November 21 2022

food to eat, places to go

Focaccia with romesco and brioche with whipped butter topped with roasted yeast at the Dog and Gun in Skelton, Cumbria reviewed by Grace Dent in the Guardian

Travel

UK

Will Butler-Adams, the CEO of Brompton Bikes on his favourite stops in the Chilterns in the FT and advises the Premier Inn at Marlow as a good place to stay.

The Guardian has car free breaks around the UK covering Hadrian’s Wall, Harrogate, Bute, Barmouth, Bournemouth and the Times goes to Dunfermline but then it says that’s only enough to do for a day so go elsewhere. In truth, I would go to Edinburgh or Glasgow instead.

The Times also says go to Wales in the winter in the Times suggesting walking and car routes including the Gower Coastal Path, the North Wales Way and the Wye Valley. I’ve walked part of all these routes, but I wouldn’t recommend winter as a time to do them. My mountaineering club had a week, staying on the Lleyn Peninusula in October last year and it was stunning. (see photo at end of newsletter)

Europe

The UK papers haven’t yet covered the largest retrospective exhibition of Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 2023. A friend told me about it and there are more details here. This is where I’m going to go next spring.

A fascinating article in the Independent on whether it’s still worth going to Calais on ‘a booze cruise.’ The best advice is in the comments on how to claim back tax on your purchase.

‘The retailer fills in a form with your details including passport number and the bank card used for the purchase. You scan the bar code on the form at a machine in the French terminal before returning to the UK and the tax that was included in the purchase price of the wine and spirits is refunded to your bank card within the week. ‘

There’s a guide to Cognac in the Daily Mail, to Madrid in the FT, a local’s guide to Croatia in the Guardian, Riga for the ‘ultimate weekend’ in the Times and how to plan a train trip around Germany in the Independent

In the FT, Anne Sebba went on on a walking holiday in the Pyrenees on one of the trans-Pyrenean escape routes collectively known as the Freedom Trail, or Le Chemin de la Liberté. She followed in the footsteps of Anne-Marie Walters, codenamed Colette, who worked for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and wrote about ger in her book, in her book, Les Parisiennes which I would recommend. I love the Ariège as it’s so unspoilt with my favourites, markets and mountains, all in one place. Another good book is Love and War in the Pyrenees; a story of Courage, Fear and Hope by Rosemary Bailey which I read on one of my holidays there,

I save Paris recommendation in the notes section on my phone and I’ve never been to À la Mère de Famille, Paris’s oldest chocolaterie, featured in the FT website here. There’s an exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton on Monet and Mitchell till February 7th.

Restaurants

In the Standard, London chefs shared their best cheap restaurants , some I’ve been to, some I know of and some I’ve never heard of. Such a useful article.

In the Guardian, Grace Dent went to the Dog and Gun at Skelton in Cumbria and loved it, just as I do. I feel odd that one of my favourite places has been reviewed although prices have doubled since I first went there. I’m now going to make sure there is availability before I book a holiday.

In the Observer, Jay Rayner went to Leftfield in Edinburgh, website here, and liked it

In the Standard, Jimi Faruewa went to Elis and thought it ‘broadly enjoyable.’

In the Times, Giles Coren is encountering difficulties with his policy of only reviewing places costing £40 a head including wine, as ’expensive restaurants are still opening’. He went to a long list of places, and sometimes got round his designated budget by getting his friends to pay, Delhi Grill in N1, Maison François in SW1, Dorian in W11, the Audley Public House in W1 and Restaurant St Barts in EC1

Recipes

It’s time for the Celebrations, in the recipes this week be that Thanksgiving or Christmas or any others as well. In the Guardian, Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipes for Thanksgiving sides including glazed pumpkin, sprout crumble and leek gratin:

Diana Henry writes in the Telegraph on recipes in the days running up to Christmas, including roast halloumi and figs with honey and focaccia, pumpkin, chestnut and leek tagine, lamb with spiced dried fruit and green olive relish, Jerusalem artichoke, walnut and roast grape salad, pistachio, orange and pomegranate couscous and Turkish delight pavlovas with raspberry sorbet. I would echo my previous sentiment; it’s worth having a Telegraph subscription to have access to these.  She also mentions Jeanette Winterson’s book, Christmas Days, one I reread a bit at a time in December and quotes this, ‘

Cooking has become a lot like cycling. By which I mean people used to pop out on their bikes – now everyone has to wear Lycra and goggles and beat their own speed and distance record. Cooking at home is not an Olympic sport. Cooking is an everyday ordinary miracle.’

In the FT, Honey and Co give recipes for a seasonal buffet, a ‘pastrami-esque turkey’, a chilli quince sauce, a cabbage and pear salad, and roasted winter vegetables, all of which sound characteristically delicious.

Nigel Slater’s has eminently doable recipes for pork and halloumi with figs and onions and apple and blackberry trifle in the Observer.Romy Gill’s gives her butter chicken recipe in the Guardian.

There’s some affordable pasta too from Rachel Roddy in the Guardian with fettuccine with chicken liver and mushroom ragu and Thomasina Miers’ recipe for linguine with caramelised shallots, parsnips (or pancetta) and sage butter. More pasta but with chickpeas as well in the Telegraph, with Eleanor Steafel’s brothy vermicelli with chickpeas, aubergine and feta.

Books

Supper: Recipes Worth Staying In For by Flora Shedden
with extracts for spiced lamb with hummus recipe, grilled mackerel with parsley salsa recipe and Turkish eggs with toast recipe in the Sunday Times.

Motherland: a Jamaican cookbook by Melissa Thompson 

An interview here and with recipes for peanut and sweet potato stew, Guinness punch pie and ginger beer prawns in the Independent.

Christmas Feasts and Treats by Donna Hay 

Details of the book here in the Mail on Sunday and a recipe for dill and rosemary biscuits .

and last but not least, a bonus, authors on their favourite cookbooks in the Irish Times

Lleyn Peninsula October 2021.