Foodie heaven

I have been cooking quite a bit recently, experimenting with different recipes I found on the web (I will include in future posts a comprehensive list of amazing blogs by fellow mad foodies out there who give me hope and make me feel that I am not completely insane...maybe only a little!). Btw, my partner calls me "MCT", short for "Mad Cow Tamagotchi" and the worst of all is that I came up with the name myself! This unravelled whilst we were travelling and living in Argentina for 11 months where we had no choice but to come face to face with foibles we didn't know about each other before. That's when I discovered, to my initial utter shock (now I've grown used to it and being the good girlfriend that I am, have learnt to accept it however 'foreign' this concept will always be to me!) that he can go for nearly 24 hours without food...that means, getting up and not having breakfast, carrying on and sometimes not even having lunch and then maybe snacking on some bread or cheese in the afternoon if needed be! For somebody like me who is constantly planning her next meal, thinking about ingredients, recipes, food news, etc, etc (need I go on?) this is, to put it mildly, a tad difficult to grasp. Back to my well-earned nickname, as we traipsed the marvellous and remote landscapes of Argentina, there were times when, arriving in a place just after lunchtime, we discovered that absolutely everything was closed as the locals were having their 'siesta' from which they would emerge round about 5pm. So far, so good if it hadn't been for the fact that we had left it until we arrived to procure some nibbles and when I realised there were none to be had I started to transform into a not very pleasant creature...which leads to the analogy with those little Japanese evil/lovely toys that demanded to be fed or else they would go nasty on you! And the mad cow is just an additional epithet to place it into the context of food (mad cow disease) and what a mental cow I can become when deprived of nourishment! Anyway, we survived by devising a specific plan including always carrying snacks and trying to plan meals in advance so as to keep my craziness at bay...You might laugh but trust me: you wouldn't if you had to deal with me once I reach that non-zen state!

In terms of my food ethos, I would say that my philosophy is to try as many new things as possible, to experiment, innovate and explore new culinary horizons. Very rare is the time when I would feel drawn to resorting to comfort food unless (and there is always an exception to every rule) we are talking sweets...yes, I am still up for trying every single sweetstuff available but there are some classics you sometimes don't want to mess with, namely,

• Anything with dulce de leche (and by anything, I mean ANYTHING!)
  
• Chocolates and white chocolate more specifically


• Anything with nuts of any kind!

Because of my obsession with trying new things, and if possible at the same time (too little time, too many dishes to sample!), I have developed a fascination with what I call 'tapas' (I am fully aware that this is not accurate but it is just a Spanish word that helps me define a similar approach to eating) of diverse kinds, that is, many small dishes that are varied enough but similar enough in order to blend well together and provide multiple sensory stimulation (akin to orgasmic) on the plate. Some examples of this gastronomic stroke of genius are,

• Indian food in all its variety and glory;


• Dim Sum (Chinese nirvana);


• Antipasti (or its similar but not as masterful and accomplished Argy version, the "picada");


• Mezze (Middle Eastern/Turkish/Greek; all are welcome and equally finger-licking delicious)


• Last but not least, the most famous Spanish contribution to gastronomic titillation: the actual and original tapas which can be as varied and as inventive as the diversity of Spanish regions and cultures.

The pictures above exemplify some of these beautiful displays; colourful beauty on the eye, explosively flavoursome on the palate and a long-lasting after taste of pleasure and happiness in the heart and soul.

I'm off to continue to plan dinner (and it's just past midday!)

Food rocks!

Food is my lifeline

I seriously do not know how raving mad I would go if I didn't have the outlet of food to imagine, to look at, to prepare and finally to savour and offer to others as the best gift I can think of. The mind boggles and it's not a pretty imaginary sight! Sometimes I remind myself of that program called "Grumpy Old Women" or, in other words, a bunch of middle-aged pseudo-celebs having a moan and a rant about anything and everything. Yes, I'm 32 (and don't even suggest I am getting close to middle age or else...) but I think I was born with a big sense of inconformity at the world around me: I cannot stand sloppy standards in anything which is not the same to say that don't forgive mistakes because I make them all the time! Mistakes are more than acceptable insofar as you set out to do the best you could possibly do and made the best effort within your circumstances to achieve it. Maybe it is because I come from a country where, yes, a lot of people take the piss big time and take shortcuts and dodgy ways of getting to high places but, on the other hand, both in my family and among my friends hard work is the norm. My mum (however strained our relationship is at times and however many differences there are between us) has always worked tirelessly both at home and outside, excelling at everything she does and never suggesting that she should work part-time or from home or anything of the sort. Obviously, in the UK workers are a lot more protected and have so many more benefits which, to a degree, is great. However, I think that sometimes it breeds laziness and a feeling of artificial exhaustion, creating needs that are not necessarily natural to all but fostered by a system that allows for too much slacking. It does annoy the crap out of me and before you call me right-wing or Tory lover, please rest assured that I am a lefty at heart and that my paper of choice (which I always read from cover to cover) is the Guardian.

And back to the subject of food (the underlying thread to my existence) this attitude translated into the kitchen with the "Can't-be- arsed-I'd-rather-heat-up-a-plastic-ready-meal or order-a-greasy-takewaway-to-fill-the-gap and-soak-up-the-gallons-of-booze-I've-just-gulped-down" attitude is downright depressing. I will try to be fair and look on the bright side as I know there are many UK foodies out there who take their food seriously but I think it boils down to differences in our cultural make-up. Back home, we are born into a heritage og Italian, Spanish and Jewish grandmothers (explosive combination, I know) which means that the importance of nourishment is drummed into us from the moment we pop out. It would be a cardinal sin for a mom to feed their kids microwave meals and whoever does (there is always somebody who lets the side down) is met with utter derision. Making a healthy AND quick meal, oddly enough, takes the same amount of time than heating up some rubbish but, yes...you might need to roll your sleeves up and spend 10 minutes or so chopping and stirring...the horror! Life is too short, they say to waste time cooking...Well, life will be to short if you don't put any effort into the most crucial aspect of life and settle for sausages, beans and bacon sarnies as not only your body will be malnourished but your brain will be underdeveloped through sheer lack of fuel and your mood undermined by a completely foreign relationship with the preparation of what goes into your body which can have such a powerful effect and have either a positive or negative impact on people's lives. As one of my heroes, Jamie Oliver said, it is not about money: there are groups in shanty towns in Soweto who eat better than the Brits...'Nuff said.

First incursion into the food blogging world

Hello there, my yet-to-be-materialised potential readers! I feel a slight sense of regression to those frequent ocurrences during my childhood when I would talk/write/sing, etc to several imaginary friends conjured up by my my lonely self when in desperate need to compensate for my only child status (those out there who have also suffered and still suffer from the lack of brothers and sisters will understand exactly what I mean. Those who don't, just stop moaning about how awful your siblings were and trust me: even the nastiest of siblings is better than having nobody at all to gang up against your parents with even if that is their sole function in your life!).

To be perfectly accurate, this is my second incursion into the blogosphere; the first one was in Spanish (my mother tongue) and it never quite took off as I started it very late into my 11-month forced stint back home in Argentina and as the purpose of the blog was to vent my frustrations at being, as I called it, 'stuck in Buenos Aires' (the city where I grew up and that I left as soon as I could...more on that later), as soon as our leaving date approached I lost interest in continuing to have a rant about it.

There are several reasons why I have finally decided to blog, namely,

• Everybody else seems to be doing it (so why not me?);
• I love writing and I am generally too self-deprecating/lazy/intimidated to do any 'proper' writing;
• I am passionate on the verge of almost obsessively mad about food and as nobody I know in the 'real world' remotely shares my craziness, I found that there are other people out there, in the 'virtual' world who are as bonkers as me;
• A tad of self-indulgence, I suppose, and the illusion that someone, somewhere over the rainbow or round the corner will acknowledge my virtual existence and get some sort of enjoyment out of my postings;
• Last but not least, I am idle as hell given the fact that I am not allowed to work at the moment and I've got more time in my hands than sense and instead of being sucked into the world of the Jeremy Kyles and the Cash in the Attic watching numbers, I decided to pretend I've got something interesting to say.

As an Argentine living in Britain (I think you can pretty much insert most nationalities instead or Argy and it would still work...apart from, well, Americans (most of them, anyway) and maybe Germans (sorry if any of you happen to be one or the other and let me point out that I am more than willing to stand corrected on this one), I am generally appalled at the ghastly food culture (or lack of) that exists in the UK...Before anyone jumps for the jugular throwing names of chefs, tv programmes and Michelin-starred restaurants, let me explain what I mean by this: yes, there is great food available in the big cities; yes, the supermarkets sell ingredients from all over the world and there are plenty of cookery programmes and celebrity chefs inundating the airwaves. However, in my humble experience, for the vast majority of Brits, that is a bit like watching a sci-fi film. They enjoy it, they think it's great but it is so far-fetched that there is no way on Earth that they can see good food as something they could tackle as they believe that this would entail, God forbid!, getting off their arses to cook! And there is nothing that defines the British attitude to food than: Why bother? Their usual grub is, as the chaps from 'Goodness Gracious Me' would say, the blandest thing on the menu, a direct product of the prevalent mentality shared by many about food being 'functional' and 'filling the gap'. This clearly stems from the post-war rationing times where it was necessary to procure the cheapest, fattiest, easiest meals to make sure they could build up a reserve of fat to survive for the longest time possible until the next ration.

The irony is that the UK (at least pre-Gordon Brown and pre-credit crunch malarkey) has been one of the richest, most prosperous countries on earth for many years...However, if you ask most Brits about their spending, they would probably say that the first thing they economise on is food, choosing to eat sausages, beans and chips or ready-made frozen meals from Iceland and spend loads on booze, fags and other luxuries instead of investing in good food...It is a sad state of affairs indeed and that's why I've never seen in any other country (apart from America, again) so many programs trying to teach people what a vegetable looks like and how to cook the most basic dish without using a microwave or shoving ready-made dubious meals in the oven with no seasoning whatsoever apart from butter, margarine or ketchup!

Thankfully, things are slowly changing for the better but it is still a minority that shows an interest in good, healthy food is and who understand how inextricably linked it is to a happy, healthy life...I don't intend to get on a soap box but this does really get my goat BIG TIME (What do you mean you've already noticed??? No waaaayyyy...)

And as my fiancé repeats to me like a mantra:"You should do something about your passion for food" (euphemism, methinks, for 'stop torturing me with your obsession and channel it in some productive way, woman!') So here I am...

My name is Paula and Iam a foodie...Help!