Bergamo ochre
Bergamo, however, surprised me from the start. (more…)
Archive for the ‘food’ Category
Food and drink in Lombardy
Monday, April 5th, 2010Discount food at stations
Friday, October 19th, 2007If you find yourself waiting for your train at a station fortunate enough to have a food outlet, you may be interested in a BiTE discount card which apparently will give you 20% off food and drinks from outlets like Pumkin, Caffè Ritazza, Burger King and Upper Crust among others.
I have just sent off for one, will see what happens.
Give us this day our daily bread
Monday, July 2nd, 2007Last year, during the FA World Cup, I bought a sandwich which came with its own thought for the day. Today I find myself buying the same sandwich made by Daily Bread: shaved cheddar and pickle. It still comes with its daily motto which today is:
If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us airline tickets
Mel Brooks
Quite so.
RIP HP Sauce
Friday, March 16th, 2007
The last bottle of HP Sauce was manufactured in the Birmingham factory where it had been made for over 100 years early this morning. US company, Heinz, who bought HP two years ago are now going to have it manufactured in the Netherlands. West Midlands MPs have protestested both against the closure of the factory (with the loss of 125 jobs) and its move to the Netherlands while retaining the trademark image of the Houses of Parliament (thus the name HP). Heinz say they will not be removing the image but some MPs want it banned from the cafeterias and restaurants at the Houses of Parliament. This recent HP advertisement also markets its ‘Britishness’ (although its more unsophisticated elements).
I will not use HP again so I will have to find my own recipe.
My cheese
Thursday, February 8th, 2007
Isn’t it beautiful? I am aching to try it. We will cut it on the day of the Mongolian New Year, Tsagaan Sar.
I made it last year in September at Hartpury College. We were taught by Judy from Wharf Farm Dairy. It is a goats milk cheddar. Thank you, Judy, for such a wonderful experience. I can’t wait for more.
Milk protest
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007Today, a woman from the Women’s Institute of Tutshill, Gloucestershire, made a wonderful protest outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster by sitting in a bath of milk. The protest was about the declining price of milk (down now only to 18p per litre for the dairy farmer from 24.5p ten years ago).
We only have about 13,000 dairy farmers left in Britain and there is a very real danger of losing all milk production in a few years time. The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are making a piddly £1.3m available to dairy farmers to “address issues of efficiency.” Defra refuse to introduce a milk regulator and insist price negotiations should be a private commercial matter that government cannot get involved in so long as competition rules are being adhered to, however they continue to increase the burden of rules and regulations onto dairy farmers who cannot take the burden of the cost anymore. (more…)
Cheesemaking
Friday, September 29th, 2006
A couple of weeks ago I attended an introductory cheesemaking course at Hartpury College, Gloucester. We were taught by Judy King, cheesemaker from nearby Wharf Farm Dairy. We made a cheddar method goats cheese which will mature in about two months. The photo shows the second cheddaring which is the process of re-cutting the curds, placing one block on top of another for more whey to drain out. See all my cheesemaking photos to understand the process.
White Nancy
Wednesday, August 16th, 2006
One of my favourite cheeses. Newly discovered at Salisbury Farmers’ Market, White Lake Cheeses of Shepton Mallet specialise in excelling themselves in cheesecraft of the highest calibre. From their 600 goats, amongst which British Alpines, Toggenburgs, Saanens and Nubians the milk is tranformed into this most brilliant of foods.
Lemons, Amalfi
Sunday, January 22nd, 2006
Originally uploaded by courgettelawn.
Having had a very lemony dinner, it reminded me of the lemons I met in Amalfi last year. These were being sold in one of the local green grocers. Amalfitan lemons are too big to hold comfortably in the hand but the feel of their knarled skins sends sparks of rapture through your body. Limone oose the twangiest, most sublime elixir of all the citrus fruits. It is said that the origin of the word lemon derives from the Sanskrit, nimbuka and came into European languages via Persian, limu. Terraces of lemon trees reach up to the heavens all around Amalfi. Walking the streets and climbing the salità, the salty coastal breezes are royal carriages for the seraphic scent of the lemon trees, their leaves, bark and fruit. Breathe in and golden light permeates every pore in your body; breathe out and you smile. Fruits of ecstacy and pleausre.
Yalda
Monday, January 16th, 2006
As blue skies struggle against the greyest, dampest of weather, I fondly think back to seasonal festivities in late December. Last year I celebrated Yalda, the Persian (and Zoroastrian) festival of the Winter Solstice. An early, thickly fogged morning travelling to Stonehenge with Sheherazad, Tom and Doug was rewarded with one of the most atmospheric experiences of my life. The fog ensured we wouldn’t see the sun rise over the horizon but instead we were treated to walking among the clouds, rubbing shoulders with the giants that are the bluestones and sarsens. You can get a taste of what it was like by looking at our Stonehenge Winter Solstice photos. The new sun did emerge from the clouds fleetingly and I was content to say hello before it went off to show itself to others. In the evening, we celebrated Yalda with the Southampton Persian Society at Yalda Persian Restaurant. Scents of saffron, fluffy, buttery rice, flat breads pleasingly blistered in the cloam oven sprinkled with toasted caraway and sesame seeds, aromatic lamb and hot mint tea permeated all around as we divined the poems of Hafiz, ate, drank and laughed.
You can read my Zoroastrian celebration of Yalda article if you like?