New Hall feast

It was a guest night to celebrate Sir Frank Kermode, who was dutifully present, complete with smoking pipe. It was in a room next to the extremely pleasant gardens of New Hall College, Cambridge, in a very modern building, although it could have done with some air-conditioning on this...

Not Champagne at the Houses of Parliament

There was a time when Veuve du Vernay was the standard non-champagne. The important words are “methode traditionelle,” without which some people can tolerate it in Buck’s Fizz, but myself only in a punch. Nowadays Spanish Cava tends to substitute, with some of them better than lower end champagnes,...

Sometimes, simplicity is easy

Blueberries and peaches Originally uploaded by dynamist. I’d heard tell that there was an outdoor fruit and veg stall on Court Street in Cincinnati (between Walnut and Vine Streets), and set off on what was a perfectly beautiful day – sunny-but-cool and breezy – to find it. Find it...

Soda jerks

My friend Nancy Rommelmann did not take a favourable view of a line of high-end sodas she was introduced to in Seattle. I understand her reasoning, and agree with everything she wrote. That said…I kind of like the idea of at least tasting the lemongrass soda, the lavender soda,...

Fowl injury

Salad + chicken Originally uploaded by dynamist. Chicken, fried in nothing but balsamic vinegar and lemon juice, goes well on top of a big salad (three leaves of romaine and one sliced tomato, flying in the face of Nigella’s insistence that no tomato should ever meet a lettuce leaf...

A Masterpeach

This Masterpeace Semillon Colombard was a surprisingly golden colour. It was from 2004, so reasonably aged for a white, but not so aged that you’d expect this change of colour. It’s from south-east Australia, near the banks of the Might Murray River and 12.5%. It was generally soft and...

Summer berries

I was a guest at quite a good barbecue. The cooker itself was a gas one, which, while very efficient, somehow lacks the charm and smells of a real charcoal barbecue. The food was good, though, with lamb patties, huge fish cakes, and hot dogs. I chose a mild...

Carrot and apple crumble (no, really!)

I know it sounds weird, but it’s what I had left from dinner, so naturally, in the anotherfoodblog style, I tried to think of an imaginitive way of using the food. So I chopped the apple into cubes and the carrot into smaller cubes, added a good slug of...

Revision Snacks

At this time of the academic year everyone is supposed to be revising. All this means is that less people are going out and having fun; everyone is pretending to be working at home. I tend to watch films and snack (relatively healthily) on food all day and occasionally...

French Syrah 2003

Called Chevalier Delatour, it had red fruits and pepper on the nose, a bit of chocolate and sherbert (slightly sweet with a faint fizz) on the body and a finish that faded gently away to some firm tannins. It went well with very finely sliced and fried potaotes and...