Matthew

Author's details

Date registered: 11 September 2011

Latest posts

  1. Review: Bistro Union, Clapham — 8 December 2025
  2. Review: Wildhive at Callow Hall, Ashbourne — 8 December 2025
  3. Review: OMA, Borough — 8 December 2025
  4. Review: Sabor, Mayfair — 8 November 2025
  5. Review: The Garden Cafe, Waterloo — 29 October 2025

Most commented posts

  1. TripAdvisor gives me indigestion — 13 comments
  2. Spicy beetroot soup — 11 comments
  3. Review: Noma, Copenhagen — 10 comments
  4. Spaghetti alla carbonara, essentially — 10 comments
  5. A gourmet and his gout — 9 comments

Author's posts listings

Ramsons, aka wild garlic

Wow, suddenly it is spring. There are lambs frollicking in the fields, daffodils nodding at the roadside, and wild garlic stinking up the riverbanks. Just a pity the daffodils aren’t edible. Hmm… in fact, they’re poisonous. “Poisoning most often occurs when people mistake the bulbs for onions.” Silly. Wild garlic, or ramsons, are perfectly edible, …

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Review: The New Inn, Baschurch

We rolled to the New Inn for Sunday lunch in a bit of a funk. Big meal out on Saturday night, rather too much wine, and then the stupid clocks went forward so lunch at 12:30 was going to feel more like 11:30. Given that we didn’t stumble home until midnight on Saturday, groaning like …

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A gourmet and his gout

I explained to my new doctor that I have gout, have had it since I was 32, and am taking medication for it. He expressed surprise at my age (late thirties), asked if I ate a lot of fatty foods (no, and at 10 stone I’m hardly hefty), and then suggested I should certainly be …

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Review: Fernandez & Wells, Soho

Most out-of-towners will usually find themselves somewhere around Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus or perhaps Carnaby Street at some point when they travel up to the metropolis. I certainly do. So it would probably be good to know about one of the best places I’ve ever found for brunch, lunch or just afternoon coffee and cake. …

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Som Tam, Thai papaya salad

One of my favourite culinary memories of our year-long trip around the world was the salad in Thailand. It’s called Som Tam and typically combines raw shredded green papaya with all the best south-east Asian flavours: garlic, chilli, lime, peanut, fish sauce, palm sugar to make a bowl of pure zing that punches with sweet, …

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