Month: February 2011

Two things always amaze me about Preto in Wilton Road.  First are the meats, of course.  They bring an endless success of joints to your table and carve off slices: beef, sirloin, pork, lamb, chicken, ham, sausages, etc., etc.  It simply goes on until you turn your circular marker...

The New Year lanterns had been taken down and were lying in great piles in the street.  Feeling like eating some fragrant crispy duck, three of us went to the London Chinatown in Gerrard Street. Its foyer suggests its previous ancestry as the Hotel de Boulogne. I loved the...

I was at the Cork and Bottle in Leicester Square with friends, and about to order a New Zealand sauvignon blanc or a South African chenin blanc, when I saw a huge tub filled with bottles of  Joel Delaunay’s Touraine Sauvignon.  It’s a Loire wine, very different in character...

The Loose Box on Horseferry Road, Westminster, does some very good starters which I sometimes order instead of a main course when I’m not very hungry.  This time I ordered the anchovies on wholemeal toast with a garnish salad and a poached egg.  It was delicious and quite filling,...

I was invited to a port and cheese party in the recently restored and quite elegant Latimer Room of Clare College.  Tucked away next to the river, Clare is a small and quite pretty college that I’ve always liked.  Its neighbour, Trinity Hall, is also intimate and pleasant. We...

I bought the Sainsbury’s basics sausages, which were very cheap.  I fried them with a sauteed vegetable mix of potatoes, green peppers and carrots (pre-cooked).  To my surprise the sausages were awful.  There was no taste or texture of meat at all, just cereal, and soggy cereal at that. ...

I went with a vegetarian friend who eats some seafood, so is more accurately a piscatarian.  I thought it might be fun to do the Dumplings’ Legend that way.  Located in Gerrard Street in London’s Chinatown, I’ve written it up before, describing how one can watch through plate glass...

I was at the Oxo Tower brasserie, run by Harvey Nichols, in the company of 9 sixth form students aged 17 and 18.  We had one of the set menus, with a complimentary glass of prosecco to start with.  The place was so dark that there are no good...

I poached the salmon for one minute, wrapped in cling-film in the microwave.  It’s important to keep the oils. I then mashed it roughly with a fork, not too fine.  Both slices of wholemeal bread were spread with light mayonnaise.  On went a generous helping of the salmon, now...

I suppose it’s been years since I went to Effes Turkish restaurant in King Street, Cambridge.  It does really good meats, and displays them and cooks them in full view in the restaurant itself – always a good sign.  I never had a bad meal there.  This time without...