Food and Drink

Although not the prettiest of cuts, pig’s cheeks are amongst the animal’s tastiest offering. The same can be said for those of cows (ox) and monkfish, too. From the new Saturday brunch menu at Roast – a British restaurant in Borough Market – this recipe substitutes traditional ham for smoked pig’s cheek, as a take on classic Eggs Benedict. Although time consuming to prepare, the sublime taste compensates for every second of cooking time. Smoked pork cheeks can be sourced...

Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, G’Vine Gin (Spain’s top-selling gin) pushes boundaries with a unique approach. Produced in Villevert, France, G’Vine is distilled with French grapes, juxtaposed to traditional grain. The grape spirit is then infused with vine flowers and nine other ‘luxury’ botanicals including juniper berries, green cardamom and ginger root. In addition, the vine flowers are a rare ingredient, blossoming just once per year, in mid-June, existing for just a few days before maturing into grape berries....

One of the first things you should consider when pairing wine with food is whether to mirror or contrast the bottle with the dish. For some people the like-for-like flavours of say, chardonnay and lobster make the perfect duo, whereas others opt to contrast with the crisp and bold flavours of champagne. Either are absolutely fine to do, but one of the big no-nos is to juxtapose great with humble or humble with great, and it's a sin Darwin Brasserie is...

Student Dane Nash's diet is totally bananas - he eats up to 150 of the fruit A WEEK. The 21-year-old starts every day with a smoothie made of TWELVE nanas and downs up to 10 more throughout the day. He gets 80 per cent of his calorie intake from the tropical fruit, with most of the rest coming from spinach - of which he consumes more than 2lbs per day. Dane follows a strict 'raw vegan' diet - only uncooked...

OK, so who switched winter on? Following two months of what promised to be a glorious summer normality has returned to the shores of Britain bringing with it wind-swept and rain-drenched mugginess that has sufficiently clouded our memories of deck chairs in the garden and strawberries and cream in the fridge. Ain't it always the way. If my memory serves me well, the first few weeks of August are generally the days in which Britain decides to take a rest...

A new lunch membership service is about to revolutionise lunch in London after enjoying huge success in the US. Through MealPal hundreds of restaurants across London are now offering one dish per day to subscribing members which they can choose to reserve ready to pick up at lunchtime. Using the website or mobile app, users browse meals available at restaurants near them, filter meals by cuisine and portion size, and preorder the night before or in the morning, choosing a...

Outside Nine Lives, the newest project from Sweet&Chilli, the bar’s only real tell-tale sign of existence is a tallied number nine logo. Adorned across a vintage leather jacket, on the bar's website, the logo looks as though plucked from a Dead Kennedys or Black Flag album cover. It's so punk, in fact, it’s surprising that BrewDog haven’t yet bullied the group into submission. On a backstreet close to London Bridge station, Nine Lives has a sense of Prohibition mystery, tucked underground...

Islington pie and mash shop M Manze is set to close later this year, after 106 years of trading. On announcing the closure last week, owner Tim Nicholls blamed increasing business rates as the reason for the iconic Chapel Market pie shop’s closure – something that has bereft the city of so many beloved pie shops over the past 20 years. M Manze is set to continue trading until Christmas, before the space is inevitably taken over by another coffee...

An Indian restaurant in London has created the World's hottest cocktail - but who will be brave enough to try it? Made using a secret recipe that includes the Naga Chilli 500,000 Scoville Vodka, The Naga Chilli Cocktail is guaranteed to blow the head off of any brave drinker. Those who have tasted the fiery concoction report burning gums, hallucinating sensations, extreme sweating, stinging eyes and fainting. One drinker describes their experience: “It bites deep into my mouth, gums, tongue...