March 9th, 2010

Pho!

How do you fancy winning a trip to Vietnam?

London’s first Vietnamese street food restaurant Pho has launched a new website and to celebrate, the owners Stephen and Juliette Wall are giving away a holiday in Vietnam to two lucky customers.

Pho restaurants specialise in the national dish of Vietnam: pho – pronounced “fuh”. Stephen and Juliette got the inspiration to start Pho in London five years ago after travelling to Vietnam and being inspired by the culture and the cuisine. To thank all of their loyal customers, or pho-natics as they like to call them, they are giving away two flights and accommodation for a holiday in Ho Chi Minh, a city which inspired the couple to quit their jobs and open a Vietnamese restaurant.

For those not in the know, pho s Vietnam’s national dish. It’s their national obsession – often referred to as the “soul of the nation”. It’s quite simply a delicious and nutritious noodle soup dish eaten every day by the Vietnamese for breakfast, lunch or dinner – or sometimes for all. It’s the ultimate street food.

Pho began life in Hanoi – and while Vietnamese by birth was influenced by Chinese neighbours and the French colonists (pho sounds like feu, the French word for fire, as in pot-au-feu). As it travelled south pho developed subtle traits distinctive to the region – very much akin to Vietnamese cuisine as a whole. In the north pho is a more basic beef broth (pho bac) and there is little use of additional seasonings whereas in the south there’s a more pronounced use of herbs, greens and chillies.

Pho began to go global in the latter part of the 20th century, noticeably in France due to their colonial links and in North America where a large number of specialist “pho shops” were founded around the large Vietnamese expat communities.

Pho-natics can visit the new website and visit the competition page – with a click of the mouse they will be entered to win a holiday in Vietnam.

March 8th, 2010

Wikio Ratings

Wikio Gastronomy Ratings (March 2010)

Word of Mouth
Eat Like A Girl
Food Stories
Dos Hermanos
Hollow Legs
Cheese and Biscuits
Thring For Your Supper
London Eater
Gastronomy Domaine
A Rather Unusual Chinaman
The Catty Life
Essex Eating
Tinned Tomatoes
Intoxicating Prose
Culinary Travels of a Kitchen Goddess
London Chow
The London Foodie
The Foodie List
Spittoonextra
Cherrapeno

Obviously I’d love to see my site in the top 10, okay okay who am I kidding, I’d [...]

March 5th, 2010

A Good Shoe Day

A few weeks back I was contacted by a PR company asking me to review an Interflora Mothers Day gift.
I was sent the Biscuiteers Shoe Box – a lovely gift set of tea cup and glitzy shoe shaped chocolate biscuits all nestled in a decorative tin. For the shoe lover they really are an interesting [...]

February 27th, 2010

Heaven On A Dessert Plate

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

Tiramisu is one of my favourite desserts, and one that I [...]

February 26th, 2010

A Broken Promise

After Christmas I made a promise to myself that I would resist buying more cookery book until I had sorted and organised the rather mammoth collection I already own. Well, a couple of weeks back I broke that promise. How could I resist Jose Pizarro’s stunning book, Seasonal Spanish Food?

Pizarro’s debut explores the regions of [...]

February 23rd, 2010

Fairtrade Fortnight

Following on from my post about Fairtrade Fortnight – The Big Swap I received an email discussing fairer baking. Now I think you’re all aware of how much I love to bake and of my principles regarding ethical eating, so of course it immediately grabbed my interest.
I am rather disappointed to say I didn’t realise [...]

February 22nd, 2010

So What Do You Want To Know?

The lovely Polly has tagged me. I’m supposed to come up with thirteen little known facts about myself to share with you before passing along the tag, but to be quite honest I don’t really go in for completing tags and meme’s that often.
So I’ll bore you all with thirteen little known facts about me [...]

February 17th, 2010

Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race!

ODE TO A HAGGIS
Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang’s my arm
The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
You pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o’need
While thro’ your pores the dews [...]

February 12th, 2010

From Plot To Plate

The New Urban Farmer by Celia Brooks Brown is due for publication in early March 2010. I am sure it will take the market by storm. How can it not? It is surely a gem of a book and one most suited to the current trend of growing your own food.
This book is billed as [...]

February 9th, 2010

What’s Your Swap?

Fairtrade is something I am passionate about, believing that we all have a duty to each other to have a social conscience. Fairtrade believes, as do I, that developing world producers should be in control of their own lives, by getting a better deal for the work that they do.
The four main standards that producers must [...]

February 8th, 2010

A Burst Of Sunshine

With a glut of oranges (read over flowing fruit bowl) and a rapidly depleting store of marmalade I felt the urgent need to get preserving.
Image courtesy of Google Images.
I love preserving, it’s a very cathartic, soothing activity. Regular readers will have come to understand just how much I love preserving but for those of you [...]