Photo by Sylvain Ageorges  

Fatima finds her home in Paris too small, compared to her mansion in Aleppo, Syria. Her patrons, however, adore the little cottage in the 15th arrondissement, because of its tiny patio where summer meals are so delightful. For Fatima is a fine cook.

A mother of seven who settled in France twenty-seven years ago, Fatima has opened a restaurant right outside the back door of her home.

Inas, one of her daughters, is head serving person; Momo, a son, supervises the kitchen staff. This is perfect for Fatima, who is ready to slow down and simply help out with the cooking when it strikes her fancy.

Her husband, who died young, was a chef, at the Iraqi embassy in Paris. “Our parents were born in Acre, a Palestinian town which is now part of Israel, and we grew up in Aleppo,” Inas points out, explaining the background on the 'Syrio-Palestinian cuisine' offered on the menu at Om’Zaki.

Photo by Sylvain Ageorges

Momo would say the recipes closely resemble Lebanese fare, though a spice or two might change. In any case, Momo’s dishes are tasty and colorful, and when you’re lucky enough to dine on the patio – you must be sure to reserve a table, because there are only 25 seats there – under the wisteria and grapes twining up the trellis, the baked kebbé, a delight made of spiced ground lamb with bulgur and pine nuts, served with a minty-cucumber-yogurt sauce, and the mouhalabieh, a dessert flan flavored with orange flower water and pistachios – the experience is practically sublime.

The patio is between the dining room and a red brick studio where one of Momo’s brother’s lives. Fatima’s house is right on the other side, and the restaurant kitchen closes up the other side. Fatima’s right – we wish she had a bigger patio!

Om'Zaki; 76 rue de la Procession; 15. arr.

Open from noon to 3 pm and 7:30-11 pm; closed Saturday at noon and Sunday (summer hours); closed Saturday at noon, Sunday, and Monday night (winter); outdoor dining when the weather permits.

Extract from the new French-English guidebook 'Paris Terrasses – Outdoor Dining in Paris', written by Simon Roger and published by Parigramme.
 

Photo by Sandrine Alouf

The air is discreetly laden with a haze of incense and tobacco smoke: welcome to a kingdom ruled by that stubborn vice. Though it is politically incorrect, the place is a favourite with many a dignitary from the Constitutional Council or Ministry of Culture, located nearby.

Beneath the 17th-century colonnaded mall at Palais-Royal, Rakel Van Kote, an Israeli woman of Afghan extraction, stocks snuffboxes, pipes, manicure kits, canes, umbrellas, and curiosities, all of them antique.

Photo by Sandrine Alouf

Her clientele, made up largely of collectors, includes Karl Lagerfeld and the great-grandson of Gustave Eiffel. The objects of their desire are arranged in stacks, sometimes precariously balanced one on top of the other, or overlapping in a charming puzzle of parts and pieces.

True, the shop is pocket-sized, but it is located in one of Paris's most strollable neighbourhoods. The renown of the proprietress is such that she often lends collectibles for use as movie props. For example, in the film Molière, Romain Duris puffs on a cigarette-holder straight from this boutique.

A L'Oriental; Arcades du Palais-Royal, 19-22, galerie de Chartres, 1. arr. Metro: Palais-Royal-Musée-du-Louvre
Open Monday - Saturday, 11 am-7 pm. Sundays by appointment

Extract from the French-English guide PARIS DECO, written by Edith Pauly and published at Parigramme.  

What do you do when your country is bankrupt and is in desperate need of foreign currency? Well, you rent out the buildings that house your foreign embassies. At least this is what North Korea has done with parts of its Berlin embassy, which has been turned into a hostel.

The Cityhostel Berlin opened on July 1. 2008 and has around 100 rooms covering two floors in the former embassy building.

The embassy was built in the 1970s on Glinka Strasse in the old East Berlin and consisted of two buildings. After the Cold War, staff numbers at the embassy were cut and now one of the buildings has been rented out and turned into the Cityhostel Berlin. The other building on the site still houses the North Korean embassy .

We hope that the money North Korea recieves from renting out its embassies will be spend on improving the miserable living conditions in North Korea, but we fear that the money will be converted into sustaining Kim Jong-Il’s repressive regime and the 'Dear Leader’s reputed exorbitant private consumption.

The history of the building and Cityhostel Berlin's location right next to the North Korean embassy will probably be attractive to many. Communist kitsch is a big thing in Berlin where the Ostalgie vibe has been going on for several years and in May 2007 the city got its first DDR design-hostel.

Author David Rich Momondo

Go further: Experience a night in the old East Berlin together with Erich Honecker and other former communist leaders at Ostel.

Find more hotels in Berlin here.

The Euro 2008 is well over and what could be a better treat for worn-out footballers and hung-over football fans (plus the rest of us) who need to regenerate body and soul than a wellness and spa-stay at the amazing Rogner-Bad Blumau hotel.

The hotel - that looks like a mixture between a hobbit-village and an old Arabic citadel - is nestled in the gently rolling hills of the Styrian hot springs region in South East Austria.

Rogner-Bad Blamau’s strong colors and asymmetrical shapes are drawn by the world famous Austrian architect and artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser who has designed every detail in the hotel.

The hotel is the pride of small village Bad Blamau, and not only is it amazing to look at, it is also the right place to be if you want to relax and recover.

Among other it offers different beauty treatments and medical services and it has its own holistic center called 'Findedich' (find yourself). Here you can get in contact with your inner self through different alternative treatments such as sound-therapy and Shiatsu massage.

There are different indoor and outdoor pools with water from two hot springs which according to Rogner-Bad Blumau brings vitality, heat and energy to the hotel! And of course the hotel's restaurant serves organic food.

Rogner-Bad Blumau is only a 40 minutes drive away from the airport in Graz and 90 minutes away from Vienna.

Author David Rich Momondo 

Find more hotels in Austria here. 

If you fancy cheap beer and table-tennis - then visit Dr. Pong in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg. At this ultra-popular bar you’ll probably spend most of the night with a table-tennis bat in one hand and a beer in the other.

Dr. Pong is situated in a trashy and run-down room with raw concrete walls and floors (on the website it looks a lot more polished than it actually is). The main attraction of the bar is placed in the centre of the room – a rather decayed table-tennis, which every night constitutes the battleground for competitive “round-the-table-games” between the arty and studenty crowd. Everybody can join in but remember - fair play is taken seriously!

The table-tennis goes on until the early hours and you can expect the bartenders and DJs to grab a bat and join in after they’ve closed down the bar.

Dr. Pong, Eberswalder Strasse 21, Prenzlauer Berg

Author David Rich Momondo