There’s a kind of mutual osmosis between The Lobster and its diverse clientele, and this stops the place being hijacked by cliques; not everything is fair-trade or organic, not all the staff have dredge locks, and it’s unlikely that someone will start strumming the guitar or free-styling poetry while you attend to your bagel. You can plug into the low-key buzz, or spread yourself out with the paper, a piece of coconut cake, and a view straight out of a great seafaring yarn.
The Manor Arms, Streatham, London
Maybe I’m being biased toward my own manor, but the Manor Arms is just what Streatham needs. We have wide-open spaces, we have large houses, our streets are prettily decorated with Tyskie tins and now we have somewhere to eat that isn’t Subway. If the kitchen could speed up, and the waitresses not forget things, it could be a real winner innit?
A Mother’s Day wine selection?
We have looked at a four wines that you might want to consider buying for your Mother’s Day meal, these might help you select the right ones for your table on this special occasion.
Laithwaites’ lucky dip, select a £900 bottle of wine for £5!
The lucky dip starts at 10 am on Saturday the 26th March until 8 pm that same day. We’re told that last year the event was so popular that entrants were queuing around the block to take part and the event as a whole was a sell out. So advice is that you should arrive early to ensure that you aren’t disappointed.
Asda makes a Mother’s Day treat
As we all know flowers and chocolates are the obvious Mother’s Day gift idea and we all rely on them year after year. But this year Asda have combined both of these traditional fall back options many of us buy for our mums into one product, their three dimensional Chocolate Flower Pot Cake.
Imli’s potato and pea cakes with tamarind chutney
Here is one of the recipes from the new Saturday morning cookery classes at Imli, the Indian street food style tapas restaurant on Wardour Street. Led by Imli’s executive chef Samir Sadekar, classes are for small groups (maximum eight) and are just as much fun for novice cooks as for more experienced home cooks.
Imli cookery classes add spice in the kitchen
At Imli, an Indian tapas-style restaurant in Soho, executive chef Samir Sadekar has launched a cookery class to help the uncertain get to grips with cooking Indian food, including using Indian spices. So I Joanna Biddolph whizzed up Wardour Street with a spring in her step on what was an unusually lovely morning, keen to test her taste buds.
Red, white or green with your meal?
If Chile is still keeping the best wines for themselves, they must be very good indeed because Cono Sur are making some remarkable bottles at a sensible price point. For the money the ones we tried trashed same price wines from other New World producers.
Milkybar Giant Buttons join the Nestlé family of sharing bags
There’s something about revisiting those treats you had as a child that inevitably takes you back to the times you used to eat them regularly and voraciously. The Milkybar Giant Buttons are no exception.
Baking bread with Spelt from Mulberry owner Roger Saul’s Sharpham Park Mill
He may not sound like the obvious choice for expounding the virtues of the most recent super-grain to hit the mainstream, but Roger Saul, founder of handbag brand Mulberry, couldn’t be better qualified.