So I’ve just spent the last 2 weeks on the gloriously beautiful Greek island of Kefalonia (or Kefallinia or Kefallonia OR Cephalonia- who knows!!! Either way it’s gorgeous!). This is the third year in a row that this Ioanian paradise has drawn me back and having eaten my way around most of the island now, I thought it would be a good idea to share what I think are The Best Restaurants in Kefalonia.  

Set at the far end of Sami harbour-front, The Mermaid serves up fantastic, traditional homemade fare from the kitchen of matriarch Mama Toula. It is a family-run restaurant and you can’t go wrong ordering anything from the sections that say that Mama Toula has created it. From melt-in-the-mouth mousaka to slow-cooked kleftiko, our entire family of 8 were happy with everything we ordered here! Also, there is great people watching on the yachts moored in front of you and the staff couldn’t be more lovely! A firm family-favourite in Kefalonia!

Find it: The Mermaid, Sami, Kefalonia, Greece, +30 2674 022202

The Old Village is a traditional taverna on the main street of Skala where I had, hands-down, the best Kefalonian meat pie on the island. Served in a clay pot with light and crispy filo pastry, this meat pie makes me so happy that I make a special lunchtime trip to Skala every time I’m on the island. There are also many other traditional dishes on offer from their extensive menu which can be enjoyed in the pretty bougainvillaea bordered garden. The staff are friendly and the food is good value. Your meal is also rounded off with a shot of local digestif served in a mini jam jar- what more could you ask for?!!

Find it: The Old Village, Skala, Kefalonia, Greece, +30 697 468 3600

Sea Rock WS serves up a creative culinary twist on traditional Kefalonian recipes as well as their own creations.

Lithero is tucked up in the far north end of Lourdas beach and serves some of the best fish and seafood on the island. I tried octopus here for the first time as it cost far less than anywhere else I had seen and it was so good! Grilled to perfection and with a smoky taste, I was so glad that I’d chosen it! Don’t expect anything fancy- this is certainly a no-frills kind of place. But, when you can sit and watch the sea, have 4 beers, 3 starters and 4 delicious fish/seafood main meals and it cost you less than €50, you know you will be coming back!

Find it: Lithero, Lourdas, Kefalonia, Greece, +30 2671 031023

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I’ve just spent a week in Shanghai and it was my first visit back to China after studying there 7 years ago…  

A lot has changed and the city feels even more cosmopolitan – the coffee on offer has drastically improved and you can track down whichever cuisine your stomach desires in any number of the fancy new restaurants that have sprung up around the city!  HOWEVER, my main mission for my week in Shanghai was not to eat Italian or American diner food (because, you know, I was in China!); it was to eat all of my favourite traditional Chinese dishes and hope that it wasn’t going to cost me a fortune!

I am very lucky in that I speak passable Mandarin Chinese and so it is easier for me to search out and eat tasty, cheap, authentic Chinese food.  I am aware though, that this is not the case for most foreigners visiting China, and so I thought I should share my hard earned knowledge by writing a guide on ‘How to eat like a local in Shanghai’!

Firstly, I must say that this is not a definitive guide to the Shanghai food scene, but it does include all of the details of where I ate and my recommendations of what to order and how to order it in Mandarin!

My boyfriend and I stayed in Xintiandi which is famed for its giant air-conditioned shopping malls filled with Gucci and Cartier shops. You can easily eat a meal here that would cost you over £100 for 2 people!  Luckily though, when we went on a midnight wander on our first night we came across the junction at Jianguo Dong Lu and Shun Chang Lu.  Here we found a street full of busy little restaurants serving everything from noodles to hot pot to barbecue and everything in between!  Also good to know is that all of the restaurants are still open at 4am!

This place very quickly became our local. A steamy, slightly smoky, hot pot （火锅 huŏ guō) and barbecue（烧烤 shāo kăo) restaurant inside, they happily put up a table outside for us every night and our first bottles of beer (啤酒 pí jiŭ) would appear without us asking for them! It is a family run joint with a fabulous matriarch who rules the roost. We ate here 3 nights in a row and mostly had a few barbecue sticks as a snack, but one night we had the hotpot.

To order the barbecue, you need to fill in a form and tick how many of each type of stick you want.  It is very much a match-up game as it’s all in Chinese, but here are my suggestions for what you should get and I’ve highlighted them on the picture below:

Our next favourite place on the street was opposite 老北京 Lăo bĕijīng. Alas, as we only ever took pictures at night, the neon sign characters aren’t very clear so all I know is that the name starts with 红西 hóng xī and the whole of the signage is red (see picture below for reference).

This place was fantastic for getting authentic Chinese home-cooked meals.  You can get varying choices of fried noodles  炒面 chăo miàn and could then basically pick and choose from all of the ingredients that are laid out on the tables.  They had everything from king prawns to eggs to tofu (just point!).  However, I was craving proper Chinese Kung Pao Chicken 宫保鸡丁gōngbăo jīdīng on my final night and I couldn’t see it on the menu, so I just asked and they made it for me!  I highly recommend asking for this as it is so tasty and I have not found it made authentically outside of China.  It is diced chicken cubes with dry red chilli, peanuts and garlic – heaven!  Order it with a bowl of rice 一碗米饭 yīwăn mĭfàn.

These pot sticker dumplings are filled with pork and scallions and were only 7元 portion- bargain!  They are probably one of the cheapest snacks you can get in the French Concession area and their crispy goodness has been recognised by the Chinese government who have awarded them a certificate for making ‘Chinese Famous Snack’ 中华有名小吃 。 What other reason do you need to go try them?!

These flatbreads make the perfect on-the-go snack and it’s really cool to watch them being made!  They start life looking like dumplings before being smushed flat and stuck to the inside wall of a clay over.  3 minutes later they are taken out and have turned into crispy flatbreads stuffed with whichever filling you have chosen to enjoy!  Choose from meat and veggie options.  Be warned though, the scallion pancake has meat in it too!  Best bet for the veggie options are the Prune Cake and the Sesame Sweet Pancake.

Have you been to Shanghai?  Are you going?  Let me know what you think of my suggestions by leaving me a message below!  Happy travels!

First things first, I’ve got to say that normally I am an avid user of Airbnb and that it is my go-to platform when searching for accommodation abroad…

I love being able to stay in authentic local areas and previously my experiences in South America and Europe have been nothing but positive.

Firstly, about 3 days before arriving in China, my boyfriend and I received a message from our host saying that we would need to go with them to register within 24 hours of arriving.  They said it would only take 5-10 minutes and sent a map to show that it was only 200 metres away, so we thought, “no problem!”. 

Total time wasted: 1 hour

Having got in contact with our landlord, he came to meet us at our apartment on Wednesday morning at 12:00.  He brought a friend to help him translate as he didn’t speak much English.

Total time wasted: 1 hour

We met our landlord by himself on Thursday morning at the police station at 12:00.  He had brought us some fruit to apologise which was really sweet and we could see that this situation was stressing him out as much as it was stressing us out!

Total time wasted: 40 minutes

Our landlord had told us that it wasn’t necessary to check in to a hotel and that he could get the new documents.  At this point we contacted Airbnb support, not to complain, but just to find out whether we could get any nights that we didn’t stay in our apartment refunded in case we did have to move in to a hotel.

Have you experienced anything similar? Let me know in the comments below!