A couple weekends ago, in beautiful sunshine, we headed up to Margate to check out a new restaurant/art gallery for my second Olive magazine review. Hantverk & Found is the brainchild of chef Kate de Syllas, formerly of Unpackaged, and is a tiny four-table café serving up the freshest of Kentish seafood and promoting local artists in the equally tiny basement art gallery.
So I’ve finally succumbed and signed up for Beer52’s monthly beer delivery service. For just £24 a month you get eight craft beers delivered to your door. That means you can then consume, at your leisure, some of the newest and most unique craft beers being produced around the world.
Last weekend I had lunch in Tunbridge Wells at the recently refurbished Royal Wells Hotel. But this was not just any lunch, it was my first restaurant review for Olive magazine! The hotel has recently had a £2.4 million refurbishment undertaken by famous Kentish brewery Shepherd Neame and it’s looking pretty swanky.
When I first moved to the UK lots of people asked me if there was anything I would miss from California. I gave the obvious answers: family, friends, Californian zinfandel, sunshine. But it never even crossed my mind that there was something bound up in California’s identity that is nearly impossible to find in the UK: Mexican food.
So the next supper club will be at Follies on March 22 and, with enough support, I’m hoping to make it a five course vegetarian feast to ring in the spring equinox.
After the success of my first two supper clubs in Folkestone, I thought I’d try something a bit different heading into 2015. When the hustle and bustle of the Christmas period starts to die down, the post-holiday come down can become a serious affliction – especially when it starts getting dark at 3pm. The best way to remedy this is to have something to look forward to in January, and my next supper club is it!
A few months ago I bought Diana Henry’s A Change of Appetite on a whim; I saw a tweet from Leite’s Culinaria about this white bean purée piled high with beautiful purple radicchio and red onions and it looked good enough that I went straight onto Amazon and bought the cookbook. I have not been disappointed.
I know there haven’t been many recipe posts in the last few months, but I promise the time hasn’t been misspent! I’ve recently started a supper club in Folkestone which is super exciting for me and has taken up quite a bit of time. But I will definitely try to share recipes more frequently because, at the end of the day, that’s what this blog is all about!
My first supper club has come and gone, hopefully leaving all the guests feeling like they couldn’t eat another bite, but leaving me hungry for another and another and another wonderful event where I can cook great food for people and watch them mingling and enjoying the company of their fellow diners. The next opportunity is already booked into the calendar and the preparation is well underway.
