There’s a lot of mystery around game…hunting it, preparing it, cooking it. It’s all a little bit impenetrable for urban dwellers like me. Despite being essentially a city boy, I’ve cooked with game of various types for many years, but I’ve never really had much hands on experience with it, never shot or trapped anything, [...]

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How much do you drink?

New Year, less booze?

by rich on January 12, 2012

It’s that time of year again….Christmas and New Year over and done with, and the miserable dreariness of January, work and general fatigue induced depression right back on top of us. I started writing this on what’s widely regarded as the worst day of the year – the first Monday at the head of a [...]

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What makes a turkey good, and how to buy one.

How much for that turkey?

by rich on December 18, 2011

The annual task of sourcing the Christmas Day turkey normally falls to my brother, who being in the trade, knows what he’s looking for and where to get it. Sourcing the turkey and picking it up are separate tasks, and the job of actually transporting Rob’s carefully hunted prize birds usually falls to Dad. Last [...]

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What's the difference between Use By and Best Before dates?

Use By vs. Best Before vs. Display Until

by rich on September 17, 2011

Have you ever gone to the fridge to cook something and noticed at the last second that the date on it had passed maybe a day or two ago? Did you chuck it out and cook something else, or did you chance your luck and give it a go? Depending on the particular type of [...]

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Why don't the British eat horse meat?

They eat horses don’t they?

by rich on August 24, 2011

On holiday in France the other week, we spent a morning wandering round the weekly market in Chablis.  There was a little butcher’s van there, a chevaline boucher, a horse meat specialist. I bought a small piece of faux fillet for a couple of Euros, took it home, seasoned it and cooked it.  The meat [...]

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There’s a cautionary tale here, or a call to arms, depending on which way you look at it. Mrs Liu went to a restaurant in Taipei, found the food ‘too salty’, saw a couple of cockroaches in the kitchen,  wrote about his experiences and ended up being sued for libel by an outraged restaurant owner. [...]

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Dinner, lunch, tea or supper - Poll Results

POLL RESULTS – Dinner or tea?

by rich on June 22, 2011

Remember the other week I ran a survey about what people call their main mealtimes? The results are in, and as you can see above, they’re quite surprising. In all honesty, I wasn’t expecting such a decisive result over the mid-day meal. Lunch it is, and that appears to be that! Results for an evening [...]

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Is it tea or dinner?

What do you call your mealtimes?

by rich on June 11, 2011

Here’s a quick survey to start you off…just click on the big red button and answer two easy questions: Take Our Survey! …I’ll post the results back here in a week or two. A few weeks ago, we ate at Kendells rather excellent French bistro in Leeds.  They had a ‘tea time’ pre-theatre menu on [...]

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