facttime

 1. The authentic title of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice used to be First Impressions. (jasna.org) 2. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein when she 18, at some stage in a ghost story opposition whilst staying in Switzerland with writers Percy Shelley (her lover) and Lord Byron. (penguinrandomhouse.com) 3. German chocolate cake doesn’t come from Germany. It used to be named for a person, Sam German, who created a kind of baking chocolate for Baker’s in 1852. (npr.org) 4. Hawaiian pizza used to be created in Ontario, Canada, via Greek immigrant Sam Panopoulos in 1962. (cbc.ca) 5. Almost all commercially grown artichokes, 99.9 percent, come from California. One city in particular, Castroville, is nicknamed “the Artichoke Capital of the World.” (visitcalifornia.com) 6. The unique hues of Froot Loops cereal all style the same—they’re no longer character flavors. (time.com) 7. What’s inner a Kit Kat? Broken Kit Kats that are broken all through production—they get floor up and go between t...

Since I moved back to London 15 years ago, I have spent a lot of time eating my way around the city's increasingly diverse and impressive restaurant scene. To help me keep track — and for when friends and family asked for recommendations — I started jotting down my favourites in a Moleskine City notebook, which eventually evolved into a Google Sheet and then a blog post in 2016 . An update was long overdue and here it is: my 50 favourite restaurants in London.  My main criteria for the restaurants on this list are: quality of food, warmth of service and style/ambience of the venue. The list features a wide range of cuisines and price points — from budget to blow-the-budget. Because of where I live and hang out and where I worked, there's a bias towards SE and central neighbourhoods; sorry, West London, I'm working on it! I left out places where brunch is the primary focus because I already  created a guide to my favourite brunch spots . I've added links to my reviews w...

One of the highlights of my recent trip to Madeira  was the one-day tour I took around West Madeira. Stunning mountain vistas, lush green landscapes, natural swimming pools and ethereal forests were all on the agenda. Suffice it to say, my camera got a good workout that day! Read on to find out more. If you don't have a rental car in Madeira, joining an organised tour is the most efficient way to explore the island beyond Funchal in one day. There are dozens of different one-day tours available, almost all of which focus on either the east or the west side of the island. The latter ticked more of my boxes and I booked a full-day small group jeep tour with  True Spirit . Our guide Gil was great, smoothly negotiating all of the impossibly steep, narrow, twisty roads, taking the time to share details about the history and culture of Madeira and even climbing up trees to show us some of the wonderful tropical fruits. My top tip for the tour is to pack an extra layer even if it's w...