* There are some fantastic children’s cookery classes running in December at Oxford’s Story Museum starting on Saturday from 11am-12.30pm, where you can make edible Christmas decorations to hang on your tree. It costs £20 per child. Then on Thursday, December 18, between 10am-3pm, and Saturday, December 20, at 11am-12.30pm create edible festive presents for £45 per child.
Book a place at sophiescookeryschool.com
* New pub The Adventurer “an independent public house and cocktail bar”, is opening up on the site of The Honeypot on Hollybush Row (opposite the Jam Factory) in Oxford.
New landlord Tristan Lobb is hard at work refurbishing and is due to open in a couple of weeks, aiming to fuse a sophisticated cocktail service with the best of British pub tradition.
With international mixed drinks, classic cocktails and experimental creations, bottled and barrel-aged punches, slushies and hard shakes, and one of the best collections of spirits in town, it should be a big hit.
Expect lovingly-kept cask ales from Britain’s great breweries and local artisan producers, along with a large range of international craft beers, local and international still and sparkling wines; and kitchen residencies from the county and country’s best street-food concepts and pop-ups.
Decorated from reclaimed timber and other vintage finds, its style will be a blend of the antique and traditional, modern and upcycled; think Victorian living room with a smattering of alpine climbing hut!
* Stuck for a decent Christmas present then consider this, The Food Lovers’ Anthology: A Literary Compendium, for all those foodies out there.
In thematic chapters from Hints for Epicures to Desert Island Dishes, writers as diverse as Brillat-Savarin, Edward Lear, John Keats, Collette, Charles Dickens, Maria Edgeworth and Marcel Proust provide poetry, prose and more on all things gastronomic.
Interspersed with cartoons, extracts range from the entertaining, such as Robert Brough’s poem from the perspective of a shrimp, to the practical – how to eat oysters from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, it is priced £20 and published by Bodleian Library Publishing.
* Oxford Christmas Market runs from December 11-21 and features all sorts of foodie stalls and offerings from Neal’s Yard Dairy, Chou Chou Nuts, Demijohn, Churros Garcia, Glühwein and The Dimkin’s Patisserie Also expect German Bratwurst, Exotic Coffee Roasters, The Potted Game Company, Philip Maes Fine Chocolates, The Little Round Cake Company and Not Dogs – the only vegetarian German sausage available at a Christmas Market this year.
See oxfordchristmasmarket.co.uk
* The Slug and Lettuce’s new menu shows it’s serious about food. Eggs benedict, lemon and garlic glazed grilled chicken and beef and chorizo puff pie are just three of the new dishes featuring on the new winter menu at its Oxford Castle site.
New brunch options include smoked salmon and scrambled egg, served on toasted muffin, eggs royale, eggs benedict and porridge served with honey. Smoked salmon also features on the new lunch choices as a tosada and as a wrap with avocado. Hot dishes include rib-eye steak, matured for a minimum of 35 days and char-grilled to order; a smoked haddock, salmon and king prawn pie, with a cream and leek sauce and topped with buttery mash and cheese.
See slugandlettuce.co.uk/slug-oxford
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