Short of Christmas gift ideas and running out of time to find a present with the X-factor? Treat the gastronome in your family to the ultimate gourmet indulgence – a bottle of Harveys Pedro Ximénez, made exclusively from sun-drenched Spanish PX grapes. Smooth and velvety, this delectable dark mahogany-coloured dessert wine is bursting with aromas of raisins and dried figs.
What, you might reasonably ask, is a Sapa? Is it a person, a place or a planet in a galaxy far, far away? It is in fact a town and district in northwest Vietnam and the homeland of Luke Nguyen the award-winning chef and owner of the Red Lantern restaurant in Surry Hills, Sydney. Well known across Oz as a ‘TV chef’ Luke is fascinated by his Vietnamese homeland and, speaking the language, is able to find and enjoy the best places to eat in this wonderful, and still to most westerners, mysterious land.
Visitors to Goodge Street (number 62) in the West End are invited to try a true tapas bar experience following the opening of Barrica. With the look and feel of an authentic Spanish tapas bar, Barrica is a venue where people can feel just as comfortable having a coffee, a beer, a glass of sherry or a sit down meal with wine.
Russian Standard Vodka has teamed up with MasterChef 2009 winner Mat Follas to bring you something different for your dining table this Christmas and has come up with four alternative recipes to serve your hungry guests. Instead of the traditional turkey and Brussle sprouts this year why not indulge in alternative high dining with some tantalising Russian Standard cocktails to celebrate in style!
Who do you turn to when it’s Christmas Eve and the turkey you’ve just lugged home from the shops won’t fit in the oven? Or the recipe says ‘stuff the neck end” – and you just can’t tell which end is which? You call the turkey hotline of course!
Up against some of Scotland’s top chefs, the rural hotelier on Perthshire’s Loch Tay (profiled in August) was recently announced overall winner during the prestigious awards at Edinburgh’s Prestonfield House.
We all love a bit of Waitrose even those of us in postcodes where Waitrose fear to tread. We simply mount an expedition to a more favoured code (SW12 over SW16 for me) and then bring back our goodies under cover of darkness in case the local chavs spot our signs of obvious affluence.
Hoping for full houses 6 independent restaurateurs have come up with an innovative way to attract customers to their establishments to create a local business partnership. In the New Year the venues (all within walking distance of each other) will be launching ‘Balham Bingo”, where diners present their special bingo cards to obtain discounts at the participating eateries
The RNLI Talisker gift pack is a great Christmas present for whisky connoisseurs and with one pound from every sale of the pack being donated to the RNLI, you and the loved one who receives it will know that you are helping support this incredibly worthwhile charity.
I have lined up the russets, wondrous in their crunch, the foxy Coxs, the carrots – knobbly – and the bananas. All of them perfect, earthly gifts distributed during the feeding of the five thousand. It was a Biblical act, a water-coloured wintry vision in Trafalgar Square – part West Country festival, part Regency splendour as the skies unloaded their first Christmas snow onto a lunchtime mob of far more than 5,000 believers.
