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Bacon makes everything better @StJBW #london #solodining #review #breakfast #baconsandwich

Halloween was yesterday. However for the past few days I have been coming to terms with something more frightening than: killer clowns, ghouls, witches. Do you want to know what it is? I opened my fridge on Sunday and uttered the scariest line ever: where’s the bacon? There is no bacon in my fridge. I love bacon. In fact when I was in my right on teen years and vegetarian for a couple of them –…

How do you eat at the hottest #restaurant in #london on a Saturday night? Solo of course! @kilnsoho #review #solodining

  The hot new trend on the London restaurant scene is the “no reservations” policy. So what it means in practice is this: You turn up with a couple of friends and ask for a table. The reply is – sorry we don’t have any tables for another two hours. Wait, what I though there was a no reservations policy? Yes there is but you come and leave your name and number and then we text you when your table…

Full Of The Joys of @Spring, Restaurant – solo dining

    Sartre was right – hell is other people! Alas my full time passion of writing and and film criticism doesn’t currently pay the bills.  I’m back temping in a “proper job”  to pays all the bills plus a little fun and frolics. I hope whoever devised open plan working is living out their days miserable as sin. Open plan working is like experiencing hell ever day. There is nowhere to hide! Those…

  Let me explain The above picture is a still from Irrational Man by Woody Allen that I attended the press conference last year. Yes, that’s right press conference. I moved home, unsuccessfully tried to eat solo and darn it I just have too many friends. However, one solo pleasure although truly when reviewing films it is less pleasure and more how long do I have to write up my review. It all…

Oyster Happiness @ Wright Brothers, London

  How will I know I’m successful? I shall go to the cinema at midday and afterwards sate my appetite eating oysters all day and not worry about the cost. However, whilst I am still in the fake it whilst I make it stage I must watch the pennies, sort of. How is possible to eat oysters everyday and not worry too much? Not walk and text is how. Walkers and texters miss all the bargains – you have to…

Dark and Stormy good times – solo dining @THERUMKITCHEN, London

I’ve always been hip! A bold statement I will admit but, since returning home, all the places I used to hang out or thought that looks interesting are now achingly hip. Obviously not because of moi but for instance, Kingly Court just off Carnaby Street, was quirky and a bit trendy in 2010 with a mixture of shops and a few restaurants but now it is full of restaurants and there are queues! You,…

Luxe & Lush #gin cocktail @ScarfesBar #solodining #London

Hello my name is Liquid Marmalade and for the past 9 months I’ve been cheating on myself with films. Yes, that’s right I moved back from Paris to pursue writing and all that jazz and just couldn’t find any balance. Film reviewing is hard work. Gone are the days where; I would sit back, gleefully eat the food I hid in my bag rather than spend £5 on popcorn and watch the film with my only utterance…

It's always cocktail hour somewhere! #Solo cocktail #review @benugo #London

The thing I miss most about Paris are bridges. Oh I knew I was a Parisian in the city whizzing over bridges on the back of a motorbike (clichéd but true). Now I am back in London and rediscovering my brilliant, busy and anonymous hometown. The Southbank is glorious in the early Spring sunshine. Walking along it seeing the people performing shows. I still don’t understand people standing watching…

If money were no object, here's all the places I'd go #solodining in London. What about you?

Paris – Emma Mapp Photography

Merde! It was all so easy solo dining and drinking my way around Paris. I was a foreigner and a pretty exotic one at that in a foreign land. I would walk in with my Del Boy accented french and get a seat and well it was fun. Not that I cared what the waiting staff thought but frankly I sounded as if I just stepped off the Eurostar a day ago not 4.5 years ago and so…

Need a hip, original place to take your #love to eat or drink in #Paris? Check out my suggestions #SaintValentin

I’m a last minute sort of girl. I’m also usually late to the party and doesn’t it show – Valentine’s Day is tomorrow and I am posting this late in the afternoon of the 13th. However as the old adage goes – better late than never. I’m back in London now and dating (interesting) and one of the important things with dating is being able to cut a date short if it is going nowhere – I need to get…

Liebster blog award goes to Liquid Marmalade #blogaward

“Congratulations, I’ve nominated you for a prize…It’s up to you to choose to accept it. I hope you do.”

That is the very condensed version of the email I received which I happened to read whilst desperately trying to silence my alarm I had somehow forgotten to turn off last Sunday morning. My first thought was spam email and just before I hit delete I saw the words: A year in Périgord blog. It…

Where's the best place to eat #cake as light as air in #paris? @Patisserie-Ciel of course #review #solodining #patisserie #angelcake

My simple diet rule is this: if a cake or biscuit is crumbled and/or broken up in pieces so much the better as that means all the calories have escaped = a calorie free delight a.k.a guilt free eating!

‘Tis the season or maybe that should read pre-season and I am on a pre- Christmas diet so my simple diet rule is working overtime with all those patisseries filled with wonderful edible delights.…

Are you looking for Southern charm & biscuits in #Paris? Head to @13-a baker's dozen #solo #coffee #review #bakery

It isn’t all rosy living overseas sometimes you get really fed up, not so much homesick, but just fed up and think what is all this B-S about. Those are the times when I want a good bitch – the kind of session that is chased by a couple bottles of wine and then drinks turns into dinner. That is when I miss London and friends. You can make new friends when you go overseas but it’s “your people”…

Do you want to learn how to dine solo? Here are my 5 top tips for #solodining A.L.O.N.E in #Paris & beyond #foodie #restaurant #howto

“No one puts Baby in the corner”

When I started this blog, Liquid Marmalade, I was ashamed to tell people about it for fear they were going to judge me. They did and guess what I am still doing it 18 months later. I have had: inverted snorts of derision, pitiful looks and even plain why on earth would you want to eat alone.  The reason I started solo dining was to stop missing out on all these…

A bacalhau good time @Paris-Lisboa, Paris #review #restaurant #solodining #Portugese #hiddengem

Paris is the city of love, light and walkers.

To really see Paris you need to walk the streets and get lost, as I do often, being GPS challenged even with a blue flashing dot on the map I manage to often go in the wrong direction. You could take the metro and have the metro ticket rejected because it got demagnetised in your bag next to phone or have the pleasure – did I say pleasure – of someone…

Can you kir me coming @ Le Select #Paris #solo apéro #solodining #review #literaryparis #hemingway #brasserie #aperitif

Forget what others think and just do it!

When I first came to Paris back in May 2010 to live and work I used to walk past various brasseries’ terraces and stare at the couples enveloping each other in midst of smoke and no doubt talking about something intelligent like Proust. I, on the other hand, was too afraid to even sit at a table and so that summer past with me walking sometimes seriously…

Eating fancy rice #Korean style @JulesetShim #restaurant #Paris #review #solodining #bibimap #foodie

Did you know that for 6 months of the year I work for the French government?

No, I hear you say.

Neither did I, it came as a great shock to me too so let me explain.

August is the month of summer holidays. It is also the month in which the French tax man sends you your tax bill, it appears that some people in France work during August. Welcome to socialism because we’re all in this together! I…