I grow my own, brave the kitchen heat and know my woozy way around a wine list. Welcome to my post-lockdown world…
You may call it a blog if you must. It’s certainly a change of direction I’ve been putting off through years of journalistic hyper-activity. The lockdowns have made me reassess the food and drink I really care about. I feel refreshed and free of restraint. Even so. Please excuse the solipsistic sounding neilsowerby.co.uk. It’s not just about me. More the discoveries I want to share. Read more…

Dishoom Home Feast delivers a gateway to India on a plate
One trip down Manchester memory lane for me is to check my Bhangra Beatnikz beer cocktail recipe remains on the Dishoom website.
Still there. It won best cocktail at the last Too Many Critics charity dinner held in the city with seven food…

Modern British Beer – through a glass brightly with Matthew Curtis
This is an epic pioneering tale of brave new frontiers versus folk settled in their ways. Of an award-winning beer named after a 2,000 mile trek in search of a new life… or its champion’s own 200 mile switch from Crouch End to Levenshulme…

Bowls and Broths – how I got strung out in my quest for Pippy perfection
Ominous warning for the recipe I was about to challenge myself with. Spicy Mutton and Tomato Biang Biang noodles. What could possibly go wrong? Not the roasted tomato and mutton broth constituents of this adaptation by Pippa Middlehurst of…

Pädaste Manor – our Estonian idyll among the misty marshes
When revolutionaries ambushed and assassinated the Baron of Pädaste, Imperial Hunting Master to Tsar Nicholas II, in 1919 it froze in time the manor house that was his summer home. History, often bloody history, now passed it by.
Axel von…

ZeroWater filter is the purest solution to all those H2O pipe dreams
Water-centric news stories (floods aside) usually flow swiftly through my attention span and only two 2021 H20 moments have registered in a glass half empty, glass half full kind of way…
Big money guardians of the pour
The first? In…

Your vote counts for everything as MFDF announces 2021 Awards shortlist
Much has been made of the North’s dominance in the National Restaurant Awards announced this week with four out of the five best establishments up here and 16 in the top 40. Manchester only contributed two, both in Ancoats – Mana at number…