Ok I had to put this pic of Angela Hartnett up first as, amazingly, she used it as an advert for her next brilliant Smoked and Uncut festival at the Pig Hotels. She didnt realise it but that rather stalkerish looking person in the bowler hat is me! I had gone along, not just for […]
Category: Bits and Pieces
Talking Stick Necessity
How exciting, a competition from Clickstay.com to win a holiday in Italy. Whilst I have never been to Italy it is on my bucket list and I chose a lovely 12 person villa in Tuscany. I am meant to tell you who my dream guests would be and I am sure they are meant to […]
New tv coming
Cant say too much now but soon both Mia Fiore and The Newbury should be making a tv appearance. As soon as I can tell you I will give you the link but I am very excited about it. The other presenters are SO glamorous, I believe I am the ‘character’ or the ‘comedy element’ […]
Use them or lose them – local cuisine
Where do you go to eat, what influences your choice? Is it always price or is it quality or indeed a combination of the two? I was in The Newbury the other day at lunchtime and it was quiet, my understanding is that the chains are offering much cheaper options. I totally get it that […]
@JayRayner1 100% The Elephant much less
The Great Man When I heard Jay was coming to Newbury, the Emmenthal of towns, I was torn. I had attended one of his Guardian Masterclasses (very good by the way) and we had a debate on whether one should accept free food or not. Fundamentally I would like to think […]
Lots more reviews of hotels and food coming soon
Great Western, Great Starter, Great Cutlery! Sadly rather bland but looked quite nice I have been given a fab new camera by my lovely husband for giving up the booze for so long, the problem is integrating it into my blog. By the way I hope you notice the wonderful new look to leilasent.me. […]
The Golden Triangle of Chapel Row
Oh I am such a lucky bunny. I live in the best place, so near to town yet close to country. Near civilisation but not close enough to impact on the residents of our house in any way. Really close to The Golden Triangle. I have written about the delightful Chapel Row before but, as […]
Artisan Market – Chapel Row – get there early!
Who likes good food? Well I do as you know. This blog is about good food and places that you can get it. We are so blessed in West Berkshire, we have so many good pubs, restaurants and farmers markets. This post is about a new market that I went to recently. It is held […]
Eateries I praise and love
Coming up in about 20 minutes on 87.7 or http://kennetradio.com/site/show/weekend-woman/ Kennet Radio. Praise of The Vineyard, The Bladebone, Chapel Row Market and Brebis. We had such fun recording, the bits you don’t get to hear are even better!! Oh my, forgot to say I also go on about the lovely meat from Two Cocks. Oh […]
Carte-du-vin – wine enjoyment made friendly
I am so lucky to be able to do interviews for KennetRadio and leilaslocallarder.com. Apart from the terrifying journey of getting to see Carte-Du-Vin in Micheldever I had a wonderful time with lovely people telling me about wine in a friendly and encouraging way. I also got a great interview for Kennet Radio whilst learning […]
Chick lunches – memories not ‘stuff’
For those of you that haven’t been following this blog (grrr) you may be unaware of my chick lunch system. This is a way of ensuring that at least once a month we all get together, usually for a roast or three but in summer this morphs into a barbecue (thus my constant pleas for […]
Another example of good customer response v very average
We went to The Star in Kingsclere recently, one of the Vintage Inns and normally a great place to eat and take people to. It is a lovely place, lots of little corners and log fires and is pretty reliable as far as the food and staffing goes. I can normally rely on there being […]
Meat, send it my way but only if it is GOOD!
Time for another rant. Have come back from Thailand to the miserable news that we shouldn’t eat too much protein. Whilst part of me suspects that next week it will carbs with their head on the media block this news does back up my reasoning that it is far better to eat really good meat, […]
Soup glorious soup
A Good Soup is truly nectar of the gods. It is the stuff that makes you well, it is the perfect last thing to have at night, an ideal light lunch and can marry so well with a good loaf of bread. Below are pictures of some of the soups I had in Koh Samui. […]
Wahoo, I won and with my own recipe!!!
If any of you don’t already subscribe to lovefood.com well why on earth not?? It is a fabulous site with great recipes, interviews and a lot of food porn. Today, sat in Kuala Lumpur, I had the best email from them which said that I had won a recipe competition, I am SO chuffed. The […]
Taste of Christmas at the Vineyard 2013
This was indeed magnificent. I should have realised when I got the last parking space in the car park and another 100 cars had to park elsewhere. The Vineyard was buzzing and as I entered the lobby I saw with delight that it had turned into a stunning Christmas market. On the right were the […]
Blackberry Cottage, cakes with veg, well I never did!!
Kate from Blackberry Cottage recently visited West Berkshire Mencap bringing delicious supplies of cakes and traybakes which all had one thing in common, they all had vegetables in them. This venture started about ten years ago when a mum turned up at Kate’s home in tears because she was unable to get her child to […]
Festival Food Part Two, there was music as well apparently
The Roaming Rotisserie Oh my what a stall, run by a really nice bloke and was just the most tasty food yet so simple. Basically a ton of chickens on a rotisserie with new potatoes cooked underneath in the chicken juice. I could have gone back again and again. You can buy half or whole […]
Finally, I sucked out the brains of a prawn – Rachel please read
For years Rachel, my beautiful daughter,and I have been trying to do this and invariably we count to three and both pretend as the thought of sucking out a prawns brains is too gaggy. Well Rachel, I am proud to tell you that at Green Man Festival 2013 I sucked out those brains!! It was […]