A Coronation hangover, Devon and bluebells
May 14 2023
I’m on holiday; I’ve been on Dartmoor for a week and now having a final three nights in Lyme Regis, staying at Dorset House, which is a fantastic B and B where we’ve been before. I’ve recommended it to friends who then recommended it to their friends who also stayed here and apart from the prizes that Lyn and Jason have won, they think this is the ultimate accolade. I haven’t cooked anything for over a week apart from making a sandwich for a packed lunch and eating this fruit cake as it was a mountaineering club reunion and we had a caterer in the evening. We took over all of the cottages at Blackadon Farm, as there were a lot of us but even the Great Barn itself would be great for a gathering. Our first week was bookended by two fantastic lunches at Osteria Emilia in Ashburton, run by Tom Hill and Clare Lattin of Duck Soup and Little Duck the Picklery fame. We’ve had good evening meals at Poco Pizza in its amazing location overlooking Lyme Regis beach and the Soulshine Cafe in Bridport.
There’s a hint of a hangover in the papers this week with many of the normal food writers missing to include yet more coverage of the Coronation, and more book extracts than normal.
Travel
The Times thinks Belfast is the best place in the UK for live music gigs and tells you where the best ones are and the Telegraph has a comprehensive guide to the Lake District.
Poland majors in the Guardian with 10 brilliant things to do by Ben Aitkin as well as his account of living there for a year and readers’ highlights all giving a comprehensive grounding of where to go and what to see all over the country. There’s also a guide to the port of Gdańsk in the Times.
Germany has a new rail pass that will put Britain’s to shame in the Telegraph. I would have thought that the whole of their rail network would put the UK’s to shame judging by my last long rail journey.
How to visit the Loire Valley’s châteaux in the Times with the advice of not trying to see more than two in a day, and six in a trip, or château fatigue will strike. The perfect long weekend in Paris is in the Standard and a guide to Bergerac in the Sunday Times.
A Haarlem city guide in the Independent, which is only 15 minutes away by train from Amsterdam but ‘still has lots of culture’ and is the endpoint for the Bloemencorso Bollenstreek flower parade every April.
A hiking trail on the Greek island Naxos in the Cyclades, the Naxos Strada, a 52km trail which is often paved with marble is in the Independent and Orvieto in Umbria in the Guardian.
Restaurants
In the FT, Tim Hayward went to Koyn, part of a Mayfair restaurant group. He thought ‘that Japanese food has become a pursuit of “soul”. If I’m brutal, this is precisely the magic ingredient that Koyn lacks.’
In the Guardian, Grace Dent went to Home in Dumfries, Scotland and said it was ‘authentically, refreshingly perfect’.
A map on the menu lists their suppliers. The Ethical Dairy at Rainton Farm near Gatehouse of Fleet, mozzarella from Kedar in Mouswald, a Nith Valley eggs from Gatelawbridge and veg from Loch Arthur in nearby Beeswing.
In the Observer, Jay Rayner was at Jacuzzi, part of the Big Mamma Group in London W8, ‘had a lovely time’ and wrote ‘going to a Big Mamma restaurant in search of simplicity is like going to a brothel hoping to find someone to hold your hand.’
In the Standard, Jimi Faruewa went to Tiella, part of the Compton Arms, in Islington London N1: an all-new regional Italian kitchen from Kiwi ex-Sager + Wilde chef Dara Klein.
In the Times, Giles Coren went to Gouqi, an astonishingly expensive Chinese restaurant in London SW1.
Recipes
Ottolenghi has breakfast recipes, including a strata with tomatoes and capers, a savoury bread pudding, udon with mushrooms and soy and finally, chilaquiles. These are yesterday’s corn tortillas torn up with a charred salsa verde. It looks a nice salsa verde recipe with avocado and kiwi fruit in it as well as the charred chillis and onions.
In the Times, Tony Turnbull has the best tinned fruit dessert recipes, which confirm my long held suspicion that the Times is not soon to win a prize for its food writing as none of the recipes look particularly exciting. I always used to make my children a peach crumble when their friends came for tea with three drained tins of economy peaches, and this is all you need in my humble opinion. It was preceded by roast chicken with jacket potatoes and peas for minimum work but they all loved it. And so do I.
There’s a chicken and freekeh tray bake by Honey and Co in the FT and Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for no bake lemon elderflower cheesecake in the Guardian
Nigel Slater has recipes for asparagus and new potatoes with coriander pesto, and potato, thyme and lemon tarts which are an open tart on puff pastry in the Observer
Books
Table for Two: Recipes for the Ones You Love by Bre Graham
There are recipes for easy dinners in the Times that two can cook on a date night; chicken and courgette piccata, slow-cooked lamb and cinnamon stew, a small ‘collapsing’ chocolate cake, and smoked chilli and vodka rigatoni. What is a date night?
The Pepperpot Diaries: Stories From My Caribbean Table by Andi Oliver
is in the Independent with an interview here and recipes for aromatic shrimp curry, Caribbean-inspired coconut and lime cheesecake and how Earl Grey tea bags are a game changer for barbecue chicken with tea-brined spiced barbecue chicken.
The Flavour Thesaurus: More Flavours, by Niki Segnit
has a beginner’s guide to cooking with miso in the Guardian.
Salt and the art of seasoning by James Strawbridge
An interview in the Telegraph here where the author ‘draws a distinction between salt intake from eating ready meals and processed foods, and that which is added to ingredients when cooking from scratch.’
And recipes for a salty spray salad when you dissolve salt in water to season a salad, dill cucumber pickles and mint salt, where you blend fresh mint with salt. I’m not clear how you control the saltiness of your food in some of these.
