Food

The Solstice Feast

~ Cheryl ~ 10 Comments

Those of you on Twitter will have noticed that I had a rather big meal last night as part of my Winter Solstice celebrations. I figured I might as well blog about it.

The unexpected appetizer (because the main course took longer to cook than expected) was crackers and a roulé cheese favored with cranberries. It was rather sweeter than I expected, and very nice.

The recalcitrant meat was turducken. Iceland called it a “three bird roast”, so maybe John Madden is trying to copyright turducken, or perhaps they just thought us Brits would be put off if we thought it was something American. But turducken it was. Next time I’ll defrost it before cooking. That might get it to cook more reliably.

That came with roast potatoes, honey roast parsnips and steamed vegetables (cauliflower, green beans and carrot), plus gravy and an Australian chardonnay colombard mix white wine.

Dessert was key lime pie, followed by coffee (freshly ground Fair Trade Colombian) and chocolate cake. And my reward for doing the washing up myself (Kevin being elsewhere) was a glass of Jura Prophecy.

Most of this was a total cheat. When there’s only one of you cooking a huge meal seems like way too much hard work. But it is quite impressive what you can sling together out of the big grocery stores these days. They seem to have finally grokked the idea that some people who shop there are not housewives with a family to feed. Also I’m in the habit of cooking several days food at once.

Of course it would be nice to have more time to cook, and someone to cook for, and a home big enough to serve dinner at a table. Hopefully these things will come.

Talking of food, you may have noticed that the meal did not include a cheese course. That’s partly because I’ve been eating a lot of cheese for lunch and didn’t want to overdose. For lunch today I tried something I found in Tesco earlier in the week. It is a Cornish Brie-style cheese called St. Endellion (another one of those Cornish saints whom few people, least of all the Pope, has ever heard of, though Endellion was supposedly a god-daughter of King Arthur and David Cameron’s daughter has Endellion as one of her middle names). It is made with double cream and is very yummy. Recommended, especially after all of the mass-produced Brie I have been eating of late.

Cheese Shoppery

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

I had to go into Bath today. I had run out of my stock of paper copies of Dark Spires so I needed to collect some more from Colin before I go to London this weekend. If you are going to be at the British Fantasy Society meeting on Friday night I’ll have copies available there.

But as I was going I figured I might as well get a celebratory wedge of Cornish Blue. After all, what’s the point of having awards if it doesn’t encourage people to buy things? While I was in Paxton & Whitfield I also noticed a cheese called Richard III. As you might guess, this is from Yorkshire. In fact it is a Wensleydale. But it is a lot creamier than the usual Wensleydales you get in grocery stores here. The makers claim that it is more true to the traditional recipe for the cheese. Of course this may all be part of an evil plot to make people think that Richard III was a really nice guy after all. Paul Cornell has something to say about that in an upcoming issue of Knight & Squire. But the cheese is very nice, unless you are a Lancastrian in which case you may not be able to stomach it.

Bath has a big craft market on for a couple of weeks at this time of year, and wandering through it on my way back to the railway station I noticed one of the Gorwydd chaps had a stall there. I trotted over to congratulate him and replenish my stocks. On the basis of our conversation it looks like there may be some more exciting awards news soon, but that will have to wait for the official press release.

World Cheese Awards

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

The 2010 World Cheese Awards were announced at the BBC Good Food Show in Birmingham last week. A full list of the major award winners is available here. Here are some highlights.

The Best Traditional Cheddar award was, of course, won by Montgomery.

The Best American Cheese award was won by Tarentaise, an Alpine style cheese from Spring Brook Farm in Vermont.

The Best Welsh Cheese award went to the lovely people at Trethowan’s Dairy for Gorwydd Caerphilly. They have a stall in St.Nicholas Market in Bristol. I shop there a lot.

And the awards for Best English Cheese, Best British Cheese and World Champion all went to Cornish Blue, which I was lucky enough to come across earlier this year.

I’m delighted to see that my little part of the world is once again being acknowledged for what it does best.

Unexpected Cheese Bloggery

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

Other than buying some books from Simon, and a pizza tray, I was expecting a quiet day in Bath. Ha! I was ambushed. There was a cheese festival in Milsom Place. I would have tweeted from it, but much of the area is under cover so the normally poor O2 reception in Bath was a total disaster. I did, however, buy cheese.

Most of what I bought was from Caws Cenarth, a Welsh cheesemaker from near Cardigan Bay. Rick Stein is apparently a big fan of their cheeses, so they have the foodie stamp of approval. Kiera Knightley likes them too, so clearly they make good pirate food. They had a special offer going, so I came away with samples of the Caerffili (actually a version with cranberries, which is delightful), the Tomi Twym, which is flavored with sun-dried tomatoes, chili and white wine, and the Perl Lâs, which is a blue Caerffili. Their Golden Cenarth picked up the Supreme Champion at this year’s British Cheese Awards. I passed on that one as it is a much more delicate flavor that would be best baked like you would do with brie. I was looking for cheeses to eat with robust red wines.

The other cheese I bought was a local product from the Bath Soft Cheese Company. I’m very fond of their Wyfe of Bath, which won a gold medal at this year’s British Cheese Awards, but for today I picked up some of their Bath Blue. I figured it might the right thing to eat while watching Luke Watson and the boys taken on ‘Quins at The Stoop tomorrow (I shall look for you in the crowd, Will).

Playing Tourist

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Friday was spent looking around Carins, and flying down to Sydney. Saturday was spent walking around Sydney. Kevin and I have been very touristy. Here are a few highlights.

The Golden Century in Sydney is still my favorite Chinese restaurant in the world, both for quality and value for money.

Sydney Aquarium is now even more awesome than last time I went. I could spend all day in there. Of course it helps that I like fish, but unless you have a phobia you really should experience their Shark Tunnel. I should note that the Nurse Sharks they have in the tank are relatively wussy as sharks go, and are unlikely to try to eat you should you encounter one in the wild, but boy do they look bad.

We spent a lot of time around Sydney taking photographs. In particular Kevin took a lot of pictures of the monorail when we rode it. No one rushed up to us to try to stop us doing it and take our cameras away. There was no suggestion that we were somehow helping international terrorism by our shutterbug activities. It was like living in a free country again. Such a welcome change from the UK and USA.

Talking of photos, Kevin has left me with a large pile of them. Also some video. I will process them as and when I can. But I will also have a lot of work to catch up on when I get home.

Cupcake Heaven

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

I had a lovely day out at Pride Bristol, despite the occasional attempts of the sky gods to drown out the fun. I was pleased to see quite a few commercial stalls at the event in Castle Park. The one I liked most was a local bakery company called Crumpet! Really, how can one resist?

Cupcakes!

Finncon – Day 0

~ Cheryl ~ 5 Comments

The Friday of Finncon is traditionally the day for the academic conference and the Finnish SF Writers’ Association meeting. Here’s what went on.

I didn’t manage to attend the academic sessions, but there were some interesting papers. Amongst the ones I liked were a look at the changing portrayal of gender in science fiction television, an analysis of cultural appropriation issues in the use of Sámi people in fantasy fiction, and an attempt to construct a semiotic framework for use in translating fiction.

With regard to the Sámi paper, I was surprised to discover that the term “Lapp” is now regarded as offensive. The issue is that “Lapp” is not a word that the Sámi use for themselves. It is rather like the term “Welsh”, which is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning “foreigners”. But we Welsh have had centuries to get used to being called Welsh and it no longer rankles for most people. The Sámi take the issue more seriously.

By the way, Finnish has two words for Sámi people, one of which means people who come from the part of the country still known as Lapland, and who may have some Sámi blood; and the other for people who are of pure Sámi descent. I’m sure that Native Americans would like to be able to make that distinction.

The writers’ conference was mainly for professional fiction people. Ellen and Pat gave expert advice, as did the Finnish writer guest, Sari Peltoniemi, who I was delighted to discover is not only a fine exponent of fantasy, mainstream and children’s literature, but also a former rock star. However, we did find time to do the panel on this year’s Hugo nominees.

Going by last year I had expected the Hugo panel to be a fight between Jukka Halme and myself on one side, and Tommy Persson on the other, with Marianna Leikomaa trying to referee. Tommy is the sort of guy who will dislike a story because it has small errors in the science, whereas I will forgive almost anything except bad writing. Interestingly, however, the entire panel was in agreement that Robert Sawyer novels are not for them, and that they wanted The City & The City to win, even though it seems like The Windup Girl is the favorite.

(Personally, of course, I would love to see Palimpsest win, but realistically I suspect it will be too weird for many voters.)

The news coverage has been excellent. The media have been all over Pat, for reasons I will explain shortly. We even made the evening TV news. In this broadcast (starting about 4:35 in) there’s an interview with Pat shot during a visit to the particle accelerator at Jyväskylä university and also a short piece with my pal Jarmo about Iron Sky.

In the evening I was treated to dinner by Pat Cadigan’s publisher, Tero Norkoloa of Avain. He’s a happy guy, and deservedly so. Pat’s book (a translation of Mindplayers) was only launched on Thursday and has gone to a second printing already. It is a huge hit here, at least in part, because it shares themes with the current blockbuster movie, Inception. Tero was also smart enough to snap up a hot young writer called Barack Obama, and that may have helped him treat Pat and I to such a fine meal.

Talking of the food, the restaurant had bear on the menu. At €58 a portion I wasn’t about to impose on my host’s generosity. I’ve had a comment on Twitter that bear is available in restaurants in Russia too, and tastes very good. Irma assures me that there are plenty of bears in Finland and hunting is strictly controlled.

Today I’m very busy. I’ll be catching up on developments on Iron Sky, moderating a panel on cyberpunk, interviewing Ellen, giving a presentation about masquerades, judging the masquerade, going for dinner at the local branch of Harald (the Viking theme restaurant) and participating in the traditional Saturday evening fun (no sign of a mad scientist laugh competition yet, but you never know).

Monday, Oxford

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

I am on my way to Finncon, and being somewhat leisurely about it. I’m spending this evening in Oxford because my Brazilian friend, Fábio Fernandes, is here on business (at an academic conference on cyberpunk). This was a perfect opportunity to meet up, and I enlisted the help of local guide Juliet McKenna. A fine evening has been had.

Dinner was in Wagamama’s (who turn out to do the most wonderful duck gyoza), after which Juilet took us to The Turf, a very old pub that is just the sort of place you should take foreign visitors (unless they are very tall). We have discussed evil plots, saving the world from the foolishness of publishers and all the other things that writers tend to talk about when they get together.

I’m now back at the hotel, and am happily running both the laptop and the iPad off the MiFi. This is the way technology was supposed to be. Much better than having to take a router with you because the idiot hotel wants to charge per connection (and yes, Kevin and I have done this on many occasions).

Tomorrow I meet up with Pat Cadigan at Heathrow and we fly out to Helsinki. Finncon will follow.

A Quick Foodie Post

~ Cheryl

I was in Bristol today for a BristolCon committee meeting. Naturally I took time out to do some shopping as well, and that inevitably involved a trip to Trethowan’s Dairy in St. Nicholas Market. I picked up some of their fabulous Gorwydd Caerphilly, but I also spotted something different. It was a hard ball cheese called Danegeld that looks European but is actually made in Somerset from Jersey milk. It is another product of Jamie Montgomery, he of the world-famous cheddar. The cheese won a silver medal in the Best Newcomer category of the World Cheese Awards last year. I’m looking forward to trying it.

Outside the Watershed I found young man selling British-made chorizo. It comes from a company called The Bath Pig. I got some with the chorizo made into a scotch egg, a fascinating innovation that I thought worked very well.

Taking Tea (Somewhat Early)

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

This morning I decided to head out to explore the nearby town of Bradford on Avon. It looked very pretty from the train, and it proved to be just as nice on foot.

I managed to get lucky on the way. As I was heading off for the station Marjorie drove past. She was also headed for Bradford and was able to both give me a lift and show me round the best places. Mostly Bath is better shopping, as you would expect, but there are some nice little shops in Bradford, including an excellent picture framer where we engaged the young man who served us in a lengthy conversation about Neil Gaiman and comics.

The best thing to do in Bradford, however, is drink. Not alcohol (though I did spot a shop offering local cider), but tea. Because Bradford is home to The Bridge Tea Rooms. This is a place that would make Gail Carriger die of happiness. It is in a lovely old building, is done out as a proper Victorian tea room, serves rather splendid food and ever better tea. The waitresses are all in maid costumes. Marjorie and I would love to turn up there with a bunch of people in steampunk costumes. And in 2009 it was voted the best tea place in the country, so you don’t have to take our word for its quality. It is, of course, totally Theme Park Britain, but as the food and tea is good I’m not complaining.

We didn’t actually have Afternoon Tea, because we both needed to be back home in the afternoon, but I am certainly planning on going back soon. I had their Empress of China tea, in honor of Guy Gavriel Kay’s Under Heaven (which I am currently reading). The tea was so nice I bought a packet to take home.

There are a few photos below.

[shashin type=”album” id=”34″ size=”medium”]

Busy Weekend

~ Cheryl

Tomorrow I am off to Oxford for a party. I’ll be back home on Saturday. I could spend a lot of the weekend doing stuff. There’s the Bath Coffee Festival and the Love Food Festival in Bristol to think about. Probably, however, I will go home and collapse on Saturday. And on Sunday I’ll start getting the cottage organized and cheer on England in the Twenty20 World Cup Final.

Yes, you did read that correctly. The England cricket team are in the final of an international event. They will either play Australia or the current cup holders, Pakistan, who play their semi-final tomorrow. The fast Barbados pitch will favor the Australian bowlers, so odds on an apocalypse on Monday are not as good as you might think.

Gone Shopping

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Today I went up to the cottage to verify that BT have indeed activated the phone line. They have, so I’m looking good actually be moved in a week from now. I also too the opportunity to have a look around Bath, and found some rather nice shops I hadn’t noticed before.

My first port of call was the Bath branch of Kitchens. Tom Abba had recommended their Bristol store at the weekend, but it is a bit of a way out of town and I didn’t manage to make it that far. The Bath store is fabulous and has some of the most helpful shop assistants I have come across in ages. I will be going there a lot.

Marjorie told me that she remembered seeing a cheese shop near there. I knew there was a cheese stall in the market, but I didn’t remember an actual cheese shop. Marjorie was right, it was there, and this being Bath they have apparently been around since 1797, so I have no excuse for having missed it (although that may only be their London store).

Paxton & Whitfield are serious cheesemongers. They are suppliers of fine cheese to Her Royalness, and to Charlie the Royalspawn. They sell only the best. This could bankrupt me. I came away with some Cornish Blue, which is indeed lighter and creamier than Stilton, as advertised. The star of the show, however, (and not on the P&W website) was an aged Mimolette. This is a french cheese from Lille that comes in an Edam-like ball but is absolutely nothing like the blandness we expect from supermarket Edam. The aged cheese is as brightly orange as the oldest Goudas and just as flavorsome. Recommended (if you can afford it).

Finally on my list of places to check out was Toppings bookstore. That was a recommendation from Colin Harvey, who is obviously a fellow of excellent taste. Toppings is a seriously good bookstore. The place is packed with books; they offer you tea or coffee; they do lots of readings; and they seem to know their stuff. This is an independent bookstore I’d happy to patronize (as opposed to rather too many of such places that are more interested in patronizing their customers).

Net result, very happy Cheryl. Bath is a good place to shop.

A Little Hotness

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Today has been rather busy, mainly because I went into Taunton to get some venison and cheese. It was a very lovely day: best weather we’ve had all year by far. Consequently I don’t have much to talk about, but I did make a food discovery: South Devon Chilli Farm.

Yes, there are crazy people near Torquay who grow chilis, make hot sauce and do other stuff that makes those of us with an addiction to capsaicin very happy. They have plenty of stockists in the south-west, so I’ll be eating my way though their offerings in the coming months. For those of you in London, there’s a Mexican restaurant in Spitalfields that looks like the real thing.

Foodie Bristol

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

I spent most of today in Bristol. Part of that was for a Bristolcon committee meeting — putting our plans together for Eastercon — but I also got some shopping in. That included a fabulous new jacket (at 40% off) and new books by Al Reynolds and Glenda Larke, but mostly I bought food.

Bristol appears to be a pretty foodie place, which suits me just fine. My first port of call was Threthowan’s Dairy, a place that sells a range of cheeses made from unpasteurised milk. It is really good stuff. I’ll doubtless blog more about it in the coming months. Bay Area folks, if you can get to Cowgirl Creamery, ask for Gorwydd Caerphilly.

Trethowan’s is in St. Nicholas’ Market, and that is also home to the Hot Sauce Emporium, which claims to be the first specialist chili sauce shop in the UK. There I purchased this stuff, which looks to be absolutely divine.

There are also a number of fine looking cafes. I tend to eat in Sourdough Cafe, because it reminds me of San Francisco and because they serve lovely little shots of high quality Mexican hot chocolate. I’m also keen to try PieMinster. Both places are reviewed here, along with a whole lot more interesting Bristol venues.

Brief Progress Report

~ Cheryl ~ 11 Comments

This morning I put a deposit down on the cottage. I still have to pass vetting, but my credit history is very good so hopefully that won’t be a problem. More on that as it develops.

Meanwhile I have an entirely different sort of problem. Galaxy has introduced a new chocolate bar that is like an Aero only with that lovely, creamy Galaxy texture. It is called Bubbles. I think I am addicted already.

Linkage in Progress

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Today has been another busy one. The Day Jobbe has taken up much of my time, but I did get to look at a small, fully furnished cottage that just might be exactly what I need. I’ll be putting in an application tomorrow. Meanwhile I have a few links for you.

– Issue #3 of Yipe!, the costuming fanzine, is now available.

– Science in My Fiction discusses how to cook pasta on Mars.

– The Florida Family Policy Council of Orlando proves that no lie is too outrageous when it comes to hating gay people.

– And finally, over at SFWA, Nnedi Okorafor tries to decide what it means to be African. Some of what she says is remarkably reminiscent of ridiculous turf wars over who is a “proper” trans person, and indeed who is a “proper” science fiction fan. Identity politics can be dangerous stuff.

P-Con Wrap

~ Cheryl

P-Con should have been well and truly dead-dogged by now. There might still be a few people in the Porterhouse, but as the dead dog started at lunch time anyone who is left will be pretty horizontal by now, I think.

It sounds like Nick had a wonderful time, which makes me very happy, because it was partly my fault that he was there.

For my own part I have learned something very valuable: if you are going to record an audio report from a convention, make sure you have very good notes to hand, because once the recording goes live you won’t be able to remember anything about the convention. Proof of this fact can now be found here. I shall try to do better next time, Tony.

Because I will probably have forgotten by next year, here’s a reminder about the wi-fi in the Central. It does work, and it is free. The problem is activating it. With most hotel wi-fi you just connect, launch your browser and sign in. Eirecom, however, have managed to create a system where the sign-in process only works in Internet Explorer. The stupidity of this should be obvious to all, and now you have all been warned about just how dumb ISPs can be.

I wasn’t at the dead dog as I had to get back to Somerset and re-pack ready to head out to California. However, I did spend Sunday evening at the convention. Diane Duane and Peter Moorwood turned up, which was very nice, and a whole bunch of us headed out to dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant. Good eating was had by all, despite the sad lack of unagi on the menu.

There was also some obscure tweetage and, because Irish people were present, discussion of religion. Ireland has, apparently, come a long way in the last 40+ years. I am reliably informed that back in the 1960s it was considered deeply shocking for a bishop to actually see a lady’s nightie. Obviously this was true if the lady was in it, but also the mere sight of such a risqué garment was liable to cause undue stress for episcopal persons. Sadly this proved far too much of a temptation to some dreadful sinners.

The things you learn at conventions…

Relief Convoy Arrives

~ Cheryl

We had more snow last night, but once again being fairly near the coast saved us from the worst of it. We’ve had enough to keep the pavements (sidewalks) dangerous, but not enough to stop traffic. So the Sainsbury’s van arrived today pretty much on time, and I’m pleased to say that they brought everything I asked for — no substitutions — and there was none of the “ship out stuff that’s hit its sell by date” activity that there was so much complaint about when online grocery shopping first started. I doubt that I’ll be ordering online from Sainsbury’s very often — I value the exercise from walking down there — but I am now confident in their service should I need to use it again.

And I have fresh food for another week, though hopefully we will get a thaw at the weekend.

Snow Update

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

We still have plenty of snow around, and the long range forecast is still not predicting a thaw before the end of the week. I could probably go out in it as it is, but I have a good excuse for testing Sainsbury’s delivery service. If it works OK, then if I’m off in California and for some reason my mum can’t get out, I can still order food in for her. (No, she can’t use the Internet herself — long story.)

So, with any luck, fresh milk, bread, fruit, fruit juice and even some chicken should be arriving Wednesday morning. We shall see.