I finally started to take apart my brexit food stash this week. Most things still in date, but the plastic wrapped stuff like rice is the first that needs using up. I’ll be leaning heavily on Jack Monroe’s Tin Can Cook.
I was listening to the latest episode of Off Menu where they talk about strawberry sauce being the same as sweet chilli sauce, and I instantly wanted soft serve ice cream with sweet chilli sauce on. Obviously, people being people and the Internet being the Internet, this has been tried this before (with chile crisp and salsa matcha!). Still trying to work out how to either bring chilli sauce to a McDs or get the ice cream home quick enough from somewhere. (update: I am a fool – of course McDs does sweet chilli sauce. Here we go!)
More recent podcast recommendations:
Dave Chang talking to critic Adam Platt – very surprised that no-one mentions service being important to enjoying a meal. Great food is ruined by bad service, ok (even terrible) food can be redeemed by great hospitality and buzz.
Who wouldn’t want to listen to Davina McCall trying KFC for the first time? (be aware, after they try it the podcast gets very heavy very quickly (not the aftermath of the KFC, another topic))
I made Anna Jones’ dal and chutney. It was good (I’ve never had a zingy sour dal before), but I’ve realised why I didn’t get on with her book as much as others – I find some of the instructions oddly tricksy and either far too detailed or not detailed enough. I mean – this is unnecessary: “Once the fat is hot, add the curry leaves, chillies, mustard seeds, fenugreek and garlic, one at a time, pausing for a second between each addition and swirling the pan.” And then being very specific about using different kinds of oils to cook with. But then just saying a thumb sized piece of ginger.
Robin Sloan hit the metaphor on the head about coding and cooking. I’m even less than a programming home cook these days. I can barely microwave a meal. I know what I want at the end but I don’t often recognise the ingredients or the microwave. Whilst cooking methods do change, it’s far slower than how programming has changed (since I did it. for money!).
I am very here for the Wuhan food stans – Robert Sietsema is eating his way round Wuhan cuisine (presumably in NY?), this pancake looks amazing (is it doupi?) and Helen Rosner following up on the epic food post of cooking under lockdown.
Google maps on iOS now has incognito mode. It’s unclear what that means.
I’ve never got into Youtube as entertainment, but it’s nice to see what someone like Matt Haughey watches to replace traditional TV broadcasting.
NYT unpicks how dances and sounds move (or are appropriated) between online communities and apps. It’s maybe a bit inside baseball. I am, however, interested to know if anyone is recording, archiving or cataloguing these things. Less easy to do than, say, knowyourmeme. There also isn’t much coverage or criticism of it, other than when things get massive and leak into the mainstream.
Yet another Clive James postcard, this time from LA. I think I remember watching this one the first time round – from a time (1995) where having a personal trainer or going to the gym as a hobby was weird, or at least niche. Interesting to see what has changed, and what hasn’t.