2016 was, on many levels, pretty meh and it doesn't look like 2017 is off to the best start either. When we aren't hanging our head in despair at the global political situation, we have been getting hygge with it, making the most of the January lull to check out some new restaurants, and more ...

1) PLAYING WITH SOUS VIDE - a well-timed Christmas present that has been bubbling away in the corner of the kitchen since we got our hands on it. We have been sous-videing eggs to get the perfect runny centre and copious amounts of pulled pork, however, one of the most pleasing experiments has been chicken. Sealed and submerged for an hour or so, even the most humble of bits of chicken becomes the most juicy, chicken-y hunk of deliciousness. Mind, it still looks fairly rubbish in the photos but the flavour, I tell you!

2) OBSESSING - Talking of chicken, we are obsessing over this guy, Pengest Munch, and his reviews of London fried chicken. Is this the future of food reviewing? We certainly think so.

He sounds like a smart cookie as well as dressing like one.

3) REVISITING KIMCHI - our love of the orange stinky stuff never went away but, given its probiotic, post-Christmas gut busting qualities, we thought we were well overdue a new batch for January. The kimchi containers are essential in preventing any cabbage odours impregnating every item in your fridge and, if you have a penchant for pickling, a pretty useful bit of kit with wider applications. 

 4) EXPERIMENTING - with all things Chinese. Inspired by one too many trips to Xian Impressions, we have been trying to move away from Japanese staples and try out some Chinese recipes. So far, we have stuck to the Japanese-Chinese cross over, Mapo tofu but, with our fridge full of jars of bean pastes and exotic vinegars, there is more to come. Particularly anything involving dumplings as you really can't go wrong with some dumpling action. Any cookery book recommendations very welcome!

5) FEASTING - on neaps and tatties for Burn's night. My first experience - knowingly - of haggis and... hmmmm. In flavour terms, it was pretty positive, but the texture of all three combined? Really? Do Scottish people not have teeth? Maybe after all that iron bru and deep fried mars bars and tablet, they don't? Saunders claims to be Scottish (by birth and by rugby) so I'll leave him to defend it... (awful photo but, a quick survey of instagram suggests that no matter how many filters you use, all photos of H-N-T are doomed to be disappointing.)

6) CRUSHING - on our new restaurant obsession, Perilla Dining. It has the advantage of being only five minutes from KP HQ but also turns out to be serving out some of the most delicious mouthfuls we have eaten for a long time. The set lunch menu is a complete steal at £25 and from the first plate - seaweed bread brushed with hot lamb fat - to the last - a grapefruit and basil custard - our socks were well and truly blown off. N16 might be a bit of an arse to get to but this is well worth the schlepp.