08 Sunday Apr 2012
Posted in food & drink, video
Tags
Remember how to peel a head of garlic in less than 10 seconds? (still haven’t tried that one – has anyone else?). Well now you can find out how to peel a hard-boiled egg without peeling it. Though I’m thinking this is only a good method if you are peeling (without peeling) an egg for yourself. You’ll see why.
01 Sunday Apr 2012
Posted in cooking, culture, diet & nutrition, food & drink, health & happiness, home
Tags
Today I made this very comfort-foodie dish based on having tried it a few times elsewhere. It has some of the usual comfort food ingredients (potatoes, eggs) as well as some chorizo and spicy pimentón thrown in for good measure. And most enjoyable it was too!
Here is the recipe: huevos rotos
But as comforting (and delicious) this late Sunday lunch was, when it comes to comfort food I’d probably say my favourites would include cheese. Like, mac & cheese or grilled cheese sandwiches.
What’s your favourite comfort food?
14 Wednesday Mar 2012
Posted in cancer, death & dying, diet & nutrition, food & drink, health & happiness, wtf?
Tags
bbc, cancer, death, red meat, scare mongering, tapas, vineria san telmo
First of all, read this very silly article – supposedly Health NEWS – from the BBC:
Red meat increases death, cancer and heart risk, says study
Now I ask you… who out there with even half a brain doesn’t know that eating a balanced diet is the healthiest option? Who hasn’t heard (all their lives) that it’s best to eat red meat in moderation? Same goes for fried food, rich sauces, bacon, butter, pâté, fatty cheeses … you know, all the good stuff. And so when I read that a study of over 120,000 people over almost 30 years “suggested red meat increased the risk of death from cancer and heart problems” I clutched my head in despair. In all seriousness, there is probably more “risk of death” every time you cross the street. And, although I don’t eat much red meat myself, I still ended up with colon cancer. So go figure. I honestly don’t see how articles like these are beneficial to anyone – must’ve been an especially slow news day at the BBC.
Meanwhile, that tasty looking dish up there is a divinely decadent combination of perfectly fried eggs (with slightly runny yolks), grilled spicy chorizo Ibérico and potatoes, topped with thin slices of gorgeous jamón Ibérico. But as delicious as it is, I wouldn’t dream of eating that every day. Why? Because I’m not stupid.
I still can’t believe that after years and years of going to the Vineria San Telmo I only tried that dish for the first time during my marathon tapas tours the other day. It truly is to die for. So to speak…
11 Sunday Mar 2012
Posted in food & drink, hope, restaurants, sevilla, spain, tapas, tapas tours
Tags
hope, life, tapas tours, work
Yesterday was a bit of a blur as I had – for the first time ever – two tapas tours in one day. Talk about Tapeo Extremo! First a regular Sevilla Tapas Tour at lunch time and then a Gourmet Tapas Tour in the evening. And both went fantastically well. Met lovely people, had an amazing time with great food & wine & conversation. Ended up quite zonked but happy. Very happy.
So I now have a new goal, which is to set up this gastronomy tour biz properly, inspired by Twitter pal Gabriella Ranelli who runs Tenedor Tours in San Sebastian. As most of you know, I’ve been testing the waters since getting off chemo and back to work, but haven’t felt quite ready to bite the bullet and start up a new company with all the extra time and expense that would entail, especially as so far it’s just been a very part-time gig. But if things keep going well I think it may be time to start doing this as a proper full-time job.
Tomorrow I have another double-whammy day coming up with both lunchtime and evening tours – for the second time ever!! – but then nothing for a couple of weeks. Still, it’s quite exciting to think I could actually make this work. Will keep you posted…
10 Saturday Mar 2012
Posted in change, food & drink, friends, home, work
Tags
change, home, life stuff, sewing, work
For over a year now my fabulous upstairs room has barely been used. This is about to change.
It’s funny how chance encounters can make such a difference. The other day I stopped by my friend Maria’s shop and found her chatting with a rather exotic looking woman called Fourat. A few minutes later all three of us were sitting at La Azotea up the street ordering wine and tapas, and an hour or so later I was over at Fourat’s house (turned out she lives on the same street) setting up a Twitter account for her and talking about our various projects.
One of the many things that came up was my now sadly abandoned clothing biz and I mentioned how I hadn’t sewn anything in ages although I still had TONS of fabric. And so this morning Peter and I cleared off one of the tables upstairs and set up my sewing machines so that they are there and ready to go whenever I feel inspired, as one thing that always puts me off sewing is having to set everything up and tear it all down again afterwards. The other thing is that I don’t actually like sewing, but that’s partly to do with the first thing.
Anyhow… it’s such a perfect room for sewing because of the lovely natural light and it’ll be great to actually be using that room. Until now it’s mostly just been Peter’s classroom for the couple of students that come to the house, even though there’s a comfy chair for reading and a music system set up. I’m sure that once I’m spending more time up there it will also inspire me to start doing more with the terraza. And all because of one chance meeting. Fourat (who gives classes in Lebanese and Mediterranean cooking) and I are also planning a project or two together, so stay tuned for that…
casa azahar 