I love meat. Growing up in a family of devout foodies, I have always eaten meat, lots of it, and always with relish. I like my steaks still mooing. (Hell, I’ll even eat cows raw, when I’m in Paris. Bring on the steak tartare.) So I knew it was always going to be something of a gamble to read Jonathan …
In Praise of Pork
Far too much talk of turkeys, lately, so here’s an apt little homage to my favorite food. Not, I should add, that I’ve been suffering from any noticeable swine deficit over Thanksgiving. We’ve just come back from a brief but fabulous trip to D.C. to visit some wonderful friends who broke our hearts this summer when they moved away from …
Healthy Eating?
As parents, we try and feed our children as much healthy food as we can. I spent a long time last night trying to cajole Catherine into eating a delicious bean casserole thing that Christina had lovingly made. She ate it in the end, but it was an effort. (Rather like her father, she can detect healthy food at fifty …
Drink Less Wine, Save the Planet
One unanticipated advantage to the new, booze-free regime: a significant decrease in the amount of recycling we’re producing. This was last week: Whereas this week:
Dependency.
About a year ago my doctor suggested that I give up coffee. Uh-huh, I replied anxiously. Good patient that I am, I went home and did exactly that. Two days later the caffeine withdrawal headaches were so bad that I couldn’t see properly. Christina, quietly shaking her head at my inability to do anything in moderation, patiently suggested that it …
This Just In: Americans in Bad Beer Shock
A small, but sweet, moment of vindication over the weekend. I am often mocked by my friends for liking warm, flat beer. Of course, I consider it my duty as an Englishman to mock them right back. With the honorable exception of some excellent micro-breweries, American beer is utterly without character. I’m talking here of the Budweisers, Coors, and Millers …
Sweet Chilli Sauce and Economic Theory
Still reading Matt Crawford’s book, and still thinking. One of the unexpected pleasures of this summer has been our garden. For the first time we tried to grow some stuff, and, rather to my surprise, it worked. We have more chillis than we can ever use. We harvest our little plant every couple of days and still they just keep …
How to Eat Ice Cream
My father took these photographs while we in France last month. This is in a restaurant in Albi, near to my parents’ home. This is my daughter Catherine, who is four, and who is displaying a gratifyingly Epicurean streak. Good to the last drop, or dollop. Update: my mother has written to tell me, somewhat indignantly, that she was the …
Distractions and Prevarications, Part 3
Patatas a lo Pobre Poor Man’s Potatoes We quickly worked out that the real reason these are called “Poor Man’s Potatoes” is because only a poor man – specifically, a man without a job – would have the time to make them very often. But they are absolutely worth the effort. This recipe is from the utterly wonderful Moro Cookbook. …
Technology is a Wonderful Thing, Part 2
People occasionally roll their eyes when they learn that I get up every day at five o’clock to write, but it’s really very easy. All you need is a good coffee machine, like this one: I love my coffee machine. It is a truly wonderful thing. It’s made by Nespresso. I am sure that without it (and its predecessors) I …