Food 'n' Drink – Food and Drink news |

Combine a love of ice cream with a love of fashion.  From the 5th-31st of July, Magnum Temptation will be hosting an online heist.   Those who can be tempted to join in will control a partner-in-crime to raid the Temptation 100 collection – a set of the latest asos indulgences. Once pilfered, fans have to wait until the stroke of midnight to win their stash. If they are unsuccessful, they can rerun the heist again the next day.

To tempt your taste buds and satisfy your insatiable appetite for the latest trends, Magnum and ASOS.com have created ‘The Temptation Top 100’, the definitive guide to the season’s most desirable fashion items and accessories. What’s more, they are giving you a chance to bag the lot from 5th July – 1st August!

To win the carefully selected items, chosen by ASOS’ chief stylist, you have 60 seconds to work with a virtual (elegantly dressed) thief who will help you ‘dash and grab’ as many items as you can from a revolving gallery and place them in box. This selection becomes your prize entry in the daily draw. At the end of each and every day, a winner is selected so there’s plenty of chance to win.

And if you don’t win your box of fashionable treats from ‘The Temptation 100’, you can indulge in another summer ‘must have’ with a money off voucher for Magnum Temptation, an ice cream so luxurious and indulgent that it comes in its very own jewellery style box. There are two mouth-watering flavours to choose from – Chocolate – smooth chocolate ice cream enriched with sumptuous chocolate sauce, white Belgian chocolate chunks and brownie pieces covered in dark Belgian chocolate – and Caramel & Almonds – Madagascan vanilla ice cream with Californian almond pieces smothered in dark Belgian chocolate and luscious swirls of smooth, soft caramel sauce surrounded by a shell of thick milk chocolate.

So whether it’s a delicious treat for your taste buds or your wardrobe, Magnum and ASOS.com have got your favourite pastimes licked!

Research has found that people who enjoy eating out will continue to do so, regardless of the recession. In the survey, more than 1,000 UK diners were questioned about their eating out habits and the results showed that nearly two thirds of them (62%) still planned on eating out the same amount as they do already or perhaps even more than was usual, especially during special occasions or seasons, for example, at Christmas.

Again, nearly two-thirds (63%) confirmed that cost wasn’t the major issue when deciding whether or not to eat out, and a further 77% said that they would definitely consider paying more for their food if they knew that the meal had been made from high-quality ingredients.

The survey also showed that two-thirds (67%) of diners questioned said that their favourite way of celebrating a special occasion such as a birthday or anniversary was to go out for a meal at a restaurant. However; a further 42% of those asked said they felt frustrated with the lack of variety on offer whenever they went out for a meal.

If you’re someone who enjoys eating out at restaurants then it may be in your interest to visit moneysupermarket.com’s Voucher channel and see what offers are available to you.

On the comparison site you’ll find many options available to you and a variety of great restaurant vouchers on offer to choose from, so you’ll soon be enjoying a great meal out for less in no time.

A vouchers article brought to you by Gill Critchley, the Vouchers web author at moneysupermarket.com.

There is still tiem to enter the Home Baker of the Year compeition. The first 100 recipes will receive a pair of tickets to the Ideal Home Show and the chance to attend a champagne reception on March 25th at the Ideal Home Show.

Furthermore, the best 5 recipes will be decided by our panel of expert judges, and go into a LIVE BAKE OFF FINAL, at the Ideal Home Show, on 30th March.

The winner of the bake-off challenge will also receive a chance to be published in the Ideal Home Show’s official recipe book to be launched at the show in 2011, as well as a cake decorating course with Baketique chef Mychelle in her London based kitchen, a VIP nights stay for two at Hotel Rafayel, London, including dinner for two and a spa treatment in the hotels beauty spa.

Deadline for entry is 10th March 2010.

For further information visit http://www.idealhomeshow.co.uk/home_baker/

Or email your entries to: homebakeroftheyear@stuart-higgins.com

Eating out is great, gives a fun relaxing time with good food, the chance to meet up with friends and family, and no mess to clean up afterwards. We all think of eating out as something we do as a treat, it costs more generally than cooking at home does, so when we’re in a recession as we are now, it’s often one of the many things that we take off our ‘to do’ lists assuming that we can’t afford it.

If you’re clever however, it can be possible to have good meals out with friends, enjoy that relaxing atmosphere and still not spend too much. One of the best ways to do this is to look for restaurant discounts and vouchers, and to remember that if you were eating at home you would still be spending something. If you start by saying that a cheap meal at home for 4 people might cost you £2-4 per head, then you can effectively knock that much off the cost of what you spend when you go out as you’d be spending it anyway. If you can then reduce the cost of the meal out by using a discount voucher then you can further reduce how much you’re spending and often the cost can work out very little more than you might have spent eating at home.

Restaurants at the moment are out to seduce you, they want you to spend your money with them instead of their competitors so many of them are offering some really excellent deals from two for the price of one meals, to free deserts when you eat a main course, or an amount off when you spend a specific amount. Obviously if a restaurant is offering more than one deal you’ll need to think hard before you decide which deal is going to save you the most too.

If you’re uncertain where to look for discount codes of this nature, try sites such as http://restaurantvouchers.org.uk/ where they list as many discount vouchers as possible to try and help you to save as much as possible.

It’s also worth thinking about when you go for your meal, it’s often more expensive to go in the evening, or at a weekend, and there are some excellent deals to be had midweek. A local well known carvery near me offers roast dinner meals at just £3.59 per person Monday to Saturday during the daytime for example, but the same meal cost increases to around £6 per person if you go in the evening and is even more on a Sunday.

Some current deals at the moment are:

40% off Wagamamma
£1 meals at Zizzi’s

With Christmas just around the corner now is the time to start planning your Christmas food shopping and present buying.

Popular discount code website Discount Tart have release a number of excellent food and drink discounts to help make Christmas food shopping a little bit cheaper.

Whilst it is still a slightly early to buy your food for the big day there are still lots of great food and drink offers that make excellent presents for other people.

Current food and drink deals on the site include -

25% off French wines at Marks and Spencers

20% discount code for Thorntons

20% discount code for Whittards of Chelsea

There are also many other additional deals and offers for lots of food and drink shops including many supermarket discount codes and deals which will be very useful as we reach December.

About Discount Tart

Discount Tart has been running for 4 years and offers a wide selection of discount codes as well as time sensitive shopping deals. The site has saves hundreds of consumers money over its 4 years of being live.

Deals and codes on the site are updated daily and correct at time of publishing.

Zia Teresa Restaurant celebrates its ‘Golden Anniversary’

Owned by Stefano Fraquelli of Metropolitan Restaurants and previously owned by his late father, Zia Teresa restaurant in Hans Road, Knightsbridge is this year celebrating its Golden Anniversary. To mark this momentous anniversary and the continuity of management and ownership, Fraquelli is offering every customer a complimentary glass of sparkling, golden Franciacorta wine, in association with one of Italy’s leading producers, La Montina, for the next 12 months.

Zia Teresa’s reputation and on-going success has earned it several accolades over the years, including The Independent’s “Best Neighbourhood Restaurant” award in 2005, for “serving hit-the-spot, reliable Italian food.” It was the only Knightsbridge restaurant that was consistently voted for by The Independent’s discerning readers. Incredibly for these times of credit crunch, sales figures are currently 25% up on last year, validating the impression that Fraquelli really knows how to look after his customers.

When asked about the success of this much-loved restaurant Fraquelli’s explanation is simple; “I’m terribly lucky; it’s probably one of the best locations for a restaurant in the world and we attract all generations from local residents to business people and tourists. They like the fact that the food is good quality without any hefty price tags, which you wouldn’t expect, given the location. People’s demands may appear to have changed over the decades, but in actual fact the success of Zia Teresa comes down to its traditional charm and character and the simplicity of the menu, which still reflects what Italian food has always been about. Nowadays there are very few concepts that are so resilient.”

Further endorsement of this special anniversary comes from Fiat’s flagship store in Marylebone, who have boldly displayed the Zia Teresa Golden Anniversary logo over two of their new Cinquecento model, (Fiat 500). Cinquecento and Zia Teresa could, in fact, both be considered modern day icons, with their roots firmly in the past, but still perfectly apposite in today’s world. One of London’s leading shirt-makers, T M Lewin, have sponsored the staff uniforms and collectively this level of support is a reflection of Fraquelli’s reputation and demonstrates their desire to be associated with this inveterate restaurateur, who was decorated with the esteemed title of ‘Cavaliere’ by the president of the Italian Republic, for his services and contribution to the Italian community.

Customers visiting the restaurant between November 2009 and 2010 will receive a complimentary glass of sparkling, golden Franciacorta wine; and for a limited period, a special 3 course Golden Anniversary Menu for only £15.00.

www.ziateresa.co.uk