Food 2016 – Restaurant 44, Berlin

Saturday, 4th December 2016 – Restaurant 44, Swissotel, Berlin After the spectacular meal at Hugos the preceding night this was always going to have to be a completely different experience, and to be honest one of the problems we’d hit was wanting to eat within walking distance of the hotel, which restricted our choices somewhat….

Travel 2016 – Berlin, Day 2

Saturday, December 3rd 2016 – Berlin We had a plan – or at least we thought we did! After a brief, brutal but ultimately succesful fight with the coffee machine in the hotel room, we took a leisurely breakfast in the Interconinental Club before stepping out into a crisp, cold but above all clear winter’s…

Food 2016 – Hugos Restaurant, Berlin

Friday, December 2nd 2016 – Berlin, Day 1 (Hugos Restaurant, Intercontinenal Hotel) Of Hugos Restaurant in the Intercontinental Hotel the Michelin Guide has this to say: “It is true that the view from the 14th floor is fantastic but this elegant, minimalist-style restaurant is known first and foremost for its classic, modern cuisine, which is…

Travel 2016 – Berlin, Day 1

Friday, December 2nd 2016 – Berlin, Day 1 We set off at a slightly silly hour from our friend’s house in south London to get to City airport for the 08:20 to Berlin Tegel, and although it only takes around 27 minutes at that time of day there began one of the themes of the…

Theatre 2016 – King Lear, Old Vic, London

Saturday, 19th November 2016 – King Lear, The Old Vic Theatre, London This has – as has been noted in a number of places – been something of a year of Lear, with around half a dozen major productions staged around the UK during the course of 2016. We’ve already seen the Michael Pennington version…

Food 2016 – Winter Food Festival, Northampton

Saturday/Sunday, 12th/13th November 2016 – Winter Food Festival, Northampton County Cricket Ground, Northampton After three years of the Towcester Food Festival, held in the summer months at Towcester Race Course, the indefatigable Crispin Slee, madman of the parish (in the nicest possible way) and one-man force of nature decided that what we needed in the…

Food 2016 – Rascills, Raskelf

Saturday, 29th October 2016 – Rascills, Raskelf Back in the day when Mum was still alive, she and I became very fond of Artisan, a really rather special restaurant over the other side of town from Mum and Dad’s house, and run by the lovely Lindsey and Richard Johns, with Richard cooking superb food from…

Travel/Food 2016 – Beverley, East Yorkshire

Saturday, 29th October 2016 – Beverley, East Yorkshire, UK We urgently needed to scoot up to Hull to check on my late parents’ house as we’ve just put it on the market, and so we decided to make a bit of a weekend of it and stay two nights in Beverley, which for those who…

Food 2016 – Whites, Beverley

Friday, 28th October 2016 – White’s, Beverley Back when Mum was very ill and in hospital for weeks at a time, and I was up in Hull trying to hold myself together through it all, through dealing with getting power of attornney and talking to oncologists and visiting Castle Hill Hospital for what felt like…

Food 2016 – Galvin la Chapelle, London

Saturday, 8th October 2016 – Galvin la Chapelle, Spitalfields, London Another Saturday, another restaurant, another Groupon deal. Post-theatre (No Man’s Land, Wyndhams Theatre) we made our somewhat convoluted way to Spitalfields, an area of London that has changed beyond all recognition in the years since I used to cut along Commerical Road to get to…