This country is full of people making food that is worth eating. From one end to the other, an army of farmers, fishermen, producers and cooks are making everything from smoked fish to pickled herrings, preserves to pork pies and pretty much everything in between. Very often these delicacies are available only in the area they are made, a bonus for the local shopper but frustrating for those living further afield.
One of the major problems for anyone producing good food in outlying villages and farms is how to get it to those hungry hordes willing to buy it. The internet can certainly help, but some of us want to see what we are buying (or are never in when the postman arrives).
In the Orkneys, for instance, there is much to interest the foodie-minded, but the islands are not exactly on most people's doorsteps. Rose Grimond collects all manner of local produce from the Orkneys and brings it down to London's Borough Market for her weekly Orkney Rose stall. It is a pleasure to come home with some Grimbister farm cheese, crumbly home-made oatcakes and Scapa Flow prawns that would otherwise be available only to those living on the islands. In this issue Rose talks to Food Monthly about her love of the Orkneys and her quest to bring local produce to a wider audience.
Moro, in London's Exmouth market has long been one of my favourite places to eat - bold, brilliant cooking in a relaxed, unpretentious room. So the news that there may soon be another baby Moro on its way, more informal, offering mezze rather than a full menu, is exciting to say the least.
'Little dishes to pick at' is a way of eating I never seem to tire of, and so this month we have persuaded Sam and Sam Clark of Moro to share their mezze recipes with us (well, that's what mezze is all about isn't it?).
I have never believed in the working lunch. As I see it, you are either half-heartedly having lunch or half-heartedly working. But that doesn't mean we can't have lunch with our workmates. This month, we have asked some our best-known working partnerships to tell us about their 'working' lunches. I mean, really, who are they trying to kid?
