ExplodingChef

2006-03-02T23:55:00.000Z

Exploding chef is resting. Take a trip to Nappy Mountain.

Nice. Honest.

2005-08-25T20:03:00.000Z

Ok, so this is probably very weird, but had forgotten how jolly nice scrambled eggs on toast was with a side order of Branston pickle. Before you accuse me of being all pregnancy cravings and such (which I've not had any of, before you ask), it's something I used to eat when I was small, and I've never grown out of it. Rather like peanut butter and banana sandwiches, and Marmite soldiers with boiled eggs. Which of course I fully intend to foist upon my darling offspring in about a year's time, so that I get the chance to eat them legitimately again...

Oh boy

2005-08-23T12:29:00.000Z

It would take me 3,549 cups of instant coffee to suffer death by overdose of caffeine...check out the damage at Energy Fiend. Worryingly, it only needs 644 cups of hot cocoa to have the same effect.

So is anyone actually cooking out there?

2005-08-14T18:37:00.000Z

Today's scary statistic (from the Observer Food Monthly magazine): 8% of meals are cooked from scratch at home each day. Apparently the UK spent £18 billion on convenience foods last year.

Maybe it's time to bring back rationing...

Invisible crusts

2005-08-12T15:57:00.000Z

Crustless bread? Whatever next? Surely that's the best bit?! Where would you be without the crispy bit round the edges when you make toast? Can you imagine a baguette without the crust? Sacrilege. These people must be stopped...

Food fight!

2005-08-11T09:02:00.000Z

There seems to be something of a bun fight going on in the world of pies - all about who can describe their pork pies as being "Melton Mowbray". More info at the excellent pie-man.com site. I can't claim extensive knowledge, so I might have to go out and buy a Melton Mowbray one, just to see. And eat it with Branston pickle, of course.

Miles of food

2005-08-03T07:51:00.000Z

The Guardian takes up the issue of food miles again, pointing out that not only is it almost impossible in a supermarket to work out where ingredients apart from fruit and veg are coming from (take muesli, for example) but also we're all travelling in our cars to get to said supermarket, and adding yet more food miles to the total. I have to admit I'm as guilty as anyone here - we try and shop locally for fruit and veg, and try and get meat from the farmers' market, but it's still Morrisons or Tesco that gets our custom for everything else. What's worse, Morrisons is about 8 minutes walk away...but I usually take the car because I can't carry everything back. I know I've got a good excuse (being pregnant sometimes comes in handy), but it doesn't stop you feeling any less guilty...

Monstrous, I tell you

2005-07-29T16:00:00.000Z

Have just finished eating the world's most mammoth chicken, bacon and advocado club sandwich at Belle & Herbs (on Heaton Road in Newcastle, for those of you who are interested - thoroughly recommended for the homemadeness and the very good smoothies). Could get to like this being on maternity leave and popping out for lunch business...horror of horrors, could I be turning into a 'lady who lunches'? Mind, I don't really have the handbags or gold sandals to really do justice to the stereotype.

Actually, the other good thing about being at home and having cable is being able to watch all the cookery programmes that are on (UKTV Food has a lot to answer for). Mind, I had to turn off the River Cafe Cookbook as Rose Grey and Ruth Rodgers were driving me up the wall - they are just so patronising. The food looks amazing, and I'd love to eat in their restaurant, but as tv presenters they really need to lighten up.

Olive oil

2005-07-28T08:28:00.000Z

ok, ok, so I've not been around for a while. Can't even use the excuse of a new baby - it's not due for another 5 weeks (and counting...). But I'm back (for a short while anyway, until the lack of sleep kicks in).

And to kick off with, an interesting article in the Guardian, on how the British have become a nation of olive oil lovers. Never knew Crisp and Dry was such a big thing in the 70s though - I may have missed out there. Mum wasn't big on fried stuff - chips were strictly cooked in the oven, and we didn't have a deep fat fryer.

The food mountain

2005-04-14T12:30:00.000Z

Not only do we buy crap, but then we don't get round to eating it - about a third of food in the UK gets chucked out each year, costing each adult £420. Whatever happened to making things from leftovers? (We just don't eat enough soup, obviously...)

Mind, it's all very well Lord Haskins complaining that we're obsessed with sell-by dates "so that we throw away perfectly good food which happens to be out of code". He should try being pregnant and being bombarded with information about what you should and shouldn't eat, and how not to go near anything that may have been out of the fridge longer than 10 minutes or something that's a second past its sell-by date. It's enough to drive you to distraction.

No more cookies...

2005-04-12T15:02:00.000Z

Just as I'm getting larger and larger, it seems like the whole world is going on a diet - even the Cookie Monster is giving up cookies in favour of fruit and veg.

Feed me better (2)

2005-04-06T11:26:00.000Z

Ok, an update on school dinners so far...

Ruth Kelly (education secretary) announced an extra £280 million for school dinners, which comes to at least 50p in ingredients per day for primary school kids and 60p per day for secondary. Hey, now they're getting the same as the Army dogs!
The BBC had a look at school dinners around the world - not surprisingly, French and Norwegian kids eat well, and the Americans are probably even worse off then we are.
Now we can get really worried, and look at what children in nurseries are eating (and the prospect here is even scarier, as they're often getting breakfast, lunch and tea.

On a completely different tack, square tins. Yes, square tins. Very pretty. Call me old fashioned, but I rather liked the old ones.

And for the ultimate in Japanese food, take a look at these guys. Never knew that sumo wrestlers were such chefs.

Feed me better

2005-03-23T12:44:00.000Z

Ok, ok, I know I haven't posted anything for ages. But I do have a good excuse - there's something about being pregnant and throwing up/feeling queasy all the time that really puts you off thinking about/writing about/eating food. But hey, there's light at the end of the tunnel. Now I've got rid of the super-nasty metallic taste in my mouth, and the need to heave over toilet bowls, I'm feeling up to thinking about food again. Which is a good job, as lots seems to have happened while I've been away.

Now I don't know if future sprog is influencing my thinking at all, but I've been totally engrossed in the Jamie Oliver series, Jamie's School Dinners. And completely appalled at what we seem to be feeding children, and at what cost - 37p (apparently the Army spends more on feeding their dogs, at 50p a time). So it's not surprising to see that what the kids get looks like dog food, and probably tastes like it too. They've even stamped it into pretty shapes for them, like we do with dog biscuits.

Because of the hoo-ha, the government's actually decided to do something, albeit several years too late. But it's not nearly enough. Sign up to the Feed Me Better campaign now. When my kid gets to going to school or nursery I don't want it to be eating that crap. Yours shouldn't have to either.

Worcester sauce

2005-02-23T14:30:00.000Z

Phew. Worcestershire sauce is fine. Luckily, it seems to have escaped the whole furore about the Sudan 1 dye, which for those of you who don't know, is a red dye most commonly used in shoe and floor polish. Somehow, it's ended up in a batch of chilli powder, which was used by a company called Premier Foods to make a batch of Worcester sauce. That sauce was, in turn, used in all sorts of ready meals and convenience foods, for all the major supermarkets and manufacturers. It's carcinogenic in rats, so as a precaution thousands of products are being recalled and removed from the shelves. If ever there was a story to encourage people to make their own food from their own raw ingredients, that's the one.

As you may imagine, it's all over the newspapers, in various forms. The Guardian has an interesting article on how so many ready meals have been affected, because different supermarket brands all come from the same supplier. The Daily Mail points out that it's spread to school meals, and the Times that it's spread to some NHS wards. It all just goes to show how little cooking takes place anywhere these days - it's all reheated gloop which has been mass-processed in factories. And they wonder why, with people full of E-numbers, sugars, salts, additives and shoe polish dyes that the health of the population is going downhill.

Rant over. Back to my cheese on toast with Worcestershire sauce...

Chips chips chips chips

2005-02-17T12:58:00.000Z

If you fancy a few chips, get yourselves down to Plymouth, where a mad fish fryer, inspired by Ellen MacArthur, is going to attempt to make the world's biggest bag of chips. But if it's going to take 12 hours to cook them all, doesn't that mean that the first ones will be pretty soggy by that point? And there's nothing worse than greasy stone cold chips, that's for sure. Not even tomato ketchup will cover that one up.

Long time no see

2005-02-16T10:44:00.000Z

Well, you know how it is. One thing leads to another, and then you realise that you haven't updated the blog for a couple of weeks at least. It's been nice to have a break actually from the tyranny of thinking up food-related things. Not that I don't like posting. It's just that some days come easier than others.

Speaking of things that you haven't seen for a long time, I discovered one of the massive Channel 4 billboard posters for Green Wing on a streetcorner in Newcastle (for those of you who are interested, on the corner of the Haymarket and Leazes Arcade). I thought all those had vanished long ago. I keep meaning to go and take a photo and post it, but by the time I get round to doing so, it'll have disappeared, knowing my luck.

Anyway, here's today's food-related news:

A cheese firm in Yorkshire wants to keep making feta. The EU seems to think it should relocate to Greece. I suspect the weather's rather better there than it is in Thirsk.

I was also going to direct you to the rather wonderful website of California Tomatoes, but they seem to be in the middle of a redesign. Shame. It's not often you get to see an entire site just devoted to one vegetable.

Doesn't time fly...

2005-02-01T20:22:00.000Z

February. How the hell did it get to be February without me noticing? Next thing you know people will be telling me it's May and time to take off your vest. Or that Halloween is just round the corner or something. But yes, where is the year going to? Either the New Year hangover has lasted a very long time, or I've been missing something.

I suppose the good thing about February (apart from the mad delusional day that is Valentine's day) is that it'll be pancake day soon. Yay. Time to get out the Jif lemon and brown sugar, and get flipping. Although my pancakes will never be as good as the crepes we had in Paris one February, spread with chocolate sauce (ok, Nutella) and munched as we walked down the Champs Elysees. It's a bit hard to recreate that in Newcastle...

Haggis update

2005-01-28T13:46:00.000Z

No pictures of the haggis - sorry. I clean forgot. But it did taste rather good - if you bake them in the oven for an hour, wrapped up in foil, they go all crispy inside (as opposed to the slightly watery version you get if you boil them). Ooh, and crannachan wasn't bad either - a bit chewy with all that pinhead oatmeal (and incredibly filling), but the raspberries worked their magic. But the star of the evening was a haggis, tatties and neaps pie, from a Yorkshire company called I's Pies. A complete dinner all in one dish. How cool is that?

Anyway, for my next trick, I'm going to have to try this recipe from Who Wants Seconds? - Puy lentil salad with feta cheese. Sounds lovely, and again, I'm seduced by the pictures. Must stop drooling. Although the burgers are calling from today's Times...maybe the two together in a pitta bread?

25th January=Burns Night

2005-01-25T13:45:00.000Z

=haggis! (Although, sadly not a Macsween one this year.) And neaps, tatties and the rest of the works too, of course. And probably some whisky somewhere along the line, I would guess. Tonight I'm also going to try out crannachan for pudding for the first time. It sounds a doddle. Anything that involves blending a few raspberries and whipping a bit of cream can't be that hard. Will report back later (maybe even with some photos, if you're lucky).

Ooh, I could crush a grape

2005-01-21T13:08:00.000Z

If you've ever fancied having tea with Stu Francis (special requirements: a bunch of grapes - this'll mean nothing to you unless you were a child of the 1970s and watched Crackerjack), then check out Supper with the Stars. Can't quite work out if this is a piss take or not, but if it isn't, I'd love to know how much they charge...

Oh, and while you're about it, have a look at the Hitman website. Absolutely nothing to do with food (although I guess it could come in handy if you had a terrible meal out somewhere and wanted revenge...), but ridiculously funny.

Water water everywhere...

2005-01-19T13:53:00.000Z

Can you believe we spend £1bn a year in this country on bottled water? When you can get it free (well, apart from your water rates, that is) from the tap. And for all those of you complaining about the stuff in tap water, you can always go and buy a water filter. It's still a damn sight cheaper than Volvic.

Oh, and on a GW-related note, February 2006. FEBRUARY 2006. It's just not fair...

Pegg on the brain

2005-01-17T13:22:00.000Z

I made muffins yesterday - carrot, walnut and marmalade muffins to be precise. Don't worry, they taste far better than they sound. They even have raisins in and everything. But now I have the line that Simon Pegg says in Black Books in my head - you know, the bit in series three where he's the evil bookshop owner welcoming Bill Bailey to his new job and telling him he's a valued staff member - "Muffins are for customers". If you say it fast, and in an evil tone of voice, you'll be just about right. You have to imagine the look of panic on Bill Bailey's face too. And I definitely want one of those rotating muffin machines, that looks suspiciously like an automatic cd rack. Would look fantastic on my desk at work...

Exorbitant beans

2005-01-14T13:20:00.000Z

Jamie Oliver's in trouble for charging £7 for a dish of baked beans on toast, which used to be served at his restaurant in London, Fifteen. OK, so it was ciabatta bread, and olive oil, parmesan and rocket were mixed in with the baked beans, but £7? £7?? Just goes to show you Londoners really will pay anything...if you tried that in Newcastle you'd get laughed out of town.

In other news, not content with the Virgin Mary's picture on a toasted cheese sandwich, a bar manager in Switzerland is trying to convince people that he's got an oyster shell with Jesus' face on it. Whatever next? Answers on a postcard, please.

Ooh, and before I forget, here's 100 things we didn't know this time last year. Aside from a group of rhinos being called a "crash", I particularly like the fact that herrings "break wind to communicate and keep the school together".

Toast. And Marmite.

2005-01-12T13:46:00.000Z

I'll start off in a vaguely intellectual manner (as opposed to my usual meanderings), with a startling fact that I heard on the Radio 4 Today programme yesterday morning. Apparently, honey has now overtaken marmalade as the spread of choice at breakfast. More money is now spent on honey of various types than all the thin shred, thick cut and Dundee marmalade put together. What, not everyone eats Marmite first thing in a morning? I thought it was obligatory? Ever since I was small I've had Marmite on my toast. Every day at university I used to line up in the breakfast queue, clutching my Marmite jar (and I wasn't the only one) to spread on the beautifully lukewarm toast that Mary the Toast Dragon doled out (two slices if you were lucky, three if you smiled and four if you were over 6ft tall and played rugby). And it's continued ever since (although, obviously, I don't have Mary the Toast Dragon in my kitchen supplying lukewarm toast anymore. Which is probably a good thing). Even my cat likes the corner of the toast with a bit of Marmite on. What's wrong with you people?

Sage (Parsley, Rosemary and Thyme)

2005-01-09T17:05:00.000Z

Lunch at the Sage Gateshead cafe today - they make a storming carrot and orange soup, and a pretty good hot chocolate. It's expensive of course, but you're partly paying for the ambience, the magnificent building, and some fantastic views across the river Tyne to Newcastle city centre. Definitely worth it.

Bits and pieces

2005-01-07T13:07:00.000Z

Some links for you to have a look at. Was going to do the usual cynical comments, but I'm knackered, stuck at work and fed up with proofreading. I'm afraid cynicism has turned to aggression, and I can shout at the screen a lot if you like... Anyway, here goes:

Some pictures of lovely lovely airline food
A weblog about cafes, and more specifically eggs, chips and beans
Vests. Apparently they are the new hip thing for men. Don't laugh. Tony Blair was spotted wearing one this week.

I thank you.

Good intentions

2005-01-05T13:18:00.000Z

For those of you on a detox, here's how to create smoothies, with some very good tips. I especially like the one about using frozen fruit to make the smoothie creamier...it all sounds a doddle. Which is a very good thing, as we're about to buy a blender and try this out for ourselves. Doddles I thoroughly approve of. Fiddly, finicky stuff (cleaning a juicer, any Gary Rhodes recipes, stuffing walnuts) I can't be arsed with.

Clammy

2005-01-04T19:08:00.000Z

I'm sat here looking at the Olive calendar, which has clams with linguine as the main picture/recipe for January. I don't even like clams, and it's making me hungry. See, food porn. It gets everywhere, when you least expect it. One minute you're happily typing away, thinking of nothing in particular, the next you're thinking the clams look particularly fantastic, and wouldn't it just be good to try one. That way lies the slippery slope...

I know I keep referencing the wonderful Nigel Slater, but I just had to link to his latest set of recipes for porridge. He really is a man after my own heart. You can't beat a steaming bowlful of porridge for breakfast - I like mine with raisins in, and drizzled with a little bit of honey. Fab.

Happy New Year!

2005-01-01T21:42:00.000Z

Having finally taken off my invisible hangover hat, I'm feeling much better. Blame curry, slightly too much alcohol, and dancing til 3.30am. I was fine this morning as well, only to slump badly at around 4pm. Ah well. Not enough bacon and eggs (whatever anyone says, the best hangover cure around).

So it's 2005. I've not made any resolutions, as I'm resolutely crap at keeping them. Yes, I do want to try and cook some more adventurous stuff from some of the millions of recipe books I have, but then I keep trying to remind myself of that every couple of months anyway. All I do know, is that there will definitely be more pies...and several more blog posts.

Mmmm

2004-12-30T23:50:00.000Z

Chickpeas, chorizo, spinach and grated egg. Not necessarily four things that you'd think of in one recipe, but they go surprisingly well together in soup. Even if it does look a little brown and lumpy. Today's adventures in the culinary field otherwise known as my kitchen came from the new Jamie Oliver book. The name escapes me, and I can't be bothered to google it as it's late, and I'm lazy and rather full of soup. Lots of pretty photographs of food, anyway. I have to admit I'm a sucker for the food porn. It's much harder to read a recipe and decide if you want to cook it or not if it's in a book without pictures.

Anyway, it's late, and it's time to extract the cat from the wardrobe, where she has taken up residence on a pile of my pants, for some reason best known to herself. Toodleoo.

Pie

2004-12-29T19:05:00.000Z

A steak in ale pie is bubbling away in the oven as we speak. Well, it's cold and dark and wet outside here in the frozen north, so I feel the need for a bit of comfort food. And we got given a couple of bottles of ale for Christmas which neither of us really drinks...

I'm full

2004-12-28T19:02:00.000Z

Phew. The Christmas eating marathon ended yesterday, with a celebratory last meal of a few pints of cider and a takeaway pizza in front of Tomb Raider (a film which can only be watched while reasonably drunk - sorry, fellow Dr Mac/JRT fans, but it is terrible, albeit in a kind of fun way). From now on, it's back to normal food. No more turkey (although if you do have any left, you could do worse than take the advice of Nigel Slater, bless him, who recommends turkey sandwiches and an episode of Green Wing).

No, from now on, it's detox (until New Year's Eve of course, which will no doubt end up involving a bowl of chips and cocktails (preferably several vodka, raspberry and basil ones) in Popolos). Roll on the New Year!

The Paper Dress

2004-12-24T18:00:00.000Z

The Paper Dress
Originally uploaded by rachc.

Merry Christmas! And in a spirit of giving and all that, I give you the rather wonderful paper dress ad that appeared on my calendar in November. Marvellous. It would definitely make me buy more pies, that's for sure.

Potted Meat

2004-12-24T13:57:00.000Z

Worth it for the picture of the Goblin meat pudding alone, you should definitely visit the Potted Meat Museum. They even have a picture of a Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie. Now that's devoted research (just don't ever eat them, as they are truly awful. Review coming soon on www.pie-man.com).

Buns

2004-12-23T22:01:00.000Z

I've just finished watching the completely mad and very scary Fanny Cradock making choux pastry for Christmas. If you liked burnt choux pastry buns (a la Julia Child), filled with dayglo yellow 'confectioner's custard' and topped with about 4 inches of pink icing, you were clearly onto a winner in 1975. Yeeuccch. Quite how we managed to survive the 1970s I really don't know.

Green Wing didn't win anything at the British Comedy Awards last night. Boo Hiss. I think the great British public should be forced to eat Fanny's choux buns until they come to their senses. That'll show them.

Don't be silly

2004-12-22T13:52:00.000Z

Culinary trends that Never Quite Caught On made me laugh quite a lot and upset the peace and quiet of the office.

Hurrah!

2004-12-21T09:02:00.000Z

Delia Smith has announced that she's hanging up her apron, and not making any more tv shows, which can only be a good thing from my point of view. I know people think she's amazing (and her recipes are certainly not bad at all - my Mum swears by some of the Christmas ones, as does half the country by all accounts), but I really don't get on with her tv persona - she's too patronising by half. I had to turn off How to Cook, as it drove me up the wall. But then a lot of tv cookery programmes are like that, I'm afraid. I love Nigella Lawson's recipes (Domestic Goddess is one of the best baking books there is), but I can't stand her show. The only one who does match up in print and on the telly is Nigel Slater. But then he is the kitchen god, after all.

It's open!

2004-12-18T19:09:00.000Z

On a completely non-food tack, if you're ever in Newcastle, definitely go see the Sage Gateshead, which opened yesterday. We went to a 'tuning' concert last week, where they were setting the acoustics for the main hall, and it's just amazing. The interior of the building is like some glorious ocean liner, all clean lines and curves. And then you get inside the main concert hall, to discover blond wood panelling, a ceiling that moves up and down 10m, and one of the best sound systems in the country. I think they've probably removed the rules that said we had to wear blue overshoes so as not to mess up the carpets now though. Which is probably a good thing.

What a smell...

2004-12-18T19:02:00.000Z

The world's most expensive truffle has been buried in Italy. Apparently it went off, while on display at a restaurant in London. Wonder who got the sack over that one then? Especially as it cost a cool $54,000. I've not really ever properly tried truffles (apart from the chocolate variety, obviously). Are good ones all they're cracked up to be?

Ow

2004-12-16T22:11:00.000Z

When it comes to the morning after the night before, Gordon Ramsay's got it all wrong. The last thing I felt like on Tuesday morning after the work Christmas party was haddock kedgeree. I don't think carrot and ginger soup would have gone down very well either. What's wrong with lots of strong coffee and a piece of flapjack?

Lost.

2004-12-15T13:50:00.000Z

All those of you who turn up here looking for PIE, otherwise known as the people who make possibly the best pies in the whole world, I don't know where they've gone either. They used to be at www.wearepie.co.uk, but the site seems to have disappeared. I hope they're ok - the Big Chill 2005 won't be the same without them... If you do know, then please get in touch.

And for some of you other people who arrive via google, I'm a bit worried. Considering your search terms include underwear (eh? on a foodie site?) I'm not sure I want to know where you've been...

Milky milky

2004-12-14T13:59:00.000Z

It's horrifying what they're subjecting schoolkids to for lunch these days. Mind, we had to put up with warm milk at breaktime and spotted dick for pud, but at least it came relatively additive free.

Last night's work Christmas party (an Elizabethan banquet at Lumley Castle) was an eyeopener. Never tried eating fish pie with a dagger before...

Oof.

2004-12-12T21:02:00.000Z

pie_boxes
Originally uploaded by rachc.

I am Far Too Full. The nice people at pieminister sent us a huge box of pies (14 in all) to review for pie-man.com, and we've just munched our way through all of them. Here's the boxes in a lovely upside down pyramid shape, courtesy of Rob. Detailed reviews to follow shortly, but they were pretty damn good.

So there.

2004-12-11T16:48:00.000Z

Clementines are a-boiling for Nigella's clementine and chocolate cake as we speak. And the flapjack's in the oven. See how I bake. Bakey, bakey, bakey. That'll teach you, WI people.

Half-baked

2004-12-09T13:50:00.000Z

My local newspaper is bemoaning the fact that young women don't bake any more. Well I'm sorry, but we do. I made a batch of flapjack just last week, and on Saturday I'm baking Ian a rather belated birthday cake (which in theory's going to be Nigella Lawson's clementine and chocolate concoction...). And I suspect there are more of us out there, who'd chuck a pie together for tea or maybe sling a few biscuits in the oven.

But what we don't have time to do is bake in any quantity - certainly I wouldn't produce enough to sell on a market stall. It's something that I'd love to do, but there just isn't the time, what with having a full time job, freelance work, running www.pie-man.com and ooh, yes, somehow trying to shoehorn in a bit of a social life as well. It's all very well saying that today's generation don't bake, knit (although knitchicks may not agree...) or sew, but then we don't tend to have the time to be able to do that. It's not that we don't want to, just that we have to concentrate on the day job first, seeing as that's what's paying the mortgage and buying the ingredients.

Is romance dead?

2004-12-08T14:13:00.000Z

Not content with the delights of German supermarket dating, fast food speed dating has been unleashed on an unsuspecting world. It's being touted by Burger King as the latest thing to do in London, and will be rolled out to the poor unfortunates in Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Bristol if it's successful. Thankfully, Newcastle seems to have escaped their notice. Whatever happened to the idea of going out for a romantic meal, a picnic, or even fish and chips in a steamed-up car overlooking a windswept beach? (not that that's my favourite or anything...)

Nice weather for ducks

2004-12-06T23:52:00.000Z

Mog and Pippa got married yesterday, surrounded by smiling faces and a few tears, accompanied by Yorkshire pudding, stilton, champagne, chocolate cake and Lemon Jelly. It was a good combination.

Popeye would love this

2004-12-06T23:51:00.000Z

It's good to see that newspapers get it wrong too - here's The Observer's account of why you don't need 6kg of spinach to make turkey with spinach stuffing. Very good. I like it when people own up to getting it completely and utterly wrong, and do it in an amusing manner. But much though I love spinach, I think I'll be giving the stuffing a miss...

Foodie goodie

2004-12-03T13:52:00.000Z

Having trekked round the BBC Good Food Show last weekend, I can safely say that there are more than enough olive oil sellers in this country for us to be drowned in a tidal wave of the stuff if all their bottles ever broke at once. Which they wouldn't of course, unless it got so hot that all the glass melted. In which case we'd have far bigger things to worry about. Anyway, my point is that if you're thinking about setting up a business making and selling flavoured oils then don't. There's hundreds of them out there already, and I'm not sure the country can really take that much chilli and rosemary olive oil with garlic dipping sauce.

Other things to avoid selling - strange mops, odd machines for chopping garlic (what's wrong with bashing it with a knife like everyone else?) steam cleaners (particularly if you demonstrate them while wielding a fag and looking extremely disgruntled), and gourmet chutney of any variety. Take it from me, someone's got there first. Oddly, there were hardly any pie sellers, apart from the rather wonderful Lime Tree Pantry whose Christmas mince pies were pretty fantastic. Look out for a review of their steak and kidney pie on www.pie-man.com soon...

Oh, and never ever attempt to try and eat the hottest chilli sauce in the world. It's quite warm.

Travels

2004-12-01T23:17:00.000Z

Me no postie for a while. Sorry. Spent most of the last couple of days on trains courtesy of GNER on my way to and from the big smoke. It's big, smoky, and as ever freakily exciting, and I'm not sure why. First trip in a taxi this time too which again raised excitement to fever pitch. Not that we don't have taxis oop north, you understand. It's just that when you only ever get the tube and pop up at random intervals at stations across London it's a bit of a novelty to see what's going on and catch some scenery.

I have to say though, that I'm glad I live in the sticks (if urban Newcastle ever qualifies as that). I can't believe how much you Londoners get ripped off. Take the drinks at the hotel I was staying at, for example - £6 for a vodka and lemondade and £10 for a glass of wine - or the overpriced (and lack-lustre) 'Persian' meal I had at a place just outside Olympia. I know I was staying in Kensington, but even so...

Rant over for the moment. More to follow soon...

Cheese

2004-11-26T13:16:00.000Z

This whole grilled cheese sandwich phenomenon is beyond me. I love cheese on toast or toasted sarnies as much as the next girl (if not more), but why would anyone pay $28,000 for a ten-year-old one, even if it does have a vague image that may or may not look like the Virgin Mary on it? It's all getting a bit out of hand - if you search on eBay for grilled cheese now, you come up with Virgin Mary grilled cheese memorabilia (framed print anyone?), cds of original music inspired by the grilled cheese phenomenon, fresh grilled cheese sandwiches blessed by a priest, and more t-shirts than you can shake a stick at. Weird. Somebody somewhere is making a fortune out of all this...

Returning to the slightly more real world, the Vieux Boulogne has been named the world's smelliest cheese. Can't say I've ever tried it, but next time I'm in France I'll definitely try and sniff one out (sorry, never could resist bad puns. Blame the editor in me...)

Yo-yos

2004-11-25T16:29:00.000Z

You've probably seen this before, but I've only just discovered this wondrous gadget - the ice-cream making yoyo. Fantastic. Finally, there is some point to spending hours flinging a yoyo around (for the record, I've never been able to make it go upside down and do fancy tricks. It always ends in tangled string, much swearing, and throwing down in disgust until the next time).

Which reminds me - do you remember those lovely green minty chocolate biscuits, which in the dim recesses of my memory I think were also called yo-yos? The nice people at Nicecupofteaandasitdown.com don't have anything on this, so I can't corroborate it. The biscuits themselves weren't green, I hasten to add. It was just a greeny-silvery foil cover that you could peel off, smooth out, and then stick in your scrapbook, if you were a sad child of the 1970s. I think the silver foil was probably better than the biscuit, but wasn't that always the way? No, obviously just in my head then.

Oldie

2004-11-23T13:03:00.000Z

I've decided that I like birthdays. Especially when they involve scallops and lobster. We should definitely have more of them...although that would make me older quicker, which I'm not too sure about. It's bizarre enough being a thirtysomething without my age increasing any faster. I can't even remember how old I am when people ask (my guess of 26 last time was unfortunately a bit out - you feel like such a twit if you get it wrong).

Back in the world of food, today's big news seems to be that chocolate could be a cure for coughs. There's no limit to the excuses we can come up with to eat this stuff...hurrah!

Brekkers

2004-11-22T13:45:00.000Z

Bored with Rice Krispies? Fed up with toast? Well, head on over to Mr Breakfast, and he'll sort you out with some marvellous ideas for what to have first thing in the morning. He's a little heavy on the egg and waffle recipes, but his guide to breakfast in bed makes great reading (Rob, if you're watching, please take note!).

Mind, I have to say that wonderful though the institution of breakfast is, it's one that I have less and less time for. I'd love to boil an egg and sit there with my marmite soldiers of a morning, but more often than not it's a four-minute bowl of cereal, before legging it to work. It's that age-old dilemma - more time in bed asleep, or more time eating? I think the sleep wins.

Maximus

2004-11-19T17:03:00.000Z

Now that's what I call a good bottle of wine...although at my current rate of consumption of about 2 glasses a week, it would take me 11.5 years to get through it all. By which time it would taste particularly disgusting.

Bovine bovril is no more

2004-11-19T13:45:00.000Z

Hot off the presses from Staffordshire comes news that Bovril is to no longer be made from beef stock - it's being replaced with a "savoury yeast mix". Mmmm. Sounds tasty. In fact about as tasty as drinking Marmite. I never could fathom the delights of drinking Bovril - it's probably one of those things that you have to be brought up on to find nice (like chicken dripping on toast, for example, which Rob loves, and which just finds me making puking noises round the kitchen whenever he has it).

Equally revolting is the new superburger introduced by Hardee's in the US - it weighs in at 1,420 calories, 107g of fat and just over $5 in price. Probably hardens your arteries in seconds, and makes a Big Mac look like child's play...

I think I know what I'll be going for when I'm out on the toon tonight. And it won't be anything beef-related.

Pasty!

2004-11-18T14:06:00.000Z

Did you know Cornish pasties were first heard of in the 13th century? No, neither did I. It's amazing what you can find out there on the internet, armed with a history degree and a desire to compile useless trivia. I knew that degree would come in handy for something at some point. Anyway, back to the pasties. Apparently they have a long and illustrious history - it's just a shame that Ginsters had to then go and spoil it for everyone, by populating every motorway service station, garage and supermarket with their evil wares.

We love lard

2004-11-16T13:45:00.000Z

Apparently, we are facing a national, nay European-wide, shortage of lard. It's all the fault of those nasty Polish and Hungarian chaps - according to the BBC, they've been buying up all the cheap cuts of pork in Europe to make sausages and salami, so there's nothing left for us British lard-lovers. Rationing's already started - Somerfield have been forced to limit the number of tubs on sale in their stores. I foresee panic buying from cross-channel swimmers as we speak.

Oh sweetie

2004-11-15T13:01:00.000Z

After a nine-hour trip home from the depths of West Sussex (we really appreciated the M25 detour via Sutton, Cheam, Croydon and Bromley), I've now decided never to get in a car again. Ever. Until the next time. Even the car trip sweeties soon lost their appeal - the delights of dolly mixtures jelly babies and pink shrimps (curiously described as being made of 'foam') can only tempt you for so long. And after a four-hour sugar rush of wide-eyed staring at the oncoming traffic, somehow you start to look at them in a different light...

Wodka

2004-11-12T13:42:00.000Z

Did you know, that if you filter cheap and nasty vodka through a Brita water filter a few times it ends up tasting quite good? No, neither did I. *drawls* Whatever will these science boffins come up with next? So that's me down to Morrisons for a bottle of Morinov then.

No Green Wing DVD until August next year, according to the lovely James Henry's blog. Boo hiss.

Would like to meet

2004-11-11T17:28:00.000Z

Walmart's special singles nights at its supermarkets in Germany are proving to be a roaring success. You're issued with a bright red bow on your trolley, given sparkling wine and oysters to get you in the mood, and then have your photo taken (presumably to put on that manky adverts board which all supermarkets seem to have - that one at the back of the store with second-hand sofas, kittens and Gameboys for sale...). And with participants like this, ladies, you'd better start buying your air tickets straightaway: "I first tried out discotheques, but that did not work," said Mr. Semprich. "First of all, when you see some of the women again in daylight, I sometimes almost fainted. No, this here is much better. It is a natural, relaxed atmosphere. And besides, I can also save money. The milk is cheaper than in any other store." How can any girl resist?

Nice...

2004-11-11T13:49:00.000Z

How to immediately put someone off their breakfast - if you read Stuart Jeffries' Shanghai account of eating snake and roasted duck heads and avoiding the dog hotpot at the same time as eating your shredded wheat, you might start turning a funny shade of green...

Words words words

2004-11-10T13:56:00.000Z

It's absolutely fascinating looking at the keywords that people use in google et al before they end up on this site - in descending order, the top ones at the moment are: recipe jamie oliver nigella tunnocks pie newcastle bolognese lamb lawson minestrone cakes exploding sweet zizzis chef onions showpiece redcurrant kitchen sauce green baked wing sugar recipes. It's good to see (a) that the cult of celebrity chefdom isn't dead (no Delia though?) and (b) that people share my obsession with Tunnocks teacakes and Green Wing (no Julian Rhind-Tutt fans yet though). I'm a little puzzled by the redcurrants, mind.

Ooooh. Aaaaah.

2004-11-09T17:03:00.000Z

Off to a fireworks party tonight - and yes I do know that it's the 9th of November, and not the 5th. We're just a bit behind in the North East, and working to our own dates. There's the Julian calendar, Gregorian calendar, and the Geordie calendar... Anyway, I'm looking forward to the traditional oohs, aahs, cricked neck and damp patch down the front of my coat where I spill my drink when the bangers make me jump.

I tried looking for good fireworks cake recipes, in the vain hope that I might actually have time to bake one, and look like some sort of domestic goddess when I got to the party. Well, it's not to be. I was a bit stymied by the fact that a 'fireworks cake' seems to be some sort of technical term, and Google returned about 219,000 pages dealing with Chinese firecrackers and the like... If you didn't know already, pop pickers, a fireworks cake is "an assembly of tubes, usually single-shot Roman Candles, fused together to fire in rapid sequence.". Don't say I didn't warn you.

Vain hopes

2004-11-08T13:36:00.000Z

French women don't get fat because (a) they are vain (b) 76% of French people eat meals they have prepared at home and (c) they eat less. The Observer Food Monthly article's a bit longer than that, but essentially that's the conclusion it's coming to. I have to say, I suspect English women are every bit as vain as the French - I blame the difference on the ready meal syndrome over here, and the fact that quantity and value for money are always far higher up in everyone's minds than quality. And the fact we eat crap milky chocolate really can't help.

The postal service is clearly using carrier pigeons, Concorde, Harry Potter owl post or small green pixies for its deliveries at the moment - my latest order from Amazon arrived this morning. Considering it was supersaver slow delivery and was ordered on Friday night, that's definitely suspicious. If anyone saw Hedwig flying over the area last night, would they please let me know.

Random mishaps (2)

2004-11-07T09:45:00.000Z

The strangeness and unpredictable feline actions continue...my random week got even worse when I managed to leave my swimming cozzie in the shower at the swimming pool on Tuesday, and then embarrassingly had to ring up and see if it was in lost property. If you're ever in the same situation, it always helps if you can remember the colour and make - two things I managed to burble my way through and then realise that I'd given completely the wrong information. I then managed to refil the dishwasher salt dispenser on Wednesday and leave the top off, with the result that I had a beautifully clean and wonderfully salty set of plates, knives and forks (not really recommended). Yesterday the cat weighed in with her contribution again, and managed to get into (and eat a fair amount of) a cling-film wrapped ball of farmers' market mince, that was defrosting on the work surface in the kitchen. She's got taste, that cat.

I'm glad it's not only me who does this sort of rubbish though. Take a look at waiter rant (I particularly like some of the really dumb customer sayings...). I guarantee you'll be terrified the next time you go in a restaurant.

Welcome to the future

2004-11-02T19:55:00.002Z

It's an odd week for random mishaps. Yesterday the cat decided to chew through the cable of the brand new phone charger that Rob had got with his phone the day before, leaving two severed pieces snaking across the floor. She had the gall to look very smug too. Although she's been told that if she does it again she'll be stuffed... Today's mishap was mine - I took Rob to the garage to put the car battery back in the van, said goodbye, and then drove off with the battery still in the boot. To make it even better, my phone was switched to silent, so I couldn't hear his increasingly frantic phone calls as I drove off down the road (the prospect of a 45 minute walk to work through Byker wasn't an enticing one). I feel like I'm living in some kind of mad sit com - what with the unpredictable feline, disappearing car batteries and an increasingly surreal line in pie queries (squirrel pie anyone?) it's all getting a bit strange.

Back in the normal world of food, schools are going to serve retro dinners, and Welcome to the Retro Future debates the delights of 1960s space food. Weren't we all supposed to be eating little pills, or transmogrifying particles into fish and chips by this point? Or have I just seen one too many episodes of Star Trek?

ovenpies

2004-11-01T20:11:00.000Z

ovenpies Originally uploaded by rachc.

If anyone works out a way to stop their glasses steaming up as soon as they open the oven door, leaving me groping around in a fog, would they please let me know....

Crumble

2004-10-31T19:12:00.000Z

My friend Graham was enthusing about the joys of crumble the other week. Obviously it's not as good as pie (that goes without saying), but you can't beat a good crumble with custard (Birds, of course) on an autumn day. For once, I actually managed to get as far as the puddings when we went out for lunch in Chester-le-Street today, so I had rhubarb crumble, topped with a pale yellow custard. Granted, it wasn't a cordon bleu special. But some days, all you really want is good old comfort food, and preferably something that your Mum cooked you when you were small.

lettuce

2004-10-31T19:10:00.000Z

lettuce
Originally uploaded by rachc.

Just working out how to post photos using flickr...so here's some lettuce for your perusal.

Fill in the blanks...

2004-10-31T10:01:00.000Z

Scotland was (a)___, (b)___, and (c)___ (and then some). If you shouted 'cold', then you'd be absolutely right. It was bloody freezing. To be honest, I'd expected nothing less, particularly as I was going to be floating down the river Tay in a ridiculously small inflatable raft, wearing a wetsuit, but it would have been nice for my suspicions to have been completely confounded.

A Scottish breakfast, by the way, included no porridge whatsoever, which was a bit disappointing. Instead, it was those little portion sized boxes of cornflakes/rice krispies/cardboard muesli, followed by bacon, egg, sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes, toast, and a weird slice of Scottish sausagemeat. Pretty much like the English version then, although the baked beans did seem to be conspicuous by their absence.

This week, I have been mostly eating spinach. Spinach, cheddar cheese and salad cream in pitta bread, to be honest. Sounds a bit weird, but I can guarantee it makes the perfect lunchtime sandwich. It's no more odd than having peanut butter and banana, or cheese and marmite. Trust me.

Scotland here we come

2004-10-22T13:42:00.000Z

So it's off to Scotland for a hen weekend, and some whitewater rafting. I must be completely crazy to be contemplating this in the middle of October...I have a sneaking suspicion it'll be either something I love (like rock climbing) or hate (like swimming in the North Sea - in fact, I suspect it'll have much the same brrr factor).

The hotel we are staying at promises a full Scottish breakfast on its website, so if nothing else it'll be interesting to see how it differs from the English variety. I'm assuming that porridge is involved somewhere along the line (might come in handy as ballast for the rafting) but other than that I'm fairly clueless, and googling it hasn't shed much light on the matter either.

Green Wing

2004-10-20T11:44:00.000Z

On a completly non-related food posting (unless you count Guy's face being pushed into a bowl of cereal in the last episode), you should definitely check out Green Wing on Channel 4 - possibly the most surreal and hilarious thing on the tv at the moment. While you're at it, you can also catch up with one of the scriptwriters, James Henry, at james and the blue cat. Trust a scriptwriter to write a very funny blog...

tiddly-om-pom-pom

2004-10-20T11:33:00.000Z

'cheeseburger' was the buzz word in 1938, according to a new (UK) list of buzzwords from 1904 onwards. While there's all sorts of vaguely food-related items on the list (see below - it's interesting to see when fast food starts appearing in the public consciousness, followed by the global 'latte' phenomenon), most of the entries are far more odd. Tiddly-om-pom-pom (1909), anyone?

bagel - 1932
cheeseburger - 1938
fast food - 1951
hypermarket - 1971
detox - 1975
latte - 1989

Toast!

2004-10-16T19:43:00.000Z

This man understands toast (although his choice of toppings leaves something to be desired - wood pigeon with hedgehog fungus anyone?

Toast is still my favourite food. You can't beat it for breakfast, lunch, tea, supper, or a snack in the middle of the night when you can't sleep. Some people love chocolate, I love toast (though I am partial to a bit of chocolate spread on it, preferably Nutella). The article set me off on a bit of a google anyway, which yielded some rather surprising results...

toast haiku
Strawberry Pop-Tart blow torches - apparently these harmless confectionery can actually become weapons of mass destruction, if used incorrectly.
an animated man electrocuted by his toaster
the toaster work of art, made from 2,500 pieces of bread toasted for different lengths of time to produce different colours
Toast Hawaii, which turned out to be a record label
the Toast Bible

and that's only the first 2 pages...

This week's links (the weekest links?)

2004-10-08T13:38:00.000Z

I really must get round to updating this more than once a week. There's so much food-related stuff out there, and I'm missing all of it. Anyway, this week's links that caught my eye included

ready made sandwiches are high in fat - so when you're standing there in front of the counter at Boots or M&S trying to decide in 10 seconds what you'll have for lunch, don't reach for the cheese savoury.
the holy grail of apples has been unveiled - after £175,000 of research, experts have finally found a green eating apple that will grow in the UK. As opposed to all those greenish/brownish ones that we already have.
Bananas have been handed out in Trafalgar Square as an artwork was dismantled after 11 hours and 30 minutes. Apparently it was called 30,000 Bananas. Descriptive, if nothing else.
why mustard comes in thousands of varieties, but ketchup doesn't.

Bonjour!

2004-10-02T16:21:00.000Z

Six days in Paris is just not enough. There's too many fine places to eat, too much sightseeing to do, and frankly just too many good art galleries, museums and shops to wander round. Still, if you're there for just a few days, here's my top tips from this trip:

Patrick Goldenberg's restaurant and delicatessen on avenue Wagram - not only do they make a mean chicken liver pate, a fantastic pastrami and some great gherkins, they have the best cheesecake in the world ever. I'm not kidding - this was none of your Sara Lee nonsense with a biscuit base, this was a proper baked cheesecake, lightly flavoured with golden raisins. It was so good, I went back twice.
Paris Mosque at place du Puits de l'Ermite (near the Quartier Latin) - not only is it a beautiful building, there's also a fantastic tea room (mint tea, of course) and restaurant. The couscous and tagines that we had were really good - I now need to work out how to recreate the lamb and prune tagine...
Dehillerin, of course...we spent hours wandering around sizing up saucepans, only to decide that taking an enormous pan on the train wasn't the best of ideas.
Cafe Lateral on avenue Mac-Mahon, near the Arc de Triomphe - this place had good bistro food (fantastic poulet au fermier et frites) and more importantly comfy banquettes at the end of a hard day wandering around and really friendly service. We like.
L'as du Fallafel in rue des Rosiers. Lenny Kravitz is still on the wall recommending it to all and sundry. We agree.
Arthur's sushi bar on rue Villebois-Mareuil - if you go for the 25 Euro platter (enough for two, definitely), you get an amazing medley of fresh tuna and salmon california rolls, sushi and sashimi. The place was deserted, and probably won't last long. It's a shame - the food's great.

Ah well, back to the real world. Time to go and make chicken and leek lasagne...

Odds and sods

2004-09-17T13:14:00.000Z

This week's collection of bits and pieces from the world of food:

More on the fried food theme - here's how to make deep fried Oreos should your constitution be able to take it. I really like the originals, so I'm not sure about this one. I mean, deep frying a Mars Bar probably improves it, as it tastes fairly hideous anyway, but Oreos are pretty good to start off with.

European news - Spain has launched an olive oil futures market and the French are trying to tackle bad customer service in cafes (good luck to them on that one. It seems to be endemic across Europe, never mind just in France. Although cafe waiters in Paris seem to be snottier than most.)

And finally, the fabulous Cooking for Engineers site, complete with recipe diagrams.

Deep fried...

2004-09-13T21:52:00.000Z

I thought the Glaswegians were bad enough with deep fried Mars Bars and sticks of rock, but now I've found evidence of deep fried pickles I'm beginning to wonder. Especially now that the BBC are reporting that deep fried testicles are becoming a delicacy in Devon (check out the meat and two veg pic...)

Pies wonderful pies

2004-09-10T06:43:00.000Z

Probably not the best thing to bang on about this morning, after a wonderful night spent eating pies (tomato and stilton puff pastry tart, sausage and potato pie, the best steak and kidney pie I've had in years, and a key lime pie) topped off with several bottles of red wine (it was a wine tasting, honest).

But should the government subsidise healthy eating? To be honest, I'm not sure it would make much difference - I can't see cheap fruit and veg tempting people away from McDonalds, especially if they have to prepare and cook it themselves. It's all about taking the easiest option, when it comes down to it.

The name's Bond

2004-09-01T08:10:00.000Z

Two intriguing articles yesterday - the first on the cancer preventing properties of redbush or rooibos tea which I drink gallons of. It's rather gratifying to know that not only does it taste really nice (contrary to what's in the article, it doesn't taste like wet socks in wellington boots!) but it's actually doing me some good as well.

The second is equally high tech - apparently there's a department at MIT in the US which specialises in technology and kitchen gadgets. It's all rather James Bond, (even down to the fact that it's called Counter Intelligence) with Q passing over his rubber sink and reusable plastic wafers that turn into cups and bowls, with his usual (unheeded) warning about not blowing them up... The research agenda is fascinating - the projects include a desktop gardening system, a talking trivet, knives that warn against bacteria, and a chameleon mug that displays safety messages if the contents are too hot. Remind me in 20 years time that this was where I saw it first...

Bookclub

2004-08-25T12:59:00.000Z

I thought In the Devil's Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food might be a bit on the dry side, but it turned out to be a rip roaring trek through food taboos since the year dot. After reading the section on the Aztecs and chocolate, I'll never look at a bar of fruit and nut the same way again. Highly recommended.

Phwoooar

2004-08-22T19:31:00.000Z

This man makes my kind of salad: baked aubergine with halloumi and mint; chickpea and chilli; fig, San Daniele and mint; and crab, cucumber and peach. Can't wait to try them out...

Global rations

2004-08-18T12:20:00.000Z

Hot on the heels of the revelation that the US army has developed bread and sandwiches that last for three years, comes the news that the British army is rejigging its emergency rations. Beef stew and dumplings are on the way out, to be replaced by chicken balti with rice, and meatballs with pasta.

Chain reaction

2004-08-17T18:16:00.000Z

Now you can catch up on the Starbucks gossip - somebody has to monitor America's favourite drug dealer according to Jim Romenesko. It's probably the UK's favourite one too, judging by the numbers of them that seem to have appeared recently. Although at the moment, Newcastle is being inundated with Subways rather than coffee shops. From a standing start of none about 18 months ago, there's now four. Maybe our local student population is going off the idea of kebabs...

Fatty Chef

2004-08-16T19:28:00.000Z

It may be taking the desire to slim down slightly too far - the Little Chef logo has been declared too portly, and has been redesigned. Maybe Colonel Sanders or Ronald McDonald will be the next in line for a makeover.

Sad news

2004-08-14T17:33:00.000Z

Julia Child has died in Santa Barbara, at the age of 91.

Disappointing...

2004-08-14T17:06:00.000Z

I ate what must have been the worst chicken Caesar salad in the world yesterday. Huge chunks of chicken, pale anaemic bacon (??), fatty croutons and some sad soggy leaves of lettuce, drowned in an absolute slick of dressing. All for the ridiculous price of £6.90. And it wasn't in a motorway service station - it was in a fairly decent pizzeria in Jesmond - somewhere you'd expect to have (a) good ingredients and (b) the knowhow to put them together. I won't be going back to Avanti again.

Back!

2004-08-12T19:41:00.000Z

Where to start...well, been away at the Big Chill down in the south, and then spent ages working on the pie-man.com website, and then it's just rained. Solidly for about a week, it feels like. So no news from the world of food for a while folks. Apologies. To make up for it, a random selection of links

People in Denmark are worried about Kellogg's fortified cereals
Why women don't eat like men
The nice people at Innocent have 4,999 rain capes spare
A Taste of Persia find the Explodingchef review - slightly surreal

Ooh, and the chillies arrived from the Spice of Life in Aberdeen. The chipotles are fab - huge and fat and black. And I've got a tantalising envelope of sumac, just waiting for me to do something middle eastern with. Possibly in conjunction with the preserved lemons, which have been sitting on the kitchen worktop preserving away for just over a month now.

It's baking trays at dawn in the pork pie world...

2004-07-29T12:41:00.000Z

There's a pie fight of epic proportions on the go at the moment. In the pastry corner, the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association, which wants to get Melton Mowbray pork pies included on the EU's list of products with 'protected geographic indication status'. Rather like the French Appellation Controllee, it would mean that manufacturers of the said pies would have to be based in Melton Mowbray. In the pork corner, Northern Foods, which makes the pies in Shropshire and Wiltshire...

The wonders of modern army food

2004-07-28T11:23:00.000Z

If you've ever wondered how high-tech food can get, then take a look at the US army's Combat Feeding Directorate. Not content with producing three-year-old "pouch bread" or "shelf stable pocket sandwiches", it's now produced dried food that can be rehydrated using dirty water or urine.

Weddings = fab food

2004-07-26T21:14:00.000Z

Having spent all of Saturday drinking champagne at my brother's wedding, I can truthfully say that wedding food is fantastic. And it wasn't the booze talking, honest. I just love the whole caboodle - canapes, buffets, puddings, dinky mints with your coffee, and then to top it all off you've got the wedding cake (the icing's the best bit of course). Possibly the most delicious thing of the day was the Fenland strawberries with cream, but the chicken with honey, apricot and almonds ran it a close second, as did the late evening snack of cheese, biscuits and fruit.

Coming back down to earth, while trawling round Asda for a sarnie at lunchtime, I came across a Taste of the North East counter. It was piled high with Northumberland cheese, Fentimans ginger beer, and local pies. It may be small in sales terms, and it's probably been to the Asda central distribution centre and back, but at least it's a start for buying local stuff.

The end of the world...

2004-07-21T21:14:00.000Z

If you want to stock up on food (just in case there's a terror attack), the UK government has released its recommendations. Apparently for a family of four per week, you'd need amongst other things six cans of creamed rice or tapioca, six tins of canned baked beans and sausages, 12 cans of potatoes and 12 cans of corned beef. Not really what you'd look forward to is it?

Still no sunshine...

2004-07-15T22:30:00.000Z

Still no chillies either...

Ever wanted to run an ice cream kiosk? Now you can, for the bargain price of £95,000. If the current owners are making an annual turnover of £39,000, that's an awful lot of cornettos that somebody's buying. But apparently they sometimes catch a glimpse of sunshine in Cornwall - that might do the trick.

Waiting for...

2004-07-12T21:38:00.000Z

chillies! We've ordered a whole batch from The Spice of Life in Aberdeen - some chipotles (smoked), some piquins, some de Arbols and some mulatos. And I also bought some sumac for all the Middle Eastern recipes we fancy trying. The rest is mostly for a crazy five chilli recipe that Rob wants to attempt...

Lemon chicken

2004-07-11T11:57:00.000Z

Take one free-range chicken. Tuck a couple of cloves of (unpeeled but squished) cloves of garlic inside. Bung in a roasting dish. Halve a lemon, and squeeze the juice and the innards over the chicken. Tuck a couple of quarters of lemon rind in the gap between the chicken's legs and body. Chuck the other pieces of lemon rind in with the chicken. Drizzle with olive oil, and throw a bit of salt and black pepper over it. Roast in a hot oven for about an hour...and then serve with couscous (flavoured with ras-al-hanout) and some roasted peppers, courgettes, onions and tomatoes.

Guess what we had for tea yesterday?

Watch out!

2004-07-09T21:03:00.000Z

There's mouldy pies about! I love it - "While eating the mouldy pies is unlikely to be a signficiant health risk, it could be unpleasant." No kidding....

Wine goes futuristic

2004-07-08T12:30:00.000Z

So you're a winemaker in California, and you want to make sure that your grapes are healthy, tasty and well on their way to making that perfect wine. What do you do? Install a wi-fi sensor net to gather data from sensors in your fields of course, so that you can monitor temperature, humidity and soil moisture. The only slight problem seems to be rodents chewing through the data sensors...

pie-man t-shirts now available!

2004-07-05T12:53:00.000Z

After a year of hard work, the moment has finally arrived. pie-man.com is proud to present its new pie-related t-shirts to the world. Love pie? Want to show your devotion to all things pastry? Then check out our cheese and onion, steak and kidney, and chicken and mushroom masterpieces.

Burgers galore

2004-07-05T12:47:00.000Z

I've just finished reading one of the funniest books I've read in a long time, about one man's struggle to open an American diner in Uckfield (no, I had no idea where it was either). If you're ever thinking about opening any form of cafe, bistro or even a burger van, Maximum Diner should be essential reading!