Venice, farm shops and apples.
29 October 2023
Introduction
Better late than never as I’ve been busy. We had a party at our house to celebrate the 40th anniversary of our mountaineering club and instead of asking everybody to bring things, we catered it ourselves. We asked everyone to make donations through JustGiving and raised £1,175 for Mountain Rescue. On Sunday, a lot of us did a walk in the Chilterns and throughout the weekend, we celebrated lifelong friendships and so many memorable days in the hills. Two days later, I’m still not feeling my best which shows it must have been a good weekend. I’m going to write about how we arranged it all later in the week. Planning, Endless Lists and Delegation being the operative words.
The biggest and best news is that Diana Henry is back writing original recipes in the Telegraph, this week with savoury and sweet apple recipes. I made her apple, hazelnut and olive oil cake which is just the kind of damp, seasonal, nutty cake I like. There’s also apple charlotte with blackberry sauce and estofado de cordero con manzana (Spanish lamb stew with apple).
Books
The Farm Shop Guide by Laura Collacott and Eleanor Weeks-Bell
with an extract in the Times. I’m going to buy this as going for a long walk somewhere and combining it with a visit to a farm shop is one of my favourite weekend or holiday activities.
The Food For Life Cookbook by Tim Spector in the Independent
with an interview and recipes for roasted aubergine traybake, creamy kale pasta, and carrot cake with tahini orange frosting with advice about ‘why it’s not about always cutting out things, but adding more of the good stuff.’
Books
Food Stories by Rick Stein
with his favourite fish and seafood recipes in the Times including Dover sole à la meunière, deconstructed prawn cocktail and fish finger sandwiches with home made fish fingers
Miracle Mince by Hospitality Action:
80 recipes from top chefs with four featured in the Telegraph for Cornish pork & ‘nduja tagliatelle by Paul Ainsworth, turkey and scarmoza pie by Calum Franklin, Dishoom keema pau by Naved Nasir and smoky pork & chorizo burgers by Tom Kerridge. I wonder to myself, does it include any recipes by women?
Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Slow Cooker Cookbook by Poppy O’Toole
in the Independent with an interview and recipes for a peanut satay curry, and chicken cheese and pesto pasta, and beef bourguignon.
You can cook everything by Sophie Godwin, Adam Bush and ‘a host of other shining stars’
in the Independent, a new bumper DK book on how to cook with an interview and recipes for harissa sticky chicken thighs, pork chops with miso lime-butter shallots and a vegan chocolate cake.
Restaurants
In the FT, Tim Hayward went to Beefy Boys in Cheltenham and had thee best burger he could remember. He wrote, ‘there is no better remedy for a hangover than one of these vast, unapologetic meat grenades.
In the Guardian, Grace Dent finally went to the Devonshire in London W1 almost a year after it opened and suffice to say, she liked it, just as everyone else has.
In the Observer, Jay Rayner was in Bristol at 1 York Place and opined, ‘it barely needs saying that Bristol is a superb restaurant city, full of independents serving great food without faff or ludicrous ponce. The establishment at 1 York Place sums up that encouragingly bourgeois approach.’
In the Standard, David Ellis went to Fonda, a Mexican restaurant in London W1 which was ‘still expensive. It is beautiful, and the food extremely good, for the most part. Impeccable, ingratiating service.’
In the Sunday Times, Charlotte Ivers went to Sesta, which has taken the place of Pidgin in Hackney and concluded, ‘this is how to do fashionable dining in a way that delivers good food and a peaceful, pleasant experience.’
In the Telegraph, William Sitwell was at Da Costa in Bruton, Somerset which is on the Hauser and Wirth site and two hours drive from the part of Somerset where he lives and he left irritated, ‘that there isn’t such a fabulous place closer to me.’
In the Times, Giles Coren went to two restaurants, Donia where he thought there were no good tables and Sael, the latest restaurant by Jason Atherton where they were all good.
Travel
UK
Where to eat and drink in Oxfordshire in Olive Magazine
The Lake District in Autumn in the Telegraph
Ten prettiest villages in Suffolk in the Telegraph, with a picture of Orford that they say is Dunwich
Stargazing on the Isle of Rum, Scotland’s first dark sky sanctuary in the Guardian
‘Thanks to the near nonexistent light pollution, the Hebridean island has been officially recognised as one of the best night skies in the world.’
Europe
Choosing The Hague and Delft over Amsterdam in the Guardian.
A rail journey to Naples and Pompeii to chase the last rays of sun in the Observer
Venice without the crowds: the inside story by Tracy Chevalier in the Observer which she researched before writing her recent book, The Glassmaker which I am saving to read at Christmas.
In the FT, the reporter ate his way around Alsace, ‘choucroute garnie, pretzels and pork knuckles ‘of eastern France’s haute-calorie hinterland.’
Aarhus in Denmark in the Telegraph which they say is a happy city
Finally, I’m dropping my European boundaries to mention Caroline Eden’;s articles in the Guardian on the Silk Roads in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and ten stunning sites from Turkey to China.
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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.
Where will I find your writing about how to «do » a party? Will very much appreciate your wisdom.
I'm going to have to give the Devonshire another go I think - I thought it was massively overrated.