Category Archives: Features

60 Hope Street and Sustainable Food

It is really nice to see the 60 Hope Street group joining the 80-20 foundation and committing its three restaurants to sourcing more sustainable and local food.  This is an interesting concept, and while I’m sure it also helps the 60 groups public image, I hope it does make other restaurants bring it to mind.

What interests me the most is the food mile concept and reducing them by using local suppliers.

“As a nation, we truck huge volumes of food around the road networks of the UK and beyond and we import air-freighted, out-of-season produce from other continents that is expensive to grow at home.

Air-freighting food typically creates around ten times more carbon emissions, per kilo per mile, than road transport and around 50 times more than shipping.” (1)

What I was really wondering was how this will effect the menus of the three restaurants, certainly Host must have a significant range of ingredients shipped in from various places and I’m sure 60 probably does as well. So will this development show itself on the the menus? I hope it does, certainly 60 Hope Street, for me, is struggling with its food. Perhaps this will be the incentive to refocus and up its game.

(1) Quote by Jade Wright, taken from Liverpool Echo

Introducing Scousetro Club

I’m very happy to announce Liverpool’s new dining club, Scousetro Club is an inovative dining expereicne coming to Liverpool. It is a monthly meal hosted by a vibrant local restaurant, offering adventorous food that you can’t normally find on its menu. It is a chance for local food lovers to get together at a great Liverpool restaurant and expereicne great food.

For more information check out the Scousetro Club site here. 

Or Follow Scousetro Club on twitter @scousetroclub

Desperate Scousewives: The Shame of Liverpool

 

This  is not something I really write about, in fact it is far and away the most off topic post I’ve ever writen. This post is about Desperate Scousewives, the appalling fake reality programme that has just started it’s, hopefully, short and insignificant run on E4.

The reason I write this blog is because I love food but just as importantly I love Liverpool, as as city I feel we have a diverse and interesting cultural offering and one that is worth noting. Desperate Scousewives is the antithesis of this city, a one dimensional view of a group of vacuous stereotypes, and I genuinely feel its detrimental to Liverpool as a whole.

I could rant all day about how awful it is but that would be to little effect, instead read this quite excellent and appropriatly scathing review at www.sevenstreets.com

Please don’t watch Desperate Scousewives, one episode is enough for me, I wont be tuning in next week. I really hope it fades away into nothing and it’s effect is as intersting and meaningful as the lives of its cast.

Chardonnay, Chardonnay and More Chardonnay

Some wines become popular, so popular and trendy, that a resultant decline in quality with the increased production, is the result. Pinot Grigio appears to be going through this process at the moment, or so I’ve been informed by people far more knowledgable than me. Chardonnay, the grape used in white burgundy and Chablis, went from respected old man to wine whipping boy, in a relatively short space of time. It’s a wine I know very little about and consequently a wine I’ve hardly ever drunk, thus I was intrigued about a wine tasting run by Carrol Emmas of Harpers and hosted by Jon Atkinson of Scatchards. A dozen of us gathered at Scatchards on a Tuesday evening, to sample eleven different Chardonnays, covering the wide vista now covered by world’s 6th most popular grape. Continue reading →

Do chain restaurants put you off? by Alessia Horwich

Do chain restaurants put you off? by Alessia Horwich.

This is an interesting article about chain restaurants, it’s worth a read, but it was the comments at the bottom that really made me think. To sum up briefly, Alessai states that chain restaurants are boring with food that does not excite, something I completely agree with, but some of  the comment were more negative in their view of chains. What harm to chain restaurants do? I generally don’t eat at them, thats not to say I never eat at them but I try to void them if possible, I like spending money at local independent  establishments that offer something more interesting. To me, chain restaurants are just to be ignored, I pay them little attention, but am I wrong? Do they have a negative effect on our community, is Liverpool or any other town going to be a better place without any chain restaurants?

So, you think you’re intolerant? by Andrew Morgan

This is a really great article about intolerances, a matter that I quite often think about especially in regards to weight loss. I know several people who have claimed they are intolerant of something and that cutting it out made them lose weight. I feel it is fashionable to be intolerant, and the fact that knowledge about weight loss is actually quite poor it easy to jump onto bandwagon when the latest food fad comes a long.

So, you think you’re intolerant? by Andrew Morgan.

Tesco and the Poached Egg Failure

Today I threw a poached egg across the kitchen. It’s not something I’m proud of, it’s certainly not something I’d encourage you to do, but it happened. I feel I need to make this known, in an attempt for some cathartic resolution, otherwise this one irate action may haunt me for some time. The short passage of time since the incident, has somewhat quelled the furious certainty that accompanied my ovum flinging antics, but I’m yet to regret my actions. It’s actually not my fault, the blame lies squarely at the feet of Tesco. Continue reading →

The Best Meal You’ll Never Eat

Last night I had the best plate of food I’ve eaten in a long long time. It was something I’d made myself, which is stretching the truth slightly, it was something I reheated myself, it was a plate of 2 minute noodles. You know the sort, they come in a rectangular block, which you bung in some boiling water for a minute or two, usually with some powdered seasoning for flavour. This wasn’t the sort of two-minute noodles you find in your local supermarket, but some rummaging around a good Asian food store should be enough to get your hand on some. So should you rush out to buy some? Will this be finest plate of noodles you’ve ever had? Are all those TV chefs wrong about processed food? Can they really be that good? No, no, no and no, don’t waste your money or time or effort, you wont understand. This is the best meal you’ll never eat. Continue reading →