Food and Drink
Breakfast to Bedtime: Inside London’s All-Day Dining Scene
When I was a student in Newcastle there was a famous bakery that used to open its doors in the early hours of the morning to feed boozed-up students returning from town. Devoid of kebab shops, pizza places or any other form of late night greaseathons in Jesmond the bakery did rather well out of early morning sales, and it didn't cost them to staff the operation because most of their bakers were in at the crack of dawn anyway. Their business...
Hypnotic Video Shows Mince Pies Rolling Off The Production Line At A Rate Of 720 A Minute
It's the first day of December and it's officially time to start posting Christmas related stories. A hypnotic video released today shows mince pies rolling off the production line at the Asda mince pie HQ in Barnsley, South Yorks, at the rate of 720 every MINUTE. The mesmerising video follows the process from start to finish as buttered pastry is piped down from a secret room onto the production line. Asda’s secret recipe of pre-mixed ingredients including fruit and spices...
London’s Best New Restaurant Openings – December 2016
With plenty of exciting restaurant openings constantly taking place across the Capital, here’s our pick of the best new restaurants arriving in London over the coming month. Ceru – South Kensington After offering a number of tasters around the capital, as well as having appeared a number of music festivals in recent years, Ceru will open its first permanent site this month. Taking over a site in South Kensington, the restaurant is heavily inspired by husband and wife team Barry and Patricia Hilton’s travels...
Beer of the Week – Wild Card Brewery ‘Ace of Spades’
Brewed: Walthamstow, London Strength: 4.7% ABV Founded on the back of a hobby that turned into an obsession, Wild Card Brewery functions from its own site in Walthamstow, having opened at the beginning of 2014. Since launching, Wild Card has become renowned for producing no-nonsense, uncompromising beers with a four-strong core range inspired by playing cards. These include a ‘Jack of Clubs’ ruby ale, ‘Queen of Diamonds’ hoppy IPA, ‘King of Hearts’ blonde beer, and ‘Ace of Spades’ – "a classic London...
Restaurant Review – Vineet Bhatia London
Perhaps even more so than Chinese cuisine in Britain, Indian food and restaurants have evolved massively over the past few centuries. Britain’s first encounters with the food of India can be traced back to the 17th century with the introduction of The East India Company. Set up for Britain to trade produce with India, this sparked further interest in Indian food, with various spices and curry powders becoming readily available in the UK during the late 1700s. As for Indian...
How To Make The Perfect… Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake
Just in time for Christmas, truffle brand Monty Bojangles (named after the founder’s pet cat) have teamed up with Michelin starred Chef Mark Sargeant to create a range of chocolate-focused desserts and snacks. This week’s recipe, ‘Cookie Moon Cheesecake’, uses Monty Bojangles’ Cookie Moon truffles, made with buttery cookie chunks and a dusting of bitter-sweet cocoa powder to create a delicious cheesecake with a granola base. Mark’s Top Tip: “Adding layers of cling film to the spring form tin when...
The Weekly Cocktail Recipe – The Vault at Milroys of Soho’s Coconut Butter Old Fashioned
Accessed through a secret door at the back of Milroys of Soho – London’s oldest whisky specialist, having been operating since 1946 – The Vault has re-launched with a new Bar Manager. Having worked as part of the opening team at Satan’s Whiskers in Bethnal Green and as Head Bartender at Milk & Honey, Chris Tanner has brought a brand new cocktail menu to Milroys’ basement bar. All priced at £9.50, the new drinks list includes a number of original...
How to Celebrate Churchill’s Birthday: In the Oldest Cigar Merchants in the World
Donned in smoking jackets and toking on the finest Robustos, these are the men who know how to celebrate Winston Churchill’s birthday in style. Cigar merchants James J Fox, said to be the oldest cigar merchants in the world, held the bash at their London base in St James’s Street - one of the last remaining public places where people can smoke inside. The celebration, on Wednesday, saw men in pinstriped suits with silver-topped canes swilling Caribbean rum, puffing on aromatic cigars...
Beer of the Week – Fierce Beer Co. ‘Cranachan Killer’
Strength: 5.5% Brewed: Aberdeen, Scotland Since launching their first proper brewery earlier on this year, Scotland’s Fierce Beer Co. has become intensely prolific. Having produced over 50,000 litres of beer within the past six months, the brewery offers a whopping core range of ten beers amongst some limited edition offerings and collaborative efforts of which are currently in the pipeline. Now operating from an industrial estate in Dyce, Aberdeen, Fierce was originally set up by joint owners Dave Grant (Managing Director) and David...