Rub Oil All Over

Learn to cook like a pro, then get massaged until you’re done. Turn. Serve. Everything is farmed, cultivated and produced within a square mile, straight from the farm to your fork, being the Daylesford motto. When making a Beef Bourguignon, boiling the red wine intensifies the desirable flavours and removes the alcohol. Did you know…
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Fifteen Men On A Dead Man’s Chest

Rum has been called some nasty things in the past. Some believe it originates from the Devonshire description for a great tumult: rumbullion. However, even this is tame compared to some of rums other names: red-eye, Devils death, rumscullion, Kill-Devil and Nelsons Blood. The latter stemmed from the widespread belief that Nelsons body was brought…
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Emirates Palace

Neither country is teeming with the sort of “authenticity” beloved of some western tourists and earnest backpackers. However, while Dubai sweeps the issue under the carpet and attempts to distract – look! Another new, really tall building! – Abu Dhabi cheerfully acknowledges that, before discovering oil 50 years ago, the country was basically a few…
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Make My Day, Monk

If you’re a connoisseur of wine – or just simply a wino – chances are you’ve bored someone silly at a party with this factoid. The Tempranillo grape is a derivative of the Spanish word ‘temprano’ – meaning ‘early’. It’s a cheeky young thing, an early riser – coming to fruition a few weeks before the…
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Champagne Socialising

As the TGV pulled up to Reims, Champagne, it didn’t look good. The damp and dreary weather reflected my mood, as for me a 5am alarm usually signifies the end of a long bar shift and the promise of a post-work cold one, as opposed to a day trip to France. Reims, located eighty miles…
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Colonial Irrigation

The village is Colmar, a resort built in the style of the French village of Alsace. It’s family-based, with rooms in medieval-style houses and cobbled streets. Meanwhile, it’s sister property, The Chateau, is a newly-opened turreted castle, which was modelled on Alsace’s 18th century medieval castle, Haut Koesnigburg. I’m staying at the castle (of course) and…
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Living In A Gangster’s Paradise

After conquering Russia, multiple restaurateur Arkady Novikov is now looking to other countries to conquer. Or, according to some, disappoint.  In a huge Mayfair space, Novikov has split the room and the big name critics. At the front, the pan-Asian restaurant. Downstairs, a vast Italian one. On the one hand, AA Gill loving it. On…
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