Florence, a Christmas quiz and crab
23 December 2024
Introduction
I was standing in my third shop in the High Street, Sainsbury’s, at eight o’clock this morning, searching for the last small, free range, unstuffed turkey crown. Why has everyone else apart from us bought their turkey already? It’s only the 23rd.
Then I swore out loud in earshot of a small boy, (edited by husband to take out the four letter word) and bought ready made tubs of turkey gravy and bread sauce. Our Christmas cake is going to be a Waitrose amaretto and brown butter stollen and jolly nice they are too. A reminder that it doesn’t all have to be home-made. I am not going shopping again for as long as possible apart from milk.
I’ll tell you how long that lasted next week. Probably until tomorrow when I’ve realised I’ve forgotten something. (edited to say, yes, a ciabatta may be needed for a Christmas night emergency sandwich.)
Yesterday we had our first Christmas celebration when I made Helen Graves‘ curried crabby nachos, roast gammon, and Georgina Hayden’s chocolate and clementine cassata semifreddo.
Diana Henry did inbetween recipes in the Telegraph, a spiced lentil and pumpkin soup with harissa, a bang bang turkey noodle salad and a new Waldorf salad for lunch (not yet online) which includes dried cranberries, white and black grapes, dill as well as the normal apple, celery and walnuts. I made it for lunch as it goes well with cold gammon and I also made some lentil soup with the gammon stock and left over carrots and leeks, so I hope I have redeemed myself.
We had our Christmas quiz, which is not what you’d call intellectually taxing, created by my elder daughter. First we had to practise our buzzer noises, a ding ding, a click and a loud hum. She WhatsApps us all individually beforehand and asks us questions, such as
what would be your desert island luxury,
your favourite meal out this year,
your partner’s annoying habit,
your best TV programme.
and then we have to guess each other’s answers. I find it best to fib a little, and then my husband can’t work mine out and I end up winning. There was a show, tell and taste where we all failed on the chocolate navel orange, but we did better on the oyster mushroom and the cocktail, a Cosmopolitan. It needed many guesses to work out the base ingredient and flavour of the quinoa chips with sun dried tomato and roasted garlic and the lentil chips with mango and mint. This year there was a special guest round by my husband, on Fizzy, our cat.
Restaurants
An interview with the founders of Topjaw, Will Warr and Jesse Burgess in the Telegraph
In the FT, Tim Hayward went to Trullo in London N1 which is 15 years old next year.
‘He saw a packed room, happy staff hustling great food out to delighted people. I reckon Trullo got it right pretty much on day one and they’ve been doing it brilliantly ever since.’
Things I had to look up were oomska, eructating and Jason Momoa. Maybe I’ll do a ‘things Tim Hayward wrote’ round in next year’s quiz.
In the Guardian, Grace Dent went to Long Chim in London W1, where the chef is David Thompson
‘Long Chim is a place for Thompson’s many fans to head to pay homage to a culinary legend. If they’re lucky, they might even catch the man himself behind the stoves, so they’ll be able to thank him in person for the impact he’s had on the UK’s approach to Thai dining. ‘
In the Observer, Jay Rayner went to the Don in London EC4 where Rowley Leigh oversees the menu.
‘the cookery is terribly uneven.’ … ‘it may make you squint at a bill for £160 for three courses without wine, and wonder just what happened – both here on this hefty, linen-clad table, and to Rowley Leigh’s generous touch in the kitchen.’
In the Standard, David Ellis went to Wiltons in London W1 and ate a Stilton twice baked cheese soufflé he’s had three times this year.
‘Wiltons is perhaps not a restaurant for those who save and save to afford it; its wonders are not as immediately obvious as those at, say, the Ritz, or even Rules.’
In the Sunday Times, Charlotte Ivers wrote about her best restaurants of the year including the Abbey Inn, Byland, North Yorkshire, Ardfern, Edinburgh and Joséphine Bouchon, London SW10
In the Telegraph, William Sitwell went to the Elder in Bath which specialises in wild British ingredients, which is the mantra of its patron, Mike Robinson.
‘If you want to escape the chill, rest weary legs, and be properly cosseted, I have just the place.’
In the Times, Giles Coren went to Wildflowers in London SW1 with Jamie Oliver and Jonathan Yeo and they all loved it.
‘Mediterranean cooking that is ‘exceptional from start to finish’
And I learned that a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is Manchego cheese and membrillo which could be a handy snack over the festive period.
Travel
Readers’ favourite travel discoveries of 2024 including lots more in the comments in the Guardian. What travel writers loved and hated in the Times and the Telegraph
UK
A wintry breaks in Folkestone in Kent in the Standard
Readers’ favourite winter pubs in the Guardian
Europe
The Times says Florence is having a renaissance and museums are having a real glow-up — and there’s never been a better time to visit. It gives the best places to eat, see and stay. It also says in another article that after eight years of restoration, people can walk the Medici’s Vasari Corridor — which runs from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti which is Florence’s secret rooftop passageway. I’ve checked the cost of flights to Pisa in February and I’m booking tickets. (Edited as my brother who went to Florence a lot on business, twenty times one year, has read this already and says ‘look at flights that go into Florence airport as it’s only 20 minutes tram ride into the centre. Trains from Pisa take ages and rather infrequent.’)
Jenny Packham’s guide to Amsterdam in the Standard
Toulouse in France for a winter city break, ‘featuring hearty food, welcoming residents and world-class rugby’ in the Telegraph
The Ardennes in Belgium in the Telegraph with a Second World War angle in Britain’s overlooked role in stopping Hitler’s final assault.
Best places to visit in Albania and a voyage around Finland in the Sunday Times
A new train from Paris to Berlin in the Telegraph
Nine of the best Easter city breaks in the Times
They suggest Palermo in Sicily, Seville in Spain and Copenhagen
Reading the papers
People ask me how I read all the papers. I believe in paying for quality journalism and my husband and I have digital subscriptions to the Times and to the Telegraph.
The Times gives you two free articles a week as a registered user and the Telegraph gives you access to one free article each week if you register an account. The FT gives a certain number of free articles
Local public libraries often have Pressreader which gives access to over 7,000 newspapers world wide for free or you can subscribe to it.
Stealing your Christmas quiz idea for next year!
That Waldorf salad sounds extremely good!