Something Different: Three Different Cheese You Must Try!

Greetings, foodie friends!

With this post I want to shine the spotlight on some fantastic cheeses which I feel don't get the attention they deserve. Everyone knows such favourites as cheddar, parmesan and brie but there is a whole world of flavour out there and I want to discuss three of my favourites.

In choosing my cheeses, I have tried to pick ones which are a little unusual but not so rare as you need to go to horrendous lengths to get them. If this means you already know about them I apologise in advance for the vexatious time you might experience reading the rest of my piece. There is nothing worse than an flush-faced guide ‘introducing’ you to the path you travel down to get to work everyday.

Anyway, for those who don't know I present three wizard cheeses which you should definitely try now!

Red Leicester

A mature red leicester is a thing of beauty. Crumbly, salty and tangy, this hard orange cheese is as fantastic raw as it is melted. It tastes REALLY good melted on granary bread with pickle but can generally be used as an interesting alternative to cheddar as they are both salty and have a similar consistency whether at room temperature or melted.

Taleggio

This cheese is truly magical. Combining the strength of stilton with the consistency of a really soft camembert, taleggio is rather disconcerting to look at, surrounded as it with an orange rind sprinkled liberally with mould. Honestly, this is fine and does not need to be removed.

Tangy with pleasing herby undertones, Taleggio is a fantastic lunch cheese as it is both the perfect counterpoint to sweet fruit such as figs and the perfect complement to salty olives. It is pretty strong, so really stands out when smeared on bread or crackers even in small quantities.

Taleggio also melts surprisingly well. I frequently use it in pasta and risotto dishes, where it completely dissolves into creamy loveliness without loosing any of its strength.

Jarlsberg

Jarlsberg is a hard Norwegian cheese with a rubbery rather than crumbly texture. The flavour is exceedingly nutty and lacks the sharp tang of many cheeses, giving it a fabulous fresh quality in the eating. It is wonderful eaten raw but I also very much enjoy baking with it. Its flavour brings a clean, meadowy taste to breads and muffins as opposed to the salty heaviness or, frankly, blandness given by many other cheeses (I'm looking at you edam!).

Well, there they are, three cheese which are not in the mainstream psyche but which I just adore. But that's just me - which are your favourites? And, if you've had any experience of the above selection, what do you think of them? Leave a post in the comments below and we can talk cheese until we're blue (veined) in the face!

Recipe Time: Cherry and Almond Brownies

Greatings, fellow guzzlers!

In this post, I'd like to bring you a lovely little take I have on brownies. Now, I must admit that my recipe is based on James Morton's excellent brownie recipe in How Baking Works. If you only buy one book this year, buy this one. His recipes and tips are superb and I have honestly never had a better brownie, having tried several recipes over the years.

I reckon his secret is the long, slow cooking time (I actually found he slightly underestimated the time they took to cook)and the use of caster sugar. I feel it is easy to obsesses about making the brownies the gooeyest, richest ever in the history of the entire universe and actually end up ruining the result. A bit like swinging an axe, just let the material do the work and the result is perfection. And so with the caster sugar. I find it's lighter taste than, say, muscovado, sweetens the mix as it should while allowing the luxurious intensity stem from the chocolate and cocoa powder.

Where my recipe differs from Morton's is in cooking time, tin size and, of course, flavourings.

Obviously, I'm adding almonds and cherries but I also add a teaspoon of vanilla essence. I find it adds another little flavour layer to brownies, the sort that causes you to laugh maniacally on the sofa while smearing cake all over your face. Cherries and almonds are a classic combination and their heady flavours and the chewy texture of dried cherries are perfect complements for chocolate.

As for tins, I favour a 9x9 inch brownie pan over an 8x8. The reason for this that all the 8x8s I have ever found are cheap and thin. Thicker tins disperse heat more evenly and, more importantly if you do a lot of baking, are far more resistant to warping. I have an 8x8 tin and, after comparatively few uses, the thin metal has already warped sufficiently that it is useless for producing finer cakes that need to be perfectly level.

Well, after that preamble let's get on with the recipe!

Ingredients (Makes 12)

• 250g Dark Chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
• 250g Salted Butter
• 300g Golden Caster Sugar
• 3 Eggs, plus 1 Egg Yolk
• 60g Plain Flour
• 60g Cocoa Powder
• 50g Whole Blanched Almonds
• 50g Dried Cherries
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Method

Preheat and oven to 160°C (Gas Mark 3) or 140°C for a fan oven and prepare almonds by chopping them into large chunks. Line a 9x9 inch brownie pan/baking tin with baking parchment, doing this as neatly as possible to prevent unsightly dents in the sides of your brownies.

Beat the eggs in a bowl until combined and add to the sugar. Mix the two together gently until just combined and set aside. Beating hard will mix air into the mixture like a super incompetent meringue mix and prevent the brownies from achieving the full fudgey glory.

Break the chocolate into pieces, chop up the butter and throw together into a bowl. From this point, you can go very naturalistic and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or you can hurl it into a microwave like I do. If you chose the latter option, be very careful to keep taking the mixture out and stirring it to prevent the parts of the mixture which melt first from burning. Trust me, I've burned chocolate one in the microwave and it was disgusting.

I like to take the melty mix out of the microwave with a few little pieces of chocolate still floating around and use the heat of the mixture to finish the job. If you do this, it should not be so hot as to scramble the eggs in the next stage which is -

- gently pouring the chocolate and butter liquid into the eggy sugar. Whisk as you pour the mixture in to make sure the egg does not become cooked by the chocolate's heat but not so hard as to introduce lots of air.

Mix the flour, cocoa powder, almonds, cherries and vanilla essence together and add to the wet mix. Fold in with a metal spoon until you have just reached the point where no flour is visible. With flour in the mix, there is now the threat of developing gluten which will stiffen the brownie. So, once again, keep the mixing to a minimum.

Pour into the tin, level the surface and bake for about an hour until the mix no longer wobbles or makes crackling noises when taken out of the oven.

Allow to cool, cut into twelve and serve as and when you like.

Someting Different: Mavrodaphne Wine

Greetings, fellow guzzlers!

This week, I want to try something a little different - literally. On the Something Different part of my blog, I want to highlight unusual or niche food products. I will tend to pick items which are not too far off mainstream, so that everyone should have a pretty easy job of finding the item I highlight, but strange enough that hopefully you can make the odd real discovery.

My first product is Mavrodaphne wine. Wine may not be the first thing one thinks of with Greece, especially when such excellent products as Greek olives and feta have to be considered, but then again Mavrodaphne is not a typical wine.

The exact bottle I am choosing for this feature is Kourtaki's Mavrodaphne of Patras Cameo which I bought in Waitrose for £6.69.

Classified as a fortified dessert wine, Mavrodaphne (according to Fringe Wine¹) mostly hails from the north of the Peloponnese in the area around the city of Patras.

As a brand and process, Mavrodaphne wine was established by the Bavarian Gustav Clauss in the second half of the nineteenth century. He used Port production techniques to produce a dessert wine rather than the over-sweet table wines then made with the grape.

Upon pouring, the wine is like deep red velvet - crimson in hue and slightly opaque. Held up to the light, the liquid shines but in a far more gently, diffuse way than the sharp, clear manner of normal table reds.

On the nose, the wine is sweet and fruity, bringing to mind rich dried fruits such as dates and (perhaps not surprisingly) raisins.

This theme very much transfers to the flavour. It is heady and sweat, like a sultry summer evening, but with just enough sour undertones to prevent it from being sickly.

It is a delight as an aperitif and goes extremely well with chocolate. However, despite being a dessert wine, I also very much enjoyed drinking it with meat main dishes. The effect is very similar to the way Middle Eastern stews often pair meat and dried fruit and indeed I feel it is with rich stews that it pairs best.

In terms of price, my bottle at least seemed very reasonable. For £6.69 one can buy some truly indifferent wines, lacking in any number of areas from top and bottom notes to body to simply vanishing off the palate as soon as swallowed. However, the Mavrodaphne of Patras Cameo's fully rounded flavour hung around the mouth long after swallowing.

Overall, Mavrodaphne wine is a hidden treat. Sweet, rich and fruity, it is a versatile drink that can be enjoyed equally in its intended purpose as a dessert wine or aperitif or as an exciting accompaniment to a stew.

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¹ Fringe Wine: Mavrodaphne - Patras, Greece

Book Review - The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook by Amy and Julie Zhang

Greetings, fellow guzzlers!

So, I know that I have been absent for a few weeks, days, I don't know any more but I promise it was a temporary glitch. I now have a job, and a very exciting one at that, and am moving into a new and hopefully more stable period of my life which will allow me to blog to a regular pattern.

In other news, I am teaching myself HTML and CSS and you are reading the first blog post I'm punching out all by myself in code.

Anyway, this is all very well and self-congratulatory but I have business to attend to, the tasty business of reviewing The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook!

The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook is written by, surprise, surprise The Dumplings Sisters, or Amy and Julie Zhang to be precise.

The Zhang sisters are food bloggers and vloggers with a focus on the Chinese food of their roots. While growing up in New Zealand, their parents ran a food cart it is was here that they learned to cook. After completing formidably impress Oxbridge degrees, the sisters set up their blog and here we are today with their first book.

I'm a sucker for real Chinese food so I was very excited about this book, especially as only Gok Wan's Gok Cooks Chinese had so far provided me with what I was looking for.

Fortunately, this book does not disappoint! It is stuffed with recipes, ranging from classics like Sweet and Sour Pork (wookie bellows of delight)to less familiar treats such as pork stuffed aubergines and rainbow peppers.

There is even a section on Chinese baking which, coming from a tradition of believing the Chinese don't bake, was a revelation and one I am keen to pursue - sweet and salty walnut cookies, anyone?

Another really nice touch in the book is that it provides, as a side note, the option with many of the recipes to explore a more exotic side of Chinese cookery such as dried scallops or pickled mustard greens. The great thing about this approach is that you can explore using these ingredients if you can find them or, if like me you struggle to get your hands on even Shaoxing rice wine (100 brands of soy sauce but hardly any of this vital ingredient - why, supermarkets, why?!?!?), then you can omit them without any fear of degrading the recipe.

However, before floating off on a cloud of praise, I had serious recipe testing to do and so I picked out three recipes to try.

• Eggy Fried Rice
• Lacquered Honey Hoisin Pork Spare Ribs
• Spring Onion Pancakes

The Eggy Fried Rice (egg fried rice) was very nice indeed. The flavourings were unusual, inasmuch as they were very delicate and almost aromatic. Very little soy was used and the addition of fresh ginger root made the fried rice different than any I have tasted before

How the rice was cooked was also different than the method I was accustomed to. Previously, I would scramble all the egg before setting it aside to add back in once the rice was cooked. However, the Dumpling Sisters cook half the egg in this way but add the other half during the cooking of the rice. The great advantage of this method is that the rice becomes coated in eggy goodness and truly becomes egg fried rice.

Next, I tried the Lacquered Honey Hoisin Pork Spare Ribs with a little less success. There was nothing wrong with the method, it produced beautifully cooked ribs made with enormous love and attention. Nor was the sauce at fault directly. It was a lovely tasting sauce, sweet with just enough savoury to enhance the pork. For me, however, there simply was not enough of it. Half dribbled off the ribs and stuck to the pan and I was left wishing for a bit more flavour. Perhaps I missed the point and sticky ribs were really not the idea but I think in future I will double up on the quantity of sauce to create a true meaty nirvana!

Finally, I came to the Spring Onion Pancakes. I struggle to find words to describe these delights. Intensely savoury but not in a drying, salty way, the pancakes had a complex layer structure which fell apart on eating. They are an absolute perfect accompaniment to soup and were, for me, the star recipe I tried.

Turning away from the food, the presentation of the book is stunning. The recipes are well spaced out for easy reading and the vast majority of the recipes are accompany by beautiful photographs. All through the book are evocative, Chinese-style illustrations which look like these where made by a brush and the tone the Dumpling Sisters take in their prose is friendly and conversational.

The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook is a terrific guide to all that authentic Chinese food has to offer. The recipes often have quite a delicate flavour, on occasion maybe a shade too delicate, but this is still a great book well worth having in the collection.

Overall * * * * * - An extremely thorough examination of Chinese cooking from a pair of sisters who really know what they are talking about.

Presentation * * * * * - Absolutely stunning visual presentation combines with friendly prose to produce a delightful cookbook.

Quality of Information * * * * - Generally fantastic. The sisters take the trouble to explain what they are doing and or what ingredients they are using. However, it might be argued that one or two recipes could do with a little more flavour.

Range of Information * * * * * - Simply comprehensive. Everything from snacks to feasts, meat dishes to deserts is covered.

Price * * * * * - For £20, this is a well priced book.

Will I Take This Off The Shelf For Reference? - Yes.

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I have been reviewing The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook by Amy and Julie Zhang, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson (2015), ISBN-13: 978-0297609063

Interview Time - Ozgur Tuncay of Sultans Delights

This week is my first video feature for The Hungry Seagull, an interview with Middle Eastern street food chef Ozgur Tuncay!

Ozgur runs Sultans Delights and serves vegetarian and vegan food inspired by her native Turkey and the surrounding regions. She pitches up every week at Brighton's Street Diner as well as many other events including Brighton's Brunswick Festival 2015.

Street Diner is located in Brighthelm Community Garden, on Queens Road between Brighton Station and the Churchill Square Shopping Centre. It runs every Friday between 11am and 3pm.

Recipe Time - Mexican Inspired Spicy Pasta Bake

This week I want to share with you a hearty dish inspired by the flavours of Mexico! If you make this, I can promise a spicy, flavoursome delight which will fill you up and leave you feeling nourished.

Ingredients (Serves 4):

300g Tubular Pasta, such as Penne or Rigatoni

1 Onion

1 Clove of Garlic

2 Green Jalapeno Chillies

50g Butter

50g Plain Flour

500g Whole Milk

150g Mature Cheddar Cheese, Coarsely Grated

1 x 400g Tin Red Kidney Beans, Drained and Rinsed

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Cumin

1/4 Cayenne Pepper

Black Pepper and Salt To Taste

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C (Gas Mark 6) or 180°C for a fan oven.

Finely chop the onion and garlic and halve the chillies lengthwise. At this point, you can decide how hot or otherwise you want your dish. For full on fire, slice the chillies into strips and add them to the onion mix. For a milder dish, core and seed the chillies before slicing. They will still add a very gentle heat and fresh flavour to the dish, though the potency will be gone. Personally, I welcome the fire, it is good for you apart from anything else, but the choice is yours.

Heat some oil in a large pan and fry onions, garlic and chillies until soft and just showing a little colour. Set to one side.

Add butter to the pan and melt. Remove from the heat and add the flour. Combine with a wooden spoon to form a roux before returning to the heat for about 10 seconds.

Pour in the milk. Some people like to do this in stages, making sure the roux is thoroughly absorbed at each stage to prevent lumpiness. However, I have found if I use a whisk to stir the mixture the roux and milk still amalgamate well, even if I pour all the milk in at once.

That said, you may occasionally want to run a spoon around the outside of the pan to make sure none of the mixture gets caught in the corners.

Bring the sauce to the boil over a medium heat, whisking vigorously all the time. It should thicken noticeably just before starting to boil to provide a beautiful glossy sauce. Add the kidney beans, cinnamon, cumin, cayenne pepper, onions, garlic, chillies, salt, pepper and half the cheese and leave to bubble very gently, stirring occasionally.

Cook the pasta according to packet instructions.  Reserve a few tablespoons of the cooking water and drain the pasta. Add water and pasta to the sauce and stir thoroughly to combine.

Pour the mix into an oven-proof dish, sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the top has browned nicely.

Serve and make you have plenty of beer or water on hand if you are not used to spicy food!

Restaurant Review - The Breakfast Club, Brighton

Hello there! Welcome to another week on The Hungry Seagull and this week I'm doing a restaurant review. Or is it a cafe review? In this case it is a very fine line for reasons which will become obvious once you start reading.

On the recommendation of a friend, I decided to visit The Breakfast Club in Brighton, one of several Breakfast Clubs dotted about London and Brighton.

I went with a guest reviewer, my YouTuber brother Charles, because he was staying with me and double the reviewers, double the review.

The Breakfast Club serves a variety of breakfast, brunch and general out-and-about food, from pancakes to burgers. The theme is undeniably American, specifically Californian, with plenty of smoothies and Mexican-inspired dishes such as nachos and burritos on the menu.

The decor is the same as the food, with the green ceiling and American diner-style furniture bringing to mind a Californian beach-side eatery. Although a little dark inside, bright lights ensure you can see what you are doing and the place feels relaxed and welcoming.

The staff were exceptionally pleasant. All smiled and could not do enough for us, including serving us water without even asking.

I ordered a cappuccino and the posh sausage sandwich with an added egg while Charles chose the breakfast burrito and the big breakfast smoothie.

Starting with the drinks, they were exceptional. I always treat a cappuccino as the bench mark of anywhere that claims to serve coffee, as the skill needed to heat and stretch that milk properly is a real test of the barista's abilities.

My cappuccino was smooth as silk with plenty of body. The beans were perhaps not outstanding, only very good, but then I was not in an artisan coffee shop so it feels churlish to complain.

Charles loved his smoothie. A giant glass of purple juice came to him with a light sprinkling of granola on top. A mix of strawberry, banana, oats, honey, yoghurt and milk, I tried it as well and agreed it was a fresh delight.

The food arrived a short time after that. My sausage sandwich was wonderful. Savoury sausage was bound to a rich, brioche bun by smoky cheese. A thin but punchy layer of sweet red onion chutney served as a perfect flavour counterpoint while the egg added a fresh note to finish the whole.

Charles loved his burrito but did not find it quite as satisfying as I found my sandwich. The burrito was mostly scrambled egg and chorizo accompanied by sides of salad, guacamole, red sauce and some sort of sour cream. So far, so good. However, for his taste, the scrambled eggs were a little too milky and he would have preferred the two chorizos to have been chopped up rather than left whole.

Yes. I said two. Which brings me onto one problem with The Breakfast Club - the portions are HUGE! Delicious as the food is, quality as the food is, there is perhaps simply too much of it. Charles ate his burrito on an empty stomach and, despite spending the rest of the day walking, could only stomach a light meal in the evening.

My meal was much lighter though, as I watched a pile of about five washing-up sponge sized pancakes topped with lashings of bacon whizz past me, I think it may have been the smallest dish on the menu. Even then, it did me quite well for breakfast and lunch.

The size of the portions is reflected in the price with the burrito costing £9 and my sandwich £7.

This is not overpriced. As I say, the food was excellent quality and one would never complain about paying for that in a restaurant. However, a light breakfast to set you up for the day The Breakfast Club is not. I would say that if you go along, treat yourself to a fantastic brunch and skip a meal because you will not need to eat again until the evening.

The Breakfast Club is a great place to eat, with fun decor, lovely staff and fabulous food. But beware the portions sizes, you do not want to go in there if you are after a continental, coffee-and-pastry-style cafe.

Overall * * * * * - Fantastic food served with a smile.

Food and Drink * * * * - Superlative tasting food and drink is slightly let down by the sheer quantity of it, too much for just breakfast.

Atmosphere * * * * * - With a really fun Californian vibe, you know you've found somewhere to relax and enjoy a good meal.

Service * * * * * - Extremely friendly and attentive, could not ask for more.

Price * * * * - For breakfast, the prices do seem quite high. The reason for this is the size of the portions so, while expensive, it is good value for money.

Would I Go Here Again? - Yes.

Recipe Time - Romano Pepper, Olive and Garlic Pasta

So, I've been cooking and I have a new recipe! Actually, it's the first recipe I ever developed but I wanted to get it just right before sharing it with you. Super-healthy and packed with flavour, it is also extremely quick to knock together and is an ideal midweek meal.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

200g Large-piece Pasta (such as penne, conchiglie or, my personal favourite, elicoidali)

2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 Cloves of Garlic

2 Sweet Romano Peppers

24 Kalamata Olives (don't ask me why, this number just works beautifully!)

2 tsp Dried Oregano

Salt and Black Pepper

Method:

Pour the pasta into a pan of boiling, salted water. While it is cooking, finely chop the garlic. Halve and core the peppers before cutting into thickish strips.

Spoon the oil into a frying pan, heat and, when the pasta is four minutes away from being cooked according to packet instructions, throw in the garlic. Cook for two minutes, then add the peppers. The idea is to make the peppers release their flavour without causing them to lose their bite.

As soon as the pasta is cooked, set aside a few tablespoons of the cooking water, toss the olives into the frying pan and drain the pasta. Again the idea is just to coax the olives into a deliciously warm, flavoursome state without destroying their structure.

Quickly return the pasta to the saucepan and throw in the contents of the frying pan, the set-aside cooking water, the oregano and salt and pepper to taste. Stir vigorously and serve.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. Let me know in the comments what you think, I'd love to hear from you!

Book Review - The Curious Barista's Guide To Coffee by Tristan Stephenson

Do you want to know about coffee? Then this book is for you.

Released in March this year, The Curious Barista's Guide to Coffee does a very good job of informing the reader about the coffee making process.

Every stage from farm-to-cup is covered in copious detail. The reader is lead through how coffee is grown, processed, roasted and ground in such a way that Stephenson's expertise shines through.

The book fully explores the diverse, often confusing world of coffee drinks. Different brewing methods are demonstrated with step-by-step, illustrated tutorials and the pros and cons of each are discussed.

Milk-based espresso drinks, from latte to flat white, are also discussed and there is a really fun introduction to producing latte art which I wish I had had when I was a barista!

Coffee's history receives solid attention. The book starts with a general history of coffee and more specific information, such as the development of grinders, is included in the appropriate chapters.

Where the book is not so strong is the end chapters, focussing on coffee-based recipes, coffee varieties and coffee growing countries.

While the recipes are generally fun and it is an enjoyable addition to the book, some do make use of additive ingredients such as xanthan gum and carrageenan (lambda class). Scary titles aside, these chemicals admittedly seem fairly harmless.

However, I am personally against hurling unnecessary chemicals into things and there seems little need to include them in home cooking. For instance, I cannot see how espresso would be so destructive to the structure of a basic ice cream recipe as to require the inclusion of extra chemicals.

The chapters on coffee varieties and growing regions suffer due to brevity. Only the briefest of introductions can be given which, given the complexity of coffee, is of limited use. In fairness, these topics have huge scope and really are beyond the focus of this book, requiring one of their own to discuss properly. This being so, the chapters are a fun introduction to promote further study.

The tone and layout of the book are highly enjoyable. The tone of the prose is informal yet informed. It feels as though Stephenson is speaking directly to the reader and pertinent reminiscences from his life in coffee add to the enjoyment of the read.

Some might find annoying his insistence on the highest standards of coffee, including singing the praises of home grinders, and mildly snobbish disregard for lesser forms of the drink.

However, he goes into such details about coffee flavour and how it achieved that it is easy to understand his perspective and he is never shy of discussing the coffee he would clearly consider bilge-water, even detailing the various processes of producing instant coffee.

The layout of the book is great fun. It is exceedingly well illustrated and a blocky, cafe-style typeface printed on pages made to look like coffee bean sacking really puts one in the mood to read on.

The Curious Barista's Guide to Coffee is thorough, highly readable guide to how coffee is produced and brewed and anyone who reads it will come away with a deep respect for this most complex of drinks.

However, for those looking for a guide to coffee varieties and the character of the different growing regions, they might do better to look elsewhere - always bearing in mind that the processes described in this book will have a huge impact on the final flavour of any raw bean.

Overall * * * * * - An extremely thorough, farm-to-cup guide to producing coffee, let down slightly by average chapters on coffee varieties and growing regions.

Presentation * * * * *  - Perfectly pitched design puts one in the mood for coffee while the prose style makes one feel as though one is having an informal chat with a coffee shop barista during a quiet period.

Quality of Information * * * * * - Extremely thorough, coming from a highly knowledgeable and enquiring source.

Range of Information * * * * - Other than a thorough examination of coffee varieties and growing regions, every conceivable aspect of coffee is covered.

Price * * * * * - For £16.99, this is an excellently priced book for such expertise.

Will I Take This Off The Shelf For Reference? - Yes.

I have been reviewing The Curious Barista's Guide To Coffee by Tristan Stephenson, published by Ryland Peters & Small (2015), ISBN-13: 978-1849755634

Recipe Time - Rose Water and Cardamom Shortbread Fingers

Happy weekend, food-lovers!

Today, I am going to be writing up another of my recipes, an aromatic, Persian-inspired take on that most delightful of biscuits, shortbread.

I have to admit, while R&Ding this recipe I had some trouble getting the spice balance right - my first effort was like being smacked in the face by a spice shop - but I promise I managed to get everything working in perfect harmony.

Just for reference, as rose waters can vary, I used Nielsen-Massey's rose water in this recipe.

Ingredients (Makes 12):

200g Butter

100g Caster Sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)

300g Plain Flour

5 Cardamom Pods

1tsp Rose Water

Method:

Split open the cardamom pods and remove the seeds. Either grind in a pestle and mortar or, if you don't have one, put in a plastic bag and pulverise with a rolling pin.

Soften the butter and put in a bowl with the sugar. Mix in but do not beat - the trick with shorthand is to do as little manual labour as possible to ensure a dense, crumbly biscuit. Beating at this point would introduce air bubbles into the mix which would expand in the oven.

Add the flour, rose water and cardamom and mix in, again using as little effort as possible so as not to develop the flour's gluten and produce a leathery texture. Personally, I think this is the moment to hurl the wooden spoon over your shoulder and rub the flour into the fat with your fingertips. Nothing matches the control and feel of your hands.

When the flour is no longer visible, press the dough into a ball. You can put the ball in the fridge for up to several days to improve its texture or do what I do and get on with things.

Line a 9 x 9 inch (23 x 23 cm) brownie/cake tin with baking parchment. Throw the ball into the tin use your hands to spread into a nice, even layer. Prick the surface all over with a fork but don't go through the dough.

Place in the fridge for at least 20 minutes but up to a day to allow the gluten to relax, increasingly crumbliness. While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 160°C (Gas Mark 3) or 140°C for a fan oven.

When the oven is up to temperature and the dough has chilled, bake the shortbread for about 25 minutes, until just starting to show a little colour around the edges.

Sprinkle with caster sugar and leave to cool before cutting up into 12 fingers.

Book Review - How Baking Works (And What To Do When It Doesn't) by James Morton

This week, I am reviewing another book, James' Morton's new(ish) How Baking Works (And What To Do When It Doesn't).

I have been using it for the last few months and I have to say it is utterly fantastic. As the title suggests, the book attempts to teach the reader basic recipes and techniques and how to sort out problems ranging from hard shortbread to soggy puff pastry.

Morton's chocolate and orange cookies

Morton takes a highly methodical approach to the book's layout, with each chapter tackling a different type of bake. Cake, sponge, brownie, muffin, torte, biscuit, short pastry, sweet pastry, choux (bless you!) pastry, puff pastry, meringue and macaroons all receive their allotted space.

He is not hidebound by his principles, however, and slips in a few odd recipes where they seem most appropriate rather than leave them out. For instance, a rather excellent recipe for chocolate fondants finds its way into the brownie section.

An introduction covers "basics", a collection of need-to-know sauces and dressings such as caramel sauce, jam and the best crumble topping you will ever experience.

Morton's chocolate fondant

It also reveals a unique selling point of medical practitioner Morton's books, his scientific approach to the subject. He is far less of a "it's all an arcane mystery we must feel our way with" than a "everything is there for a reason which can be explained" kind of baker.

His introduction features a description of the key qualities of the basic ingredients of baking, sugar, eggs, flour etc, and their importance to the baking process.

This style carries on into the later chapters, where he scientifically explains the why behind each style of bake's basic process and how things might have gone wrong.

For instance, he explains the purpose of chilling shortbread before baking (it firms the butter up to prevents spreading in the oven and allows the gluten matrix to relax to produce a crumblier shortbread, since you ask).

I suspect this reason-based approach may also be due to the cheerful blokeishness which suffuses the book. There is nothing fussy about is recipes. Most measurements are in simple multiples or divisions of 100 and he has a casual disregard for scrimping and scraping to make "healthy" bakes (his advice for soft caramel is "Butter. And lots of it.").

Morton's friands (financiers)

The style of the book is very much in this vein; simple, unfussy, cheerful. The prose is conversational, as if he is speaking to the reader, and the layout is clear and simple with plenty of photographs.

I am not entirely sure about the quality of binding. I may have been unlucky but a section of pages has already detached from the spine and is hanging by the thread binding - just the sort of thing to really annoy this book-lover!

As I say, I may just have been unlucky and it is certainly not a reason to avoid buying the book. In fact, I would very much recommend you do and I'm sure Morton would roll his eyes and tell me to stuff the pages back in or glue them down.

How Baking Works is a fantastic book for a baker of any level but especially for a beginner. All the basics anyone could want are in here along with ten skip-loads of advice on how to dodge common problems and take ones baking to the next level. This book is an indispensable jewel in my collection.

Overall * * * * * - A peerless guide to baking, one could not wish for a clearer or more thorough companion.

Presentation * * * *  - A simple but clear and effective layout is enhanced by Morton's cheerful prose.

Quality of Recipes * * * * * - Outstanding, solid basics to set you up for life.

Range of Recipes * * * * * - Every basic style of baking is covered while a few more experimental recipes are included among them.

Price * * * * * - At £20, this is really good price. With this much advice it is worth £25.

Will I Take This Off The Shelf To Cook From? - Yes.

I have been reviewing How Baking Works (And What To Do When It Doesn't) by James Morton, published by Ebury Press (2015), ISBN-13: 978-0091959906

Recipe Time - Leek, Tomato and Taleggio Risotto

This week on The Hungry Seagull I bring you another delicious recipe created by my own fair hand  - leek, tomato and taleggio risotto.

Taleggio is a soft, intensely flavoured cheese, a bit like stilton crossed with camembert. Frequently, it is made from pasteurised milk, which is good news for us germ-freaks.

It is extremely versatile and I love it fresh from the packet, smeared on fluffy white bread, as much as I do melting it in hot dishes such as this risotto.

This recipe uses cherry tomatoes because their delightful sweetness contrasts really well with the tangy cheese and buttery leeks.

Ingredients (Serves 4):

4 Leeks

4 tablespoons Olive Oil

200g Risotto Rice

1 litre Vegetable Stock

400g Cherry Tomatoes

200g Taleggio Cheese

4 teaspoons Oregano

Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Method:

Trim and wash the leeks. I also like to remove the outer leaf but that is a matter of personal preference, you may prefer to throw it all in!

Pour the olive oil into a large pan and heat. Slice the leeks into disks and, when the oil is good and hot, throw them in to the pot.

Cook the leeks over a medium heat, keeping them moving so they do not stick to the pan and burn. When they are soft, add the rice and, stirring all the time, continue to cook for a couple of minutes.

Add the first 250ml of the stock. Still stirring, cook until the liquid has been absorbed by the rice. It is important not to cook at too high a temperature or the stock will evaporate rather than soak into the rice. Aim for a rolling simmer rather than a raging boil.

Add another 250ml of stock. Throw in the tomatoes and return to stirring to prevent the rice sticking to the bottom of the pan. After a while, the tomatoes should be soft enough to crush. Press them against the side of the pan until they burst and release their sweet juices into the risotto.

When the stock has been absorbed by the rice, add another 250ml and keep doing this until the rice is cooked. If you run out of stock, add water until the rice is cooked. It should be soft but with just a little bite.

Once cooked, add the taleggio, roughly torn up, and the oregano. Add a few good twists of black pepper - however much you like, really - and stir until the cheese is melted and evenly mixed through the risotto.

Serve immediately, preferably with a glass of white wine.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and, if you do, please let me know in the comments below!

Cafe Review - Vanilla Pod

This week, I decided it was time I did another eatery review so I visited Brighton and Hove’s Vanilla Pod.

Located on the western end of Western Road, it is surprisingly easy to miss. No glass-fronted modern café, it is a white-painted building with speaks of an older, gentler age.

The inside is bright and airy. Decorated with duck-egg blue walls and spotlessly clean varnished wood flooring and furniture, the morning light streams into a space which feels cosily old-fashioned and stylishly modern.

Vanilla Pod describes itself as a café and tea room but this rather undersells the range of food it offers.

Alongside tea, coffee and cakes, it offers a wide variety of savoury options. Of course, there are the normal sandwiches but there is also a selection of sausage rolls and puff pastry turnovers.

Breakfast, as far as Vanilla Pod is concerned, is a style of food not a time of day. A mighty range of dishes, from porridge to full English (via pancakes and eggs benedict) is available all day.

The sweet selection is modern British. Sponge cakes, brownies and flapjacks adorn the counter in a variety of original and classic flavours.

To start, I ordered the chocolate and orange cake and a cappuccino.

The cake was full of flavour and exquisitely presented. A large portion came to me, elegantly standing on end with a side serving of berries and a spring of mint.

The proportion of icing to sponge was well managed and both parts contained chocolate and orange.

In a playful gesture, a piece of Terry’s Chocolate Orange crowned the cake but somehow the classic sweet was more than decoration and contributed to the overall experience.

The same can be said for the side serving of berries and mint. More than plate-dressing, they allowed for fun flavour experimentation with the sponge.

My only complaint was that the texture at the very bottom of the sponge was a little clumpy, like the edible version of a bean bag. I must stress only the very bottom was clumpy and the rest was beautifully soft and smooth.

The cappuccino was good but no more. The milk had been competently stretched but the beans were not the finest. They lacked complexity and depth of flavour but were very pleasant for all that.

Once more, the presentation was superb. My coffee arrived in a beautiful cup and was served with a little round of shortbread.

Later, I ordered a leek, potato and Stilton cheese turnover.

This was perfect. The pastry was crisp and golden and contained plenty of filling. And what filling!

Sweet, buttery leeks were expertly balanced with salty, earthy Stilton and fluffy potato prevented the mix from being overpoweringly strong. Pumpkin seeds pressed to the top added a twist of something special to lift the turnover from delicious to sensational.

The prices at Vanilla Pod veer towards expensive. My cake cost £3.95 and the coffee and turnover where £2.45 and £2.95 respectively. These prices are not outrageous but neither are they bargain of the month.

The extra cost is probably because everything is home-made and Vanilla Pod is a family-run business. Prices inevitably go up.

Still, the experience left me not minding paying a little extra as the décor, service and atmosphere were perfect.

The staff are friendly, everything is spotlessly clean and the ambiance is extremely relaxing. Because the windows, though large, do not take up the whole shop front, it is a cosy space in both summer and winter, victim to neither the searing sun nor howling gale.

Compared to the hustle and bustle of many cafés and tearooms, complete with barely comfortable furniture at a variety of stages on the way to shabby, Vanilla Pod is a paradise.

Vanilla Pod is a wonderful place to eat, drink and relax. A hidden gem with homely, yet skilfully flavoursome, sweet and savoury dishes, it is marginally let down by high prices and unremarkable coffee beans.

Overall * * * * - Great food served in a relaxing atmosphere.

Food and Drink * * * * - The food is divine, bursting with flavour and wonderfully presented, though the coffee is average.

Atmosphere * * * * * - Clean and relaxing, homely and welcoming, the atmosphere is fantastic.

Service * * * * * - Prompt and very friendly. Faultless.

Price * * * - Not cheap but not extortionate.

Would I Go Here Again? - Yes.

Book Review - Real Mexican Food by Felipe Fuentes Cruz and Ben Fordham

This week I'm kicking off the book review section of my blog. I'm starting with my latest acquisition, Real Mexican Food by Felipe Fuentes Cruz and Ben Fordham.

Unsurprisingly, it's a book about Mexican food. Cruz and Fordham run Benito's Hat, a chain of Mexican restaurants in London which aims to serve up authentic, modern Mexican food.

This approach translates to the book. It feels AMAZINGLY authentic. This due to more than the use of the occasional vegetable I've never heard of (chayote, since you ask). The book is littered with little boxes explaining various ingredients' relevance to Mexican cuisine and each recipe has a little story attached to it, shedding light either on the history of the dish or the life of Cruz, the head chef.

The recipes themselves feel authentic. They feel timeless and unfussy, enduring classics, while there's a certain rugged, rustic quality to them too. The soups are chunky and the refried beans are mashed, as opposed to blitzed with some modern gadget which would looked laughably anachronistic in a Zorro movie.

My attempt at scrambled eggs with chorizo

The book is beautifully presented. Achingly so. The cover is a riot of green, magenta and gold and every pages is a different colour. The photography is fabulous, setting the food off with a careful selection of side dishes and Mexican-style tableware.

It's a perfect size, a little smaller and squarer than most recipe books, meaning it sits beautifully in the hand.

My attempt at a chicken quesadilla

I would have to criticise the book on the number and complexity of its recipes. At under 150 pages and with plenty of photographs, it is hardly extensive. There is only one burrito and one quesadilla recipe and no recipes for red or green rice.

The recipes tend to be on the simple side. To call it bish-bash-bosh cooking would be unfair, particularly as Mexican food veers that way anyhow, but some of the dishes really did not require vast imagination to construct.

That said, they are still lovely and some of the spice mixes required skill to conceive.

My attempt at an oatmeal and cinnamon drink

To road test the book, I tried three recipes. I made scrambled eggs with chorizo, a chicken quesadilla and an oatmeal and cinnamon "drink" (this served very nicely as an evening meal!).

First, some caveats. I had to adapt all the recipes slightly to suit my specific purposes. I used taleggio for the eggs, because I was out of cheddar, used quorn instead of chicken for the quesadilla because I couldn't afford well-looked after chicken and used honey instead of agave syrup for the drink because I didn't want to shell out for a bottle of sweet stuff I was unlikely ever to use again. Oh, and I forgot to put garlic in my quesadilla's marinade.

However, if there is one thing the friendly style of the book's prose encourages it's a flexible attitude to ingredients so I don't feel too bad. Besides, quorn is awesome.

The recipes worked out great. Each one was full of flavour and deeply comforting. Nothing required a fire extinguisher to the mouth yet compromised nothing in terms of taste, especially the wonderful marinade for the chicken quorn.

Real Mexican Food is a lovely book. Authentic, attractive and friendly, it is a great guide to a fabulous world cuisine. However, the book could have done with more recipes to make it truly great.

Overall * * * * - A good introduction into Mexican cooking but not without a couple of flaws.

Presentation * * * * * - Absolutely fantastic photography, design and prose style.

Quality of Recipes * * * * - Delicious and comforting, the recipes work well in the kitchen and feel extremely authentic.

Range of Recipes * * * - The book covers most of the basics but is hardly a thorough and rigorous examination of Mexican food. Could have been longer and some of the recipes were really quite simple.

Price * * * * - At £18.99 RRP I don't feel cheated but neither to I feel like I found a bargain. A fair price.

Will I Take This Off The Shelf To Cook From? - Yes.

I have been reviewing Real Mexican Food by Felipe Fuentes Cruz and Ben Fordham, published by Ryland Peters & Small (2012), ISBN-13: 978-1849752589

New Product Review - Waitrose Hand-Crimped Melton Mowbray Pork Pie

This week I will be reviewing Waitrose's latest offering, a hand-crimped Melton Mowbray pork pie.

Melton Mowbray pork pies hail from the Leicestershire town they are named after and are one of the few British products to have achieved Protected Geographical Indication, meaning they cannot be made anywhere else.

What makes the pies unique is their use of uncured pork. The meat is chopped, not minced, and seasoned with salt and pepper. This mix is then packed into hot-water crust cases which are not held straight by hoops, giving them distinctively bowed sides, and any space left is filled with jelly.

I am afraid that, for this review, I served my pie with a tin of Heinz beans. I don't know if this makes me an awful person but, what can I say, I really like Heinz beans and love them with pork pie!

The pie itself a lovely thing to hold. Taking it out of the packet, it feels smooth, weighty and filled with meat. Let's take a look inside!

Yup, filled with meat. The outside was packed with jelly and so, despite the bowed edge, there was no air inside.

To taste, the pie was near perfect. The pastry was dense and chewy without being heavy or greasy and had a slightly sweet quality. This contrasted perfectly to the savoury meat inside.

The meat was well seasoned, neither was so salty one was left gasping for a glass of water nor so peppery as to mask the flavour of the pork. Yet it was strong enough to give adequate support on the palate and provide a satisfying mouthful.

Unfortunately, I failed to realise that the pie was not a serving and so ate the whole thing. Big mistake. Apart from a calorie and fat count I'm still trying not to think about, by the end of the experience I was completely stuffed. Please, for goodness sake, either share this pie with friends or do anything other than chowing down the whole lot. My goodness, how I am not enormous by now I shall never know!

Price wise, the pie is not bad. The pork is good quality and claims to have been farmed ethically which, of course, comes at a price. This comes on top of the fact that Melton Mowbrays, because of the way they are made, are always more expensive than ordinary pork pies. Therefore, £3.49 seems a fairly good price.

Waitrose's new pie is a triumph. At a fair price and with great flavour and texture, this is well worth picking up, especially for a picnic some sunny summer day.

Recipe Time - Apple and Raisin Crumble

This week, I would like to share with you a recipe in which I take great pride. My apple and raisin crumble. The trick to this baby is the use of two types of sugar. Demerara adds crunch and texture to the crumble topping while muscovado adds a light toffee note to the filling. Give my crumble a whirl and I promise you will be back for more!
Ingredients (Serves 4):

For the filling:

4 Large Bramley Apples

100g Raisins

2 teaspoons Cinnamon

50g Muscovado Sugar

For the topping:

150g Plain Flour

75g Demerara Sugar

75g Oats (I like to use jumbo porridge oats for texture)

75g Butter

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C (Gas Mark 6) or 180°C for a fan oven.

Mix the oats, flour and sugar in a bowl. Cut the butter into rough little chunks and add to the bowl. Now, I know many books will talk about mashing the ingredients together with a fork or something but, in my experience, there is nothing quite as good as using your hands. Yes, you will need a good scrub-up afterwards but it is worth it for a quick and flawlessly effective method. Plunge your hands into the mix and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until everything is combined and resembles breadcrumbs. Set this aside and prepare the filling.

Peel and core the apples. Halve them and cut them into thickish slices - you are making a crumble, not tarte fine aux pommes! Put these in a baking dish or tin and sprinkle over the raisins, cinnamon and sugar. Toss together and cover with the crumble topping.

Put in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes, until the apples are soft and the topping has a little colour (though I never find it goes exactly golden brown). You can serve with custard, ice cream or cream but I think double cream is the tastiest option!

I hope you enjoy this recipe and, if you do, please let me know in the comments below!

New Product Review - Waitrose Cremeux du Jura

The Hungry Seagull flies into new territory this week. I shall be reviewing a new food product, something I hope will become a regular feature on my blog.

So, fromage lovers rejoice! Waitrose has released a new cheese. I picked this up in Waitrose's Brighton store, keen to try something new.

Cremeux du Jura is a soft cow's milk cheese with an edible rind, similar to camembert. It is presented in a wooden box surrounded by a spruce hoop (inedible!) and this particular brand is pasteurised so nobody need fret about nasties lurking inside.

To taste, the cheese has a fresh, creamy character. Most of the flavour is in the slightly chewy rind while the centre is smoother than yoghurt and twice as dense. Its strength develops the longer it is open, with little flavour on the first day growing to a noticeable tang on the second.

The taste is a level up from earthy, it is woody. It reminds me of the smell of damp shrubbery on a warm autumn's day. Yet it is a subtle taste. This is a cheese which needs to be enjoyed on its own rather than be hurled into risotto. Not that it would hurt a risotto - I'm sure it would add a delicious creaminess - but the subtle flavours would be overpowered even by leeks. Even by leeks.

I feel this cheese would work best either for lunch, with good bread, salty olives and sweet fruit, or on an after-dinner cheeseboard with crackers and grapes. In other words, occasions when the cheese is the star and its subtleties can be appreciated.

In terms of price, the cheese is fairly expensive. At just under £6 a pop, it is certainly not a lump of cheap cheddar. Although not as pricey as many of the offerings from specialist cheese shops, it is still not a casual purchase and is, perhaps, one best avoided by any but the connoisseur.

That said, for the connoisseur, or at least the committed cheese lover, Cremeux du Jura is a great quality, super-creamy delight with a distinctive woody tang and is well worth trying.

Food Feature - Street Food

Smoked meats and spicy sauces fill Little Blue Smokehouse's buns

The gardens are filled with sizzling, chatting, polystyrene boxes, plumes of steam and sticky fingers – it can only be another busy day of street food trading, the culinary phenomenon sweeping the UK. But what makes street food so popular?

To find out, I visited Street Diner, Brighton’s first street food market and a great example of street food’s popularity. It celebrates its second birthday this May and is going from strength to strength with plans to expand into Hove.

Co-founders Christina Angus and Kate O’Sullivan say: “Brighton needed a street food market. There wasn’t one in the city and we couldn’t work out why. We wanted to create a market that could be a vibrant public platform for new and seasoned street food traders.”

Great pans of yellow wonder from Crocus Paella

Perhaps this is part of street food’s appeal, the vibrancy. There is a great energy around the market, informal and buzzing with cooking. It is a pleasant change from the slightly sterile restaurant experience. Here, the table is your hands, the waiter cooks your food in front of you and serves it straight away and there is no dance around “gratuities” – a smile and a thank you are enough.

There is also an accessible feel to street food. There is no need to book a table and one can rely on being fed whenever the market is open, which is often. Street Diner trades all year round, setting up every Friday from 11am-3pm in Brighthelm Gardens, just behind Brighthelm Church and Community Centre.

Angus and O’Sullivan add: “We trade at all types of major events. Brighton Marathon for the past two years with a view to continuing.”

They say: “We are about to work with the Brighton Fringe Festival for a month long residency at The Warren outside St Peter's Church.”

Who said vegetables were boring?

The stalls themselves cover a vast range of food types. This adds an element of the unexpected when compared to restaurant menus, which specialise in specific cuisines. If I go into a Chinese restaurant, I know what will be served. Chinese food…or at least a European approximation of it. Still worse from this perspective is the fish and chip shop. But street food offers the diner a whole world in a field and the chance of adventure, the chance to taste something new and unexpected.

At Street Diner, meat-lovers can revel in the experience offered by Troll’s Pantry’s burgers and Little Blue Smokehouse’s meat-filled buns. Vegetarians and vegans are catered for by such stalls as the Indian vegetarian Ahimsa, Beelzebab’s vegan kebab and Sultans Delight’s Middle Eastern food. Those looking for something sweet can buzz off to Honeycomb Cakes while those in search of exotic flavour shores can explore a range of world cuisines including food from Spain, India, Portugal, Mexico, Hungary and the Middle East. Maria Romero of Tostón Tolón sells the exotic-sounding arepas , cornmeal patties from her Venezuelan homeland.

She says: “We open them and stuff them with either veal, pork or chicken and people can add cheese, beans and plantain.”

Looks like lunch has just been sorted for someone

Another difference between street food and many restaurants is that many of the stalls make a point of the locality and ethics of their food. Perhaps I am the only one but, if I order a steak, I often wonder what kind of life the animal has had. Certainly, it makes me think twice about ordering the chicken. Yet, with street food there is an easy rapport with the stall holders. They will answer questions and quite often there seems to be a deep caring for the quality and locality of their products.

Martyn Cotton of Little Blue Smokehouse, winner of the People's Choice award at the British Street Food Awards 2014, says: “We go out of our way to source as much local produce, as much seasonal produce, as possible.”

He says: “We make all our own sauces, we make all our own pickles. All our meat is sourced from farms within Sussex.”

Paul Clark, aka “The Troll”, of Troll’s Pantry does much the same, even foraging for some of his ingredients such as the wild garlic and sorrel which go into his woodland burgers.

He says: “We just try and, basically, make everything from scratch and create something that’s truly unique and different to all the other burger offerings out there.”

Life is sweet when there is cake about

As well as being local, many stress the ethical side of their produce. Rebecca Letchford of Honeycomb Cakes focuses on the purity of her ingredients. This includes using her mother’s fruit and vegetables to make her cakes. She also uses the jams her mother makes using the same home-grown produce.

She says: “It’s about making something that tastes as it should. So if it’s meant to be a strawberry cake, it tastes like a strawberry cake, not chemicals and a strawberry cake.”

Forgotten Cuts tackles a different side of ethical eating.

Ellie Ledden, who runs the stall, says: “It’s kind of nose to tail philosophy and a waste free ethos.”

The idea started when Ledden and a farmer she was working with at the time decided to open a street food stall.

Ledden says: “Originally we were going to do a steak sandwich and then we just thought that felt ethically very wrong.

“So I said to him what do you have left over at the end of the week?”

The meat she sells includes both farmed and wild animals and the selection is always open to change in keeping with Forgotten Cuts’s ethics. They started by selling a lot of ox cheek but, when it started to become trendy, they stopped.

Who is for Mexican?

Of course, sometimes a high-end restaurant is just what you want. You want to go in, relax, get treated like a king (at least that’s the idea) and eat a dependable meal in a civilised fashion. Likewise the takeaway. Sometimes your body, tired and stressed after a hard day’s work, seeks solace in familiar comfort food. Certainly, there seems to be no great drop in restaurant numbers or the flow of people tucking into fish and chips.

Yet, judging by Street Diner, street food offers something fresh, something exciting, something vibrant. Who can say no to a whole world of food, cooked in front of you and served so convivially you can talk to the cook about their passionately held culinary ethics? Perhaps this is the secret. In a world ever more conscious of what it is eating and what flavours are out there to be experienced, street food offers a culinary adventure and a new bond of trust between the seller and the diner.

Customers sitting upon the grass, enjoying a hot lunch on a hot afternoon