HB&B Blog

The first time I tried Christian Binner's Si Rose, I laughed involuntarily. The wine was hard to believe. For weeks I'd been meaning to open it, tempted by its eye-candy shade and long-necked Alsatian bottle. As soon as my nose came within a foot of the glass, it was overwhelmed by the wine’s fragrance: there was rosewater and ginger, lychee and tangerine. If Si Rose smelled like a Turkish delight, it tasted even better. Though dry on the palate, the wine's abundant aromatics gave it an impression of nectar-like sweetness. It struck me as the kind of ambrosia that should...

What’s in a name? For many producers of our favourite food and drink, from the winemakers of the French provinces to the cheese-makers of Italy, nomenclature is power. Try calling something you make Champagne (that isn’t) for example, and you’ll soon find yourself getting a politely worded letter from the Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité. Thanks to the appellation granted upon this particular genre of wine in 1927, designed to combat what its producers saw as fraud, only wines grown and produced in this region are allowed the designation. But this kind of appellation doesn’t really exist...

In an increasingly uncertain world, we're here for you. Our online shop never sleeps, with UK-wide shipping, click & collect from our two shops and a same-day delivery option across London, as well as Deliveroo. We also offer a local home delivery service using our new 100% electric, zero emissions van. This delivery option is free for online orders of £40 and over for customers in a wide range of South London postcodes (a full list is below). When you get to the cart page of our online shop, you'll be asked to choose from three options: When you choose the local...

One of the best podcasts I've listened to during quarantine is Home Cooking, a four-part series hosted by Samin Nosrat (author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat) and Hrishikesh Hirway (best known for his  own podcast, Song Exploder). It's charming and relatable, too: home cooks from all over send in lockdown-inspired questions about everything from soaking beans to making a birthday cake without all-purpose flour. In one episode, a woman calls in with a problem: her garden has exploded in a bounty of herbs following the unseasonably warm weather and she doesn’t know how to use up all the sudden greenery....

I had my first kathi roll many years ago, as a college freshman in New York City, though I may have been too tipsy at the time to properly appreciate it. A tiny joint a few blocks from campus called Roti Roll routinely stayed open until 4am. I remember deliriously shoving my face into a roll after a night out, heedless of the mounting chilli heat until it was too late. More recently, I fell in love with the Paneer Roomali Roll at Dishoom, from which this recipe takes some inspiration. Kathi rolls – sometimes known as frankies – are...