Category Archives: food+drink

food+drink

Rosé!

At long last, after years of hunting, I have finally run to earth a seriously good Tavel rosé. Well actually almost any Tavel!
Never heard of it? Well that’s hardly surprising as Tavel is a small village in the southern Rhône, between Orange and Avignon, which produces only its eponymous Rosé.
I blame my father. He discovered this wine in the mid-60s when he worked near the then Peter Dominic’s main wine vault in Orange Street, just south of London’s Leicester Square. I don’t remember a lot about the wine we had in those days, but my father had obviously started to appreciate good wine as things picked up and the country had recovered after the war – and I guess as he started feeling more financially secure.
How or why he came to try Tavel is a mystery, but he appreciated it as it is a very dry rosé, unlike the sugar water which often seems to masquerade as Anjou Rosé. It was never cheap, so we enjoyed it only occasionally, until the day came when it was unobtainable as Dominic’s gradually died and was taken over.
We did, subsequently, find Tavel stocked by Balls Bros (famous for their City wine bars) who had an outlet opposite Noreen’s work. And Noreen and I had their Tavel at our wedding, although looking back that Tavel was something of a disappointment. Once Balls Bros retrenched it has been about as scarce as hen’s teeth.
That was until last week when, quite serendipitously, I happened across The Wine Society. And lo and behold they stock a Tavel. I also found a small handful of other very up-market wine shops who stock it, but they sounded equivocal and were considerably more expensive.
I’ve always been suspicious of The Wine Society, but this looked like a deal too good to miss. Yes you have to join, but that is a one off £40 (yes, for life!), with a £20 discount off your first order. They’re a large organisation, who aim not to make major profits but plough the savings back into their prices. So their wine is mostly a couple of quid a bottle less than the same wine at somewhere like Majestic. The Wine Society’s Tavel (shown right) was a sensible price, and described as

An outstanding example of Tavel, the Rhône appellation that produces only rosé wine. Of a deep pink hue, this is round and richly flavoured, brimming with fruit and touches of spicy complexity.
…
Domaine Maby is found in the heart of the village of Tavel in the southern Rhône. There are some 60 hectares covering Tavel, Lirac and Côtes-du Rhône, with excellent wines produced in all three colours. The Tavel and Lirac vineyards have the same round pebbles (galets roulés) as are found in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. These are precious for the region’s winemakers as they conserve heat accumulated during the day and then restore it slowly to the soil during the night which helps the grapes attain even better ripeness.
…
The individuality of the famous Tavel rosés lies in their great structure and fruitiness, aptly displayed here at Maby, where the style is even chunkier … anyone tasting [Maby] rosés blindfolded would be hard pressed to know whether the wine was pink or red … “Prima Donna”, made from older vines, is a little fuller and more complex than the standard bottling.

Well that sold me on it. I ventured forth, credit card in hand, and took the plunge, ordering a case, knowing that at worse we’d have drinkable plonk.
It arrived today. So we had to try it this evening. I said it would either be very disappointing or really knock one’s socks off. And wow it did the latter alright! It is a gorgeous ruby red, a very dark rosé, almost a pale red. It’s strong, at 14.5%. Lightly chilled it is a full-bodied rosé, very dry, with some amazing flavours of strawberries and raspberries. We were eating pork and venison sausages, and it stood up to the strong meat really well – this is not a feeble rosé which is going to be in awe of good meat. But it isn’t so robust that one couldn’t happily sit on a sunny balcony quaffing it all evening as the sun sinks in the west.
It slipped down so well. We debated drinking a second bottle, but sadly we decided to be good.
Yes, it is seriously good. Tavel is called the “King of the Rosés” with good reason.

food+drink

Recipe: Mary Berry's Sausage Supper

I’ve not posted a recipe for quite a while, so here’s a quick, sure-fire, easy winner from our kitchen. It’s based on a Mary Berry recipe.


Mary Berry’s Sausage Supper
For each person you will need:
Good sausages (at least 3 per person)
3 small salad potatoes, cut into ping-pong ball sized pieces
A selection of vegetables; choose from:
– a small red onion (quartered)
– 2 medium (quartered) or 6 cherry tomatoes
– ½-1 bell pepper (cut into 8)
– ½-1 bulb of fennel (quartered)
– a few mushrooms (halved if large)
– a few slices of aubergine (cut in 1-1.5cm slices)
Several cloves of garlic (roughly chopped)
Bunch fresh herbs; thyme is good (roughly chopped)
This is what you do:

  1. Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7.
  2. Place all the ingredients in a large bowl with 2 tbsp olive oil and turn until they’re fully coated in oil. [Or you could use a large, resealable freezer bag.]
  3. Tip into a large roasting tin and spread out into an even layer. Season well with salt and pepper.
  4. Roast in the oven for 30–35 minutes.
  5. Turn the sausages and vegetables.
    [At this point Mary Berry adds a glass of white wine, but I think this ends up too wet.]
  6. Replace in the oven and roast for a further 20 minutes or so, until the sausages and potatoes are cooked through.
  7. Serve hot, with mustard if liked, and a beer or glass of red wine.

I challenge you to have leftovers!

environment, food+drink, medical, people, personal, science, sexuality

Your Interesting Links

There’s a lot in this month’s edition so let’s get straight in …
Science & Medicine
Medics are now saying that arthroscopic surgery for degenerative knee problems (ie. essentially arthritis) does not actually do any much good.
[TRIGGER WARNING] Breaking the taboo of talking about miscarriage.
Another new study shows that, against expectation, women who source online and use abortion drugs do so with very little need for emergency medical help.


And yet another on reproductive medicine … It seems the folk contraceptive “Thunder God Vine” (Tripterygium wilfordii, above) really does prevent conception.
On the physics of having a shit.
More new research has found that daily small doses of cannabis can slow brain decline with ageing – at least in mice.
And here’s yet another instance where it seems we’ve had it all wrong … apparently eating cheese does not raise the risk of heart attack or stroke.
It has long been thought that the way we categorise colours is cultural, but surprisingly it appears to be genetic.
Sexuality
Porn is allegedly having a “terrifying impact” on men. Girl on the Net lifts the lid and finds the evidence rather thin and attitudes biased.
Is the “Dildo of Damocles” daunting? What does/will happen when sex toys connect to the internet?
Environment
It is estimated that the Fukushima accident gave everyone on the planet radiation exposure equivalent to a single X-ray – although unsurprisingly those in Fukushima received rather more it was unlikely to be more than two year’s worth of background radiation, so tiny in the overall scheme of things.
Hedges are as important for the environment as trees, at least in cities.
In another non-obvious finding, research is showing that beaver dams keep streams cool.
History, Archaeology & Anthropology
There are some amazing things happening in palaeoanthropology at the moment, not least that researchers have discovered how to extract DNA from the soil around archaeological sites.
Another of those amazing pieces of palaeoanthropology is the number and age of the Homo naledi finds in South Africa.

At the other end of Africa, a 4000-year-old funeral garden has been discovered in Egypt.
In a recent, and rather more modern, find a rare medieval text printed by William Caxton has been discovered lurking in University of Reading archives.
One of our favourite London bloggers, diamond geezer, visits the Parisian Catacombs.
Finally in this section, another of our favourite London bloggers, IanVists, explores an abandoned railway tunnel used by the BBC in WW2.
London
Which brings us nicely to London itself … Londonist suggests some of London’s more secret places to visit.
Meanwhile Time Out tells us nine things we mostly didn’t know about Euston Station.
Lifestyle & Personal Development
The Guardian magazine on Saturday 27 May featured Laura Dodsworth’s upcoming book Manhood: The Bare Reality in which 100 men talk about manhood through the lens of “me and my penis” as well as having their manhood photographed.
This a follow-on to Bare Reality: 100 Women, Their Breasts, Their Stories
Pre-order Manhood: The Bare Reality from the publishers Pinter & Martin or from Amazon.
[Full disclosure: I was interviewed for this book and there’s a little bit of me in the article, although unless you know you’ll never find it.]
Following which here’s Lee Kynaston in the Telegraph on male pubic hair grooming. My only question is “Why?”.
The key to happiness is not knowing oneself, but knowing how others see us.
But then scientists and philosophers also doubt the ancient claim that vigorous self-examination makes you a better person.
Food & Drink
WFT is alkaline water? Oh, I see, it’s no different to what comes out of the tap.
If you like sushi, you might no longer as its popularity has brought rise in parasitic infections.
People
I wasn’t quite sure where to put this next item, but it is one for the railway buffs amongst us … Geoff Marshall (no relation) and Vicki Pipe are doing All the Stations: They’re travelling to every train station in mainland UK, documenting and videoing as they go. Their videos are all on the All the Stations channel on YouTube; watch the introductory video first to see what they’re planning.
[Geoff Marshall has twice held the official record for travelling the whole London Underground in the fastest time, so he had to be up for another challenge!]
Shock, Horror, Humour

And very finally here are some stories of what happens when scientists take research specimens through airport security.
More in a month’s time.

food+drink, science

Storm in a Coffee Cup

So the FSA think we should give up toast and roast potatoes because there is a cancer risk from the acrylamide they contain.
As so often this is, at best, misleading science and quite probably total bollocks. Moreover the FSA is going beyond it’s brief in warning us about something which is basically an assumption based on evidence that’s struggling even to be flimsy.
Yes, acrylamide can cause cancer. This has only been conclusively demonstrated in laboratory rats fed thousands of times the dose we would consume. There is no real evidence of normal doses causing any problem for humans. Like all these things the dose is important and the evidence has to be taken in a sensible context.
There is apparently more acrylamide in coffee than toast or roast potatoes, and most people consume far more coffee at breakfast than they do burnt toast. Yet we aren’t being told to stop drinking coffee because of the acrylamide.
And how many women crave burnt toast when they’re pregnant? Anecdotally quite a lot. Are we really going to add toast to the ever growing list of things pregnant women aren’t allowed to even see? If so, we have to ask how we all managed to get here in the first place.
No. I for one shall be treating this advice with the contempt it deserves. Yet again the FSA is bringing itself, and by association all dietary advice, into disrepute.
For more background see:
Is acrylamide in your toast really going to give you cancer?
Why you don’t need to worry about eating brown toast
‘Alternative facts’ are now threatening our roast potatoes. Enough!
And remember: Research causes cancer in rats.

food+drink, personal, ramblings

Ten Things

I love the summer months for the variety of locally grown foods, and some from warmer climes, are available and at their best. And May is when one of my favourite foods — asparagus — is in season here in England. With summer fruits like strawberries hard on its heels.
As Noreen often observes, to our 19th century (and earlier) ancestors we must be living like the gentry because here are …

10 Foods I’ve Eaten in the Last Week
(some of them more than once!):

  1. Asparagus
  2. Avocado
  3. Smoked Salmon
  4. Duck Breast
  5. Brie
  6. Fruit Crumble
  7. Curried Steak Salad
  8. Sausages
  9. Olives
  10. Strawberries
current affairs, food+drink, freedom of speech, medical

Nanny State

Atlantic Insight has an interesting interview (podcast & transcript) with Christopher Snowdon, Head of Lifestyle Economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs. He’s not at all impressed by the nanny state or public health lobbyists.
It’s worth a read, or listen: Interview with Christopher Snowdon

food+drink, history, links, medical, nudism, ramblings, science

Your Interesting Links

There’s a lot in this month’s edition, which is a few days late, so let’s get straight in.
Science & Medicine
Scientists have tried to work out the five most addictive substances on Earth and what they do to your brain.
No real surprises though.
Another set of scientists have discovered a mysterious boiling river in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. Well it’s almost boiling and certainly hot enough to lightly poach the unwary.


Talking of boiling water, what temperature does it actually boil? And why can’t you make tea at the top of Everest (even supposing you were stupid enough to want to)?
And to the other end of the scale … Yet more scientists have been and recorded the sounds at the bottom of the ocean. Not just any ocean but deepest part, the Mariana Trench. And they were in for quite a surprise.
From sound to … sound. It seems that parrots are a lot more than just pretty birds. They have their own parrot languages and are also known to make tools.
Back to water and a German scientist has worked out just how Archer Fish are so adept at shooting down insects with a jet of water.
And now to things medical … One in five of us believe we have a serious allergy, but most of it is just belief. Here’s a summary of some key things you should know about allergies and intolerances (which aren’t the same at all!).
“I’ve been told bacon smells lovely.” Just what is it like to live with no sense of smell?

There’s no reason why it should work, but it does. We’ve all experienced the placebo effect but here are five popular placebo myths explained.
[Trigger Warning] It is thought that anything up to a quarter of all pregnancies end in miscarriage, the vast majority in the first 12 weeks, and often there is no obvious reason. However miscarriage remains a taboo and is seldom talked about. But medics are now putting effort into trying to find underlying reasons and to help those women most badly affected and those most at risk. [Long read]
What happens when you have a hole in your ear? Specifically a hole in the canal(s) of your inner ear? It’s rare, but the effect is quite frightening. [Long read]
Seems that attacking people who are overweight (or worse) is counter-productive. You don’t say!
Are you a loner? And a nerd? Yes many of us who do a lot of thinking (it’s often called research, or work) are. So we need some peace and quiet — and a little sympathy.
Sexuality
It is important that we talk openly, frankly and honestly to our children about sex and pleasure. Peggy Orenstein has a new book out on “Girls & Sex”; here‘s a piece about it and a few myths exploded. But don’t forget the boys as well; they have to be taught about sex and pleasure, and often respect for the girls too.
At which point it seems appropriate to ask why the clitoris doesn’t get the attention it deserves? And why does this matter?
It seems there are engineering lessons to be learnt from the design of the penis and the mechanics of erection
Social Sciences & Business
The surprising chances of our lives can seem like they’re hinting at hidden truths. On coincidences and the meaning of life.
History
Apparently a 5000-year-old linen dress is the oldest know woven garment. and it’s on display in London.
There are many mysteries about the lives and deaths of the Egyptian Pharaohs. But it looks as if one may have been solved as CT scans have revealed brutal injuries to Pharaoh Ramesses III.
We’ve all come to know (and love?) the @ sign. But I remember being totally mystified by it as a kid using my father’s typewriter, which isn’t surprising as it appear to have a long and rather convoluted history.
Edward Johnston and the typeface that changed the face of London Underground, and much else besides. with a rather more than walk-on part by Eric Gill.
I love the Museum of London Docklands and they’re opening a new gallery which centres around the museum’s building itself. IanVisits got a sneak preview.
Food & Drink
Are you a devoted breakfast eater? Or are you like me and usually not want breakfast? Breakfast is supposed to be the most important meal of the day, but is it? Spoiler: probably not.
Apparently we don’t have a clue how to shop for vegetables. Dear God, Mr American, tell me something I’ve not known this last 60 years.
Professional chefs on mould, food waste and expiry dates.
The UK has sheep coming out of its ears, so why won’t UK supermarkets stock British lamb? Surely it has to be better than frozen New Zealand lamb that’s been shipped round the world; and because it’s on our doorsteps it really shouldn’t be more expensive. Sorry supermarkets (and butchers) if you aren’t going to sell me fresh British lamb, I’m not buying lamb. Simples.
Shock, Horror, Humour
Finally, for the avoidance of doubt — and the education of the masses — here’s the CPS guidance on nudity in public.

current affairs, food+drink

Sweet and Sour

As one might expect, Christopher Snowdon (he who has taken the new alcohol guidelines apart) writing over on City AM is not at all impressed by George Osborne’s new tax on sugar.
It’s a money spinner; no more, no less — at least according to Snowdon. For my money, if we really want a tax on sugar to reduce consumption as well as raise revenue, Osborne has missed several tricks:

  • tax all forms of sugar in all products
  • tax all sweeteners (natural and artificial) including honey and stevia (on the basis that they encourage a liking for extra sweetness)
  • make the tax a sliding scale, starting at something small for less than (say) 1g per litre or kilo, rising to something draconian (20%, 25%) for over 10g per litre or kilo
  • make it a consumer tax (like tobacco duty) rather than a levy on the producers

That would hopefully affect all consumers, relatively equitably. It would encourage people to buy less-sweetened products (without having to give up sweetness completely). And encourage producers to reduce sweetener content with substantial price advantages, and hence hopefully higher sales/greater market share.

amusements, food+drink

Oddity of the Week: Edible Spoons

Anatoliy Omelchenko of Triangle Tree has designed the Edible Spoon Maker.
It works on the toasted sandwich maker principle and allows you to bake your own edible spoons from either home-made or ready prepared dough in only a few minutes.
In this video Omelchenko demonstrates the device using ready-made biscuit dough:

Find out more over one Triangle Tree.