Posts Tagged: food

  • A cartoon image of vikings in a longboat with Danish products. A burning monastery is in the background.

    Danish and “Viking marketing”

    In AD 793 the Viking Age was kicked off when Viking raiders attacked Lindisfarne, an island off the northeast coast of England, plundered its Christian monastery, killed or enslaved the monks and appropriated its religious treasures. The Vikings were undoubtedly accomplished shipbuilders, sailors and traders, but their economic model was simpler—to leverage the quality of […]

  • Chinese dumplings

    Dumpling

    Being of English descent I don’t quite understand how English dumplings have ended up with the same name as Chinese dumplings which are quite different.

  • Four bottles of fish sauce to show umami.

    Umami and fermented fish sauces

    I got into trouble this week from my wife. I had to undertake some maintenance errands as well as provisioning for and cooking dinner. Short of time I took a photo of the evening’s selected recipe and went shopping. In receiving “feedback”, I was informed that the pantry was already brimming with bottles of Nam […]

  • An AI generated image of the world as a peeled potato

    Rösti geography

    We’ve got a German hockey player (Xaver) billeted with us at the moment. I served him some schnitzels a few weeks ago, and served them with rosti and sauerkraut. I quite enjoy cooking rösti (pronounced ruu-shti) to go with schnitzels. It’s a little more trouble than doing mash—grated potato with the excess water squeezed out, […]

  • Indian spices (Image by Vitamin)

    Spice up your day

    I love Indian food. When I first lived in Sydney in the late 1970s and 1980s we would search out the (quite rare) curry houses and order the hottest thing on the menu—usually a vindaloo. I went to live in London for a a few years and it was like going to heaven because Indian […]

  • Definition of suds in UK and in US English overlayed onto picture of a beer being poured

    What are suds doing on the menu?

    I was checking out a wine bar on-line that was running a wine tasting (of Hunter Valley Semillons, btw). Out of curiosity, I looked up their wine list and right at the end of the 20 pages (well of course) there was a tiny selection of beers and non-alcoholic drinks. The beers were called suds. […]

  • I am disappointed that the house doesn't have a plunger ... my wife pictures me needed a plumber's plunger, a French press or a bomb detonator. I just wanted coffee.

    What plunger?

    My wife and went away for the weekend with friends recently (August 2023) to the Southern Highlands south of Sydney (about a two hour drive). I took the afternoon off and went with our friends to the holiday house. My wife followed us down when she finished work. I had been in a bit of […]

  • Image of chocolate bar with chillis next to it

    Chilli chocolate

    When we think of chocolate, it is as an indulgence—a decadent bar, a box of little sea shells shapes or something wrapped in colourful foils. We can even drink a bit of hot chocolate to warm us up in the winter. One of my favourites chocolate indulgences is chilli chocolate, it gives you a double […]

  • Wine words - an abstract image of a wine glass and wine bottle attached with tubing in the manner of laboratory equipment.

    Be an oenophile in one easy lesson—wine words

    I aspire to being an oenophile. An oenophile is a lover or connoisseur of wine. Coined in the 20th century but derived from the Greek words “oinos” (wine) and “phile” (lover of), an oenophile possesses a deep appreciation and knowledge of wines which they use to bore people at dinner parties or business lunches. However, […]

  • GALLIMAUFRY—a confused jumble or medley of things text on image of smorgasbord

    A gallimaufry of culinary words

    One of my favourite words is gallimaufry—it means a confused jumble or medley of things. I am not quite sure why I favour it as there are quite a lot of words in English that have similar meanings. From the very common words like hash, hodge-podge, smorgasbord to the rarer salmagundi and gallimaufry—we have borrowed […]

  • As foodivores humans are technically omnivores—we have evolved not from herbivores but from carnivores and carrion eaters.

    What sort of foodivore are you?

    I eat a diet of fruit, vegetables and meats of all types. We classify animals as carnivores, herbivores or omnivores but what sort of foodivore are we? My carnivorous diet has included much of the animal kingdom including gastropods (snails, oysters, mussels, etc), arthropods (prawns, crabs and other shellfish), cephalopods (squid and octopus), fish, birds […]

  • No one is quite sure how the anaconda got its name. However a suggestion for the origin of the name that I find most enjoyable is that it represents Tamil anaikkonda which means having killed an elephant. Now that makes more sense.

    Did the anaconda kill an elephant?

    The green or common anaconda, Eunectes murinus, inhabits the Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America, the Guyanas (the northeastern countries of South America) and north of Trinidad. It is a member of the boa family and the heaviest snake in the world. The anaconda kills its prey by coiling itself around the victim and […]