Liz, over at Gastronomy Domine, goes far beyond the call of duty when she subjects herself to tasting the various chemically-enhanced liquids marketed by the Coca-Cola Corporation around the globe. Rather her than me.
Category: Food and drink
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Recipes
Apparently, I should be posting more recipes here on my blog. At least, that’s what I understand from Gelert’s comment on my entry of a recipe for Slime.The truth is that although I enjoy cooking, I’m not particularly good at dreaming up new recipes, so I don’t think I’ll be posting any here. However, by way of compensation, may I just draw your attention to a couple of good food blogs? Gastronomy Domine and thepassionatecook often post recipes that appeal to me. Liz Upton, over at Gastronomy Domine, in particular, has provided me with recipes that I return to often. -
Unsettling
Even though I don’t suffer from coulrophobia, I found this picture to be rather unsettling. It brought back memories of the fun Larry Cohen film It’s Alive! back to me, although without the black humour. The reality behind the picture is more akin to the quiet horror brought to our attention by Zuzu… -
Food For Free
The Elder bushes are in full flower at the moment. I keep meaning to get out there and pick some Elderflowers for making fritters and perhaps have a go at making Elderflower cordial (something I haven’t tasted for nigh on 50 years). -
International Wine Challenge
I see that the results of the International Wine Challenge for 2007 have been announced. I must see if I can find some of the wines locally. Depressingly enough, the search facility on the IWC web site assures me that just three of the nearly 3,000 wines that won a commendation are available here in The Netherlands. I suspect (and hope) that that is an error on the web site… -
The What?
No comment. Somehow Easter eggs seem a trifle more innocent. -
Not Yer Meat And Two Veg…
Rufus, over at That’s How It Happened, shares with us his experience of a 26 course meal at L’Enclume. Frankly, it’s all a bit beyond me.(hat tip to Jason Kottke for the link) -
Flowering Teas
Chinese Flowering Teas look intriguing. I must keep an eye out for them, but I doubt that my local Coop stocks them.(hat tip to Gastronomy Domine for the link) -
Cheddarvision
As a restful alternative to the shenanigans of The Apprentice, you might want to try Cheddarvision… -
It’s Alive…
I remember the days when I had a live yoghurt culture lurking in the kitchen. That was bad enough, but I don’t think I would have let a Kombucha loose in the house; ever. -
Donut Robot 42
One of the things that used to fascinate me as a small child was watching a doughnut-making machine go through its paces. It was in a local shop, and I would stand for long periods just marvelling at the mechanism and the process. When I was eight, I tried to do a deal with my parents that if I helped them during the summer season in their hotel, then I would be paid for my work in the form of a doughnut making-machine of my very own. Alas, they didn’t agree to the terms of the contract. So I never did get a machine of my own.However, such obstacles mean nothing to Derrick. Thanks to eBay, he now has a Donut Robot 42 of his very own.I’m insanely jealous. -
The Alchemist
The Alchemist is the title of an article about Grant Achatz, chef at the Chicago restaurant Alinea. Trouble is, when I see a title like that, part of me thinks "yup, another charlatan designing the Emperor’s new clothes". I think of El Bulli, which is supposed to be one of the great culinary experiences of the world, but which I fear is just shock tactics executed on jaded, satiated palates, whose owners wouldn’t recognise good food even if it snuck up their anuses, crawled through their intestines and exploded in their stomaches. Er, I digress. But the point remains. Is this good food, or pretentiousness for the chattering classes? Andy, what do you think? -
Domestic Science
Yet another cookery series started on BBC TV last night. This one is a bit different from the usual run of the mill, though. It is Heston Blumenthal demonstrating his method of cooking. Last night he did bangers and mash, and treacle tart with ice cream. At least, those were the names of the two courses he did, but his methods were so impractical for ordinary mortals that we haven’t a hope in hell of being able to serve them up in our own humble homes. I mean, liquid nitrogen and dry ice? They are not items that I can buy from my local village shop, Heston…Sam Wollaston, TV critic of the Guardian, gives a flavour of what the show was like. Mind you, I have to agree with Wollaston, it’s worth it just to watch Blumenthal perform his alchemy in the kitchen (and please tell me that that perfect kitchen, with its pastel tones and not a utensil out of place, was just a studio set). But I despair of ever being able to attempt any of his recipes. -
On A Stick?
There are clearly places on the planet where the notion of civilised food simply hasn’t set foot. -
The Wine Cellar
One thing that we do not have here in our new farmhouse home is a cellar. And that’s a pity, since it would be useful to have a nice cool cellar in order to store our wine. We’ve toyed with getting a temperature-controlled wine cabinet, but then the spiral wine cellar seems eminently more sexy. If the Premium Bonds come up, then the spiral gets sunk… -
Not Such A Good Idea
Well, doubtless the restaurant’s owner thought that the name and theme were brilliant at the time. However, one can see why he might have come to a different conclusion after a period of reflection… -
Mmmm, Yummy…
…well, perhaps not to everyone’s taste, and I don’t think I’ll be putting it on the menu anytime soon…(hat tip to the ever-dependable Museum of Hoaxes – though I should just point out that I don’t think that this was a hoax) -
The Pear Tree
The pear tree in the garden is laden down with fruit.
We don’t know what variety of pear it is, but we know that we can cook them. We’ve already had some poached in red wine, cooked by the mother of a friend. And last night, I tried out a recipe from Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries: poached pears with ice-cream and chocolate sauce. Very simply poached in a sugar syrup with a vanilla pod – but they tasted delicious.
The next recipe for pears that I might tackle is Pear and Almond Tart from Amanda Hesser’s The Cook and the Gardener. But I probably need to take a deep breath, it’s a traditional French recipe that looks complicated and time-consuming. That’s one thing that makes me favour Slater’s recipes – they seem simple, yet they deliver excellent results.
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A Hairy Tale of Soy Sauce
The Museum of Hoaxes adds some more background to the true tale of Soy Sauce made from human hair.I’m intrigued to see that the original paper (published in the online Internet Journal of Toxicology) is by Alexander Tse-Yan Lee of the Queers Network Research in Hong Kong. Alexander is clearly on a mission to alert us to the dangers of what we eat, and seems to have plenty of source material to research. Some of his other papers include The Foods From Hell, Vegetable Borne Poisoning, Deadly Cooking Oil and Faked Eggs. -
Cultured Meat
Cultured Meat – also known as in vitro meat – is animal flesh that has never been part of a complete living animal. Some scientists are experimenting with growing meat in this way as a food source. Apparently, now that the experiments are approaching the point where there is a real possibility that such products will reach the market, some vegetarians are reacting in horror to the very idea. I can’t quite see it myself. Meat grown in this way seems to me to be more akin to growing mushrooms than raising animals for slaughter.Anyway, Kevin T. Keith has a good summary of the pro and con arguments over at Sufficient Scruples.And I’m grateful to the Wikipedia entry for reminding me about Iain M. Banks’ joke in The State of the Art about "Stewed Idi Amin and General Pinochet Chilli con Carne"… I must find time to re-read the book some time…
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