flat whites are excellent too.
Ponsonby Road, Auckland
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