AS we welcome people from all over the world to Britain, travel more and enjoy watching food programmes and reading cook books, the tastes we are exposed to and our knowledge of food is ever increasing.
The popularity of Italian pasta dishes for a quick home-cooked supper, Britain's great love of the Indian Curry and the range of restaurants to be chosen from in any of our towns and cities, shows how international our taste in food has become.
We are an adventurous lot and this is something to be really proud of. It is delightful to see our guests in The Treehouse relishing internationally-inspired dishes, like seared tuna with sesame seeds and Asian coleslaw, or Morrocan lamb tagine with cous cous.
However, it also pleases me to see how much our guests enjoy truely British tastes, like lamb's liver and bacon on bubble and squeak, or rack of Ingram Valley lamb with Heritage potatoes, as it's important to preserve local food traditions.
We can look to some of our European neighbours to see this being done with a passion, from the competition to serve the most perfect bouillabaisse in Marseille's seafood restaurants to the great pride with which the most simple and delicious pizzas are served in Naples.
Autumn's now here and it's the perfect time to try some great British classics, like cassaroles with puddings and crisp crumbles.
These comforting dishes seem just right now, and the seasonal ingredients available locally lend themselves perfectly. Don't forget the wealth of eild food to be harvested at this time of year, from the blackberries, sloes and rosehips in the hedgerows, to crab apples and sweet chestnuts.
Another British classic is of course the Sunday Roast, that great tradition of sitting round the table with family and friends to enjoy a long lunch.
The Sunday lunches we serve in The Treehouse have ever-changing menus, featuring rare breed pork, Northumberland lamb and local estate beef, as well as game, fish, seafood and freshly-prepared seasonal vegetables. Call to reserve a table, and enjoy a leisurely Sunday afternoon before the week starts again.
The Treehouse is not only home to local food, on Jazz Thursdays and Live Fridays it is also home to live music from local musicians.
The Treehouse always has a great atmosphere; laid back but with the buzz of people enjoying themselves, and the live music really complements it. On Fridays we've had the Blaydon Aces with their Northumbrian and Tyneside dialect songs, and Jonny Handle's music, song recitation from the North East, among many others.
I've really enjoyed Margaret and Andrew Watchhorn, who are from Embleton. They play their own compositions as well as traditional Northumbrian music on the fiddle and Northumbrian pipes. They're playing again on Friday November 17, call the team in The Treehouse to book a table for the evening.