Trying something a little new for me - a list that’s openly uninformed. Here are a few places I really liked in Copenhagen, a city I’ve spent a grand total of five days in. I won’t claim to be an expert, but since I liked them, maybe you will too.

My first review from Copenhagen is of not-Noma, the acclaimed fine dining spot’s more approachable sister restaurant Barr. I strongly suspect it’s much more my thing than Noma ever could be.

I've always had mixed feelings about Noma - the prices, the labour practices, tbh the whole fine dining vibe - but it was fun to wander around their little shop in Copenhagen

No paid post today — I'm afraid travel and sickness have knocked me off schedule. Usual service will resume next Sunday!

Sticky toffee pizza obviously shouldn't work, but relieved to say it really does, at least at Circus. It passes the 'cold out of the fridge the next morning' test, though it's definitely better on a reheat

Doppio Zero might not look like much from the outside, and it doesn’t pop up on many pizza rankings or best-of lists — but it really, really should

A strong recommendation from my sister led me to Proto Bakery in St. Albans, and I'm glad it did. A lovely bready cardamom and orange bun, an impressively layered pain au chocolat, and an almost comically tall slab of olive-studded focaccia, as soft as anything

I don’t truly eat seasonally half as often as I’d like to, or feel I should. But every once in a while I manage it, this time spurred by a pink pop of forced rhubarb in a Yorkshire market

I broke out of London a couple weeks back for a weekend in York, and am very glad I found the time for dinner at Los Moros, a north African restaurant that feels charmingly casual - though the food is anything but

The Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins has opened applications for its food systems journalism fellowship this year. I'm part of the current crop, and can definitely recommend it if you're an early career food writer, or looking to add it to your repertoire like I was

Paid a first visit to Tommy's Sandwiches near King's Cross the other week. Not London's best sub spot, but a solid start considering it's only just opened. I'll be back when the promised addition of a meatball sub hits the menu.

I'm afraid Loaf wasn't entirely sold on the rhubartini, though I thought it came out rather well: equal parts vodka and rhubarb syrup, shaken over ice

Snuck a little more food writing into the day job, this time on Beyond Meat's pivot to protein drinks

A closer look at one of my favourite bánh mì in London, Hackney’s own Bánh Mì Hội-An

After eating as many as them as I could over the past few weeks, I can confirm that London has an awful lot of bang average bánh mì. But a handful of spots are a cut above the rest, whether it’s thanks to baking their own bread or getting their pickles on point. These are the ones not to miss.

Bangers only at Tofu Vegan (but the silken tofu remains the biggest banger of them all)

A bit of a love letter to the diner, and more specifically Lou’s

Couldn't go to the North without eating a pork pie. In fact, turns out I couldn't go without eating two, but that's between me and God

Poon’s is exceedingly pretty, and the food is almost good enough to match — almost

I was travelling last week, so forgot to share my review of the excellent new opening Tempo - so good that in fact I’m already going back there for dinner tomorrow

My first recipe for the new year is not exactly health food: bubbly focaccia, slick with red chilli oil, and studded with briny capers. Worth relaxing the diet for though.

My first visit to a Vegas buffet, including comically large slabs of prime rib (big rare beef, obviously delicious) and a mysterious black lemon gouda (looked and felt like rubber)

Christmas Eve is usually a lasagne in this house, but last night brought a hard pivot to Chinese food, with pork and prawn dumplings, steamed fish, and stir-fried rice cakes. Plus, um, tarte tatin — a little less on theme, but still great.

Best present yet this year: my little logo brought to life

Made the trek to Toad in Peckham last week for mince pies, but couldn't resist a little more. The soy sauce and sesame cookie was exquisite.

Eating the elusive Good London Taco

With the mince pie monster out the door, I’m taking a little break for Christmas - Braise will be back in January with a review of Eric Wan’s excellent new opening Tempo

You’re running out of time to eat them, but here’s my exhaustively updated guide to London’s best mince pies, including some old favourites and some new stars

A single dish specialist has to really nail that one dish — sadly Khao So-i’s modernised take on the Thai noodle soup doesn't pull off that trick

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I got engaged! Would you be shocked to hear that food was involved?

This week's post for paid subscribers: a recipe for pork and cabbage baozi that I pried out of Vivian's mum's hands

Anyone who’s eaten Whole Beast’s cooking before will not be desperately surprised to find out that their first permanent spot is off to a good start

A good reminder that AI recipes still suck, and perhaps always will — combining elements of multiple recipes into one is a skill, and a language model that's never cooked a thing won't have it

This isn't a review of Dove, because I didn't eat at Dove the restaurant, I ate at Dove the 10-per-service burger bar

I’ve updated the list of my favourite burgers in London after testing new arrivals like Dumbo, Dove, Chuck’s, and more. Paid subs can find out what made the cut.

FYI, Billingsgate Market gets a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in Bugonia, which made this week's post perfect timing braise.substack.com/p/billingsga...

No trip to Billingsgate Market is complete without a visit to the cafe, and no trip to the cafe is complete without a bacon and scallop sandwich.

I don't often get to write about food for the day job, but this week I dove deep into what OpenTable does with all its data on your dining habits

Budgie Montoya’s Alpas is the best pop-up/residency I’ve been to in some time, and there are still a few tables left — definitely go along if you can

A book like The Snack Hacker could so easily have been a lazy list of artless fakeaways, but is so much more creative than that, remixing everything from Egg McMuffins to supermarket naans, often in utterly unexpected ways. It’s the most fun cookbook I’ve owned in forever.

Lupa was London’s darling right up until it wasn’t. But after the ups and downs of the hype cycle, it’s a much better restaurant than you might have heard.

London does a weirdly good line in Georgian restaurants, but even so I think new-ish opening Saperavi Social is one of the better ones, and not just for its heaving, soupy khinkali

This week’s recipe for paid subscribers is a belter: it comes from my friend Tiernan, who pairs savoury and sweet in this sourdough featuring kalamata olives and caramelised roasted grapes. Best eaten smeared thick with goat’s cheese. braise.substack.com/p/tiernans-r...

Off work this week, so I made the world's largest apple pie

Akka Falafel — which has been known as Just Falafels for as long as I’ve known it, seemingly until pretty recently — has been my go-to falafel wrap for the best part of a decade, but I suppose I’ll (reluctantly) share it with you all too

Final bake for this weekend's recipe post. You might want to subscribe for this one 👀

I entered Camille in a slightly foul mood, and left elated. Any meal that can do that is guaranteed to be something special indeed.

I wouldn't presume to declare what's best in New York, so I'll settle for listing a few of my favourites

Lots of talk about veggie burgers this week, but I think a lot of people missed that lab-grown meat would be hit by the same EU restrictions. Bad news for a pretty fragile sector.