I saw this photo and — just for a moment — thought it was a Spanish or Southern US ham maybe. In fact it’s Jinwa Ham from the Lo Sam Yeung Chinese Food Shop. So that’s a new rabbit hole… Read More »Remind you of anything?

Long, long, long ago, back when the Earth was young & the Old Gods still walked the land, there was a caff. A pretty rubbish caff, all of the bad connotations behind the words “greasy spoon” and, in memory, none… Read More »Old caffs

Has anything actually changed in the past 200 years?    

Lamb shoulder is sometimes used in American versions of haggis, as a replacement for lung. I’m not sure how many lungs we can get from our local farmer but pretty sure they’ll have enough for The Great Haggis Project™. Looking… Read More »Deracinated haggis

Hey Gay? You still out there? If you are, then in that case, as Neil Young sang: This Notes’ For You. Just a quick one — if you weren’t already aware — on the fact that our own butchers’ slang,… Read More »Louchébem isn’t for everyone…

Writer Jenny Linford’s @jennylinford “The Missing Ingredient: The Curious Role of Time in Food and Flavour” speaks to the centre-pole of any form of “cooking” (using that word in its very widest sense, that of in some manner or other, preparing… Read More »On chinmi & patience

Ever wondered why chefs don’t have much peacock on their menus? Because they’re “difficult to cook” and in addition “its flesh is so hard that it scarcely putrefies” so asking for it in the restaurant is “hard hearted” on the… Read More »Why don’t we eat peacocks?

Asturian chef José Andrés setup World Central Kitchen in 2010 and since has regularly partnered with local cooks and restaurants and suppliers to feed people who are hungry, starving, in need to comfort and warmth, inc. in Haiti, Puerto Rico… Read More »Food is community.

OK, I confess to a teenage crush on the leather clad Suzie Quatro in the ‘70s. This is her running through “Can The Can” nearly 50 years later… I was reminded of the track when I came across a graphic… Read More »“If I had known the world was ending, I would’ve brought better food”. Give me garum…

I know I’m not alone — Val concurs —  in finding this whole “carry on as normal, work, eat, sleep, repeat” shit a little hard to pay attention to. A little tricky to whip up any enthusiasm for much of… Read More »IDGAF

My suggested “go-to” is a congee, here via the estimable @madamehuang, which soothes the soul. From her excellent “The Dim Sum Field Guide: A Taxonomy of Dumplings, Buns, Meats, Sweets, and Other Specialties of the Chinese Teahouse“…

Am I interested in trying this one? Yes, of course. It’s a garum after all and one made using koji, not the kinda canonical fish guts. Interested enough to pay the £18 they’re extorting plus whatever horrendous shipping charges the courier will impose plus… Read More »Smoked mushroom garum?

This morning, it seems kind of apposite to mention this American Bovril clone that was invented around 1870, so pretty much synchronous with ‘Johnston’s Fluid Beef’. More background on Valentine’s tonic here and an earlier piece by me on Bovril… Read More »Always here for Valentine’s Meat Juice

I mean, how hard can it be? Come on good people of Germany. I need you to say “Ja!” to a residency application… To encourage you to bring this fine mission to a rapid and happy conclusion, you should remember… Read More »Anyone seen my Niederlassungserlaubnis?

Until I read this 2021 Vittles London “What Is Kurdish Food” piece, I’d not (consciously) heard of Musa Dağdeviren. That’s on me of course, as he’s possibly the most famous extant Turkish chef — ‘the saviour of Turkish cuisine’, or… Read More »Once upon a time, via Anatolia

Today I read, via @JamesWhetlor (of Cabrito Goat fame), how the Big Green Egg is produced. Including why it has those dimples… A single ‘matrix mould’ is produced by hand, even the etching in of each dimple, with the ceramic slurry… Read More »It’s Big. It’s Green. It’s kinda egg shaped.

Or a restaurant, or a garage… Another eBay shopping accident (blaming this on @coquus69 Paul Cunningham), means that — for not very many of your English pounds — I am now having to decide where in the house to cement these… Read More »Five Michelin men bounce into a bar…

I’m not saying I’d like one of these heads hanging outside our house; but then I’m not not saying I wouldn’t (hi Val!)… First though, I need to point you to an article about the “piglet squid” (Helicocranchia pfefferi) which… Read More »Masked meat madness at Manteca

…define “need“.

Is there anyone, who, deep in their heart of hearts, doesn’t like a pie? Whilst I’m sure there’s a metric fuck-ton of various foods that — under intense questioning — others would choose as their comfort items and the traditional Death… Read More »Perfect pie pastry prevents piss poor partaking