With Christmas suddenly appearing in the headlights, New Year’s Eve is firmly on the horizon and most of us are starting to decided how and where to enjoy the festivities. Pubs and clubs tend to be overpriced and overrated when new year arrives, with many of us opting to either stay at home or enjoy an outdoor celebration such as that in London.
According to the BBC, this year is the first time that the London fireworks will be ticketed. The number of people watching will be limited to 100,000 owing to the strain on the city’s transport and infrastructure associated with such large number of people piling into the area. Tickets will be priced at £10 each, so while the cost of attending will be notably cheaper than you would pay to get into a venue, there is still a price tag associated.
Keeping Costs Down
To keep the costs down, many people will be cutting down on the amount they spend on food and alcohol for the evening. That doesn’t mean that you need to drink cheap plonk, a well chosen bottle of champagne or two can go a long way during an evening of celebration. Especially when well chilled and combined with classic picnic. Here’s what you will need for an evening of food, champagne and fireworks.
Ingredients
A well chilled bottle of bubbly. While it is crucial to choose a great bottle, bubbly doesn’t have to mean Champagne. To be called Champagne, a bottle of bubbly must be produced in the Champagne region following a rigidly defined production process. This of course means that other bottles of bubbly can be just as good, despite being produced elsewhere. For example, there are some great sparkling wines produced in New Zealand, and even English sparkling wines can be excellent.
The most important thing about bubbly is making sure that it is properly chilled. You will need to put it in the fridge for at least 12 hours before you go and then use a wine bottle cover to keep it chilled. If you’ve left it too late, chest coolers will chill it more quickly,
When it comes to picnic food, just remember that this is New Year’s Eve, it’s not just a random picnic in the park. Why not cook something special such as one of the best picnic recipes as recommended by the Guardian?
Do bear in mind though that much as you will wrap up warm and be surrounded by people, it is inevitably going to be a cold evening. So the thought of eating cold picnic food with your chilled champagne might not be too appealing when it comes down to it. It might be worth investing in a heatproof box and taking a hot meal with you, or even making a soup and taking it in a flask so that you can warm up when it starts to get a bit too chilly.