Dear One Stop,

Dear One-Stop, This week I found myself compelled to write an angry, nay, befuddled letter to yourselves. Obviously you know who you are, little chain of UK convenience shops with conveniently inflated prices found in over six hundred locations across these fair isles. By your own admission your key focus is on “being the best […]

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The Perfect Fishfinger Sandwich Hunt- The Kings Arms

A week or so ago, Mr and myself celebrated two years of blissful union. Awww. Do you know when I first met that boy, he’d never had a fishfinger sandwich? Can you imagine! I put an end to that lack of experience for him quite swiftly on our second date, where we went for a […]

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VIFC Meeting- Rick Stein

If you’ve been following the VIFC chronicles you may have noticed that so far we’ve only had time periods or ingredients as themes. Last month the first celebrity chef theme was selected, and we got Mr Rick Stein to draw our inspiration from. In a short biography I give you Rick Stein: restaurateur and TV […]

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Beans n Bacon- a skinny thing!

I’ve been away this last week on a brief tour of South Wales, not a typical holiday but one I have returned home from with two very typical concerns- an expanding waistline and an almost empty fridge. Gah! I’m sure the former is familiar to most of us- there’s something about being away that just […]

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VIFC August Meeting- The Elizabethans.

Yes, yes, my VIFC write ups have been remiss of late and for that I apologise. I let myself off the hook for July as I was otherwise engaged in Twickenham that night and sadly unable to attend so your guess about how the 1930’s theme night went are as good as mine! As for […]

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Jamie Oliver’s Italian

Jamie Oliver. Now there’s a bloke who raises a mixed opinion. Yeah, he’s a bit of a nob with all the over affected Essex boyisms and unnecessary pounding of work surfaces and yes, his shows are often full of painfully scripted ‘friends and family’ who randomly turn up to devour and praise his makings but […]

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The Waterside Inn

The overwhelming realisation as I sit here to begin my review of The Waterside Inn is that I am in no way qualified to write a review of The Waterside Inn. I mean, I’ve eaten some good food in my time and not all of it from a random food festival stall or M&S £10 […]

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A Little Plug- Hughes’ Fish Co.

Original post from June 2013- we are sad to add that Hughes have now closed. Are we bored of me banging on about local businesses and independent suppliers and the general evil of mass supermarket chains yet? No? Good. In that case I shall instead cut back to a point in history some ten years […]

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Mersea Food Festival

It’s easy to get cynical about foodie events these days, particularly if one is restricted to public transport. In these parts, this pretty much leaves you to a few affairs in Castle Park and the Christmas market. I recently found out that most of the events around Colchester are organised by the same soulless money […]

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Super Simple Coleslaw- Part II

Yeah, so, June, BBQ time, a great date to push forward another simple summer salad that you can bang out ten minutes before the guests arrive and you all sit out in the garden sipping Pimms and bathing in the wafts of meaty aroma while Dad burns off his eyebrows giving the coals a little […]