Late season breaks, Italy and apple season

September 16 2024

Introduction

Whipped goat’s cheese dip with dukkah and quick-pickled apples and Guinness bread

There is a Cox’s apple tree in the garden and this year, there is a bumper harvest. I’ve been looking for different ways of using them apart from just eating them straight off the tree and was delighted to see the whipped goat’s cheese dip with dukkah and quick-pickled apples in the FT which is a recipe from the restaurant Maray in Manchester. I served it with Max Rocha’s Guinness bread and used a mixture of yoghurt, milk and lemon juice instead of buttermilk. This worked well, especially as the shops were shut by the time we got back from a Sunday afternoon walk and I had decided to make it. I had to take my normal photo on the kitchen table before the light went which is why there isn’t a picture of the crumb as the loaf was still cooling and was too warm to slice. In the morning for brunch, I made Ravneet Gill’s grated apple and cinnamon fritters with maple syrup yoghurt and I hope an apple a day or two or more at the moment does keep the doctor awa.y

Books

Cafe Cecilia Cookbook by Max Rocha

in the Observer with an interview and recipes for Crown Prince, black olive with Graceburn cheese salad, grilled mackerel and marinated tomatoes, smoked haddock chowder, Guinness bread, ham hock, butter beans and cabbage, deep fried bread and butter pudding and cold custard and Odette’s chocolate pots 

A thousand nights by Nigel Slater

in the Observer with an exclusive extract here including tales of mangoes in a monsoon on Varca Beach, Goa, mulberries and a waterfall in Croatia and a pile of plates, back at home. I’m buying this and saving it for Advent, to read an extract each day like the “Christmas Chronicles.”

Peter Sidwell’s Kitchen by Peter Sidwell

in the Times with recipes for classic sourdough, perfect brownies, flourless chocolate cake and miso caramel sponge pudding.

Ravneet Gill’s grated apple and cinnamon fritters with maple yoghurt

Restaurants

In the FT, Tim Hayward called Ibai in London EC1, the ‘Testosterzone’ with ‘great steaks but no soul in the city.’

In the Guardian, Grace Dent went to Noah’s in Bristol BS1 and her conclusion was, ‘at face value, it seems to set out its stall mostly as a glorified chippy, but that is the fishiest of claims. It is, in fact, one of the nicest restaurants I’ve come across in years.’ 

In the Observer, Jay Rayner was in Leeds at Tharavadu, a ‘delightful Keralan restaurant’ which is expanding and proclaimed ‘that more of what Tharavadu has to offer, to many more people, can only be a good thing.’

In the Standard, it was Jimi Famurewa final review, he was in Lolo, an all-day Mediterranean restaurant, and wrote ‘just like the ever-refreshing restaurant scene that has created it. José Pizarro’s latest is imperfect, ambitious, wildly alluring.’ He was also reviewing his reviews.

In the Telegraph, William Sitwell was at the Guildhall Tavern in Poole and said, ‘Guildhall has it: great service, smart food with no silly flourishes and some local flavour to smirk at. ’

In the Times, Giles Coren thought Albert’s Schloss in London’s Leicester Square, and also in Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, was ‘cracking value.’

Travel

UK

D’Oyly Carte Island is a private island in the middle of the Thames, between Shepperton and Weybridge which you can now visit with a cafe bar and a creperie called Doyly’s where they serve savoury crepes for around a tenner and there are concerts in 2025. It was in the Telegraph.

The Isle of  Lewis in the Guardian

A long walk called Athelstan around North Wiltshire, a pilgrimage round churches, in the Telegraph

Europe

Puglia in the Telegraph with the ultimate itinerary 

Five beautiful Italian cities that haven’t become theme parks, Mantua, Vicenza, Modena, Sulmona (in the Abruzzo). and Camogli in Liguria in the Telegraph. They declare that these destinations offer fine art, medieval architecture and wonderful food, but are still largely – or entirely – crowd-free,

Sicily versus Sardinia which is best which is best in the Telegraph

Why there’s never been a better time to discover Van Gogh’s Provence as many of the painter’s works go on display in London at the National Gallery in Van Gogh’s Poets and Lovers. So looking forward to this exhibition.

A guide to spending the weekend in Valencia, Spain in the Telegraph, including what to see and do and where to eat (paella), drink and stay.

My Paris, by chef Yannick Alléno, in the FT

Folkestone 

Cadiz Why the history-packed city of Cadiz is a fantastic alternative to Seville

Beaches, baroque palaces, tasty tapas and boutique hotels await in one of western Europe’s oldest cities – and it’s sunny through to November

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Times 

A late summer break in Montpellier in France in the Guardian.

 Five cities for late season breaks in the Guardian, Genoa in Italy, Aveiro in Portugal, Alicante in Spain, Zadar in Croatia, and Thessaloniki in Greece.
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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. Sometimes my husband buys a Times on Saturdays or I buy a Guardian and I buy the Observer when it’s Observer Food Monthly. Otherwise I rely on what’s online, and on Twitter and Instagram. And occasionally, I ask a friend to save an article for me.

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.

Sometimes, I use the recipes for inspiration. If they are from a cookbook, they may be in other publications as well for publicity, and you may find them or a similar version through a quick Google.