Crisp Packet Has A New Look – Plus A Mini Guide To My New Favourite UK Island

Welcome to Crisp Packet, a weekly dispatch of sharply observed, hunger-driven lifestyle recommendations, shared like a torn-open bag of ready salted in the pub. Sign up here:

Crisp Packet has had a makeover. I wanted to do something fun to celebrate my first anniversary on Substack, and a new logo, header and homepage backdrop (designed within the constraints of Substack’s in-house tools!) felt like the right way to mark the occasion.

You might notice a faint folkloric thread running through the refresh. It’s a happy coincidence that we’ve all been bewitched by the solar eclipse this week and I’ve spent the last six days wandering among standing stones – more on that below – but the look is really a nod to my lifelong fascination with mysticism.

I wanted to lean into ideas of ritual, tradition and the unknown – things we experience when we gather around the table and when we travel. There’s a kind of alchemy in making a great restaurant (you can have all the right elements and fall flat) and a mystery in visiting one – will the experience match, surpass or defy expectations? Timelessness is key here too. Often, what makes a restaurant, destination, book or film memorable is its ability to transcend the moment. St John is still good for many of the same reasons it was when it opened in 1994.

Finally, the sun and moon are said to inspire creativity and curiosity – two qualities I hope to carry with me into year two of Crisp Packet. If you’re in the mood for something else celestial this weekend, Saatchi Gallery is hosting The Sun & The Moon until 8th September.

I hope you like the new look. I think we can all agree the logo looks much better than the ‘H’ in a crisp packet that I knocked up myself last year. On that note, I want to say a big thank you to my patient best pal Beto, who’s brought everything to life (drawing has never been my forte – I was even having to gesture over video call to show him how I wanted the hand to be positioned). The whole process has been a good nudge that making things with your friends is fun.

A reminder that Crisp Packet is about to go behind a partial paywall. It’s been so joyful to see my newsletter make #25 Rising in Culture and #30 Rising in the UK since I sent the announcement last week. Thank you to everyone who’s become a paid subscriber since then – truly, I appreciate it.

Since launching last August, I’ve been treating this weekly email with the same editorial care I’ve given to anywhere I’ve worked, spending at least a full day on each newsletter (my popular Greece guide took three). It’s been rewarding to see it steadily grow. I won’t be pulling the shutter down on all my work (and there will always be one completely free post each month), but paid subscribers will be able to read every single piece in its entirety, including every entry in a massive London restaurant guide I’ve been working on for the last few months (this will be published next Saturday morning). They will also get access to my Google Map, which is filled with hundreds of restaurants, museums, hotels and (crucially) coffee shops from around the world, complete with notes of what to order and see for each. Plus, all paid subscribers will be sent a free Crisp Packet sticker along with a link to the map at the end of the month.

If you’d like to subscribe, monthly subscriptions are £6 per month and yearly subscriptions £60 (which means you get two months free). To celebrate my one-year anniversary, anyone who subscribes during the month of August will get 30% off a yearly subscription (£42 – five months free). I’d love for you to join me…

It feels apt that I’ve spent this week on Lewis & Harris, an island that’s cloaked in ancient customs. I haven’t teased the trip until now, as I booked it as a surprise for my dad’s 70th birthday – and he’s a reader. My dad’s family is from the Isle of Skye and I’ve spent many happy summers and Hogmanays up there. But the pull of family ties and familiarity means none of us has made it to the Outer Hebrides until now. My poor dad had no idea where we were headed until an instruction to remove his travel adapter from his suitcase (and replace it with long trousers and a fleece) the day before we left tipped him off that we were staying in the UK. But it was still fun to see his face when he saw the ferry sign for Stornoway.

Despite the forecast being largely bleak and dreich since we arrived last Saturday afternoon, there have been moments of brightness where Lewis’s white sand beaches have shimmered in the sunshine. The rain and wind have been a shock after endless weeks of high English temperatures, but not an unwelcome one. If nothing else, they’ve given me plenty of chances to wear my new Damson Madder coat, which I’ve practically lived in.

On Wednesday, it was the solar eclipse. As Lewis is the most north-westerly point in the UK (the next country to the west is Canada), we were in a great spot to catch this once-in-a-generation celestial event. We decided to head to the Callanish standing stones (like Stonehenge, but even older) to soak up the ancient cosmic ritual. Alas, classic Scottish weather conspired against us and the entire sky was thick with cloud (see picture above, top left). You couldn’t even sense when it got darker. But it was still an experience – and we commiserated by eating a haggis and black pudding-topped pizza in the carpark, which we’d picked up from Crust on the way.

The island’s sandy beaches are wonders, whatever the weather. On Lewis, Uig Bay’s Ardroil beach is enormous, sweeping in and out of vast coves when the tide’s out. Gary, 25 minutes north of Stornoway, is another atmospheric beach, with a rusty peat-dyed river that flows into the sea and towering sea stacks that rise from the sand. At low tide, you can explore the mussel and sea anemone-lined caves below the stacks. On the west of Lewis, the drive to Mealasta bay is worth it for a beach blanketed in spiral-covered rocks instead of sand. Nearby Mangersta offers up-close views down to wave-covered sea stacks and – at clear moments – across to St Kilda in the distance. If you’re lucky, you might encounter some friendly and handsome highland cows.

Harris is another world. A 90-minute drive from where we were staying, its entrance is marked by a chain of mountains that we didn’t see on the way down, as they were shrouded in mist. Luskentyre’s crystal-blue waters make it the most famous beach on Harris. A couple of guidebooks warned us away from it, as it can become crowded in the summer, but we were some of the only people there. The boys loved searching for starfish in the rockpools almost as much as they loved the sand stacks at Seilebost, the next beach along. We walked up a couple of dunes and past a flock of sheep to see MacLeod’s Stone, a clifftop monolith that stands tall over nine beaches.

If you’re exploring Harris as part of a day trip, don’t be tempted to take the fastest route. The Golden Road, which runs down the east coast, is quiet and has atmosphere in spades thanks to its flat rocks and still pools that lend a moon-like quality to the landscape. We got lucky at the seal viewing point at Quidinish and saw ten of them basking on rocks. At the bottom of the island, St Clement’s Church is worth a stop. The medieval church is filled with symbolic stone carvings, including a sunbeam bursting into life above the tomb of the 8th chief of Clan MacLeod.

Across the week, we’ve eaten lightly-battered langoustines in hot buttered buns and lobster rolls at Croft 36 on Harris, Scotch pies paired with Irn Bru at the tip of the Butt of Lewis (the windiest point of the UK that gave us the sunniest moment of our trip) and steaming bowls of cullen skink at a museum café after a blustery walk. We’ve started long days with Stornoway black pudding in morning rolls. Uig Sands restaurant served excellent haddock and chips, and a plate of smoked salmon from next-door Uig Lodge smokehouse. And we’ve bought half a kilo of prawn tails from Islander Shellfish to throw into a pasta tonight.

I was planning to read John of John by Douglas Stuart while I was here (it’s set on Harris), but completely forgot to buy it at the airport. Luckily, our holiday home has shelves heaving with past Booker winners, so I’ve finally dived into Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead. I was gripped by page two. I found Hebrides House on Kip Hideaways. It overlooks the sweeping beaches of Uig (where the Lewis Chessmen, some of the stars of the British Museum, were found), it has an outdoor bath that gazes out to sea and the bathroom windows are all at eye level if you’re having a soak. It’s been perfect for eight of us, and my sister’s boys (aged five and seven) have loved watching the rams and rabbits just beyond the garden, and two pairs of eagles that like to circle above the sands. I’d recommend it if you’re a group or a couple, as you can hire the annex separately. It’s remote in the best possible way – and has a well-stocked community shop two minutes away.

Today is our last day on the island before my other half and I head to the northern tip of mainland Scotland, another part of the country I haven’t explored before. I’m hoping for more wet walks (the dreich forecast continues), some cold-water swimming, at least one macaroni pie and a few more chapters of my book in front of a fire before the week’s out…

Coming soon on Crisp Packet… My mega guide to London restaurants! And access to my Google Map, where you’ll be able to find all my worldwide recommendations!