Bread is important. It’s the most fundamental of foods, loaded with symbolism, heavy with tradition, commanding its own rituals and reverence. Often, you can take one look at the bread that a restaurant serves and work out precisely how good or bad your meal will be. If a kitchen cares not for the bread it [...]
“So, when you want to order, just write what you want on these cards – this one for drinks and this one for food, and clip them on here, OK?”, said the waiter, pointing upwards to a huge wooden clothes peg dangling from a wire above the table. It’s a big peg, a very big [...]
I got home from work last night and dumped my bag in the normal place, the place where it shouldn’t be. My son was loitering about, and there was something on his mind, something that he didn’t seem to want to ask. “Dad? Hmmm. Well, I was thinking that seeing as its just us, maybe we [...]
In Lisbon, there’s a part of the city where your map isn’t likely to help you. It’s a dense warren of narrow cobblestoned streets and alleyways spread across a hillside. Take one turn, then another, then another, before realising you’re right back where you started. The only certainty is that some streets lead generally uphill, and others [...]
We spent some time in Donostia San Sebastián in northern Spain, a beautiful city renowned for its food, and held by many to be the culinary capital of the region, if not the whole of Spain. Why, then, did we spend a couple of perplexing evenings eating some of the worst food I’ve ever ordered [...]