It appears me and Miette are not the only things to come over from Canada recently. The BBC has a report on milk in plastic bags coming to our supermarkets soon. The technology correspondent makes a bit of a pigs ear out of putting the milk bag into its dispenser and pouring it, but I can totally understand. The first time I came across milk in a bag at the Miette's family house near Toronto I was flummoxed too, however the way they use it is to have a small plastic jug with the top of the milk bag sticking out the top - then to use the milk you snip a small triangle off the corner of the bag and voila! Pourable milk.

It will be interesting to see if it catches on here, as the environmental benefits of less packaging are high. The downside is that the plastic bags are more susceptible to breaking when you take them home - plus I can just see some gangs of kids finding it hilarious to throw the bags at people to watch them explode! More news as it happens...

Labels: Canada, england, food, Inventions

When I first came to New York, myself and my then girlfriend would always share one main course between the two of us. Normally this would involve some annoyance on the part of the server, and often either a surcharge or a requirement that we both had a starter, but what it never involved was either of us being hungry. New York portions, like most portions in America, are huge. Only when you eat at really up market restaurants do the portion sizes flip flop, and you end up paying more money for much less food - quality not quantity.

Unfortunately after years of living in New York I've gotten used to eating a whole single portion myself, as my gut will attest and last night was no exception. On the way home from a talk I decided to stop by a local restaurant for a lovely coq au vin. This came in a bowl over-flowing with chicken, with very little space for the sauce. By the time I'd finished I was pretty darn full, from a dish that was mostly meat and maybe two small onions. Food coma set in rapidly.

This question arose in my mind while eating - why don't I become vegetarian? I know that we can survive without eating animals, plus kittens are cute and fluffy as are calves. The only problem with this idea is... I like meat. Yep. That's a biggie. So I've now hit on the concept of 'concientious carnivorousness'. My premise is this; in choosing to continue to eat meat we all have a responsibility to the animals that gave up their lives to make best use of their sacrifice. This can be carried out by simply eating every piece of meat on your plate and trying not to put too much meat in your meal to help make sure you eat all of it. To that end restaurants could help by setting up an objective measuring system for how much meat is in a portion, and offering reduced size portions. Simple really. Coff.

Labels: food, Morals

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Now we enter the year of the pig, apparently a very prosperous year for all - especially for people who are little piggies themselves. And a big thanks to the Huang clan for another lovely communal soup-bowl cooking experience. Putting vegetables and meats from your plate into the boiling soup, then fishing it out, or possibly someone else's food, a bit later is a great way to eat and share good times.

Labels: culture, food, friends, new years eve

Ah, it's always fun to see my sweet homeland through the eyes of a foreigner - especially when that foreigner is looking at sweets. [From metafilter]

Labels: england, englishman in new york, food

Well my first batch of mince pies taught me to roll the pastry a lot thinner! I also need to go shopping for a proper baking tray for them rather than trying to get a cheapo aluminium (pronounced 'alum-in-um' over here of course) muffin trays to work. Nowhere near as nice as the ones from Myers of Keswick but they contain a lot more love, and of course grubby fingerprints.

I've also discovered that I now have enough airmiles from Virgin to fly to Hong Kong and back, or South America. Wow. I found that out while I was trying to book a flight back for Christmas. As I watched Orbitz and Expedia the flights got progressively more expensive. 'Tis the season to be flying to the UK apparently. I was also faced with the quandry that if I follow through with my current plans of travelling come February I only have a few short months left in New York. This means I wanted to try and spend the minimum amount of time back in the UK and consequently I'm not staying there for New Years. Unless I change my mind of course... I normally do. Or do I?

Labels: englishman in new york, food, travel

As I wait for my mum to arrive (having just landed at Newark) I contemplate the shared arrival of fresh supplies of British snack food. I just made a leek pie following a Floyd (British TV chef) recipe that relies on having the best tasting butter, not the weird foamy/waxy yellow substance that claims to be butter in American supermarkets. Consequently it tasted a bit weird, to say the least. It's things like this that can really get to me sometimes - why is it so different? How much variation can you put into making butter? I suspect the American substance has never even been near a cow, let alone anything as wonderfully unhealthy as cream. Although I am sure that whatever faux-cream substitute has been used is infinitely worse for you than simple cream.

Even with the crappy butter I had a lot of fun cooking, though I seriously need to practice at making pastry before my next attempts! Plus I need to get hold of some scales so I don't make approximations that are so far off. Working from a non-beginner's cookbook was also interesting. Sizes were not fully specified and entire steps were left out. Instructions like "make the pastry" don't really help when you've no clue where to start. This is in stark contrast to most books on computer languages which seem to always start with an explanation of the most extreme basics - the cooking equivalent of "carefully open the salt container, measure out 0.5 cubic centimetres of salt and sprinkle evenly over the surface" rather than "add a pinch of salt".

Last night I ended a week of not drinking with a few glasses of wine and a superb blue sky martini in Marions on Bowery. The drinks there are amazing and very cheap ($6) but the food doesn't live up to the same standard unfortunately. Having written my last plea for a loss in weight I seem to be fully ignoring it and going full steam ahead to bloat-dom. Sigh. Why are New York restaurants so nice??

Labels: englishman in new york, food

I just found an old spreadsheet I was recording my weight on back in April 1999... I weighed 185 lbs... Now I weigh 205 lbs... that's very depressing!!!

Damn you tasty cheddar sandwiches! Damn you delectable sushi!! Damn you all cheap and affordable new york cuisine!!!! And a special damning for all you lunch buffet bars out there... see you in hell!

Labels: food, health

Thai place on corner of 29th and 8th Ave. Nice but not special in any way.

Labels: food