Big Easy Bar-B-Q & Crabshack, Covent Garden, London
On August 15, 2014 by The Plate Licked CleanPlenty. That’s what I want from somewhere like this. Bounty. I want a spread which represents in its plenty the fecundity of the oceans. The teeming, glittering shoals, the scuttling, darting crustacea. I want beady eyes and shells and pincers and frankly extravagant numbers of legs and the effort of extracting their meat, and I
José, Bermondsey, London
On August 13, 2014 by The Plate Licked CleanIf Spanish home cooking has a jefe, a boss, in this country, then that title surely belongs to José Pizarro. If I had to name one UK-based Spanish chef who inspires me, who has helped popularise the food I grew up with and care about most of all, it’d be a shortlist of one. His
Namaste Nepal, Frogmore St, Bristol
On August 13, 2014 by The Plate Licked CleanIt’s all about the momo, baby. Since I first came across them at Natraj on Bristol’s Gloucester Road in the early 1990s, these have always been something I look for on menus. Trouble is, as a mainstay of Nepalese cuisine, they’re not often found, or at least not in these parts, so the quest typically
Wilks, Redland, Bristol
On July 30, 2014 by The Plate Licked CleanSome shoes are harder to fill than others. You might not want to be the man to replace Christian Bale as Batman, but you might fancy your chances of improving on Steve McLaren’s record as England manager. In any walk of life it’s a gamble, but sometimes the cards fall kindly. In the case of
In Praise of Pork: bacon
On July 15, 2014 by The Plate Licked CleanAn occasional series of short pieces in praise of sus scrofa domesticus. The humble pig. A song to the swine, that most delicious and versatile of beasts. Ironically, my personal meaty nirvana isn’t porky- that honour probably goes to a kilo of bone-in ribeye of beef shared with a best friend, with lashings of seductively
Pizza Pronto, Penarth
On July 13, 2014 by The Plate Licked CleanOld Monsieur Charles-Guillaume Etienne is apparently the man we have to thank for coining the maxim, On n’est jamais servi si bien que par soi-même. (Here he goes again, comes the collective groan) Bear with me. I mention M. Whatsisname because those words have come to us, not literally but certainly in spirit, as the adage: ‘If
This blog is a very simple thing.
I won’t try to sell you any hand lotion, exercise programmes, coffee syrups or Patagonian nose flutes. You won’t find tips on dating, ‘wellness’ or yoga mats.
I write because I love it (and food, as indicated by my increasing girth). Greed happens to be my Deadly Sin of choice, but at least it is never shy of providing me with subject matter.Â
A simple thing, then: all you get is me wittering on semi-coherently about places I’ve eaten at; hence a ‘restaurant blog’ rather than a ‘food blog’, although there are a few recipes scattered throughout.Â
From mezze to Michelin ‘fine dining’ and all points in between.Â