xich lo

Atelier Asian Tapas

Our friends have visitors from the big abroad, so we thought it´d be nice to go out for a meal and get to know their sister/sister in law. We´re huge fans of Mathallen (The Food Court) and it´s quite central, too, but for some reason we keep forgetting to go there lately. And since we´re trying to show Oslo from its best side, we booked a table at Atelier Asian Tapas, where they serve delicate Asian influenced dishes. With the same owners as Xich-Lo, a fantastic French-Vietnamese fusion restaurant in Oslo, one cannot expect anything less than exquisite taste and relaxed service. Atelier has high aspirations of becoming a regular meeting place and they have weekly events promoting Vietnamese food with a twist. It´s also the place you go to for a yummy lunch and a glass of Prosecco, especially on a Saturday afternoon.

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Mom´s visiting

Living abroad means seeing less of the ones we love. I meet with my family 1-3 times a year. This year I was in Romania for a week in February (when my father was mostly in the hospital for a minor intervention) and 2 days in June (we were in Belgrade for a friend´s wedding ), when I didn´t get to see my brother since he was working and we didn’t have time to travel all the way to Bucharest.

A couple of weeks ago I started feeling seriously homesick. I´m in the middle of a trial now and I´ll need a couple of weeks after that to do my accountancy and put my affairs in order, so it wasn´t the best time to travel. Besides, I didn´t feel like leaving V alone with Sammy for a week since the dog needs his walks and he´s a full-time job if you have him alone. Thus I decided to ask mom if she wanted to come visit. After persuading pops that he would make a wonderful nanny for my niece for a couple of days, I bought the tickets and started counting days. 😉 You see, mom is babysitting my two-year old niece while my brother and his wife are at work; you have to be three in order to be accepted at a regular kindergarten in Romania.

Friday was my day off so I woke up early with V in order to tidy up a bit and prepare the apartment for my mother´s arrival. 😉 I then worked for an hour, bought a nice bouquet of flowers and went to the airport to pick her up. She hasn´t travelled a lot on her own, my father usually leads on, so I didn´t want her to find this journey any more stressful than necessary. 😉 We found each other and, overwhelmed with joy, took the train back to Oslo, going straight home to unpack and unwind. She brought us wine, smoked ham and cheese (cascaval), baked eggplants (ready to turn into a salad by adding mayo and stuff), pretzels (my fave!) and some pufuleti (snacks made out of maize flour). I was so happy I started dancing the moment I put Aretha Franklin on the turntable. 😉

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My Oslo

It´s Sunday and I need a rest. We´re eating out with some friends later, but for now it´s just coffee, newspapers, good music and cuddling on the couch with Sam and Beo. It´s a sunny day and Oslo is at its best. It´s a really nice city to live in, especially in the summer. If you haven´t visited yet, you should put it on your list. I´ll make you an overview of the best places I know.

Restaurants

Olympen

skjerioslo.dittoslo.no

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