Category Archives: Link

Slow Food

Last week, I was very please to attend a Slow Food Liverpool meeting, hosted in The Munro. For those of you that are new to Slow Food, I count myself as one of these, its an international movement to promote better ways to eat. They’re a not for profit organisation, encouraging healthy eating, through education and community invovlment.

The liverpool branch has been slightly dormant in the past, but are now making a resurgent charge, this meeting was more a statement of intent with plans being put in place for future events. If you like the sound of Slow Food and want to know more check out their website. This is a great movement I hope to be more involved in the futuer and I also hope fellow Liverpool food lovers would show simlar interest.

Fantastic Bread Skills

This is Via  Anissa Helou, and her fantastic blog.

The bread making going on here is fantastic, almost hypnotic watching them work. The hours of skill and practice that have gone into this must be almost unthinkable. I love watching these videos, I bet the bread is fantastic aswell.

making lavash in iran from anissa helou on Vimeo.

baking lavash (or nan-e taftoon?) in tehran from anissa helou on Vimeo.

Do chain restaurants put you off? by Alessia Horwich

Do chain restaurants put you off? by Alessia Horwich.

This is an interesting article about chain restaurants, it’s worth a read, but it was the comments at the bottom that really made me think. To sum up briefly, Alessai states that chain restaurants are boring with food that does not excite, something I completely agree with, but some of  the comment were more negative in their view of chains. What harm to chain restaurants do? I generally don’t eat at them, thats not to say I never eat at them but I try to void them if possible, I like spending money at local independent  establishments that offer something more interesting. To me, chain restaurants are just to be ignored, I pay them little attention, but am I wrong? Do they have a negative effect on our community, is Liverpool or any other town going to be a better place without any chain restaurants?

Vive Le Cheese

This week I was invited, by the lovely people as Sopexa, to cheese tasting night ran by Vive Le Cheese. This free event was run at The Soup Kitchen in the Manchester, a lively independent area bar that I’m reliably informed does good food and a wide selection of drinks. The evening was hosted by Phoebe, who took us on a tour of 10 different french cheeses, offering a wide variety of styles and tastes. Phoebe was extremely knowledgable about everything cheese related, I learnt a great deal including that Reblochon drives from the term ‘to pinch the cows udder again’, who knew?

Our selection of cheeses was lovely ranging from hard cheeses like Ementall (a french version not swiss before anyone pulls me up) and Comté to classic soft cheeses like Brie de Meaux and a camembert, to less well known cheese like Epoisses. Apparently the british always over mature camembert, so that its centre is completely soft, it should actually be served when the center is still slightly hard. The Époisses was my favorite cheese of the night, I liken it to The Xfactor, you shouldn’t like it and a not too small part of you thinks its wrong, but you still end up watching it every week. The Époisses was very strong in flavour and at first taste it was too strong for me but I kept going back for more, I could see myself eating a whole lot of this powerful little cheese without even realising, much like the Cowell creation I couldn’t seem to ignore it.

I had a very nice evening, sampling some great cheeses and learning a great deal, the accompanying wine was also good and seems to have had an effect on my photography skills. Phoebe and all the Vive le Cheese staff did a great job and made the evening run very smoothly. I’m now going out to buy some Époisses and reliably inform everyone I meet of the true origin of the word Reblochon.