Texture is the brainchild of Icelandic born Chef Agnar Sverrisson and French born sommolier Xavier Rousset. Butter and cream, I’m told, are not involved in the Icelandic-inspired recipes. Winner of a michelin star in 2010, Texture is one part of the ascendency of Nordic cuisine

…Tim, the editor, told me the Faller figurines were going to be 9mm high. I thought to myself that my macro lens was only 60mm and not really fast enough at f2.8. Thank god for high

“You sound surprised.” Michael’s response to my initial thoughts about his food. I blurted “Yeah. It was great.” with bulging eyeballs. Indeed I couldn’t hide my instinctual outburst. This was a restaurant that had mostly flown under my radar until now. Full report after the jump

Just a quick note regarding the recent changes to the site. It is a little unfortunate that there are people out there who want to steal content, rather than just asking nicely first, but oh well. On the bright side, I guess my content must be worth something if people feel compelled to steal it. So in light of this, I’ve made a few changes to my site to protect against content theft and do apologise to my readership if it has affected your experience so far: Copyright Pro I have disabled right-clicking on my site, you can cut and paste text, but not photographs. Basically, this is in place so that when someone wants to use my work that they let me know about it first, before blindly cutting it out which constitutes as stealing, and I frown upon that. Image watermarks I don’t actually like watermarking images because I feel it takes away from the immersion and had resisted watermarking for nearly as long as I have been blogging, but alas, I have given in. When restaurants are lifting my images, it’s getting abit silly. RSS feeds and Emails I have been trying to find a way around this, I know alot of you would like the full rss email reinstated, and I have to admit it is convenient having entire blog posts delivered to your inbox via

Eight (baat) is phonetically similar to fortune (faat) or “about to hit the motherload” more like and is significant if you’re Chinese1. Chinese being a culture which has an insurmountable archive of superstitions and a belief system that links fortune to being fortunate. Lady luck is not a bad thing to have on your side, Rob Green could do with some. People will go to great lengths to associate themselves with the number 8. Like bidding for a mobile phone number, car license plate detail, the house number, the more 8′s and multiple 8′s – my brother’s mobile number ends with triple 8s – in one’s life, the more prosperous one’s life might turn out to be. So it is believed. Imagine my delight when I saw the number 88 stamped across one of the giant red pillars outside My Old Place. It’s like winning the lottery, yes… just a number indeed, but if superstition was anything to go by, it would appear to be working. The modest restaurant has garnered gleeful reviews2 online, the Guardian critics especially love it, but more than that, the layman raves about this place too. The word amongst the various social circles (Facebook mostly) is that My Old Place is one of London’s finest Szechuan restaurants, Taiwanese people in London especially love this place. Situated in the shadow of Liverpool Street station, it is

Atari-Ya are primarily fishmongers who specialise in importing sashimi-grade fish and are said to supply some of the highest profile Japanese restaurants in London, including Umu and Nobu. They also own sushi-bars. Do they keep the best for themselves? Let’s find out

I have been a runaway train wreck with my commentary lately, neglecting to edit myself. Jay Rayner called it ‘a bad case of blogorreah’ and I can’t say I disagree. Chop, chop, 574 words. Starting with Sedap, Malaysian in East London

Daniel Boulud. Three Michelin Stars. Twelve restaurants. French. Celebrated. Now in London. We were all witnesses when the internet welcomed the meritable chef’s European debut with open arms. Time for us to consider Bar Boulud

When I grow up, I want to roam the twenty regions of Italy to discover all the local specialities, so intertwined with the nation’s culture and history. Pesto made with Ligurian basil, a hearty Milanese ossobucco from Lombardy, sip wine in a Venetian baccaro, visit the factories which produce Parmigiano Reggiano in Parma and if I am fortunate, be taken on a hunt for white truffles in Tuscany. For all my fantasies, I have never been to Italy and I concede that I actually know very little about the intricacies of this most well-documented of European cuisines. Italian is one that enchants and mystifies, one that is entirely romantic, familiar and wholesome

….And we take another sneak peek at this month’s movers and shakers (as according to the good people of Wikio) in the world of virtual food media. Right at the top, Chris has set up camp at the summit…. and Jeanne’s Cook Sister! arrives all guns blazing as a new entry to this list at a whopping 5th place! Su-Lin at Tamarind and Thyme is the biggest mover jumping 28 places to 11th. The full update to the rankings will be published on Saturday

Viajante has been on every foodie’s lips lately. Critics and bloggers collectively crashed the new restaurant during its soft launch and consequently rushed elaborate reviews of their experience to the intertubes. I waited. So far, the innovative brainchild of Nuno Mendes has split opinion. Some herald it as a revelation, while others simply found it superfluous. Whatever the case, Viajante has captivated and it has intrigued, it has been compared to the Fat Duck and elBulli, arguably the best restaurants in the world and there is no opening with more hype than this. We travel to Nuno Mendes’ latest shrine to discover its offerings