There are scenes in Thomas Mann’s wonderful short story Death in Venice where the inhabitants of this beautiful city are starting to see discreet indications that a plague is on its way, even though authorities deny the contagion is serious and continue to allow tourists to walk around the city. It is an image that […]
As I wrote this review at the end of last year, it was so good to open the theaters. My God, we had missed the concerts, the smell of greasy paint, the roar of the crowd. We are very lucky in Aberdeen to have such beautiful theaters and a plethora of entertainment ranging from musicals […]
Derry City has Galway vibes. This was the verdict of our youngest after a family day trip to Maiden City during Twixmas. We went to the Tower Museum, walked around the walled circumference of the Old Town, paid homage to the Free Derry corner, and tried unsuccessfully to enter Peadar O’Donnell’s (there was no room […]
Derry City has Galway vibes. That was the verdict of our youngest after a family day trip to Maiden City during Twixmas. We went to the Tower Museum, walked around the walled circumference of the Old Town, paid homage to the Free Derry corner, and tried unsuccessfully to enter Peadar O’Donnell’s (there was no room […]
Bibo in Shoreditch, a sophisticated Spanish restaurant by chef Dani García, was definitely an evening of premieres. A turning point in my career as a restaurant reviewer came when, right after eating my porcini mushroom cakes, I downloaded a decibel monitoring app to my phone. There was something cheekily cranky about doing it, it’s true, […]
Chicken starter with red curryPhoto by Kevin Kramer There is something intoxicating about wrestlers: the squirt hockey player training for the NHL, the startup entrepreneur evolving into the Fortune 500, the suburban restaurateur dreaming of the big city. Khaluna is the fulfillment of that dream for Ann Ahmed. Born in Laos and living in a […]
I was pretty confident that I was underdressed. I was at Crocker Park in Westlake for a bit of light shopping and a movie, with time for dinner in between. I really wanted to experience Wild Mango – not just because I had salivated in front of the sophisticated, Asian and European chef-owner Jia Wei, […]
IIt was the year we longed for the normality of a restaurant meal, whatever the abnormality of the experience for that to happen. It doesn’t matter that the waiters are hidden or that the tables are scattered around the room as if they are being prepared for an interrogation, or that there may be screens […]
Howard Street, 56 Howard Street, Belfast, Tel. : 02890 248631 Tthe best compliment you can pay any restaurant, that is to say that it is compliant. And a synonym for that in Northern Ireland is the excellent Howard Street which has never let me down. I have eaten there on at least a dozen occasions […]
There is nothing I love more than a fancy hotel at Christmas. To me, nothing beats that sense of grandeur, style, and generosity that really only comes with someone else’s space, scale, and money. This is not what I like about my own domestic celebrations which rest on the usual pillars of family, food, friends […]