on the sunday of our paris trip, we were in the marais. having grabbed fabulously rich and flakey pains au chocolat from ble sucre, we headed to marche beauvau. the covered market was full of exciting stalls and at michel brunon we stocked up on rosette (a salami-type sausage) and both plain and smoked ham d’auvergne. i also spent much of my time looking longingly at the vegetables, fish and fowl that were on display, wishing we were staying longer so i could indulge in some cooking - although i wasn’t too keen on trying the frogs legs that were on offer!

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november has been a busy month – last weekend i was in glasgow and the week before that david and i went to paris for a few days. the trip had been in the pipeline for a while as i was keen to spend more time there than i’ve previously managed and wanted to get to know some of the different arrondissements in a bit more detail, rather than just flit between them in search of tourist or food delights.

we decided to stay in montmartre in a fabulously romantic apartment. to make the most of our time we took advantage of the services offered by the lovely rosa jackson. she developed an itinerary for us, which took away my need to plan which shops and markets to visit and where to stop for food and drinks. it was actually wonderfully liberating to put myself in the hands of someone else in this way and i’d thoroughly recommend you try it if your time is precious and your standards high. inevitably i did do a little research as well…

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last weekend i had the pleasure of showing a couple of new friends, cheryl and lee from san francisco, some of london’s foodie sights. this was the prize i contributed to the menu for hope raffle that took place last december and which raised nearly $60,000.

as well as sharing a sausage roll from the ginger pig, after we finished exploring the food stalls at marylebone farmers’ market, one of my favourite purchases of the day were these fantastically smoky oak-roasted cherry tomatoes from the isle of wight tomatoes company (which was subject to some controversy recently when it was discovered that they don’t just stock their own home-grown produce).

both the tomatoes and the oil which they come in, have a fabulously deep, sweet, smoked flavour and i’m looking forward to trying them out in various dishes over the coming weeks. but i’m also a little nervous as they are so intensely flavoured. if anyone has any tips about using them let me know.

it’s now over two months since whole foods opened its first british store, which my friend liz visited, and then wrote about, on its opening evening. i’ve been to whole foods a couple of times now and thought i should add my thoughts to hers.

despite the fact that it took me six weeks to walk through the doors of the shop, i was excited about whole foods’ arrival. as liz said, it was enormously hyped and given its size i was expecting an amazing addition to my london foodie address book. just how many new and exciting products could they fit into a department store?!? i was keen to find out.

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sausage rolls from the ginger pig – wow, what a taste sensation!

these have to be tried to be believed. rich, herby sausage meat in a thin puff pasty casing, served that bit too hot to eat instantly but you’ll end up trying anyway because the smell is so enticing.

if you think that pork is a boring meat (as i often do) try these delicious giant sausage rolls (david and i shared one for our sunday breakfast as we wandered around marylebone farmers' market) and prepare to make a concession.

the ginger pig

8-10 moxon street, london w1u 4ew (monday – sunday)

tel: 020 7935 7788

borough market london se1 1tl (tuesday – saturday)

tel: 020 7403 4721