Indian, Chinese, Italian…How many different cuisines have you sampled?

According to research conducted by continental food brand unearthed®, the majoirty of Brits try between just one and seven different cuisines in their lifetime. And with 193 countries in the world each producing their very own delicacies, this means that few of us discover the range of delights available.

Last week, unearthed® set out to smash this standard (and set a new world record while they were at it) by creating and hosting the biggest ever tasting menu. Over a 24 hour period, one dish from every country was presented to a stream of eager samplers. A team of four chefs spent 130 hours prepping and cooking the dishes, which included everything from English strawberries and cream to Korean rice cakes to Zambian toasted ants (yes, really!)


We Young Ladies About Town dropped in on the feast for an hour, during which we tried Bulgarian Ayran (a salty, yoghurty beverage), Cambodian Longan (a fruit like a lycee), Jamaican Goat Stew (a hearty flavour, similar to lamb) and Australian king prawns (as you’d expect!) We left just before the Congonese grass hoppers were served…

The event was opened to the public over the weekend, with all proceeds going to Action Against Hunger.

Rumour has it that a cookery book featuring all 193 recipes is in the pipeline. Just to whet your appetite, here’s the recipe from Portugal (ant-free, we hasten to add). Enjoy!

Portugese Chicken and Chorizo Casserole

Ingredients
2 red onions
200g chorizo sausage
200g chicken breast
1L chicken stock
Half savoy cabbage, shredded
2 large tins chickpeas, drained
Juice one lemon

Method
1.    Heat dash olive oil in large saucepan. Add chicken, sliced onions and diced chorizo.
2.    Cook gently until soft, about 10 minutes. Season well.
3.    Add stock. Bring to boil. Add cabbage and chickpeas and simmer 4-5 minutes until cabbage is cooked.
4.    Serve in bowls with squeeze of lemon juice and drizzle of olive oil.

For more information visit www.discoverunearthed.com

I was summoned to an interview at the end of last week. Well, actually, I was just summoned. I wasn't aware it was an interview until I walked into the Headmaster's Office and found him sitting there, in the middle of a panel of the Senior Management team (or 'SMT') all staring at me. Well, actually, I wasn't aware even then that it was an interview. The clue came when the Headmaster stood up from the middle of the panel, beckoned me to a forbidding lone leather chair opposite them and stated, "Thank you for coming into interview."

Befuddled I sat quickly in the chair wondering what exactly I was being interviewed for, I was fairly sure I had a job. At the school. They'd employed me a little over two months ago. Had it all been a dream?

"Well Clare, you've made a positive start at the school and we have been vry vry impressed by you."

"Oh good," I said shifting in the leather seat so that an inelegant squeak echoed round the room. I coughed, feeling a blush creep up my neck, "Well it's a lovely school," I said.

The Head of Co-Curricular dabbed at his bald patch with a spotted handkerchief whilst nodding in agreement. The Second Master gave me a crooked smile, no teeth. I made the squeaking sound again.

"Well we wanted to get you in and talk to you about picking up the reins of our gals house next year," the Headmaster explained. Mesmerised by his choice of attire today (a twin striped red Oxford University tie coupled with a duck egg blue waistcoat - quite the combo) it was a moment before his words sunk in.

"Oh," I spluttered, "Yes this has been mentioned to me, but, well I'm not sure I have adequate experience running a gal, I mean a girl's, house," I said.

"Piffle," came his reply as he stood up, "You have 29 years of ample experience and we will support you all the way."

"Right well I, you see, the thing is..."

"So that's decided then," he smiled at me, holding out a large hand for me to take.

"Sor... Is it?" I said getting slowly to my feet and shaking the hand proferred automatically. He stepped around the panel, "Yes we thing you'd be very good. Marvellous, marvellous, well we best get on," he said opening his office door for me and calling to his PA, "Get the contracts put together will you Angela, Housemistress."

Without looking at the rest of the panel I stumbled towards the door and then I was out, standing mouthing at the air as Angela bustled about her office smiling at me sympathetically.

"You'll be fine," she said. She sounded so unsure.

---

It is not every day that you get the chance to watch international high-goal polo straight after work, right in the middle of London. The HPA Gaucho International Polo Tournament at the O2 offers just that, and kicks off the polo season in style.

The evening began in a civilised manner, with a trip down the river on a Thames Clippers Express, champagne glass in hand. A welcome cocktail awaited us on the balcony at Gaucho, from where we could watch the star-studded crowd filing in. Within seconds we had befriended an Olympic gold-medallist, rower Anna Watkins, and spotted Denise Van Outen and the cast of Made in Chelsea posing for pictures. Anna’s husband was running late and she was waiting all on her own – a plight with which I am all too familiar, so we invited her to join our table. She was delightful company, regaling us with behind-the-scenes stories of London 2012.


As we took our seats in the arena for the England vs Argentina match, to the sounds of electro-tango band Tanghetto and with disco lights flashing, I knew this would not be your usual polo experience – more like watching the sport in a nightclub.

The players made a dramatic entrance in a roaring cavalcade of HR Owen Maserati cars. Argentinian captain Nacho Figueras, the world number one, was off-games having broken his hip the previous weekend, so I was hoping the pressure would be slightly off for our boys, captained by Jamie Morrison.

It was not to be: his replacement, Andrea Vianini, was on aggressively winning form from the start. It was a fiercely contested game, with Argentina dominating the first two chukkas. Several missed penalty shots for England saw us shouting encouragement, sometimes in less-than-ladylike terms.


Between chukkas, instead of treading the divots, we were treated to more live music. A nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat, close-run finish saw the Argentine team winning by just one point at 11-10.

But the night was still young and we headed to IndigO2 for the after-party. En route, we spotted Mr. Vianini, and knowing that no Argie chap worth his Malbec can resist a smiling girl and a photo opportunity, we accosted him for a picture. We got more than we bargained for: an effusive display of Latin affection, shall we say. To the victor, the spoils…


After the prize giving, the band struck up a tune again and dancers hit the stage. Vincent and Flavia from Strictly gave their sequined, over-embellished version of the dance, while a dark and dashing Argentine pair performed a classy, traditional tango.

I elbowed my way across a sea of orange limbs and bleached manes to greet Jamie – and remind him of our brief encounter two months ago, when he attempted to teach me polo for a feature in The Lady. I didn’t get as warm a welcome as I did from his rival, but perhaps that’s for the best. There is only so much excitement a girl can take on a school night.

Words by Juanita Coulson

It’s a strange thing, being a racing fan. One of the things I do, in my Scottish fastness, when I am not writing a book or gazing at the sheep or riding my mare or doing my HorseBack work, is study the form and sneak off to watch the 3.30 from Haydock and have ridiculous accumulator bets. This is one of the legacies left to me by my father, who was a racing man to his boots, and who loved nothing more than trying to win thousands from a one pound stake. I really think it may be genetic.

Because racing is so unpredictable, and a thing of high emotion, and because it involves the beautiful and mysterious creature that is the thoroughbred, and the almost equally mysterious people who understand and love that breed, it touches the heart in a way that I think other sports don’t, quite.

Or, at least, it touches mine. I mourn disasters and celebrate triumphs as if they were my own. There is a real love for the characters in the game, both equine and human, who start to feel like old familiars, almost personal friends, even if one has only ever glimpsed them across the paddock at Ascot.

One of those great characters, Sir Henry Cecil, died this week. He was such an enduring figure of the turf, so brilliant, so unlike anyone else, with such an unparalleled record and such a feel for horses, that for racing fans it felt almost like a death in the family. He had been sending out winners since the seventies. He won the Oaks an absurd eight times. His last, greatest swansong was the mighty Frankel, who was officially rated the best horse in the world, never to be forgotten by anyone who ever saw that soaring colt in action.

At once, the whole of racing bowed its head. It wasn’t just that greatness had passed, it was that everyone knew they would never see his like again. There was eccentricity and an idiosyncratic panache in his brilliance, and great kindness too.

The moment the news broke, everyone, from the humblest punter to the richest owner, expressed their sorrow. My Twitter timeline was awash with tributes and memories. The racing world, slightly unexpectedly, has taken Twitter to its heart, and it was here that the internet did a rather marvellous thing. It made a place where an instant memorial could be constructed. All the metaphorical hats were doffed. The recollections of the dancing horses who had passed through the master’s hands were shared; the people lucky enough to be there when Frankel destroyed a top-class field in the Queen Anne could revive the glory of that shining day.

AP McCoy, pretty legendary himself, tweeted: ‘Sir Henry was a hero to everyone in flat and jump racing. Loved his horses, we loved him. True genius.’ Other famous trainers and jockeys expressed similar sentiments. A real gentleman, without whom Newmarket would not be the same, seemed to be the enduring theme. For most of the day, the name Henry Cecil was the top-trending Twitter subject. It’s a small thing, but it gave me a profound satisfaction. It had a rightness to it. There was something curiously consoling in the thought that a man who had given so much pleasure to so many people could be remembered so instantly, so variously and so well.

A mere four ingredients is all that is required to create this delicious dish...

• 4 duck breasts
• 20g salted butter
• 4 firm apples, sliced
• 200ml Calvados

Method

1. In a nonstick frying pan, add the breasts to the pan skin side down and cook over high heat for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low and cook for 5 more minutes on each side.

2. Melt the salted butter in a separate frying pan on high heat, add the apples and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown.

3. Reduce to low heat and cook the apples for 10 minutes.

4. Reduce heat to very low and deglaze the pan with Calvados.

5. Serve the duck breasts immediately with the Calvados sauce.

Now, when it comes to cocktails and alcoholic tipples we Young Ladies About Town like to think we are quite the connoisseurs. But an alcoholic Popcorn Bar isn’t just new to us – it’s new to London too.



At The Hutch Club inside Quaglino’s we discovered a selection of alcoholic bites which were, quite frankly, a little bit naughty. From their Caramel Macchiato & Whisky flavoured popcorn (very scrummy) to the Oyster & No3 London Dry Gin Soup (yes really) it was a culinary experience like no other. And when enjoyed alongside delicious cocktails like Elderflower Fizz (complete with a generous measure of Stolichnaya Vodka) and French 75 (Gin and Champagne both make an appearance in this) one shouldn’t expect to finish the evening anything less than delightfully squiffy.



The glamorous cocktail and jazz pop up bar is named after ‘Hutch’, one of the most popular cabaret entertainers of the twentieth century, who took London’s café society by storm. The velvet voice of Hutch was one of the highlights of an evening at Quaglino’s and he was idolised by all the best people—The Prince of Wales even asked him to play at St James’s Palace.

The Hutch Club will located in the depths of the iconic London venue until 31st August 2013. With the decadent Art Deco-inspired surroundings keeping you comfortably cloistered from the hustle and bustle of the outside world, we found leaving to be rather difficult. Don't just pop in. If you’re going to visit here make it your evening’s destination rather than a stop off.

Entry strictly by reservation only: Contact 020 7930 6767 or email thehutchclub@quaglinos.co.uk

Words by Katy Pearson

Polly Rae's (Burlesque name Miss Polly Rae) burlesque show at The Hippodrome is a laugh a minute. Full of song, jokes and great acts, for me it was a step away from what I usually expect from burlesque, but I loved it nonetheless.

Polly, who was a previously a beauty therapist and thought the PussyCat Dolls were burlesque, has brought together a group of fabulous girls, and boys, to produce a really rather fabulous evening's entertainment.

Shows I had been to before had been wonderful, but a tad on the serious side. What I loved about Polly's show was yes, they still celebrated their sexuality, but with a lot of humour and fun thrown in.

Something I hadn't seen in a burlesque show before was singing, until I saw Miss Polly Rae perform.


"When I was putting together my show, I realised there were no rules in terms of what you can and can't do in terms of performance. Because I knew I could sing I decided to sing," Polly tells me.

"When you come and see the show there are so many elements to it. There's glamorous side but also a really cheeky and silly side. Comedy runs through it and that is something that is very important."

"In Burlesque there's a lot of comedy, cheek and wit and I think that's how we get away with being so filthy because we can make people laugh at the same time."

And certainly, the audience filled the room with laughter during the show. From hilarious (and oh so naughty) jokes to comical performances, I couldn't recommend an evening with Miss Polly Rae more.

The Soho Burlesque Club featuring Miss Polly Rae takes place every Wednesday at The Hippodrome in Leicester Square. www.hippodromecasino.com

Words by Melonie Clarke

It's Inter-House Rounders today which has meant most of the girls have taken Period 5 off to "get in the zone." This appears to mostly involve listening to motivational music whilst streaking their cheeks with eyeliner for that warrior-like look. There are only 3 girls houses at the school so I reassure a girl from Boudicca that she will definitely get bronze. Not being the brightest girl in the house (she still pronounces it Boo Dikka) she looks pretty happy with my assurance.


There are a few staff milling about as we set up the pitch for the long-awaited games. It's a rather close, cloudy day but the forecast has assured us there will be no rain at least. We spent a miserable day last week huddled under the cricket pavilion as the rain lashed above us and the girls tried to cheer each other up by telling jokes about getting to third base. Now though the pitch is awaiting our She-Warriors and the battle is about to commence.

I am umpiring the second game - when Boudicca will take on Austen - and have been brushing up on my Rounder's rules. There are a lot of them and the game often comes to a halt when we all start to debate whether in fact Felicity was guilty of 'obstruction' or whether Trixie was wrong to knock the Rounders post away with her bat. Half rounders are awarded for getting to second base and this is reasonably easy to do as the largest girl in the year - a dumpling known to her friends as Poppet - has never once broken into a jog during the game and she covers that area. Walking to pick up each ball the person running has not only celebrated their rounder but has also had time to high-five the rest of her team and finish her water bottle.

Today's games are tense and Austen take the lead in their first half. 14 and 1/2 rounders in 30 minutes. One of them claims it's a school record. But then all comes to a grinding halt as Poppet calls for a water break. There are no such things but the girls instantly down bats and head to the pavilion to re-apply their eyeliner and discuss tactics. After twenty minutes I'm wondering what to do when they all charge back out onto the field. Boudicca's first batter - Gems - looks steely in the square. Taking aim she gives the ball an enormous thwack and sets off. At 13 and a 1/2 rounders with 3 minutes left the atmosphere could be cut with a knife. The ball is struck and now Felicity takes off round the field. Incredibly Poppet decides that this is her moment and charges towards the ball. Scooping it up she lobs it to 4th base and the girl there catches it. Felicity is out, Austen have triumphed and Poppet is given a chair lift, which lasts less than 10 seconds when the girls realise they can't manage it.

Felicity is looking non-plussed as all the Austen girls huddle around her. I can just make out one girl saying, "At least we get bronze" before they all troop inside.

---

Looking for a new job?

From butler posts to matron jobs you can check out the latest vacancies here

This traditional English dessert is sure to put a smile on everyone's face this summertime...

Ingredients

• 50g fresh white breadcrumbs
• 150g shortcrust pastry
• 6 tablespoons golden syrup
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Method

Preheat oven to 200 C.

In a saucepan, combine the breadcrumbs, syrup and lemon juice. Heat gently over medium low heat until just melted. Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool.

Roll out the pastry and line a 20cm (8 in) flan or baking dish. Pour the cooled syrup mixture over the pastry.

Trim the pastry over-hanging from the dish.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Serve hot or cold with whipped vanilla cream, ice-cream or custard.

To Kill A Mockingbird has been my favourite book since I picked it up to study it as a GCSE student. So any staging this brilliant book, in my opinion, is going to be brilliant.

And Regent's Park open air theatre production, directed by Timothy Sheader, did not disappoint.

The beautiful story was brought to life with the use of a simple set and a sterling cast including Robert Sean Leonard as Atticus.


As I said, the production was fabulous and I would highly recommend it to anyone, although I would say that a blanket and thick jumper are definitely items you need to throw in your handbag beforehand.

But it was also the atmosphere that added to the huge enjoyment of the evening.

The theatre offers open air or covered dining before the performance and a whole host of delicious treats during the interval. But you can forget your popcorn and ice-cream because a pre-dinner show really is part of the experience.


To Kill A Mockingbird is set in America's Deep South in the 1930s and the menu reflects the story's setting.

Depending on your fancy, you can opt for the opening air dinning which consists of a BBQ or hot pies amongst other things from the bar. Or you can chose to indulge in a full dining experience in the undercover dining area.


To start you can enjoy corn bread, guacamole & pickled vegetables. For the main there is a choice of free range chicken leg with a pork & collard green stuffing served with a three bean salad, grilled sardines with two-tone potato salad served with a green salad garnish, or Warm trio of beetroot & goat's cheese salad served with a walnut & herb leaf salad.

During the interval there is a choice of Pecan and Bourbon pie served with pouring cream, Individual Alabama Lane Cake with apple puree or 'Farmyard' four cheese plate. All served with either coffee, tea or hot chocolate, which after a chilling first half was more than appreciated!

And all this delicious food is served with a side serving of blues music, the sound of the harmonica and the deep south filling the air, transporting you to the world of Jem and Scout.


The menu for the evening changes depending on the production. July will see a Pride and Prejudice themed menu, complete with Pride and Prejudice afternoon tea during the daytime.

There is also a large picnic area so you can bring you own theatre goodies to enjoy before the performance.

An evening at Regent's Park open air theatre is truly an evening well spent. Great food, Pimms at the bar, and brilliant productions. As long as you remember a blanket you can't go wrong!

Dining in the covered dining area is available all evening performances Monday – Saturday £27.50 (booked by 3pm on the day) £32.50 (on the night, subject to availability)

To book tickets for To Kill a Mockingbird or other upcoming productions visit www.openairtheatre.com or call 0844 826 4242

Words by Melonie Clarke