London Food Blog
Can anyone remember the world before Pesto? Anyone? Pesto seems to have been pimping our pastas and glaming our dowdy fritattas since, oh, 1882? In reality, few people outside Italy had heard of Pesto until the 1990s but it’s definitely taken on the ‘comfortable old slippers’ role in the culinary shoe cupboard since then. Originating in Genoa, […]
On the 5 days of the week when Londoners are not starving themselves on a diet of one sardine and a celery stick (aka the 5:2 diet), it appears we have an uber-crush on desserts. Dessert bars and pop-ups have become something of a ‘thing’ lately. At the same time (who is the chicken and […]
I first met Corrado Accardi at a cooking class. A pizza cooking class. Those who know me will find this surprising as pizza is not my favorite of the five food groups. ‘Where’s the chocolate?’ I hear you ask. I was really taken by Corrado’s enthusiasm and passion as a food entrepreneur and wondered what his […]
I have a big belly. I’m stocky and rotund like one of those Babushka Dolls, though I do try not to look quite so much like a Russian peasant. I’ve thrown that nasty tassley thing away for instance. But weirdly, I have quite a small appetite. Yes, of course there’s the second ‘dessert tummy’, which […]
We’ve been living in something only marginally bigger than a toddler’s playpen for a while now. ‘Enough. Let’s move.’ ‘Ok.’ Looking, looking, then finally we find something. It’s a little further out. Fine. Good. Great! We’re ready. Were SO ready. Then comes Opso. And my resolve weakens. And I don’t return real estate phone […]
It’s taken me a while to be friends with Rhubarb. She can be a slippery, surly thing. But I’ve recently come around to her. A heavy-handed approach to sugar and the unexpected zing of ginger - and she can be quite the charmer. This compote recipe is a lovely way of celebrating her moody tartiness; her […]
Gin’s having a bit of a ‘Thing’ in London at the moment. The ‘Thing’ actually started some years ago, but shows no signs of morphing into a momentary “Fad”, so I think we can continue to call it a ‘Thing’. In the 80s and 90s no woman worth her extra thick shoulder pads would be […]
Of questionable nutritious value but devilishly moreish, these clumps of nutty jaw-sticking naughtiness are divine. Another super easy throw together. You’ll notice a pattern here; I do have a fondness for ‘quick sticks cooking’. And if it looks like you laboured over it for an eternity? Well you’ll still go to heaven if you decide […]
I’m a sucker for authenticity. It sounds a bit ‘white witchy-poo hippy’, but I tend to get ‘hunches’. I reckon I can tell if the wool around my eyes is being tugged too tightly. Of course I may be dressing up a tendency to be judgemental as wisdom, and intuition, but I do get ‘feelings’, […]
I don’t make the best baba ganoush I’ve ever eaten. This is not false humility. I actually make a great baba ganoush, it’s just that somewhere in central London you’ll find a better baba ganoush than mine. It makes me a little tetchy to admit that, but there you have it, I can’t tell you […]
Spring has been busy. Never a lazy season, this year she’s hatched a swathe of new eateries, bars and cafes across the city. There are many to choose from, but these are the 6 new central London spots we like the most and would recommend to the ‘general proletariat’. If you are, in fact, a […]
This recipe for Honeycomb Chocolate Soldiers is a nostalgic nod to the gluttony of my youth. In the general store my parents owned in Australia, the “Violet Crumble” was often used as payment for doing an after-school shift behind the shop-counter. A long slender bar of crisp, brittle honeycomb encased in milk chocolate, made an […]
I’ve always had a soft spot for Bill. Maybe it’s the shock of Aussie beachy blond hair. Or his cheeky grin lifted straight from the face of a naughty but endearing toddler. Or maybe it’s what appears to be his effortlessness in achieving that ‘perfect life’ that we all covet. So when I heard Bill […]
Coffee is a prickly subject. I regularly disagree with one of my friends about where to find the best coffee in central London. She takes a long black and I tend towards a milky brew. I haven’t undertaken research in the strictest sense of the word, but my feeling is that baristas tend to prefer to pump […]
I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but gravlax is actually very easy to make. It’s one of those showy dishes that people ‘Ooh’ and ‘Ahhh’ over, marvelling at your talent and technique. I shamefully confess to having stoked the fires of awe once or twice myself. But in truth it’s a little bit cooking by […]
It’s taken me quite some time to accept that i am a slave to my chocolate cravings. I do know who’s boss in this tussle, and it’s really never been me. I clutch at all the stats and research that suggests chocolate is undeniably, unequivocally, unbelievably, unimaginably good for you. But I guess I’ve always […]
No, your geography teacher wasn’t a sham, London’s not on the coast. But this eclectic city does have several waterways, and one of the best ways of seeing London is by finding a stretch of water and taking a tour along it. We’ve done the hard work for you and come up with a couple […]
When I was a kid we’d just leapfrog over the indulgence of Pancake Tuesday and run headlong into the abstinence and guilt of Ash Wednesday; followed by six weeks of deprivation. This seems grossly unfair in hindsight, but at the time we didn’t know that a day of nutella and the dairy fat of your […]
We’ve had many requests for this recipe. it’s a perfect ‘between seasons’ soup and apart from peeling the jerusalem artichokes, it sort of cooks itself. In fact, if you give the artichokes a good scrub you don’t really need to peel them - just use a clean scourer; one you haven’t used on the dishes […]
This zingy concoction can be made wither with or without chilli. I rather like it with chilli but I’ve had a few guests who can’t eat chilli so I did an ok version without it. It’s fabulous in this calamari dish but is also rather scrummy with chicken, prawns, scallops or veggie noodles (sub […]
I live in almost the most perfect area of London. A quick scoot into Soho, an energetic leap across to a huge central London park and a mere whiff of a croissant away from an amazing weekend farmers market where the eggs still smell like poo. It’s an angel’s wing away from being capital P […]
PURL is grubby. And that’s why it took me three and a half years to check it out. Even though it’s only a 6 and a half minute walk from my place. And even though I love cocktails. But - and this is why it’s on this London Blog of goodies - a bit like […]
So it went like this: Tour guide: “…and this is a great example of the Adam style of architecture.” We were in one of the wee roads off The Strand, running south, down to the Thames. Me: “Oh yes, is that Douglas Adams?” Nanoseconds after it escaped from my mouth I blushed puce. It was […]
