Food and Drink

Here are five quick and utterly delicious recipes to make Christmas extra special whether you're hosting a party for friends and family, or you want to impress someone special.   Christmas Cocktail: Buck's Club It's Christmas! Indulge yourself and forget mixing a cheap sparkling wine with a long-life boxed juice, or even worse serving up sickly pre-made Bucks Fizz. Instead, to taste the ultimate Christmas cocktail, mix some good champagne and juice of half an orange to make the special drink for...

Strength: 5% Brewed: Modena, Italy Having scoured England, Scotland and Italy in search of the finest ingredients, ORA is an Italian craft brewery located in Modena. Launched around ten years ago initially as a pastime, Daniele Costa Zaccarelli began to brew beers in his garage and over time learnt the importance of ingredients, eventually changing the water and malts used to substantially improve the quality of his beers. After five years of working on the recipes, ORA now has two...

An Indian restaurant owner has purchased a 49-foot Hawker Siddeley HS125 jet for 500 curries and 1,000 poppadoms. Shajahan Chowdhury bartered with the spicy fare to get his hands on the shell of the plane which he now plans to turn into a restaurant. Aviation salvage company GJD Services were only too happy to swap the ex-charter jet for 150 vindaloos, 150 Bombay Aloos, 100 onion bhajis and a cockpit full of poppadoms. A promise of a further 200 tasty treats will follow on...

If you’re stepping out of the smoke for the weekend and you’re in search of something gorgeous and filthy (food I’m talking about), you’ll do well to beat Smokey's American Grill restaurant and takeaway in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. Since opening in 2014 Smokeys has already scooped up the Wiltshire Restaurant of the Year 2015 award (voted for by Wiltshire Times newspaper readers), and is eagerly waiting to hear if it has won Britain’s Best Takeaway 2016 award after making it into the...

In this modern-day world of inescapable food fads and single menu demi-chains dominating London’s restaurant scene; the notion of visiting a British institution for dinner is actually somewhat refreshing. First opened in 1828, Simpson’s-in-the-Strand is located within The Savoy hotel and looks as though very little has been changed over the past 188 years. Inside, guests are greeted and whisked through to the vast dining space adorned with dark wood panelled walls, expectedly high ceilings, heavily starched linen and a...

A luxury cat food for the “insanely rich” goes on sale this week costing an eye-watering £9,000 a year and including ingredients such as Arenkha caviar, line-caught Scottish salmon, hand-caught Norfolk lobster and locally-sourced Devon crab! The yearly cost of the fodder is more than twice the average food and drink spend of a typical British family, according to Office of National Statistics figures. It works out at a pricey £10 for an 85g tin compared to an average Sheba tin which...

With the 19th annual National Curry Week taking place this week (10th-16th October), we’ve compiled a selection of curry recipes from a number of chefs and London restaurants. In addition to the many events taking place across the country, these home kitchen-friendly dishes are the ideal way to celebrate National Curry Week at home. Prawn Malai Curry from Shrimoyee Chakraborty, Founder of Calcutta Street Ingredients Makes one portion King prawns, 200g Onion, 1, blended Garlic, 1 large clove, coarsely chopped...

A new scientific study has revealed that beer really does give you goggles. Researchers at University Hospital in Basel, Switzerland, found drinking beer affects the way we see specific emotions and allows us to see smiling faces quicker. And - confirming Shakespeare who wrote of beer "It provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance," the research also found alcohol doesn't seem to lead to greater sexual arousal. But it does make it easier for people, especially women, to view explicit sexual...

Tying in with London Cocktail Week, Shrimoyee Chakraborty of Calcutta Street – Fitzrovia’s hottest Bengali restaurant - has shared the recipe for her ‘Bengali Rose’. Inspired by her city’s love of the rose as a flavour, this drink teams ginger-infused rose water, rose liquor and East London Liquor Company vodka before being topped with Prosecco. Described as “one for the ladies of the house”, the Bengali Rose is simple to make at home, or can be ordered at Calcutta Street,...