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Japanese beer brand Kirin has launched a pop-up yatai aka street food stand with Yasuhiro Mineno (ex head chef of Nobu) and Shinya Ikeda, joint owners and Head Chef of London’s fabled Yashin Sushi restaurant. Kirin Ichiban is being dished up with a menu of kushiage and other snacks to offer Londoners a taste of what will be served at the Yashin founders' full-blown kushiage restaurant set to launch in 2012 (learn more about my beloved kushiage here ). The Kirin Ichiban Yatai is around for just one week from 3-8 August in the open-air Dray Walk gallery near Brick Lane and is serving up a selection of the traditional Japanese pankoed and deep-fried skewer snacks. The short menu offers three sticks for £5, six plus edamame for £10, or nine plus ice cream for £15, with a free bottle of Kirin Ichiban for every diner who has booked online. Kirin Ichiban is a beer made by the unique “Ichiban Shibori" Process which translates as “first press”. Bottles of Kirin are £3 & a pint ...

Petits fours by Edd Kimber (the Boy Who Bakes) and Chef Luke Mackay Kai We Care. #KaiWeCare . Kai We Care was the mother of all fundraising dinners held on Monday 4th April 2011 at One Moorgate Place in London. The brainchild of Mat Follas, chef patron of the Wild Garlic, and Dave Ahern aka Cork Gourmet Guy, writer turned chef. Canapes and Pre-starter Its aim was to help the New Zealand Red Cross in their efforts to provide relief in the aftermath of February's earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. Chef Alyn Williams A stunning nine-course dinner, cooked by a brigade of award-winning and Michelin-starred chefs, followed by an auction of wonderful prizes. Edd Kimber and Luke Mackay It might have seemed like a case of too many cooks, but in the end, the chefs, the front of house, and everyone else pulled the night off with panache. Over £60,000 was raised - a phenomenal amount - thanks to the amazing efforts of the Kai We Care team led by Mat Follas , Dave Ahern , Grant Hawthorn...

Short, slightly over-excited note to say that I've now seen my Bags for Japan in real life! They are brilliant (vain, I know), but they're also nice fabric and the print quality is great. If you've ordered one, hopefully they'll arrive soon - and if you haven't got one yet, why ever not? All proceeds go to the Japanese Red Cross as before. And look! now there are T-Shirts too (this time designed by my husband from photos he took) ... SHOP FOR BAGS AND T-SHIRTS FOR JAPAN HERE

I've been thinking that I want to do more to help with the efforts in Japan. I'm not remotely athletic, so physical feats like doing a sponsored run are out of the question. I don't really bake, so I don't want to provide paltry efforts for the wonderful Cakes for Japan . I've not really got the time to auction stuff on eBay for the brilliant Bento4Japan campaign, much as I would like to take part. Then I realised that I had lots of rather nice photos that I'd taken in Japan which languished in this weird half-life on Flickr, as I'd never got round to printing them out. So I thought to myself, "I really like tote bags and I reckon others do - let's use those photos to make some bags for Japan". I played around with all the designs to make them a bit funkier, and I'm pretty pleased with how they came out. The bags are only £8 each and all proceeds will go directly to the Japanese Red Cross (that's £1.10 per bag). And there's free sh...

"Till drowsy eyelids seem to see A-flower 'neath her golden htee The Shwe-Dagon flare easterly From Burmah to Kamakura " The tragic and frightening events unfolding in Japan will be familiar to you all, so I won't recount them here, except to urge you to view this piece by ABC News showing in stark detail the extent of the devastation so far. What I do want to tell you is that Japan has asked for outside help , and for a country as proud as that to do so (they were forced to accept foreign assistance after the Kobe earthquake in 1995 which virtually destroyed that city and killed 6,500 people), they must be in severe need right now - faced as they are by earthquake, tsunami, nuclear emergency and an erupting volcano . I have a vested interest - I love the country; I have family and friends who live there (they're all okay if scared); and I have been to Japan three times out of the last four years - and am meant to be going again in three weeks' time. But ev...

Last Friday, I found out that Whole Foods Market in Kensington was running a short Summer Chef Series - a lovely initiative where the public could see free cookery demonstrations by various leading chefs from eg Salt Yard and Min Jiang, although we were encouraged to donate to the charity of their choice* . All the chefs were giving up their time for free so it would have been churlish to refuse. I bombed it down to the first session to see Tristan Welch of Launceston Place preparing three desserts, which even a pud virgin like me could handle at home. He made Raspberry and Black Pepper "Angel Delight", Banana Split with Rum and Chocolate Mousse, and Cinder Toffee aka puff candy, honeycomb toffee or hokey pokey - all super-simple and gorgeous. The recipes are all in September's Delicious Magazine , but we were given copies to take away (as well as a welcoming glass of Prosecco), so here's Tristan's recipe for Cinder Toffee . Cinder Toffee by Tristan Welch 75g h...

Over the last five years, my husband, friends and I have been making a feature-length spoof horror film called " Pure Evil: The House of Unnatural Darkness Pt II ". Inspired by George Romero's Dead series, as well as the Evil Dead Series and Braindead , early low-budget horrors by the directors Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson, Pure Evil II has seen my house abused in every way imagineable, including being drenched in (fake) blood. Don't be alarmed though - Pure Evil II is much more reminiscent of Shaun of the Dead than the Texas Chainsaw Massacre . And though it's not a professional film, the soundtrack was composed and recorded by members of the film team and is completely awesome. To celebrate finally completing the movie, on Halloween we rented a small cinema for a public screening. This is why I bothered to dress up this year . 60 of our nearest and dearest were invited to the Charity World Premiere of Pure Evil II - with all proceeds going to...