We celebrate the season with an episode dedicated to the joys of eating in winter. First up, we get the scoop on why a successful London restaurant is expanding into serving up ice cream. Then: we’re in Singapore to learn about the craze for hotpot at this time of year. Plus: we head to Lapland for some fine dining at Tapio. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hello and welcome to the Menu Monocle Radio's food and drink program.
I'm your host, Chiara Imela.
This week we celebrate the season with an episode dedicated to the joys of eating in winter, however unpredictable those choices may be and the associated weather they are made in.
First up, we get the scoop on why a successful London restaurant is expanding into serving up ice cream in the middle of December.
First you go for an ice cream and a glass of wine and then you go for whatever you're in the mood for.
It sort of creates this little area of place that you want to visit and want to go to, I guess.
Also on the program, we're in Singapore to find out about the craze for hot pot at this time of year.
If you order the noodles, somebody will dance with the noodles at your table.
I find the whole experience is not just for the taste, but it's also the sight, the sound.
Plus, we head to Lapland for some chilly fine dining.
All that here on a menu on monocor radio.
Of the many foods that are traditionally associated with winter and cold weather, ice cream may not be the first that comes to mind.
But for the brains behind popular restaurant Goodbye Horses.
Alex Young and George DeVos, the seasonal mismatch made for an exciting and unexpected context, opened their latest venture, the Dreamery.
And this isn't your standard ice cream parlour either.
It's also a wine bar where you can get a glass of natural alongside a scoop of the cold stuff with flavours devised by Jack Coggins, who's also the chef at their main outpost.
That element of surprise is crucial to all of the pair's venues, which are all clustered in the residential North London neighbourhood of the Beauvoir, and reflects an approach to hospitality that's about openness, but also maintaining an air of the unpredictable.
Alex and George joined me in the studio to tell me more.
I started by asking them what was behind the choice of opening an ice cream parlour and middle of winter.
I mean, you introduced this as a choice, but if I'm completely honest with you, I think it was less of a choice than more happenstance.