➰ Last Chance Rodeo
The idea that Sunak and the Tories gave two tosses about the jobs of hospitality workers is laughable. Property portfolios of city centre landlords more like.
A lasting legacy of neoliberalism is that in place of solidarity it has created a culture of belligerent victimhood.
The obvious, rarely stated.
Policy is more responsive to preferences of the well-heeled than of the worse off, and people know this - but it [is] a blind spot for most politicians
Next UK election set to be most unequal in 60 years, study finds
The people who build and operate TikTok are ghouls.
How will Labour leader and earnest Thatcherite Keir Starmer outdo the Tories’ cruel “no families for foreign care workers” proposal? Indentured labour?
Christmas Menu - first of the second thoughts
For Christmas Day, I’m thinking a starter of wild mushrooms preserved in olive oil, silken beancurd with chopped capers and dukkah, lamb’s lettuce alongside the friselle salad.
The original: Christmas Menus 2023 First Draft
Christmas Menus 2023 First Draft
First cut of menus for Christmas 2023. Work in progress. Main meal only. Vegetarian. Christmas Eve dinner to Boxing Day.
Christmas Eve
Food
- Sugared, chocolate-coated, gilded, and silvered Brazil nuts and almonds
- Chickpeas and cannellini beans with hispi cabbage and cavolo nero
- Frangipane
- Soft cheeses
Drink
- Sparkling water (eg, Vichy Célestins)
- Kir Royale with a twist of hibiscus
- Sparkling white wine (Maybe a Franciacorta)
- Sweet wine with the desert (Recioto?)
- Atlantic coastal brandy with the cheese
Christmas Day
Food
- Friselle with tomato, oregano, basil and rocket, chilli flakes
- Creamy risotto with butternut squash and Brussels sprouts, sage, dried Senise peppers
- Mince pies with brandy cream or brandy butter
- Hard cheeses and blue cheeses, nuts, dried fruit, charcoal crackers
Drink
- Sparkling water (eg Ferarelle)
- Negroni
- White wine (to be decided - or maybe a Puglian orange wine?)
- Dryish champagne with the mince pies
- PX or Port with the cheese
Boxing Day
If the weather is bearable, do this as a picnic.
Food
- Filo parcels with festive vegetables and smoked tofu
- Soured red cabbage with winter spices and bitter orange
- Stollen, brandy butter
Drink
- Sparkling water (eg S. Pellegrino)
- Mulled wine
- Brandy
So, last week’s OpenAI chicken coup was a grift to hype their Q* product.
Few things say global Britain more than a freight train of empty FreightLiners trundling to Tilbury.
More more puzzling still is why this cabbage is called a hispi cabbage in restaurants and a sweetheart cabbage in supermarkets.