About Amy Laughinghouse
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London’s Creative Twists on Afternoon Tea
From “Prêt-à-Portea” repasts offering catwalk-worthy cakes to, well, cakes with cats, London is reinventing this traditional culinary indulgence. Here’s a taste of what’s brewing around the city.
Courtesy Dukes London
A Field Guide to Whisky: Everything you ever wanted to know, but were too tipsy to ask
What country produces the most whisky? (Hint: It’s not Scotland).
What are the risks involved in investing in whisky, aside from the possibility you’ll go on a bender and drink your portfolio?
What is the best way to store an unopened bottle of whisky, in the unlikely event that you possess the superhuman power to leave that golden nectar unmolested?
And, while we’re at it, what exactly is whisky—and how is it made?
In his book, A Field Guide to Whisky, Hans Offringa—Patron of the Whisky Festival of Northern Netherlands, Honorary Scotsman, and Keeper of the Quaich (it’s a Scotch thing)—addresses all these issues, and hundreds of others besides.
Whisky on the rocks. Literally.
Flip through his 320-page “expert compendium” of the world’s best-loved firewater, and you’ll be prepared for any whisky-related question a bearded, bespectacled quiz master would dare to throw your way. In fact, there’s an entire chapter devoted to trivia.
I’ve been a whisky lover ever since my first visit to Scotland more than a decade ago, and I’m always fascinated by how much there is to learn. Now, I’ll be tossing around terms like “potcheen,” “lyne arm” and “boil ball” (which are apparently not plagues eradicated in the Middle Ages) with aplomb.
Here are a few things I’ve discovered, thanks to Offringa’s guide. (more…)
A Cinematic Tour of France’s Cote d’Azur
As the Cannes Film Festival opens on the French Riviera, fasten your seat belts for a whirlwind ride along the Cote d’Azur.
Villefranche-sur-Mer
“Belle! Belle!” a man calls out from a corner café as I round a bend in my 1956 Porsche 356 Speedster. Whether his hoot of approval and accompanying wolf whistle are for me or, more likely, for my rented wheels hardly matters. With the top down and the sunshine of the French Riviera casting a golden glow across the landscape, I’m smiling ear-to-ear either way.
I only hope I’m out of sight when I stall the car on a slope, the gears grinding and growling like an angry grizzly as I try to cajole the temperamental stick shift back into first.
Never mind. I’m going to enjoy my movie star moment, ensconced in a red bucket leather seat as I clear the coast and head into the pine-scented hills.
This is silver screen country, after all, where dozens of seminal films have been shot since the 1950s.
My hired ride from Rent a Classic Car is the same model favored by James Dean, and my hair is pulled back into a wind-defying blonde bun, a la Grace Kelly. All that’s missing from this picture is Cary Grant…and a snazzy score by Henry Mancini to drown out the carnage I’m inflicting on the motor.
Cruising in a vintage car is the perfect complement to my cinematic tour of the Cote d’Azur, which will take me from Cannes to the ridiculously picturesque mountaintop village of Eze, with stops in Antibes, St. Paul de Vence, Nice, and Villefranche-sur-Mer along the way. (more…)