Venice, snowdrops and root veg
3 February 2025
Introduction
I should start this post with one of those enigmatic statements from regular columnists in the papers, ‘Kate Roxburgh is away’ but in fact, I am still here, sitting in London City Airport waiting for a flight to Florence and pressing my IPad furiously to get the cut and paste to work. Here’s an edition I mostly prepared earlier. It feels like doing my last homework before I can go on my holidays. I will be back on Instagram so you can follow what I’m up to. One of my younger daughter’s friends said to her, ‘I miss your Mum on IG’. Could there be a higher accolade?
So no photo of a recipe I’ve cooked this week but yesterday, I walked 11 miles with friends in the Chilterns with a stop to see the snowdrops at Swyncombe Estate and St Botolph’s Church. We were a bit early but the next three weekends they have snowdrop teas.
Diana Henry’ has done root veg in the Telegraph, with a Friulian winter salad Whitby I think I will make when I get home and I liked the look of the beet, carrot and potato fritters with smoked trout and dill and scored roast sweet potatoes with goat’s cheese, olives and ’nduja oil as well. The salad has carrots, spicy Italian sausage, bitter leaves, such as endive or radicchio, chestnuts, speck or bacon, walnuts and pomegranate seeds in it.
Celery soup with thyme and parsley and potato pancakes and ginger cake with blood oranges by Nigel Slater in the Observer may also be both on the menu when I get back
Please do like and
Books
Eat to Your Heart’s Content by Sat Bains
Recipes in the Times including Momma Bains’s chickpea curry, mussels in white wine and coriander, and sirloin steak with an anchovy, pecan and caper dressing.
After his heart attack, he eats lean protein and a mix of legumes, vegetables and fruits, as well as healthy fats such as avocado, nuts and olive oil. “I’ve learnt to ‘eat the rainbow’: as many different colours of fruits and vegetables as I can,”
Pass the Plate by Carolina Gelen who is Romanian, now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah and has 1.2m followers on Instagram.
with recipes in the Times including roasted sweet potatoes with chilli brown butter, upside-down orange cardamom olive oil cake and brown butter espresso chocolate chip cookies. Those cookies look excellent.
Good Time Cooking: Show-Stopping Menus for Easy Entertaining, by Rosie Mackean in the Telegraph
with recipes for Funghi sott’olio with celery and Parmesan, Lightly pickled mushrooms with celery and Parmesan, Roast chicken with peppers, onions and salsa verde and Horlicks tres leches cake
Rooza by Nadiya Hussein
in the Independent which features recipes for Ramadan from different countries with an interview here and recipes for samsas, a sweet sort of samosa, a peanut and vegetable curry inspired by her Thai roots, and Kabuli pulao, an Afghan-style lamb and rice dish.
Restaurants
In the FT, Tim Hayward went to Ambassadors Clubhouse in London W1 for ‘a phenomenal evening.’
In the Guardian, Grace Dent went to Krokodilos in London W8
‘a kitchen headed by Angelos Togias, ex of the Connaught, and with a clear vision to honour the many wonderful things about modern Greek cooking and ingredients.’
‘What we have here is a very amenable place to spend a couple of hours, imagining you’re feeling the sun on your face’
In the Observer, Jay Rayner went to Yemen Heaven in York.
‘Some restaurants are just a nice place to go for dinner. Yemen Heaven in York is obviously that. You will eat well there.’c
In the Standard, David Ellis went to Don’t Tell Dad in London NW6 and didn’t like it.
‘The sense is an offering out of time, a restaurant of ideas once fresh but now beginning to stale.’
In the Sunday Times, Charlotte Ivers went to Khao Bird, ‘above the Globe pub in Borough Market, the precise location of Bridget Jones’s flat in the films.’
‘I do genuinely think you should go. Thai food in a pub is obviously as British an institution as the Household Cavalry, but this place is more buzzy, more fun, more interesting than whatever’s happening at your local... I had a great evening’
In the Telegraph, William Sitwell went to Alchemilla in Nottingham.
‘The place is not new, far from it, having opened in 2017.’ but…’with fabulous wines and great service, Alchemilla, to this newbie, was a mesmerising, highly enjoyable and great-value triumph of flair, confidence and professionalism.’ He gave it five stars.
In the Times, Giles Coren went on the train to the Fordwich Arms in Kent,
‘This is a wonderfully situated, friendly local restaurant with an absolute master in the kitchen (or telling some other very good people in the kitchen what to do). It was a crowning jewel of my winter, and I’ll bet eating outside here in the summertime is one of the glories of the world.’
Travel
24 of the best things to do in Venice including market visits at dawn, learning to ride a gondola or making your own flamboyant carnival mask and just 23 of the best things to do in Seville in 2025 in the Times.
and 10 of the city’s most beautiful historic shops in Venice including Cantina del Vino gia Schiavi, for wine, Antica Drogheria Mascari, a delicatessen run by the same family since 1948 and Despar Teatro Italia, a supermarket in the heart of the lively Cannaregio neighbourhood.
What to see and do in Reims, in the Champagne area of France in the Times.
The Times says now is the time to visit Valencia with ‘galleries, gardens and no crowds — this sunny Spanish city is the perfect winter short break. And, three months after the region’s floods, tourists have never been more welcome.
The Zeeland region of the Netherlands’ untapped north coast makes a dream escape for foodies according to the Times.
Head to the beaches and islands around the n and you’ll find everything from 12-hour marinated turbot bisque to brioche as flaky as a croissant
Why Lanzarote loves tourists
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.
Enjoy your trip! My son really wants to go to Venice, so I'm bookmarking this post for future references!
Have a wonderful time in Venice. We’re off to Seville in a couple of weeks so will read The Times article with interest!