I have never blogged before. I have been encouraged to do so for some time, to the extent that this blog was set up for me. I’d better start!
My chief interests are food, travel, cricket, live theatre, live music, and going to the cinema. I am at my happiest sitting at the cricket eating a picnic, or trying different foods on my travels, or producing a table groaning with home cooked food.
A friend told a friend that if you don’t know what to write start with a list. The following list, in no particular order, is a selection from the strong views that I hold about food. You may disagree however I hope it entertains, and maybe inspires some ideas for your own food dictatorship.
- You may eat to live, I live to eat.
- Tea is tea. Those fruit and herbal things are tisanes. Please remember this as I am English.
- Brownies should not contain nuts. Brownies are squidgy.
- Steak should never be well done.
- Raw spinach good, cooked spinach bad.
- Lamb should not be able to baa as it comes to the table.
- Lobster should not be overdressed. Some things are better naked.
- Sprinkling coriander liberally does not make food exotic, it makes it taste of soap.
- Please do not ask me if I want diet tonic, I do not want to ruin my gin.
- Water comes from taps in our houses, eating establishments, and workplaces, except in extreme circumstances.
- Fish should be opaque, not flapping.
- Building a tower, that I will have to ruin to eat, does not make me think that you are a good cook.
- A homemade cake is an embodiment of love.
- Don’t be a food snob. A good hot dog is a thing of wonder.
- I would rather eat meat and chocolate less often and buy the best.
- Salad should not be 95% lettuce or other tasteless/bitter leaves.
- Drink whatever wine you like, at whatever temperature you like, with anything you like.
- If guests season your food before they have tasted it you are quite in your rights to kill them.
- Margarine is an abomination. A good kitchen needs proper butter and natural oils.
- Share as often as possible. Eating alone is just functional.
- Try everything once if you get the opportunity.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
See you next time.
October 25, 2015 — 2:49 pm
Well done, Cheryl. I’d love to write a blog too, but haven’t yet plucked up the courage! Couldn’t agree more about coriander …
Good luck with the blog x
October 25, 2015 — 3:34 pm
Couldn’t fault any of the rules, but I suspect you knew that !
October 25, 2015 — 4:41 pm
Looking forward to the next rumminations !
October 25, 2015 — 8:21 pm
Oh, we do agree on most things! I do have a few quibbles, however:
Tea is indeed tea, and steeped drinks that are in part tea leaf are also tea. Fruit things are tisanes, yes. Tea with milk in it, however, is *foul*. 🙂
What if the brownie bit is squidgy *around* nuts? What do you call brownies with nuts, then?
All spinach is good. Popeye says so.
Your rule for coriander should go for all spices and herbs. A single spice in excess, or too many spices, the whole of them in excess, does not make you a fancy cook. It points, instead, to lack of experience, and lack of faith in the main ingredient. Right?
I have eaten a fish while it was still flapping. Cried later at home. Still, I am OK with non-opaque fish.
“Don’t be a food snob. A good hot dog is a thing of wonder.” – Wholeheartedly agreed! A corollary: One should never judge a person’s comfort foods. If tomatoes on toast or Kraft Mac-n-Cheese make your stress level go down and your heart find its happy place, then they are magical things.
You are food-wise, madam, and I have tasted the proof! I have also been loved via your cake, and am endlessly honored and overjoyed. I think I will have “Eating alone is just functional” tattooed in a Laurie Pink scroll on my bottom.
October 26, 2015 — 5:37 pm
Brownies with nuts are called silly.
I will let you off with mint tea, and as I love you allow you, and you alone, to say that tea with milk is foul. Actually only malty tea like Assam and English Breakfast should have milk, the paler delicate ones should have nothing or lemon.
Looking forward as usual to share food with you again.
October 25, 2015 — 10:43 pm
We’ll have to disagree on spinach. Raw it’s lovely but cooked properly it can be wonderful too. And I almost always eat on my own and it is far from functional – I can take my time cooking and eating and prepare what food I want and when 🙂
October 26, 2015 — 5:31 pm
Then that is lovely, and you clearly take good care of yourself.
As the main cook in the household I guess I get to do most of the choosing!
October 26, 2015 — 5:46 pm
Now, if you would be so kind, please share your scone (/skän/ but just for you, lovely lady) recipe? 😛
November 7, 2015 — 3:24 pm
I will make some tomorrow so that I can photograph the process for Joan.