David Levene takes a stroll down Omoide Yokochō – Memory Lane – to try out old school Japanese delicacies such as salamander, loach and viper wine. It’s all good for the stamina

Sugar is as toxic to the liver as alcohol and is at the root of obesity and certain types of liver disease, claim US scientists

Sugar should be regulated in the same way as alcohol and tobacco because its increasing use in processed foods poses a significant danger to public health, according to a group of scientists. They advocate controlling sales to children under 17 and taxing sugary foods.

Sugar, they argue, is as toxic to the liver as alcohol and overconsumption is at the root of growing public health problems including obesity and certain types of liver disease.

In an opinion article for the journal Nature, Robert Lustig, Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), said that, over the past 50 years, consumption of sugar had trebled worldwide. “Authorities consider sugar as ‘empty calories’ – but there is nothing empty about these calories. A growing body of scientific evidence is showing that fructose can trigger processes that lead to liver toxicity and a host of other chronic diseases. A little is not a problem, but a lot kills – slowly.”

For the first time in human history, long-term diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes now pose a greater health burden worldwide than infectious diseases, according to the United Nations, contributing to 35m deaths annually. “There are now 30% more people who are obese than who are undernourished,” said the UCSF scientists. “Economic development means that the populations of low- and middle-income countries are living longer, and therefore are more susceptible to non-communicable diseases; 80% of deaths attributable to them occur in these countries.”

International bodies concerned with public health must consider limiting people’s intake of sugars such as fructose, high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose, said the scientists. Rather than focusing on limiting fat and salt, food regulators should turn their attention to “added sugar”, which the UCSF team defined as any sweetener containing fructose that is added to food during processing.

Sugar induces many of the diseases associated with “metabolic syndrome”, including high blood pressure, diabetes and accelerated ageing. “It can also be argued that fructose exerts toxic effects on the liver that are similar to those of alcohol,” said the UCSF scientists. “This is no surprise, because alcohol is derived from the fermentation of sugar.”

Preliminary studies have also linked sugar consumption to cancer and cognitive decline. “Consequently, we propose adding taxes to processed foods that contain any form of added sugars,” wrote Lustig, Schmidt and Brindis. “This would include sweetened fizzy drinks (soda), other sugar-sweetened beverages (for example, juice, sports drinks and chocolate milk) and sugared cereal … Another option would be to limit sales during school operation, or to designate an age limit (such as 17) for the purchase of drinks with added sugar, particularly soda.”

Dr Tim Lobstein, director of policy and programmes at the International Obesity Task Force, said sugar consumption was a major battleground for public health. “The large food manufacturers are very reluctant to see any restrictions on the use of cheap, bulk ingredients like sugars and starches. In the UK we have seen a gradual decline in sugar purchases, but this has been amply made up by an increase in sugar added to manufactured products, including ready meals, soups, snack foods and alcoholic drinks, and the last decade has seen record purchases of confectionery and soft drinks, despite endless health education campaigns.

“There is certainly rising interest in taxing sugary foods, and treasuries will see this as an opportunity to boost state income while helping improve our diets.”

One of the main reasons sugar has become such a problem is that it is impossible to avoid in modern society, argued the UCSF scientists. “Evolutionarily, sugar was available to our ancestors as fruit for only a few months a year (at harvest time), or as honey, which was guarded by bees. But in recent years, sugar has been added to nearly all processed foods, limiting consumer choice. Nature made sugar hard to get; man made it easy.”

A spokesperson for Sugar Nutrition UK, a group funded by sugar producers, said that over many years, a number of expert committees, including those from the European Food Safety Authority and the World Health Organisation, had examined the scientific evidence relating to the consumption of sugar and other carbohydrates. “All have concluded that the balance of available evidence does not implicate sugar at the level currently consumed in any of the ‘lifestyle diseases’ such as obesity, diabetes, coronary heart disease, or cancer at any site.”

However, Dr Julie Sharp, senior science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “Research suggests that excess bodyweight is linked to up to 17,000 cases of cancer a year in the UK, making it one of the most important risk factors for cancer after smoking. Foods high in sugar have lots of ‘empty calories’, meaning they can contribute to weight gain but don’t have much nutritional value.

“Limiting sugar intake is just one thing people can do to try and maintain a healthy weight, along with eating a balanced diet high in fibre, fruit and vegetables and low in red and processed meat, saturated fat and salt.”

Only in Tokyo can you sample the finest sushi from a skycraper, try tofu beside a carp pond or taste tempura under an oversized fedora. Robbie Swinnerton picks the best upmarket restaurants

• As featured in our Tokyo city guide

Kozue

No other restaurant in Tokyo has a setting to rival Kozue. Perched far above the fray on the 40th floor of the Park Hyatt, Kozue is still as swish as the day it opened in 1994, with a contemporary look (soaring ceiling, stylish tables and chairs) to match the confident modern inflections on kaiseki (japan’s version of haute cuisine). The menu features torafugu puffer fish in winter, ayu sweetfish in summer, matsutake mushrooms in autumn, and year-round shabu-shabu of perfectly marbled beef from premium wagyu cattle. Book a window seat to enjoy a peerless view of the western hills and even (if the weather gods are smiling) Mt Fuji’s cone silhouetted in the distance.
• Park Hyatt Hotel, 3-7-1-2 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, +81 3 5323 3460, tokyo.park.hyatt.com, lunch from ¥3900 (around £34), dinner from £115. Open daily 11.30am-2.30pm and 5.30pm-10pm, closed Wed. English spoken

Mikawa Zezankyo

Tetsuya Saotome produces flawless tempura, succulent morsels of premium seafood and vegetables served straight from his deep-frying wok to your plate. He follows the classic Edomae style, using only ingredients that (with a couple of exceptions) would have been available in 150 years ago. He works solo, which is why he can only seat nine at his counter. The cuisine and configuration may be traditional, but the eclectic decor – from European antiques to traditional lacquer-work and an extractor hood in the shape of a fedora – certainly isn’t. There are many contenders for the crown of Tokyo’s finest tempura, but none take it to quite the same level of idiosyncratic artistry. Zezankyo is hidden away in the residential back streets to the east of the Sumida river, but it well repay the effort and taxi fare to get there.
• 1-3-1 Fukuzumi, Koto-ku, +81 3 3643 8383, lunch from £90, dinner from £140, mikawa-zezankyo.jimdo.com. Open Thurs-Tues 11.30am-1.30pm and 5pm-9pm. English not spoken

Nodaiwa

The speciality at Nodaiwa is unagi, charcoal-broiled freshwater eel. This is one of Tokyo’s unsung plebeian pleasures, but here served with refinement and a grand setting – a transplanted timber mountain farmhouse. The fifth-generation owner-chef uses eel caught in the wild rather than from fish farms and the flavour is incomparable. The cosy ground-floor dining room is fine for a simple (but rich and satisfying) lunch of unaju (juicy eel fillets broiled golden-brown, on a bed of white rice). Up the stately staircase, the private rooms are best for a full banquet. The highlight: shirayaki, eel that’s lightly steamed and grilled, then topped with caviar. Perfect with a bottle of crisp local koshu wine.
• 1-5-4 Higashi-Azabu, Minato-ku, +81 3 3583 7852, nodaiwa.com, set menu £60, a la carte from £17. Open 11am-1.30pm and 5am-8pm. Some English spoken

Nihon Ryori Ryugin

Ryugin sprang to prominence on the back of chef Seiji Yamamoto’s imaginative application of modern cooking techniques to classic Japanese cuisine. These days, he has no need for any molecular magic: his vibrant contemporary kaiseki speaks for itself. Yamamoto is now at the top of his game (as recognised by his third Michelin star), drawing massive depths of flavour from his premium ingredients – such as sakuradai snapper, from the Naruto Strait close to his hometown, creamy an-kimo (monkfish liver, known as the foie gras of the ocean), or hand-reared Iwate wagyu beef. Yamamoto’s candy pear dessert nitro-chilled to -196C and served with a sauce of the same fruit heated to a scalding 99C, is the stuff of legend.
• Side Roppongi Building 1F, 7-17-24 Roppongi, Minato-ku, +81 3 3423 8006, nihonryori-ryugin.com, dinner £200. Open Mon-Sat 6pm-1am (last sitting 10.30pm). English spoken

Aronia de Takazawa

Chef Yoshiaki Takazawa’s bijou restaurant has long been one of Tokyo’s most intriguing secrets, more talked about than actually visited. Hardly surprising, since Aronia only sits two tables (maximum eight people) each evening. His French-Japanese signature dishes include: a ratatouille terrine, with vegetables layered into multicoloured cubes; carpenter’s salade niçoise, with sashimi tuna and tapenade sauce solidified in the shape of spanners and screws; and his hot balloon of seafood slow-cooked with bamboo shoot and seaweed. Takazawa stands centre-stage in this hushed, windowless chamber, with its sleek wood panelling and dramatic spot lighting, preparing or finishing each course himself, while his wife Akiko serves and explains in faultless English. • Sanyo Akasaka Bldg 2F, 3-5-2 Akasaka, Minato-ku, +81 3 3505 5052, aroniadetakazawa.com, from £140. Open daily 6pm-9pm (last sitting). English spoken

Les Creations de Narisawa

Creativity lies at the heart of the eclectic modern cuisine dreamed up by Yoshihiro Narisawa at his impeccably polished Aoyama restaurant, with its swish, modern dining room and gleaming kitchen revealed through massive picture windows like a balletic silent movie. The fundamentals may be French but Narisawa’s ideas and execution are his own: from the foraged herbs and edible soil to the damper-style bread cooked at the table. At times, it all feels overly cerebral, but his delectable char-cooked vegetables and wagyu beef bring a sensual satisfaction, and the desserts seem to never stop arriving. Narisawa also boasts a cellar especially strong in Burgundies, as well as a groaning cheese trolley.
• 2-6-15 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, +81 3 5785 0799, narisawa-yoshihiro.com, lunch from £65, dinner from £185. Open Mon-Sat noon-3pm and 6.30-9pm. English spoken

Sushi Mizutani

Sushi doesn’t get much finer than at Mizutani – or more austere. There is virtually no decoration on the plain ochre walls of the small 9th-floor room where Hachiro Mizutani holds court. Nor are there tables, just one long counter; a single massive timber of smooth-scrubbed cedar and 10 plain chairs. The air is crisp with the faint aroma of rice vinegar and the atmosphere is hushed. Sushi veteran Mizutani is taciturn in his own language and speaks no English, but there’s little that needs saying, except to specify beer or sake (there’s only one brand of each). The sushi arrives in a set order, determined according to whatever is in peak season. A succession of flawless morsels of seafood on lightly vinegared rice kept at exactly skin temperature, it will include several cuts of the finest bluefin you have ever tasted, and the best abalone too. A couple of caveats: perfume is frowned upon, as are cameras and mobile phones. Nothing is allowed to disturb the serenity.
• Juno Ginza Seiwa Building 9F, 8-7-7 Ginza, Chuo-ku, +81 3 3573 5258, lunch from £130, dinner from £180. Open Mon-Sat 11.30am-1.30pm and 5pm-9.30pm. English not spoken

Tofuya Ukai

In a city of contrasts and surprises, few are greater than discovering the traditional garden, carp ponds and sprawling low-rise wooden architecture at Tofuya Ukai. There is no central dining room, just a warren of private chambers (most with tatami mats and low tables, but some with chairs) with garden views built around the timber buildings of a former sake brewery. The multi-course kaiseki meals focus on tofu, produced freshly at Ukai’s own small workshop in the hills west of Tokyo. In winter, the house-special tosui-tofu delivers a triple whammy of bean goodness: cubes of tofu cooked down at your table in a creamy, savoury casserole of soya milk blended with chicken broth, topped with layers of yuba tofu skin
• 4-4-13 Shiba-Koen, Minato-ku, +81 3 3436 1028, ukai.co.jp, lunch from £50, dinner from £75. Open daily 11am-10pm (last sitting 8pm). English spoken

Bird Land Ginza

Toshihiro Wada was one of the first artisan chefs to elevate the humble craft of grilling skewers of chicken (yakitori) to a cuisine of substance and subtlety. He uses only top-quality free-range shamo gamecock, cooking the morsels of meat and offal over premium Bincho charcoal. Open the meal with his trademark liver pate, continue with wasabi-coated rare sasami white meat, and don’t miss the sansho-yaki, succulent breast meat dusted with piquant Japanese pepper. In another break from the tradition of smoky neighbourhood grills, Wada stocks a small cellar of Burgundies and New World wines – perfect with grilled fare of this caliber. • Tsukamoto Building B1F, 4-2-15 Ginza, Chuo-ku, +81 3 5250 1081, ginza-birdland.sakura.ne.jp, dinner from £55. Open Tue-Sat 5pm-9.30pm. Some English spoken

Akasaka Kikunoi

From the bamboo-lined, lantern-lit path to the simple, traditional wooden decor of the rooms (with either chairs or tatami mats), Kikunoi is a microcosm of traditional Kyoto. The Tokyo outpost of one of Kyoto’s most illustrious kaiseki houses, it serves the rarified cuisine of Japan’s ancient capital – expect to spend a good three hours at table if you’re having the full-course dinner. For a more concise, affordable introduction, the lunchtime Kodaiji bento is an exquisite tasting menu in miniature, served in a lacquered box with several side dishes. Owner-chef Yoshihiro Murata is revered for the depth of umami he coaxes from the dashi soup stock that underpins all his dishes.
• 6-13-8 Akasaka, Minato-ku, +81 3 3568 6055, kikunoi.jp, lunch from £45, dinner from £140. Open Mon-Sat noon-1pm and 5pm-9pm (last sitting). English spoken

For more information go to the Japan National Tourism Organisation’s website: jnto.go.jp/eng

• Robbie Swinnerton writes the Tokyo Food File column for The Japan Times

Whether you’re visiting for the rugby or the races, Gloucester Cathedral or Cheltenham Jazz Festival, it pays to know where to find good affordable restaurants, cafes and pubs

• See our interactive map of Britain’s best budget restaurants
• If we’ve missed your favourite, tell us on our blog

Vanilla

If you’re looking for “cheap eats” you could easily overlook this smart basement restaurant. It is located below an upmarket hairdresser and beauty salon in one of Cheltenham’s many handsome Regency buildings. The window, moreover, is dotted with Michelin stickers – not usually a signifier of keen value. But don’t hover at the door: get in there, because Vanilla delivers sharp cooking at very competitive prices. Between 6pm and 7pm, it offers a two-course menu for £10. That menu is also available at lunch, alongside a selection of sandwiches, salads and simple mains. It is crowd-pleasing stuff, rendered with style and precision: Gloucester Old Spot sausage and mash; haddock fishcake with wilted baby chard and chive velouté; chicken liver parfait. Whisky and honey gravadlax (£7.50) arrived atop an incredibly light pillow of a blini, accompanied by clean, lemony blobs of creme fraiche, tangles of nicely modulated pickled beetroot and a mound of bright, sharply dressed salad leaves. The salmon’s dressing smoothly melded honeyed sweetness and cockle-warming single malt flavours, too.
• Lunch, sandwiches from £3.95, light meals/mains from £4. 9-10 Cambray Place, Cheltenham, 01242 228228, vanillainc.co.uk

Svea

This small, charming Swedish restaurant is a cafe by day, offering decent, non-stewed filter coffee (£2.25) and first-rate baking (try the kanelbullar cinnamon buns, £1.90). The lunchtime menu runs from open sandwiches, such as the Hönö – falukorv sausage and cheese with a fried egg, served with a green salad – to the definitively Scandi Kungshamn – herrings, new potatoes, creme fraiche and crisp bread. A sample hagasmörgås on a thick slice of rustic bread is sound: the ever-so-slightly dry pork and beef meatballs coming alive when mixed with the creamy beetroot salad below. It is a happy to and fro of sweet and savoury flavours. On the menu you will find various useful phrases translated into Swedish, including “I hate flatpack furniture” and – either a typo or very subtle satire, this – “Sven bought out the best in English football”.
• Lunch, dishes £4.95-£9.95. 24 Rodney Road, Cheltenham, 01242 238134, sveacafe.co.uk

The Swan

A literally and figuratively beige gastropub, complete with the obligatory Chesterfield sofa by the front door, the Swan won’t win any awards for design originality, but the food is good, the price is right and the staff are on the ball. It is a perfectly if generically pleasant place to hang out. The kitchen uses good-quality artisan products, including O’Hagan’s award-winning sausages, and air-dried ham and cured meats from Oxsprings in Worcestershire and Monmouthshire’s Trealy Farm. A sample burger, topped with a fried sliced of Diana Smart’s renowned, robustly flavoured double Gloucester, was spot on (£6, lunch menu). The coarse ground patty was well-seasoned with herbs, cooked to a moist pinky-purple and had a decent exterior char. The beer – the Swan has five real ale pumps – was also in excellent condition. A glass of Brakspear’s Oxford Gold (pint from £3.30) sang with flavour, its bristling, almost peppery hop tang giving way to a mellow caramel sweetness. Food prices climb a little at night, but all the main dishes (sausage and mash, fish pie, ploughman’s) come in under £10.
• Lunch dishes from £4, evening mains from £7.95. 35-37 High Street, Cheltenham, 01242 243726, theswancheltenham.co.uk

Well Walk Tea Room

Look closely at the myriad antiques that fill every nook of this (very friendly) tea room, and you will notice they are all priced. Who knew that you could pay £250 for a piece of what, to the untrained eye, looks like distinctly amateur 19th century needlepoint? Not that you’ll be buying, of course. Not if you’re travelling on a budget. Instead, you can take all this in, while enjoying some fantastic, traditional baking and speciality teas. Although, winningly, Well Walk serves no-nonsense Yorkshire Tea as its house brew. The pot arrived correctly primed with two bags, too. The baking includes several low-fat and coeliac-friendly options, which, judging by a slice of moist courgette cake filled with homemade raspberry jam, are much less worthy than you might imagine. The wider menu includes a variety of affordable old-school snacks, such as Gentleman’s Relish on toast and potted stilton (£2.50). A retro soundtrack which toggles between Adam Faith, Frank Sinatra and similar icons adds to the convivial atmosphere.
• Snacks and sandwiches from £2.50, cakes £2 a slice. 5-6 Well Walk, Cheltenham, 01242 574546, wellwalktearoom.co.uk

Simpson’s

Simpson’s is one of those slick new-school chippies – half takeaway, half cafe – attempting to bring a modern foodist rigour to fish ‘n’ chips. It does the right things (sourcing sustainable cod from the Barents Sea; using freshly chipped local spuds; cooking to order as much as possible) and the result is a superior fish supper. The chips could have been a shade crisper, perhaps, but were buttery- soft within. The fish was great, encased in a light, nicely seasoned, largely greaseless batter. The only significant flaw was the homemade tartare sauce. Tartare should be clean, sharp and, preferably, full of capers and gherkins. Simpson’s almost smooth version had a curious cloying sweetness. Not good. Still, overall it was worth the 20-30 minute walk from the centre. Away fans note: it is not far from Cheltenham Town’s Whaddon Road ground.
• Fish and chips from £5.75. 73-75 Priors Road, Cheltenham, 01242 521964; simpsonsfishandchips.co.uk

Red Pepper

There is a lot going on at chef Richard Whittle’s three-storey cafe, deli and bistro. Scan the blackboards outside and you may well find a sub-£10 bargain on that evening’s bistro menu. For instance, on the Thursday night I visited, you could snaffle a plate of gussied-up sausage and mash for £8.95. The bistro also offers a two-course £10.95 pre-theatre menu – the Everyman Theatre is just down the road. However, if you’re really watching the pennies, get a takeaway, or head downstairs to the “coffee lounge”, a rather dated basement of black floor tiles, red leather armchairs and blonde wood furniture. It serves from 9am to 5pm, the menu morphing from eggs Benedict, through a populist lunch menu (homemade burgers and pies, quiche and potato salad, pea and pesto risotto, around £6/£7) to late afternoon cakes from local bakery Vanilla Pod. The bourbon-spiked pecan pie is highly recommended. A sample smoked bacon and mushroom soup was very good. It delivered great fungi flavour, a slight smoky tang at the edges and, thanks to some tiny flecks of chilli, an understated base note of heat. To conceive and enact such a combination successfully takes thought and skill.
• Coffee lounge, breakfast from £2.50, hot dishes from £4.15. 13 Regent Street, Cheltenham, 01242 253900, redpeppercheltenham.co.uk

Cafe El Bahdja

Gloucester is hardly the most frenetic of places, but this North African cafe is a notable oasis of calm, the dispatch of good food accomplished not with the usual crashing of pots, pans and plates, but smoothly under cover of esoteric ambient music. It is a place, perhaps, to linger after you have eaten over mint tea or El Bahdja’s brilliant baklava. The menu includes lamb and chickpea harira soup, “ratatouille-style” chakchouka with baked eggs, minced beef borek and several tagines. A sample dish of Moroccan lentils served with a semolina-topped khobz bread roll was just the thing to brighten a wintry day. The lentils had been cooked with tomatoes and onions almost to the point of disintegration. The heat, such as it was, was residual and mellow. The whole thing was an advert for patient slow-cooking and the judicious use of spices and herbs to draw out fathoms of flavour from simple ingredients. Prices are low anyway, but takeaway prices are a real bargain. The lentils cost just £3.40.
• Mains from £4.50. 59-61 Westgate Street, Gloucester, 01452 545178, elbahdja.co.uk

StanMan’s Kitchen

All blackboards, bunting and wicker baskets, this deli-cafe and gift shop is a popular haunt among Gloucester’s foodies. The simple snacky menu is all about good-quality artisan products, many from the Cotswolds. It includes, for example: a handmade scotch egg with mustard; a rather good locally made open beetroot and goat’s cheese pie with chutney and pickled cucumber (£5.95); a local cheese plate; and a selection of good-looking cakes and scones. Typically, a breakfast sandwich uses dense bread from Hobbs House (the local baker du jour) and tasty Gloucester Old Spot sausages from Nick Brown, butcher in Longlevens. Said bangers were, however, almost overwhelmed by a layer of strident, very jammy onion marmalade. Service is refreshingly bright and cheery.
• Dishes from £3.50. 42-44 Westgate Street, Gloucester, 01452 412237, stanmanskitchen.co.uk

Peppers

You will find this tiny hive of making ‘n’ baking activity, which places a high emphasis on organic, seasonal produce, down an alley off Westgate Street. It is but a stone’s throw from the cathedral and the Folk Museum, and well worth hunting out. It is rare for a salad bar to set the pulse racing, but the one at Peppers is a real treat: thick glossy coleslaw; an interesting colourful mix of giant couscous and vegetables; and a moreish savoury amalgam of wild rice, peppers and seeds among its highlights. Alongside those, a caramelised onion quiche struggled to shine, a little, the onions not as evenly distributed throughout the filling as they should have been. But the flavour was there. Peppers’ filled baguettes looked good, too. Hot dishes include soups and pizza, alongside specials such as curry, chilli and hot pot. There are also multiple vegetarian options. If you eat in – there’s seating upstairs and in a “hidden” courtyard – you can also chug on an organic beer from Stroud Brewery (£3), regional ciders and English wines from St Anne’s Vineyard.
• Baguettes from £2.95, dishes from £3. 2 Bull Lane, Gloucester, 01452 384343,

Blue Thai Kitchen

This small, cash-only cafe-restaurant is a no-frills affair. The strange leatherette tablecloths look makeshift, the floor is worn and the A-board outside has seen better days. But there is a reason why it is packed at lunch: it’s cheap, cheerful and, for the money, pretty good. The daytime menu includes a core of mainstay Thai dishes, such as tom yum soup, pad thai and green and yellow curries, as well as stir-fry noodle dishes at £3.99 and £4.99 (£4.50 take away). My massaman curry was a little oilier and less creamy than you might expect, but all the constituent parts (potato, a good scattering of cashews) were present and correct, and the notably fresh vegetables were accurately cooked. What it lacked in sophistication it made up for in flavour, and the fact that, on a freezing day, it left a ringing chilli tingle on the lips.
• Eat in, lunch mains, £4.99, evening from £6. 19 St. Aldate Street, Gloucester, 01452 526531

• Tony travelled from Manchester to Cheltenham with CrossCountry (crosscountrytrains.co.uk). For more information on things to do and see in Gloucester and Cheltenham from thecityofgloucester.co.uk and visitcheltenham.com

The addition of a not uncommon hedgerow plant can make all the difference in your gin and tonic, says John Wright

There is a convincing school of thought which suggests that what we now call Christmas is just a cheerful pastime to brighten up the cold, dark, drab days of winter. I rather like this idea. Nature does little to lighten our mood; the leaves have gone from our deciduous trees and aside from evergreens, the only green left is grass and even that looks rather sad. For the forager pickings are thin: a few sloes still cling to the blackthorn and haws to the hawthorn, and an occasional bright flash of rosehip can still be found in the hedgerow. However there is one surprising delight that springs forth, bright and new, in November and December – a celery-like plant called Alexanders.

Bringing Alexanders to our shores is one of those things the Romans did for us, employing its unlikely enthusiasm for winter to provide fodder for their horses. The Romans left but the Alexanders stayed behind, wistfully gathering in great abundance on our coasts as though they too wanted to leave. There is, of course, a less fanciful explanation for their maritime habit – coastal regions enjoy a more temperate climate, better suited to this Mediterranean exile.

Coastal regions south of a line through Liverpool are its main strongholds, though it can be found further inland, chiefly in the southwest, the counties bordering the Thames estuary and in East Anglia. Yet despite its fondness for the seaside, Alexanders is found less among the vegetation of the upper beach than in the hedges and laybys of coastal roads.

Although with a little experience it is an easy plant to identify, Alexanders is a member of that most treacherous of plant families – the carrot family (or Umbelliferae if you prefer). As well as the benign carrot, celery, parsnip and fennel this family also contains fool’s parsley, hemlock and hemlock water-dropwort. The last of these could conceivably be mistaken for Alexanders and is one of the deadliest plants in the world.

People sensibly worry about poisoning themselves with wild fungi, but the death cap (the deadliest of the fungi) takes around 10 days to finish you off; with hemlock water-dropwort you have about three hours. For this reason you should always forage with an expert, and consult a wild plant guide book.

A few pointers for correct identification: Alexanders is a paler, more yellow green and has a pleasant, sweet, aromatic smell when crushed. Hemlock water-dropwort is dark green with an extremely unpleasant acrid aroma and prefers ditches, marshes and soggy country pathways to the dry roadsides beloved of Alexanders. The good news is that hemlock water-dropwort seldom produces its leaves before Christmas and you are very unlikely to be troubled by any.

The strong flavour of Alexanders is highly aromatic and very similar to that of angelica, a related plant. Being one of those robust flavours common in wild foods it is also something of an acquired taste, making its fugitive nature during cooking (it all but disappears after 10 minutes in the pan) a boon to the bland modern palate. I have long championed this neglected hedgerow treat with simple recipes such as steamed Alexanders, black pepper and butter, and – a personal favourite – Candy Alexanders. But can you make anything alcoholic with it? Oh, yes.

Early this year I experimented with Alexanders wine, using a standard celery wine recipe to guide me. It has gone through several interesting transformations. Starting out a worrying green it then turned to an even more worrying pink. The flavour at the first racking was awful (turpentine with a hint of aniseed) and I nearly ditched the lot. Patience will soon be rewarded however, as a few months later I bottled it and found it had mellowed into a pleasant, mildly liquorice flavoured dessert wine which should be matured to perfection by the spring.

A much quicker recipe takes advantage of that aromatic flavour which is so troublesome in the kitchen. Alexanders, you see, taste a little like gin. In my first attempt to make an Alexanders gin liqueur I made the mistake of simmering the plant in a little water first and filtering out the pulp to leave the fragrant liquor. Unfortunately the filtering was less than perfect and little lumps of material would float up and down lava-lamp fashion in the finished bottle.

Crushing the raw plant and steeping in the alcohol is little better, though you do get a finished result in about two minutes. The best way is to be patient and steep whole leaves and stems in the gin and wait for a few days for the flavour to diffuse then bottle the gin, perhaps with a leaf or two for artistic effect. It may be worth adding a dessertspoonful of sugar to every half litre for flavour and to help the drink keep.

The result is remarkably good and has, with the obligatory tonic added, withstood the acid test of approval by some of the confirmed gin drinkers in my village. It is gin and tonic with wings.

Pop-up tandoor tents in Suffolk, France’s first Fête de la Gastronomie and a herring fair in Helsinki – our writers pick the best treats for foodies around Europe this autumn

Harvest, UK

Harvest is a food and music festival split between two farms: Alex James’s in Oxfordshire and Jimmy Doherty’s in Suffolk. Both include pop-ups (Lily Vanilli’s Piece of Cake Diner, Dock Kitchen’s Tandoor Tent), a cookery school, chef visits (Richard Corrigan, Francesco Mazzei, Yotam Ottolenghi, Nuno Mendes), workshops and farmers’ markets, and this year’s British Street Food awards take place at Jimmy’s.
• 9-12 September, adult weekend camping £97.50/£105 (Suffolk/Oxfordshire), adult day ticket £36/£45, harvestatjimmys.com
Oliver Thring is a regular contributor to the Guardian Word of Mouth food blog

Fête de la Gastronomie, France

When France organises a food festival you can be sure that all the stops will be pulled out, and that is certainly the case for the first ever Fête de la Gastronomie on 23 September, with 2,400 foodie events taking place all over the country. There are a host of Michelin-starred celebrity chefs involved, such as Alain Ducasse, but it also features master charcutiers, bakers and pâtissiers, farmers and wine makers. Hundreds of gourmet restaurants are offering two meals for the price of one (19-25 Sept, tousaurestaurant.fr), and you can attend a giant picnic or go on a foodie treasure hunt.
• 23 September, nationwide, fete-gastronomie.fr
John Brunton is a food and travel writer based in Venice and Paris

Ebel Festival, Denmark

As we all know, in recent years Danes have become much more aware of the produce that grows around them, and one of the emblems for this new pride in local produce is the Danish apple, or rather apples. The Danes are coming to realise that there is more to life than sugary Pink Ladies and turnipy Golden Delicious, and that there are more than 300 apple varieties to be found in the country. This diversity is celebrated in October in the eastern Jutland town of Ebeltoft. At the Ebel Festival, locals get together to rejoice in the fact that different types of apple can be used for different purposes – for juice, cider, cakes, brandy, vinegar, snaps or art.
• Ebeltoft, 15-22 October, ebelfestival.dk
Michael Booth’s latest book is Eat, Pray, Eat (Jonathan Cape, £14.99)

Stromming – Helsinki Baltic Herring Fair, Finland

The end of the arduous, but hopefully successful, fishing season is celebrated in early October with Stromming, a festival dedicated to the Clupea harengus membras, otherwise known as the Baltic herring. The fair has been held since the 18th century – thousands of locals wrap up against the icy chill and descend on the harbour to eat more than 50,000kg of their nation’s favourite fish, served in traditional ways such as salted, pickled and smoked, and with dark rye bread. Helsinki’s restaurants get in on the act, too, offering more modern interpretations using the herrings with local berries and even Asian spices.
• 2-8 October, visithelsinki.fi
Simon Majumdar is the author of Eat My Globe (John Murray, £8.99) and Eating for Britain (John Murray, £9.99)

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‘Weather is our biggest problem. And supermarkets.’ Nick Cunard spends a day with ice cream van man Mr Whirly, aka Ron Sutherland of Chard in Somerset

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This warm seasonal salad makes a delicious light supper, or a more hearty meal served with lamb

I am a firm believer in making life easier in the kitchen. You don’t need to complicate things with too many accompaniments. Often all that’s needed is a couple of quality ingredients, and they will do most of the work.

I have loved chicory since I was a child. It can be cooked, or eaten raw in a salad, added to salty ingredients such as capers and olives, or sweetened with orange and sugar. And it is in season from November to March, so now is the time to be eating it.

Serve this warm salad with lamb chops if you don’t want to cook a whole leg of lamb on a week night. Chops are easy – put them in a pan with a touch of olive oil, or under the grill. They just need three minutes on either side. Or if you want something light, just have the salad on its own.

Ingredients

Serves 4

1kg piece of lamb leg, bone out
5 cloves of garlic
2 sprigs of rosemary
12 new potatoes, medium size
250ml olive oil
20ml red wine vinegar
1tsp coarse grain mustard
3 large chicory
1 tsp baby capers
5 anchovy fillets, roughly chopped
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 210C (gas mark 7). Take the leg of lamb and place in an oven-proof dish. Lightly glaze with olive oil. Make about 10 incisions with a small knife and pierce the skin with garlic cloves and rosemary sprigs. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for an hour and 10 minutes (the normal guide for roasting is 30 mins per pound, or 450g, in weight).

While the lamb is cooking, prepare the salad. Put the new potatoes (with the skin on) in salted water, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 to 30 minutes, until a knife can easily pierce them. While they are cooking, make a vinaigrette with the oil, vinegar and mustard.

As soon as the potatoes are ready, drain, slice and season them with a few tablespoons of the vinaigrette (reserve the rest for the chicory). Leave out at room temperature. When the lamb is ready, remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes. For pink lamb, place a skewer in the centre, then press against the meat. If the juices run pink, it’s nice and rare.

Slice the chicory into wedges and mix with the potatoes. Then add the capers, anchovies, parsley and the rest of the vinaigrette and place in a large bowl. Check seasoning and add more if you feel that it needs it. Remember that anchovies and capers are quite salty. Serve with the sliced lamb or chops.

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