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Bar Termini
Regular followers will know how much I love Soho. I frequently lament the aggressive pace of change and new development in the area. However, no matter how much I adore it’s grimy underbelly, I did not want to get up close and personal with the damp pavement of Brewer Street….. I’m putting the blame squarely at the doorstep of Bar Termini and their fabulous Negronis. I discovered Bar Termini a few months ago and have been a regular visitor ever since. I love its chic, retro vibe – all staff in white coats, shiny coffee machine, and marble surfaces. I love its teeny tiny, time capsule, Continental feel. Perched at…
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London Cocktail Week 2015 – My Highlights
Mini clothes pegs. Dainty egg-cup style glasses. Drinks made with condiments, pork fat and even ants. Yes ladies and gentlemen…London Cocktail Week is here. There are so many things that I loved about London Cocktail Week. The sheer number of bars taking part, not including the pop ups at Poland Street and Spitalfields, making me feel like the proverbial kid in candy store. The opportunity to try something that I may not usually order. How amazingly friendly everyone has been. But most of all, I really loved how enthusiastic the bar staff have been. Each person who served me clearly took so much pride in their bar and the effort that…
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Duck and Waffle
After spending quite a bit of time hanging around in establishments at the top of tall buildings, I have realised that a pattern is emerging. The higher up in the sky you are, the worse the service usually is. Which is a shame for many reasons, not least because most of these places seem to implement a kind of “sky tax”, meaning you pay through the nose for the privilege of being there. True, the views are spectacular so at least you have something nice to stare at while you wait half an hour to get served at the bar (Hutong, I’m looking at you). However, is feeling like you’re…
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The Manor, Clapham
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Flat Iron
I’ve been watching a lot of “Parks and Recreation” lately and have fallen a little bit in love with Ron Swanson – the deadpan, mustachioed, all-American red blooded male. Ron Swanson has no time for nonsense such as salad or kale smoothies. He likes his meat rare and his whisky neat. He is probably my soulmate…. So I paid a visit to a restaurant that Ron Swanson would most definitely approve of – Flat Iron. There is just one thing on the menu here and that’s steak. Really really good steak. Flat Iron is part of the annoying “no reservation” trend that seems to have swept London lately, so I played…
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The Manor, Clapham
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Eating The Street
You would have to be living under a rock not to realise that street food is a big deal. The London street food scene has exploded over the last year or so, with a range of top notch vendors serving takeaway scran to suit every palate. With excellent food markets every day of the week, I’m determined to eat my way through all that the capital has to offer. Here are a few of my highlights to date: The Little Yolk The clue is in the name. Starting life as a market stall, these purveyors of fried egg yumminess now have their own cafe at Dalston Farm Shop. The menu…
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Cocktail Making in Cardiff
Dan was 19 years old, good looking, fresh off the plane from New Zealand, and had the unenviable task of teaching a group of rowdy 30-something women how to make cocktails. We smelled blood… I drink cocktails. A lot of cocktails. But make my own?? You must be having a laugh. Actually, that’s exactly what we did. My first ever cocktail class was full of laughter, as well as a few spills and a few sore heads the next day. A makeshift bar had been set up in the corner of Cardiff’s Slug & Lettuce, and Kiwi Dan bravely stepped up to impart his knowledge on all things cocktail-related. We were shown how…
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Taking A Bite Out Of…Istanbul
Kebabs. They have a bit of a bad reputation to be honest. My first experience of the delicacy known as kebab meat and chips, “fresh” out of the local chippy in Pontypool town centre, was enough to put me off for a long long time. Even the more upmarket grilled meats of Turkish restaurants around London didn’t really help to convince me that a kebab is anything more than a greasy, stomach-churning mistake. So would a trip to Istanbul, the home of the kebab, change my mind? Istanbul is a crazy, colourful, feast for the senses, and food plays a huge part in this. Everywhere you look there are stalls selling…
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10 Greek Street
I started this blog with the intention of working my way through Time Out London’s top 100 restaurants. Well, it’s now April and so far I have managed to visit just one restaurant from their list. I fail at converting intentions into reality. However, I have broken the seal with my visit to 10 Greek Street. In fact, the seal was veritably demolished, along with my lunch and my waistline. 10 Greek Street is as discrete and unassuming as its name. Small and spartan, with white walls, wooden flooring, and the dishes of the day chalked up on blackboards, it has that whole effortlessly chic thing down to a tee. Even the menus are…
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Taking A Bite Out Of…Krakow (Part 2)
Having resigned myself to the fact that I may put on a pound or two while in Krakow (although calories on holiday don’t count, right?), it was time to fully embrace a cold weather diet. This was helped along by the fact that the best pierogi shop in Krakow – Przystanek Pierogarnia – was situated right at the end of my street. Pierogi are boiled dumplings usually filled with potato, cheese or meat – sometimes all three – and topped with fried onions. This is food that really sticks to your ribs. I went for the potato and bacon dumplings, and just kept going back for more…. Comfort food has…
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Wine from the Rias Baixas
It’s not often that wine evokes strong memories; usually it has the opposite effect. However, I will always remember the first time I ever tried wine from the Rias Baixas region of Galicia, in north-west Spain. We had journeyed across northern Spain, starting out from Barcelona, and our trip so far had been defined by rain, rain, and then a bit more rain. As we headed towards the north-west coast, I wasn’t expecting anything different. This corner of Atlantic Spain was known for it’s wild weather and it’s equally wild coastline. When we arrived at the city of Santiago de Compostela, the rain looked like it had well and truly set in for…
