Had a wonderful coffee catch-up with cousin out-law Charlotte today. I haven’t seen her in over 10 years and she’s now settled in New York with a family. Actually I think we only met and talked that once all that time ago but it was like catching up with an old friend – such a shame that we discovered her here when we’re just about to head home! However, great to know another semi-permanent here for when we come back!

Went out to dinner last night at a little cafe in one of the less-travelled streets of Soho that we’d spotted people sitting outside at a couple of nights before – Cafe Gitane. We had no idea what type of food they were offering, just that it looked cool, funky and cafe-ish.

And it was! Not sure what the equivalent in Wellington might be, maybe Lido, but it was definitely a coffee shop by day/restaurant by night with a simple Moroccan (we think) menu. The Mister had a lamb pot-pie and I had the most amazing couscous with a huge dollop of hummus on top.

We tried to remember all the ingredients in the couscous so that we could try making it at home – we like couscous but often wonder what to put in it – plus the hummus went really well with it. Our list got as far as:

• potato
• pinenuts
• sultanas
• egg plant
• coriander
• apricots
• sweet peppers (roasted & really finely chopped)
• red onion
  (basically a whole lot of sweet stuff that contrasted really well with the hummus)

Cafe Gitane, 242 Mott Street (between Houston St & Prince St), Nolita, New York