Advent calendars- how do you eat yours? Each day’s offering hotly anticipated and lovingly savoured, or rip open every door at once and scoff the lot in a festive frenzy of shameful delight? In the best festive manner, we present you with an advent’s- worth of Christmassy canape recipes for you to ration out or binge on to your whim, drip-fed week by week.
Tobias Gorn’s Festive Whisky Recommendations
Tobias Gorn is a sommelier. bon viveur and raconteur. Toby’s pretty excited about his recent move to The Whisky Shop and about the chance to foist a few of his finest festive tipples upon Foodepedia, and we trust him totally. This is one man who truly knows how to make proceedings go with a bang.
La Porte des Indes cookery afternoons
You wouldn’t think that behind Oxford Street’s Christmas huffers and sharp elbows is an oasis of south Indian charm, but that’s La Porte des Inde’s secret. Now,on the final Friday of every month, they host a master class and Anita Pati got stuck in.
Salvatore Calabrese’s Festive Cocktails at Salvatore’s at Playboy
We’re at the Playboy Club. Yes, there are bunnies. Yes, there are men in suits, but there are also just as many ladies, and they are resoundingly not’of the night’. The lighting’s low but more to create atmosphere than to disguise any nefarious activities. Oh, and Salvatore Calabrese, aka’The World’s Leading Cocktail Expert’, is mixing drinks and holding court with oodles of panache.
The Big Fat Foodepedia Christmas Food Guide
A subjective selection of sublime scran we like to scoff and/or share at Christmas.
Annual Old Ale Festival at The White Horse
The White Horse held their Annual Old Ale Festival for the thirtieth time last weekend, an event that sees the pub meticulously clean their cellar and lines to bring in around 80 different beers, from old ales, porters, stouts and barley wines, to strong ales and milds.
The Kingly Seekh-Kebab
The nan is just crispy enough to enjoy but still soft enough to get a firm grip on the lamb kebab inside. The spices were well-balanced but personally I could have done with some more chilli kick. If I’d been drunk, I’d have liked a lot more chilli. Let’s face it sublety is wasted on a man full of cooking lager.
The Fat of the Land, London Spanish restaurant
Attempts to de-pubify the place have involved hanging jamons in the window like meaty Christmas decorations. This presumably in homage to the average tapas bar in Spain, where chunky legs hang over your head sweating gently into their cups. Rather like the clients.
Festive recipe: Paul A Young’s Muscovado chocolate cakes with cocoa nibs and Mayan spiced syrup
Paul A Young: chocolatier extraordinaire and self-confessed ‘cake-a-holic’. Alright then Paul, give us your stickiest, most intense muffin recipe for festive munching. And, sure enough, with these muscovado-cocoa-nib creations, boy done good…
Tia Maria Festive Cocktails
When mulled wine-induced ennui sets in, nip over to the dark side and sup on one of these tasty tipples from Tia Maria.