Don’t save it for the next heat wave, an ice-making machine is the coolest thing to have in your kitchen all year round. I try the CASO Clear Ice Advanced, a stylish maker of properly transparent ice.

Years ago, when visiting relatives in America, I was amazed at their icemaker built into the door of their giant fridge freezer. All you had to do was press a lever and a cascade of ice blocks fell out into your glass.

Back in the UK I’ve made do for years with a small ice cube tray jammed into the freezer. It works, but you don’t get many cubes and it takes hours to make some more.  I love the luxury of having a glass absolutely crammed with ice cubes, be it a G&T or a glass of water, and with an ice machine you can be as generous as you want. Especially in a heat wave

And the thing is, cocktails and soft drinks aside, having lots of ice cubes is handy for quickly chilling just-cooked veg to keep their vibrant colour, and of course for creating a super impressive shellfish platter.

Plus it’s the easiest way to fill an ice bucket for your wine.

The new CASO Clear Ice Advanced, which we’ve had on test on just the right weekend for it, creates clear ice in 12 minutes (or frosted in 8). Why is clear ice a bonus? Well it looks better in drinks of course, but it actually melts slower than standard ice so keeping drinks cold, whilst not diluting them.

Why are ice cubes usually cloudy? It’s down to physics. Trapped air bubbles get pushed to the middle by fast freezing causing a white core. There’s also some clouding from calcium in our hard water, we found.

The CASO ‘trick’ is that it freezes water from both the interior and the exterior at once, so the air bubbles can escape and leave the ice clear. You end up with cylindrical ice with a hollow centre from where the inside freezing element was located. This makes for rather elegant ice ‘bullets’.

The machine is a reasonable size for most counter tops, CASO does have a more compact version, but that doesn’t make clear ice. This model is matt black inside and out, with the transparent lid tinted dark so it looks smart and rather sexy.

It couldn’t be easier to use. Fill the 1.5ltr tank to the MAX mark – note to CASO, the MAX mark is black on black and I had to use my phone torch to see it, maybe make it a light colour?- choose regular or clear cubes and press Start

Turning it on produces a hum so quiet you have to strain to hear it (48dB), so that’s good. After the time has elapsed you hear a slight crunching noise, and then the first batch of ice rises from the bowels of the machine and gets dumped into the basket in front. This is not a large amount, we counted seven ‘bullets’ of ice, but the first batch seems always to be the smallest, perhaps because the machine is ‘warming up’.

The CASO then starts to make the next batch and will doggedly carry on doing so until the basket is full, or it runs out of water. The stats say it can make 320-350 g of ice per hour or 7.7-8.8 kg in 24 hours. Simple display lights tell you what’s happening.

If you need to drain the machine of water, when not using it for a while, there is a removable rubber plug underneath. It also has a self-cleaning function to purge any stale water.

You really do get a good lot of ice with each cycle. When we used the full 1.5 ltrs of water, we found we actually ended up with far too much ice for our immediate needs, so we filled up a few ziplock bags and put those in our freezer to be used as and when necessary. Worth noting that like all ice machines, the CASO is not a freezer itself and so the ice will melt if left in the basket for too long.

A CASO will be particularly indispensable for summer BBQs, delivering endless freshly made ice for everyone’s drink, while pre made stored bags of ice will be perfect for filling up ice buckets for wine or just to put in buckets to chill beers.

Vegan food has come a long way from hippy and the hipster, now it’s set up shop in Selfridges and is every bit as stylish as you’d expect.

‘Now that’s a nice coat,’ says P fingering the colourful fabric. She turns over the price ticket to reveal £3575.00, ‘but not that nice,’ she concludes, rapidly letting go.

Adesse is what used to be Selfridges Corner Restaurant on the Second Floor. It’s just behind the Womens Designer Galleries section where, on inspection, all the clothes have gasp-inducing price tickets.

What do people holding that kind of spare change want to eat? Well usually something expensive but light, fashionable but not filling, and preferably a bit ‘woke’.

Adesse is thus a good choice for Selfridges, a new restaurant by award-winning chef ​​Matthew Kenney. Kenney has plant-based restaurants around the globe, as well as Hollywood A -listers as clients. They all love a bit of elegant vegan.

It’s also part of Project Earth, which is Selfridges’ sustainability commitment to offer more meat-free and plant-based options in its restaurants and Foodhall.

It’s a clean lined, minimal styled restaurant that’s very much in keeping with its surroundings. Tables are linen-free and utilitarian chic in both style and colour. The menu is minimalist too, the dishes’ ingredients are listed with no ‘lovingly caressed by the grill’ flim flam description just the facts.

We share ‘baked raclette, toasted sourdough, house pickle, shichimi oil.’ It’s not real cheese of course, I assume  that it’s nut based as most Vegan cheeses and sauces are, but it does a very good impression.

It is tangy and umami and we love the pickles of cauliflower, carrot, beet, cherry tomatoes and chili. The crunch is perfect and the shichimi oil (pepper, orange peel, black sesame and white sesame seed, Japanese pepper, ginger and seaweed) is a palate powerhouse. Really loved those pickles.

I spy jackfruit on the starter menu, but despite all the hype I’m still not buying into jackfruit; there’s something about it that repels me.

Nothing wrong with the idea of ‘frittata, green goddess, cashew yoghurt, shaved vegetables and herbs’. It’s an absolute joy to look at as well as to eat. The frittata is not stodgy and the cascade of veg, including spiralized carrots and wafer-thin two tone beets, need only a bit of sharpness, some vinegar or lemon juice, to improve them imho. The green goddess sauce is a riot of flavour against the creamy yoghurt.

P has a potato and celeriac rosti, creme fraiche, fennel and apple salad. The rosti is crisp on the edges, soft and sweet in the centre, in other words it’s perfect. The apple and fennel combo is clever, the crisp sugar of the apple against the absinthe of the fennel is a lively combination.

On to mains and more plates of beauty with a staggering assemblage that’s rather sold short by the prosaic description of ‘raw courgette + tomato lasagne, pistachio pesto, macadamia ricotta.

It’s at room temperature, which does disappoint P a bit, she likes her mains hot, but of course raw ingredients maintain their goodness better than cooked. It’s all good though, once disassembled to make it a bit easier to eat. The pesto is particularly fine against the ‘ricotta’.

As an aside, the menu is carefully annotated as to diet issues should you be worried – C -Celery, G-Gluten, N- Nut, M-Mustard, S- Sulphites, SO- Soy and SE- Sesame. There are a lot of nuts involved in most dishes though, so anyone with a severe nut allergy needs to be careful

There’s a good and extensive wine list of organic and biodynamic varieties, by the way, although the mark up is almost as high as the clothes outside, as well as cocktails, kombucha and teas.

My spicy udon, togarashi, seared tempeh, shiitake mushroom,  roasted cashew, and hoisin, is plenty hot, both physically and spicily.  I love the nuts and the dense, rich, mushrooms and I even like the tempeh, not usually being a fan of its rather odd pseudo meat-like texture. I feel meat should not be imitated, just replaced.

Fantastic broth and the plump and slippery udon (udon are always plump and slippery in restaurant reviews) go down a treat. A really gorgeous dish down to the last fiery spoonful.

Vegan food is less filling I find, so we are still able to manage a hibiscus cheesecake, berries, pistachio, as well as a brilliant carrot cake with sesame ice cream and beet syrup.


The steel grey of that ice cream is a visual treat and it’s certainly the best carrot cake I’ve had, quickly dispelling memories of a hundred horrors eaten in North London cafes.

Few foodie people these days think vegan food is boring food, but not many realise just how far it’s come as haute cuisine.  A visit to Adesse will soon fix that, this is cooking for the future, one where eating meat will no longer be default and we’ll all be better for it.

There’s no shortage of bars to look cool in down Shoreditch way, but Iron Bloom has some pretty good food to match its eclectic cocktail selection, finds Mr Hip Harman

What’s with the odd name then? Well apparently,, this place used to be an ‘iron factory’, although I am not sure if that means it used to make irons, or made iron. If you see what I mean.

The brickwork is exposed, as is still de rigeur these days, although there seems to be no filament lamps thankfully, a lighting solution that’s now so clichéd you can even buy it outside London.

The power sockets over the tables are industrial chic, but we notice with delight that they have USB sockets to charge the phone to take the pics to post on Instagram to pleasure one’s followers. Continue reading →

It’s one of the world’s richest countries; it’s also one of the smallest. Nick Harman legs it over to Luxembourg to see what’s cooking.

It’s kind of appropriate when flying off to a country that’s barely 84 km long that I get on board an airplane equally as tiny. Just as France could swallow the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg many times over, you could fit quite a few Dash-8 airplanes into a modern jetliner.

The Luxair turboprop Dash -8 is the plane that makes the daily short hops from London City Airport to Luxembourg, it buzzes down the runway like an angry wasp and then climbs steeply out to minimise noise nuisance over Docklands.

Just over an hour later and we are over the heavily forested countryside of Luxembourg, the country is essentially a rural one and in its south eastern area is a large chunk of the Mosel valley, from where Luxembourg gets its Crémant de Luxembourg sparkling wine, a special type of wine within the Moselle Luxembourgeoise appellation. It’s drunk as an aperitif just about everywhere in the Duchy, as I will find out.

Luxembourg is a country yes, but it is also a city, which can get confusing. The city is a short ride from the airport, regular buses run back and forth and a tramway is being built, although most residents pull a face when you ask about it, suggesting that no one expects it to be ready anytime soon.

Within minutes of landing I am taking my weekend bag into the 4 star Hotel Simoncini, a bright smart and modern place bang in the centre with clean, sharp lined rooms and works of art in every corner.

Out to investigate

The general impression people have of Luxembourg, if they’ve never been that is, is one of lawyers, politicians and bankers all living well off the fat of the European Union, and it’s certainly true that the place has the scent of money. Fancy cars are everywhere and the men and women wear the sort of clothes that don’t scream wealth, but subtly demonstrate through cut, colour and fabric that they are not cheap either.

The city is divided by the deep Alzette valley. On one side is the beautiful old town perched on its cliff top, and once the most impregnable place in Europe thanks to its fortifications. Today it’s protected by Unesco from any attacks by modern day marauders trying to make money in property.

Across the gorge is the Kirchberg district where shiny office towers dominate, but not so long ago this was, as the cliché goes, all fields. And somewhat oddly, fields do still exist just behind some of the more massive shrines to capitalism thrown up by the big banks.

All is not empty hearted money though because here too is the Grand Duke Jean Museum of Modern Art, or Mudam for short, where I wandered happily. The museum is literally built on the old stone fortifications, and it has been done brilliantly so that old and new are equally visible at the same time.

Luxembourg has also realised that an area of town made up of nothing but office buildings is a soulless empty place at nights and weekends, so all new buildings have to dedicate their ground floors to shops and restaurants.

I ate lunch in the Aqua (Hotel Melia) close by to Mudam and it was very good; fine cooking in a stylish, modern glass environment with views out to the city.

Afterwards I went around the corner to see inside the Philharmonie concert hall, designed by the architect Christian de Portzamparc, a place of absolutely stunning design and, I was told, perhaps the finest acoustics in any hall anywhere in the world.

The old town and some stiff walking

Back in the old town there’s plenty to see. Obviously there is serious shopping to be had here but it’s not all Bond Street, even though one place I peered into sold nothing but classic watches and 4500 Euros seemed to be the cheapest one on offer.

If you’re not into clothes and watches there is food in plenty here, from the very finest restaurants serving classic French cuisine to modern fusion places such as Go Ten where platters of easy-eating and stylish Japanese style food are available all day. In the evening it becomes central to the whole busy bar and eating scene for the young Luxembourgers who gather in this charming part of town.

The morning food market the next day, Saturday, in the historic Place Guillaume was packed with good things to lust over and afterward there was a wide choice of coffee and pastry shops to try.

 The locals endlessly debate the merits of the very old and established Patisserie Namur against the very modern Patisserie Oberweis, but both have the capacity to bring you to your knees at the sight of incredible pastries and cakes as art form.

Just as well then that there are great walks to burn some of those calories off. For the less active the Chemin de la Corniche is a pedestrian promenade that runs along the line of the 17th-century city ramparts with fabulous views across the river valley. Or you can descend, fighting the pull of gravity, to the valley floor itself where the small winding streets come alive at night, especially in the old brewery area, the Grund quarter, now home to lots and lots of lively bars and restaurants.

Here too is the massive Neumünster Abbey, a cultural centre where there is always something going on, especially jazz concerts on a Sunday often to be enjoyed for free with a coffee, and if you’re hungry upstairs is Brasserie Neumünster’ where easy eating buffets are served and are good value too I found.

Chocolate and cheeses

Good news is that there is no need to clamber back up the steep winding roads afterwards, an elevator hewn into the rock lifts you back to the old town in seconds. And moments later I’m having a hot chocolate in front of the Luxembourg Grand Ducal Palace, watching other tourists pose with the stony-faced palace guard. The Luxembourg Royal Family, happily retained after a nationwide referendum in 1919, live here much of the time close by their subjects who by all accounts love them dearly.

And I love the chocolate shop dearly. The Chocolate House has more than 60 hot chocolates on offer, with a large choice of pralines, pies and homemade cakes too. Slimming it isn’t. All I can do after is to walk the streets very slowly, poking my nose into the incredible cheese shop at Kaempff Kohler where you can select some cheeses and sit down with a glass of wine from the wine shop and have a taste trip like no other.

Dinner is served

And later, hungry once more I descend to eat at UmPlateau, a charming place in an old house. Upstairs is cosy, the rooms feeling like someone’s sitting room. Downstairs is a bar built out back, a place that seems popular with the more jetsetty style of local and which has over 25 wines by the glass, as well as a whisky menu.

The food is modern European all over, well done without being adventurous and well priced too. Sharing platters of jamon, croquettes, grilled artichokes, stuffed bell peppers vie with a simple but fine steak and chips for attention. It fuels me for the walk back up to the old town very nicely.

After another pleasant night’s sleep, it’s a very quiet city away from the bar areas, it’s off the airport for another ride in the Dash8 and an exciting night-time low descent over St Paul’s before we land. Luxembourg City was a pleasant surprise, a great place for a weekend break and not at all what I imagined I would find.

Thanks to 

Office National du Tourisme de Luxembourg

Les bonnes addresses.

www.visitluxembourg.com  

Léa Linster Delicatessen

Gourmet shop of Luxembourg’s famous female Chef

4 rue de l’Eau, L-1449 Luxembourg www.lealinster.lu

Patisserie Namur

Family company in the 6th generation

27 rue des Capucins, L-1313 Luxembourg www.namur.lu

Patisserie Oberweis,Purveyor to the court

16 Grand’rue, L-1660 Luxembourg www.oberweis.lu

Maison Kaempff-Kohler

Founded in 1922

18 Place Guillaume, L-1648 Luxembourg www.kaempff-kohler.lu

Pâtisserie Cathy Goedert

8 rue Chimay, L-1333 Luxembourg www.cathygoedert.lu

Golden Bean Coffe Experience

23, rue Chimay, L-1333 Luxembourg www.goldenbean.lu

Kaale Kaffi coffee & vintage shop

9, rue de la Boucherie, L-1247 Luxembourg.

Dipso – the Wine Republic (wine bar)

4 rue de la Loge, L-1945  Luxembourg www.dipso.lu