Nifty gifts for dads

Surprise the dad in your life with a taste of something a little bit different this Father’s Day.

Happy World Gin Day!

Easy peasy grapefruit squeezy

Yomp, slurp and chomp through the glorious Chilterns

At last! The Chilterns Food and Drink Festival! What took them so long? As with all the best ideas, you wonder why nobody had the idea before. It’s an area that has rich pickings, so much so that back in the day, the Chilterns were known as the larder of London. So, where to start? […]

Hitchin hosts with the most, and farewell sloe Ginuary

I mopped up January with two stellar awards’ events, both hosted in Herts. On Monday I headed off to Hitchin, where Hermitage Road bar and restaurant was hosting the Top 50 Gastropubs awards. And on Tuesday, in Frithsden, the idyllic hidden pocket in the west of the county, it was the sloe gin competition at the Alford […]

Eat here: Muddy Herts at Water Lane

I’d been to Water Lane in Bishop’s Stortford for lunch a while back — and thoroughly enjoyed it — but they’ve taken on new chef and a brand new general manager recently, so I popped back to check out any changes. Y’know, it would have been rude not to…

Got your Berkeley card yet?

There are all sorts of reasons to visit Berkhamsted — and now there’s a very stylish new one to add to the list. The Berkeley, on Lower Kings Road in the heart of the town, opened last week, and I can see it becoming a real favourite for an evening out — or a cheeky coffee during the day…

Don’t be sloe (sorry) getting your gin started…

I’m something of a fan of sloe gin, having properly discovered it a few years ago — courtesy of my lovely friend Lucy, who always manages to rustle up a super selection of sloe gin, damson gin, and more. So I’m not-very-quietly excited at the prospect of the return of the Alford Arms’ Sloe Gin Competition…

Tea is the new Cocktail, dahhhling…

Now, I love a good cuppa — although some might say I make it a bit on the weak side — so I was shocked to discover that Ali, down in Muddy Kent, could take or leave a nice cuppa. However, she calmed me down with the revelation that you can make cocktails with tea. Seriously. Read on…

Muddy’s Ruin….

I’ve done a few wine tastings in my time – as you do – and even the occasional champagne tasting, but I jumped at the chance to sign up for a Gin Tasting evening recently. I mean, really. A chance to *ahem* sample 4 craft gins, guided by an expert taster – it’s practically educational…

Retro cheese with Jack and Alice

The prospect of a fondue night at Jack and Alice, the new wine bar on Tring High Street, had me and a good few of my friends all in a tizzy. Retro? Yup. Cheesy? Yup. Delicious? Oh yeah…

Determined to re-live the delicious fondues of my 70s childhood – only this time without my siblings threatening to throw me in the lake if the bread fell off my fork, and with the addition of a decent bottle of wine – I grabbed two of my best lovelies and we headed off, fondue-wards, into the night…