Coastal Girl to City Girl

I tried to think of a food beginning with ‘Z’ but nothing came to me so I thought Zest would probably be a good ending to the A-Z challenge. I started on a dessert & I’ll end on an ingredient that goes into desserts. Ooh now that made me look clever & imaginative. At school I did food technology as part of my GCSE’s, most desserts I made listed the Zest of a: orange/lemon/lime. Zest seemed to be put in everything & I felt like I was always grating a fruit of some kind. Then it advised in the recipe that you could always decorate the dessert with a sprinkle of Zest. If you watch cookery programmes you can see that by grating or peeling the chefs always manage to use the zest of a fruit. I mean it does give the dessert an extra zingy taste & it does help a good dessert taste that little bit better. I wonder who came up with the brainwave of using the zest. ~~~~~~~~ Well that's it, the end of the A-Z Challenge. It has been a roller coaster r...

I love Yogurt especially Greek style yogurt but unfortunately I can no longer eat it unless I want stomach cramps for days. Recently there was a new Greek style yogurt that appeared & I wanted it badly, each time I saw it advertised I thought yep I’d love that, it would taste divine but I knew I’d be risking my poor stomach. I’m quite good now at knowing what I can & can’t risk eating. My normal chicken kormas are out because of the cream & so now is yogurts. Which is a shame but it’s better that way than to suffer 24 hours down the line. Obviously I miss eating good things like yogurt & I wish the companies made alternatives for those who can’t eat them. I’ve tried searching the shelves but there is no alternative out there. Maybe I need to write to them & pass on my thoughts then if they made an alternative I could finally enjoy a nice yogurt again. 

Ok again I had trouble with this letter & by doing a little search I came up with Xmas cake which I know is a little cheat as its technically called Christmas cake. But hey I always use the word Xmas so here goes… I have no idea why people came up with this idea. We now have birthday cakes, Easter cakes, Mother’s day cakes, Valentine’s Day cakes & of course Xmas cake. A cake for all occasions! To me it’s crazy & to be honest a bit of a con. I feel that the industries pray on people’s feelings etc to make us buy these things at special times of the year where they make billions. Ok enough politics ha! I have never eaten Xmas cake. I used to watch my mum making one every year for the whole family to enjoy, she would decorate it & alongside that she do the Xmas pudding with brandy sauce to pour on top which you then set light to. I would look at the cake & smell it but never wanted to eat it. I don’t know why, I guess it just never really appealed to me...

Vegemite. It’s like Marmite. Or a Marmite alternative. The slogan for it (& Marmite) is you either love it or hate it. For me I hate it. Vegemite I believe you can only get from Australia. You can’t get it in the UK, thankfully! My sister loved Marmite. She used to spread it on toast; in sandwiches & to be honest it stunk! It was thick black/brown goo in a jar. I can’t even really describe the smell, the minute she opened the jar I was out of that kitchen. I really cannot stand the stuff. It looks like grease, smells vile & would never be in my cupboards. Nope I’m not a fan of either & never will be. Instead I’m a hate it fan!

Ok yes I was stuck for a food beginning with ‘U’. A quick search on my phone produced this word: Unagi which is Japanese for eel. Well what can I say about it…I do NOT like eel. Full stop. There… They are slimy, rubbery, long, curly, horrible looking, smelly, just gross really. You get the picture. Would I ever eat eel? Urgh nope! No way! Not in my lifetime. Do I admire those who can stomach it…yes I guess I do because to me it looks chewy & tasteless. If anyone has tried it please tell us all what it tastes like & I hope they don’t say “it tastes just like chicken”! 

Rice pudding. When I mention to most people that I enjoy rice pudding I get strange looks & the reasons why no one should like rice pudding. It all boils down to school days & in particular school lunches. Every school lunch contained sloppy rice pudding. Kids everywhere hated the stuff. It looked disgusting, smelt awful & tasted gross. I actually seem to be the only person who enjoyed & liked rice pudding. Ok yes it doesn’t particularly taste of anything special & it doesn’t look appealing but it is a great winter warmer. Heat it up & pour in a bowl, snuggle under a blanket & enjoy. It’s filling but doesn’t over power your stomach. I can understand people’s fear of rice pudding but I feel it’s one of those things that will keep going & going even though you rarely hear about it or see it advertised anymore. I say hail the rice pudding! Plus you can put any topping on it: honey/jam etc, it’s versatile & great to eat. 

Quiche. Ok what is it about quiche that you either love it or hate it (a bit like marmite…& for the record I hate that stuff) anyways I do like quiche particularly the one with bacon & cheese in it. The only thing I can never decide on is if I prefer it hot or cold. When I eat it hot I wish it was cold & just out of the fridge then if I eat it cold I wish it was slightly warm. Yes you may call me odd/strange or fussy right about now & yes you would be right in thinking that! Ha. I like the smell of quiche cooking & then I enjoy the crust around it when it’s hard & crunchy. Yum! I’ve tried a vegetable one but it wasn’t to my liking. So I stick with what I know, love & trust. It may be less healthy with all that cheese & bacon but hey no worries if I put lettuce with it I’ll kid my body into thinking I’m being healthy lol! 

Nuts. Not as in how I would describe myself but the food nut. My husband loves nuts, he nibbles on them most days & has a habit that makes me giggle where he’ll pour a few out of a packet (dry roasted are his favourite) onto a plate & he’ll pick at them over the evening. Whereas I would pick at them straight out of the packet, I only eat salted nuts occasionally but only if I crave them but my husband will graze on nuts all evening. I used to remember when bowls of nuts were put on bars for people to nibble on, the reason being was that the salt would make you thirstier & therefore you’d drink more making more profit for the owners. Oh yes they were not silly! Until the health facts came out & they found that the bowls actually contained many people’s urine! Yuk. It told people that “hey many people don’t wash their hands” & “that you’re eating people’s pee!” oh yeah we loved them for letting us all know that information! I bet people stopped eatin...

Ooh how I love a melon. A watermelon perhaps with the pink juicy fruit that is so watery in your mouth as you bite into it. Or perhaps a honeydew which contains a sweet flavour in a whitish flesh of fruit alongside the softness as you nibble it. The trouble with me & a honeydew is that I put extra sprinklings of sugar on it before I eat it. I know it’s bad when you’re eating a healthy piece of fruit but for me it gives it an extra kick. I actually do love melon & would happily eat it every day but I’m one of those people who get bored with food & so if I brought a melon I know I wouldn’t eat it all. Anytime I fancy some melon I might buy it as a treat & hope I’ll finish it in time before it can’t be eaten any more or I’ll buy it in a can even though it may not taste the same. Even thinking about melon makes my mouth water & watermelon is always the first thing I’ll eat when I’m on holiday…I actually probably over eat on it!  

Kiwi. Nope I’m not talking about the animal from New Zealand. I’m talking about that brown hairy fruit that is green inside. Ok yep it sounds disgusting. Actually it sounds of putting to eat but it’s not, it’s rather lovely. I do really enjoy eating this fruit. As a kid I liked the hairy brown skin, it was odd & made me giggle when I touched it as it kind of felt like that fuzzy felt stuff. When my mum cut it up I would stare in wonder at the green squishy fruit inside. It fascinated me & I thought it looked amazing. I would eat it on its own or in a fruit cocktail. I really liked it & actually I think I was the only one who did! From a kids point of view it looked like frog spawn. It was soft & really squishy to eat. I’d make my mum cut the skin off first then I’d gobble the green fruit up in delight. I do the same now. I’ll buy one or two, spend ages peeling the skin off then slice it up into pieces & eat it, still thinking about how it l...

As a child my favourite thing was ice cream. I would only eat it during the summer months (as I felt stupid eating it in winter…I was cold enough so I didn’t colder things entering my system!) & then I’d be lost for choice when faced with the task of choosing an ice cream. Mr whippy 99 with a flake was always my favourite. The soft fluffy ice cream within a crunchy cone & a chocolate flake. Summers were never the same without having one of these. If I couldn’t have that I’d choose an orange ice lolly or mini milk or a feast. Now there’s an ice lolly. Chocolate wrapped in chocolate filled with more chocolate. Yum…a messy ice lolly but a delicious one! The one I had at home was a Neapolitan…the ice cream of different flavours in one hit. Oh my how tasty that was. Then I discovered Vienetta. Now that was one dangerous discovery lol. I would munch my way through that in days & go back for seconds. I always love the sound of the hard chocolate cracking under t...

Hamburgers. One simple word…yum! I love hamburgers especially with melted cheese on them & a dollop of ketchup. Not too much ketchup though as it spoils the taste! You put just enough in to give it a small kick. I don’t like/need/want anything else in a burger. I don’t like it when they are over filled with onions, lettuce, tomatoes etc & if I have a Macdonald’s cheeseburger then the first thing I’ll do is rip out that slice of Gherkin thingy. Yuck! One time my sister produced a homemade hamburger to me. I eyed it with fascination & with a watering mouth took a bite. Then when I looked down I gasped, to me it looked pink. I talked to her about this but the problem now with chefs is that their burgers are always served slightly on the rare side. I told her to take it away & cook it for longer. Me & rare beef do not gel. If you eat meat then it has to be cooked well & that goes for hamburgers too. I know when I need red meat as my body st...

Feta cheese. I love Feta. I’ll throw it into a salad with lettuce, cucumber, olive oil & sprinkle mixed herbs on top. It’s my version of a Greek salad but without tomatoes & olives. I have no idea why I don’t have the whole Greek salad experience except that I can’t stand olives or tomatoes. If I have a salad or sandwich that has tomatoes in I will pick them out. Therefore when I do my own salad I’ll leave them out. Adding Feta to a salad gives it that extra taste & makes it slightly different to the normal typically plain salad. It also seems to give it more oomph & for me makes me want to eat salads daily. In the summer I will happily eat Feta salads with potatoes every day, it makes me feel healthier & lighter. I could easily get addicted to Feta which may not be a good thing but when cut into tiny pieces & crumbled over a handful of lettuce & cucumber it makes a salad more inviting & sounds fantastically delicious right ab...

For some strange reason these posts are taking on a sweet toothed theme! I’ll be the first to stand up & say ‘yes I have a sweet tooth, yes I may be addicted to sugar, but you only live once so what the hell.’ Doughnuts. I love them. I love the sticky sugary icing/dusting. I love the soft doughy texture. But I hate the jam filling. Ok they may sound a little nuts, after all who loves donuts but hates the jam filling. Simple answer…me. I’m basing this in the UK. We for some odd reason fill doughnuts with sticky, gooey jam. It oozes out everywhere & creates a huge (fun) mess, I have no idea why this is done but it annoys me. I know there are many different varieties out there without jam but they are not the same & technically are not (or should not) be called doughnuts. When I was younger I had a solution to this problem. I ate round the jam. I would cut out the middle section (as that’s the only place the jam is located) & give it to my sister....

I’ve been thinking about different ways of doing the April A-Z challenge http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/ I thought about combining it with the poetry month over at  NaBloPoMo but I knew I’d probably get stuck by the end of the alphabet. Then I wondered about doing a food & drink A-Z which might turn into a bit of a giggle when I get to Z. So having done a Google search ahead of time…I know I’m a cheat…or a good researcher…I’ve decided to try my hand at a food & drink A-Z for April. If I fail then I fail, if not then hopefully it will be a giggle along the way & when I’ve completed it (fingers crossed) then I can jump for joy & knowing my luck probably end up going off food & drink for life… ‘A’ is for apple…only joking as that for me is too obvious & reminds me of my school days learning the alphabet…When I looked up food beginning with ‘A’ a whole host of ideas came up & I scrolled up & down this list one jumped out at me & l...