Back in September of last year I wrote about two A-words that were taking up most of my head-space. Over the past few weeks, one of the A-words has had...
On 14th January, 2006, I turned up at Heathrow airport with one suitcase, a small rucksack and a one-way ticket from London to Amsterdam. On arrival, I had no job,...
I’m continuing my Dutch theme for December (November was Zuurvlees, if you recall), this time with a funny shaped cabbage known as spitskool. It’s sort of conical, but in all...
I’ll have lived in the Netherlands for five years in January, and I realise I’ve cooked very little Dutch food during that time. Despite being pale, freckly and red-headed, from...
A couple of months ago, I treated myself to the new cook book by my current favourite chef in London: Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi. He’s not vegetarian; he just likes...
Does anyone actually know what figgy pudding is? And why would it be eaten at Christmas, when figs are in season now? Scary French Lady told me about a fig...
Well, they weren’t really. Victoria’s, that is. They were Esther’s plums. Esther is my colleague who has this crazy thing called a garden (she doesn’t live in Amsterdam) and in...
Cherries are rather special as fruit goes because they crop up in so many different places: ‘popping one’s cherry’, ‘with a cherry on top’, ‘cherry picking’, ‘[loving you is] cherry...
We’ve started growing vegetables on our office balcony this spring. Or, more accurately, my colleagues have started growing them since I have an amazing ability to kill plants just by...
