Surrey now has its very own street food market: Epsom Social food hall. I was super excited to be invited down for their soft launch to get to know Surrey’s first food market, and the newest place to be in Epsom! The best way to explore and get to know it was for me to tuck in…
San Sebastian in the Basque Country in northern Spain is world renowned as a foodie pilgrimage destination, and that’s not just for the Michelin-starred fine dining. The whole town revolves around the pintxos, these small plates really are the main attraction of the beautiful seaside resort.
It’s not every day you find some of Surrey’s finest street food tucked away in an old aircraft hangar in a field. New Orleans-inspired Poor Boys set up shop for a residency under the corrugated metal arch of The Barn KT9 for the Winter Festival running through Thursday-Saturday evenings in November and December.
Back when I was growing up in Dorking in Surrey, there weren’t any Michelin-starred restaurants. We had a few chain restaurants, plenty of pubs, and lots of antique shops. Now, on the site of what I knew as Pizza Piazza (remember those?) sits chef Steve Drake’s Sorrel putting this town in the South East firmly on the foodie map. The beautiful red brick and timber building dates back to 1733 and the remarkable original features are still on display throughout.
Socius in Burnham Market, North Norfolk has been receiving a lot of attention recently, and rightly so. Small plates aren’t always everyone’s cup of tea, but I love the ability to try lots of different things during a meal – especially in places with a regularly changing locally-sourced seasonal menu. Since opening in early 2018, owners Natalie and Dan, who is also the self-taught chef, have picked up numerous awards and accolades including winning Eat Norfolk restaurant of the year 2019, among others.
There’s something very special about pizza. It’s comforting, quick, social and so delicious. Wandsworth’s Well Kneaded pizzeria and van make some of the most special pizzas using organic veggies and high welfare meat.
I recently visited the Silent Pool Gin distillery in Surrey (see my blog about our tour) so was very excited to be invited to return so soon for a supper club evening with fellow Silent Pool-based business Mandira’s Kitchen. I’d never been to a supper club before, let alone one hosted at one of my favourite gin distilleries!
Panzano, a small unassuming hilltop town in the Chianti region of Tuscany, was propelled onto the world stage (and my attention) in early 2019 when Netflix released season six of my favourite show: Chef’s Table. Episode two was centred around a charismatic butcher called Dario Cecchini (not pictured) and his restaurants Officina della Bistecca, Solosicca and Dario Doc.
For my wife‘s birthday this year, we went on a surprise trip to Stockholm for the weekend. It’s a city that we’d both been wanting to visit for a while having heard such great things, so one Friday we met at Gatwick after work and we were off.
Having experienced New Zealand‘s breathtaking beauty at the end of 2018 we wanted to travel somewhere a little closer to home that might offer some similarities. As neither Kirstin or I had been to the Highlands before we decided on flying to Inverness in Scotland to stay in the beautiful Muckrach Country House Hotel in Speyside, at the north west of the Cairngorms (the largest national park in the UK).
