Features

How very Moorish: Spice girl Skye Gyngell hots things up for summer

Sunday, 5 July 2009

Gently spiced dishes based on the subtly sweet flavours of North Africa are perfect for balmy English summer meals, says Skye Gyngell

Pass the port: Mark Hix finds culinary inspiration on a trip to meet a Portuguese wine-maker

Saturday, 4 July 2009

A few weeks ago, I went on a trip to Portugal with the Chop House's wine merchant John Hutton – but our journey out there turned into a bit of a passport nightmare. In London the night before we left, I suddenly realised that my passport was in the side pocket of my small travel case in Dorset.

Anthony Rose: The upturn in English wine's fortunes is due to growing professionalism and a change in grape varieties

Saturday, 4 July 2009

It's a fair bet that when Barack Obama sipped the 1998 Nyetimber Blanc de Blancs served on his recent visit to Britain, compliments will have been duly showered on his host like confetti. It's an open secret that despite the stigma that sill attaches to English wine, England can more than hold its head high in the sparkling wine stakes. With more than 100 awards doled out this year in the UK's consumer wine competitions, English wines, sparkling wines in particular, have harvested a bumper crop. All but one of several gold medals went to English fizz, among them the 2005 Camel Valley White Pinot from Bodmin in Cornwall, Nyetimber's 1992 Blanc de Blancs 1992 from East Sussex and the 2005 Hush Heath Balfour Brut Rosé from the Weald of Kent.

Wine: Something for the weekend?

Saturday, 4 July 2009

Observations: Doodle Bar invites drinkers to make their artistic mark

Friday, 3 July 2009

Children are always told off for drawing on things they shouldn't but, at a new arts café and bar in Battersea, South London it's positively encouraged. Aptly named the Doodle Bar, everything is a whitewashed, blank canvas and punters are invited to make their artistic mark on walls, tables, chairs and even the waiters, who wear white. Inside the bar is a VW Beetle, a 1970s chaise longue, a ping-pong table and, weaving across the walls, a basic outline of a map of London, that can all be added to and coloured in.

The Ten Best Ice Creams

Thursday, 2 July 2009

Chosen by Simon Usborne

Heston Blumenthal has torn up the rulebook again

Thursday, 2 July 2009

Dishwasher-poached pears, strawberries glazed in a sandwich toaster and beef cooked for an entire day.

Criminally tasty: Britain's first prison restaurant

Thursday, 2 July 2009

I've played chase-the-reservation at some top restaurants and put my name on waiting lists, praying for cancellations, at places like The Fat Duck, The Ivy and Nobu. But until now, I've never had to have Home Office clearance and a government minder to get a table. Then again, The Clink is no ordinary venue. As the only commercial restaurant in the country to open inside a prison, it's arguably the nation's most exclusive eatery.

Bites: It's time to try downsize dining

Sunday, 28 June 2009

Many years ago, your Bites correspondent happened to be staying in the same Miami hotel as a certain London-born supermodel. We ended up having lunch together in the (very chi-chi) on-site restaurant. The thing to order, she confided, was the burger and fries from the kids menu – delicious, decidedly big enough, and half the price of the adult version.

Just add flower: Skye Gyngell's summer dishes with the delicate flavour of roses

Sunday, 28 June 2009

One flower captures the scent of the season better than any other – and for Skye Gyngell, roses are also perfect for delicately flavouring summer drinks and dishes