September 5 2022
Food to eat, places to go
There’s a Scottish rail trip in the Times on the Kyle line travelling from Inverness to the Kyle of Lochalsh, the jump off point for Skye. I once had a cooking job at Achnashellach on that train line and had to wait once on the station platform for the guard to throw off a large box of langoustines.
There are ten beautiful arts and crafts hotels in the Guardian.
The Independent asks if Worthing is the new Brighton. Speaking as someone who once lived in Brighton for four years and spent many a summer holiday in Worthing where my grandmother lived, my answer is a very definite ‘No.’ (And I did go back there last year for the day.)
Europe
It seems that a lot of people went to Greek islands this summer including ex-Labour cabinet minister Alan Johnson in the Daily Mail, who went to Crete where he’s set his latest book, Ben Machell in the Times for his first villa holiday in Cephalonia as well as Santorini where the Times Food Editor says food is really good with a burgeoning restaurant scene.
Now we’re all back from our summer holiday, everyone’s talking about Autumn city breaks with the Telegraph’s best Autumn city breaks and the Guardian’s ten best city breaks with a difference. The Guardian also summarised its readers’ best holiday discoveries and I sometimes find the readers’ comments below the line the most useful part. I can read all these and then think I’d still rather go to Paris as in the FT. The Telegraph says Nice is the best value and the Times recommends Armagnac in France, and Palermo in Sicily.
Restaurants
In the FT, Tim Hayward decides not to avoid the places some people say are tourist traps as you are a tourist yourself and illustrated this with a visit to La Cambuse du Saunier at Gruissan in France. This is definitely one to remember if you are planning a trip to the Languedoc next summer.
In the Guardian, Grace Dent went to Oche in London where you can play darts but she thought it ‘way off target’ as she couldn’t work out its target audience.
In the Mail on Sunday Tom Parker-Bowles went to Boukoulos in Paxos which sounded like a lot of Greek beachside restaurants you might go to on holiday.
In the Observer, Jay Rayner went to Lerpwl in Liverpool where he had a mixed experience, although according to social media, other people love it.
In the Telegraph, William Sitwell travelled to a gastropub, the George in Ashbourne, Derbyshire.
In the Times, Giles Coren went to the Maddox Tavern which he didn’t like.
In the Standard, Jimi Faruewa went to Miznon, an Israeli restaurant in Soho, London, which he did.
In the Sunday Times, Marina O’Loughlin loved Bottle and Rye , a wine bar in Brixton, London, the new venture by chef Robin Gill.
Recipes
Nigel Slater gave seasonal recipes for a beetroot and pomegranate salad, and a rice pudding and damson sauce in the Observer which I have also made. The rice pudding is rich so small portions were the order of the day. But it’s cooked on the stove top which is helpful, in these times of high energy bills.
Rachel Roddy in the Guardian was clearing out her fridge before going on holiday and gave a lovely straightforward recipe for pasta with courgettes and basil.
It was also packed lunch time in the Guardian with recipes from Claire Thomson including a carrot tabbouleh and black bean burritos and recipes from Melissa Helmsley including spicy chickpeas. It makes the cheese sandwiches, cherry tomatoes and a yoghurt which my children had seem lamentably feeble.
In the FT, Honey and Co gave a recipe for ladenia moulu which is a Greek flatbread from the island of Milos topped with tomatoes, onions and lots of olive oil, pictured above.
There were beautiful vegetarian recipes from Alice Hart in the Telegraph and some useful tips on how to make vegetarian food modern and exciting by using different textures. The recipes are for charred spring onions with smoky romesco sauce, a mushroom and watercress puff pastry tart and a plum and custard cake using a carton of bought custard.
I always like the randomness of the readers’ recipes in the Times, and these pistachio and almond amaretti biscuits sound good.
Books
Small Batch Bakes by Ed Kimber was excerpted in the Independent. It’s small batch baking recipes for two to three people with recipes including chocolate peanut butter cookies and blueberry muffins. There was also an interview with him where he said baking is the luxury we can still afford.
One: My simple one pan recipes by Jamie Oliver was featured in the Times, with recipes including Cuban mojo fish, sweet tomato gnocchi and a chicken and mushroom pie which he demonstrated on his TV programme.
River Cottage Good Comfort by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was in the Times with
a cream of roasted mushroom soup, a healthy green chicken curry and a healthy spaghetti bolognese. I wonder about using the oven to roast the vegetables for the soup in these days of high fuel prices as they could be done on the stovetop, showing how the book was written before the rise in energy prices.