I roam, grow my own, brave the kitchen heat and know my woozy way around a wine list. Welcome to my (very personal) world of food and drink…
After years of journalistic hyper-activity, lockdowns made me reassess the food and drink I really care about. Refreshed and unrestrained, I started this. Call it a blog if you must, it’s certainly a change of direction. Less about me, more the discoveries I want to share. Read more…
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Neil Sowerby2026-10-14 14:56:182026-10-20 10:44:23Unveiled: the terrific 2026 MFDF Awards shortlist – cast your votes now
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Neil Sowerby2026-09-18 18:55:272026-09-22 14:43:42In Seef hands again – the working class Antwerp beer that simply evaporated
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Neil Sowerby2026-09-15 18:10:182026-09-22 17:26:29Celebrating Mexican Independence Day with Santiago Lastra’s goosegog salsa
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Neil Sowerby2026-08-24 15:36:352026-09-22 17:41:36Northumbrian spirit – Ad Gefrin matches pioneering whisky with ancient treasures
Fallot’s Tarragon Mustard – how the seeds of my affection were sown
Cut the mustard, keen as mustard – it’s certainly a condiment that keeps upbeat. But so often, from rustic wholegrain to the most delicate of Dijons, it’s a disappointment. ie. they don’t cut the mustard. For all the artisan labels you’re mostly getting an industrial product. Not as bland as supermarket bread made from the […]
Zucchini the road trip takes in Haute Provence, Mantua and the Mendips
Never known a courgette glut like it. Our raised beds are Zucchini Centrale this summer. One upside of a current disinclination to travel? There have been no transitions into the dreaded marrow. What the hell can you do with those? Answers in crayon on a hessian sack, please. Soup has been one way to depopulate […]
The Angel at Hetton stretches its wings under Wignall
Admission: I’ve got a thing about angels. From binge-watching Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire to a treasured print of Marc Chagall’s Jacob’s Dream with its striking Seraphim enmeshed in the battle between good and evil… I’m smitten. Maybe less so with Robbie Williams and his angelic vision. Still one chunk of Angel’s lyrics strikes a […]
Black Friar gastropub – Got to get ourselves back to the garden
Exciting openings have not been plentiful of late. Now we have one. Such is the allure of the re-born Black Friar, reopening on Tuesday, July 27, not even the stormy weather heading our way can zap the al fresco vibe generated by its glorious garden. The short hot summer was at its peak when we […]
Xinomavro and Thessaloniki – our epic Greek voyage of discovery
Wine dark sea. I’ve always loved that enigmatic go-to phrase of Homer. Hard to pin down its exact meaning until one sunset stroll along the vast esplanade of Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki. Nikis Avenue and its continuation doesn’t bother with fencing off the Thermaic Gulf. One stumble and you could plunge into Poseidon’s salty realm. […]
Caviar – quite a scoop as I unleash my inner oligarch
There are some images that are hard to sweep from your mind. You know the sort of stuff – hypocritical politicos caught by CCTV in a ‘steamy clinch’. Etched in my cranium is that ogre of monstrous appetites, Robert Maxwell, in his eyrie at the old Daily Mirror HQ in Holborn opening a desk drawer […]
No end to my sizzling love affair with the Moorcock
Spring 2018 and I’m besotted. The venue a rough and ready moorland pub high above Sowerby Bridge. Not an obvious honeytrap for a tryst and there was precious little flesh on the bones of the object of my desire. A deep-fried herring skeleton on the debut menu was a mission statement for the reinvention of […]
Manchester’s Biggest Chippy Tea is in the bag for reborn Food and Drink Festival
It was numbing last year when the Manchester Food and Drink Festival was postponed. Man and boy (well almost) I had served my dues as one of its Awards judges and, sitting in at some of its more random events, had oodles of foodie fun over the years. This September (from the 16th to the […]