Category: Food ( but this is not a food blog)

#1383 theoldmortuary pomders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Birthdays, Food ( but this is not a food blog), London1 Comment

The city was busy putting a party face on yesterday. Everywhere Christmas decorations and lights were going up to welcome in the Festive Season. We chose a cosy harbour pub for a birthday lunch.

Decorations of a different sort had been released into the sea by our swimming zone so there was no birthday bob to celebrate the passing of another year.

One birthday gift came with some intriguing facts. When we first lived in London we lived in Dulwich Village.

A rather lovely spot that has had a soap fragrance created with the same name.

Named in 967 AD for the Dill Fields that scented the area.

Not a Dill plant in sight when we lived there. The overall fragrance was Affluence and Privilege, it was a fabulous place to people watch and enjoy baked goods from a Gails Bakery. ( Gails Bakery is a very contentious subject in the world of Baked Goods) Hated by independent bakeries all over London.

Now I love an Independent business, one of the many reasons we chose to buy a flat in Crystal Palace. But living in London requires almost everyone to work very long hours. I often caught the first train out in the morning a full two hours before any independent bakery opened. I would return 12 or more hours later when any self respecting independent would have sold out and closed up. My independent loving heart would have been starved of baked goods were it not for Gails. A freshish sourdough loaf at 7pm is better than a sold out and closed for the day independent. And infinitely better than anything a supermarket could serve up.

Giving this blog a rather rags to riches theme. Although in my case, Effluence to Affluance. Sewage in the sea to middle-class  bakery angst by way of a birthday natter. Rather a classic ponder in my humble opinion

#1363 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog)1 Comment

What’s the most money you’ve ever spent on a meal? Was it worth it?

I have no idea what the most expensive meal that I have ever had cost me. I have been lucky enough to eat in some very swanky places and don’t recall ever feeling cheated or disappointed.

I have also eaten all sorts of meals in ‘ cheap as chips ‘ places and been absolutely thrilled with the quality and value of my meal.

I find that disappointment is more likely to occur in the middle ground. Chains or places that believe they are fancier than they are. Establishments that are themed or over-decorated to attract Instagram moments are often very much styled over substance, with £££ spent and charged on decor ingredients and skilful chefs who are well-paid.

If the meal on my plate is not worthy of the cost. No one can force me to go back,but if everything about the experience is wonderful I will always return if I can.

Plastic flowers and grotty loos  might make me feel cheated even if the food was fab. Obsequiousness from the front-of-house staff makes me lose my appetite for a big bill. Micro-herbs and foam, also unlikely to thrill me to empty my purse.

All reasons to question the value at the bottom of the bill.

#804 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Food ( but this is not a food blog), pondering, Serendipity1 Comment

What’s your favorite thing to cook?

I love cooking anything with British summer fruits. Not a thing I do much of in the depth of winter. But where cooking fails, art steps up. I had ordered some romantically named water colours in the depth of winter, they arrived on the cusp of February and the little test piece I painted when they arrived, had all the piquancy of my favourite summer puddings.

The names themselves are delicious.

School Disco

Byzantium

Caravan Green

Gooseberry

Rowan berry

I doodled away giving everything except Byzantium a run out on paper. To be honest I was being sidetracked.

I was actually supposed to be creating a pillowcase from an old pyjama jacket.

But the temptation to try the new paints suddenly became urgent. Probably because sewing the slippery fabric was as difficult as it had been to sleep in the pyjamas.

I didn’t give Byzantium a moment on the brush. I’m not sure why. But it gives me a fine excuse to have another doodle this weekend.These paints are all hand made by Tansy Horgan.

https://tansyhargan.bigcartel.com/

I have a project in mind that will need Byzantium. I am slightly concerned that Byzantium may be a bit of a bully. Caravan Green turned out to be exactly that. Hugely versatile on his own, but a little bit of a bully when mixing with others. Gooseberry was a dream,fading out to something imperceptibly beautiful the more dilute I made it.

School Disco was a dream. As pink and pushy as Barbie. I was always a rather conflicted Disco goer, particularly the termly torture of a School Disco. I loved to dance, but in that dreadful hierarchy of teenage years my acne and bookishness cast me as a wallflower. Not that I needed to be picked to be danced with. I have always had enough chutzpah to dance as if no-one is watching, but the judgement of the school ‘beautiful people’ is a harsh spotlight to step into.

And lastly Rowanberry.

Does anybody apart from birds eat a Rowanberry? The paint was fab. A super bright red/orange with a bitter edge. I can’t wait to pair it with Byzantium on a doodle.

Apparently it is a foraging classic.

Easy Homemade Rowan Berry Jelly

©LarderLove

Goodness it is good to get back to classic @theoldmortuary pondering. February really does feel like the start of something.

#804 theoldmortuary ponders

#797 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog), Hugo and Lola, Serendipity1 Comment

Write about a few of your favorite family traditions.

This question caught me on the hop. We are a very small family. Beyond meeting up, and supporting each other, on the good days and the bad, we pretty much conform. We have high days and holidays. Long walks, short walks. Shared experiences and adventures. We also do the humdrum and the mundane. Our one idiosyncratic tradition is the purchase of chocolate eclairs to celebrate, commiserate or just perk up a dull day.

Specifically, a chocolate eclair marks the death of a family member who was run over and killed while walking her dog. She loved chocolate eclairs and never needed an excuse to buy a box of four to share with a cup of tea. Our continued purchase of eclairs, after her death, doesn’t come from a place of sadness. It is a sense of solidarity.

I was caught on the hop because I have never bothered to photograph eclairs and to many who read this blog an eclair may be a mystery. One shockingly bad photo in my archive.

Maybe one of my tasks in 2024 should be to learn to bake eclairs. Not as a replacement for the traditional ‘box of four’ but as a useful life skill.

Our dogs are the colours of a chocolate eclair.

#783 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog)1 Comment

What snack would you eat right now?

January is snack heaven. All the festive season left-overs ease us gently through the long dark month. Early on there are soups and curries to be made but at the mid-point all that is left is cake and cheese. Stilton cheese and Christmas cake is a traditional snack and one that we enjoy from Christmas Day until one or the other runs out. In the giddy yuletide days the traditional drink accompaniment is a glass of Port. Productivity and the need to drive means that the port addition is dropped early on. This is not an every day snack.

I am not a hugely snack driven person but a couple of times a week a small plate of cheese and cake is all it takes to chase the worst of the winter away.

I’m participating in this blogging challenge for the month of January, which supports starting the year on the “write” track. You can find other posts with #bloganuary.

#755 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog), Serendipity3 Comments
A beady-eyed owl

Quinces have been an unusual favourite fruit for some time, probably since I was about 5 and aware that my grandparents were often to be found,in the autumn, cooking the very fragrant fruit in a load of different ways. The tree of a neighbour always provided a glut of the lumpy apple shaped fruit. How thrilled was I when my beady eyes alighted on the word Quince on a trip to the local coffee shop.

Then, as if by magic, a newspaper recipe also included Quince.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/dec/17/nigel-slater-recipes-for-goose-fat-chicken-and-quince-custart-tarts

I’ve tried growing a Quince tree in both London and Cornwall. An epic failure on both counts. But recent success at making my own Quince Jelly makes me think I should try again in my backyard in Devon. Maybe it will be the third time lucky.

#710 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog)3 Comments
Cake imitating nature in the sun.

Yesterday was a ‘sun’day and this is a frangipane,almond and raspberry brioche which formed an early part of my day. My ongoing symptoms of anosmia ( loss of smell and taste) has made me mad for the combination of almond and raspberry baked goods. I know it is a traditional and even classic pairing of flavours but it was never a favourite of mine.That is until my last bout of Covid, 18 months ago, which seems to have permanently damaged my olfactory system. My grip on taste and smell has always been odd. When I was younger the first sign of an incoming migraine was a hypersensitive smell ability. For about 8 hours before the migraine arrived I had such a powerful sense of smell I could have been a police tracker dog. My sense of smell was so acute. This was not a good thing for a woman who worked in hospitals. Then came the crushing, piercing head pain, for however long it took, and then a few days of total anosmia when I had to stop cooking from scratch and eat food other people had cooked or readymade meals. For several days after I would have to ask my fellow diners what I was eating.

So here I am now with about 20% smell and taste and my lifelong personal preferences turned on their head. Cheese straws my #1 baked goods are just pap and a bakewell tart, about #90 for most of my life is now my new idea of Nirvana. Taste and smell are also transitory and fragile, one mouthful is like a flavour bomb and maybe 20 seconds later there is just nothing. In the bright sunshine of yesterday Drakes Island was just like my flavour experience. One minute it was there.

And 20 seconds later it was gone.

Eating now is about discovering the things I can taste which is, in many ways, so liberating.I can no longer head straight for what I know I like on a menu but experimentation is a whole gorgeous new world.

Frangipane brioche anyone?

#681 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog)2 Comments

Walking but not running is a huge part of my daily, dog owning, life

But running not so much . However in my vivid dream world last night it was all about running and shouting. I blame the large chocolate eclair I ate closer to bedtime than is usual. . Our evening had been spent enjoying pizza from a home pizza oven.

As an inaugural effort it was both hugely successful and intriguing. Three out of four were visually and flavorfully successful. One was structurally unsound but an epicurean delight. The evening was nearly thwarted by the pizza oven having a european plug. Trusty Waitrose, a rather middle class supermarket, had a travel adapter for all the European holiday makers flooding into Cornwall all summer minus their travel plugs. The consequence of pizza oven plug jeopardy was a delayed start time for eating which then pushed Eclair eating further down the time schedule.

Between eating and sleeping there was just the late night dog walk.

A sleep fueled with pizza and chocolate eclair with no real gap is not a restful event. When I woke up at six I was exhausted by my nocturnal adventures and then easily droppin off again I was plunged into a colourful world of events and activities that required me to run through airports and take part in vintage vehicle parades. When I woke up at eight and checked my phone the question below popped up on my blogging app. Any other day I would have ignored it , feeling embarrassment that running is not really my thing any more.

How often do you walk or run?

But clearly in my nocturnal life things are quite different. In my dream world I run around like a twenty five year old athlete. Parkouring where necessary, nothing gets in my way. Fueled by late night carbohydrates and fats, the world is, apparently, a place to be scampered through at speed. Who knew!

#647 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog), Serendipity3 Comments

What’s the most delicious thing you’ve ever eaten?

Hard on the heels of yesterday’s blog this was the prompt today.

3 years into my world of a changed and sometimes absent sense of taste and smell, delicious can mean a whole new world to my faulty olfactory system. Alongside my partial loss of day to day taste and smell. I am losing my memory or recollection of foods I have loved in the past but with that I have developed a liking for things I would have previously avoided. Blueberries are a case in point. I always found blueberries to be a fusty, stale tasting fruit, on the whole I avoided them. Then, in Thailand, I tried this beautiful lemon meringue pie, garnished with blueberries. Normally I would leave them to one side and gift them to whoever I was eating with but curiosity made me eat one. All the embellishments/ blueberries were gone before I even touched the lemon meringue pie. In that moment blueberries were the most delicious thing I had ever eaten. Blueberries in Thailand became my favourite thing.

Mangosteens too, although I had never had a previous opinion.

I wondered if growing in an entirely different climate had changed the flavour of blueberries, but it is me that has changed.

So the most delicious thing I will ever taste may be yet to come…

#646 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Food ( but this is not a food blog), SerendipityLeave a comment

I am approaching a year since I had my first positive -testing bout of Covid.  Vaccinated to the max, the whole episode was very mild. Prior to that I almost certainly had Covid just before the Pandemic shut the world down, and again, just before vaccinations started. Even though I was negative testing throughout what was a very tiresome and ill-making viral experience.

The legacy of these events is a daily routine of a morning black coffee to start the day. I realise that this is no big thing. But this blog of the mundane and repetitive nature of normal life is often about pondering the small things of life. First thing in the morning really good coffee tastes sublime.

Any gains made in recovering my sense of taste or smell were lost with the final and only positive episode of Covid. Then this morning I wondered if my grip of taste and smell has always been rather precarious.

When I experienced migraines the first sign of one approaching was a hypersensitive experience of smell. This was a distinct handicap when working in the medical world. Painkillers could dull the pain but those smells just kept coming. The next phase was brief visual disturbance, then the skull crushing pain. Once the pain was dealt with or had subsided I was always left with no sense of smell or taste for a few days.

Funny that I should only connect the two symptoms today.

I suppose I consider myself to have the engineers nightmare, an intermittent fault but the positive takeaway is a new love of the depths of flavours in a black coffee as soon as I wake up.