

A post mortem of sorts
"Time is an illusion. Lunch time doubly so." Douglas Adams As usual I forgot to take any pictures of yesterday's lunch, and no that is not our debris, but I just wanted something to show that lunch was a success and this picture inside the back cover of Ixta Belfrage's book Meczla sort of says it all really. A good time was had by all. So I thought that for once I would give a rundown of the various dishes I had chosen - and written about in my previous post - and how they
Apr 4


A smörgåsbord
"away from its homeland, smorgasbord is, all too often, an excuse for offering everybody a little of everything - or, for that matter, anything." Dale Brown/The Cooking of Scandinavia I chose that title as a suitable heading for an oddments piece, but got a bit diverted on what a smörgåsbord actually is - I almost turned it into a post about all to itself, but have now decided to revert to the odds and ends concept - or as Dale Brown puts it - "a little of everything - or, f
Mar 18


A ramble beginning with oxtail soup
"Rambling talk with an image of air." William Butler Yeats This particular ramble began today, with a question, to which I haven't really found an answer. Well maybe. Although really it began a few days ago with a vague idea for a blog. It wasn't going to be a ramble down highways and byways. It was just going to be a fairly simple exploration of oxtail soup - my ultimately chosen English soup in my very occasional world soup series. The usual thing - a few words about
Oct 20, 2025


Fusion or confusion? - two dinners
"a twisted kind of sense" Jay Rayner This is last night's dinner - simply called Fried beef kerala from my other The Food of ... series...
Jul 27, 2025


An Elizabeth David recipe - some thoughts
"It is her recipes that I am grateful to have found as they are not traditional and they are not precise" The Simply Luxurious Life...
Oct 17, 2024


Last night's dinner
'A mashup between a Western steak and a Chinese stir-fry" Marc Matsumoto/No Recipes In an attempt to tick off my 'new' dish for the week,...
Oct 13, 2024


Bulgogi
"Chef-owned restaurants are the key to growing a cuisine." Hooni Kim/Serious Eats My older son and his family are currently in Korea...
Oct 5, 2024


A Google doodle - rendang
I now know that this is a Google doodle , and you can browse their collection of doodles at that link. Loved their little humorous digs...
Aug 22, 2024


A goddess steak
"stories and recipes are like sauce in a pan: they move differently in each telling and in each pair of hands. A recipe is advice, but...
Aug 16, 2023


Meatloaf - or terrine - or... ?
"meatloaf is just the American name for a very old idea, a way of stretching those expensive scraps of meat a little further by binding...
Jul 6, 2023


Carne assada or asada?
This is a guru week - a week in which I return to one of my early cooking influencers/teachers for a recipe to try out for dinner. This...
Jun 6, 2023


Carbonnade Flamande - have I got the right beer?
"It occupies that culinary space that makes it feel like it's both comfort food and a decadent treat." Diversivore I started this...
Aug 4, 2022


The Bordelaise challenge
"Classic bordelaise sauce, which can transform shoe leather into strip steak, is made with veal stock, demi-glace and time - a lot of...
Jul 20, 2022


The 4th of July - hamburgers
"don’t let anyone tell you what should and shouldn’t go on your burger!" Nagi - Recipe Tin Eats Last night we were talking about how the...
Jul 4, 2022


An English last meal
"Feasting is about how you eat as much as it is about what is on your plate. It is rarely about greed or ostentatiousness, large numbers...
May 16, 2022


Satay sapi - a first recipe
"Inherent in the great tradition of satay is the tendency to tweak—to take a classic recipe and make it your own." James Oseland -...
Nov 5, 2021


Steak sandwiches
"An item which, at its best, seems to exist in the sublime but which, far too often, falls apart under pressure." Tony Naylor - The...
Sep 4, 2021

