Favourite Things Of 2024

Time for a little list of my favourite things of 2024.

Favourite Restaurant Meal

I had a few really stand-out meals in 2024 – Brat for my birthday, Tayyabs to celebrate the end of detox, Slowburn with the folks.

But the one that stood out the most was Quo Vadis in Soho, with some rather excellent guests.

This rabbit, mushroom and bacon dish was quite possibly the most gorgeous thing I ate all year.

Favourite Restaurant Meal on Holiday

I spend far too much time researching where to eat on holiday, and whether it is worth the effort is very questionable.

Too often I spend like an hour or more deciding between multiple restaurants, then I’m not especially impressed when eating there. Research is part of the fun of a holiday, but is it worth it? Maybe I should concentrate more on drinking beer.

However. Pork. Sicily.

Pork fillet dressed with Nebrodi black pig lard on a bed of yellow-fleshed potatoes, to be exact. Served with Sautéed Spinach, Caciotta Fondue, Crunchy Onion and Nero D’Avola Brown Base – whatever that is.

It was just humungously gorgeous, though I was a tad drunk too.

Favourite Meal at Home

I didn’t photograph it (the shame) but I made this chard-stuffed lamb back in August and it still really sticks out in my memory – probably helped by me buying lamb shoulder from a good butchers instead of a supermarket.

Also really been enjoying my fish dishes this year, a salmon Caesar salad also stands out in the memory.

Favourite Roast Dinner

This has to be Sussex Bar & Restaurant in Soho.

It not only had the award-winning best Yorkshire pudding of 2024, stuffed with bone marrow, but also perfect carrots, gloriously buttery cabbage, super flavoursome parsnips, fluffy roast potatoes, really tender pork and pretty good gravy. Pretty good gravy because nowhere seems to do proper gravy any more, such is the sadness of the mid-2020’s.

Favourite Dessert

This is an easy answer, and something I still dream of now, but the lemon and white chocolate cheesecake that I had in Bilbao was just everything I dream about.

Insanely gorgeous.

Favourite Movie

Hidden Figures is the one that stands out – a really good movie combining the civil right movement with space exploration – what is not to like? I wish I could have been the person who smashed the “colored’s bathroom” sign down…but thankfully we are long passed that phase (or I thought that we were when I started writing this in 2024). True story, and that I appreciate also.

Favourite Book

I don’t read a lot of books, but I do enjoy reading about the start of club culture, especially when it is connected to me in a way like Der Klang Der Familie is.

I wasn’t so sure of the conversational interview style at first, it was obvious they weren’t together and it was put together from individual interviews. However the story of how Berlin techno got going was fascinating, some of it not new knowledge to me, but some really interesting characters and stories, how the west and east of Berlin saw each other before and after the fall of the wall, plus how they found the places to get nightclubs, and some of the stories about hiding from police/stasi are just wonderful. It felt like I was reminiscing on something I was involved with.

Favourite Theatre

I think probably the best thing I went to was the Guys And Dolls immersive performance, standing up next to the actors was a lot of fun, and being arranged around by the guards.

I even got told off by the preachers for drinking beer. Photograph is from before the play started, as only bad people take photographs during a play.

I didn’t actually go to theatre that much in 2024 – the other play that really stands out was Hills of California, about 4 sisters living in Blackpool, with wonderful accents.

Favourite DJ mix

I think it has to be this wonderfully trippy kick drum-free mix from Barac. Like minimal techno but on soooooo many hallucinogens.

Favourite Track

Just one track? Gosh, that’s hard but maybe I’ll go for the hauntingly beautiful I’m Broken by Ricardo Villalobos, the king.

And it was actually released quite recently, albeit 2023 – but I didn’t discover it until 2024.