https://www.travelconnectiongroup.com/media-getaway/ Archives

Asia, Countries, Europe, Food & Wine

Water into wine in Israel

8th June 20238th June 2023 funtime65

For fear of poking the Almighty an old joke about changing water into wine in Israel.

Jesus at the Marriage Feast of Cana and he announces he will change H20 into vino when St Peter pipes up.

‘No, you don’t, you’ll buy your round like everybody else.’

The wine was certainly flowing at the Travel Connection Group’s Media Getaway in Leeds this week.

And wine was on our lips too as we talked The Promised Land with our Israeli friends.

Holy wine

A thought here the destination team around Israel then might have done with the likes of exhibitor Carla.

I mean ‘the home of vino’ would have been better than ‘the land of milk and honey.’

Because if you read the story of Jesus or listen to your preacher.

Or dwell on the centre point of the Catholic Mass, the transubstantiation, you’ll know how important booze is in Jesus’s life.

Because he’s still feeding the people, changing water into wine.

While at the back end of his life too he was using wine to promote his people, his life, at the Last Supper.

And so endeth the lesson and onto Carla’s message that the wine still flows freely at Eilat on the Red Sea.

Festival time

Of course, we know that all too well from the Jordan side of the Sea, from cruising and snorkelling on our memorable G Adventures trip.

And they’re quaffing too over there in Eilat.

Every Friday to be specific with a wine tasting… and what better way to celebrate the Sabbath.

And this means you don’t have to wait until the Wine Festival Batzir in the Autumn.

Across the wine regions of Israel, the Golan Heights, Galilee, Coastal Plain, Judea, Central Mountains and the Negev.

Jerusalem juice

Of course along with with everything else in Israel all palm-lined roads lead to Jerusalem.

And from August 20 with the four-day Jerusalem Wine Festival.

Be one of the 20,000 gathering to sample the hundreds of wines.

Again there are free wine tasting opportunities.

Along with a culinary oasis of stalls offering cheeses, chocolates, olive oils, exceptional sauces, and jams.

Wine water of life

With the party getting started every night with two different live music concerts.

We do expect a lot, too much, at times from our hosts when we traverse the world.

But they will do everything for you, short of changing water into wine in Israel.

Because there’s plenty enough of the grape to go around for everyone.

Countries, Food, UK

Leeds feeds my soul

7th June 20237th June 2023 funtime65

Four breakfasts and it’s not even noon yet… Leeds feeds my soul.

They say, of course, that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

But isn’t it always the case that we skip it and only really fill up when we’re away?

And so over these two days in Yorkshire’s jewel I’ve been making the most of The Queens Hotel buffet.

To kick me off for the days spent talking to exhibitors at Travel Connection Group’s Media Getaway

The big brekkie

It’s been one of the better breakfast spreads, no skin on scrambled eggs or fatty bacon.

And a refreshing alternative to OJ in rhubarb juice and not at all tart.

And a welcoming local greeting Ey-up when you arrive in the Basement breakfast room.

That playful dialect is in evidence again when we hit the bijou Owt eaterie in the Corn Exchange.

Grub crawl

As part of our Leeds Food Tours brunch grub crawl.

Where Esther dishes out the tasting plates shakshuka which had a surprising and clearing pesto overlay…

OK, no foodie me, I nicked those tasting notes from a culinary expert in the party.

Now for someone who just slaps a bagel into the toaster for brekkie I’m making the most of this.

And turning this pit-stop into a two-course first meal of the day.

Enjoying Esther’s French bread with orange zest with strawberries and a jus… get me, real Hairy Bikers.

The new Empire

Talking of which the two whiskered biker boys popped into our earlier establishment, the recently-opened The Empire Cafe.

Where we sampled the chick pea-infused desi breakfast, well when in Asian-inspired Leeds/Bradford.

Of course, owner Sam doesn’t forget the traditional food of his Geordie gran and we pack away the fired mini-bacon rolls.

Now Leeds is a melting pot of a Northern English city, fed by the peoples of the old British Empire who came to live and work here.

In with the brics

Others from others’ empires too with our last stop, a Tunisian local favourite Sweet Saeeda in the Kirkgate Market.

Where we are offered a chicken, tuna or veggie bric.

No chewing a bric gags please, this is a filo pastry with chicken, protein and egg.

And it is for the spicy, with the bric clearing out my blocked nose in double quick time.

In a right old Flix

All of which set me up for my five-hour FlixBus journey back to Edinburgh.

That the bus blew a gasket and we were held up in Sunderland, roughly halfway, gave us the chance to sample a Tyneside/Wearside staple.

Belt up: It’s going to be a long journey

Greggs, all courtesy of the German coach company, as recompense for our delay.

I just wish I’d taken some of Sam’s bacon rolls with me in a doggie back because for sure Leeds feeds my soul.

Countries, Europe, Food & Wine

World Championchips of French Fries

7th June 20237th June 2023 funtime65

They’re the planet’s most popular side food so it makes sense that there should be a World Championchips of French Fries.

Only it’s taken us until now to get the contest up and running, or more accurately the French have got it going.

There is, naturellement, so much to learn about French fries that we thought we knew, but didn’t.

Lords of the fries

Firstly, and you’d think this was obvious, they are French and not Belgian.

Because you might have been duped, as I’ve been, into thinking that they were created by their neighbours.

And that the Americans, who didn’t take the time to differentiate Belgian from French misnamed them.

Mais non! French fries are, in fact, made from vegetable oil, and Belgian fries from animal oil.

On such splits wars have been fought.

Thankfully we, the sensible ones, now settle our differences in the sporting or culinary field.

And so without further adieu a précis of the World Championchips.

Arise Arras

La Championnat du Monde de la Frite will be held for the first time on Saturday, 7 October in Arras’ Grand Place.

That’s Arras, near Lille in the north-east of France.

Notre amis in the Haute-de-France region of Gaul-land tell us that Arras holds a particularly hallowed place in l’histoire des pommes de terre.

As the birthplace of the 16th-century botanist Charles de l’Écluse who conducted one of the first studies on potatoes.

L’Écluse planted this little-known tuber from Peru in his own experimental garden, and so promoting it among great European Lords.

Well before Monsieur Pomme de Terre Antoine-Augustin Parmentier in the 18th century.

Get frying

Pre-selected contestants will face off in a number of different categories: family fries, authentic fries, creative fries.

While a category is reserved for catering professionals who will give chefs a chance to express their creativity and concoct the best sauce.

Professionals will also be able to display their best sauce.

And extending our knowledge from red and brown sauce… the Low Countries love their mayonnaise.

A jury of professionals and fries fans will give its verdict.

The public get to savour delicacies at the French fry stands installed for the occasion.

A semi-final will be held in the morning and a final in the afternoon.

European Region of Gastronomy

A ‘French Fry Village’ will also be open, where visitors can grab a bite to eat, meet local producers and take part in activities.

And what would a World Championchips be without the best local beers to wash it down with in what we learn is Artois country.

While we’re promised entertainment and concerts… we’re thinking some band called the Fry Fighters.

The first Championships will be sponsored by journalist, author and food critic François-Régis Gaudry.

The World Championchips of French Fries is expected to be one of the highlights of the European Region of Gastronomy 2023 calendar.

Be sure to pencil it in via your flight to Lille.

And all of this comes to you by dint of notre ami Marine from Atout France, all at the Media Getaway in Leeds.

MEET YOU ON LA RUE

Countries, UK

Can we FlixBus it – yes we can

5th June 20235th June 2023 funtime65

Can we FlixBus it – yes we can, the best budget, hassle-free way to travel through the UK and further afield through Europe.

I bring these musings to you today from a Flixbus en route from Edinburgh to Leeds.

Where I’ll be attending a Travel Connection Group Media Gateway international Travel fare.

We’re just passing by my house in North Berwick, East Lothian, and have been passed by a train, but who’s caring.

We left on time and the coach is comfy and quiet and cheap (from £29 return) compared to the extortionate Scotrail train (£145 return)

My in-tray

I’ve a tray in front of me, a plug point and legroom to stretch my legs in the aisle and there’s a loo on board.

My newly-acquired multi-zipped backpack from the recent American Travel Fair IPW in San Antonio, Texas sits under my feet.

Although equally there is overhead space to give you more room.

Only I wake up in a cold sweat at the thought of how I left my suitcase on the train on the first leg, NB to Edinburgh, en route to Texas.

Equally, if you are going further afield to London, or are returning home with all your washing, you can put your big luggage into the hold.

A trip down Memory Lane

Now, as with much in life, some things feel familiar but some have changed since first I took the bus south to England.

We had safety in numbers as a gang of four off camping in the French Riviera after our last year at school.

When my pals hooked up with some English lasses on board while I awkwardly slunk into my seat, comfy it was though and cheap.

My luck and my looks had improved as I moved through university.

Munich Beerfest blondes

And I had enchanted a golden-tressed Aussie in my much-storied Munich Beerfest tour.

There were buses involved there too, ours Top Deck and theirs Contiki with whom we held a good-natured rivalry.

The overgrown Aussie and Kiwi bunch that we were, and me an adopted Bushwhacker, we’d goad them.

With chants of Contiki take it up the arse, dooda… beer and schnapps had been taken.

But in matters of the heart I was more than happy to fraternise with the Contiki crew particularly a golden vision from Adelaide.

Kisses were exchanged and telephone numbers and addresses (pre-Internet) and I agreed to come down from Aberdeen and see her in London.

London calling

Alas, when I arrived off a 12-hour Stagecoach’s
overnighter and made the appointed time and place, Trafalgar Square, Diane was nowhere to be seen.

Or picking up her phone.

She was there at the pub that night where the Top Deck Beerfest trip reunion was being held.

With her Scottish boyfriend.

The penny fell, I had been her holiday fling and she obviously had a thing for hairy-arsed Jocks.

I stayed the night at the bar of one of my bus buddies in London.

And took in my first, and still, only Aussie Rules game, at The Oval.

Before embarking on the 12-hour overnighter back to Aberdeen.

The magic bus

Of course, this was not my first misadventure with the Fair Sex, nor would it be my last, not by a long chalk.

But when I eventually reached my destination, my English rose.

And it was well worth the earlier bumps and pitstops.

All of which reminisces and luggage I carry with me on life’s journey.

The latest of which is this five-hour bus ride into a new unknown.

Leeds, a city I know from sport and music and the Emmerdale farming soap but have yet to explore.

I’d like to report it’s been a good start thanks to this gem of a coach company.

Can we FlixBus it – yes we can.