Last weekend I went to a one-off special billed as a “an exciting walk-through dining experience and multi-course meal charting key revolutionary periods in food history.”. It was put together by Bompass and Parr, the pre-eminent purveyors of wobbly things, along with the help of certain talented peeps from food as well as from the creative fields including Alexis Gauthier, Saf restaurant (well…), Bistrotheque, Lounge Bohemia as well as Courvoisier’s ever present spirits, and their obvious bags of riches.

So the idea was to take people across the history of food, through four or five beautifully decorated, themed rooms in a five storey Georgian building in Belgravia, from the Medieval times to the Fifties to eating off the back of a very large Iguana (a prop, not a real one).

It was a little contrived, at times it was verging on the feeling as though I have just paid to experience an elaborate walk-through marketing campaign. There was Courvoisier on everything. The event culminated with a Courvoisier bar, that served Courvoisier cocktails with a 3DTV that showed looping Courvoisier adverts. Talk about brain washing eh.

Cognac aside, for the most part, the event was entertaining. However, I was expecting it to be more of an exhibition, with food trivia presented in crazily non-obvious ways, but alas, apart from the good Doctor opening promisingly by spinning about the archaic ‘science’ that humans were believed to be made from four types of liquids (blood, yellow bile, black bile, phlegm), the theatre ended just as it begun really, style suffocating all manner of substance.

For £25 it was OK (plus £5 booking fee, yikes!), though not exactly a steal. Food was decidedly a limiting factor, it was more like half a course and three snacks as opposed to four courses. The various cocktails we had on the other hand, all made with Couvoisier, were all pretty good. I came out feeling indifferent, it wasn’t exactly a satisfying meal (which I would have preferred) nor was it an all out exhibition through the times of food, instead it fell in the chasm of being a little hollow in the centre. I didn’t learn about the origin or evolution of any kind of food in particular. Instead, I came away with new found knowledge of what Courvoirsier tastes like when paired with various fruits.

Can’t knock the event for looking the part, staff were welcoming people to snap away at the meticulously created artwork, elaborate sets and creations, and all of which were mightily impressive. At the end of the day, it was fun. By the time you read this, the event would have finished, but for what it’s worth, I thought you might enjoy the snapshots…

The Doctor ‘prescribing’ a concoction to re-balance our bodily fluids (or something to that effect).

Waiting to go into the Medieval Ship.

Crossing the wobbly gang plant, to the ship. It looks like the murky waters were actually wet.

The Medieval ship, operated by Saf, a vegan restaurant, and also where we took our ‘prescription’.

I said to the good Doctor that I felt ‘laid-back’, so he me a yellow sticker which allowed me to exchange for a white wine cocktail, plus a an artichoke canape.

Next we ‘travel through time’ via a service lift to the roof top to try Alexis Gauthier’s gorgeous contribution: foie gras, a port reduction, almonds and gold leaf, shaped like a certain very recognisable chocolate.

The genius mixologists from Lounge Bohemia.

This was lush – a ‘flat’ champagne cocktail, with the fizz bursting out from the grapes! I really enjoyed this one.

On to the Fifties now, and we are having a scratch and sniff TV dinner. Nothing edible here, just olfactory tickling at work. Minty chips…

I liked this room, surely good enough to merit its own exhibition in an art gallery of some kind. It was explained to us that fifty years ago, everybody sat in front of the tv during dinner time.

And then, into the belly of a bouncy beast! Created by Andy Best & Merja Puustinen. Boing Boing.

And finally dinner time, an Iguanodon dinner in a giant Iguana, like the one constructed by Waterhouse Hawkins in 1853

Eating duck confit, puy lentils, beetroot and black champagne sauce by Bistrotheque and drinking ‘Josephine’s Tea Garden’ punch with Courvoisier, green tea, apple juice and elderflower cordial by Ben Leggett.

Finally, Bompass and Parr jelly, candied orange, iris jellies and ambergris posset. Ambergris being whale regurgitations that tasted very much like condensed milk… usually found in perfume so I’ve read, and also an aphrodisiac.

More photographs on my flickr.

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At the half way mark of 2010, we have witnessed a number of new restaurant openings in London which has brought a sleuth of choice to the discerning diner. Yet, many more are anticipated to open as we hurl toward the second half of the year. I went to some of the new opens and thought it was fitting to compile a list about what’s coming and what’s already here.

Fellow London Eaters,

For what it’s worth, I think Capello should stay on, he is one of the World’s best afterall, if he can’t get the job done, then who else? So there are more convincing choices in the London dining scene this year, than ever before now. Even though new restaurants open all the time, the last few months has felt abit like an extended blockbuster extravaganza. Week after week, wave after wave of gushing reviews. I’m not sure if it is a step up in frequency or that the talent pool has been upped, or merely that media (both new and old) are simply covering more ground. Regardless, amongst the new comers are certain gems that have dazzled customers. So I hope you find this list useful, where I’ve visited, I’ve linked it to my write-up, otherwise, I’ve linked out to a representative review, and if you’re looking to ride the trendwaves, I’m sure one of these restaurants will fit the bill.

regards,

Kang.

Now Open

Zucca Italian, £35pp
People generally love it, the Italian-inspired menu is reminiscent of a ‘River Cafe Lite’ , cheaper but just as good. The grilled veal chop in particular is fantastic. It’s been around for three months or so, and still going strong I reckon. I’ve been back four times, and each time, it’s been excellent. If you like this, they also say that Maltings¹ – the older cousin – is great as well. Might be one of the best restaurants to open this year.

Bar Boulud French £40pp
Opened by Daniel Boulud, the three michelin starred French chef from NY, has enjoyed massive publicity. Everybody loves it. Boulud has brought in a superstar in-house charcutier in Gilles Verot, he has brought his famed gourmet burgers to BB (though I don’t rate them) , and generally speaking the rest of the menu (largely bistro fare) is widely praised. I liked my boudin blanc on my visit. It’s worth a look I think, though the dining room is starkly devoid of ambiance.

Viajante Portuguese £70pp
The name means ‘Traveller’ in Portuguese. It is the nickname for Nuno Mendes and represents the style of food to expect at his new outpost in Bethnal Green, the concept being that he has absorbed various world cuisines into his style and presented his food as a kind of journey around the globe. I think there are shades of glory in his food, I didn’t get everything, but the dishes that worked were definitely memorable.

Koya Japanese £15pp
This is superhot right now, Koya serves nothing but slippery hand-made (actually foot-kneaded) fresh Udon in accurate dashi-spiked soups, combined with the reasonable pricing, it has become an addiction for many, who hail it as a favourite haunt. I like it too. There is a choice of hot or cold noodles with a choice of hot or cold soups, pork, duck, chicken, beef, mushrooms, tempura being a selection of choices. Ask for an Onsen Tamago (super slow cooked egg) and the cod tempura (really fantastic). I also recomend Echigo Beer that is brewed with Koshihikari rice (the gold standard of sushi rice) amongst other things, it’s got an effervescence about it which I feel marries well with the soup stock and noodles.

Dean Street Townhouse British £45pp
It is a hotel, with a restaurant, or vice-versa. Critics seem to generally like this place, bloggers not so much. They say the food is a remixed version of school dinners, while it evoked childhood fantasies, it is (fortunately) not a faithful reproduction of British staple, rather this is the product of an utterly slicker design. Expect no less from the first Richard Caring and Nick Jones joint-venture I suppose. So there’s lots of cash behind the operation. I’ve never been, but I am curious…

Petrus French £60pp
Gordon Ramsay wrestled back the name from Marcus Wareing, opened in a new location (very close to MW in Hyde Park Corner) and installed JP Susilovic as front of house with exec chef Mark Askew directing the kitchen in the initial stages. Well. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t bring anything new to the table, it feels like a carbon-copy of Gordo other’s French outposts. Startlingly, it feels like a franchise restaurant, albeit a very high-end one. Still if you like classy (read, stoic) French restaurants, the £25 set lunch option is a good place to start.

Bistro Bruno Loubet French £40pp
This is another crowd favourite, Bruno has returned from a seven year endeavor down under and now he’s back cooking at The Zetter in Farringdon. I’m at two minds, the dishes feel hit and miss, the good stuff is spectacular, while the rest is downright ordinary. Service is a little wonky too, and I can’t shake the feeling that Bruno is a mercurial dude. I’ve never met him, but his food certainly comes across as such.

Gelupo Italian £10pp
Opened by the good people behind Bocca di Lupo (to be found across the street) , and is pitched as a gelateria and a take-away deli. It’s like the retail arm of the BDL larder selling their pasta, sauces and other ingredients. It’s only been up and running for a week or two, I tried their melon sorbet, which was really nice and their watermelon granita, excellent as well. I’d like to try their gelato-stuffed cannolis on a return visit, and maybe do a fuller write-up on it too, so watch this space.

Penny University Brew coffee bar, £3pp
This place is amazing, it doubles as a retail space for Square Mile Roasters, but it is also London’s first ‘brew bar’. No milk (well there is, hidden away) and the concept is that of the barista taking time to make a fresh brew (with nothing but hot water, a preferred brewing apparatus and a timer) and basically to appreciate coffee in its original splendour. It’s a great concept, currently just a pop-up but if we keep going, it might become permanent. So keep going. Seriously this place is awesome, it is a different sort of coffee appreciation which is rarely found in London, though brew coffee is on the rise². Speaking of which, the name is a homage to the hundreds (if not thousands) of coffee shops in 18th century London (particularly the Square Mile). The idea was of strangers sipping coffee and striking up cerebrally random conversations about the heavens, politics and anything in between, all part of the experience of a ‘penny university’ which was all the rage in those days. Intrigued? Read this excellent photo essay by Brian Ferry³ as well as Daniel Young’s thoughtfully informative piece⁴ for two takes on this concept.

Opening soon.

Restaurants expected to open in the 2nd half of 2010, include big names such as Pierre Koffman (formerly of La Tante Claire and 3 star holder) opening Koffman’s at the Berkeley cooking food from his home town; Heston Blumenthal with ‘Dinner’ at Mandarin Oriental in Knightsbridge, also the premier steakhouses Hawksmoor (I’m looking forward to their new lobster rolls..) & Goodman expanding into Covent Garden and the City respectively. Personally, I am excited about Bistro du Midi, to be opened by Marlon Abela who owns Umu and the Greenhouse. There is already a branch of the same name in Boston which recently launched and has received good reviews thus far, and the menu does look excellent.

And in Issue 5…

I really enjoy putting out ‘themed’ newsletters, and will continue this trend in future issues. I am currently exploring Italian restaurants, and after hearing rumours of Sushi Hiro’s decline (being sold off I hear), am also casting my net to other sushi bars around town. The Kappa roll at Kappa is good by the by, and Atari-ya, oh yeah to the otoro. Zap you in 30 days.

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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 flavour of the evening. Really hope you enjoy this one.

Events such as these give me the opportunity to practice and experiment. People are fairly comfortable around cameras during such events – even with my behemoth Nikon in their face – leaving me to be able to capture quite truthful circumstances, well relatively anyway. The interesting thing is of course, time and space to explore new techniques and processing methods – to do things I couldn’t do in food shoots or even by the restaurant table. In this set, I am trying to emulate the smooth tones and the delicate art of complimenting (rather than fighting) natural fill light with a single strobe. Mostly seen in Annie Leibovitz’s work and particularly her portraiture in the nineties with Kodak transparencies. I probably don’t quite have her imagination nor gift of drawing out the inner personality, then again, the setting is probably too far away from being intimate for people to drop their masks (or put on another one for that matter) en masse. But I try anyway, I like portraiture, it is something I aspire to do well in.

I have shunned the social limelight for a while now, nine months give or take, and I’m sure I’ve pissed off more than a few PR bods in the process, I pulled out of far too many. With events, it has always been about meeting people and more often than not, like-minded ones, in this case, food lovers and bloggers. I was so glad to see some faces I recognise Mark, Niamh, Euwen, Melanie, Rachelle, Emily, Kate and Billy. And then to finally to meet some of the cool creators behind some of the coolest London based blogs : Sian, Su-lin, Aaron, Tom & Jen, Denise and Luiz. At the risk of sounding like hero worship (oh hell it is), it was also a pleasure to have finally met Douglas (in real life) – I have always been an admirer and loyal subscriber of his work. At last after all these years.

And so it begins.

Warming up.

Introducing Jim.

Bubbles and conversations, Ian and Mark.

Pausing, with Aaron and Sulin.

Sharing a laugh ….this is my favourite capture of the night.

Luiz.

Billy. We caressed beef joints in a hot kitchen once. It was the best bloody piece of bovinity that had ever left a kitchen. Hah. Good times.

Got to respect the house. In the distance is what appears to be a slide viewer. Very cool. I also spotted a Canon AE-1 lying on the table somewhere. Cool too.

Douglas.

Liquid courage – You know, I forgot to get the name of our hard working cocktail conjurer. He made us all very happy.

Kate.

Spaces, Alex.

This is what happens when a camera shoots people, especially Euwen.

More spaces, from above.

All Qyped out. Sian, Rachelle and Emily.

Ahem. Intermission time. Simon breaks up the ice-breaking to bring out the food. Split-toned an accidental blur.

Ok, now for the money shots. Food was prepared by F&L, starters included spring rolls, summer rolls, prawn cocktail and a carrot & coriander salad.

And here is another angle. The dressing which came with the prawn cocktail was sublime, it was a garlic & white wine, with smoked salmon mayo. I’ll save myself from critiquing but on evidence, I can see why F&L have thus far been so well received.

And here are the mains : Fillet of Beef Carpaccio, mash in case with garlic glaze, shrooms in white wine and butter, lambs lettuce and garlic bread. Yummy as well, I wish I had more – beef was bloody, just the way I like it. I am definitely intrigued with a proper dinner, we’ll save that for another day I suppose.

After the food, the conversations resume (well they never stopped I suppose). Melanie, Denise, Niamh and Douglas.

Mark and Melanie. Mark is probably in half of all my people pictures. If he writes an autobiography someday…

Spaces – laughs, Denise.

Time for the gear to take a break.

And why is he eating alone?

Jen, Tom and Siany.

Jim with Aaron.

Jim with Simon….

…and Uyen.

Jim is ultimately quotable, and good vibes reverberate through him. I sat down with him and naively asked him if he was having a good time, to which he replied “Everyday. Otherwise, what’s the point.” Then we elbow bumped. This is reserved for the dudes, Jim only kisses the girls. In closing, Jim imparted some of his warm wisdom, and as for the reason he started his Sunday dinners:

“Thirty something years ago… wasn’t some insight or moment of incredible revelation. But I had a house guest, and her hobby was cooking… and she wanted to repay by cooking for me and my friends. So twenty came…” … and I guess the rest is history. You can watch the videos of his speech Part one and Part two, courtesy of Mark.

And some things he said which I remembered:

“After eight is abit snooty and poshy. But little did I know what I was getting into”

“It’s a long story. I got invited to be a professor…. they asked me what I want to teach and I said media studies and sexual politics.”

Pudding. Baked Croissants in White Chocolate, Whisky & Raisins with Summer Fruits.

Thanks to Jim, Sian, Simon, Uyen, Qype, After Eight and the lovely peeps whom I met on Tuesday night. It was fun, and we should do this again, and again.

And of course, thank you for being the ever patient reader, you’re the one I treasure the most, of course.

You can see the full set of photographs on my flickr account here.

PS: If you need me to take down any photos, let me know and I will do so.
PPS: Oh yes and let me know if you want to use any photos, I would feel honoured if you wanted to. All I ask is for a credit back and a link…thank you in advance.

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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!

Full Press Release from Rachel

Photo by Bronia Stewart

After the debut success of her first mash up, Rachel Khoo is back with another mouth-watering installment.

The mash up* concept is about creating a dining experience for all your senses (sight, smell, sound, taste, touch). For this scrumptious supper, T. Baas will be offering a visual feast with some delectable designs and Jay-P will be tantalising your earbuds with some toothsome tunes.

This will all be rounded off with Rachel’s creative culinary touch to the 5-course dinner (paired with wine).

The festive feast will be held at the private dinner club The Loft on Wednesday 24th June at 7.30pm.

Rachel Khoo is a Food creative based in Paris. With an Art & Design degree from Central St Martins and Pâtisserie diplôme from Le Cordon Bleu, Paris Rachel brings her unique touch to culinary events.

The Loft is a private supper club and personal test kitchen of Nuno Mendes, one of London’s innovative & revolutionary chefs (El Bulli trained & previous head chef of Bacchus, London). He will be opening his next restaurant, Viajante at the Bethnal Green Town Hall in 2010.

T. Baas originally from Strasbourg but now based in Paris has been creating a visual storm with his illustrations the past 8 years for a range international brands, books and bands. He has a sweet weakness for mirabelle plum tarts too.

Jay-P when not spinning some savoury sounds in the cities Paris, London or New York puts his creative skills to producing multi-layered and heavily patterned paintings. And after all that creativity nothing hits the spot more than a Thai green curry.

Places are limited to ten people. Email mashuplondon@gmail.com. to reserve. A recommended donation made via paypal confirms your place. 5-course dinner paired with wine at £65 pp. Address details will be sent out once reservation has been confirmed.

Click here to take a look at the last event.

Feel free to forward this on to fellow foodies!

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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.

1. Qype Radar

Let’s get this going with the one from the boys at Qype. This community giant started out in Hamburg and how now grown to become a pretty massive user review site. My understanding is that users can pretty much review anything they like in the city/community, so it’s not just limited to food. In a sense, it makes Qype Radar rather powerful as you get direct access to quite a huge information base there.

As you can see, the interface is quite simple, no fancy pictures, just an easy to read list, I noted the apps’ quickness. So let’s try hunting for some curry in Harrow:

So I’m interested in ‘Five Hot Chillies’, rated 4/5 stars by Qype users, GPS (for iPhone 3G only?) tells me how far the location is and it also tells me how many Qype users have reviewed it. The simple interface is great on the move – it loads quick, gets me the information that I need, quickly, I would have loved to see a phone number displayed though. Overall it loads fast and its got a big database.

2. OpenTable

Let’s move on to OpenTable app now. The OpenTable concept is simple, it allows diners to make reservations without having to physically calling the restaurant. You would have to sign up with the Opentable website and the iPhone app is basically a natural extension of that idea.

The interface is alittle snazzier than the Qype radar, but it still loads relatively quickly. This one helps locate a free restaurant table for you in a selected region, or perhaps even a near your current location. Once you punch in the time, date – it will tell you what restaurants in the vicinity have free tables and at what time.

Its as zippy as the Qype radar, and you can instantly make reservations. Extra step involves you signing up with an OpenTable account in order to make reservations though, and there is an option to view the restaurant menu, if indeed the restaurant has posted one. You gain speed in booking a restaurant and gauge instant availability of several places in the area all at once, but you do lose out on user opinions.

3. Urbanspoon

This is the most graphic intensive, and unsurprisingly the slowest app of the lot. Urbanspoon primarily is a community restaurant review site which draws together reviews from critics, bloggers and also users get to vote on whether they like a place or not. The best thing about Urbanspoon is this voting aspect, which gets fed into a popularity top-list showing you an approximate ‘trend’ of what everyone is eating in the city. It’s in lots of cities and unsurprisingly, London is included in it.

It’s also the most gimmick heavy in which the main screen is a ‘jackpot shaker’. Put in where/what you want to eat and shake away. This will throw up some suggestions in the area you chose, though ONE BY ONE.

I’ve pulled up The Harverster for this one (Still want to try the salad bar there).

The interface looks great and the ‘lottery’ aspect of is kinda fun – but on the move, where speed is key – it becomes a real pain. I mean, I have to keep shaking it to get individual recommendations, instead of just an easy to use list. On the other hand, the individual review page is excellent. It has the urbanspoon ‘score’ which tells you how popular it is, it has links to read user reviews and it’s got a phone number, mighty helpful. I have tried using this on the go while looking for restaurants and the search function is usable. My only gripe is that its slow and its the sole really I dont use it more often.

Best of the best of the best

So, which should you download? Well, honestly, just download all three, its free afterall. Each have their own strengths and each do slightly different things.

I guess the best thing about these apps are that each can be further improved in future version. Personally, the apps I use the most are always the ones which load quick and run fast because when you’re on the move, every second counts. I’m sure cocoa developers out there are aware of this fact and are working hard to streamline their apps for a more elegant experience.

I have yet to try the snazzy new SpoonFed Radar which requires the latest 2.2.1 iPhone update (I’m still on 2.0.1, I think) and I am still waiting for TimeOut to do their app. Metrotwin should not be far behind and maybe we’ll see a trustedplaces , toptable one or even a tipped one in the near future.

OK. So what are your thoughts on iPhone ‘Going out’ Apps, do you use them, like me, and if you do, what are your favourites, and what kind of App would you like to see in the near future?

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The Royal Court of Justice…. I think.

It was such a beautiful day and it was pretty amazing bumping into Rob of Qype – I’ve known him – virtually – for months, but had only seen him in real life yesterday. So I think this picture is of the Royal Courts just past LSE along Fleet Street. Im not really too sure.

Wooden dude on my way to Chancery Lane

Got abit lost in East London and was heading toward St Pauls rather than Holborn, though I came across this guy and duly took a picture of him. Somewhere… near the Brit Museum.

Time for Coffee

After about two hours of getting lost, I managed to stumble close enough to Holborn, and decided to settle down at The Terrace for a cup of coffee…

… and some sweet pudding wine, yummy.

Finally, I reach the pillars.

Glorious pillars bathed in sunshine, ahh, I love my city.

And this is by far the favourite shot of the day, I was shooting in burst mode to try and capture the moment, got a couple of his mug, but I think the one of him walking away is the best.

Sun, Pillar, book… could life be more perfect?

This picture was digitally cross processed in Capture NX2 and Color Efex Pro 3.0 shot with Nikon D90 with a 16-85mm VR lens. I’ll be in Brick Lane today to sample some bagels, and will post that one tomorrow. Till then, have a great weekend folks.

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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.

Picnic mix.

I think the serpentine/kensington palace is my favourite bit of Hyde Park. Girls sunbathing with their girly mates, and the boys occasional letting their balls (totally intended) accidentally roll toward the unsuspecting beauties. Yes. Spring is back. I picked all the nibbly ones from the rich wholefoods selection in High Street Ken. Cold by the time I broke out all the boxes, including the crunchy jerusalem artichokes.

Depth of food

Shutterbugs love (the lack of) depth of field. It’s the easiest way to give your photos an ‘artistic look’ without much effort. Take these yummy buttermilk fried chicken drumsticks for example. Notice how there’s only one drumstick in total focus in the picture and the other sticks are thrown out of focus. Yeah, you can do this too by keeping your camera aperture at it’s widest. Try it, different model, different capabilities of course, if it permits, set your camera to ‘Aperture Mode’, and set the ‘f/’ number to it’s lowest possible number and then go as close as you can, and focus on what you want to keep in focus, and then let the camera do the rest.

It’ll create some lovingly tasty shots. The fried chicken carried a faint creamy edge to it, oh yummy stuff. Could do with abit more temperature, but I ain’t complaining.

Time for wine

One of the coolest things happened to my inbox last night. Gary Vay.Ner.Chuck. sent me an email. I flipped out. Come on winos, you know him, the Thunder show? It’s only the internetz most watched wine review show, ever. I’ve been a vayniac for almost two years now, I subscribe to his video podcast and he is absolutely the most awesome wine critic around. One day Vaynerchuck will displace Bob Parker as the voice of wine, and I said it first.

So who knew that Wholefoods had impressive wines on their racks. An Australian Hunter valley semillon which showed the trademark clean, lively and crisp characteristics the hunter whites are famous for. Eight quid, not bad at all. Man I miss Sydney. Hunter valley is about a 3 hour drive from Sydney. My mate drove. We hit the information centre to get a map of the entire valley first and then we marked out the vineyards we wanted to visit.

We started at midday and since he was driving, he was only suppose to have about five glasses every three hours. As we got to each vineyards, we were greeted by the winemakers and these guys were the most passionate people I’ve ever met, best of all – they let us sample everything they made, including their premium stuff. We hit four vineyards before three pm, and then stopped at one of the many restaurants dotted around the valley. Food was amazing, needless to say, but the best memory from drinking on location was how every single sip was so alive. Everything tasted like freshly pressed grape juice and I had never quite had wine like that before.

It is true wine doesnt travel well, but great wine doesn’t come to you, you go to great wine. I’m still planning my trip to burgundy – it’s £899 for like five days staying with a winemaker I think. If anybody is up for it, email me.

So this is kind of what it feels like to picnic with me

The potato cake was pretty solid by the way, but I was ready to dig into the grilled sardines, they really look appetising. It’s a little under seasoned, needs just a dash of sea salt, but I don’t want to complain, the whole occasion and the rays of light are just so relaxing, I wish the afternoon sun would never leave. I was looking into my lightroom library the other day and it showed that I had taken something like 4,000 food photographs in the past six months. That’s a mad stat just thinking about it. Yes, I have more digital food pics than I do mp3s.

It gave me a little brainbolt about contracting myself as a food photographer for magazines, restaurants, pr companies… or just anybody who likes looking at pictures of food. That would be a nice little freelance job to have on the side, I mean, what are they going to do with the food after the fact right?

I mean, I’d eat it . Commitment to the job. 100% committed, passionate and environmentally friendly too. I can’t think of a better reason to do food photography other than that I want to eat what I shoot. Hey, that’s a great blog motto: ‘Eating everything I shoot’ , might use that for twitter or something.

Eating antipasti, last.

Im unconventional. I’m one of these problogger readers who swear by Darren’s secrets to success and am a student of copywritingblogging. But almost all of my pillar posts cross the four digit mark. Oh well, guess you need to break the rules to make new ones.

Join me for a real picnic, when the real Spring really arrives.

For now, the weather is still a little breezy, my hayfever hasn’t started yet, so spring is not really here yet. When it does roll around, I’m sure I’ll be back for a full on picnic.

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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.

Eating and reading in the park

The flowers in and around the Kensington Palace, with the Orangery (packed to the brim and looking like a two hour queue..) in the background. I was suppose to pop in for a spot of high tea but the queue was just ridiculous and perhaps it’s better to just roll around on the grass.

It’s been a while since I last did a proper edition of eat&read and I think I may just change it to a fortnightly one instead. Believe it or not, a eat&read post takes a really long time to produce. All the linking up, the rounding up, alot of ideas to organise and compose. I’m finally back from holiday and back to my tuesday/friday review schedule once again. If you havent read them yet, I posted a review of the new Italian crowd favourite Bocca di Lupo and also published a write-up of my visit to the Butcher’s block.

Brand new ideas.

I like this photo – it makes for a pretty kewl desktop wallpaper. This was shot with a nifty 50 mm at f/2.5 for you glass heads, processed with Capture NX2 (vivid option) and then exported with Lighroom 2.1.

I’m trialing my photos as desktop wallpapers and starting with this one as ‘beta’. You can download a large 1600 px version here. When the picture has finished loading, right-click on it and select ‘make as your background’ option, and make sure you tell me if you like it, or not.

I’ve upgraded to a brand new camera by the way, so picture quality should be even more sumptuous. It’s a little bittersweet to say goodbye to my trusty D40, but man the D90 is simply an awesome camera. Until I get the D300 that is. Ah yes, I don’t always think about food all the time, I also fantasize about sexy cameras, and also sexy site design.

For the benefit of my subscribers, I’ve streamlined the site design a little bit. It should be sleeker now, but it’s still abit of work in progress as there are a few more tiny features I would like to add to it, pop your browser to http://londoneater.com to have a quick look see. I’ll speak more about site design in another post some other time.

And before I go back to the park again..

Righto, it’s another glorious sunday morning as I write this and one more picture I’d like to make available for you to download as a wallpaper is this one of the wind blowing through a park chair, taken through a park chair.

I’m going to turn my little quickie wine guide into a free ebook for your to download sometime soon and would love to know if you’d like any of my foodie photos turned into full blown desktop wallpapers for you to peruse (ethically and for private use only, of course):

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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 BOBI30.

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 evening, a recital was organised in room 18 and put together by the Royal college of music … no Claire de Lune though. I realised how I’ve never really photographed the London landmarks before. Well, all in good time I suppose, and with this trip, Nelson’s column at Trafalgar Square.

Of course, how can I go sightseeing and not include a photograph of the weekend’s sins…

On the way back westward, I was in Whiteleys for some glorious Belgian waffles.

Ahh… that’s another great weekend’s worth of me and the Smoke. I got a nod from Charz at Timeout (Thanks Charmaine!), sitemeter shows you still care enough to read my stuff and I’m still stinting at Qype.

Hope your weekend was awesome, folks.