Normcore | Norman’s Cafe, London

"Yes, gimmee some of that carbohydrate overload, rivers of vegetable oil and gloopy cheesy-bean combos"

Effervesce sense | Karen Krizanovich on all things Bond and Bollinger

"This summer, I popped into The Bloomsbury Hotel’s Coral Room to witness people so happy to be out of lockdown that the scene was literally Bacchanalia"

Brace! Brace!

'The Green Star means, well, I don’t actually know. Who does? The whole eco-green thing is a mainstream perversion right now'

Great white ways | Karen Krizanovich reviews The Shark is Broken

"In the programme, there are many lovely photos but one especially captures that time - him peeking under the covering of one shark, his father at the its head"

Why we love Monsieur George

"She is one of the wildest, greatest eccentrics of the world of design"

Eat two Brutto

"Most new restaurants desperately fashion social media-friendly dishes but Brutto eschews such frippery"

The best of birthday feasts | The Fordwich Arms, Canterbury

"Mum sighs a defeatist sigh, the bread having caught up with her. Instead, she sneaks the choccy orb into her handbag for later"

Yes, this time we do expect you to die Mr Bond

"First the good news. It's good. The bad news? It's nearly two and a half hours long. Take sandwiches"

Maritime for dinner | The Pumproom at Copper Rivet Distillery, Chatham

"Back then, it was a riotous and unlawful place, a lethal cocktail of soldiers, sailors, whores and booze"

KO’d | Ikoyi, London

"How best to define this restaurant? Don’t bother"

Gotta catch ‘em all | Review: The Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo

"'But can you find me a table at the Pokémon Café?' I blurt, staggering fresh from the red eye and up through the sleek black elevators into an atrium reception"

Effervesce sense | Karen Krizanovich on Exton Park Rosé and champagne for a good cause

"My hand went to the wrong neck. The foil off, it was like breaking into an ISA for shits and giggles"

365 Days Later

"We have vaccines, some kind of road map, and spring. English asparagus has arrived!"

Why I’ve got a problem with Promising Young Woman

"It looks like a classic teen comedy – all California pop colours and Charli XCX – but it’s a genre movie of a darker kind: rape revenge"

Behold: A really good Indian restaurant in Dubai | Review: Trèsind Studio

"For such a new and advanced city, Dubai’s culinary offering remains sluggish; a decade-or more behind others. It’s skyscraper dining, bottomless brunches and sushi by the pool"

Effervesce sense | Valentine’s Day edition

"It’s silly, I know, but love is silly"

RIP, The Standard West Hollywood

“I come to LA every month in my boss’s private jet to take her dog to the salon. She’s a porn billionaire.”

Effervesce sense | Mad about Methóde Cap Classique

"When you see a bottle marked Cap Classique, buy it… Drink it alone - you know I often do - or with people. Drink it crying, laughing or feeling totally numb"

“Bring out your dead!” | Review: Tales from the Colony Room by Darren Coffield

"Todays conservative Millennials and Gen Z readers will view all this as if it’s a TikTok from another, more prurient planet, and recoil"

Effervesce Sense | Noble Rot, Wine from Another Galaxy and other stories

“…even if you think you know that Barolo smells of roses and tar, or Chablis tastes like it has trickled through ancient oyster beds, great bottles always have an originality that begs the question: how can this be made just from grapes?”

The best books of 2020

"Pandemics, zombie cities, political coups attempted by inept supervillains – the stuff of fiction invaded real life this year"

Review: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

"All this is bleak stuff. Delighted as I always am to see my home city represented in fiction, and to rewalk its geography in prose, I also cavil at depictions of Glaswegian life that are unremittingly grim"

Top tier | Middlethorpe Hall

"Apparently, it is also a place for a wake. This is a good thing. If you are born, then you must die"

The robot nose, the smell of you

"When you smell Elizabeth Taylor you feel you are inside her own mink coat. It is heavy and late night"

Effervesce Sense | Out of Africa, into your mouth

"That was back when you called everything champagne. That was wrong, as we know now that 'it’s only quarantine if it’s from the quarantine region of France. Otherwise, it’s just sparkling isolation'."

Meet the Simpsons | Karen Krizanovich on some of the finest fizz in Kent

"I once threw a loaded flute over my shoulder in disgust because the champagne in it was terrible"

The best books of 2021

The world of Wes

Rasherman

Effervesce sense