Hello,
August always feels like a slightly strange in-between month.
We are still firmly in the middle of it, especially when another heatwave arrives and the idea of turning on the oven for longer than strictly necessary feels faintly ridiculous. There are picnics to pack, long evenings to enjoy, many children still off school and, hopefully, a few days left when nobody needs to be anywhere in too much of a hurry.
And yet September has started hovering at the edges.
The school uniforms are creeping back into shop windows. Diaries are beginning to fill again. I find myself thinking about quieter trips once the summer crowds have gone home, meals that suit slightly cooler evenings, and all the things I told myself I would get around to “after the holidays”.
I’m trying not to rush there.
There is still plenty of August left to enjoy.
So this month’s Culinary Travels is very much about making the most of where we are now. There are browned butter chocolate chip cookies for picnics, afternoons at home and, before we know it, lunchboxes. There are ideas for squeezing in another summer day out, including a little taste of Southend while I work on a much bigger series about the city. And, when your thoughts do begin to drift towards autumn, I’m turning to Murcia, for the kind of food-filled Spanish escape that becomes especially tempting once the school-holiday crowds begin to thin.
I’ve also picked a summer read with a little more bite. Aisling Rawle’s The Compound drops its reality-TV contestants into a desert where the cameras never stop rolling and the world outside is burning. Dark, sharp and compulsive, it feels oddly perfect for a heatwave.
For now, though, find somewhere cool, pour yourself something cold, and let’s make a little more of summer.
Georgina
For picnics, play days and the biscuit tin
There are some things worth turning the oven on for, even in August, and a batch of browned butter chocolate chip cookies is firmly on that list.
Browning the butter gives these cookies a rich, nutty depth that makes them feel rather more special than the everyday chocolate chip variety, while still being exactly the sort of thing you can pile into a tin and pass around without ceremony.
Take a few on a picnic, wrap them up for a day at the beach, or have them waiting when everyone comes home hungry after an afternoon spent outside. They’re also a very good answer to the inevitable “what can we do today?” on a quieter day at home.
And, much as I’m refusing to rush August along, September is only a few weeks away. Perhaps make a double batch and tuck a few into the freezer for those first school lunchboxes.
Make the browned butter chocolate chip cookies
One more summer day out
There is something reassuringly timeless about a British seaside day in August.
Southend gives you all the familiar ingredients: bright amusement rides, the hum of the seafront, salty air and, stretching far out across the Thames Estuary, that extraordinary pier. It is the kind of place where the day can be as simple as walking, stopping for something to eat, watching the water and letting the hours fill themselves.
I’ve been spending quite a bit of time with Southend recently while working on a larger Culinary Travels series about the city, and what has struck me most is how much more there is beyond the obvious seaside shorthand. The pier may be the headline act, but there is history, culture, food and a strong sense of place waiting beyond it.
I’ll be sharing much more soon. For now, consider this a small late-summer postcard, and perhaps a reminder that there is still time for one more day by the sea.
When your thoughts start drifting towards September
Much as I am determined not to rush August away, this is often the point in the summer when my mind begins to wander towards the trips that come just after it.
Murcia is perfect for exactly that mood. There is sunshine, of course, but also elegant old streets, long lunches, lively plazas and the kind of city atmosphere that suits a more unhurried escape. It feels like the sort of place to visit as the school-holiday rush begins to ease, when the days are still warm but the pace is a little gentler.
If you are already quietly planning an early-autumn break, Murcia makes a very good case for itself, especially if your ideal trip leans more towards food, culture and wandering than a fly-and-flop week by the pool.
Explore Murcia
Planning a trip? You can also browse places to stay in Murcia with Booking.com.
Something darker for a hot summer afternoon
I’m not a reality TV girlie. Love Island has never held much appeal, but Aisling Rawle’s The Compound? I absolutely devoured it.
Ten women wake in an enormous house in the desert, cameras following their every move. Ten men are making their way towards them. Once the men arrive, the rules become clear: stay coupled up, complete increasingly uncomfortable tasks and earn the food, luxuries and supplies that make life inside the compound bearable. Fail, refuse or find yourself alone, and you risk elimination.
It begins with all the glossy absurdity of reality television in a heatwave, but slowly something much darker emerges. Rawle turns the format into a biting satire on surveillance, consumerism, climate anxiety and what happens to morality when survival itself becomes a performance.
Uncomfortable, clever and ridiculously compulsive. Think Love Island meets Lord of the Flies, with Big Brother steadily going off the rails.
Buy The Compound via Bookshop.org
Read my full review on Instagram
However August looks where you are, I hope there’s something good to eat, somewhere cool to sit, and a little summer still left to enjoy.
P.S. Are you hanging onto summer, or are you already secretly looking forward to September?
