

Hawaij, spice mixes and marketing
The other day I bought this expensive jar of Ottolenghi hawaij paste. It was on a special, I was just filling in time waiting for David for some reason I cannot now remember, wandering around Woolworths when I spied it. I had noticed Hawaij a lot here and there, or so I thought, and I was feeling a bit down, and so I thought 'why not?' and put it in my trolley. I feel a tiny bit cross at myself, because there are lots of recipes online for a hawaij spice mix, and it's not
Oct 23, 2025


Food for celebrities - a book
"Staying in really is the new going out." Nisha Parmar The pile of books on my desk is not getting any smaller because I keep on adding to it. It's becoming a bit of an addiction which is a somewhat worrying thought. So today I decided to tackle yet one more - a birthday gift from my son and his ex, so it dates back to June. I did look at it pretty much straightaway, but then it ended up in the dreaded pile. So a quick summary - a beautiful cover - well done designers. Go
Oct 16, 2025


Contrasts and a bit about layers
"Sweet meat must have a sour sauce" Ben Jonson (1572-1637) Opposites attract they say, although I'm not at all sure that this is true...
Sep 17, 2025


Acai bros come to Eltham
“We want to be a one-stop health food café and the inter-section between health food stores and restaurants, making unbelievably...
Sep 14, 2025


Krispy Kreme and doughnuts in general
"one of those deep, childish pleasures you never grow out of." Felicity Cloake You might have thought that I had forgotten those...
Sep 11, 2025


A supermarket label
A comment from my sister sort of inspired this post. Well I suppose it was barely a comment, just a statement that she hated shopping in...
Sep 7, 2025


How to begin a cookbook
"an ode to the food of my childhood, a mash up of food from Bahrain and the surrounding countries, with a slightly Westernised take,...
Aug 13, 2025


Piri piri chicken
"It seems we just can’t get enough spicy grilled poultry. Popularity, however, breeds contempt " Felicity Cloake Inspired by a Feast ...
Aug 8, 2025


Lessons from a recipe
Yesterday we celebrated my older son's birthday here with the now almost traditional and compulsory spaghetti and meatballs - and a cake...
Aug 4, 2025


Wensleydale and cranberries - why?
"It's okay to like wensleydale and cranberries" reddit - Is it? Wensleydale cheese - the pure kind, is one of my favourite cheeses, but...
Jul 29, 2025


An earl, history and recipes
"Tea, Earl Grey, hot" Picard/StarTrek Well the above quote has nothing to do with this post really, but not being a Star Trek follower I...
Jul 23, 2025


Samples
"a small amount of something that shows you what the rest is or should be like" Cambridge Dictionary Samples is perhaps particularly...
Jul 19, 2025


A Jamie book
"We're all familiar with the clichés of American food: junk food and supersizing ... but what is real American food all about?" Jamie...
Jun 30, 2025


Australian garlic
"So many benefits in this humble little plant" Nick Diamentopoulos Whenever we go to France - no more alas - we always at some point...
Jun 23, 2025


Coles' new look
As with almost every topic I choose to write about on this blog, I discovered bits about today's topic that hadn't occurred to me. Even...
Jun 8, 2025


Pasta Primavera
"I find it very hard to imagine that prior to 1975, nobody in the history of the universe had thought to combine fresh spring vegetables...
Jun 6, 2025


no food no life - i am a food blog
"I get a lot of inspiration from eating out and after hearing me say, “I could make this at home,” for the umpteenth time, Mike, my...
May 28, 2025


Now is the winter of our content
"a carol to what makes the cooking of the cold months something to cherish." Nigel Slater It has been very cold today - well 'very' is...
May 18, 2025


BIR - British Indian restaurant food
I wanted not only to learn how to cook Indian food correctly, but also really get to know how all those spices and other ingredients...
May 5, 2025


Gennaro's Verdure
"Each plate is an emotion. In the mind of a cook there are thousands of recipes, every time you change it a little bit." Gennaro...
May 3, 2025

