Kebab Week will be a skewer-fire success
You could be forgiven for thinking that posters advertising National Kebab Week - with a picture of a sheep saying: "I'd do anything to be part of it" - are a wind-up, part of sponsor drinks brand WKD's jokey style of marketing.
But we can assure you it is a bona-fide - make that doner-fide - event, with celebrations stretching way past the week's closing date (10 October).
Activities include a five-a-side football clash between fish-and-chip shop owners and kebab shop owners, and the Kebab Gladiators tour of universities, which kicks off on 15 October at Dundee University. Nights of battle and revelry will include inflatable jousting podiums, and a kebab relay race in which teams assemble a 6ft-long kebab made of foam.
Don't ask the chef for a couple of chops
Rumours of a restaurant turf war in central London have been confirmed by regular sightings of Shumi chef Lee Purcell practising early morning taekwondo in St James's Park.
Shumi has yet to open in what was formerly Che, but it is only one of many smart new eateries opening in St James's this year. These include Jeremy King and Chris Corbin's new venture, Wolseley; Sir Rocco Forte's move into Browns with the addition of the distinguished D'Angelo Maresca in his new restaurant there; and yet another MPW-linked affair.
Let battle commence.
Have a grand New Year - for an eight-grand tab
Dubai's Burj Al Arab, one of the world's most luxurious hotels, has teamed up with travel operator Elegant Resorts to offer a New Year package to rival no other.
Some 30 passengers will depart from London Heathrow on 27 December 2003 aboard a private Boeing business jet with oversized seats in designer leather. They will then be treated to a gourmet in-flight menu selected by Burj Al Arab executive chef John Wood.
On arrival in Dubai, guests will be fast-tracked through the terminal and transported by Rolls-Royce to the Burj Al Arab for a seven-night stay, culminating in a New Year's Gala dinner.
The cost of all this? A mere £7,955 per person.
A fine cheese-and-pickle you've got us into
The classic cheese-and-pickle combination has been shown to be "the perfect sandwich", according to the organisers of British Bread Month.
John White, director of the Federation of Bakers, said: "The popularity of the classic cheese-and-pickle as the perfect home-made sandwich is a triumph for good, honest, British food. It makes a great start to British Bread Month, which celebrates one of the nation's most nutritionally rich foods."
The best place - if they expect to clean up
Customers of Fine Line bars and Fuller's pubs will notice something different when they visit the toilets. The London brewery has installed hand-dryers that include a digital screen showing videos and 10-second adverts.
The brewery says the new dryers provide an interesting point of discussion for customers, and give it a proportion of advertising revenue.
Manufacturer Warner Howard Media says that the adverts have the advantage of targeting "a captive audience in an uncluttered environment".