Campari is no rarity on British shelves but, until the last few years, Aperol was hard to buy. I used to ask a friend to bring a bottle back when she was in Italy. Now Aperol is ubiquitous.
Category: Food & Drink
Posh Salt
Le Patron Mange Ici … Non?
Hotels are required to have restaurants and they used to be great places to dine well and quite cheaply. These days they hand their dining rooms over to celebrity chefs – so it’s no bargain. How often a celeb chef sets a foot in “his” dining room, let alone the kitchen, is a moot point.… Continue reading Le Patron Mange Ici … Non?
Croissants for Breakfast
A Marshal of France
The Picnic Papers
On Wednesday, for the first time this year, it was warm enough in London to sit out in the garden in the early evening with the awning out. My thoughts turned to picnics and, a glass of chilled dry sherry to hand, I reached for The Picnic Papers. (I put a half bottle of Sauternes… Continue reading The Picnic Papers
Sudak Remembered
Henry Sanford said that although he’d never been to Sudak, he visited Koktibel which is nearby in 2005. His great, great grandfather was the Russian seascape painter, Ivan Aivazovsky, who lived in Theodossia (now Feodosia). Russian readers will be familiar with Aivazovsky (1817-1900). He was more highly regarded internationally in his own lifetime than his British… Continue reading Sudak Remembered
Château Bute
The Compleat Imbiber, Part Two
Cyril Ray was prepared to turn his hand to anything. In the early 1950s, when he was on the staff of The Sunday Times, his colleague Godfrey Smith recalled* : “he wrote the Atticus column and the Autolycus saleroom column, he was also Christopher Pym, the reviewer of thrillers … he understudied Harold Hobson and… Continue reading The Compleat Imbiber, Part Two