Nick Harman

Nick Harman

Nick Harman writes restaurant reviews and food/travel pieces for foodepedia. Suspicious of fads, unwilling to worship in gastronomic temples and heartily sick of sous vide he remains hungry for any food that has his stomach firmly in its sights.

  • Ken Hom 100 Easy Chinese Suppers

    Saturday January 28th, 2012

    Once you get the Chinese bug from this book it’s hard to stop. You’ll find yourself using it every night. It’s not often a cookbook is this good, this simple and this well produced for the money and it knocks many a posher production into a cocked hat. Well done our Ken and well done My Kitchen Table.

  • Taste the real difference - the best of Scottish produce on a plate

    Friday January 27th, 2012

    Summer Isles were just one of around ten Scottish producers who had lugged their lovely grub from the Highlands all the way down to the lowlands of the RAC Club in Pall Mall. The intention was to show first hand what we miss out on when we fix our foodie gaze on Ludlow or the continent. The Scottish Highlands are a land rich in fine produce, none of which need to consume air miles to get to our plates.

  • Toast!

    Monday January 23rd, 2012

    I got my first sandwich toaster for university, my mother feeling that I would otherwise starve. In fact I had already mastered the art of making spaghetti Bolognese as well as curry/stew (one contained curry powder, one didn’t) so I was quite safe. All I recall about using the toaster at university are clouds of acrid cheesy smoke on the staircase by my rooms and the college porter giving me a lecture on fire drill.

  • Royal China, Queensway

    Thursday January 19th, 2012

    All the staff we met had a smile and a friendly air about them and it didn’t seem forced. They were quick to refresh our crockery in the face of my messy eating and swift to top up the tea. And that’s about all I want. I certainly don’t want the American ‘Hi my name is Greg and I’ll just perch my resting actor’s buttocks on the table next to you and simper’ style of serving.

  • Caparossa Convivium

    Monday January 16th, 2012

    You could pop into Caparossa and have a glass of wine and plate of pasta and feel yourself well fed. Go for all four courses and you could feel yourself a bit fat. This modern Neapolitan eatery has a lot of charm, some very good cooking and not an oversized pepper mill in sight.

  • Bacon buddies. Two Americans have created a Bacon Salt that is even kosher

    Saturday January 14th, 2012

    The Bacon Salt is totally, irredeemably and unapologetically artificial. It’s a bacon flavour never found in nature. Like the malt salt it is zero fat, zero calorie and, good news if you’re Jewish it’s totally kosher as there is not a single bit of bacon in it. It is at base a sea-salt with a lot of spices, and it is rather addictive. What am I saying? It’s terribly addictive.

  • London Oyster Guide - Colin Pressdee

    Thursday December 29th, 2011

    Forget the scare stories and cuddle up to an oyster or six, it’s one of life’s greatest eating pleasures and an example of how simple can so often be the very best. Lift the lid on a briny bivalve and tip it into your mouth, bite gently to release the flavour and then swallow. No, Stephen Fry did not say that, although he might.

  • Breakfast time

    Friday December 16th, 2011

    Some say the full English breakfast is this country’s main, possibly only, culinary gift to the world. Where else can you start the day with a meal  so stuffed with carbs it will keep you going well past lunch and, if taken everyday, all the way to A & E?

  • Are you man enough to take on the Hot Headz?

    Tuesday December 13th, 2011

    The ladydeez sensibly wanted nothing to do with our taste test and retreated instead to a safe distance while we chaps bragged about our capacity to withstand any amount of scoville scorching and made vulgar jokes about lavatory paper. This was going to be a pushover.

  • Bringing home the Denhay Bacon

    Tuesday December 13th, 2011

    No one today seems to think bacon ‘tastes like it used to’, although no one quite knows when exactly that time was or even what it tasted like then. Personally I recall 60’s and 70’s bacon as always having that yucky white dot of bone in it, an addition that my young foodie self would complain vociferously about to any adult within earshot.

  • Genius Gluten Free Mince Pies

    Wednesday December 7th, 2011

    Genius make a whole range of gluten-free products, and as more and more people seem to be gluten intolerant these days, almost as many as those who claim to be dyslexic in fact, this can only be a good thing. Their mince pies are 'no compromise' delicious.

  • The Bratwurst

    Monday December 5th, 2011

    There are plenty of options at Bratwurst with meal deals of sausages, as well as frikadelle and schnitzels too. With all the hype around street food, mostly stuff from the Far East, it’s worth remembering that closer to home we have a centuries old street food that is none the wurst for being eaten indoors either. Prost!

  • Thornbridge Beers. Bottled to perfection

    Friday December 2nd, 2011

    I like the idea of craft skills, dedication and talent being put into a bottle and Thornbridge Brewery from Bakewell, Derbyshire seem to have all the credentials and combine all that enthusiasm with state of the art brewing facilities. Faced with a bottle each of their Jaipur, White Swan and Kipling I got ready to go all the way.

  • Iberica Canary Wharf

    Wednesday November 30th, 2011

    In Cabot Square and rather discreetly fronted, the new Iberica Canary Wharf gives good Gosh when you get inside. A rack of reclining jamon legs next to the door make it clear you aren’t in a clothes shop, as it once was, and the space surges up ahead of you. A nice long bar to one side, space centre and left, and above two galleried floors for overspill.

  • Poulet: More Than 50 Remarkable Meals that Exalt the Honest Chicken: Cree La Favour

    Tuesday November 29th, 2011

    With 160 recipes gathered into 55 recipe sets, the pages on cooking met all my needs, plenty of variety and plenty of multi-cultural flavours as befits a bird that is globally ubiquitous. Mulligatwany with Onion Flatbread, Crispy Roast Chicken with Watercress Vinaigrette, and Jerk Thighs with Jamaican Peas are just a few that spring from the page.

  • The Rookery, Clapham Common

    Sunday November 27th, 2011

    Overall the Rookery seems to be doing the right things in the right way to become a popular neighbourhood joint. There’s a lot of middle-class, recession immune, money in Abbeville village but the restaurants there have mostly got complacent, giving the Rookery a chance to fly in successfully.

  • Tasting India Christine Mansfield

    Saturday November 26th, 2011

    We often hear that recipe books are dead and that everyone goes online to find recipes now. Well this book is a counter-argument to that, offering you something beyond mere information, but instead a tangible sensory experience too, a feast for the eyes, a tactile treat and something to curl up in a chair with. Just make sure it’s a strong chair.

  • Eating the truffles at Refettorio

    Wednesday November 23rd, 2011

    Refettorio’s truffle tasting menu may sound expensive at £125 a head and of course no one can deny that sort of cost is not for everybody. But if you’re on the right side of the great UK rich/poor divide, then actually it’s not bad, as Refettorio have kept the cost the same as last year, despite truffles being more expensive owing to the poor crops.

  • Plaimont wines and foie gras. A marriage made in Gers, France

    Monday November 21st, 2011

    A lover of foie gras Nick Harman heads to Gers in France where the wonderful people of Plaimont wines take him under their (duck) wing and treat him to tastings of their fine reds, whites and the ambrosial, legendary Paceherenc. Two stone heavier, here is his report.

  • Cha Cha Moon

    Friday November 18th, 2011

    I know some people expected more from Alan Yau of Wagamama fame, and it seems Cha Cha has reverted to a slow waltz since he stopped being in charge day to day. Even so, it’s cheap and it’s cheerful and, unlike some of Chinatown’s finest, you don’t get the feeling you’re a nuisance to the staff. For a fast feed, everyone can comfortably still keep going to the Moon.