Inconstant Italian

Zucca, 184 Bermondsey Street, SE1 3TQ

Meal for two: £85

Living in Dalston, I tend to think most other places are quite smart. I forget that it is normal to brush your hair and wear clothes that match; consequently, I am always vaguely surprised to find that most people choose to do this. Bermondsey, sleek, chic and stylish, is a welcome break from my home borough's scruffy charms.  On a quaint London village street complete with idyllic old church, Zucca embodies the upmarket but trendy feel that permeates this part of London.

All exposed concrete, open kitchen and well-judged art, eating in Zucca is like eating in the modern house of your parents' wealthiest friend: an intimate and charming experience that displays all the attributes of a great local restaurant. However, Bermondsey is not our neighbourhood, and it takes more than sharp design to entice me across the river. If the food had been consistently good, sustaining the quality displayed in the best dishes, I would have no hesitation in returning: for the cooking here displayed moments of real excellence. However, our meal was slightly overshadowed by inconsistencies, and it failed to live up to its stellar reputation.

Get Forked in Miami

When work told me that they were sending me to Miami for a week, it was a rare moment of sunshine in the oft-grey drudgery of my daily toil. In my mind, I would go and fill the breaks between meetings with seaside runs, I would find time to explore and I would extend my trip to spend a weekend eating the food of diverse cuisines - soaking up the culture of expatriate communities from Central America and the Caribbean. Unsurprisingly, this was somewhat ambitious. However, whilst my daily runs failed to materialise;  my trip, and Miami itself, were exactly as I expected them to be. The sky was invariably blue and the sun shone on beautiful people driving ostentatious cars.

Although principally there to work, my secondary aim was to eat as much as I could within a week. Food between meetings rather than exercise. My experience of the Miami restaurant scene veered from the sublime (excellent seafood served in view of the sea) to the mediocre (I visited a number of chain restaurants of the sort that will sell the unsuspecting diner vast quantities of generic, under-seasoned food). Somewhat disappointingly, in a week of Miami eating, I managed only a relatively small number of memorable food experiences. Fortunately, these were sufficiently brilliant to make up for the alternative: slightly generic American fare.