• * Meg Weaver from Intelligent Travel on Lizano sauce, the Tico condiment of choice. What ketchup is to Americans and HP sauce to Brits, Lizano sauce is to Costa Ricans.

• * Jessica from Ripe London on the joys of hot chocolate to go from Laudurée in Piccadilly.

• * A recipe for orange pound cake that didn’t go quite right from Spittoon Extra. It sounds like it still tasted mighty fine, as did this salmon and spinach tart.

• * I would make it with fresh spinach (or silverbeet / chard) but I like the sound of this tomato, spinach and egg tagine from Kathryn at Limes & Lycopenes.

• * It might be rice pudding by another name but I love the sound of this dessert risotto with wine poached figs from Susan at Food Blogga. I do have a few of those figs left too.

• * A Forkful of Spaghetti on breakfast at Denis Cotter’s Cafe Paradiso in Ireland.

• * Turn away now if you have a queasy stomach - The Best of Mother Earth has a McDonald’s hamburger from 1996 that looks almost as good as new. I think this is what Michael Pollan was talking about when he referred to “edible food-like substances”.

• * Speaking of meat, a UN climate change body is recommending rationing meat to four times per week, according to this news report in The Guardian. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Time to treat meat as a luxury. I’m not saying don’t eat it, I’m saying I believe we should treat it with respect.

• * The Guardian also writes about chef Sophie Wright who has released her first book Easy Peasy: Laidback Recipes for Lazy Days.

• * Finally, I’m looking for more contributors to the Global Breakfast Tournament so if you are interested in representing your country, please let me know. Readers will vote on the best breakfast and the prize is a £10 Amazon voucher.

I had lunch with an industry contact today. His secretary asked me to choose the location since he was away when she was making the arrangements. I never like to do this when I’m the guest as I find it so hard to pitch it - you want to choose somewhere nice and appropriate to the occasion but you don’t want to look grasping by choosing somewhere too expensive.

After a little research, I opted for Salt Yard Charcuterie Bar & Restaurant in Fitzrovia. It’s billed as Spanish and Italian and it is, but I think it veers more towards the Spanish end of things, with a tapas menu, a selection of Spanish cheeses and hams and even a full sherry list alongside the wines.

We followed the advice to order three dishes per person and we got a basket of bread as well. This was more than ample - we couldn’t fit dessert and were feeling really quite full by the end. We started with cheeses with quince paste and a lovely tender San Daniele prosciutto. Our hot dishes included tangy balls of black olive gnocchi, crisp salt fried squid with aioli and garlic prawns with nibbly mushroom bits. The final dish, and the winner for my money, was exquisite zucchini flowers stuffed with white cheese, lightly battered and fried, then drizzled with honey.

We stuck to water and soft drinks through the meal and followed with fresh mint tea. It was still really quite a lot of food and although I didn’t see the bill, I did see the menu and I can’t imagine it was cheap. It’s good value though as the food was wonderful and you can scale up or down according to appetite.

It’s called a charcuterie and serves a large range of meat, including six different types of ham alone. However, there is also quite a large selection of vegetarian tapas and some of the best dishes such as the gnocchi and zucchini flowers came from that menu. Highly recommended!

Salt Yard
54 Goodge St, London W1T 4NA
Tel: 020 7637 0657
www.saltyard.co.uk
info@saltyard.co.uk

Open: Monday-Friday noon to 11pm. (3pm-6pm bar snacks only).
Saturday 5pm-11pm

I picked up two punnets of English strawberries, probably just about the last of the crop. They were a little tart so I marinated them with a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. It’s not enough vinegar to drown the flavour of the strawberries but it’s enough to enhance the flavour and draw out the strawberry juices. I served it in teacups with a slice of lovely, creamy buffalo ricotta but it would go nicely with ice cream, cream or marscapone as well.

Last night I made the duck recipe I learnt in my Leiths course earlier this year - duck breasts with blackberry, apple and port sauce. I think we’ll have a few nights of simple, family dinners, perhaps eat out on Friday and Saturday night, and then the last hurrah will be a roast dinner on Sunday.

• * Antonia from Food, Glorious Food serves up chicken with ginger marmalade. It sounds great… though I think it would be even better with roast pork!

• * I love unusual ingredients - such as red corn from Susan at Food Blogga. I’ve never had red corn before but it sounds tasty! Corn is not as ubiquitous in the UK as the US but it’s the right season for it, so I’m going to hunt some down.

• * A healthy breakfast of baked cottage cheese french toast with a courgette and corn salsa from Sophie at Mostly Eating.

• * I love the sound of Indonesian-style grilled eggplant with spicy peanut sauce from Love and Olive Oil. I’ll definitely be trying this one. I’m also tempted by their corn fritters with arugula and warm tomato salad.

• * Thai is practically the national cuisine back home - Thai food is to Australia what Indian food is to the UK. I miss it in London - there is a dearth of good Thai food here - so I’ll be curious to check out Jessica at Ripe London’s recommendation for Boys if I ever find myself in Chiswick.

• * The Word of Mouth blog at Guardian Unlimited celebrates 100 years of the tea bag.

• * Now that autumn is here, I find myself craving heartier cuisine. Julia at A Slice of Cherry Pie hits the spot with this recipe for roast pork belly with mashed potato and savoy cabbage, as does Matt from Abstract Gourmet with this recipe for slow-cooked lamb (admittedly written from Perth where it’s spring).

• * Get Rich Slowly, a blog about personal finance and frugality, occasionally writes about food, most recently on home canning and fighting food budget killers. The comments get pretty lively too!

• * I love the sound of this citrus salted salmon trout from Myamii at For the Love of Food. I don’t think we get ’salmon trout’ here but I’m keen to try this with the lovely Scottish salmon fillets in my fridge.

• * My friend Sue is writing about ethically reared meat on Noodle Bowl- a subject close to my heart.

• * Intelligent Travel, one of my favourite travel blogs, brings our attention to National Geographic’s Foods of the World. Also check out this Intelligent Travel post on a Mexican Home Cooking School.

• * SwissMiss brings us news of this intriguing alternative to ice - Nordic rocks.

• * Jonathan from Around Britain with a Paunch smokes his own trout.

• * A Forkful of Spaghetti is back on the blogging scene with this tempting review of Murano in London.

• * And finally, what about these cute chocolate eclairs from Cafe Lynnylu?

Environmental concern is the main reason I try to limit my meat consumption and now the United Nations has backed me up. Raising animals for meat is a wholly inefficient use of land and resources, especially given that most livestock are fed farmed grain rather than grazing naturally. Then there is the pesky issue of the methane emissions, particularly from cows. Global food production is a far more serious contributor to global CO2 emissions than flying - and I’m not just saying that because I’m a travel writer.

Of course, I understand that food is a necessity and travel is a luxury. Of course, we need to cut down on polluting forms of transport when we travel, and indeed when we are at home as well. (I also don’t have a car). However, I would argue that meat is just as much a luxury as air travel - we don’t need it to survive, especially in the nutritionally rich first world where we have all the food choices in the world. Animals in the developing world are less of a problem anyway, since they are far less likely to be eating grain and are likely to be slaughtered and eaten close to home.

I am not a vegetarian but I am a meat reducer - I treat meat as a luxury and try to only eat meat or fish once or twice a week.

There are many good reasons to consider vegetarianism. You might have a religious or moral objection to killing animals, or the way they are generally raised. You might be doing it for health reasons - some vegetarian diets can be healthier than meat-based diets. You might just like the taste of vegetarian food.

I am interested in vegetarian cooking because I want to reduce the amount of meat I eat, because people I love are vegetarian, and because some of the food is just really, really good. (Try this fantastic aubergine moussaka recipe and you’ll see what I mean).

I have a great deal of respect for people who devote themselves full time to vegetarianism but I don’t choose to join them. Firstly, I don’t fundamentally believe that killing animals for food is wrong - we are part of the eco-system and at a basic biological level all life feeds on other life to survive. Secondly, vegetarians have to be extremely careful to make sure that they are getting all the nutrients that they need and I don’t have the time and patience to watch my diet quite that closely and while I like beans and lentils, I abhor fake meats such as Quorn as unnatural, processed unfoods. Thirdly, as a food writer I don’t want to shut myself off to new flavours and a whole culinary realm. Finally, I want to spend my money to support organic farming and saving old breeds.

I try very hard to avoid factory farmed meat, though it’s not always easy to make an informed decision when I’m eating out. The great thing about not eating meat every day is that I’m not price sensitive and I can afford to buy the best quality meat with high welfare considerations. A whole organic chicken might cost £10 at the market or butcher rather than £1.99 in Tesco but I’ll only have it a couple of times a year.

Where I do draw the line is eating endangered animals - in Spitsbergen some of the restaurants offer polar bear, while whale features prominently on menus in Japan and Norway and bush meats in many parts of Africa. For the same reason, I try to avoid eating cod and tuna and only buy fish from sustainable sources. (I also don’t have a pet cat).

Two great books that might help change your thinking on these issues are Fast Food Nation by Eric Schloss, a few years old now but still relevant and certainly one of the most entertaining non-fiction books I’ve ever read, and the thoughtful Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, about one family’s attempt to eat locally including raising some of their own food.

What do you think about the United Nations pronouncement? Agree or disagree? What’s your personal stance on eating meat?

Poland

Kraków is better known for its beautiful historic architecture than its food, but Poland’s old royal capital does offer plenty to eat. This was true even for the token vegetarian in our group, though admittedly his patience and tolerance for cabbage would have been stretched if we’d stayed longer than a few days.

As well as pickled cabbage, Polish delicacies include a lot of pork and potatoes and a rather delicious type of dumpling called pierogi. We tried but failed to find a dumpling specialist restaurant called Pierogarnia recommended in the Lonely Planet Best of Kraków and suspect that it may have closed since the 2006 publication date. We ate some delicious dumplings anyway - my favourite had a cabbage and mushroom filling.

We also sampled hard breads called ‘obwarzanki’ sold from street vendors all over Kraków. They were usually salted and twisted, quite a bit like pretzels.

The best meal was at Kawaleria, a traditional Polish restaurant, where we enjoyed a three-course dinner on Saturday night. I had roast wild boar with a Juniper berry sauce and a rather delicious side dish of pickled beetroot. We each chose a different dessert - mine was a medley of ice cream and sorbet but my friend’s pear tart looked like the winner. The bill, including a lovely bottle of red wine, came to the equivalent of £90 on my credit card for four people.

On our final day, we stocked up with yummy gingerbread and biscuits at a shop called Torunskie Perniki.

Kawaleria
www.kawaleria.com
Golebia 4, Kraków
Tel: 012 430 24 32

Torunskie Perniki
Grodzka 14, Kraków
Tel: 012 431 13 06

Georgia

I didn’t really expect to tick Georgian food off the list during my two and half days in Kraków. If anything, I thought Ukrainian food would be more likely, and there are indeed several Ukrainian restaurants in town. On Sunday night we were hunting for a place to eat, having already sampled food at the vegetarian joint Greenway and declared it wanting. We ended up at Gruzinskie Chaczapuri (no, I can’t pronounce it either), which specialises in Georgian cuisine.

Obviously Georgia is a geo-political hotspot and in the news at the moment for all the wrong reasons. But its cuisine is actually quite famous - apparently it’s considered the France of the Black Sea region for its food and wine. There’s even been books written on the subject.

My dish was a cross between lasagne and spinach pie and quite delicious, while my fiancé ate cheese pie and one of my friends ate a chicken ratatouille style dish. It was not as fancy as Kawaleria and the service was a little slow but the food was good and not expensive. I have since found out that my cleaner is Georgian and likes to cook so I’m curious to ask her for some of her home-style recipes.

Gruzinskie Chaczapuri
Florianska 26, north of Rynek Glowny (the main square)
www.chaczapuri.pl
chaczapuri@chaczapuri.pl

Greenway (vegetarian, neither Polish nor Georgian)
Mikolajska 14
Tel: 012 431 10 27

Poland and Georgia are the seventh and eighth countries on my United Nations of Food challenge. There are 184 countries to go…

Some dear friends of mine recently gave me a copy of Chinese Food Made Easy, which ties in with the BBC show presented by Ching-He Huang. It’s full of beautiful pictures and recipes that sound delicious - from mussels in black bean sauce with mung bean noodles to durian honey puffs with vanilla ice cream and maple syrup.

I decided the first recipe I would attempt would be the ‘egg flower’ drop soup from the ‘takeaway favourites’ section of the book. It looked simple and tasty and had the added advantage of being vegetarian and thus catering for my non-meat eating partner.

‘Egg flower’ drop soup

Serves 2

3 ripe tomatoes, sliced (see step 1)

500ml/18fl oz hot vegetable stock

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon of light soy sauce

a dash of sesame oil

1 pinch of ground white pepper

1 tablespoon cornflour, blended with 2 tablespoons cold water

1-2 sheets nori (dried seaweed), shredded

200g/7oz fresh silken dofu, diced into 1.5 x 1.5cm / 1/2 by 1/2 inch chunks

1 large handful spinach

2 spring onions, finely sliced

1. If you want to skin the tomatoes before slicing, cut a cross at the base of each one. Plunge them into a pan of boiling water for less than 1 minute, then drain - the skin will peel off easily. Finely hop the flesh, discarding the hard centre. However, most of the nutrients are underneath the skin so I don’t bother - also the dish is even quicker to prepare.

2. Add the tomatoes to the hot stock in the pan. Pour the whisked eggs into the broth, stirring gently. Add the soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper and blended cornflour and mix well.

3. Add the nori to the broth, followed by the dofu and heat for less than 1 minute.

4. Add the spinach and let it wilt slightly, then add the spring onions. Serve immediately.

Road test

A note on ingredients: The recipe doesn’t mention whether to use toasted or untoasted nori. I went for untoasted on the basis that it would be cooked in the hot broth. I think this was the right decision as the consistency seemed right. I used two sheets.

I didn’t have any fresh tomatoes and I had a cupboard full of crushed tin tomatoes so I drained a can and used about two thirds of the contents.

I used Waitrose-brand vegetable stock, baby spinach, and organic eggs, tofu (which I presumed was the same as dofu), and spring onions.

Method: The instructions were very clear and easy to follow.

Result: It was a bit disappointing. Firstly, the quantities of ingredients seem off. Even allowing for the fact that I opted for two sheets of nori, I had very little broth for the amount of solid ingredients. If I were making this again, I would either increase the amount of stock or decrease the amount of spinach, nori and tofu. It also made four bowls of soup rather than two, though maybe that’s down to the size of my bowls.

Secondly, and more importantly, it was quite bland. I had to add a good slug of soy sauce and another hefty pinch of white pepper to each bowl for it to become palatable. It might have been a bit better with fresh tomatoes but I don’t believe this would have made a significant difference.

Verdict

I really wish the result had been more impressive because it was incredibly easy to make. It took me about 20 minutes in total.  Unfortunately though, it just wasn’t that interesting. Perhaps I might experiment a bit with different flavours, like chilli and ginger. I’m certainly willing to test out some of the other recipes in the book before I give up.

• * Eating whole grains is good for your health but it doesn’t have to be brown rice day after day. Culinate has a glossary of whole grains, from amaranth to wild rice. I haven’t heard of most of the ones on the list - kamut, anyone? Others, such as barley and quinoa, I’m more familiar with and have even cooked with. It’s a good resource and reminder of the variety that’s out there.

• * I love edible flowers - nasturtium, marigold or borage can really pep up a fresh salad, and fried zucchini (courgette) flowers are simply delicious. Around Britain with a Paunch blogs about an edible flower tasting menu at Roussillon, created in honour of his mother who is somewhat of an expert on the subject.

• * The Times has a guide to pick-your-own farms - a fun day out for the family and perfect for anyone who fancies a go at making jam or preserves.

• * For dessert here’s Closet Cooking’s cherry clafoutis - a dessert I’ve been hearing loads about lately. It sounds so good with its custard and cherry combination but I am yet to attempt making one - usually when I get fresh cherries I scarf them down plain, which is almost certainly healthier anyway!

One of the best things about being freelance is sometimes I get to play when other people work. (One of the worst things is that sometimes I have to work when the rest of the world is playing).

I’d had a very productive week so I rewarded myself by meeting a friend (Natalie - that’s her in the picture) for brunch on Thursday morning. The Electric Cinema - a fine picturehouse with comfy chairs and great brownies - has a café attached. It’s almost impossible to get a table there on a Saturday unless you’re prepared to get up early, which really defeats the point of brunch. On a Thursday morning, it’s a different story.

It was a sunny day and we had a table in a prime location outside on the pavement. I’m a big fan of dining al fresco - food just seems to taste better outdoors and drinking coffee on the street makes me feel cosmpolitan and connected to the world around me. One of the things I miss most about Sydney is the numerous cafés, with tables on the footpath so you can watch the world go buy, good coffee (a rarity in London though becoming more common), and excellent brunches. When I lived in Newtown, in inner city Sydney, I went out for brunch at least once every weekend.

England is renowned for inventing sports that other people play better. Similarly, the Brits invented the full English breakfast, but other people have improved on it. (Not everyone agrees with me on this, hence why I have invented the Global Breakfast Tournament, which is still ongoing). I’ve gone out for breakfast in numerous cafés in London and B&Bs all over the country and encountered both good and bad but nothing like the consistent quality we get in Australia. I’m definitely not into the greasy spoon style breakfast - I want fresh ingredients, lots of variety, modern cooking styles, and good coffee. Nor am I that into the breakfasts at the grand hotels like the Wolseley - it’s good food done well but just not that interesting.

I’ve found a few good places around - I like Brioche and the Wet Fish Cafe, almost next door to each other on West End Lane in West Hampstead. Boiled Egg and Soldiers in Clapham Junction was decent but not worth a trip across town.

I think it was Jessica at Ripe London who recommended the Electric Cinema for breakfast to me and I’d been meaning to try it for ages. The menu had everything you’d expect - though there was nothing I would describe as unusual or adventurous. I had Eggs Florentine and I asked for the hollandaise sauce on the side. Natalie had the full vegie breakfast.

The waiters won points for getting the orders exactly right - they even remembered the two glasses of tap water, which so often gets forgotten. However, they were a bit slow and left us to our own devices a little too much even though I think we were pretty much the only ones there. The food was great though; we lingered over our meals as we chatted about my recent trip to Syria and Natalie’s holiday in Iceland.

Inside the decor is achingly hip, with a bar with leather bar stools, and in the back room, wooden panelling and booths with more padded leather. The effect was a bit like what you’d get if you asked Philippe Starck to design an American diner. There’s actually a private members lounge upstairs; Natalie was the first to arrive and when she told the waiter she was looking for a friend, they suggested that might be where I was! Fat chance.

I enjoyed the brunch immensely though the damage came to £33 between the two of us, including the service charge. The same meal in Australia or the US would cost the same in dollars - in other words, half that when you convert the currency.

Electric Cinema
191 Portobello Rd, Notting Hill
London W11 2ED
www.electriccinema.co.uk

Brioche
238 West End Lane, Hampstead
London, NW6 1LG
020 7431 8175

Wet Fish Café
242 West End Lane, Hampstead
London, NW6 1LG
020 7443 9222
www.thewetfishcafe.co.uk

The Boiled Egg and Soldiers
63 Northcote Rd, Clapham Junction
London, SW11 1NP
020 7223 4894

The Wolseley
160 Piccadilly
London, W1J 9EB
020 7499 6996
www.thewolseley.com