Often the biggest difficulty for people from different countries living in Australia is not getting dates. Australians are generally comfortable with inter-cultural relationships, but there are different customs that apply to different countries.

Dating etiquette

The famous laid-back attitude of Australians means they don’t tend to like to be over-affectionate in public. This is important, as they tend to go out in groups more than in couples. In fact, whether you’re dating Sydney or Melbourne singles, many relationships can start in group situations. The first ‘solo date’ may not happen for a while.

This type of group dating is often misinterpreted for matchmaking, but most of the time it’s just a simple way for singles to meet and maybe find someone they’re attracted to. The organiser often doesn’t have a particular potential couple in mind, and this can take the pressure off the event and allow everyone to have a good time irrespective of what might happen later.

Dating equality

Similarly, women are used to paying their own way. Stemming from group situations, where the bill is split, dating – even in the context of a relationship – is a lot less informal, and it’s often assumed both parties will contribute to the cost. This can seem ungentlemanly to people from different cultures, but it eases the pressure and can make a date – particularly an expensive one – a much more enjoyable experience.

Women in Australia are generally a lot more forward than they are in Britain and America. It’s not unusual for women to make the first move, invite a man out, or be the first one to express an interest.

Dating inspiration

There are many different activities and events that are ideal in both group and romantic situations, and most Australian cities offer plenty of opportunities for dating, so you shouldn’t be stuck for ideas. If you’re going to be with a group, a picnic, an excursion or even just some drinks in a bar can provide a relaxed environment.

For one-to-one dates, don’t discount outdoor activities – the weather back home may not be good enough, but in Australia an activity date can be a good way to focus on doing something together while having fun.

The key to dating in Australia is to not take it too seriously. It is not uncommon to joke around together and act a lot more relaxed than you might typically in other countries. This atmosphere can take some getting used to, but ultimately it can mean two people get to know each other better and have a much more honest beginning to their relationship.

As an American child growing up in East coast suburbs, Orlando, Florida was always magical and mythic Valhalla of fun and wonder. I remember realizing that Disney World was in the same city as Universal Studios, which I realized from watching Double Dare on Nickelodeon and hearing at the end of every episode that Marc Summers' slime-fest game show was taped in front of a live studio audience at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. At some point, I think it was while watching Carmen San Diego, I found out that Sea World was there as well. Wait a minute, I remember thinking as a small child who watched far too many game shows aimed at elementary school children, all of the best amusement parks/pieces of heaven are in the same city? What is this magical place? And, Mom and Dad, why have you not taken me there?

Over the years I've been to Orlando a few times, and of course it is a real city, not just the most expensive playground of all time. You can actually stay in Orlando Hotels and enjoy the city, instead of choosing some crazy expensive themed resort on Disney property.

It turns out that there are lots of other things to do in Orlando as well, besides the big three amusement parks. You can enjoy Orlando on a variety of budgets. There’s a place called Gatorland, which I remember being awesome and terrifying as a kid. There’s also Holy Land, which is a biblical themed amusement park. Any kind of theme park you want, you can find in Orlando.

La Porte de Indes in London is one of the finer Marble Arch restaurants. I took my girlfriend there recently, and we were startled by how quickly we had been transported from dreary winter London to the tropical coast of India, courtesy of one of, if not the best, London Indian restaurants. What makes this gourmet indian london option so different than the other London Indian restaurants? I'd say it's French – Indian fusion and tropical Indian decor.

When you enter, you notice there are Indian artifacts everywhere. God knows how many, because the place is expansive, with many rooms that comprise the main dining area, as well as many private dining rooms as well. You really do feel like you're a guest of some Indian Prince. When a hostess brings you to your table, you almost have to remind yourself that you are in the La Porte des Indes Restaurant, and not the La Porte Des Indes palace.

See what I mean?

 

 

We were brought to our table by the host, who was exceedingly gracious and told us about the decor. I tried to listen, but my brain was too busy processing the torrent of visual stimuli around me, so there was little grey matter left to devote to sounds. I did catch that La Porte Des Indes is a part of the famous Blue Elephant group, and that there is another La Porte Des Indes in Brussels.

 

 

 

We got some pre-dinner cocktails. This was my first time seeing star fruit as a garnish. Pictured below is the stirred, shaken, and tossed Tamarind Margarita with tequila, Grand Marnier, and tamarind.

 

 

I felt like I was drinking in Super Mario World. After eating the star, I was impervious to harm for thirty seconds. You can see the Kama Sutra made of black bodka, passion fruit, and cranberry pictured below.

 

 

Since we chose the "Menu Maison" the chef prepared a little bit of everything in a three course meal for £39 per head.

 

The appetizers came in a sort of tapas style. There was a lot of food. We did not regret it.

 

Pictured below are:

• Parsee Fish: Fillets of sole encased in a mint and coriander chutney and lightly steamed in banana leaves.
• Demoiselles de Pondicherry: Large juicy grilled king scallops with a hint of garlic in a mild saffron sauce.
• Murgh Malai Kebab: Chicken tikkas marinated with cream cheese, mace and fresh green peppercorns, grilled in the tandoor.
• Chard Pakoras: Crunchy green and red chard and water chestnut pakoras with Bengal gramflour, green chillies, coriander, turmeric and caraway seeds.

 

 

We also ordered Naan that came piping hot.

 

 

The Parsee fish blew my mind. Les Porte des Indes menu is Indian, but it's representative of a French Colony in India, a place where French and Creole cooking have been marinating in Indian flavors for generations.

 

 

We went all out with the tasting menu. Look at this amount of food. We even had red and white wine on the table so we could experience all possible pairings and flavors available to us. I have to note that we ordered the food mild. Unlike most restaurants, Les Portes Des Indes followed through on our request.

• Barra Lamb Chops: Best end of British lamb marinated with caramelised onions and garam masala, served with mint chutney.
• Poulet Rouge: Chicken marinated in yoghurt and red spices, grilled and served in a creamy sauce.
• Crevettes Assadh: Prawns simmered in a mild coconut curry with green mangoes, turmeric, chillies and ginger.
• Saag Paneer: A traditional dish of leaf spinach and cottage cheese sautéed in butter with green chillies and ginger.
• Rougail D' Aubergine: A speciality of smoked crushed aubergine, chilli, ginger and green lime from Pondicherry.

 

 

You are looking at a very happy man. The waiters you see behind me could not have been cooler, by the way.

 

 

My girlfriend may have actually liked this food more than Colombian Empanadas. Don't tell anyone. You can see her wiping away the delicouous mess the sweet naan bread left on her hands were the warm, moist towels brought to us after we finished the main courses. I also stopped off at the bathroomat this point. The photos of celebrities like Will Smith or Morgan Freeman posing in this very restaurant reconfirmed that I was dining in the right spot. Not that they are culinary critics, but I am sure their Assistant's know the best places. Apparently Justin Bieber ate here last week too.

 

 

Then dessert. No, this wasn't the dessert tray. This was dessert. We got all of this. From chocolate cake to a lassi yogurt influenced dish we really stuffed outselves.

 

 

We may or may not have fought over this. This was right before I stole the Mango dish from her.

 

And then Chai tea to finish it off.

If you love Indian food, and you are in London, try to find your way to La Porte des Indes. It's really something else. As far as gourmet London Indian Restaurant reviews go, this is my last one. I can't imagine finding a better, more extravagant, London Indian Restaurant than this.

Where to find it?

Prices:	$$$$
Hours:	Mon-Thu  12–3pm, 7–11pm Fri-Sat  12–2:30pm, 7–11:30pm Sun  7–11:30pm
Closest Tube:	Marble Arch

32 Bryanston St, London W1H 7EG, United Kingdom

+44 20 7224 0055

I really like whiskey. I like the taste of it, but I also like the associations that go with it, the masculinity and ruggedness of the drink. When cowboys saunter in a saloon and throw a gold piece on the bar, you know the barkeep is getting out a bottle of whiskey. I like the smoky flavor, which makes me think of sitting in a bar somewhere that stills allows people to rip cigarettes inside, and blues from an old jukebox finding its way through hazy, stagnant smoke to a man quietly sipping on some whiskey, thinking about some lost love. When I drink it, I like to imagine myself as some famous writer, whiskey in a glass with an ice cube sitting next to a type writer, ripping sheets of paper from the typewriter in frustration, and throwing them into a hotel trash can.

I like the mythology, the ambiance, the kind of associations with the underdog fighting the world, dirt on his boots and dangerous ideas in his skull, that come with whiskey. These associations, however, are all kind of cheap. Whiskey, to me, always glorifies the have-not. That will no longer be the case for me after taking a Whiskey Master Class at the Capital Hotel in London. Now I've got a whole new batch of associations with whiskey, and they have a lot more to do with elegance, sophistication, and crazy good food then they do a brooding hero in some Hemingway story or Mad Men episode. 

I went to the Capital Hotel in London, which is in Knightsbridge, close to Harrod's, and immediately was hit with the realization "oh, this is what a five star hotel looks like."  I'm not used to such elegance and swankiness, and since I'm not Ron Burgundy, I didn't know how to handle the smell of rich mahogany. I told some absurdly polite, well-dressed, and attractive person I was here for the Whiskey Master Class and was directed downstairs to the restaurant and bar.

I assumed there were whiskey experts, but I didn't know how regulated and strict the title of expert was. Wine has sommeliers, which have to pass some real rigorous training before they can officially use the term. True whiskey experts are known by the awesomely medieval moniker "Keepers of the Quaich."  This guy in the picture below, Cesar Da Silva, was one of them. He was Portuguese and to say he knew he was stuff would be to insult him. He didn't know his stuff, he owned his stuff.  

But before we even got to drinking the whiskey and eating the food pairings, we were served a new cocktail that the our expert had created after what sounded like weeks of tinkering. It's a whiskey cocktail called The Glentini. The primary ingredient is delicious 18 year old Glenlivet Scotch (which in the UK is just whiskey, as far as I can tell. If you want Bourbon you have to ask for Bourbon). But listen to the rest of the stuff in it: rose wine jelly, Krupnik honey liqueur, vodka liqueur (yes, apparently they made a liqueur out of vodka, which I don't really understand), grapefruit juice, and orange oil, which is oil extracted from orange peels.

It was sweet and smooth and had just the perfect Scotch finish. I'm getting misty just thinking about it. Look at her, all dressed up for the ball.

I'd also like to direct your attention to the toothpicks. They were the nicest toothpicks I've ever seen. I imagined some carpenter handcrafting each one.

Cesar greeted us, introduced himself, (he was the youngest guy to be awarded membership to some prestigious Scottish whiskey organization) and then he started talking about whiskey.

His enthusiasm was infectious. He made it clear that he only thinks about whiskey from when he wakes up in the morning till when he goes to sleep at night, constantly looking at the world around him for new combinations of flavors. Each bottle pictured below is ordered by price. Some bottles cost up to 800 pounds.

This was a serious whiskey selection. There were a good amount of us in the class, and he expertly poured drinks for all of us. In whiskey and wine glasses, I'll have you notice. Later I learned that every whiskey was served in slightly different glass, each chosen to compliment the strengths of each individual whiskey.

After our cocktails we all sat down. This fantastic book and three glasses, so promising in their emptiness, were in front of me. I quickly realized there were serious whiskey and food writers in my class. There was also a woman who strangely kept comparing everything to wine. I would describe her as "medium bodied, with hints of self-importance, strong tannins, and a pretentious finish."

After some basic whiskey history, as well as a bit of an education on all the major kinds, we received our first course, accompanied by three kinds of whiskey and some distilled water to add to each glass, and more water for cleansing the palate.

Here we have some poached salmon, some smoked salmon, and a crisp, green salad. The whiskeys were a ten year Benromach, Ardbeg Uigeadail, and another you will just need to try when you sign up. They were both fantastic. I had no idea whiskey could be so smooth. And the food was really, really good, which is to be expected when it is made in a Michelin award winning kitchen.

Our second course was a cheese plate, and of course, more fantastic whiskey.

Each whiskey was paired with a cheese. There was a Springbank whiskey with the Fourme D'Ambert, the Kilchoman Vintage 2006 with Livarot, and the Macallan 18 year with some Beaufort. Also, there were grapes and celery. Classy. At some point the hotel's Marketing Director came in and told us that if we needed anything at all, she would get it for us. She also reminded us that if we drank too much whiskey we could spend the night at the hotel, which left us all laughing, and me wondering just how much that would cost. I looked later. Let's just say it would have been cost prohibitive for yours truly.

Finally, we had dessert in the form of a decadent chocolate lava cake and a sweet whiskey dessert cocktail.

Afterward, the Executive Head Chef Jérôme Ponchelle came out and introduced himself, said a few words about the food, and answered some questions. Then the Quaich Keeper (not sure if that’s how you use the term, but it just sounds so awesome I can’t help myself) answered more questions. I can't even begin to tell you how cool the staff was.

The class was supposed to be an hour and a half, but it stretched close to two and a half hours because of the many questions our group asked, and the Keeper patiently answered. We had coffee and tea as he described his strategies for picking whiskeys for the bar, and he gave tips on how to create a truly great collection of whiskey. The way he described tastes, I could tell he had some sort of superhuman palate. He showed us the bottles of everything he had given us, which ranged in price from eight to eighty pounds.

We even got party favor bags at the end, which contained samples of whiskey and a tiny jar of mysterious rose wine jam.

I can't recommend this class enough. You can do it in a big private group or sign up to be part of a bigger class. It's really something else. And as much as I still love drinking my Jack Daniels out of a dirty glass while listening to Townes Van Zandt, I'll never be able to do it quite the same way again.

Contact:

I remember when I was a kid my parents got a timeshare. It was on the northeast coast of America, at a pretty little resort with an Indian name that looked over the water and had an amazing golf course. I was real young when they got it, but I remember my siblings and I had a great time playing in the pool, and by the water while my parents got a chance to relax.

Then things changed. First of all, my sisters grew older and never wanted to go hang out with the family anymore. Then we suddenly stopped being able to get prime summer time slots; we started going in October, sometimes even later.  I have memories of my Dad and I trying to play Golf on frozen ground while wearing gloves and wool hats. (Hey, at least we had the course to ourselves.) Eventually we stopped going altogether. Recently, I asked Dad about that timeshare.

He told me we stopped using it because us kids grew older and we couldn’t get good timeslots. He also said the rates and maintenance fees kept going up and it was nearly impossible to get out of the contract.

"We tried to sell it. We tried to get out of it. Nothing worked. That thing just bled us for years."

I was thinking about this when I came across Transfer America, a company that specializes in getting people out of timeshare agreements. In fact, that’s all they do. They get you out of time shares so you don’t get bled dry from something you never use. I wish Transfer America had been around when my Dad was trying to get rid of his timeshare. Maybe I would’ve got better birthday presents if my parents weren’t throwing money away on timeshares.