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The End of the Endless Summer
I remember being given a menu when in a Fuller’s pub a couple of years ago emblazoned with ‘summers were longer when we were younger’ across the front. Despite this only being the late spring Bank...
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(Mostly) Raw Fish
While originally becoming popular across South East Asia as a way to preserve fish in fermented rice so it would last longer, also see zabasushi below, Hanaya Yohei is generally credited as the...
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Deep Fried Things and Drinking
One of my favourite sayings remains, much the the Ewing’s chagrin, if you’re going to get wet then you may as well go swimming; a motto that perfectly encapsulates drinking while on holiday. Or how a...
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Stealth's Dark Sugars (aka the Blog is Invaded)
Clearly Pies and Fries’ loyal readers are primarily interested in updates about Stealth’s life and long for more pictures of her to be uploaded to the blog. So, as a special November treat, I,...
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Naan and Grandad @ Mr Chilly
Throughout life I've so far mostly ignored the many well intentioned warnings about peaking too early; hence why I was always a sprinter not a cross-country-er (that, and a complete lack of endurance...
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Foxlow and Craft Beer Co.
Foxlow is the baby sibling of the much loved Hawksmoor, and whilst there has always been a pricking curiosity to try their famed smoked beef ribs and soft serve sundaes, with something as perfect as...
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Pints and Pancakes, Chesham Style
Recently, at the fifth time braving the concentric circles of hell, aka IKEA - I did get to eat lots of meatballs, though – we bought a new bed. This turned out to be rather more fortuitous than I...
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XT Brewery and the Eight Bells
Saturday sun came early one morning In a sky so clear and blue Saturday sun came without warning So no-one knew what to do Well, that last line wasn’t completely true. When the winter sun shines then...
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Festive Fun, St Albans
Anyone (or the one) who has read this blog with any regularity will know my perfect Sunday roast criteria; red meat should be rare, white meat not dry; yorkies should be both crisp and squidgy, there...
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January Blues
For last year's words belong to last year's language And next year's words await another voice.― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets There’s something relentlessly dull about January. All the on the wagon...
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Cupcakes, Carciofi Fritti and Capitalism
As has been established in the previous post, my way of dealing with any lingering New Year malaise is not the gym and Dry January, but more carb-loading and pub crawls. In a concession to the fact we...
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Rams, Kenton
Dear old Grandad’s taken a tumble and as a consequence has been banged up at the NHS’s pleasure for the last few weeks. While it’s unlikely many of us would ever choose to be in hospital, the care...
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Hospital Food
Recent research has suggested that, far from being a sign of being stuck in the past, nostalgia can actually be good for you. Of course, we’re not talking about the mawkish and sentimental clinging on...
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Greed in the Temple (sung to the tune of the Prince song)
As you may now have gathered the last few weeks has seen Grandad becoming ever more lithe and sprightly, as he starts to zip about again after his recent broken hip, whilst we become ever poorer and...
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Fryday Night
Having a firmly London-centric lineage (save for a Norn Iron Grandmother and, as I have recently discovered, a Pie Eater as a paternal Great-Grandfather) you're probably thinking I spent most my...
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London Claw Tour
It’s been a while since I went on one of my half-cocked ‘challenges’ - well at least since I attempted to eat crab and ice cream (separately, that would be too much of a challenge even for me) at...
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My Bloody Valentine
Ahh, Valentine’s Day, the annual prospect of a corporate Cupid that tries to divest us of our remaining cash and last shreds of dignity. If your idea of true love is twelve red roses and...
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Seven(ish) Thrills of Sheffield
Everybody knows that Steel City is also the most famous to be built on seven hills (there may be the small matter of Italy’s capital, with its Trevi Fountain and Coliseum, but Sheffield produced...
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Drinking up Derbyshire
Part of the appeal of visiting the Peak District - aside, of course, from the magnificent hills and dales, classic architecture, culture and history - was the chance to visit the brewery and tap house...
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Fischer's Baslow Hall
In a bid to trump conventionality the Ewing and I celebrated our nuptials on leap Day. As well as being a suitably contrary date, we also cunningly thought it would avoid the need for scrabbling round...
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