Chef at Large

During my stay at Hollingwood Hall, I had a few opportunities to cook for my housemates. The first of these meals comprised of an elaborate pork dish that was stewed in coconut milk and a bunch of spices, simple potatoes flavored with cumin seed, a salad, rice and some wine. I’m quite used to people [...]

We visited Blanco a few days back for a drink and some food.
Quite a nice place. Either I haven’t been getting around as much as I used to, or restaurants are becoming more and more daring and experimenting with bold themes for their decor. I did like the way Blancos was set up. The staff [...]

Ashwin and I decided to meet up midweek and yesterday seemed as good a day as any. Since I had had enough of western style food, the general consensus was either an Indian or a Chinese restaurant. Roaming around Khan market, we found SideWok.
If I were to choose a single redeeming feature at SideWok, it [...]

We awoke to watery sunshine then went back to sleep.  We dozed for ages, it was so relaxing.  We read and drank coffee then went for a drive at about 3.00pm, by which time it was raining again.  We climbed Mont D’Or where D had been the previous evening but the 56 steps of the [...]

I cooked this for dinner yesterday. It’s interesting what innovative dishes you come up with, when you don’t really have a choice of cooking implements or ingredients.
Looking up my inventory, I chopped up some courgettes, spring onions, potatoes, smoked sausage, mushrooms and french beans. Heated some oil, fried a little cumin seed, added some finely [...]

We a woke to sunshine and I wore my summer clothes.  We had breakfast of fried eggs and mushrooms on  toasted sunflower bread, it was lovely.  French eggs all seem to have very yellow yolks and they are always delicious.  We read a little in the sunshine but soon had to have a little snooze…
We [...]

I was at a barbeque this past Sunday, very kindly invited there by Joseph and his wife Elisabeth. It was my first such experience in this country and quite nice too.
We had grilled beef steaks, mince meat kebabs, boiled jacket potatoes topped with cheese, sauteed onions and bell peppers, sauteed mushrooms, ciabatta, duck and greens [...]

We awoke to a cool and damp day but as it is our holiday we don’t mind that much.  We did some basic shopping then had a drive out to the countryside.  There is a distinct lack of wild life in this area compared to some places we have stayed, the only things of interest have been [...]

On the MV Bretagne from Portsmouth we find our cabin and stow our luggage.  To the restaurant for dinner but there was a long queue and we had to put our names on a list to be called when a table became vacant.  To the rear deck, with drinks - Sancerre for me and a [...]

Funny name for eggs, I know. Thing is, firstly, I made them on [a day after actually] Republic Day. Secondly, and this is stretching it a bit, these eggs are free from the traditional bondage/dominion of buttered toast. If you believed that, good! If you didn’t, actually, I couldn’t think of any other name for [...]