writing, ideas, food, utopia
Four days after the attacks on London Bridge and at Borough Market, the Market is still cordoned off. This beautiful public space, at the heart of my local community - and the global food community - with its huge population of residents, workers and visitors, remains at the epicentre of the painstaking and important work… Continue reading Why Borough Market Makes the World a Better Place
Last week the world commemorated fifty years since the first space walk. Today we should be rejoicing in the less known - but for space food enthusiasts far more significant - 50th anniversary of the very first Earth food-as-we-know-it to appear in the United States' space programme: a corned beef sandwich. On 23rd March 1965… Continue reading Space food anniversaries: the first sandwich in space
Irn bru may be one of those things you have to enjoy as a child – like marmite – to really develop a taste for it. Happily for me, I did, and in the right circumstances there’s little better than a cold, rusty orange, sweet, fizzy glass of it. It’s impossible to describe the taste.… Continue reading Irn bru sorbet for Burns night
When I was growing up marmalade meant one thing: a citrussy concoction with bits of peel in it, related to jam but somehow more complicated in flavour and less obviously sweet. It was also one of the only things my father ever cooked - it still is - and although he comes up with all… Continue reading Bitter with bits in: my ideal marmalade
When you read any of Charles Fourier's utopian tracts you can't help noticing what an important part sugar plays in his idea of the perfect world. He constantly refers delicious cakes, jams and sweets, and does it with such relish that it feels obvious that his future world, Harmony, was the perfect place for… Continue reading Rediscovering the Mirliton – Charles Fourier’s favourite tart
At any market in southern Kazakhstan you will see piles of the most beautiful big round breads, called nan or non. All of them have a raised edge and some kind of decoration on the central dough, though there are many variations on the theme, and they are priced accordingly. Some are plain (taba nan,… Continue reading Bread in Kazakhstan – Taba Nan baked in a dung fire
The experiment is at an end, and judged on looks alone it is a triumph - those grated golden curls couldn't be more lovely. But on flavour, we have a hung jury. The effect of these flecks of proteinous gorgeousness on pasta or in a salad is very good indeed, I just wish it was… Continue reading Cured egg yolk: final chapter, first round
A few weeks ago I was thwarted in my plan to make Magnus Nilsson’s crispy lichen dish by my lack of a cured egg yolk. This weekend, it’s all come together: the egg yolks have had about a month to mature, and a walk on the North Downs produced a small bagful of beautiful grey-green… Continue reading Crispy lichens and cured egg yolks – the forbidden experiment?
I'm a major fan of porridge as my winter breakfast - but I now realise how limited my porridge horizon has been. Like any well brought up girl from Edinburgh, I'd only really considered oats as the proper content of my breakfast bowl. Needless to say, Magnus Nilsson (whose Fäviken cookbook I am currently obsessed with) has… Continue reading How many grains make a good porridge?
I've probably been living a sheltered life, but I'd never come across a semi-dried pickle - until I continued my investigation of Magnus Nilsson’s Fäviken cookbook. Never, it seems, a man to rush things, Nilsson recommends slightly drying out pickled vegetables until "they resemble vegetable raisins" to serve with a hot pork chop. I usually have a good… Continue reading Whoever heard of a semi-dried pickle?
Jane Levi 