The Friday 5 #1

Welcome to the Friday 5. I’m food and wine writer Fiona Beckett and this the first weekly round-up of must-buy/must-try treats I’ve pulled together for you in my brand new newsletter Eat This, Drink That.

As you can see it’s pretty eclectic - a chocolate bar of dreams, a brilliant Indian takeaway, a luscious Spanish white wine, a sexy Italian restaurant that will make you feel you’re in Florence and a fab new veggie cookbook (and I speak as an omnivore). Read on . . . 

NIBBLE - or wolf if you will - Waitrose’s hazelnut, caramelised cashew & pistachio chocolate from their No. 1 range. Maybe I’m not the person to recommend it - I’m not THAT into chocolate (crazy I know), milk chocolate even less so but it’s SO good I pick up a couple of bars whenever I’m in store. It’s 49% cocoa solids so respectably chocolatey and tastes like an unbelievably good Toblerone. Not bad for 2 quid either. 

ORDER a takeaway from Kricket. It’s a modern Indian restaurant that started in London and has a delivery depot in Bristol and the food is a definite cut above your average takeaway. The cheapest way to enjoy it is to order one of the feasts - you get a good choice of mains though be sure to order the amazing bhel puri, a crunchy Indian street food snack on the side. I also want to order the vegetable samosa chaat which is the nearest I’ll get to making my friend Romy Gill’s which may be one of the best Indian starters ever. The only downside is that they (Kricket) are on Deliveroo which I try not to use but occasionally needs must.

DRINK El Muelle de Olaso which is one of those delicious Spanish whites that seem to be cropping up all over the place these days (though I found it in my local tapas bar Bar 44). It’s organic, it comes from Cadiz and is made from the normally boring palamino grape that produces sherry. You’ll love it if you’re into albarino. You can buy it from Thorne Wines for £15.99 or The Sourcing Table for £16.50 which I know isn’t super-cheap but it’s the perfect bottle to take to a dinner party - or treat yourself to with a fishy barbecue.  (It was amazing with the garlicky prawns you can see lurking in the back of the pic.)

BOOK Brutto in London’s Smithfield. Well, if you can. It’s not the easiest place to get into because it’s currently one of the hottest tickets in town. It’s run by the charismatic Russell Norman who founded Polpo and who is utterly obsessed with Italian food so it’s a totally convincing Italian trat down to the wicker covered Chianti bottles and the hand-typed menu (in both English and Italian). The pork tonnato is fantastic and perfect for the unseasonably summery weather we’ve been having until recently and you should definitely have the rabbit pappardelle if it’s on. Oh and the negronis are £5. Need I say more? Thought not. I’m already booked in for a return visit.

MAKE practically anything from Joe Woodhouse’s book Your Daily Veg which comes out this week. Joe is a chef and lifelong vegetarian but also a talented photographer which means that every recipe has an accompanying picture. (I love that in a cookbook, don’t you?) The recipes are also really simple and don’t use too many ingredients. I’ve got my eye on two amazing-looking potato salads, a sweet potato salad with ‘loads of herbs’ (Joe’s description) & pink peppercorns and a potato salad with green beans & toasted buckwheat. Who doesn’t love a potato salad? (No need to answer that.)

and finally, SHARE. Your thoughts on the idea and content. Does it work for you? I’ve deliberately kept it short so it’s a quick read but hopefully full of useful and inspiring ideas. Would you be happy to pay for something like this? (not that you need to right now - it’s free till the end of April but you can subscribe below if you’d like to be on the list).

And any things you’ve discovered lately you’re ridiculously excited about and dying to spread the word? Just drop a line to fiona@matchingfoodandwine.com

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