I'm on holiday so I've been a little lax on self-promotion, but a few weeks ago I broke out of London for a long walk and a pub dinner. Here's what I thought of it.

Surprise, surprise: the new cookbook by Ixta Belfrage is excellent. I’ve loved cooking its punchy, colourful Brazilian-inspired recipes, from lime-soaked okra skewers to coconut curry roast chicken, and it has me sorely tempted to go pick up her last book too.

Charcoal Champ is a north London north Chinese hotspot, where you should order a great many grilled skewers and wash them down with a cold Tsingtao, as you idly wonder why British BBQ culture can’t be a little more like this

I've always been curious to try Carbone, but this piece on the new London outpost has done a great job of putting me off it

I had a slightly uneven meal at The Macbeth, a new Portugal-inspired venture from half of Four Legs (Two Legs?), but the potential is clear to see

The slice is slowly taking over London, from the ubiquitous New York-style to options from Rome, Detroit, and some that feel more distinct to this city. I’ve eaten almost everywhere currently serving pizza by the slice, and here are the places I really rate.

London’s slice shop obsession is in full swing, but Paulie’s is one of the few that really hews close to the New York format. Not everything here is great, but the standard slices are some of the city’s best in the New York style, and are almost cartoonishly good looking

I first found Zeit für Brot in Berlin way back in 2019, so I was just a little surprised to see one turn up on my doorstep. Go for the famous cinnamon rolls, stick around for the should-be-famous schokostange

This week for paid subscribers, my review of Sama Sama, a Malaysian-Scottish cookbook that makes more sense than that might sound

To the surprise of no one, the Dexter burger at The Plimsoll remains very good indeed

The name may suggest it’s all about plonk, but don’t worry: Planque’s kitchen is every bit as deserving of your attention, whether you have the palate for its wine list or (like me) definitely don’t

Bing Bong is a silly name for seriously good pizza, with a focus on grandma slices built to show off the exceptional dough

A Billingsgate breakfast for my birthday this weekend: scallops from the market, smoked bacon from my local butchers, and Dusty Knuckle potato sourdough. Extravagant doesn't quite cover it, but I'll take it.

This feels like an important detail to bury deep in the piece. A doubled calorie deficit might just explain the doubled weight loss, and 'processed food is more calorie dense' doesn't feel like much of a discovery

This week’s paid post is a recipe that started life as something completely different — cooked sea bass for a stuffed pasta filling — but found new life through the power of leftovers. It turns out we prefer it like this anyway.

The best meals get better as they go, but you're not always so lucky. Joyeta Ng's new menu at Mu starts tremendously, but the snacks and starters are better than anything that comes after.

Wrote about food for the day job and now I'm out here getting ratioed by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission

The Compton Arms has yet another excellent kitchen residency in The Rake, helping back up its claim to be Orwell’s perfect pub

Deranged campfire cooking over the weekend: a DIY shawarma of chicken, duck, and quail, roasted over an open flame. We made naan too, fried in the skillet below the meat, and were good and drunk by the time any of it was eaten.

I read and test an awful lot of cookbooks these days, but these are the five I think of most fondly, and cook from most often

Like every other London food writer, I went to Singburi. Maybe unlike everyone else, it was for the first time.

A little something I'm working on at the moment: chilli crisp, parmesan, and caper sourdough. Shamelessly inspired by a Ruby Tandoh pasta recipe. This is v2, and right now the laoganma is overpowering everything else, but there's definitely something here if I can get the balance right

This is very cool! State-subsidised restaurants are such a great way to support people and potentially improve public health, and I'd basically given up that we'd ever have them again

I was very sick when I wrote this, so I apologise in advance if it makes no sense, but I mused a little on eating Neapolitan pizza in a city where it’s still a novelty, not the norm

Sewage sludge used to fertilise farmland, with minimal testing for whatever pollutants it may contain. What could go wrong?

Eggs! Here's how I make 'em, with nothing more than butter, salt, and pepper, and without undue fuss or bother, but they still come out about as soft as can be.

I have a chance issue of @tribunemagazine.bsky.social to thank for putting me onto milk bars while I was in Warsaw, and I’m so glad I made the effort to track one down

Amid a heaving wave of slice shop openings in London right now, Portis Pizza stands out by steering clear of NYC entirely

I’m not sure The Spanish Pantry is quite what it appears to be - an affordable, accessible entry point into Spanish cooking - but the recipes are excellent if you have the time (and budget!) for them

Always had a milk bar on my to-do list for Warsaw, and it did not disappoint. Wish I had time to work through more of them

Tamila is a less vibey, more approachable take on the Tamil royal family that feels more casual without actually costing much less, but somehow invites you to spend a little less anyway

First food in Poland: zapiekanka, which is basically just mushroomy bread covered in a sauce of your choice. Ketchup is apparently traditional, but I didn't dare, so I figured garlic would do

Let's have more cultured meat companies doing quail foie gras: absolutely bananas stuff that you just can't achieve with an actual animal involved

Rogue Sarnies started as a spin-off, but now it’s bigger than the original has ever been

Nailing down top five lists is always difficult; picking five sandwich shops felt all-but impossible. But I did my best, and here are the five I think are doing things-in-bread best right now.

New Roman-style slice shop down the road and it is doing the Lord's work 👌

I’ve eaten more of Bun House’s plump, crimson-stamped bao than I’d be prepared to count over the years, and for convenience alone I know I’ll be eating countless more

This is pretty damn close to my perfect rye bread: dense but soft, sturdy yet sour, and studded with seeds for extra texture. It doesn’t hurt that it only take about 15 minutes of real work to make it.

"London's best burrito" might sound like it's intended to damn with faint praise, but I promise: Bad Manners really is great

This week for paid subscribers, my favourite cookbook in absolutely ages: Umai, by Millie Tsukagoshi Lagares

Oh my god this is all absolutely deranged

I've already told you that Comalera does some of my favourite tacos in London — but that isn't even the thing they do best

Made it (and then some). Will have a little celebratory reward going out to subscribers in this Sunday's mailer, so sign up if you don't want to miss out!

London has an understandably bad rep for Mexican food. But while the average taco is pretty poor, there are a few - and just a few - taquerias that could hold their own just about anywhere

Oh, she's a beaut @vittles.bsky.social

Dominic Cummings loves The De Beauvoir Deli, but don’t hold that against it

A recipe for my latest obsession, a health food that the health food weirdos haven’t found out about yet, probably because it’s too delicious to feel good for you: oyakodon

Ferment is my favourite cookbook in a while — a simple, straightforward explanation of ferments and pickles of every kind, including guidance on how to get creative with them, and plenty of recipes to throw them into.

Calong offers Korean home cooking crossed with French fine dining, and deftly manages to offer the best of both worlds, with little of the worst

If you’ll forgive the self-indulgence, here’s a story about a very modern hangover