Tag Archives: dinner

Jul29

Christmas in Slovenia – Christmas dinner

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Christmas 2025 saw us on an Adventure – Andrea’s friend was working at a 3-star Michelin restaurant in Slovenia, Hiša Franko, and we had the opportunity to join her for a dinner and some adventuring. We jumped at the chance, hopping a flight into Northern Italy before the drive out into Slovenia itself… with a few exciting adventures along the way.


Wednesday, 24-December-2025

One of the exceptionally cool parts about dating someone from another culture is getting to experience that culture first-hand, the day-to-day little bits that you wouldn’t really get from a book, or from a few hours of talking with a person.

On the other hand – Christmas dinner!

Bulgarian Christmas dinners are definitely something that I could technically learn about online, or in a book… but let’s be very real here – experiencing them firsthand is MUCH better. Especially when there’s two incredible (one heavily award-decorated) chefs cooking it up!

Now, let’s see what we have on the menu…
– Cermi – Cabbage leaves, stuffed with rice and herbs.
– Pitka – Fancy Christmas bread, wrapped in string, with a coin and a dogwood twig in it for us to find for good luck! A coin for wealth, and a sprig for health!
– Tikvenik – Banitsa, but with pumpkin and nuts.
– Fermented cabbage salad – exactly as it sounds.
– Ochaf – A dried fruit salad, served cooled in a delicious fruit juice as a dessert.
– An adorable puppy named Oreha (walnut) who was a little bit barky, but a lot bit adorable!

May26

An anniversary of a personal sort

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Monday, 13-October-2025

My last post was a one-year anniversary of my D&D group… this post is similar, but of a slightly more personal aspect – Andrea and I celebrated one full year together!

I can’t believe it’s already been a full 12-months… a full year of joy, of learning, of exploring and working together. Challenges and successes, deep conversations and amazing meals. I can’t overstate just how amazing my partner is, and how thankful I am to have met her.

I can try to celebrate it, though – and celebrate that anniversary we did! A lovely dinner at a nearby French restaurant, followed by cocktails at a nearby speakeasy, hidden in Temple Bar. Not nearly enough to celebrate the amazing woman sitting across from me, and what we’ve built together… but it was a start.

And we’ve got a lifetime to continue celebrating.

May18

An opening of a fancy restaurant… and a quick tale of identity theft

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Thursday, 25-Sept-2025


Dublin had a new restaurant! A new branch of the famous steak and fries spot called Entrecote, and one that Andrea and I were excited to check out. She’d heard about it’s grand opening, and we got in line early to make sure we were some of the first to test it out – since it was one of those cool restaurants that doesn’t take reservations.

We waited for an age or two, then got seated. Lovely interior, friendly staff (if a bit harried), and excited looking patrons.

Then the food… Very pretty! And the fries were absolutely excellent! The steak… well, I like cooking steak, and I tend to find steakhouses don’t quite match up to my ability to cook it exactly as I like. Entrecote Dublin was no exception, unfortunately. The sauce was interesting too – brown, similar to my own flambe sauce, instead of the traditional entrecote green… but still, not a bad fare. Especially for the reasonable price.

We ate, we had wine, and we headed home full. Simple and normal, nothing else to be said, right?

Wrong.

A few days later, we learned an interesting fact – Entrecote Dublin, marketed as a new branch of the famous Entrecote brand, wasn’t associated with said brand. They hadn’t even heard of this new restaurant, in fact, and were actively pursuing information. All the news agencies that had advocated for this new restaurant were, unsurprisingly, silent.

One group dug a bit deeper, finding out that the Dublin restaurant was effectively just a rip-off. They published a story… but not before the new restaurant had “closed for remodeling”.