This year marks the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin. And if you really want to get into t

Royal London's the theme for the new edition of The London Walks Podcast. Brought to you by Karen, author of Royal London; travel site fare results reservation return Andy, who played George VI; Shaughan, who can impersonate every royal under the sun; and Adam, the only person I know who talks like a really well written magazine article! More
on the London Walks Blog. "...want to thank you for all the daily tidbits about London which i absolutely adore, I also thank you for this cool game which I'm starting travel site fare results reservation return to enjoy a lot! :-) Cheers!" Two clicks and a scroll down takes you there. More
London Walks has better guides – including the distinguished crime historian who is "internationally travel site fare results reservation return recognised as the leading authority on Jack the Ripper"! Here are the dates Britain's foremost crime historian will be guiding the Ripper walk between now and the end of February. More
Want the real thing? Rather than a cup of hot water and a teabag. And most definitely rather than something that costs a king's ransom. Well, let London Walks beam you in. Get in touch and we'll tell you where. Local knowledge – you can't beat it!
Yes, the International Homicide Investigators Association wanted to hear from the world's leading expert on Jack the Ripper. And that's what we mean when we say "There's no comparison" between London Walks guides and the knock-offs. More
books in the pipeline. Aunties' Charley, travel site fare results reservation return Charles' autobiography, is published next month. To be followed by a London Stories companion volume – it takes as its subject travel site fare results reservation return our Day Trip, out-of-town destinations. And Rachel's book on Jewish London. And "The World's Greatest Guide" – Karen's travel site fare results reservation return – on Royal London.
In the starting lineup of "The World's Greatest Guides". Yes, it's London Walks guide Karen. The august American travel publication Travel & Leisure has just crowned her in their "The World's Greatest travel site fare results reservation return Tour Guides" article. She's one of just 15 – and, yes, the only one from England. More
"Helen Marks discovers a dramatic transformation to the waters of the River Thames" is how the BBC is trailing the Radio 4 programme on Thames Beachcombing. It's aired bright and early – 6.07-6.30 am – on New Year's Day. And then available on BBC Iplayer. And there'll be a rebroadcast.
and guiding! Back from China, Donald Rumbelow, "internationally recogised as the leading authority on Jack the Ripper", will be guiding the nightly – 7.30 pm from Tower Hill Tube – Jack the Ripper Walk on... More
The at-a-glance list of all of our out-of-town trips (to Stonehenge, Oxford, Winchester, Cambridge, Hampton Court, Bath, Rye, Constable Country, Lavenham, Avebury & Lacock, Glastonbury & Wells, Leeds Castle, St. Albans, The Cotswolds, etc.) this summer. All 128 of them! More
Foodies London Walks The wonderful Ann the Helen Mirren* of London Walks has created and conducts four of them. They're occasionals , specials . Special being the mot juste in every sense of the word.
Here's the Foodies' Walks schedule for the next few months (through October 2014). ( And here's the taster to end all tasters the little film Jon's made of Ann's Epicurean, Gourmets', Foodies' London walk. It's out of the oven, piping hot, and set before you right here! Enjoy!! )
And there's the cue for the fourth Foodies Walk . (If you were counting, in that opening line I said, Ann's created and conducts four of them . But, if you're counting, there's only three different Foodies' London Walks Foodies' London The West End , Epicurean, Gourmets', Foodies' London and Pie Crust to Upper Crust in the schedule above.) The fourth Foodies Walk is The Chocolate Lover's Walk . Blurb reads as follows:
Do you like chocolate? Why not get a group of friends travel site fare results reservation return together and book Ann s new, very special, private chocolate walk . Swoon over the latest truffle flavours, gasp at the special estate chocolate bars, faint with delight at the salted caramels. With a little chocolate history thrown in perfect for chocoholics, or for anyone arranging a group treat.
And by way of an ap ritif*, let's hear from the lass herself. travel site fare results reservation return Ann's served up in the London Walks blog a series of wonderful word dishes about her Foodies Walks. They've cameoed in the London Walks Blog. And they convey like a wonderful aroma from the kitchen travel site fare results reservation return of a top restaurant the flavour of her walks. Let alone the wit and grasp and reach of her mind! Or if you want to eat in rather than stroll over to the blog here's a little travel site fare results reservation return appetiser travel site fare results reservation return . And here's the banquet itself , tawny port finale'd and cucumber-infused water accompanied (of course). And here's the Christmas dinner to end all Christmas dinners. *From the Latin verb aperire , which means to open .
Okay, you don't have to call round at the blog. I've popped on over there myself and fetched her soupcons back here. Read one or two of them or all of them and you'll see what I mean. And you'll be reaching for your diary to get her Foodies' Walks in same. Which is as it should be. (And, incidentally, they're also a reminder of why the London Walks blog is worth a regular look-see!)
It s one of the most fascinating walks in the repertoire: there s nothing quite like it in all of London. No less an authority than Noel at the London Walks office rates it very highly indeed. And he s a hard one to please. It is, of course, Ann s extravaganza Foodies' London: The West End London Walk. And here s your guide with one of her fascinating travel site fare results reservation return insights into the high tables of the great and good
Wondering what to cook this weekend? Seek inspiration from the menu ordered for the Wives Lunch by Silvio travel site fare results reservation return Berlusconi at the recent G8 conference translated with help from my Italian neighbour. They were treated to:
'Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did, said 16th-century physician William Butler. What else could this be in June but the strawberry the well known and much esteemed travel site fare results reservation return fruit as Mrs. Beeton described it.
In past centuries Londoners got their fruit not from Kent, but from Hammersmith, Ealing and Isleworth. Women started picking as soon as it was light, travel site fare results reservation return then set off before 7 am at a 5 mph trot something between a walk and a run. They could carry up to 40 lbs of strawberries on their heads balanced on cushions in large baskets.
Would you eat a fruit that smells of sewage travel site fare results reservation return and vomit? The durian travel site fare results reservation return is so pungent that you can t carry it on public transport or airlines in the Far East. But its butter smooth golden flesh is addictive and very, very popular. There are many tales about it death by durian is not unknown it grows on trees up to 100 ft tall, and can weigh up to 6lbs. So don t take a nap under a tree laden with ripe durian. travel site fare results reservation return And its supposedly aphrodisiac qualities are enshrined in an Indonesian saying when the durians come down, the sarongs go up.
At this time of year you can buy durian at some of the stores in Chinatown it s large, green and spiky on the outside, uncompromising. Ask for a chunk, or see if there is some ready prepared in the chiller cabinet.
Londoners have always eaten eels there were plenty of them in the Thames so many that in the Middle Ages they had names for six different sorts. Now we may have a solution to the great eel mystery how do they go thousands of miles from the Thames to breed in the Sargasso Sea? Researchers have tagged eels (some job: Slippery as an eel?) to trace the route they take. The name of the project? The Eeliad clearly chosen by someone with a classical education.
Londoners prefer their eels cold, jellied, sprinkled with chilli vinegar and eaten from a paper cup. I like them smoked and you can buy them in Borough Market after you ve been on my Foodie Walk. Join me to hear more about the fish in the Thames and other foodie delights. Monument Tube, Fish St. Hill exit (where else?)
This year marks the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin. And if you really want to get into the Darwin frame of mind, try some of his wife s recipes, recently re-published. Mash a pickled walnut into the gravy of your braised beef, to give it a little extra oomph. Try the mutton ragout 1 lbs mutton, 1 lb turnips, one sprig of parsley.
Darwin surely found this dull after his student days. At Cambridge he was president of the Glutton Club, whose more unusual dishes included hawk, bittern and old brown owl. And while on the Beagle, Darwin and the officers sat down to armadillo and the best meat I ever tasted an anonymous chocolate coloured rodent.
Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet. Thus spake Jakie Rabinowitz, as played by the immortal Jolson, in the first line of the first talkie, The Jazz Singer. travel site fare results reservation return He could well have been referring to Ann s Foodie Walk. She s been to hear the rhubarb grow, you know. Like the man said: you ain t heard nothin yet. Over to Ann
Rhubarb rhubarb I ve been to Yorkshire to see it growing in the dark. Inside candle-lit sheds there s a pink rhubarb forest of two foot tall stalks, and a faint scent of rhubarb. If you re very quiet you can hear it growing a kind of creaking noise. It was first forced here in London at Chelsea Physic Garden in 1817, when builders tipped soil over it accidentally, and found it weeks later, tender and pink.
The premium grade goes to Harrods and Harvey Nicks, the superior to supermarkets. Try a rhubarb tart a disc of yeast dough (kind of pizza, soaks up the juice), covered with chunks of rhubarb and slivers of preserved ginger and syrup. And buy your rhubarb at Borough Market where my food walk ends. Meet me outside Monument tube, Fish St. Hill exit, to hear more foodie titbits.