Last winter, I met farmer David Turton of the Wasabi Company just outside of Winchester. This area has been famous for watercress – which has similar growing requirements to Japanese horseradish, known as wasabi, the small pea-green mound next to the salmon-pink pickled ginger when you order sushi. The Wasabi company has moved from watercress…
Travel
Caceres, Extremadura
The old quarter of Caceres is one of the settings for the Game of Thones TV series. A renaissance web of cobbled squares, narrow lanes, an ancient archway, the filmmakers would have had to change very little, perhaps cover a few modern street signs, to convey a fantasy medieval town. It is a pity that…
Picota cherry blossom season in the Jerte Valley in Spain
We associate cherry blossom or ‘sakura’ with Japan, but the Jerte Valley in Extremadura, Spain, has its own glorious display in March and April. The Jerte Valley is mostly planted with Picota cherries, an unusual stemless cultivar specific to this valley. The blossom is white rather than pink; when the wind blows, the valley ‘snows’…
Sour Cherry Strudel recipe
Proper strudels are made from very thin pastry rolled out so thin it will stretch over a table like a vast floury cloth. It should be so fine that you could read a newspaper through it. I’ve seen it made from scratch in Vienna at the Demel Coffee House. This elastic pastry is related to…
Recipe for veggie goulash
Goulash is a cowboy stew for plainsmen in Hungary. Traditionally it is made with meat but I have created a vegan/vegetarian version. I used sweet paprika bought in Budapest and I must say, it’s very red, very fresh and tasty. Parsley roots are a traditional ingredient which I ordered through Natoora at Ocado, but parsnips…
Spas and strudels in Budapest
Budapest is really two cities either side of the River Danube; Buda and Pest. Buda is where most tourists stay, while Pest, with Castle Hill, is posher and more residential. I visited in the January low season when the weather is cold but the accommodation is cheap. I was accompanying my sister who was doing…
River cruise: Honfleur and recipe for salted caramels
In all my years of visiting and living in France, how is that I never knew about a gem- the port town of Honfleur? It’s got to be one of the prettiest villages in France. This picturesque Normandie town was the second stop of a Fred Olsen river cruise. Honfleur has echoing small streets with…
River cruise: Rouen
I went on a sea cruise with P and O last year, which, despite some initial resistance on my part, ended up being a very enjoyable experience. I may have been the youngest person on the ship by at least two decades, but I discovered my inner ‘nan’. It was so relaxing. It was structured….
Anchor-rage
“It’s not America, it’s Russia.” Guy who works at a bed and breakfast in Anchorage . I arrived at Anchorage airport, early morning, 2 am. I got in my hired car, a compact car, which cost £300 for five days, I drove blearily until I hit the grid, familiar to most American cities. Eventually I found…
British Weekends: Winchester and recipe for wasabi/cream cheese gyoza
I’m re-acquainting myself with British history via TV series such as The Last Kingdom and Vikings. Both series feature the ninth century King Alfred, whose capital was in Winchester, in the former county of ‘Wessex’. Winchester is dominated by an enormous bronze statue of Alfred the Great, so called because he was the first monarch…