WINE & DINE WITH ANGELA LANSBURY

  Bonoo Indian Restaurant, flower-filled frontage. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. Bonoo Hampstead restaurant, in the Hampstead area of Northwest London, has an amusing and amazing  flower-covered exterior, plus inside walls and ceiling to match.  A touch of class, elegance, romance. What does the name mean? It is not the owner, but a word evoking an Indian chef's  philosophy, an instinct for natural harmonising flavours. Their website explains. A bit abstract, and I don't know if it is Sanskrit or Hindi, so to remember the restaurant's name I think bon, which is french for good, and OO - amazingly different. We saw a chef wearing a white hat. This restaurant is a favourite of other members of  our family because the restaurant staff are willing to discuss the spiciness of the dishes and get food made up less spicy which is what most of us want. My favourite dish was the potato starter, Aloo tikki chaat. I also liked the Crunchy mango salad. , and the flat ...

  I went to a wine tasting, a Monastrell Masterclass and walk-around Tasting on 14th October 2024 at a  Asia House in London. The Monastrell Grape Masterclass Growing vines to make wine in Spain dates back many years. The name monastrell probably comes from the Latin for monastery.   The monastrell grape grows in the sunny south-east of Spain. During the masterclass I learned that wines can thrive in hot climates without irrigation, (sending their roots deep down).  Uprooting old vines to replace them with orchards might seem a good idea short term. However, orchards need water.  If the climate change results in less water, as predicted, those areas which saved their vineyards might be glad of their old vines in years to come. Food to Match Monstrell Wine Other fascinating facts. A popular saying is that what grows together goes together. What kind of food goes with Monastrell wines? Anything unusual? Distinctive? A local speciality? Yes.  For those se...