“I realise that, Shorty, but where are we going?” “Dinner.” “I know what the evening meal’s called, Shorty, I sometimes have three. But where are we going?” I’ll spare y’all the rest of the conversation, just believe me when I say it went on for quite some time with Shorty chuckling like a hick who’s…
Once upon a time we all used to drink brandy. We used it in the morning with soda water to freshen an appetite, a sniff after lunch to settle the stomach and a glass or two of the vintage stuff to accompany our cards in the evening. But you must be at least over sixty…
In John Carpenters 1981 Sci-fi classic, Escape from New York, Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) has to save the US President and then break out of Manhattan which, circa 1997, has been turned into a lawless penitentiary. Anyone who has ever attempted to leave London on a Bank Holiday weekend will know exactly how Snake felt.…
What is it about bars being incapable of serving their signature cocktail (or the one they were key in popularising) to an acceptable standard? Mojitos at Hemingway haunt, La Bodeguita? Old measly mint and mean rum portions. Daiquiris at Florodita ‘Cradle of the Daiquiri’, in Havana? Blended slush. Old Fashioned’s at the Pendennis Club in…
The Singapore Sling, Martini, Gin and Tonic, Tom Collins, Gin Fizz, Negroni and the Gimlet. We are all familiar with the usual suspects in the gin cocktail lineup, but we rarely consider the main ingredient. Perhaps Beefeater 24 will change that. I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is…
Art predates agriculture. And still none of us is sure what it’s for. Like religion, all civilisations have it. But still we don’t know why we need it. Anthropologists say our species started the moment when we showed the first observable sign of being separate, different, from the other primates. That moment, 40,000 years ago,…
The first time I drank port I was 17. My local football side had just been knocked out by our arch rivals and in an act of youthful rashness, I grabbed my fathers Port and proceeded to drown my sorrows. It was during this tumultuous time a great thing happened, I discovered this smooth and…
Spherification is the unique process of taking liquid and reshaping it into a sphere. Never tried it before, or even heard of it? It’s well worth trying. It’s rather complicated to make, so the two-Michelin starred restaurant Hibiscus is offering it. It’s a unique experience. The drink is made with Ketel One vodka, as Claude…
It has been a while since I last returned to my old stomping grounds in Notting Hill. I have a long and insalubrious history with the place. Starting at the tender age of 14, the Moscow Pub, long since departed, on the Moscow Road, when the last days of Punk were slowly ebbing away and…
Your journey from the toilets of Cheltenham to the sands of Necker can be bumpy and, ultimately, lacking in cheer. Alain de Botton wrote of how we only need to be slightly richer than our immediate peer group to feel contentedly on top. Slightly richer is the key. Any less and we suffer status anxiety.…