News reaches me my husband is at the eye of a storm of controversy in the States, but I don’t know how that can be, we work hard to keep his secret identity SECRET so we can carry on our gastro adventures privately; don’t want to draw a crowd, not keen on being mobbed by paparazzi either. [...]
Archive for July, 2008
would the real Mr T please sit down?
Posted in Summer, food politics, tagged Mr T, Snickers on July 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Scooby snacks
Posted in restaurants, shopping, tagged Fergus Henderson, restaurants on July 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Spotted at my local Saturday market: chewy snacks for the discerning doggie. Top from left: cow throats, pig trotters, “paddy whacks” – what’s that? Front from left: pig snouts, postman’s legs, honey roast bones Also on display were rinds, knuckles and shanks plus a wide variety of unidentifiable edibles for – and by – animals. [...]
of all the gin joints in all the world…
Posted in Summer, overseas, shopping, wine, tagged gin, Mahon, Menorca, Xoriguer on July 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
… we walk into a Menorcan distillery: undaunted by our desultory lunch at Cafe Baixamar we stuck to our plan and headed west for the Xoriguer Gin distillery tasting showroom, not much further along the Mahon waterfront. T had the purchase of a bottle of G in mind and I tagged along: gin gives me shivers and [...]
Campari
Posted in Summer, wine, tagged aperitif, Campari, summer drinks on July 22, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Oh how I miss those apéritif adverts of the 1970s …anytime anyplace anywhere, there’s a wonderful drink you can share, it’s the bright one, the right one, thaaat’s Martiniii… I’ve been yearning for the fabulous life ever since. But it turns out Leonard Rossiter was an arrogant egotist - he referred to Joan Collins as the [...]
sopa Menorquina
Posted in Summer, overseas, recipes, restaurants, vegetarian, tagged Baleares cuisine, Ciutadella, food, Menorca, Minorca, recipe, sopa, soup on July 22, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Mr T opted for sopa Menorquina as his set-menu starter at La Guitarra in Ciutadella de Menorca one rainy lunchtime and its simple, straightforward heartiness really hit the spot. Unlike Cafe Baléar, however, La Guitarra is one place I wouldn’t advise opting for the menu del dìa; for although the restaurant has a great reputation for local [...]
Wing Yip goes hip
Posted in shopping, tagged Chinese food, durian, food, food shopping, wing yip on July 20, 2008 | 3 Comments »
A pilgrimage to Ikea is unsanctified without a trip to Wing Yip for a foodster fix. Croydon’s oriental alimentary emporium has really been snazzing itself up lately; witness the snappy slogan for a start – I love it. It’s also all smart uniforms and smiles nowadays – nothing wrong with that; in the time of inscrutable [...]
I gotta ricotta
Posted in Summer, artisan bread, herbs, ingredients, recipes, slow food, tagged buttermilk, food, homemade cheese, ricotta on July 19, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I don’t know about you, but I adore la cucina casalinga – Italian regional home cooking – so simple, so hearty, so life-affirming; but dependent as it is on the quality of ingredients, my heart used to sink whenever a recipe called for fresh ricotta. There’s no such thing for sale in my home town, no [...]
fregola sarda, seafood, bottarga
Posted in Summer, ingredients, recipes, shopping, slow food, tagged bottarga, food, fregola sarda, pollack, seafood on July 18, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Last time I visited Fortnum & Mason I picked up a packet of fregola sarda. Interesting stuff, fregola: it’s pasta, but of Sardinian origin and in appearance it’s couscous on steroids, reminiscent of pollen grains at a billion magnification. Also, unlike any pasta I can think of, fregola nuggets are toasted, which not only explains the colour variations, but also adds [...]
Pimientos de Padrón redux deluxe
Posted in Summer, books, recipes, vegetarian, tagged chile, food, pimientos de Padron, tapas on July 15, 2008 | 1 Comment »
So we cooked and ate them, following the instructions provided by Elizabeth Luard in her delectable tome, The Cooking of Spain and Portugal: A Regional Celebration, which great good fortune allowed me to pick up for £4.99 at tkmaxx the other week (possibly to the great relief of my local library, having clung to their copy for the last 4 [...]
¡ay caramba! ♥ ¡Pimientos de Padrón!
Posted in Summer, shopping, tagged Nigel Slater, pimientos de Padron, shopping, tapas, vegetables, Waitrose on July 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I read Nigel Slater religiously for years, but of late this gastro hag’s favourite fag has me feeling like an asylum seeker on the wrong side of a razor-wire fence. Sophisticated as my crowded corner of Blighty sees itself, it’s outside the orbital, pretty far from any gastro-shopping epicenter and a long way from urban [...]
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