This has been a busy month for travel – Seoul, Kyiv, The Hague, Munich and Berlin – and all of it for work. Travelling on business has its perks – just this week I stood on the line where the Berlin wall once stood; I saw the barricades still standing in Kyiv’s Independence Square; I squeezed […]
When people I only see at Christmas parties lie to me and tell me I’ve lost weight, I usually laugh and say “Don’t worry, I’ll find it again.” Oddly enough, no one said it this season. Looking at this list of just some of places where I ate while travelling in 2011, I’m starting to […]
We’re having a little dinner party tonight for some old friends who are moving away and a few others who either want to wish them well or, were simply attracted by the promise of free food. Either way, this is one of the dishes they’re getting (along with Italian onion soup and a roasted pork […]
There’s nothing quite as restorative as some time in the sunshine. Good food helps as well. We had plenty of both during our extended Christmas stay on the West Indian island of Antigua. Now, I’m so relaxed, it’s hard to get moving again. A few culinary highlights of our trip: The Antiguan black pineapple. A […]
Anyone who has been following the narrative on one of my favourite blogs, she eats bears, is sitting on the edge of their kitchen stool in anticipation of this weekend’s big event. The gentle rhythm of Marysol’s blog has been punctuated by a bit of tension of late as she prepares to open her own […]
Drywall is up (did it myself so, don’t look too closely), painting is done, shelves are up and they have been stocked with new food. Two weeks after a leaky pipe caused havoc in the kitchen, wrecking the walls and causing the pantry shelves to collapse (olive oil gives a lovely sheen to slate floors), […]
This is the first recipe I have made from The Chez Piggy Cookbook, despite the fact it will always be my favourite restaurant and I have had the book for years. Chez Piggy was opened in 1979 in a refurbished limestone stable by Zal Yanovsky and his partner Rose Richardson. Both Zal, who was the […]
(Loosely based on a true story) One bite. One timid, tentative bite and I wait. I wait for the deadly neurotoxins to wreak havoc on my nervous system, throwing my body into spasms of agony before, hours later, screaming and frothing at the mouth, my internal organs surrender to the inevitable and, one by one, […]
Saw these in a little shop in our village and immediately picked up a bundle without even looking at the price, which turned out to be around $7 with tax. “They make a perfect hostess gift,” the sales clerk said. “Maybe so,” I replied, “but these are for me.” Okay, there’s one born every minute. […]
Finally, a scientific study that suggests hamburgers may not be that bad after all. The conclusions, published in the journal Circulation, found that there was no causal link between red meat and heart disease. This fantastic news comes to us from very smart people at Harvard so it has to be right. The study suggested […]
Meats, Roots and Leaves 