Sweetcorn Is the Perfect Summer Vegetable

Welcome back to Insta Stories, a column examining the London restaurant scene through the often-problematic medium of Instagram. This week’s filter: I know, I know, it’s serious.

News of the week

It’s nearly September, which means increasingly only one thing is on the menu for a certain sect of locavore chefs. Call them Game Bois: pigeon-, grouse-, and pheasant-fanciers intent on making the most of the season’s fleeting bounty,and most likely serving it in a gnarly fashion inspired by Noma’s extremely goth bills, beaks and talons philosophy. Pick of the pack may just be the Anjou pigeon at newcomer Flor — no surprise, really, given James Lowe’s involvement in promoting game at sibling restaurant Lyle’s, where the annual dinner series devoted to it is certainly not for the faint-hearted, especially when several courses will likely feature actual heart.

Ingredient of the week

Christopher Nolan’s overrated and overlong Interstellar is notable for one interesting bit of futurology: it imagines a world in which every crop apart from okra and corn has gone extinct. In other words: a bit like London this week, just with 100 percent more okra.

Seasonal dessert of the week

More encouraging signs of the proper pudding renaissance — it turns out that the best pudding for summer is ... Summer pudding. If Alison Roman says it’s a thing, it’s #athing.

Pasta of the week

London may as well steer into its inevitable fresh pastafication — especially if it allows chefs to get creative with the art form, constructing interesting new flavour profiles around the starchy staple. Hereby announcing a new weekly category, celebrating the best in 00 flour craftsmanship, which will be awarded from now until the craze runs its course in approximately 2127.

Evocative crisp of the week

Absolutely no judgment here:

• That’s a lot of apricots, conceivably even too many.
• Why bring a bowl for the crisps but not for the fruit?
• Is that a tiffin box?
• Walkers Thai Sweet Chilli Sensations is a great crisp, perhaps even god tier on the right day, but Bangkok-style charcoal-grilled gai yang is not front-of-mind in terms of prominent taste associations, the first two of which, generally speaking, are ‘sweet’ and ‘chilli.’
• Can anyone name literally any other flavour of Walkers Sensations?

Absolute unit of the week

The Galaxy brain meme, but for pastries.

Sophisticated iced treat of the week

Soigné AF.

Dish of the week

Duck, duck, oof.

Shot of the week

Artist’s impression of everyone in the UK this weekend.