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Articles: 1, 2, 3

Tuna Improv
2007-05-13 16:42:00
It really pains me to see that my last post was over two weeks ago. For someone who not only adores cooking but also writing, it is an abysmal recent record, and one that must be rectified forthwith. Someone told me yesterday that they read all my notes and blogs and it warmed me greatly. I always assumed that they are read by the occasional individual but to actually hear another person say that they had read and enjoyed something that I had penned was really special. It makes the whole exercise worthwhile. Balancing work, social activities, cooking and writing was never going to be easy but as long as there is the occasional positive comment to spur me on then I am sure I will find the time. And no matter how busy, one always was to eat and as long as I am eating I will be recording it for posterity (and the hope that in the not too distant future I will realise my dream and my cookbook will be plucked from obscurity by a large publishing house leading to the inevitable TV series...
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Henry the Ate-th
2007-04-29 22:31:00
I assume you all know that over the last nine months I have been trying to establish my very own entrepreneurial effort in the form of www.justcookit.co.uk and that in that time it has grown from a fledgling business with two employees and buckets of enthusiasm into, well, a fledgling business with two employees and diminishing amounts of enthusiasm. Contrary to the popular image of self-employment, going it alone is far from glamorous ? not only does it take a long, long time to get to the champagne on a yacht levels of success that many of us dream of, in the words of Duncan Bannatyne, ?you have to work fucking hard?. And you do. There are seemingly endless days spent clicking the ?send/receive? button hoping for orders to come pouring (or even trickling) in, there are so many knock backs that you can end up feeling like a proverbial Aunt Sally, there are the ignored emails and phone calls, there is the lack of money, there is the mild depression and slight insanity of spending th...
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Mambo Italiano Part Two - Pesto Power
2007-04-19 20:15:00
I have finger blisters. After extensive empirical research, I can successfully make the following statement with utmost confidence: pesto can cause these minor, niggling bodily injuries. Not the sicky, intensely flavoured green gloop in a jar that masquerades as pesto and serves as sustenance for millions of students around the world when stirred haphazardly into pasta, but proper home-made, hand-chopped pesto containing nothing more than basil, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan and oil. I?d read on another obsessive foodie?s blogsite that hand chopping was the only true way to make this particular Italian staple, the way mamma would have done it, and being in possession of a glut of basil, a comically big knife and a spare hour I decided to give it a go. There was still a not insignificant amount of the basil I?d bought the previous day and it remained fresh with bright green leaves and a vibrant, deep smell. The rest of the ingredients are store cupboard standards so I put on some music...
More About: Power , Mambo , Pest , Part , Italiano

Mambo Italiano (Part One)
2007-04-13 14:14:00
On July 8th last year I was lucky enough to arrive in Rome just as the second half of the World Cup Final was getting underway. My upstairs apartment was tucked away down a narrow back street in an ancient terraced town house with peeling walls a mere 200 metres from the bustling Campo De Fiori. I dumped my bag on the bed and before the door of the apartment had even shut I was racing back down the stairs to find a bar/café/restaurant (basically, anywhere that had a television screen) in which to watch the rest of the match. It didn’t take long and just four doors down a throng of people and a buzz of noise suggested that this particular establishment was showing the football. I tucked myself close to the bar, ordered a beer and a plate of antipasto and watched the match unfold through the second half, extra time and the nervy penalty shootout. As Grosso slotted the final goal past a helpless French ‘keeper, the entire bar, city and country erupted into what turned out to be th...
More About: Italia , Italian , Mambo , Part , Italiano

Terry who? Terry Aki?
2007-04-03 20:03:00
There was a piece in last week’s Sunday Times about the death of blogging – apparently there are now in excess of 20 million dormant blogs littering cyberspace like plastic cups littering the floor of a gig venue. It seems that the vast majority of bloggers gave up after a well-intentioned three or four posts with only a handful continuing to document their lives ranging from the mundane to the magnificent. I like to think my particular efforts lay somewhere in between these two poles but having had a mere three pieces of feedback it is rather difficult for me to tell. In the four months or so since I started writing I have posted more than fifty of these food filled musings amounting to approximately 75,000 words, or the equivalent of a PhD thesis (imagine that, Dr. Alex, culinary consultant – frightening). Had I been writing the novel I have been meaning to pen for the last two years I would have been close to half way through. Instead I have pages of text that survive onl...
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Four Days in the Languedoc. Post Script
2007-03-25 19:46:00
Note to the reader: This has nothing to do with food but you may find it mildly amusing. Although my trip to the France’s glorious and unsullied south-west officially finished on the Tuesday night, thinking about the trip back made me smile to myself a little when I thought about it a couple of days ago. I tend to feel embarrassment quite easily and I am relaying this particular account only because you, when reading this, won’t be able to see my blushes. I had a very early start in order to catch the train to Perpignan. From there I was due to take the navette (shuttle bus) to the little airport on the outskirts of the town and hopefully arrive in time to have a final coffee and croissant whilst perusing a copy of a newspaper. Faultless planning and uncharacteristic foresight ensured that nothing could possibly go wrong. And until 8am it didn’t. I woke in good time to shower, dress and pick up my bag which I had hastily packed the previous night. Although dark and still cool...
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Deep Fried Delights
2007-03-23 16:18:00
There are some decisions that are arrived at only after careful consideration, when one has weighed up the various pros and cons associated with a particular course of action, when the full gravity of the potential outcome has been carefully considered and all other options have been discussed and assessed. On the other hand, there are times when a mere fleeting nanosecond is the only time it takes to reach a consensus either with oneself or others, when only the briefest flicker of time passes and the brain, with almost superhuman ability, manages to work through all available alternatives and arrive at a fully formed decision as if it has cut through the maze of indecision with a chainsaw. Last night, round about midnight and thanks to the magic of Guinness, I managed to experience both these processes within a very short space of time. Initial plans of a few post work cheeky ones (I adore the concept of going for a ‘cheeky pint’ – it is the sort of question that must be utt...
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Part Five - Cheese, wine and home
2007-03-19 22:17:00
First an apology for taking so very long to complete this brief literary tour around my brief culinary tour of south west France – I started a new job on Tuesday and the world of working for someone other than myself has hit me rather hard. Take it from me, having experienced both sides of the fence: self-employment is definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, most certainly, one-hundred percent the way to earn a crust. Unfortunately my own personal foray into the world of entrepreneurship is yet to come to fruition so in the meantime I have to whore myself out to the highest bidder. It’s the way of the world, folks and even I, one to tries to dance to the beat of my own drummer at every possible opportunity, cannot halt the rampaging beast of modern life. The up-shot of this little tale is that my writing has taken something of a backseat but now I’m back, so please enjoy. I hope it has been worth the wait. Tuesday morning was a struggle. A real struggle. It appeared that som...
More About: Wine , Home , Cheese , Part , Five

Part Four - Cassoulet in Carcassonne (and a heavy evening)
2007-03-12 15:10:00
I am aware that cassoulet appears to enjoy a disproportionate amount of attention within these ‘pages’. At the last count I have written about it three times and thus this particular musing brings the total up to four, which, at first glance, borders on the obsessive. I’m not going to let it bother me though – it is such a fabulously simple and tasty dish that perfectly encapsulates everything that I love about cooking: the alchemic nature of turning a pile of nothing special into a hearty meal of something very special indeed. Haute cuisine is all very well but even in the hands of the most incompetent of chefs it is quite hard to make foie gras and truffles taste bad. The true skill lies in turning the mundane into the sublime and this is something the French have perfected over centuries of practice and refinement, a fact they are unashamedly proud of and one that has sadly been lost in England. Wherever you go in France (or Italy, for that matter) the regional specialtie...
More About: Soul , Part , Four , Heavy , Carcass

Part Three - Onward to MontyP
2007-03-10 15:38:00
My notebook entry from Sunday read as follows: “I’m currently in Montpellier lying on a bed with an ancient, perhaps pre-revolutionary, blanket beneath me. Robespierre himself could have lain down on this cream embroidery. I’m on the first floor of a little hotel tucked into the backstreets a mere 300 from Place de la Comédie, a bustling square filled bars and cafés. There is a fan softly whirring above the door aiming a stream of cool air through the open shutters to my left. The dark patterned curtains make occasional gentle swaying movements and scooters are buzzing underneath my window with expected regularity. The room is simply furnished with an aging dark wooden wardrobe, desk and two small tables on either side of a narrow double bed. I love it. I feel as if I am lying in a French version of the Chelsea Hotel.” To complete the setting I flicked through the artists on my iPod and went straight for Leonard Cohen. Montpellier is a pleasant two-hour train journey alon...
More About: War , Part , Monty , Ward , Three

Part Two - Twenty Four Hours in Perpignan
2007-03-09 11:22:00
The following takes place between 4pm on Saturday March 7th and 4pm Sunday March 8th. Events occur in real time. I’m culinary agent Al Rushmer, and this is the longest day of my life. Bip, bip, bip. OK, so maybe events don’t occur in real time, I just really like 24 so thought I’d sneak in a cheeky reference, plus it fitted quite well as we did spend almost exactly 24 hours in Perpignan (pedants amongst you, I know the phrase ‘almost exactly’ is an oxymoronic statement, much like ‘genuine replica’, ‘easy payments’ or ‘Christian scientists’, but I don’t care). My guide, dining partner and all round great gal for the next few days was Pêche (or Gemma to give her her correct name, but we’ll stick with Pêche), we met at the train station on the outskirts of the town and navigated our way towards the Office de Tourisme to pick up a map (carefully waltzing around the numerous dog turds that were dotted across the pavements) and from there onto the hotel. Aft...
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Four Days in the Languedoc. Part One - Exits are here, here and here
2007-03-07 19:27:00
As tends to happen with anticipation, the longer it takes something to come round, the quicker it is over. I am now back in the UK after spending four incredible days in the Languedoc sampling the finest of regional French food and wine and thought I’d share the (extended) highlights with my dear audience. The whole long weekend was a highlight, really, so it may take four, possibly even five entries to give a full run-down, but a full run-down I shall give – I just hope I can keep it both informative and entertaining thus doing justice to trip. Saturday March 3rd a.m. – I am at Manchester airport and have never seen so many cross-eyed people in my entire life. I feel slightly concerned that I’ve infiltrated some sort of bizarre inbreeding convention. A smidgen of paranoia is setting in as I can’t quite work out whether I am being stared at or not. The queue to check in is four miles long and the line for security checks is twice that length. It is early, I am hungry and ...
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No muse is good muse?
2007-03-02 13:35:00
It has been two days since my open advert for my very own muse and the response has been distinctly lacklustre. I am thoroughly disappointed although not disheartened, one must look to the future in these situations and that is exactly what I shall do. I am off to France tomorrow, a slightly spontaneous trip on the back of a slightly spontaneous invitation. I’ll blame Danny Wallace (if you haven’t read ‘Yes Man’, you really should because it is an excellent, amusing and worryingly life-affirming read but not the extent where you will find it in the ‘Self Improvement’ section at Waterstones so don’t let that put you off, you cynical lot) for lack of any other reason. Actually, I don’t need a reason, no-one can stop me enjoying my life to the absolute full, apart from my bank manager, and if that includes jolly jaunts to the Languedoc then so be it. There is also a fairly good chance that I shall be eating and drinking a healthy amount of southern French delicacies so ...
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Hunting for a Muse
2007-02-28 13:55:00
Creativity struggles to exist in a vacuum. Without the oxygen of inspiration, it is stifled and quickly suffocates, left to die a slow death leaving nascent genius unborn, mere seeds of thoughts in the mind of their pained parent. Imagine how many great works – books, albums, symphonies, poems, films – we’ve been denied because they have been locked in the cages of boredom, loneliness or self-consciousness in the minds of their creator unable to summon the strength of emotion to set them free and share them with the world? But for every lock there is a key. Enter the muse: the conduit that has allowed for the flow of artistic creativity since the human mind was capable of differentiating between the real and the imagined. Personified into the nine daughters of Zeus by the ancient Greeks, the muses inspired poetry, theatre, song, tragedy, comedy and dance. History’s most celebrated genii have since called upon their own muses to inspire them to greatness: without them we’d ...
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Triumph in the face of adversity
2007-02-26 14:57:00
When I last left you I was busy panicking at the complete failure of anything to go to plan. The salmon was off, the beetroot tasted foul, the ice cream refused to set, the soup was bland and I had to cram 24 hours of cooking into a mere two. I wasn’t happy and the selection of takeaway menus was gently calling to me in a crude, mocking way. It shouldn’t be like this, I am a professional, I do this everyday – how can food conspire against me in such a cruel fashion? I’m certain that Ramsay doesn’t have to put up with food somehow gaining a conscious awareness of its’ own existence and subsequent power and influence like a nascent revolutionary cause taking hold in a previously oppressed and silent proletariat (see, I did learn something at university). However, my determination to see this through remained unchecked and quick thinking and supreme culinary improvisation would ensure relative success (measured by how necessary it would be to call in for a curry). I skipped...
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Dinner Disaster?
2007-02-23 13:32:00
Occasionally there are days when nothing can go wrong. Days when very little effort can yield surprisingly spectacular results. Days when all you need do is turn up and everything goes to plan. Days when you wake up in the morning knowing that all will turn out perfect no matter how much you try to self-sabotage. Days when every action is a joy to behold and you wish you had an audience to marvel at your spectacular achievements. It doesn’t matter what you are doing, the stars happen to be aligned just right and you just know that the results will be much more than the sum of their parts. You may be writing, you could be playing sports, putting together a perfectly mixed set or perhaps even cooking – you just know when it is right. In the case of the latter you are certain that every bite, every taste, every mouthful right down to the final morsel will be a pleasure whether you are cooking for one or a room full of expectant diners. You wish you could bottle the flavours and tex...
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King Sized Double Bread
2007-02-21 15:55:00
OK, it has been a full week since my last entry so by definition there will be something to write about. Surely, it is impossible to consume (at least) three meals a day for seven days and not have something to say about it. Under normal circumstances this would be true but unfortunately four of those days were spent away from home at my alma mater during which time I managed to maintain a fairly high level of inebriation and a fairly low level of satiation. It’s a good job Guinness is so chock full of calorific goodness as, if my memory serves me correctly, I survived on little more than a chip and salad pitta bread and a chicken chow mein, neither of which deserve more than a passing mention. So that brings me to Monday and, once again, to the difficult issue of baking. Early last week I began another starter dough, this time following a set of instructions that looked competent. Over four days I diligently added water and different types of flour as instructed and the dough be...
More About: Double , Read , Bread , King , Size

Put a stock in it
2007-02-14 17:39:00
How do good restaurants create such flavoursome food? How do they create sauces so packed full of taste that all you need is a tiny amount on the tongue to release a burst of intense flavour through the mouth? And why is it almost impossible to create dishes with such depth at home? The answer is a simple one that can be summarised in just one word - stock. Stock s are the foundation of good cooking. Every good restaurant will have vast pots full of bones and mirepoix (roughly chopped carrot, onion and celery) bubbling away and slowly unlocking the flavours that are tucked inside. Stock making is the first thing you learn when you start studying at the CIA (The Culinary Institute of America as opposed to the Central Intelligence Agency who, as far as I know, don’t require a knowledge of the basics of classical cuisine) and something that can be honed over a lifetime. They vary from rich, intense and thick beef demi-glaces to delicate light, almost ethereal, fish and vegetable bouil...

Back To Bread
2007-02-12 13:57:00
A Wholesome Weekend Despite feeling utterly rotten and wanting to roll over and tuck myself up in bed for the whole day, I was up and out fairly early this morning to get a paper. It was a real ‘do or die’ moment and luckily it turned out just fine. A mixture of gentle exercise and morning air seemed to work wonders for me but something else made me feel so good that I positively skipped home. Oh, how I giggled when I saw the face of Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs grinning up at me from the cover of that world-renowned hip-hop publication, Hello! Magazine. So, after notching up a string of weapons and assault charges and courting controversy for the last ten years Puffy has finally gone all out in an effort to galvanize his bad boy image by flogging pictures of himself in a state of domestic bliss to a glossy mag. Biggie would be so proud. I was feeling thoroughly domestic this weekend and began thinking about the possibility of re-inventing myself as a younger, less buxom and more m...
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Use your Loaf
2007-02-09 15:48:00
I’m the first to admit that I’m not much of a baker. Maybe I’m not enough of a stickler for rules, perhaps it is because there is so much that can, and inevitably will, go wrong but the most likely explanation is that I’ve never really given it a fair chance. I’d drawn a metaphorical divide between cooking and baking and decided that I most definitely fell on the side of the former. I found the process of cooking more rewarding and potentially more creative than that of its unpredictable bedfellow which, I am growing to realise, is unfair. Baking encompasses such huge range that it would be nothing short of small minded folly to dismiss it in one fell swoop in favour of other culinary avenues. From the rudimentary loaves of past millennia to Marie Antoinette’s infamous quote that kick-started the French Revolution and the pre-packaged, bleached loaves of today, human history can be tracked through the consumption of bread. It has provided a staple foodstuff for so long t...
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Smile, Say Cheese!
2007-02-08 14:03:00
I am, once again, concerned that the following statement may make me sound a little odd but I’ll say it anyway: I am fascinated by cheese. Although I learned some very important things whilst studying for my GCSE dual award in combined sciences (for example: despite the fact it would impress a group of drunken friends and the prospect of a facial firework show is very tempting, don’t eat potassium) much of it has been forgotten and my understanding of chemistry is rudimentary at best. Plus I’m pretty sure cheese making was not on the curriculum at that point. This ensures an equal amount of amazement and bafflement when it comes to the world of cheese, a world where there is such variation on every conceivable level that I am simply yearning to learn more. How can the same raw ingredients create products of such varied properties? Witness, on the one hand, that pinnacle of the cheese makers art: the Kraft cheese slice and on the other an aged, crumbling Parmigiano Reggiano the...
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Something that made me smile
2007-02-07 18:26:00
I’ve spent the last couple of days in London. Partly business, mostly pleasure – catching up with some old faces and ‘researching’ some amazing food shops, obviously. This little anecdote has nothing to do with food but it genuinely happened and made me laugh so hard I nearly dropped my panini all over myself. I was having lunch with an old friend in Fitzroy Square where we were sat on a bench casually chatting and regaling each other with the trials and tribulations of the previous months. It turned out that the bathroom in his new house had been a source of considerable annoyance and expense since moving in but now that fixtures and fittings had been chosen all that remained was for the whole lot to be plumbed in. As the current trends would suggest, the labour would be provided by a couple of hard working Eastern European gents, the Polish Mario Brothers, he called them. The conversation that followed was a brief summation of the various pros and cons of the recent increa...
More About: Hat , Methi , Smile , Mile , Made

Coffee in Rome
2007-02-02 15:43:00
I am something of a traditionalist when it comes to coffee making. More to the point, I am also a perfectionist. It was a trip to Rome that inspired me to find out how to make the perfect cup. Deep in the heart of the city, hidden behind the remains of a classic example of ancient Roman architecture, the carved stone pillars still standing after so many centuries, is a haven for any coffee lover. A tiny triangular piazza, framed by peeling brick walls and full of mismatched tables and chairs opens up before you and the heady scent of roasted coffee beans launches a pleasant assault on the nose. There is a cross section of Rome’s diverse population animatedly chatting and smoking with carbinieri and other police taking a mid shift hit of caffeine before going on their way. The coffee bar itself is spacious and cool inside despite the jets of steam racing intermittently from the huge polished espresso machines that line one wall behind a chest high Formica counter. There is a photog...
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I'm just a smoothie talking man
2007-02-01 13:01:00
I love doing these blogs, I really do. I hope that shines through in my passion and commitment to keeping you updated on the foodie comings and goings in my life (I should probably point out that I do manage to busy myself with other activities as well – I’m not some weird recluse developing a gut to rival that of Mr. Creosote) but part of me thinks the situation could be improved somewhat. Being paid to write them would be excellent. Having my own young secretary who can appreciate the finer points of David Lynch while enjoying a bottle of Aussie Shiraz as well as being chatty, amusing and stunningly good-looking would be better (applications to be sent to my email address. Remuneration in the form of witty banter, intellectual conversation, fine dining and coffee and muffins every day) but I fear is considerably less likely so I’ll stick to plan A. So, if there are any commissioning editors reading this right now I am willing to whore myself out to the highest bidder and wri...
More About: Just , Talk , Talking , King , Smooth

Oh deer, I'm feeling a little ill
2007-01-30 12:12:00
It’s got me. I fought it off for a few days but by the time I went to bed last night I knew I wouldn’t be feeling tip top when I woke up this morning, and I was right. I was the last in the house to succumb but my immune system has finally given up like a pathetic balloon with a slow leak. There is an annoying little headache niggling away at the far corner of one of my temples, my shoulders and neck are aching enough to be noticeable but not enough to hurt. I’m tired, a little bit grumpy and feel like I want to spend the next eight hours sat in a chair sipping ginger and lemon tea and watching Jack Bauer save the world in back to back episodes of 24. I’ve got no desire to do anything but here I am, sat at my desk forcing out five hundred food related words in an effort to justify sitting in a chair for the next eight hours watching Jack Bauer save the world whilst sipping ginger and lemon tea. So, perhaps I should get on with it rather than wasting a precious paragraph harp...
More About: Deer , Little , Feeling , Feel , Litt

A Change of Plan
2007-01-29 13:42:00
OK, so it was all mapped out. A starter of pea soup with ham shank tortellini and chive oil followed by pan roasted venison loin with blueberry sauce, warm celeriac mousse, wild mushrooms and fondant potatoes. And an apple tarte tatin with winter spices and bay leaf custard to finish. I was feeling pumped and ready to go, visualising a good few hours of chopping, blending, sautéing and roasting with a selection of new albums loudly soundtracking my every move. There would be tight lipped expletives and muttered prayers as things started to go wrong, a sliced finger caused by a momentary loss of concentration whilst finely dicing shallots. A wave of relaxation as the first glass of wine was sunk and a massive sense of satisfaction when the whole lot would come together, albeit about two hours behind schedule. At least that was what was supposed to happen. What happened instead was that a nasty bug swept through the house knocking out the clan one-by-one with Teutonic efficiency unt...
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Prep for some 'adventurous' cooking. And burgers.
2007-01-27 19:46:00
Since the summer I’ve done very little ‘fine-dining’ cooking, preferring, instead, to focus on more rustic food that is a little less taxing and time consuming but there is still something very special indeed about turning a pile of raw ingredients into a true gastronomic delight. Even if it does take all day. With this in mind I’d earmarked Sunday as a day to create something a bit special and certainly more experimental which meant that Friday would, as usual, be spent scurrying round in a search for the required raw materials only this week it would be a little more protracted. Instead of speculating what it will taste like I’ll save the full details of the meal for Monday when it has been both cooked and consumed and today’s rumination shall be about yesterday instead of tomorrow. And now I’m confusing myself so I’ll just get on with it. I went to the Smokehouse, which is gradually becoming my favourite place in the entire world (apart from Florence), to buy the ...
More About: Cooking , Burger , King , Cook , Burgers

A Serendipitous Risotto
2007-01-25 12:58:00
I feel very relaxed today. After the cathartic rant yesterday I have a serene calm washing over me, like I have expunged a nugget of anger that had settled somewhere in my normally composed soul. It was almost as if I’d been possessed as my fingers flew over the keyboard (have you noticed how much faster you can type when you’re angry?) and a stream of bile-ridden hatred appeared on the screen in front of me. My normal self was watching from upon high slowly shaking his head in disapproval but the demonic forces that had taken over did not let up and I feel all the better for it today. I woke up early and went for a run just as the sun was peeping up from behind the skeletal trees and ice on the pavement made my journey more hazardous than usual then came home and undid all the good work by having scrambled eggs on toast and an enormous mug of coffee sweetened with a little honey (highly recommended). I tidied up the carpet of clothes that had somehow covered my bedroom floor an...
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Is it time to neuter the Tes-bury's behemoth?
2007-01-25 01:11:00
Simple question huh? And like most questions, it has two potential answers: the short one and the long one. The short one is “yes” and the long one can be summarised in a similarly succinct and affirmative fashion. The findings published by the Competition Commission yesterday made for some frightening and illuminating reading and if the situation continues unchecked it will be the job of the Monopolies and Mergers commission to conduct the next report into the power of the ‘big four’ supermarkets, dominated by the looming figure of Tesco. Although I haven’t yet been explicit in my condemnation of supermarket chains on these pages before, regular readers will know that I am a firm advocate of local shopping and buying food at independent retailers. I just prefer to know where my food comes from and that the grower or farmer or baker is getting a fair price that allows him or her to make a decent living. I hate shoving a trolley around a strip lit, climate controlled, facel...
More About: Time , Behemoth

That Friday Falafeeling
2007-01-22 14:40:00
A few years back I was busy getting some work experience under my belt at a magazine based in Toronto, Canada. It was my first proper solo trip away from home and was nothing short of an adventure for a young wet-behind-the-ears aspiring journalist. The trip gave me a real chunk of life experience but perhaps more importantly, broadened my culinary horizons as well. Toronto is a tremendously multi-cultural place with close to half the population from minority groups and I was staying at the pulsing Boho heart of the city full of bars, cafes, take out places and restaurants. I spent a fortnight in wide-eyed amazement at this most cosmopolitan of cities with new beers and coffees and eating experiences to be had round every corner be it a traditional Mexican breakfast or a few pints of Canadian nut brown ale. Not all my enthusiastic forays into the novel and new were successful though. The enormous plate of ‘one cent chicken wings’ consumed prior to watching a ball game at the Sk...
More About: Hat , Friday , That , Frida , Feeling