Length: 2 mins Eating bitter. 吃苦 (chīkǔ) A Hakka concept. There’s an element of “pain first, then pleasure” (or maybe better, say “sweetness” rather than “pleasure”, so that you don’t think I’m simply straying into S&M territory) or “no pain, no gain” implicit… Read More »Am I bitter? Nope.
Length: < 1 min The hand-built kimchi jar has gone into the kiln overnight, for its first firing to biscuit. We suitably propitiated the kiln god and rang the kiln bell. It’ll have cooled enough be able to be handled around 8pm tomorrow I… Read More »Kimchi Kojin kilned
Length: < 1 min At £140 for a ‘bespoke’ one, naaaah, I think I’ll pass, thanks BAO London…
Length: 2 mins Thanks to historian and writer Gareth Harney, for bringing to my notice this piece of (expensive) Roman whimsy. The bronze item was found whilst excavating in the ruins of the (buried by the eruption of Vesuvius) Villa dei Papiri, a… Read More »A pork clock; or a time-zone BLT?
Length: < 1 min An old friend suggested this was redolent of one of the more extreme-end-of-the-scale Heston Blumenthal dishes; one I agreed I wouldn’t be trying at home. The caesium has accumulated in the atmosphere, soil and ground water from years of bomb… Read More »Caesium-soaked truffles along with some radioactive boar meat
Length: < 1 min What sort of sick, sick, pervert hid this horror at the allotment, found lurking in the grass, bringing terror to adults and children alike. Those cold, dead, staring eyes… It should be smashed to smithereens, the earth surrounding the powdered… Read More »The stuff of waking nightmares
Length: 4 mins You may recall Lydia Lunch, who came out of the 1970s’ New York City “no wave” scene as the singer and guitarist of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks? This piece isn’t about her as it happens (altho’ it is about… Read More »Let’s EAT BITTER or Lydia’s Lunch…
Length: < 1 min Eh, fill yer what? Rhyming slang son, rhyming slang. “Derby Kelly” is belly. Pretty sure I was introduced to boiled beef & carrots (albeit mashed, natch!) by my Mum. Equally pretty sure that there were no Gerbers or similar bottled… Read More »Fill yer Derby Kell, gal!
Length: < 1 min I swore I wasn’t going to invoke Proust but as I was constructing a snack for lunch, I had just such a moment. A soft cottage roll, cut in half, both sides slathered with butter, then a layer of English… Read More »Mum’s chip butty
Length: 2 mins Wu geng chang wang (“Wu geng” is apparently an indication of time, 5am, in old Chinese and “chang wang” simply means intestines); the dish is usually made up of preserved mustard leaves, tofu, pork intestine slices, and congealed pork blood… Read More »Guts in the gloaming or 5am intestines 五更肠旺
Length: < 1 min Great observation; until today the reason for something that we’ve probably all noticed happening, certainly hadn’t occurred to me, even though I’ve used the juice in this way. “There’s an enzyme in pineapple that tenderizes meat, which is why it… Read More »Pineapple fights its attacker
Length: 2 mins This extract below came from a short chapter (entitled 家 jiā – Home) in Xiaolu Guo’s “A Lover’s Discourse” which I’m reading through at the moment. I’m not 100% convinced she’s correct but hey, it made me smile wryly… The… Read More »A pig in a house is a person. Or 家 jiā a home…
Length: 5 mins Well, let me confirm — and just for the absence of doubt (as the legal sharks are fond of saying) — that I’m not planning on consuming food off the actual train line, no, that’d be dangerous and dirty and… Read More »A days’ eating off the Victoria Line. Or don’t let it get your goat…
Length: < 1 min The River Ouse that is; along whose banks linger hidden skeletons of railway lines — long now gone — although the whistle of the steam engine seems to drift across a shaded inlet occasionally, a dove-cote, prowed like an old… Read More »A dove-cote and a slide in the ooze…
Length: < 1 min “Dancing to the rhythm of The Guns of Navarone Found my Mecca near Tottenham Hale Station I discovered heaven in the Seven Sisters Road…” The Leyton Buzzards; a short-lived punk-era group that — whilst not quite a one-hit wonder —… Read More »Saturday Night (Beneath the Plastic Palm Trees)…
Length: < 1 min I am more than a little pleased with how this lovely piece looks after the firing yesterday. It’s come out pretty much exactly as I envisaged it (and a huge thanks again to Val for her patient guidance and ideas,… Read More »Pottering ever onwards
Length: < 1 min Via the estimable Fuchsia Dunlop comes this detail: During the Han Dynasty, rich people in Sichuan were sometimes buried with pottery effigies of chefs like this one, to make sure they were well supplied with delicious food in the afterlife.… Read More »OK, drop it in my grave…
Length: 2 mins This one really is a joy; written in 1988 (my copy dates from 1997) by Professor of Cultural Geography, David Crouch and Colin Ward, British anarchist writer and editor. The cover is a lino-cut by a Japanese designer, Kaoru Miyake,… Read More »The Allotment
Length: < 1 min So, we are indeed, confirmed now, for a soft-opening lunch on Sunday. All dishes half-price. Which is nice…
Length: < 1 min A quote that came to me via Val Littlewood; rather apposite as I was reading a short piece on Taiwanese cook & food TV programme presenter Eddie Huang where I came across a similar feeling reply when he was asked… Read More »“You white people will do anything to be liked…”
