OQO: 'ah, so' or 'oh, no'?
Congratulations to Mark Chan on his new restaurant Oqo, due to open on 7 December in Islington, London. His press release is certainly entertaining, although we didn't understand a word. See if you can.
"Oqo is a name that I know not how to pronounce. The sound is angular and curved. The associated circular images of food and drinks, with a halo of light against a profound black, both illustrate and confound, and finally seduce... I like dark places, particularly when it is dark for a reason... contemporary cocktails, fresh fruits, live herbs, deep and balanced. Forty foot bar, the glow of wood, the frost of granite, halo images, all round with a rim of light. Oqo says: 'Thou shalt not eateth without cocktail. Thou shalt not drinketh without Chinese tapas.' "
Got that?
When the going gets Taff...
Welsh daily newspaper the Western Mail has put together a list of 25 things that would make Wales better. These include a campaign to bring the Wagamama, Pret A Manger and Krispy Kreme chains to Wales. The paper also wants to see cold lager served in McDonalds, as is the case across the English Channel.
Typical journos, eh?
Don't kid yourself
The Lugger hotel in Portloe, Cornwall, will be a children-free zone this Christmas. It has proudly declared that Buzz Lightyear, and all other kiddies' toys, will be banned from the premises from 23 to 28 December. Visitors will be "safe from other people's children in a haven of chic calm, and enjoy a five-course Christmas lunch without interruption from infants begging to pull the last cracker".
There was us, thinking the real magic of Christmas was seeing their little faces light up as they discover what Santa's delivered...
Only the glass is straight
In a valuable contribution to the campaign for sensible drinking, a recent Daily Star editorial gushed: "Great news at last for thirsty Brits. Prices of our favourite booze brands are set to hit a new low in supermarkets. We should all say a hearty 'cheers' to that. For too long now, we have watched through the bottom of our pint glasses as prices have gone up and up. Year after year, we feel the pinch more."
Though it pains us to contradict such an esteemed organ of hard reportage, recent Datamonitor research shows that the real price of booze, as a proportion of earnings, has been falling since the 1970s.