Dining in a restaurant or dining room is so passé. Why, only the other night I asked Dear Husband to join me in the Bentley for hors d’œuvres. One doesn’t want one’s at-home cocktail hour to evaporate, does one? The team at a razor, a shiny knife, are men after my own heart. (Not that they [...]

Have you been struggling for a way to make someone think they have eaten magic mushrooms without going to the trouble and potential illegality of actually buying them? Look no further. Fantastic Design Works Co has designed not one, but four entire restaurants to evoke Alice in Wonderland. ”And where would such a wondrous thing have happened?” I [...]

Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to be invited by prestige champagne brand, Moët & Chandon, and particularly their grand cuvée, Dom Pérignon to spend an evening and a day (not enough—let me assure you!) at their family maison, Château de Saran. Located in Chouilly—a small town in the Champagne region, about an hour-and-a-half [...]

I’ll never forget the day one of my school friends was invited over for lunch and we sat down to a meal of my mother’s famous meatloaf. Now, don’t go scrunching your nose up at the thought of meatloaf. Sure, it’s a kitsch throwback to the 1970s, but you haven’t tried this particular recipe with [...]

If you’re anything like me and the idea of actually looking after a child is putting you off having them, then the natty Japanese have the solution for you—the Tokyo Baby Café. Located in the Aoyama prefecture of Tokyo, the café  is designed by Japanese designer, Nendo to allow parents and their offspring coexist without destroying [...]

For our American brethren, according to tradition, the fourth Thursday in November marks a day of gratitude, feasting and sharing. What tradition refuses to recognise is that it’s also a time of overindulgence to the point of bursting, despair due to parental criticism and tolerance of other inebriated and flatulent—both figuratively and literally—family members. Did [...]

When will the madness cease?! First there were bacon-flavoured envelopes, then bacon shoes and now bacon candles! David Burke’s Primehouse in Chicago has created an edible bacon candle made from rendered bacon fat to be used as a garnish on certain dishes. David Burke recommends pouring it over “dry aged beef, scallop sashimi or any other [...]

I’m perplexed by a party invitation problem: I don’t want to invite losers. Unfortunately, there are a lot of them getting about; sometimes in disguise as interesting arty folk and occasionally my loser beam doesn’t pick up on it until they are within its circumference at a gathering. What’s a sure-fire question I can ask [...]

You see it in the movies and it’s enough to make your stomach turn. When it happens in real life, one could be forgiven from standing up from the table, picking up one’s chair and smashing it over the offender’s head in a WWF motion. The crime? Tucking a napkin into one’s shirt. In the [...]