August 1 2022
Food to eat, places to go
Travel
UK
The Times gives its view of the seven best seafood restaurants in Cornwall, including one of my favourites, the Mackerel Sky Seafood Bar in Newlyn, Cornwall. Another one I came across on Instagram is Fresh from the Sea in Port Isaac which sells fish caught locally or you can have a crab sandwich or a lobster salad in a sunny courtyard.
Europe
Kate Mosse visits the Luberon, in France which make me want to go straight back there this minute. I also enjoyed Marina O’Loughlin’s article on Paris in Noble Rot magazine.
There’s a list of the B and B’s and top hotels to stay in in Andalucia, Spain in the Guardian, and a guide to a weekend break in Bilbao in the Times.
In the FT, Eataly CEO Nicola Farinetti’s gives her favourite restaurants in Rome.
Restaurants
There was an eclectic mix of restaurants to discover this week, with different cuisines and plenty out of London, including one in Florence.
In the Guardian, Grace Dent thought Seasonality in Maidenhead deserved to prosper.
In the Observer, Jay Rayner loved Gigi Gao’s Favourite Authentic Chinese in Swansea which he called ‘a special kind of nuts’.
In the Telegraph, William Sitwell gives five stars to the Victoria in Oxshott.
In the FT, Tim Hayward is in Florence and enthuses about Trattoria Sostanza. It’s always good to have a recommendation of somewhere to eat in an Italian city that’s not Eataly although the one in Florence has very good loos and is handy for the Duomo.
In the Standard, Jimi Famurewa reviews Kilig in Deptford which is Colombian-Filipino fusion. He gave it three stars and says it is a ‘commendably affordable labour of love.’
In the Daily Mail, Tom Parker-Bowles goes to the Prince of Wales pub in Southall. He often ferrets out interesting inexpensive places and loves the Punjabi food there.
In the Independent, Kate Ng is dazzled by the food at Chotto Matte, a Japanese Peruvian fusion restaurant. According to their website at the time of writing, it’s temporarily closed but you can book the Marylebone site. Just don’t go along for a walk in at the moment.
There are no reviews this week from Giles Coren in the Times or Marina O’Loughlin in the Sunday Times.
Recipes
As there are so many brilliant recipes, this is my personal edit, concentrating on seasonal food, recipes that I might like to cook that will extend my repertoire and extracts from new books.
The Guardian has such a starry carousel of food writers, it’s difficult to leave anyone out but there’s a need for brevity in a newsletter such as this. I love the Mark Diacono recipes for non-alcoholic cocktails.
There was a concentration on courgettes and stone fruit this week. There are lovely apricot recipes from Diana Henry in the Telegraph including an Austrian apricot slice, (pictured above) which she describes as so good that her children had to take it away and distribute to the neighbours to stop her eating it. The selection also includes an apricot liqueur and a Mahalabia (a Middle Eastern milk pudding) with orange blossom and roast apricot purée. Honey & Co have recipes for a cooling peach parfait and a peach tarte fine with pistachio.
Nigel Slater in the Observer, writes about recipes for a plum and almond pie and a chilli plum jam to go with pork chops or as he suggests, blue cheese which I tried.
In the Telegraph there are seasonal courgette recipes from Aleksandar Taralezhkov, a Balkan cook and food writer, and a recipe from Eleanor Staefel for courgette and goats scrolls with fresh tomato sauce.
The FT has a recipe for a Cayman-style prawn curry with ‘buss up shut’ roti from Ravinder Bhogal.
In the Independent, there are cheesecake recipes from three restaurant chefs: a strawberry and basil cheesecake from Tommy Banks of the Black Swan Oldstead, a white chocolate cheesecake from Blacklock and a rhubarb and ricotta cheesecake from Kudu.
Xanthe Clay continues with her investigation of staple foods we all cook with in the Telegraph and this week it’s olive oil. I’m off to Aldi and M&S to search out her recommendations.
Books
River Cottage Great Salads by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Gelf Anderson
An extract in the Times here. I like the idea of fennel, celery and apple salad with an unusual creamy almond dressing made from almonds, almond milk and oranges.
Persiana Everyday by Sabrina Ghayour
This is full of Middle Eastern inspired recipes and there are extracts here in the Mail on Sunday. I like the look of the lamb and aubergine kebabs where you put the kebab mixture between a slice of a whole aubergine and then cook it in the oven. The spiced roast salmon which would be a great midweek recipe, whilst the fried feta parcels with honey would be a treat.
Mountain Café by Kirsten Gilmour
from the Mountain Café in Aviemore in the Times featured her recipe for a feel good super salmon salad. The cafe in Aviemore shut because of the pandemic but there is now a bakery in Grantown on Spey.
Home Cook by Olia Hercules
There are recipes in the Independent: lamb shoulder with herbs and preserved lemons, an intriguing brown butter, miso and walnut cake and a pasta with confit garlic and goats’ cheese. She has masterminded the ‘Cook for Ukraine’ initiative along with Alissa Timoshkina and gave an interview stating how how food is love, a philosophy I have always followed.