Likes/Dislikes

Likes

• Sharing food – yes, I am sorry but I will nick food off your plate when you aren’t looking! It is purely a curiosity thing – I just like to try as much as possible! You are welcome to a bit of mine too J So the little plates phenomenon is a big deal to me and tapas, mezze, picnics are all my fave ways to eat.

• I like most kinds of cuisine (except Japanese – see hates) and although I am not especially well-travelled I think most are delicious! We are so lucky in this country too to have some authentic imports – ingredients and ethnic restaurants. Yay UK!

• My favourite style of cooking is definitely savoury one-pots – stews, curries, stir fries and bakes. I also enjoy doing a roast very slowly so you can get everything ready in stages and enjoy a glass or two along the way

• I am a fairly strict recipe follower although living on your own you get used to adding or swapping in ingredients to save waste. A few experiments have gone right! I think I am lucky to have good sense of smell and taste and this instinct has proved helpful.

• My signature dishes are varied but I often make paella, keema curry, turkey burgers, Bolognese, quesadillas, roast salmon and stuffed peppers, sausage and lentil stew, salmon and many pasta dishes during the month. Mainly because they are easy and I usually have everything I need in the fridge.

• Cooking in someone else house! Making dinner when you don’t know where everything is is a fun challenge and I always get out of the washing up!

• Good service in a restaurant! It is one of those make or break issues when it comes to an eating experience. In fact, I may write a blog post on this alone.

Dislikes

• Garlic is gorgeous but I have noticed how it has become overused a lot. Let’s not forget it is quite a powerful flavour and I find sometimes it’s a bit unnecessary, especially in delicate dishes e.g fish and creamy pastas. Hold back a bit! Or rub a cut garlic clove around your cooking dish for a faint taste.

• Japanese food. I am sorry but there is something in my tastebuds that has rejected the typical Japanese flavours and key dishes. I can’t eat sushi, sashimi, miso, sushi rice, seaweed or anything cold and “flabby”. The only Japanese food I like is teriyaki steak, salmon or chicken and bbq yakitori. Strange, but I have tried and tried to enjoy it and so far no good

• Texture is also relevant – so steak tartare, smoked salmon and beef carpaccio are also very difficult to swallow, even though the flavours themselves are nice.

• The only other thing I don’t like much is shellfish. Small prawns are lovely but when you get to kind prawns I find them hard and tasteless. Mussels, scallops and clams are nice in flavour but that old texture thing comes back to haunt me each time I try. Shame.

• Fridge cold tomatoes. Unless using in a gazpacho it just kills the flavour

• Slimy black bananas. They must be hard, and just turned from green to yellow.

• Cupcakes. Yuk they are so disproportionate and a bit vulgar in my opinion. 

• Really sweet or chocolaty rich things.