Ireland’s national dish of bacon and cabbage is often a sorry disappointment nowadays, partly because it is so difficult to get good-quality bacon with a decent bit of fat on it. 

AT LONG last I’ve discovered the secret of how to give a totally stress-free dinner party. 

THE Chinese celebrated their New Year last Monday, February 8, the second new moon after solstice. 

BEFORE the holidays every magazine, newspaper, food programme and TV ad was shamelessly luring us into temptation, encouraging us to overspend and overindulge in a myriad of different ways. 

I’M SITTING on the balcony of the View Point Hotel in Nyaungshwe overlooking the jetty where most of the skiffs and narrow timber boats leave for Inle Lake, one of Myanmar’s biggest attractions.

I’VE just discovered Somerset!