Have you ever flirted with someone in a bar for most of the evening…  Then you go in for the kill to seal the deal. You are making out when someone entirely more appealing catches your eye.  Not because you are some sort of a Casanova, but your kissing companion is a really repulsive kisser that has you questioning the meaning of life with every smack of their lips?

Nope?  Me either, but I’ve seen it at least once in the movies.

Smashburger has risen to fame in my home state of Colorado.  This has happened since I left the US many moons ago.  I was mega excited to try their burgers when we heard that they were expanding to the UK.  Sadly, they had no initial plans to open in London.  Other towns like Brighton, Glasgow, Leeds and Newcastle

Does anyone remember ChaCha Moon? That Chinese restaurant that opened in Kingly Court….   The one that offered all the dishes for £3.50 during the soft launch and it was packed. Then they tried to up the prices to what should be market value prices and people stopped going?  The one that closed and made space for Pastaio and The Meh! Egg.   Those are all things that I remember about it.

I cannot remember a single dish that was amazing. Maybe that’s why it closed. It was an amazing space and carry on concept from Wagamama. But the food was pretty average. Great for £3.50, not so great for £10-£15 per plate.

One thing that I do remember was a drink… The Salted Sprite. Funny that it’s not a traditional Chinese Drink, it has a Thai origin. It’s a drink that really resounded with me as I love sweet and salty together.

Brunch is so huge right now. I feel like Carrie Bradshaw would be very proud of all that she achieved for the popularity of this meal. As you probably know (or not if you are new to here) Brunch must contain breakfast dishes… If there are no eggs, no toast, no waffles, no porridge or no pastries IT’S NOT BRUNCH. It’s just a lunch.

Now that we have cleared that up, brunch is a huge business in London. Everyone offers it, everyone eats it, heck there is even a festival about it. Don’t ask me why you’d pay for a ticket to walk around in crowds to see a bunch of exhibitions stands and eat a taster spoon of Shakshuka. Just look on the internet and see where to go. Sorry I digress.

One place that I would highly recommend for brunch is the Bloomberg Arcade. Nope, it’s not a restaurant, but more of an arcade of top quality restaurants in the city. I bet you are asking why I’m suggesting Bloomberg Arcade. It’s all about the location. Being situated in the city it is busy Monday to Friday with men in suits and women power lunching over cocktails. Come the weekend it’s a different story altogether. I’m not saying its desolate, but you won’t have to queue for an impromptu brunch.

The other evening I was invited alongside other food influencers to the Marylebone institution of Clarette for an evening of food and drink to celebrate German Wines.   In particular the wine from one variety of German grape. Riesling (pronounced reece-ling)

Before that night if you accosted me on the street and held a proverbial gun to my head and demanded that I list countries that produce great wine… Germany would sadly not have been on that list.  Not because I held on to that old school reputation that Germany made overly sweet blue nun style of wines.   But mainly because I’m very much a creature of habit with a small knowledge of wine.  Which generally means once I get served a wine that I like I stick with it.

Fans of German wine are quick to shout that Riesling produce some of the finest white wines on the planet. Hopefully, after this evening I would think the same.  Riesling is the most popular variety of grape used in production in Germany accounting for some 25% of grape production.

There is no secret that I love pork.  It’s hard to explain why it’s one of my favourite meats.   I guess it’s because it’s really versatile.  Its brilliant both fresh and cured.  Joints are brilliant to roast, chops are great fried, cutlets into katsu, bbq’d ribs, bacon, sausages and ham…. You get the point I LOVE PORK.   So, when I was invited to the uber-luxe Hispania restaurant in the City for the launch of the Pork Lovers Tour it was a bit of a no-brainer.

I don’t travel as often as I would like, I mean who actually does….. unless you are a dedicated travel blogger. Those full-time travel bloggers make me really jealous, not only because they get to travel all the time to exciting destinations… but because they can really make good use of travel gear and tech like a drone. I’m am so envious of those soaring videos and epic Arial shots that you can get from a drone. Though not envious enough to go out and shell out £1000 for a DJI Mavic Air that I’ll use a couple times a year.  Is it even possible to fly them in London?

What if you could rent a drone for a short period of time? Perhaps for that week away to Bali or a day out to the coast of Kent. Well, you can do just that with Fat Llama. 

About 4 years ago I thought the burger bubble would have burst by now.  Not in as much the way that burgers would just go away… but more in the way that people would not try and break into the burger scene in London.  Honestly, I’m glad that the bubble has not burst, I’m excited that new burgers are coming on to the scene.  I’m optimistic that some of the OG burger joints are upping their game.  I’m wondering if we really need a branch of Whalburgers?

Like most things in life all the fresh and exciting talent comes from the street. Food is no different. In order to stand out, you need to carve your niche.  Here are three of my favourite New Kids on the (Burger) Block.

I grew up on Mexican food and Disney animations, so when I was invited to a Tamale Masterclass at Mestizo to help launch the Blu-ray and DVD release of Disney Pixar’s animated smash Coco I could not say no. 

Unless you are a vegan or vegetarian…. There is nothing tastier than a beautiful slab of meat cooked to perfection with a nice caramelised crust on the outside and buttery tender on the inside.   The only way to achieve that is from high heat, which you can achieve in the kitchen, well you can in my flat if you don’t mind setting off every fire alarm.