Make some magic
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” Terry Pratchett Some time ago I had a box of tissues with the words "Make some magic" on the side. Not very appropriate for a box of tissues you - and I - might think, although they would be completely magic for somebody from the long distant past. Even the box containing the tissues would be magic. Human imagination and creativity moves us on, technology advances at an ever-increasing pace, and there are lots of differen
2 days ago
Pickings
"something that is picked or picked up: such as gleanable or eatable fragments - Merriam-Webster Dicitionary "something, especially money, that can be obtained from a particular situation in an easy or a dishonest way" Oxford Learners Dictionary Odd that the Americans and the British seem to have a different meaning for pickings. Of course once you start adding descriptors to 'pickings' you narrow down the meanings somewhat - slim pickings, rich pickings, easy pickings, gri
4 days ago
Smashed
“ugly delicious” food is preferable to anything too neat." Julie Lin (chef) It's a trend. A recent one I thought, but of course it's not. Smashing food that is. And more about that in a moment. First the inspiration for this post? Well two things reinforcing the concept of smashed in my head. First this brief note in a recent Guardian list of food trends in Britain: "Smashed tacos, smashed burgers, smashed croissants, smashed smash. We’re all for crispy edges, but not a
5 days ago
Pasta, flying saucers and grannies
"a personal undertaking to try every single type of pasta available the length and breadth of Italy" Jacqui De Bono Time for a look at a foodie blog and the next one on my list is The Pasta Project, which is probably one of the first that I recognised and visited from time to time, so I'm not sure why it took me so long to get to it with my website posts. I probably came across it long ago because - well it's pasta isn't it and I guess we are all pretty much obsessed with
5 days ago
The long lunch
"Civilisation is measured not by what we produce but by how elegantly we pause." Kenton Allen/Spectator Australia A long time ago now I proposed to myself a series of posts on lunch - because there are so many different kinds of lunch - a long list in fact. A browse through my Ideas and also a post on Instagram from Ottolenghi advertising a fund-raising lunch in the Wolves Lane gardens where produce for his restaurants and delis is grown, reminded me of the notion of the lo
7 days ago
The romanticised flavour of Tuscany
"The three basic elements of wine, oil and bread which to the Tuscans are almost sacred" Lorenza de' Medici I meant to sort of do this yesterday as an example of 'the geography of flavour'. Mostly because I have two Tuscan cookbooks sitting on my desk waiting for their moments in the sun. Not that there is much sun here in Melbourne at the moment. But look at a cookbook on Tuscany and the sun is always shining is it not? There is almost always a touch of soft focus, hon
Oct 1