I remember my first espresso. I had just arrived in Milan in the December of 2013, a few days before Christmas. It was bitterly chilly, and was already late into the night when we stumbled into Pizzeria da Pino for dinner. (As a brief aside, their pizzas were a revelation to a 20-year-old young 'un, who had only just begun to realise how good pizza can be.) As we were finishing up our food, I struck up a conversation...

I’m a bit of a rube, because I learnt about high-grade balsamic vinegar only recently when a good friend brought over a bottle from Italy. Like wine, the best balsamic vinegars are aged for months to years, and go for quite a premium. Compared to their regular counterparts, aged balsamic vinegars are much more viscous, taste less sharp, and have a sweet pleasant aftertaste. Rather than being an accompaniment to...