Cured meats, two of our favourite convenience foods: sitting on the left side of our slate roof tile we have saucisson with pimento and mustard seeds and on the right, prosciutto crudo – home-carved from the boneless joint I scooped at Lidl just before Christmas… ….add rosé Champagne, one of my favourite things to drink, and we [...]
Archive for the ‘wine’ Category
valentine pinks
Posted in fast food, shopping, wine, tagged Waitrose, charcuterie, saucisson, Valentine's Day, Taittinger, prosciutto on February 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
singing Hosannah with a CinCinCin
Posted in Winter, recipes, wine, tagged Campari, Christmas, cocktail on December 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I love a mix of tradition and innovation at Christmas; mingling fresh with familiar keeps things comfortably interesting (and interestingly comfortable if we’re lucky). I apply this rule of thumb as strictly to victuals as visitors – and generally have as good a day as Nigella might shake her spatula at, even when suffering from [...]
if it’s yellow let it mellow
Posted in Summer, wine, tagged limoncello on September 8, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Limoncello – what’s not to like? For me it conjures up memories of a certain bijou hotel bar just off the Spanish Steps in Rome, we nuzzling and snuggling into the velvet sofa to the sound of our multi-talented and heavily-accented Italian crooner twiddling his Moog synthesizer while giving us his vocal stylings of Captain of [...]
one fine day
Posted in Summer, recipes, wine, tagged whitebait, wine on August 31, 2008 | 4 Comments »
With hot sunny weather forecast for Saturday all other plans went on hold so we could seize the chance to soak up every available ray of sunshine on the deck of our new penthouse apartment. Thanks to the frankly not great British summer it was our first opportunity to bask under an open blue sky [...]
of all the gin joints in all the world…
Posted in Summer, overseas, shopping, wine, tagged gin, Mahon, Menorca, Xoriguer on July 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
… we walk into a Menorcan distillery: undaunted by our desultory lunch at Cafe Baixamar we stuck to our plan and headed west for the Xoriguer Gin distillery tasting showroom, not much further along the Mahon waterfront. T had the purchase of a bottle of G in mind and I tagged along: gin gives me shivers and [...]
Campari
Posted in Summer, wine, tagged aperitif, Campari, summer drinks on July 22, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Oh how I miss those apéritif adverts of the 1970s …anytime anyplace anywhere, there’s a wonderful drink you can share, it’s the bright one, the right one, thaaat’s Martiniii… I’ve been yearning for the fabulous life ever since. But it turns out Leonard Rossiter was an arrogant egotist - he referred to Joan Collins as the [...]
chardonnay & chips
Posted in wine, tagged ABC, anything but chardonnay, Bridget Jones, chardonnay, oaky whites, Oz Clarke, pinot grigio, white wine on May 31, 2008 | 3 Comments »
So Oz Clarke declares Bridget Jones responsible for the nation’s flight from chardonnay. Well hardly, mate: Australian chardonnay put us off chardonnay! Surely it’s no surprise to find the large glass in the hand of a latterday drunkorexic now filled with the oily allurements of Italian Pinot Grigio; the mouthfeel of all that oaky Australian machismo is just too gaggingly throaty to go down, man. No wonder the guzzling nation’s going [...]
Channel hopping
Posted in restaurants, shopping, wine, tagged Channel hopping, Channel shopping, food shopping, SeaFrance, solo dining on May 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Wine stocks were getting perilously low and with no trip to Nice on the horizon and a brief interlude between French workers’ strikes, time was ripe for a quick jaunt to Calais. A choppy crossing each way rendered walking about a poor idea, so on the return leg, for just under £20 I enjoyed a proper dinner [...]
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