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Fuchsia Dunlop is a writer and chef specialising in Chinese cuisine, especially that of Sichuan. She tells Lara and Livvy about the international lodgers who trained her adventurous palate growing up, why some Chinese foods can be so challenging for westerners (hint: it’s the texture!), and the 23 different types of Sichuan spicy. Presented by Lara Prendergast and Olivia Potts.
I found I spent most of the second half of the Rugby World Cup final thinking about an acquaintance. I had lunch with him last week. Three children in and 36 years old, he’d recently acceded to his wife’s request to have a vasectomy. As a reward – a kind of final hurrah for his hitherto unsullied vas deferens – at the last minute he’d decided, hang the expense, to fly to Tokyo to watch the match live. An ardent England fan, I don’t think it had really occurred to him – as it hadn’t to me – that England might lose. After the glory of Yokohama, where Eddie Jones’
New Zealanders can teach the world a lot about sportsmanship. Steve Hansen after last Saturday’s All Blacks defeat by England in the World Cup semi-final showed the uncomplaining loser can be just as impressive as the triumphant winner. As he put it: ‘Winning’s easy…[but] when you lose… you have to show humility, do it gracefully and be honest about it. Sometimes you have to bite down on your gumshield and suck it up.’ The Springboks have put rugby back several decades. Big, beastly, and brutal, they made the first half of their semi-final with Wales almost unwatchable. Afterwards the Wales hierarchy talked about losing the ‘arm-wrestle’: but why are Wales
Indian Fine Dining Restaurant with British Flair in the Heart of Mayfair. Benares Restaurant and Bar since its opening in 2003 has been considered one of the finest Indian Restaurants in the city. Guests enter an elegant lounge with hand-crafted India inspired furniture and is complemented by a beautiful pond decorated with fresh flowers, creating a luxurious aesthetic. Benares has 4 private dining rooms, three of which are around the lounge: the Berkeley Room which seats up to 16 guests, the Sommeliers Table which seats up to 10 guests and a Chefs Table overlooking the kitchen which seats up to 10 guests. The lounge area leads into the main dining
Do we want Jews and Muslims to live in this country? It’s a serious question and one prompted by the National Secular Society calling on the next government to ban non-stun ritual slaughter of animals. Dhabihah (halal slaughter) and shechita (its kosher equivalent) cater for Muslims and Jews who observe strict dietary laws on the preparation of livestock for food. Generally, animals must be stunned before being bled, be it by a bolt-gun to the brain, gassing or electric shock, but shechita requires no stunning while the two main halal monitoring bodies disagree over whether some stunning methods (water-bathing and electric-tonging) are permissible. The law currently makes an exemption to allow for these
Douglas Murray was not ‘ambushed’ by me on the Today programme. Nor was he called out. Nor was he misquoted. He was asked about something he once said and wrote in a lengthy Today programme discussion – around eight minutes and not the four he suggests – about Barack Obama’s warning about the idea that young people should be “woke” – quick to seize on allegedly offensive remarks. Douglas had already had two opportunities to spell out his thinking in response to questions which could scarcely be described as aggressive: “Are you surprised to find yourself cheering along with Barack Obama?” and: “You in your new book talk about people
I’m not on Twitter so haven’t seen any of the fury and outrage over my piece in this week’s Spectator. But I have been told that there was some. Ripped, as ever, out of context. There was no hate speech or Islamophobia whatsoever in my piece. None was meant, none intended and none should be taken. It was a very light-hearted series of suggestions about when to hold an election, based upon the silly dispute over the proposed dates for the election. It was patently a joke. I do not really think that students should be drugged with horse tranquilisers and skunk, or sent to a rave on an election
Many Brits still bristle at the importation of Halloween. It’s easy to see why. It is an American holiday that involves grown adults dressing up and children begging for food from strangers. But there is one upside to it that we can all enjoy: woke campus officials losing their minds over ‘offensive’ costumes. It’s hilarious, and it is now an annual feature of Halloween – as traditional as carving the pumpkin or egging the neighbourhood sex offender’s house. Today we learn in the Times that officials at Sheffield University banned students from wearing sombreros this Halloween, because doing so is ‘culturally insensitive’. Posters have been put up around campus and,
Last week the Lawyers Group of the charity Classics for All held its fifth moot (cf. ‘meet’) in the Supreme Court, under the stern gaze of Lady Arden. Previous moots have tried Socrates, Brutus and Cassius, Antigone, and Verres, corrupt governor of Sicily. The Romans put such moots at the heart of their education. The purpose was to teach men how to win the political — and, even more, legal —battles necessary to climb the greasy pole to power. Pupils would be asked to make the best case they could for or against the sides involved in historical or mythical situations (suasoriae, e.g. ‘did Orestes legally kill his mother?’, ‘Should
Q. My brilliant brother, who graduated last year, could find nowhere to live in London so we were all delighted when he found work as a live-in assistant to an interesting (and successful) employer who works from home. My brother is super-efficient and lovely to have around and I’ve no doubt that he’s made himself invaluable, but I am worried that at the same time he seems to be losing his own self-confidence outside of the job. There are many minor examples which suggest to me that his employer may (perhaps unintentionally) be undermining him — maybe so he can hang on to my brother and ensure he is not
New York A busy ten days, or nights rather, with some heroic drinking thrown in for good measure. Hangovers discriminate against the old nowadays, but no one is doing anything about it — not in Washington, not in New York, not in London. Our former chairman Algy Cluff’s dinner party at a gentleman’s club, followed by an extremely funny speech given by him, started me boozing and things didn’t let up. One drinks to enhance an enjoyable evening, never to relieve boredom. Also one drinks when one can’t hear, as in extremely noisy New York restaurants. I made a big mistake recently, when I had Prince and Princess Pavlos
Bob Bob Cité is a restaurant dangling like testicles from the underside of the Leadenhall Building in the City of London. It is shaped like a series of yellow train carriages, for a voyage no one will ever make; the building above it manages, in the way of the age, to be both absurd and frightening. People call the Leadenhall Building the cheese–grater, but it does not make me think of kitchens. Kitchens are human and intimate; from the atrium, which is guarded by security men, this building looks like the innards of something vast and inhuman. This is the sequel to Bob Bob Ricard, a Soho restaurant for rich
‘Can I get a taxi around here?’ The man standing behind the counter of the convenience store looked at the floor and slowly shook his head. ‘What about buses?’ I said. ‘Taxis? Buses? You’re joking, aren’t you?’ said a chap standing behind me. He was wearing bedroom slippers and clutching a tin of processed carrots. ‘Where are you trying to get to?’ he said. ‘Stanton St Bernard,’ I said. His knees gave way in a pantomime stagger of incredulity. ‘Stanton St Bernard! Taxis? Buses? Are you mad? It looks like you’ll be walking, my friend.’ He peered through the window at the blackening sky. ‘And — oh dear — it’s
‘Hospitals named after sandwiches kill five,’ ran a headline in the Times in June. When it was tweeted by the journalist Adam Macqueen, people pointed out that there really is a Mayo Clinic (in Minnesota), though egg or tuna is not specified, and there had been a BLT group of hospitals (Barts and the London Trust). Such artlessly ambiguous headlines have, since 2009, been called crash blossoms, at the suggestion of an editor called Dan Bloom, suitably enough. The name derives from a headline in Japan Today: ‘Violinist Linked to JAL Crash Blossoms’. The article below it concerned the success of Diana Yukawa, whose father had died in a Japan
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, having shelved his Brexit Bill in the face of parliamentary opposition, persuaded the Commons to vote by 438 to 20 for a general election on 12 December. A one-clause Bill was given its third reading after an amendment put by Labour to change the date to 9 December was defeated by 315 to 295. That majority of 20 coincided with the voting power of 10 MPs to whom the Conservative whip had earlier that day been restored, including Alistair Burt, Ed Vaizey and Sir Nicholas Soames, but not Philip Hammond, Sir Oliver Letwin, David Gauke, Dominic Grieve or Kenneth Clarke. The government had failed
I’ve been contacted by a professor at a leading Russell Group university who is worried about the spread of progressive dogma in the UK’s higher education sector. He highlighted last week’s report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission which claimed that around a quarter of students from ethnic minority backgrounds at Britain’s universities have experienced racial harassment. He fears that this will be used by left-wing activists on campus as ‘proof’ that the higher education sector is ‘systemically racist’ and lead to further calls to ‘decolonise the curriculum’. He’s also concerned that he’ll have to spend more time at ‘equality, diversity and inclusion’ workshops, where he’s lectured by privately
‘If the ball came loose from the back of the scrum, which it won’t of course…,’ said Boris, about his prospects of becoming prime minister. Disingenuous or not, it’s surely not a job won by determination alone. One needs a little help from events. Despite a strong start, Wang Hao, from China, downplayed his chances of winning the Fide Chess.com Grand Swiss, so fierce was the competition. The field comprised most of the world’s top 100, plus a number of promising juniors, women and players from the Isle of Man where the event was held. But his score of 8 points from 11 games marked a career breakthrough for
White to play. Dahl-Kolbus; Isle of Man, 2019. In this game between two Manx players, White had promoted a pawn earlier but finishing off the game is not easy. Here, Dahl found an elegant winning move. Can you do as well? Answers to ‘Chess’ at The Spectator by Tuesday 5 November or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the winner. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution Be6+ (e.g. 24 Kd6 Rd8+ 25 Kc7 Rf7+ 26 Kxc6 Rc8+ wins the queen) Last week’s winner Roy Bland, Penzancea
Peter Fredin may not be the best bridge player in the world, but he gets my vote for the most exciting. I first became fascinated by the Swedish star years ago when he duped me with an outlandish bluff during a European championship. I quickly learned that the field was littered with his victims. Now there’s a brilliant new book about the man — Master of Bridge Psychology by Jeppe Juhl — which is full of stunning hands and funny stories. What makes Fredin’s approach to bridge so original is that, again and again, he rejects the correct technical line in favour of a psychological one. As Fredin puts it,
Unclued lights (one of two words) give an event, its organiser, some participants, its winners, and the prizes. Across 1 Stamp hard — everyone notices (8) 8 Men caught by a great beast (4) 13 Men impressed to receive hired waistcoats (6) 14 Elephants’ cup final? (7, two words) 15 Most frightening decay, in a way (8) 18 Measure of alcohol upset, lacking such delicate control? (9) 19 Count food additive out of barrel consumed (9) 20 Bismarck saw head dismissed (4) 21 Accomplished bow by Henry (4) 24 Groans, suffering in parts of body (6) 28 Southern county’s small island (6) 31 Standard recipe for salmon (4) 34