Food & drink

The problem with recommending restaurants

In the words of the great Jim Morrison, people are strange… or they can be when it comes to food. As well as having very contrasting likes and dislikes, folk have very personal foibles, all of which makes recommending restaurants somewhat of a lottery. […]

Italy

Pizza in Pisa

It’s not that pizza is exactly a speciality of Pisa, but it sounds as though it should be. It rolls of the tongue like the unravelling, stringy cheese which still connects the generous slice of quattro formaggi in my hand to the bit that’s in my mouth. […]

Alentejo

It is simply Alentejo, not the new Tuscany

Driving through an endless savanna where mounds rather than hills rolled lazily toward infinity, a travel article I’d read in The Guardian a couple of years ago popped into my head. It was called ‘A foodie tour of Portugal’s Alentejo’ and claimed that Portugal’s largest region was being touted as the new Tuscany. […]