Culinary Pursuits
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Going Out for a Chinese 10/05/08
Since the Weasel’s research budget for a special issue on China did not stretch to a business class return to Shanghai, I settled for Croydon. No. 544 Purley Way may seem an unlikely spot to plumb the mysteries of the Orient, but my friend Malcolm maintains that a visit here is “like a little holiday”. It’s not every address on the periphery of south London that boasts a massiv... Full text
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Futurist Cuisine 15/03/08
We’ve eaten some pretty weird stuff at Weasel Villas, but this was the first time that our dining table was laden with food that exalted “the geometric splendour of speed” and “the aesthetics of the machine”. First to appear was my version of the Cubist Vegetable Patch (a demanding arrangement of fried carrots, fried celery, pickled silverskin onions and cold boiled peas). Then... Full text
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Lover’s Marmite 16/02/08
Sadly, Mrs W was disappointed by her St Valentine’s Day champagne. “Urgh. It’s not at all nice. Sort of apple-y. Unpleasantly sweet.” In case this sends shock waves through the grandes marques of Reims and Epernay, I should explain that her reaction was not prompted by a bottle of celebratory fizz but a champagne-flavoured version of a more quotidian pleasure. For this “limited... Full text
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The Titanic Truffle of Piedmont 03/11/07
The story of how the bemused features of the Weasel came to be spread across the pages of the Italian press from La Stampa to Corriere della Serra, begins in Scarborough. Last year, I reported on a fragrant visit I made to the town’s fish market with Giorgio Alessio, chef-proprietor of Scarborough’s top restaurant, the much-lauded La Lanterna. In the course of a transporting su... Full text
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Inflating Pitta Bread 12/08/06
On the brink of departure for our annual summer sojourn in the north, we gathered vital food supplies. This is not because food shops are thin on the ground in North Yorkshire. If anything, the reverse is true. However, Turkish supermarkets, plentiful in our patch of south London, are a bit of a rarity in the Filey Bay area. Over the past few years, we have become addicted to t... Full text