October 2011
1 post
I put Bert Jansch on a pallet
It may have been 1995 or perhaps a little earlier, I’m not sure looking back how any of it came to pass, there’s a fog surrounding that time that I just can’t seem to cut through or perhaps don’t want to. That might be something to do with self-preservation. Some bits I do clearly recall though.
I’d seen a little article in Q magazine saying that Bert was playing a weekly show at the 12 Bar...
April 2011
1 post
CuiZine: HOT HORSE →
cuizine:
I travelled to Slovenia recently with my girlfriend Liv, and in my research for the trip (reading Lonely Planet), one of the first things I read about was an equine eatery named Hot Horse. It’s apparently a true favourite with the locals and renowned enough to be mentioned in the wikipedia entry…
March 2011
1 post
Rock stars and their dinners (a very occasional...
Bob Dylan - Ballad of a Thin Man
“I can live on rice and beans” deadpans Bob Dylan on the piercing, elegiac Workingman’s Blues #2 from 2006. Looking at him, as I confess I still often do, I don’t doubt it. Could there be a starker contrast than that between Dylan and the last subject in this series, Van Morrison? Take a look at them playing together in front of the Acropolis in 1984,...
November 2010
2 posts
CuiZine: SAINSBURYS 9P CURRY SAUCE - COOKED THREE... →
cuizine:
On a recent foray to Sainsbury’s Local, the cheekily price marked-up little brother of the big stores, I stumbled across this bin, a manager’s special, chock full of Sainsbury’s Basics Curry Sauce at the have to look twice price of just 9p. Nine pennies, an astounding price for a jar that…
City of grey and then gold
The last time I had been to Bath was to appear in court. I had driven there through the morning rain to account for an early hours misdemeanour in a contraflow system on the nearby M4. Faced with 6 points to add to the 6 I had already accumulated, disqualification was staring me in the face - a miserable prospect on an ugly day. Somehow I avoided a ban, it was the 23rd December, I thanked the...
October 2010
2 posts
Rock Stars And Their Dinner ( an occasional...
Van Morrison – Coney Island
Stop off at Ardglass for a couple of jars of mussels and some potted herrings in case we get famished before dinner On and on, over the hill and the craic is good Heading towards Coney Island There is plenty of evidence that Van is a man who likes his food. Firstly there’s his figure – revisit his albums, particularly from the mid 70’s onwards and see how he grows. I...
CuiZine: TACOS IN ENGLAND →
cuizine:
CHIPOTLE-PEANUT SALSA w/ROASTED VEGGIES FOR TACOS IN ENGLAND
Ingredients:
For the Chipotle - Peanut Salsa (based on a Rick Bayless Recipe, cant lie)
5 dried “morita” chillies (available at some spots in London; Whole Foods in Stoke Newington, De Beauvoir Deli in…
September 2010
1 post
Don’t shoot me I’m not the chef (and have never...
This is not a diary, but a week that begins with a 1.30 am encounter with armed police and ends with the Sunday Times, bless them, according me the status of “one of the finest chefs in Wales” demands to be marked in some way.
Looking back, it would all make so much more sense if the two events had occurred the other way around. That way it might suggest that I’d been arrested at gunpoint in...
August 2010
5 posts
3 tags
Just Say Neau
Bottled water is surely one of the great absurdities of our age. Can you imagine having to explain it to someone in the future? It’s not a comfortable exercise. “Well you see it’s like this - back in 21st century UK we had this energy-efficient system for transporting fresh, clean, drinkable water to every habitable building in the country at a cost of about £1 per 1,000 litres which was great...
2 tags
Milk Theft Thwarted, Sour Taste Left Behind
There goes the great milk robbery that never was, blink and you might have missed it. This was as close as a Government gets to taking sweets from a baby, except of course that would never happen; they wouldn’t dream of upsetting the lobbyists from Mars or Nestlé. Anyway in case you missed it they bungled the burglary, got caught in the act and had to hand back the bottle blushing - which would...
2 tags
Andrew Lansley is making me sick
The Health Secretary is appearing in my nightmares. There’s a charcoal black tunnel and I’m staggering through it making painfully slow progress, a little delirious and plagued by visions. I’m seeing gaggles of horribly obese children cramming their smeared mouths with fistfuls of greasy pale putty and swigging on flagons of stagnant brown liquid. Middle aged men pull desperately at their...
“The residents of Todmorden in England are working together to fast-track the...”
– Worldchanging: Bright Green: Incredible Edible: Supporting Food Independence in Todmorden, England (via sylviac)
4 tags
Balwen Bros
Wyn came down last night to shear the Balwens. It’s like an aftercare contract, but one that you actually want - he sold me the first handful of ewes and lambs three years ago and every year he makes the journey down from the hills and gives them their annual haircut. There are 34 now rather than the 12 we started with, but other than that the ritual’s much the same - I ring Wyn and leave a...