The inside track on the ultimate in slow cooking at Europe’s biggest annual snail festival, l’Aplec del Caragol March 5, 2019 Since its humble beginnings as a small riverside picnic among friends in 1980 to the grand foodie fiesta it is today, l’Aplec del Caragol occurs every May, about 100 miles northwest of Barcelona in the provincial town of Lleida. The party offers townsfolk and visitors alike a chance to enjoy a weekend celebrating one of [...]
Houseplants are all the rage, but are they are millennial cry for help? We speak to the companies cultivating this urban jungle March 5, 2019 Millennials have been accused of killing almost every industry there is, but there may be one that 25-35 year olds are actually propping up. Houseplants are taking off like an avocado tied to a racing drone among Generation Rent, prompting investigations by such serious organs as The Washington Post and New York’s Nylon magazine, in [...]
Perched at the top of Courchevel 1850, the ski resort of L’Apogee boasts Michelin stars, Himalayan salt saunas and five-star skiing March 4, 2019 It’s time to join the Russian oligarchs and ladies-who-lunch (on €250 truffle risotto) in the French Alps’ most-exclusive resort, Courchevel. This is a long weekend skiing done right – hundreds of kilometres of piste, ski-in-ski-out hotel accommodation and beyond-5-star luxury in the snow-clad epicentre of 5-star luxury. The stay: Perched at the top of Courchevel [...]
Number of late night alcohol licences falls as consumer behaviour changes March 3, 2019 The number of pubs, bars and nightclubs with late-night licences has fallen by a fifth over the last five years as would-be revellers opt for dating apps and Netflix over boozy nights out, according to new research. While the number of pubs and clubs with 24-hour licences has dropped from 919 in 2018 to 742 [...]
Dorothea Tanning at the Tate Modern review: The feverish, psychosexual work of a bona fide genius March 1, 2019 Strolling through the Tate Modern’s latest show is like revisiting a barely remembered dream: familiar yet strange, perhaps a little frightening. This retrospective of Dorothea Tanning’s 70-year career is a hell of a show, in more ways than one. It’s filled with bizarre, nightmarish visions that hint at psychosexual forces lurking just beyond our conscious [...]
Can a trip to the Douro Valley convince Emma Bullimore that port is palatable? March 1, 2019 Does anybody drink port? Maybe it’s just me, but the red stuff seems a bit redundant. I don’t even remember the last time I saw an advert for it. Whisky is everywhere, it wouldn’t be Christmas without brandy, even sherry is making a comeback. Port, on the other hand, is generally consigned to the back [...]
Only Fools and Horses The Musical review: This plonker of a cockney knees-up is as dodgy as a nine bob note February 28, 2019 Only Fools and Horses, the revered and endlessly repeated BBC sitcom you resort to watching only once you’ve scrolled past the show about police dogs and the other one about furious Vietnamese women trying to smuggle papayas past New Zealand customs, occupies a very special place in the British psyche. It’s a treasured relic of [...]
Working Lunch: Want to try Simon Rogan’s cooking without traipsing up north? We give the four course Business Lunch at Roganic a try February 27, 2019 Roganic 5-7 Blandford Street, W1U WHAT AND WHERE? Every food enthusiast worth their salted butter will have heard of L’Enclume, Simon Rogan’s two Michelin-starred restaurant in Cumbria. If you want to ascribe to his ultra-seasonal, foraged philosophy without leaving London, you can try and get into Aulis, his eight-seater chef’s table in Soho, but you’ll [...]
DEBATE: With the Oscars success of Roma, has Netflix broken the dominance of the traditional film studios? February 26, 2019 With the Oscars success of Roma, has Netflix broken the dominance of the traditional film studios? Abbie Llewelyn, freelance writer and commentator, says YES. Just six years after Netflix started producing original content, it has scored 15 nominations and three wins at the Oscars. This is a huge breakthrough for streaming platforms, as up until [...]
Thirty years ago, the Honda NSX changed the supercar forever. Tim Pitt celebrates with a retro road-trip February 25, 2019 After 1989, sports cars would never be the same. That year, the Mazda MX-5 reinvented the roadster – with added reliability – then Honda did the same for the supercar. Its NSX was, in essence, a Ferrari without the flaws. The New Sportscar eXperimental reached UK showrooms in late 1990, priced at £55,000. Its lightweight [...]