Tag: Christmas

Marmite butter sprouts; the most important vegetable of the year gets all dolled up for Christmas…

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Sprouts. Has there ever been a more divisive vegetable to grace arguably the most important plate of the year? Baby things are always considered cuter than their grown-up counterparts but rarely has anything as inoffensive as a teeny-tiny cabbage ignited so much fervent arguing over whose plate – if any – they end up on but guys, come on. As with so many things in life, I truly believe that if you don’t like it, it’s just because you’ve not found the right way of eating it.

Obviously this doesn’t count where broccoli is concerned because we all know that’s clearly the Devil’s favourite foodstuff.

Plucked from the pages of October’s Good Food Magazine, an issue that promises your easiest Christmas ever, these sprouts are definitely worthy of a place in your festive feasting. Full of savoury, umami flavours from the Marmite and a slick richness from the butter, the charred leaves are crispy, moreish and may just prove to melt even the most hardened of haters’ hearts.

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Getting involved with all things sausage at the German Gymnasium…

.Reading time 5 minutes.

Built like a Bavarian weightlifter and dwarfed by a tree whose branches hang full of jewelled baubles, the restaurant inside German Gymnasium at Kings Cross is one of the loveliest places in which to enjoy festive fare right now. An enormous space, lofty with arched ceilings, feels cosy and intimate thanks to the ground floor Grand Café tables which circle the heavy branched fir and the first-floor mezzanine from which diners in the restaurant can peep down into the gentle bustle below. If all you’re after is a drink designed to smooth away the rough edges of London travel, the utterly gorgeous Meister Bar must be one of the prettiest watering holes in the capital, a vision of spotless marble, sparkling bottles and sugared almond chairs.

Service here is excellent from the warm welcome at the front desk – where coats, scarves, wheeled suitcases and snow shoes, all the possible paraphernalia of Kings Cross in December, are graciously and swiftly removed – to the wait staff who sashay so effortlessly between tables you’d be forgiven for thinking they were gliding on steel blades across an icy sheeted floor.

A late lunch booking on the first Sunday in December gave us time to enjoy the brunch menu which is vast but doesn’t feel as though things are on there just for the sake of it. The usual suspects ‘a la oeuf’ are there for the choosing but am I going to barely dip my toe into the waters of German cuisine when I could swan dive in with all the grace & elegance of a lederhosen clad milk-maid? I think you know the answer by now dear reader… Read More

Start your Christmas feasting at M&S now…

.Reading time 16 minutes.

Halloween is over, the festive adverts have launched and it’s totally acceptable to have a mince pie or six with your morning cuppa…start your engines ladies & gents, Christmas is a-coming.

Although you’ve no doubt started to see some of the gorgeous food products hit the shelves of your local food hall, sometimes it’s nice to get a peek at all of them together which is exactly what happened at this year’s M&S Christmas Press Show…

Set up in the absolutely beautiful One Embankment building on the banks of the Thames, this was a chance to glimpse what exactly we’d be wearing, eating, drinking & lusting over come December…or November…or October depending on how soon you like to get your festivities started!

Flowers walls of snowy roses and mirrored rooms sparkly with the twinkling from a hundred baubles set the celebratory mood with a wander through menswear to kick things off…

…smart, well cut and understated garments made for the kind of subtly stylish wardrobe any man would be happy and confident to wear and David Gandy’s new Autograph range was both cosy and dapper enough to keep Christmas comfortable enough for the sofa and smart enough for unexpected guests on the lookout for a snifter of Baileys.

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