Get a Taste of Spain this Sunday!

On Sunday 31 May, Regent Street – A Taste of Spain 2009 will transform London’s world-famous shopping street into a grand showcase of Spanish culture, lifestyle and food for the fourth consecutive year. Regent Street will be traffic free and everyone will be invited to celebrate the very best of Spain from 12 noon to 6pm.

Keelung opens in London

Keelung is a new restaurant launching in the West End on the 1st of June. It is part of Restaurant Management UK, who possess a UK portfolio of 15 modern Asian restaurants, including Goldfish (Hampstead), the award-winning Koi, (Kensington) and Leong’s Legend (West End).

Belgo Lobster Festival

Belgo’s Lobster fest, now in it’s tenth year, promises a good deal, just the sort of thing we need in credit crunch times. 5,000 live lobsters have been pre-ordered by Executive Chef, Muir Picken from Nova Scotia’s finest lobster pots for the festival, which will run from 1st to 30th June inclusive, so there’s going to be a lot of scuttling in the kitchen.

Hump a hamper this summer

After enjoying months of the great British indoors, watching the leaves fall, the log fires flicker and warming up from the inside-out with hearty British fayre, the summer sunshine is finally on its way. With it comes the picknickers’ delight. But with the credit crunch biting and the rolling hills of Italy’s Tuscan olive groves an increasingly unaffordable and distant dream, why not bring a little of the Mediterranean lifestyle closer to home?

Nar

A stone’s throw from Vauxhall Cross (where our secret service hang out) Nar Restaurant and Bar sits on the Albert Embankment occupying the space created by two of the arches on which the trains to and from Waterloo station serve the west on London and beyond. I was invited to attend its official launch party recently and of course was happy to do so.

Summer places

Ah eating outside, is there anything nicer? Well yes, but not on a family website. We are collating places to snack in the great outdoors so read on and see which ones stir your suncream

Strada della Nonna – Gian Bohan

Strada della Nonna or The way of the Granny. Sounds a bit like a kung fu movie when you (very roughly) translate it. Italian kung fu that is, which presumably involves loudly honking your horn at people whilst flicking an imaginary beard. This is a book about a boy growing up under the culinary influence of a granny with ‘a six foot’ pasta rolling pin who would arrive in Sheffield from Modena, driven by her husband and with a car boot full of food treasures.