Long before supperclubs started popping up all over the capital, a certain door 83 had already been inviting strangers round for Sunday dinners, and the door has remained open for nearly three decades. Jim Haynes, 77 was born in Louisiana, relocated to Edinburgh where he opened a theatre, after which he moved south and swang it like the rest of us in London. For the last quarter of a century, he has been a Professor of Media Studies and Sexual Politics with the University of Paris, occasionally entertaining and elbow checking the odd guest at one of his Sunday dinners. To date, he estimates that roughly 130,000 people have joined his party over the years. You might have even seen him on TV recently in an after eight advert. One of the true pioneers in supperclub terms, I suppose he had long been part of social networking albeit the old fashion way rather than through the intertubes. Jim came to London for a one-night-only at one of the hottest tables in the supperclub circuit – Fernandez and Leluu and I was fortunate enough to get on the list to meet Jim, as well as Simon and Uyen – the brains behind F&L. I was really happy with it, met lots of people and perhaps ingested too much liquid courage. I have put together a photo essay to give you a

Guys, Rachel Khoo is BACK. You’ll remember a while back when I put out a post about the latest secret restaurant that is being run out of the Private dining club called The Loft, belonging to Chef Nuno Mendes. Well, Rachel is now back to put together another dinner event called a mash-up which will blend and incorporate various media formats into a dinner event. I know some of you were keen to try a dinner out at Nuno’s private kitchen and here is your chance to apply again. The event will take place on Wednesday 24th June 2009, 7.30pm and it will be a five course menu plus wine at £65pp. If you are interested, all you need to do is RSVP with Rachel by email to mashuplondon@gmail.com. . Places are of course, extremely limited so reserve your seat on the table now. Oh, and I’ll be tagging along for this one as event photographer, so if you’ve always been curious about secret restaurants, there ain’t a better chance than this one. As usual, I’ve included the full press release to this post (keep reading..) and read this post about how it went down the last time. Hope to see you there guys!

Community sites are starting to realise the power of the iPhone, and to an extent the Google Android platform. Lately, I’ve been test driving three free apps which can help you find something to eat in the City and their usefulness when on the move, so this might be helpful if you’re an iFoodie too

Hey guys, enjoying the sunshine so far? I sure am. So my bank holiday started yesterday when I ordered my 2nd pizza at Franco Manca’s. Then to digest the food, I decided to walk from Brixton to Russell Square, Franco Manca to the British Museum, Pizza to Pillar. Been a while since I did a photo essay, tag along why don’t you

So it’s six seven am on Monday. I’ve just opened my favourite excel spreadsheet and sipping down on the hard filter brew Vanessa makes for the bunch of us every morning. No it’s not. It’s Saturday afternoon as I write this. Well, it sort of came early a couple of weekends ago, the sun I mean, and I took every opportunity to exploit it before it gave way to the rain clouds again. It was still abit breezy, but was a nice little preview of picnic in the park. So it was me, grass, my 50mm and a little bit of wholefoods and now, you too

London does not always have bad weather. Sometimes, it really is awesome. Like this weekend for example. Spring came early and yes, while it’s a breezy 13C , the sunshine is just awesome. Just the colours… the vibrance… I had to do it, the internet deserves to know what a truly awesome place London morphs into … when the sun comes out

A little birdy has informed me of an online cooking competition for a new consumer event called ‘Best of Britain & Ireland 09’. They have partnered with the excellent lookandtaste.com (formerly ifoods.tv) and  have organised an online cooking competition and are asking for video recipes. The winning entrances will receive a culinary tour in the Cotswold with accommodation and up to £200 travel expenses provided up for grabs. All you have to do is upload a video recipe at lookandtaste.com and remember to tag your video ‘bobi09com’. The competition runs till 27th March 09 and the winner will be announced the day after it closes. David (is the man who’s put this together) tells me that the cookbook has evolved into an online medium and that means anyone (and that includes me and my beef tataki with Korean chilli powder recipe) has the chance to have their recipe shine. So avid foodies, if you’re itching to get famous, start filming now. Oh and by the way, as avid readers of London Eater, you will all receive a 30% discount on double ticket for when you are buying entry tickets for the best of Britain and Ireland event. You can book a double ticket (two adults) for just £10.50 – that’s a 30% discount on the full price of £15. To access this offer, call 0871 230 5588 or visit www.britainandirelandevent.co.uk and quote

Coming back from a two week break can be a disorientating thing. It’s long enough for one to almost forget what home really feels like, heck even the weather seems to have changed since I was last in London. Ah yes, at least I have not forgotten how (and where) to eat (reviews coming on Tuesday) but I did want to get out to appreciate the other parts the ol’ Smoke, the first weekend back. It certainly helped that the weather was particularly beautiful and it gave me the perfect excuse to shoot some breeze. My port of call is usually the Gloucester road bus stop, though we start our little photo tour just outside Hyde Park Corner for the number 9. The sky was doing amazing things on that particular Friday and it allowed me to grab this shot of the golden lights seemingly opening it’s arms to the Mandarin Oriental. What a lovely sight. Riding on the No.9, one of the last remaining routes to still be using the old routemasters (that’s what they are called, right?), I lay witness to a beautiful day and all the vibrance of Green Park’s lush greens, colours so rich I might have mistaken it for one of the paintings for sale just outside the fences. Final destination was the National Gallery in Piccaddily for a spot of Debussy. On that friday

Yes, I do and while London has a notorious reputation for being an expensive place to dine (and by the way, it really is), I do think that out of the several thousands (I think it’s 8000 restaurants in London, but I ain’t sure) there are more than a few gems out there which are great places to eat. I usually answer this question with the questions: what is your budget and what kind of cuisine? And since no two sets of tastebuds are really ever the same… believe you me, that’s one of the on going dilemmas I have in my very dramatic life as a foodblogger because I’d like to be writing truly objective reviews, but how do I know if my taste buds jive with yours? Ah well, can’t please everybody I suppose – but I do try. So today is finally Friday and that means I’m going for a lunch (wee!) and it will be posted on Tuesday. It’s been about three weeks since I ate out in London so I’m really looking forward to it. Speaking of lunches, I’d go to these ones for something affordable and tasty: 1. Wild Honey for the £ 17 three course set, in old bond street. 2. Hummus Brothers for really chunky beef stew and…. Hummus, in soho. 3. Hache for the great chopped steak burgers and awesome grilled

I feel it is my london foodie duty to report on any special offers which apply to food lovers in London. This the latest one from the Financial Times will give you the opportunity to have your bill halved. Details from the official website below: Have lunch (or dinner where offered*) with the FT and enjoy fine dining for less. When you take up this offer, your total food bill for two will be halved and you’ll be charged just £5 for your friend’s food. This exclusive promotion runs from Saturday 10 January to Friday 13 February 2009: simply book and eat during this time. To qualify, just collect three vouchers from the FT newspaper and reserve a table at any of the restaurants listed here, quoting Lunch with the FT. You’ll find one voucher in every weekday FT and two in FT Weekend throughout the promotional period. (Terms and conditions apply, click here for details)

Some of you will know that in addition to my bloggero duties here, I also put my foodie cap on and provide short restaurant reviews and eating lists for Metrotwin.com. What is Metrotwin.com? It’s a spanking new website which provides lists of exciting places/stuff to do in both New York and London. It’s backed by BA.com and is a kind of promotional tool to encourage people to fly that route. All the content is provided by the bloggers who are signed up as content partners with them and the idea is that independent locals will have the low down on the very best hidden gems in the city. How to get a free holiday to New York?   All you need to do is surf on to Metrotwin.com and register with them before 15th January 2009 and you will be eligible for the competition to win a pair of economy return flights to New York and three nights in the Plaza NY. Conditions apply, see here for the details.   It’s completely free to register and when you do, you’ll be able to create your own lists too. It’s a cool website, and you can go and read some of my recommendations on it. I’m KangatLondonEaterdotCom on Metrotwin, register now and you might be on your way to New York very soon!

In part one, it was all about the big & fluorescent things, in part two we focused on (German) food. Today is the last day of hyde parkero wonderlando and in part three, we conclude this mini-series with a few snaps of the people.  The official site is here. (Almost) Everytime I’m out and about snapping things, I manage to get alot of pictures of the people around me. It started out being completely accidental, but these days I’ve started to realise that people are what adds to the buzz of a certain place. During this walk about, I captured some pretty beautiful people. Like these lovely ladies whom asked me to help them take a snap (with their camera). I duly obliged and also took a picture of them with my nikon. So beautiful girl whoever you are, I gave you my url, if you are reading this, then please drop me an email at kang.leong@londoneater.com. I’ll be waiting ….. in the mean time, check out the rest of the pictures from this trip

In part one, it was all about the big & fluorescent things, here in part two we focus on the food. It’s almost, an all German, all Bavarian affair. Only two more days left to go. Last day is Sunday 4th Jan folks. The official site is here. At the end of part one, I left you with on the door step of the christmas market ( and after spinning about on the UFO thing ). After a much needed lunch break, I’m firmly back in my blogging chair to resume part two of this series. Funfairs are great for the puke inducing rides and all, but it wouldnt be much of a fun fair if the air was not filled with aromas of all kinds of grilled meat now would it? The story of a german grill So I alluded to those german long things in part one, and here we jump straight into it. Legend has it the wurst is long, bouncy and full of flavour. Ok, well that’s depending on which kind of wurst you’re having that is. The last time I check, currywurst (literally sausages with curry) was Germany’s most favorite dish (bit like our chippie I suppose) and are basically grilled pork sausages, diced and then smothered with smooth curry sauce. Yowza

Happy new year ! I’m kicking things off in 2009 with a reminder for you to get off the couch and go to Hyde Park this weekend to experience the last few days of the magical winter wonderland …. (3 more days to go before the winter wonderland disappears into thin air and won’t return until Nov 09) In part one, it’s all about the lights and the big stuff like the wheel, the 40ft slide, the ice rink and other big stuff. Ok, so here’s the situation. It’s new year’s eve, it’s freezing cold at 3 C, you’re in London and you happen to walk past hyde park corner and wonder what the lights and fuss are all about. There’s far too many people around you, you hear the cheesy winter 80′s wham blaring from the hot dog stands, you see the children laughing with their parents and beautiful strangers walk up to you asking you to help them freeze their experience in time…. what do you do? Too late, that was last year. It is now 2009, the winter wonderland in Hyde Park continues but it’s only staying till sunday (4th January 2009) and you can either go there NOW…. or you can keep on reading and I’ll show you the sprinkles of magic those Germans have brought to our park. ( and then you can go there

Jingle bells. It’s not long now before I break out the reindeer sleights and go ho ho ho across the London skyline… hey it’s Christmas – miracles do happen. I’m taking a break from the usual eating, because it’s chrissymas! Chrissymas is one of my favourite holidays because, well, my company is closed for 10 days and I don’t have to work. But it also gives me an excuse to cosy up without being dodgy. Most of all, chrissymas means yet more reasons to buy gifts and more gifts. Ah yes, tis’ the season to be jolly. So are you starting to think about your Christmas shopping yet? Well I am and if you’re stuck, then here’s some ideas to work up those warm wintery holiday feelings

You know people often ask me where I find out about things to do in the city and my usual answer is “well I just do” . Strictly speaking, that’s an exaggeration because I don’t always “just do”. That part is alot of reading, spotting adverts, recommendations from peeps and just generally keeping my “just do” radar up. Afterall, no man is an island as we are all social animals. Really, we are. ( As according to a variety of scientific and non-scientific studies/surveys over the years in a number of fields which I will not refer to in this post ) ( sorry, I’m being cheeky yet again, *handslap* ) (yet more brackets, ’optional’ reads ) As a blogger, I spend as much time blogging as I do web surfing and in recent weeks have been told of this new website, spoodfed.co.uk, which quite literally ‘spoonfeeds’ it’s users events/entertainment/stuff to do in London. It’s still fairly new, but it’s already looking pretty good and more importantly, they list the more ‘obscure’ events which is always an attraction for me because, as you know, I’m a stickler for rarity

Gather round guys because I want to tell you about the next best thing that’s just been unleashed on the internet