Food writer Nicola Miller warms us up for autumn with a Mexican staple
As you might imagine, the engineer, architect, sculptor, painter, and poet Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was quite a busy man but even the busiest of men – and women – need to eat.
It may have its origins in Yorkshire but for our food writer Nicola Miller, parkin brings back memories of festival time in Mexico
The ethical values of coffee shop chains have been highlighted over the last few years in tandem with their proliferation on the High Street: both Starbucks and Caffè Nero have been called to account over their tax avoidance and research carried out by the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, into the Fairtrade scheme found that the Fairtrade Foundation is unable to ensure that all workers get paid a living wage.
I confess to feeling somewhat anxious about this recipe. Not because it doesn’t taste good (it does) but because I am aware that Americans, and particularly southerners, have very strong feelings about their biscuits, and I have quite a few friends from the South who seem to be mainly employed in the food business. I know from experience that they will not hold back when it comes to their heritage and nor should they.
I’ve learned so much about animals this summer that I am now a fully-fledged expert. The internet is great at enabling a person to become an instant one of these, ready to argue with people who have clearly wasted their time studying their subject for decades.
Around my mid-40s I began to notice that from the toenails up I seemed to be turning into an armadillo.
It did occur to me that testing a recipe for cannolis over some of the hottest days of the year was bad planning.
As a kid I swiftly learned that I could read my way out of most tricky situations. An elderly tutor began to teach me to read, in Spanish and English, well before my fourth birthday so as to stand me in better stead for our subsequent emigration to Mexico.
The first cake I recall eating was banana bread when, at the age of four, I met Susie and her mother. Susie’s Mexican-American family lived around the corner from us in a big white house overlooking the Zapalinamé mountains, whose greyish-blue foothills form a backdrop to the northern Mexican city of Saltillo.
One of the most vibrant women I know once told me that there are times when she feels invisible. Turning 50 had, she said, brought her to a time in her life where she felt diminished and she worried that as she entered middle age, it wasn’t just her own edges that felt as if they were blurring, but those of her female peers, too.
The timing of Ed Balls’ show ‘Stictly Speaking Out’ couldn’t be better.
Eaten raw, the average out-of-season red pepper is a bit of a disappointment flavour-wise although it does possess texture and a hint of what is to come later on in the year. Where would mass-catered salads be without its squeaky chew?
Good citizens and patriots, imagine it’s 2034 and over a decade has passed since we were ejected from the EU in disgrace after a failed attempt to blast the Rock of Gibraltar free from its Spanish moorings.
When I was a teenager I loved reading those sex ’n’ shopping novels that were popular in the eighties. Bonkbusters by Jacqueline Susann, Judith Krantz and June Flaum Singer kept me sane during two years of A-level English where the syllabus was dominated by Lawrence, Hardy and Plath.
Just before the storm arrived that saw us driven at speed in a golf cart back to the shelter of our car, we’d been exploring Lovers Key, a small state park on the gulf coast of Florida where a beach shack sold large solo cups filled to the brim with chowder for only $4.
On Monday night, Panorama highlighted the crisis facing our mental health services.
Hai mangiato così tanto pesce che per tornare a casa puoi nuotare nei canali invece di camminare,” laughed the bartender as he brought over yet another plate of sardines from the trays of cicchetti lined up along the tiny counter.
It’s tempting to file a review of 2016 although you all know how it went and the media is jammed with celebrity deaths, wars, Brexit and the US election.
The period of time between Christmas Day and Epiphany on January 6th leaves plenty of space for cake and as much as I adore the classic festive fruit cake it’s good to break up its heft with something a little lighter.
