Everyone has a local pub in their area, near their work or in their home town that they think does the best beers, best quiz night, best live music etc. Well, Stella Artois and actor Jason Flemyng have joined forces and come up with a community initiative that aims to get you to wax lyrical about your favourite local London boozer, aptly named ‘Love Your Local’.

‘Love You Local’ aims to bring pubs back to the heart of communities, whilst still supporting responsible drinking (of course). ‘Love Your Local’ wants you to celebrate your best local pub by nominating it for the brand new Stella Artois award of ‘London’s Best Loved Local’.

The pubs with the most nominations will receive a prize fund of £5000! The runners up will all receive £1000 each and a plaque. The money is the for the pubs to invest in something good for the community be it new beer garden, new soundproofing or a big party - it’s up to them! Winning pub also gets a profiled piece in The Evening Standard and a holiday for the landlord.

Don’t be shy in giving your local a mention, or getting your friends to do the same. I know all the lovely welovelocal.com reviewers are a passionate bunch who love talking about their favourite pubs (because you all write so many reviews). So you have no excuse!

Nominate your pub here: http://www.loveyourlocal.co.uk/

Good news! The UK has of some of the smartest shoppers out there, and supposedly we really know how to outsmart the credit crunch . eBay, the online auction site has released some research concluding that Brits are pretty switched on and savvy shoppers. Britain came in as the second most ‘shopping neutral’ country in Europe - after thrifty Germany.

So what really is ‘shopping neutral’? Well, the term refers to shoppers who are offsetting their spending habits by selling items that they no longer have a use for. The findings were based on analysis carried out over a year period on over 100 million online transactions.

‘Shopping neutral’ is also a product of many other factors, not simply people using eBay but also that fact that we are  much more tuned into recycling products as we understand that a product’s life cycle is often longer than a single ownership. Also, as we have been mentioning quite a lot here the credit crunch is forcing us to find new ways to shop and save money. Increasingly shoppers are turning to price comparison sites, using voucher codes and selling old goods to fund new goods at boot fairs, jumble sales, swap shops and auctions.

However your shopping habits have changed it seems that this new breed of conscious consuming is having pretty positive effects on the environment overall, it’s interesting to think if people would still be so thrifty and if we weren’t heading towards a recession?  Thoughts?

Photo by: robholland over on flickr.

This Saturday (19th July) is National Cherry Day, now you’re probably scratching your head thinking ‘I never even knew there was a National Cherry Day?’ Well you would be right, because this year is the first! Britain has already lost more than 90% of its original cherry orchards over the last 50 years and National Cherry Day is hoping to put a stop to the loss of any more British orchards.

So now it seems this is the year to get behind the humble cherry, and Cherry Aid is the campaign aiming to unite cherry lovers, chefs, cherry growers and producers of cherry based food in a bid to save the British cherry.

On the menu for Cherry Aid:

• Get everyone to sample at least one British cherry.
• Save remaining cherry orchards
• Encourage the planting of new cherry orchards
• Get producers on-board to use British-grown cherries in their products.
• Get chefs, cooks and restaurants using home-grown British cherries in their cooking.

If you want to get involved there are various events going on all around the UK including the cherry orchards of Kent opening their doors to visitors, cookery demonstrations, tastings and loads more. For more info on what is on all over the country see Food Lovers Britain. So get involved and sample some British cherries, whether you’re picking them or finding a great restaurant that is serving them up.

Photo by: Bensonkua over on Flickr.

I was convinced that Dim Sum would take over where Sushi left off but it seems I may have been a little wrong. An all new food craze seems to be sweeping in and blowing the competition out of the water, introducing Ceviche, the spicy South American style raw fish (it’s pronounced say-veech-eh).

It seems the sushi craze has reached saturation point and people are beginning to tire from the raw fish and carbs combination. Ceviche is a much lighter option as the fish is served marinated with crunchy salad. The fish its self has a bit  of a kick, more than your usual sushi as it’s cured with lime juice, chilli and salt.

The exact history of Ceviche is still in debate with claims that it is Ecuadorian or even of Mexican origin either way it is extremely low in fat and high in protein – so pretty good for you! If you are thinking of giving this new delicacy a go at home then a word of warning from the experts not to use pre-frozen fish as it’s not suitable to be eaten raw!

If you want to stick to a safer option, and sample this new trend out then there are plenty of restaurants over the UK that are dishing it up. Check out the Blue Parrot Cantina in Edinburgh, The Club Bar and Dining Soho and Gaucho offers a wide range of Ceviche dishes.

Photo by ChazWags over on Flickr