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I've been visiting The Missing Bean in Oxford's Turl Street  for over a decade and was delighted when they opened their own roastery in East Oxford  a few years later. And now Missing Bean is expanding further, with two new cafés in Abingdon and Banbury, and another to come later in the summer at the West Way Square development in Botley. While I was visiting my parents at the weekend, I took the opportunity to visit the Abingdon coffee shop, which opened in late May. Abingdon is a small market town on the River Thames, about eight miles south of Oxford. Growing up near Oxford, I went into Abingdon to have my hair cut and to take part in regattas and other sports events, for the most part. But the historic town centre and the river both offer opportunities for a pleasant stroll. Missing Bean is located on Stert Street, just across the road from the town square. The town was bustling when we arrived, while the sun was still out on Saturday afternoon, and Missing Bean itsel...

Midway through a long bike ride around west London, I found myself not in a dark forest , but in Hammersmith, which is where I was born. You can't go home again, according to Thomas Wolfe's novel of the same name, but in my case, I just don't return often enough, even if owning a bike makes the journey from Bermondsey easier. And knowing that there was an excellent coffee stop, in the form of Carbon Kopi , helped me stay on track as I meandered along the Thames-side cycle route. Carbon Kopi, which opened its doors in October 2019, is the brainchild of Natalie and Chris, who had been looking for the perfect space to showcase Kiwi coffee culture in West London. It's been on my radar for some time; fellow coffee blogger Izzy , among others, provides regular reminders of what I've been missing out on. The name is great too, combining the element found in all living things with the Malay word for coffee. Carbon Kopi occupies the corner site that had remained vacant after...

While cycling through Fulham recently, I overheard a woman describing a restaurant as "a combination of my two favourite cuisines, Italian and Japanese." I knew exactly where she was talking about because I was going to the same place, Angelina in Dalston, a few days later for a belated birthday dinner with my brother. I too love Italian food and Japanese food, but I wouldn't necessarily have thought to combine the two in a ten-course kaiseki tasting menu. But the chefs at Angelina have created a menu that surprises and delights, bringing out the best in both cuisines. And sitting at the counter, watching the chefs at work, was definitely the best place to enjoy it. We started with a cocktail — a pink one, as usual, in my case, featuring gin, beetroot and chilli, among other things, and a cheese-centric one for my brother. Later, I tried the fruity and aromatic Riso e Rosmarino, while my brother switched to the paired wine menu.  Before long, the first dishes arrived: br...

While working from home during the past year and a bit, I have sought solace in my lunch-break strolls around Bermondsey and Borough, often stopping for food or coffee. Bermondsey has an abundance of specialty coffee shops (I have an updated neighbourhood guide in the works; there's always my south-east London guide in the meantime), and two roasters — Monmouth and Watch House — are based here ( Pact too, although you can't normally visit). One of my regular lunchtime haunts was Black Swan Yard , but upsettingly, it was recently shut down by the landlord with almost no notice. I hope they'll be back but in the meantime, I found myself on Mill Street, down by the Thames, where I happened upon Lantern Coffee . This historic area is a fitting place for a coffee shop given it once housed docks and warehouses for tea, coffee and spices, as reflected in some of the street and building names that evoke the trading heritage, like Java Wharf (just across the mostly subterranean...

 1. The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris* I was looking forward to reading Zakiya Dalila Harris's debut novel for many weeks, and I raced through it in a couple of evenings. In the novel, Nella is a 26-year-old editorial assistant working at a New York publishing house. She works hard, gets on well with her editor and hopes she is on track for a promotion in the not-too-distant future. She is also the only Black employee...until Hazel starts as a new editorial assistant. At first, Nella is pleased; she feels that some of her efforts to encourage the company to take diversity, equity and inclusion more seriously are finally paying off. But when Hazel makes in-roads with the editor Nella works for, and then their CEO, Nella begins to wonder if she should in fact feel threatened by her fellow editorial assistant.  Part insightful social commentary about racism and bias within the publishing industry and beyond, part thriller, The Other Black Girl is sharp, darkly comic a...

I wrote last week about my recent long weekend trip to Canterbury, with several side trips to the Kent coast. I brought my Aeropress with me, as I wasn't sure how much the bank holiday and COVID would combine to affect coffee shop opening hours, but I found several great coffee spots in Canterbury and Whitstable, all but one of which roast their own coffee. Read on to find out more and for a handy map. CANTERBURY Fond Coffee I don't always follow the instructions on A-boards , but something about Fond Coffee's sign on the High Street sent me heading down White Horse Lane, even though I had a date with a cathedral . I'm glad I did because at the end of the alley, round on Jewry Lane, I found a delightful coffee shop inside the Fruitworks co-working space . It's a community hub as well as a coffee spot: the calendar on the wall highlighted events of national importance (lockdown easing) and local importance ('Charlie's birthday — bring cake') and, well, o...