Sloe gin; an easy recipe
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- Created: 03 October 2017 03 October 2017
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My walk to work takes me through Brockwell Park. This morning was one of those cold, crisp mornings. The leaves are a lovely mix of green, gold and red. My wandering mind stopped lighted on sloe gin. This rich and warming drink is very easy to make, with has just three ingredients; gin, sloes and sugar. Opinion about the proportions varies and I guess there are family recipes aplenty. Add a comment
Edible flowers & how to cook nasturtium leaves
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- Created: 10 September 2017 10 September 2017
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We at InDulwich tend to do things at our own pace and if we are on trend it is more by accident than design. I did remember an article in the Guardian declaring edible flowers to be the “summer’s hottest food trend” but it was returning from a summer holiday to discover that nasturtiums had taken over the garden that stirred me to action. Add a comment
Fine wine tips from the Italian Deli in West Dulwich: La Gastronomia
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- Created: 05 September 2017 05 September 2017
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There is Montepulicano d’Abruzzo wine everywhere in London but how do you sort the truly remarkable from the truly ordinary? Well, it is all in the taste, and considering that I have visited this winery, tasted their wines and enjoyed them emphatically, here is a very decent tip:
Cantina Zaccagnini, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo - a rich full bodied red wine with smooth silk tannin, cherry, spice and a hint of chocolate. Perfect for a whole range of dishes especially roasted foods but equally pleasant with lighter dishes or with cheese.
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Reykjavik: an insider's guide (sort of)
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- Created: 17 August 2017 17 August 2017
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When the new version of Beauty and the Beast was released, an Icelandic woman sent a message via Facebook to her daughter asking if she would like to see it. Realising she had directed it to the Finance Minister by mistake, she sent a quick retraction. ‘Oh well, I’ll see it later’ came the reply.
Short break: Margate things to do (even if it rains)
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- Created: 18 July 2017 18 July 2017
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We once spent a weekend in Ryde on the Isle of Wight. It rained steadily and heavily. We had a room in a cheap B&B. We had an energetic five year old with us. A lull gave us half an hour on the beach but the rest of the time was miserable. We divided it between some mediocre cafes and an arcade where our kid played air hockey (fun at least) and had her first taste of a shoot ‘em up video game (hmm....). We dived into a cinema that was showing Top Cat: The Movie. It was desperately awful, even our daughter thought so.
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Giacometti at Tate Modern
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- Created: 06 July 2017 06 July 2017
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Walking around the Giacometti exhibition at the Tate Modern there is an unmistakeable intensity in the air. It’s always been there since our first encounter in the sculpture garden of The Maeght Foundation, Saint-Paul de Vence in the South of France. Giacometti achieves something in his creations many other sculptors can only dream of; he imbues them with the fiction of life. The sensation of presence lasting only a split second, a first glance, emanates from the work in front of you.
Add a commentSummer reading? Poe of course.
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- Created: 19 June 2017 19 June 2017
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There is something about oppressive hear, when the air thickens and the sunlight bears down like a thing with mass. Movement slows and becomes more deliberate. Hurry is pointless.
Add a commentVisit to the house of Karloff
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- Created: 19 May 2017 19 May 2017
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It’s a sultry summer night, 23 July 1977. After much pleading, the thirteen year old me is allowed to stay up for the first half of BBC2’s double bill of horror. The film is Son of Frankenstein and I am sucked in by the heavy gothic atmosphere, the weird, expressionistic sets and lighting, the haunting music played by Bela Lugosi’s Ygor and finally, Boris Karloff’s monster.
Add a commentBook Review: Humanity in the shadow of brutality
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- Created: 12 May 2017 12 May 2017
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The Cultural Revolution was a particularly brutal period in Chinese history. In 1966, Chairman Mao unleashed a torrent of violence and ignorance that aimed to purge the country of revisionists, the bourgeois, the traditional and the capitalist.
Add a commentWest Dulwich Pizza: Cellar 107 Wood oven pizza
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- Created: 09 May 2017 09 May 2017
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Having lived in West Dulwich for the last 3 years, I have become aware that is a bit of a desert when it comes to dining out locally. While other places like Herne Hill seem to have an ever growing choice of eateries and drinkeries, West Dulwich has Cafe Rouge and the god awful pub-come-wedding venue, the Rosendale.
Add a commentMargo as friend and grandmother (Part 2)
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- Created: 05 May 2017 05 May 2017
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Yesterday would have been Margo Durrell's birthday. There was always a little bit of confusion about her age because she used to chisel off a year here and there. She died in 2007 at an agreed age of 87. So to commemorate her 97th birthday I have written this short piece. Add a comment
Some notes on David Hockney exhibition at Tate Britain
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- Created: 02 May 2017 02 May 2017
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Ever since art school I have found the most famous works of Hockney, such as the Hollywood portraits and interiors, very sterile, soulless, lacking any vital life element. He has an architects knack for precision, producing works that are void of spirit.
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South Circular Episode 2. Cares of the World
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- Created: 26 April 2017 26 April 2017
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After we published the first part of my South Circular ramble, from West Dulwich to Woolwich, we received a message from a reader in China (we have a reader in China!). He said he’d forwarded the link to a friend who had lived in Dulwich for forty years and the friend’s response was “should have turned left out of the station”.
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