…that I didn’t know if these pots for the home meal table were even still made as I remember my Dad explaining that Mr. Coleman — of eponymous mustard fame — apocryphally made his fortune on the mustard that was… Read More »I mustard mitt…

Whilst reading the @ticecin Tice Cin book, “Keeping The House”— which deserves every one of the many inches of printed-praise that’s come its way — I was time and again reminded of the centrality of food in lives. The heroin… Read More »On chicken soup. And succour. And comfort.

Thanks to writer Neal Stephenson’s latest “Termination Shock“, today I learned about this phenomenon which are — just as it sounds — pools of spews from wild pigs. “Over time, indigestible stuff accumulated in a hog’s stomach. Eventually they would… Read More »Hog spews

Memory should be so easy we’re told. In films it comes apparently so completely: in flashback scenes, iridescent with infinite detail. In books, whole pages of dialogue turned out, rendered whole, intact. In real life, not so much. An occasional… Read More »Funny how crabby can mean to be annoyed or upset.

A ‘delayed’ from January piece. The heads-up for this one came around that time via — I’m pretty sure — the very wonderful Berlin based Florian Siepert @siepert , whilst the body of recipe & guide is taken from and… Read More »A pig appetite requires German pork haggis

Not quite that bad in this place, at least not just yet. But I realise that STP has been missing the same drum-beat regular updates as you’re used to. I’m busy with The Psycho-Gastronomy Caff writings and the day-job has… Read More »Cobwebs, spiders and dry rot?

A truism that is even more relevant and apposite today, than ever before in my lifetime. The latest report that prompted this was via a post by the very lovely people at Wicked Leeks. Local abattoirs is a very good… Read More »Never trust a Tory.

There’s no logical reason really why finding out that Patum Peperium (“The Gentleman’s Relish”) now comes out of a plastic container, rather than the little earthenware jar I remember it previously in, should make me more than a little sad.

You’ll be delighted to hear that I’ve decided to setup a (new) site for my writing; or at least for those pieces that don’t readily sit under the STP banner. It’s also an attempt to kick-start ‘getting my words onto… Read More »Down at the psycho-gastronomy café

Employed by Val to make myself useful — whilst she was working on her latest book and box — she got me to undertake some stack & slam wedging, as part of her crash-course induction training (alongside expert tuition on… Read More »Shooter’s sandwich or stack and slam wedges? You decide…

I’m sure poets and writers over the centuries have expressed that idea both more beautifully and poetically than I. But, in all honesty, the dark days and nights, the hangover of the shit-storm that hit the world over the past… Read More »January sucks.

One of my favourite ever pieces of Val’s art-work (“The Well Fed Pig” limited edition print, available to buy from us still!) sits front and centre at the start of this latest CKBK “Consuming Passions” offering. Once you’ve raised your eyes… Read More »A (long running) Consuming Passion…

This warning last year to “Get Out Of London” was one of the few signs that The Crab People were returning after millennia hidden from human view. After they came up out of the Thames, a roiling, boiling mass of… Read More »Don’t get all crabby

I was asked to write a longer piece for Matt at CKBK, which I completed and submitted to him over the holiday period. I’ve not yet had feedback, so <cross fingers emoji> 🤞 that it gets his seal of approval… Read More »Oh Döner, You made me stand up, You made me sit down, Döner

A Cornwall breakfast conversation some years back led to a discussion about these people. It seems appropriate somehow to post this in a week when at least some of you are thinking of maybe doing a little less sinning (in… Read More »Eater of sins.

There’s another tsundoku build-up happening here in the house, despite m̶y̶ our best efforts. We’d both agreed to reduce the number of books and, as a result of the ensuing culling frenzy, I’ve managed to recoup approx. £717.05 worth of… Read More »More reading on feeding

Saw this piece via Dezeen, of a house in Prague & the thing that caught my eye was the fried eggs on the (not a) hob ‘thing’. Floating. I have, er, questions about their cooking chops…

Whilst the name reminds me a little of the legendary CBGB music club in New York’s Bowery district, where I was fortunate enough to catch Television, The Ramones, Lou Reed, Patti and others, no, it’s not that. Not an acronym… Read More »Where in the world is CKBK?

I couldn’t immediately recall who suggested this book (illustrated by the estimable Milton Glaser) in their end-of-year-gift-list-for-people-you-actually-like. Jonathan (@demarionunn) at Vittles? Nope. Lewis Bassett and The Full English pod-cast? Not there either. Got it! It was Ben Benton of the… Read More »A cook, a book & Milton Glaser

I wanted to post a description of this one last weekend after visiting Jackson Boxer’s “Brunswick House” in Vauxhall on Saturday but the online version of the menu didn’t mention all the ingredients, so I asked him and the team… Read More »Maximum Middle-white madness