On the one hand I think if you’re going to advertise a pub quiz then you should have the bloody pub quiz and not call it off because too few people have turned up, on the other I can see that pubs are businesses first and they’re not goin[…]

This is an excellent little article about pub quizzes, from the quizmaster’s perspective. I came with my bristles up, expecting to find all sorts of quiz snobbery on show, but no, the author seems fair-minded and has wise things to say about al[…]

Three more interesting things about the Black Bull:
ONE: it’s that rare treat, a reverse TARDIS pub. It looks like it’ll be some vast wasteland of tables and chairs and misery from the mock-Tudor exterior but it turns out to be a comfort[…]

The Black Bull in Whitechapel is a nice enough, rough and tumble kind of boozer, and despite what FAP says, they had a corking beer from suffolk (Nethergate’s Augustinian) on last nite. i only frequent this pub when we’re on our way to […]

I learnt to swim at Shrewsbury baths when it was still an old Victorian pool, all red brick and high windows and cool shadow. In maybe 1970, they knocked that down and built a modern glass palace, a lot bigger, with seats for spectators and a champio[…]

Duck – tremendous as crispy pancakes, a bit dull as a massive chunk of meat. Just a warning.[…]

I’m not sure if I have ever eaten anything but chips in a Sam Smith’s pub. They all seem to do food; various menus – usually laminated paper – dot their pubs unnoticed until the bar staff come round and whip them away at nine.[…]

For the first time in months Pret A Manger have a new sandwich ‘ Gourmet Prawn whose ingredients somehow manage to avoid red onion and indeed are (as listed) appealingly simple. Extra large prawns. Mayo. That’s it. The prawns are only ext[…]

More things I’ve cooked
a simple one this one, to accompany my char-grilled lamb chops and boiled new potatoes last night I fried up some cubes of pancetta til they were nice and crispy. To the pan I then added a finely diced shallot and some […]

Over nearly 20 years I’ve stopped off countless times on the way out of town back to Hackney at Wing Lee Loi in the Essex Road. It used to do Polynesian as well as Chinese, and when I was very first there it had a plaque on the wall about the c[…]