Taking the family out for lunch, I naturally couldn’t resist a Turkish coffee to wash it down. Afterwards, I went to get my hair cut. What would they serve me on top of the hot towel and massage? Why, another complimentary Turkish coffee, of course!
The annual gathering. Fraternity and good food. Alhamdulilah.
I’m sure there’s much more blessing in my wife’s cooking. Whenever I cook, though it seems to take me ages, it never seems to fill us up. Just as I finish the washing up, it occurs to me, “I’m still hungry.” I’ll be making toast before bed.
My lunchbreak was spent making a hearty lentil soup. I don’t know if it will be any good. I just threw anything I could find in the pan. Necessity is the mother of invention.
I don’t know how I become so lazy in the culinary department. I used to be a dab hand in the kitchen. In the early days, I’d make all sorts. Cakes, pies, curry, pasta, roasts… you name it. My lemon meringue pie — completely from scratch — was famous. But those adventures, it seems, are …
A great discovery: Pastéis de Natas. Pretty much the Portuguese version of Laz Böreği. I bought six for my family for my return from the west country. These from Nata & Co. They went down a treat. Yum.
Funny. I was contemplating buying coffee bags in the supermarket the other day. Like tea bags, but filled with ground coffee. I’ve bought them for others before as a gift, but that’s different. You always spend more on others than you do on yourself. Certainly, I’d consider these an extravagance for myself, especially at the …
We have a very hungry caterpillar in our household. I bought a box of ice-cream lollies for the family, but the caterpillar polished them off in one go. There was a tray of chocolates in the fridge to be gifted to friends, but they chomped their way through the lot of them (except for the …
Unless you’re involved in farming in some way, you tend not to make the connection between climate impacts and rising food prices. While the Irish side of our family is heavily invested in farming, I had no direct experience until we bought a small plot of land in Turkey about fifteen years ago. While I …
Difficult to resist Turkish coffee, especially served like this.
You would think that after thirty years of trying, I would have learned to cook rice by now. But no, no matter what I do, it always comes out as a sticky, stodgy mess. On this particular occasion, I was cooking with Turkish pearl rice, which is very different from the basmati we favour back …
Ooh, diabetes in a box. No, but I will resist. Those days are done. This body now knows not to succumb to its eyes. Resist!
Every year, the same mistake… capitulating when that plate of baklava is pushed in front of me. This time in a café, offered with the proprietor’s complements, free with a free cup of tea. Generous indeed. But now such sickness. Baklava and I no longer get along.
Is it heresy to say I don’t want my burger in a brioche bun? Such a strange innovation. I’ll always be a sesame man.
Every year, the same mistake. Not wanting to be rude to the well-meaning family friend who dispatches a meal for us to break our fast, I tuck in. I should know better by now. Deep-fried something-or-other infused with chilly seeds and assorted leaves. Some spicy dumpling salad thing. Piles of pakoras. Spicy rice. Some kind …
