The real spring roll…
…or at least the most ancient kind. You can read my piece about fresh, unfried spring rolls in today’s Financial Times Weekend magazine – it includes…
Roast chicken musings
As always, cooking mainly ‘Western food’ for Chinese friends was an interesting experience. For a start, I faced unusual competition for the best bits of the…
Pizzle puzzle
How to cook a stag penis? Not a question I’d ever seriously pondered, until I inadvertently acquired four of them, and had to find a way.…
New York Times recipe lab (+ a note on substitutions)
You can see Julia Moskin and three New York Times readers chatting with me about ‘Every Grain of Rice’ here: And the full article, focusing on…
News, tapas-style
READING: I’ve been gripped by Anya von Bremzen’s memoir of eating in the USSR, ‘Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking’. The story of three generations of…
A Devon idyll of cakes, cooking and conversation
I’m just back home after a week of intensive teaching and eating in Devon, where writer, designer, cook, photographer and restaurateur Alastair Hendy and I were running…
Stone Age cookery
I’m fascinated by news of some research that suggests Europeans were spicing their food with garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) in the Stone Age – there’s more…
Eating your national emblem
You can read my piece about the Australian hang-up about eating kangaroo meat here, on the BBC website. And if you like, listen to a different…
In praise of simplicity
The picture on the left is of my lunch yesterday, at home: pao fan æ³¡é¥ (‘soaked’ or soupy rice) made from leftovers of brown rice with…
Magic ingredients: Papery dried shrimp 虾皮
I always keep a bagful of these tiny dried shrimp, known as ‘shrimp skin’ in Chinese, in my freezer. A spoonful or two can be used…