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Monday

Matthew Bowles

Chicken has never been trendier

From our UK edition

Last month, I attended the International Chicken Gastronomy Festival in Twickenham. There was some questioning as to why I would want to spend my weekend gorging on fried chicken. None more so than from my significant other, a vegetarian. Part of the reason for this life choice (so she tells me) is that she once owned three pet chickens, Little Ginge, Gonzo and Mabel, who met their natural end in the food chain: being eaten by a fox. Despite becoming a cheap option on the high street, chicken is also the trendiest ROOST, as the event is known, is devoted to celebrating the humble chicken in all its fried, saucy and increasingly elaborate forms - ‘bird cookery without borders’.

Tuesday

Paul Levy

Nothing rivals a traditional Chinese banquet for opulence

From our UK edition

In February 1985 I had the good fortune to be a guest in Hong Kong at the Mandarin hotel’s 21st birthday celebration, a lavish three-day reconstruction of the sort of imperial banquet given during the Qing dynasty by the Kangxi emperor (1654-1722) and his grandson the Qianlong emperor (1711-1799). Kangxi started the custom of banqueting during his tours of southern China – he made six between 1684 and 1707. These provincial feasts were relatively informal affairs, often held in a tent, quite different to the stifling protocol of the imperial court at Beijing, and combined some aspects of the ruling Manchu ‘Man banquet’ with the native Han Chinese ‘Han banquet.’ The full three-day Manchu-Han feast was mostly restricted to Beijing.

Thursday

Melissa Kite

I’m not ill but I’m not as I was: how Covid takes its toll

From our UK edition

If it’s true that the virus finds your weak spot, it has lodged itself like an evil monkey in my head. After departing from every other bit of my body, it was still in my brain. It told me I didn’t need friends any more. So, as I moped about the house ‘self-isolating’, I sent a series of very odd text messages, telling my friends what the monkey thought I thought of them. The monkey also told me his theory that there is no such thing as long Covid. All Covid is long. I would never get over it: ‘Well, have the authorities bothered to conduct any research to find out if anyone who has survived this lurgy is feeling 100 per cent better after six months or a year? ‘Do you know anyone who says they are the same again?’ the monkey asked.