HB&B Blog — SE London

The Beer Lover's Table: Sausage Casserole with Wild Garlic Butter and Lager Sauce and The Kernel Dark Mild

Beer Lover's Table Claire Bullen Mild SE London The Kernel

The Beer Lover's Table: Sausage Casserole with Wild Garlic Butter and Lager Sauce and The Kernel Dark Mild

Every spring, my cooking is governed by a single objective: find as many ways to use wild garlic as possible. There are the staples I make every year – wild garlic pesto in vast quantities, irresistible cheddar and wild garlic American-style biscuits – and the yearly experiments and novelties (quesadillas and pierogi, soup and fried artichokes). Now added to the pantheon is this year’s latest entry: a humble sausage casserole, made memorable with a generous quantity of wild garlic butter. In search of a low-effort and high-reward Easter main a few weeks back, I landed on this dish: Here, delightfully herbal...

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Fundamentals #133 — The Kernel Bitter Simonds 1880

Bitter Fundamentals Matthew Curtis SE London The Kernel

Fundamentals #133 — The Kernel Bitter Simonds 1880

It’s been 13 years since The Kernel arrived in Bermondsey and changed the face of the London (nay, the UK) beer scene forever. In that time, there are few styles the brewery has not turned its hand to. Initially making its mark with a trailblazing range of vibrantly hopped pale ales and IPAs, these progenitors to the haze craze, while wearing their American influences on their sleeve, still tasted resolutely, well, Kernel. It’s a character you can taste in every beer it makes, from historic recreations of export stouts to the fruity, acidic joy contained within every bottle of its Biere de...

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Fundamentals #125 — Villages x Little Earth Project Homegrown English Lager

Fundamentals Lager Little Earth Matthew Curtis SE London Villages

Fundamentals #125 — Villages x Little Earth Project Homegrown English Lager

I am writing this at a brand new desk, so fresh out of the flatpack it still smells of freshly sawn wood and musty cardboard. The desk sits in what is now my office, in a house I have lived in for less than a week, and this is the first piece of work I have produced in it since moving house. It feels weird, unfamiliar, unsettling. But, at the same time. it feels promising, hopeful almost. My old desk was with me through a lot of work I feel immense pride for (and a bit that I don’t) and now I get...

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The Beer Lover's Table: Caramelised Shallot and Tomato Pasta with Anchovies and Brick Brewery Dunkel

Beer Lover's Table Brick Brewery Claire Bullen Dunkel Lager SE London

The Beer Lover's Table: Caramelised Shallot and Tomato Pasta with Anchovies and Brick Brewery Dunkel

One of my favourite Instagram accounts belongs to my friend Katie. At @nytfortea, she reviews New York Times Cooking’s vegetarian (or veggie-adjacent) recipes, including star ratings, tweaks and overall impressions. The comments on NYT Cooking’s recipes are famously deranged – a mix of rambling personal stories and diatribes from people who swapped out half the ingredients and can’t understand why the recipe didn’t work – so instead, Katie’s Instagram has become a micro-recipe recommendation service, one I can always trust. Recently, Katie made Caramelised Shallot Pasta, and I recalled noting down the recipe nearly two years ago – in the early...

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The Beer Lover's Table: Lemon and Almond Waffles with Cardamom Maple Whipped Cream and Gipsy Hill Squashed Peach Bellini Sour

Alcohol-free Beer Lover's Table Claire Bullen gipsy hill SE London Sour

The Beer Lover's Table: Lemon and Almond Waffles with Cardamom Maple Whipped Cream and Gipsy Hill Squashed Peach Bellini Sour

If there’s anything I dread more than January’s arrival – its short, gloomy days; its long, cold nights; the lingering post-party malaise – it’s the annual Dry January discourse that accompanies it. No matter whether you choose to forsake all alcohol for 31 days or plan a wet Tryanuary to remember, you are still likely to be met with the admonitions of reproving strangers. Me, I like to sit on the sidelines. If I have any stance, it is that whether or not you choose to drink this month, you should still treat yourself to special, delicious things in order...

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