There are some occasions where it’s always nice to give favours or little gifts to guests. Weddings are one where they are almost expected and they can range from anything from Fauchon chocolate purses to a more modest favour of a homemade bookmark. They’re meant as a little thankyou for guests but often they can take on a life of their own. I know, because I spent hours scouring the stores for the item that I felt that guests would want.

For our wedding we gave our guests heart shaped tea infuser favours and for my kitchen tea, I gave out little stacks of home made macarons. This was all Before Blog so I’m afraid I didn’t capture any photos of these although I do remember they were chocolate and strawberry flavoured. Other occasions where I’ve been given favours are baby’s birthdays or christenings. The only dilemma in doing this rather thoughtful gesture is that it adds on another thing for the hostess to make. A situation encountered by a friend of mine recently. She had a baby and she was tearing her hair out about what to give people. She wanted something cute but also something handmade and most importantly, something that was easy.

The heart shaped tea infuser that we gave to guests. Pic from StyleHive

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Last year I went to a launch party for Russian Standard held by a Russian Billionaire. Now please understand that I don’t start off every post with a line like this and billionaires aren’t my usual folk. It was held at one of the most expensive places to hold a function (on the North side of the Sydney Opera House under a huge marquee). Models in fluffy white hats slinked past and hors d’oeuvres laden with caviar and sashimi wafted past in lavish amounts. At about 9pm the Russian billionaire arrived and left a few hours later citing an early breakfast with Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch as the reason for not staying out later.

I wondered to myself, how do they know each other? Do billionaires join a secret billionaire club and was rule No.1 “Please photocopy all bank statements and post them to us for verification”? And sure he may know Rupert but how does he know the kids and most importantly… what did they serve for breakfast? Caviar may seem a little extreme for an Australian breakfast (and he probably bathes in the stuff) but toast with jam or cornflakes seems like you haven’t quite made an effort for your international guest.

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Dear Reader, allow me to share with you a little fact that you may not have known about Austrians. Austrians were known as Bull Washers (or Stierwaschers). The story goes that apparently in 1525, the castle was besieged and they needed to pretend to the outside world that they had plenty of food. They only had one bull and to make it look like they had plenty to eat with lots of bulls they painted their one bull different colours to throw potential invaders off the scent. Of course what happens after they painted the bull is that they had to wash it hence the term Bull Washers. And did you know that the owner of the Red Bull energy drink company is an entrepreneur from Austria called Dietrich Mateschitz?

Carpe Diem

One of his investments is a bar and restaurant called Carpe Diem opened in August 2005. In the downstairs bar you can have cocktails and food served in cones – what they call fast finger food with a difference. The concept was to have food that people could eat quickly and easily (hence I suppose Carpe Diem or “seize the day”) so that it was fast food but not sacrificing their health (although it must be said there’s some sense of irony as the bar is rather smoke filled). Tonight we are indulging in a rather exciting progressive dinner: our entrees, mains and desserts will be at different restaurants across Salzburg that are all within walking distance. We walk into Carpe Diem and it looks stunning, clearly there has been a pretty penny spent on outfitting it. Patrons are young and in front of them sit cocktails and cones. The menu is divided into vegetarian, fish and meat and there are non cone like selections as well. And please forgive the photos, the restaurants were rather dark!

Char with creamy spinach and truffle foam served in a curry cone E6.50

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