What constitutes a good culinary experience? It's hard to describe but I know it's not all about the food. If you go to someone's house and all they could offer you is Crix biscuits and butter with some juice, you'd enjoy it because you know they offered it with a lot of love.
At that point, it doesn't matter if the house are a lil untidy or things not perfect, but if I go to a restaurant, I certainly expect everything to be perfect, because I'm paying, I don't want love, I want a good all round culinary experience.
My recent visit to the Hummingbird Restaurant in north London was less than satisfying. Even though the food was extremely tasty, there were too many other things that didn't sit well with me.
Click here to see photos of my visit to the Hummingbird.
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I was so excited when I dug up these lovely garlic bulbs!
I got the cloves at last year's Hampton Court Palace Flower Show from the Garlic Farm's stall. I've bought their garlic at Borough Market before, and since I know how good that Isle of Wight garlic is, I thought I'd give planting some a shot. Read the rest of this entry »

The wonderful Stacy gave me this bottle of strawberry vinegar and I'd love to cook something with it for her, but I keep finding recipes for salad dressing. But even though fish cakes with salad and strawberry vinegar dressing sounds great, I don't think it'll cut it for her sophisticated palate. So if anyone out there could help with an interesting vegetarian recipe that uses strawberry vinegar, please send it on.

I'm not usually one to complain about generous servings but when Bonnie and I went to Mr Jerk the other day, we were both stunned by the stevedore-sized portions.
Essentially, Mr Jerk does what it says on the tin, it serves Jerk dishes and other Jamaican favourites. The restaurant is known for hearty Jamaican food like patties, jerk chicken, ackee and saltfish and brown stew fish.
One evening after work, Bonnie and I went to the Wardour Street branch in Central London to see what we could 'nyam'.
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 In case you didn't realise, one of my missions in life is to convert as many of my Trini friends into adventurous foodies.
You see, a lot of Trinis are a bit sniffy when it comes to trying new stuff. Not only do they feel that the Trini way is the only way, but they're often willing to dismiss something different without giving it a chance.
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Hectic!! That’s the only way I can describe my life lately, hectic and fun! I’ve been having a fantastic summer, especially hanging out with my friends at random and unexpected events.
I have to shamefully admit to a day of drunken excess to celebrate my birthday which for the bits I can remember was excellent.
I’ve been told that I was the life of the party for the entire evening, until I slinked off and passed out on Bonnie’s couch.
Thanks to Maurice for the bottle of Laphroaig single malt whisky, it’s my favourite single malt and all 70cl of it went down really well.
Amazingly after all that alcohol, I didn’t have a hangover or any adverse side effects. I put that down to the venison burger, oysters, clams and sinful chocolate cake I had at Borough Market before getting to Bonnie’s house, as well as copious amounts of food throughout the day.
Lest you think I’ve turned into a wutless drunkard, rest assured that I rarely drink that much, and when I have done, it’s been in the company of good friends so my business won’t be in the street.
Talking about good friends, I’ve shared some interesting meals with friends at Caribbean restaurants in London in recent weeks.
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