| | | | | | |
FEEDSPORTAL Sat, 14 Jan 2012
Simply walking into the Delaunay makes you feel you've found the perfect restaurant. Sited on the corner of Aldwych and Drury Lane, it hums with elegance. The rubicund doorman tips his top hat, a startlingly pretty Roedean-head-girl takes your coat and you enter a wide, welcoming, marble-floored space. To your right, a vast bar is lit up like a cathedral high altar; to your left is a line of tables for posers, chatterers, couples nursing cocktails. Riding on castors is a glass-topped trolley full of teatime cakes – millefeuille, Black Forest gâteau, sachertorte – in case someone fancies a sugar rush at 9pm. Beyond the grey pillars, you make out the dark, indefinably sexy interior where the serious eating goes on. Mein Gott, you think, das ist wunderbar.
| | |
FEEDSPORTAL Fri, 13 Jan 2012
The dish that has been called "almost certainly the most widely eaten food on the planet" originated in Naples, though Neapolitans would be aghast at the pizza toppings such as chicken tikka, ham and pineapple, and chicken pesto that have taken root in this country. Back in the home of the pizza, people keep it simple. Most go for the Marinara, topped with tomatoes, garlic, oregano and olive oil (with the option of a few anchovy fillets) or the Margherita, topped with tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and olive oil.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
FEEDSPORTAL Sat, 10 Dec 2011
Pinot noir is on my mind, I'm pleased to say. In the past few weeks, I've tasted German pinot noir against the rest of the world, fine red Burgundy at a pre-sale tasting by the American auction house, Acker Merrall & Condit, Australian pinot noir against New Zealand, and, most recently, an 'emerging classics' tasting of Chilean pinot noir. That's quite a lot of pinot noir even if you love the thrill of great red Burgundy and its vinous acolytes, which fortunately I do.
| | | | | | | | | | | |
FEEDSPORTAL Sun, 04 Dec 2011
This time of year there's that strange mix of the excitement of festive events, meeting up with friends and having parties, but there's also the draw of cosy nights in by the fire. As the days get shorter, and I return home after it gets dark, I find I like to turn to tried-and-true comfort dishes. The thing is, though, many of those old-fashioned favourites are not quite as special as those rose-tinted specs suggest, so, being me, I feel compelled to liven them up a bit. I always throw in a generous injection of spices and fresh herbs, and simplify the cooking methods. This means that my pies become pot pies with less pastry, my meatballs are baked rather than fried, and I braise without pre-browning the meat. This way you get all the comfort and the flavour of those traditional dishes, but with a lighter touch – all the better for sneaking out later for some fun!
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
FEEDSPORTAL Fri, 18 Nov 2011
Every Christmas Day, when I was young, I knew where to find my father at around 10pm, briefly abandoning the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show or It's a Wonderful Life on television. He'd be in the kitchen, devouring a plate of repellent-looking grey meat. They were the turkey giblets my mother had cooked earlier, using the stewed liquid to enhance the gravy at lunch. She'd have set them aside – and my father would wolf them as a late-night snack. "Ah, lovely," he would murmur, cutting into the atrocious neck, "Try a bit of gizzard?"
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
FEEDSPORTAL Sat, 05 Nov 2011
Bonfire Night might make members of the House fidget in their seats, but the idea of blowing up Parliament brings a little anarchic glee into our lives. There's nothing like a sparkler to get you in the mood for, er, sparklers, and if you don't want to push the boat out too far for Guy Fawkes, Marks & Spencer's Sparkling Burgundy NV, £11.99, will give you a biscuity, weighty fizz at an affordable price. Add a dash of Sainsbury's quintessence of cassis-like Taste the Difference Blackcurrant Liqueur, £8.99, 20cl, either to that or your favourite cheap cava, and there you have your very own grown-up Kir Royale.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
FEEDSPORTAL Fri, 14 Oct 2011 23:00:01 GMT
Evershot, in West Dorset, reeks with literary association. It turns up in Tess of the D'Urbevilles as "the small town or village of Evershead" where Tess pauses on her way to call on Angel Clare's parents: "She made a halt here and breakfasted a second time, heartily enough – not at the Sow and Acorn, for she avoided inns, but at a cottage by the church." The church is St Basil's (patron saint of hoteliers, I expect) and the poet George Crabbe was rector there. Had poor Ms D'Urbeville lived a century later, she could have had her breakfast at Summer Lodge, a former dower-house whose grounds were part-designed by Thomas Hardy, when he was the local architect.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|
|
Being Modern: Superfoods
Romanesco with taleggio and capers
Veggie might: Mark Hix explores a brave new world of delicious vegetables
Is it ever ok to eat foie gras?
Wine styles of the rich and famous: The Wiltshire 'wine mine' that houses the finest vintages
