One of the things I banged on about endlessly while based on the West Coast of Canada was the sheer variety of travel experiences on offer back in the UK – especially the variety of cities we can visit, often within a couple of hours drive of our homes. Canada is epic, obviously, but those […]

I recently wrote a post about the best places to find British food in Vancouver, because during my four years living in Canada’s cool West Coast city, I was continually determined to find a taste of Europe – and by that I basically mean I was always on the hunt for good cheese. This post […]

After four amazing – and sometimes challenging – years living in Vancouver, British Columbia, I moved back to the UK. When people ask me why I left Canada – a dream destination for many – the answer I give is simple but may seem trite: I couldn’t live without good cheddar cheese. Of course there […]

I go to Glasgow for 48 hours. It’s no exaggeration to say that all I do during that time is eat – as well as learn just why Glasgow is an urban paradise for foodies. But judging by the reactions of people who hear about my Glasgow foodie weekend, it seems that generally speaking, expectations […]

It shouldn’t be bright yellow, or fluffy, it isn’t intended for dinner and it’s not supposed to be synonymous with seafood. In fact, technically it’s not even a Spanish dish.  Even though the first food that springs to mind when you think of Spanish cuisine is probably paella, the dish has been bastardised beyond all recognition to a point where […]

The fierce sun is shining down on my map, amplified through the windscreen, as we drive our little red car past endless fields of green lettuce under bright blue skies; the scene is like a child’s storybook illustration come to glorious life. Even more glorious is the fact that it’s December and my boyfriend and […]

Regular readers might have noticed that I tend to take a cooking class in almost every destination I visit; for me there’s now better way get under the skin of a country than to find out about the food. Nowhere does this thrill me more than in South-East Asia, where a morning spent at the […]

Food can make or break a destination. I remember my first trip to Portugal, when I was distinctly underwhelmed by the food – and as a result didn’t venture back for years (though when I did I found its foodie side.) When planning my trip to Ljubljana I wasn’t sure what to expect from Slovenia’s […]

Slovenians will tell you their country is shaped like a chicken, and their food obsession doesn’t end there as I discovered when I attended a Slovenian cooking class in the capital. Being let loose in a Ljubljana kitchen with five different dishes taught me a lot about a national cuisine to which I was totally new […]

Vancouver Island is the largest Pacific Island west of New Zealand, larger than Sicily and a shade smaller than Taiwan – but while British Naval officer George Vancouver may have given his name to both his city and island discoveries, the name is where the similarity between Vancouver city and Vancouver island, ends. ‘The Island’ as […]

Touted as the most British place in all of Canada and named after the Queen who made the country a colony, the city of Victoria reflects the values of the lady herself; rather modest, genteel and pleasantly old fashioned but with a power that belies its appearance – this is the capital of British Columbia, […]

I discover two of the top places to eat in Brandon Manitoba  – from Canadian-themed grill Joe Beeverz to sophisticated dining at lounge-bar Blu Kitchen…

As the year drew to a close I found myself writing a post recapping my favourite travel memories of 2013 and I learned a couple of things about myself in the process – firstly that many of my favourite moments of the year involve nature and animals, and secondly that when I’m not looking for […]

Tiramisu is the legend of Italian deserts – everyone’s heard of it and almost everyone knows it means ‘pick me up’. So it’s surprising to learn that the dish didn’t even exist until at least the late 1960’s. As one of my favourite puddings I seek it out all over the world and I’ve had […]

This is a true slice of rural back-to-basics Italian cookery; walking through the plentiful land surrounding a quintessential Tuscan villa, down steep verdant hills and into the flourishing vegetable garden I crouch down to hand-pick huge succulent tomatoes. Together with my friends we collect the fruit in baskets and the folds of our aprons, then, glass of wine […]

Everyone who know me knows what a sweet tooth I have. So when I signed up for a residential cookery course at a secluded villa in the heart of the Tuscan countryside, plum jam making was one session I was never going to miss. It turns out that making your own jam – with a […]

I like my food, but I’m no scientist. So when I’m invited to learn how the UK’s most famous sea salt is hand-made on the Straits of Menai I’m intrigued, but wonder if I’ll actually understand the process behind it all. It turns out I’ve got nothing to worry about, as Halen Môn co-founder Alison Lea-Wilson […]

The island of Anglesey is most famous for its previous royal residents Prince William and Kate Middleton, but as this list of my favourite 3 places to eat in Anglesey shows, Ynys Môn really deserves to make a few headlines of its own. There’s plenty of locally-sourced seafood and the island is home to award-winning Halen Môn sea salt – […]

Remember the bad old days when our idea of Parmesan was that powdery substance we’d sprinkle on spaghetti through tiny holes in the top of a cardboard shaker? Little did I know that decades later this condiment would make way for the real deal when something called a rocket and parmesan salad would become de […]

Welcome to the best thing I discovered during my time in The Philippines –  doing it ‘dampa style’. Do it once and you’ll just want to do it all over again the next night. And the next. Be warned the pictures are just blurry iphone images because when you’re doing it dampa style you don’t […]

What’s your worst culinary habit? Mine’s pouring copious amounts of balsamic vinegar over anything and everything, so I was interested to find out a bit more about the stuff I’ve been practically drinking out the bottle for most of my adult life. But despite all my conspicuous consumption of aceto balsamico I didn’t know any […]

‘It’s marvellous this tortellini with ricotta cheese’ exclaims Daniela, whose traditional family pasta shop has been here in Bologna’s Mercato della Erbe for 70 years. It’s where she and sister Monica hand make lasagna, tortellini and tortelloni for the people of  Emilia Romagna, helped by their mother Renata. ‘Is this one your favourite?’ I ask. ‘Everything here is […]

When I made a mental checklist of all the things I was looking forward to about visiting Canada, stunning scenery was up there, epic train rides too – and exploring cool cities. I just didn’t realise that the food in Vancouver and the surrounding area was to be one of the ultimate highlights of my time […]

Think Asian street food and you’ll probably think of stalls selling delicious and mysterious local delicacies cooked up by a smiling old lady on a dirty street corner. Street food can make us feel excited about the thrill to our taste buds and apprehensive about the danger to our tummies in equal measure, but they’ve […]

How much food can one girl eat (and photograph) during a single day on a food tour of Seoul? Let’s find out…

I’ve been to Portugal twice before and both times the food was a major sticking point for me, so I knew my recent trip round the country would be make or break for my relationship with Portuguese cuisine. I’m happy to report that from green wine to roast chicken, Port to quince jam, via fresh […]

London has more global cuisine than anyone could hope to eat in a lifetime including a bewildering array of around 450 Japanese restaurants, but how can you find the most authentic Japanese restaurants in the capital if you don’t know your sushi from your sashimi? In this guest post Japanophile and Japan Journeys expert James […]

‘There are over 100 Ferraris parked in the underground garages of the city’ reveals Stefania, my host at the Melia Hotel in the heart of the Northern Italian city of Genoa. ‘But,’ she leans in conspiratorially to explain ‘you never see them driving through the streets. That’s because the Genoese people aren’t ostentatious, they are […]

What’s in a name? Well as it turns out rather a lot. The right name can really take you places  – and in the case of Eataly be the catalyst for a lot of income. This is a culinary example of how to turn a clever moniker into cold hard cash. It is a high-class, […]

Franschhoek is synonymous the world over with fine wines and high-class dining, but the area is not strictly the preserve of bon vivants…

We expected it to be breathtaking, but Route 62 still turned out to be the most under-rated journey we took during our three weeks in South Africa. A tight schedule meant that we drove virtually the entire length of this celebrated back-road through South Africa’s Klein Karoo in single unforgettable day, and our final stop-off […]

First I should point out that you don’t have to have soya milk – but each of these three places does great coffee and superior snacks and has a lovely ethos –  plus happily for me and other soya fans, they can all offer you a non-dairy latte without blinking an eye. Here are my […]

If you don’t fancy elbowing your way around your local high street this Christmas to stock up on the usual gifts, you still have time to take in one of the best of the European Christmas markets, to combine your Christmas shopping with a festive mini-break.

Soho’s Secret Tea Room Update: November 2018 This review of Soho’s Secret Tea Room is one of the oldest posts on this site, but looking through the latest reviews from 2018 the experience I had at this Tea Room above the Coach & Horses is absolutely consistent with the way it is today, so I […]