Monthly Archives: August 2010

Winston’s wardrobe

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Winston, a long-standing friend and one-time flatmate, is a uniquely stylish dresser. He wears bow ties with shorts; bright checked trousers with modified buttons; and women’s knitwear to better fit his slim frame. His blog, Le Vrai Winston, and his writing for other fashion sites, has led to a shortlisting in Esquire‘s Best Dressed Man awards, and to mentions in BA’s Highlife Magazine. I find it reassuring to think that in some cases, people do get recognised for their enthusiasm and passion. I am also glad that there remain a small supply of wonderfully colourful people like Winston who spurn every attempt of society to make them conform.

Let them eat lobster

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Even in the harsh penal environment of early America, some colonies had laws against feeding lobsters to inmates more than once a week because it was thought to be cruel and unusual, like making people eat rats.

From Gourmet magazine. It’s notable that gin and oysters were also once proletarian fare. Will Turkey Twizzlers and Ginster’s pies be tomorrow’s delicacies? Less flippantly, there probably is hope for oats, alfalfa and various grains we once fed animals but are now eating ourselves.

Mission Song

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I have just finished John Le Carré’s Mission Song. It is an thriller, set in the shadier realms of British international relations. The details of the book are well-researched, the plot gripping. However, my enjoyment was marred by the mental stretch necessary to imagine that the protagonist could be so monumentally naive. Typically, the novel ends in a le Carréan anticlimax. If you’ve read The Constant Gardener (or seen the film) you’ll have some idea where the plot is going. Ultimately, nowhere much. The novel is an interesting context piece, but it won’t change your life or outlook.

Y Polyn

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Because this place deserves all the publicity and custom it can manage, here’s my user review from Wales in Style:

I live in London and regularly eat at Michelin-starred places in the City, West End and throughout the South East. The food at Y Polyn is easily on a par with these restaurants, but the startling thing is that it manages to deliver this with a wonderful informality and easiness that is quite extraordinary. No fanciness here, just excellent food, in very pleasant surroundings, cooked by people who care about what their guests eat, not what they are wearing.

If you are within 50 miles, eat there. Book ahead.