Have your rice and eat it...in a car?

I was shocked to that this is even a concept, let alone exists. Yes my friends, everyone should have a rice cooker in their car. I imagined my Grandma, who perfectly cooks rice on a coal stove, being just as flabbergasted as me - someone who has mastered the art of using  rice cookers and regularly blames other people's stoves for burning my rice...

Audi Japan brings us the rice cooker in a car, taking eating on the go to a whole new level.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDXbdE8evlQ

http://www.audi.jp/rice/ 

Then I realised it was all a joke. I cried in despair, eating leftover rice. Yes, I do reheat rice and I am still alive.

NB - when reheating food, please reheat thoroughly. I don't want anyone to get hurt now...

Luka ice cream&cakes....&joy&smiles

My apologies, especially to Luka, for the long wait on this one.

I recently read an article saying that more and more of us are choosing our holiday destinations based on food choice available at a particular destination. The fabulous 3 other ladies I often travel with, always mention the phrase ‘food holiday’ when we are away somewhere, but food is never the sole focus of us meeting. However, if you are looking for a 2016 holiday destination based on high quality, lovingly made culinary delights at very affordable prices, visit Split in Croatia and visit Luca’s cakes and ice cream.

Every day, Luka and his team work on new seasonal flavours of ice cream and cake. While we were there, berry ice cream, pear ice cream and orange sorbet were making their debuts. What particularly impressed me was that you can see all the good stuff being made, apart from the ice cream. Due to popular demand and space being a premium the homemade ice cream has to be made off site, although the fruit and other ingredients for it are prepped onsite.

Mary and I sporting carrot cake (in my hand), poppy seed, raspberry and yoghurt cake (in front of Mary) 

Chocolate and praline cake with a caramel meringuey mousse and Apple crumble cake 

There were 3 of us, we aren't eating two cakes each, hm hm...

So what would I recommend…

Definitely the carrot cake. It is not like what you may find in the US or UK. It is very moist and delicate with a sweetened pie crust. A perfect treat for breakfast. Alina and I can verify that. If you’re looking for something traditional from Split, you can get a slice of splitska torta, a layered cake filed withe cream, custard, dried fruit and figs.

What makes the difference at Luka’s is the hospitality and friendliness of the staff. You can chat away to them, get recommendations and try out their new culinary creations. They will give you more than just cake. In our case, we had so many testers that we were so full and left with some good local knowledge and bus numbers for the rest of our adventures. NB - because everything is so fresh and seasonal, you may not get some ice-cream flavours after a few days. Be warned.

If you have allergies,  intolerances or are diabetic, Luka will definitely have a sweet treat for you. If you’re too full to eat anything at the current Croatian president’s favourite ice cream shop, they can box up some homemade biscuits for you. Their fig rolls are just right -    “ just tangy enough, just sweet enough” and the best my Mum has tasted in her whole life.

Everything in the shop, unless you buy a whole tub of ice cream or whole cake, is very reasonably priced, with exotically flavoured muffins starting from about 70p (7 kuna) and most cake slices are under £1.90 (19 kuna). Brace yourselves. No-one will judge you if you go back multiple times a day…Luka Icecream and Cake is open until about 11pm everyday, so there isn't really an excuse to pop by.

More photos are on the way. I had some of the team but my phone died...so just go and see them in real life. Wizz Air has super cheap return flights.

Go to Svačićeva 2, Split, Croatia to see them and give a cake a home.

Gourmet bin dining *****

Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of going to my very first Binner Party, which was held at the Brink Bar on Parr Street, Liverpool.

Despite being a tad late, I got a bit carried away with my Sunday nap, I still had the opportunity to dine in a cool calm atmosphere, filled with live acoustic guitar music. I had pulled pork, fresh bread, roasted squash, gourmet chicken sandwiches, tomato, red pepper and chilli soup, carrot cake and red velvet cake. NB - all of this was 'quickly rustled up' for the 3 of us. The food had a very homely  feel(although its origins were in Costco and Isla Gladstone Conservatory). In that, I felt the food is the kind of thing I would cook for guests at my home if I was given the same ingredients with the same amount of short notice that the Real Junk Food Project Liverpool had had.

The Real Junk Food Project, a not-for-profit organisation, runs on the ethos of saving/intercepting food from food retailers that would otherwise be sent to landfill...a.k.a the bin.  Food can be paid for in a number of ways, including Pay As You Feel donations and volunteering, meaning that all members of community can benefit from the project. The Liverpool branch is run by the lovely Natalie Hughes-Crean and Gaby Holmes. Both Natalie and Gaby source/intercept the food and creatively cook what they find, before serving it up with help of a wonderful group of volunteers.

Although Natalie described choosing the menu in a "massive ready steady cook" style, the duo are running a tight, yet rather generous ship, which they aim to turn into a copy model for future outlets in the city. On Sunday alone, over 150 portions of intercepted goodness were served up. The pair always have vegan and vegetarian options available, as well as recording data about the food they have saved and shared for future food waste lobbying purposes. Gaby got involved with the Real Junk Food Project, which originally started in Leeds, as she was looking for unique volunteering opportunities after travelling around the world. 

Some of Sunday night's team, Corinne, Gaby, Natalie, James, Jon and Liam

The Real Junk Food Project Liverpool is looking for a permanent home in Liverpool city centre, but until then you can taste their delights, ranging from fresh French macarons to meat dishes and leafy salads at events across the northwest this summer, including the University of Liverpool and Stanley Park Food Festival. The next Binner Party will be at the Brink Bar, Liverpool this September ( See their Facebook page for the fixed date)

For the founder of the Real Junk Food Project, Adam Smith, loving food and hating waste is not a fad or a shiny new concept, but redressing it is changing the mindset of thousands of people towards how they view food and food waste.

Go to your local Real Junk Food Project, or at the very least look them up online or Facebook. You'll probably have some free cake and have your faith restored in humanity. I certainly did. 

Click.

There have been countless scares that the world is going to run out of food. If you know me, you can imagine my thoughts on this matter. If you don't know me personally... I DO NOT BELIEVE THIS!

Unfortunately, there are people millions of people starving in this world and suffering severe malnutrition for a range of reasons, many of which are preventable. Mismanagement of resources and government failures are two huge reasons for starvation in our world.

God has given us enough resources to sustain ourselves, but injustice has wrecked that plan. I cannot feed the whole world and neither can you, but we can be much better with our food management, changing our attitude towards food (waste) and sharing what we have.

So... help share a meal with someone. It's just a FREE click away... and it can be done everyday.

http://thehungersite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/ths/home?link=ctg_ths_home_from_grg_sitenav

Another FREE click idea is look up THE REAL JUNK FOOD PROJECT UK. Hopefully, I am going to a Binner Dinner (donated food/ reclaimed food which is used to make fantastic Pay As You Want dishes) tonight, so expect some news from me.

Have a great weekend and please use your clicking abilities for something different today.

New thinking...new drinking

I'm back again!

For a long time, I felt guilty that blogging about 'food alone' was not a worthy cause. In that, when people across the world are facing life threatening challenges who am I to say, "go and eat some Japanese food at xyz". However,  after a lot of thinking (and eating), growing and reflecting on my first blog post on here about lemons, I intend to give you more than just food advice.

This is The Rice Cooker revamped. Allez! Food for the mind and the soul is just as important as food for the body, as what we feed ourselves can have in all these dimensions can have wonderful or disastrous effects.

Expect many food related tales from me....with greater frequency....she says.

Just to finish off, here's some food related politics for your ears and petition writing hands.

NB - don't sing while you eat. It can be dangerous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ug_vpIk1jc&list=PLcpoB2VESJmcQ4-LhRF9I1DNrz4lG03WI

Esi's Ghana Hot Pot

So last Sunday, I did one of the most exciting and challenging food related things I have ever done...I ran my own Ghanaian food stall, Esi's Ghana Hot Pot. WOOP WOOP!

The idea for Esi's Ghana Hot Pot has been bubbling around in my brain for a while. As an appreciator of good food and innovative food products, it has long surprised me and saddened me that there is a distinct lack of representation of food and culture from the African continent at food festivals and major events. As a British Ghanaian foodie, I wanted to change this, one small step at a time.

Thankfully, the stall was extremely popular at this year's Fine Food Fayre run by the St Andrews' Fine Food Society, who did an amazing job coordinating 50 food and drink artisans, as well as a large group of university societies sharing and selling a wide range of international treats. I've never fried so much plantain in my life, but thankfully I had some fabulously enthusiastic helpers who gave up their Sunday to serve up and fetch and carry. Me daase pii (Thanks very much). Alongside the plantain, there was Nkatse nkwan (chicken and peanut soup), Edua froyee (bean stew), Waakye (rice and black eyed beans) and froyee (tomato and chilli sauce) .

You may ask, why am I only writing about Esi's Ghana Hot Pot retrospectively?

Well, as I have learnt over the last few weeks, running a food stall and catering can be very complex in the United Kingdom. There is a small mountain of guidelines and regulations to think about, on top of making several litres of Nkatse nkwan and anything else. By the grace of God, I jumped through all the necessary hoops so that I could happily cook for the masses. Also, Esi's Ghana Hot Pot is a pop up business. As a student in my final semester of study, the books have to come first for a while, but all being well EGHP will pop up again.

Is this plantain for you?

Although my name is on the sign (lovingly hand drawn by Tamara), without lots of people willing to give their taste buds a new experience and spreading the word about EGHP, Sunday wouldn't have gone so well and Tony Singh from the  BBC's Incredible Spicemen probably wouldn't have wanted to take a couple of selfies with me.

To keep up to date with changes to EGHP , check out the Facebook page. www.facebook.com/ghanahotpot

I'm always interested to read your comments and have people come up to me on horrifically rainy days to tell me they love my soup. 

If you want me to cook especially for you, send me a message and I'll see what I can do!

* I  didn't take the pictures, The Albany Parker, Owl Eyes, Allen Farrington and Jane did.

The tale of two curry houses...

There are many things that I wanted to write about in the post exam period, a.k.a 'Christmas time!'. Alas, they can wait. I always try to give constructive criticism about restaurants and food experiences, but sometimes standards are so poor that I cannot help but warn you so that you do not waste your time, money or positive energy on certain products or establishments.

This weekend I had two restaurant based disappointments. Firstly, Sultan's Palace in Liverpool City Centre let me and a lovely group of healthcare professionals down. Dirty floors. Dirty glasses. Bubbling lassi (classic sweet/spiced Indian yoghurt based drink).Waiting almost 4 hours for a 2 course meal. Waiting staff stretching their whole bodies across the table to ensure we got the right curries. Such movements should be saved for Pilates and Yoga. There were few smiles and minimal concern about our dining experience. Plus, to top it off, the food in my opinion was rather mediocre. 5/10.

The second disappointment of the weekend was Cafe Sekander on Allerton Road, South Liverpool. In this establishment I saw something I had never seen before in a restaurant. A chef staggered down the stairs in flip flops into the kitchen(which didn't look ready for service whatsoever).He was followed by another member of staff who had a toothbrush topped with toothpaste behind his back on his way to the kitchen. THIS WAS NOT A GOOD LOOK. The expression on my Dad's face was absolutely priceless. Needless to say we did not partake in the devouring of curry there this weekend.

I don't like to sound too brutal, but I have been to both these restaurants before and had totally different experiences and tasty food in clean and cheery atmospheres. I have worked in an award winning curry house before and I can relate to some of the challenges that serving staff and chefs may face, but the service I experienced this weekend was inexcusable. First things first, brush your teeth at home!

If you fancy a curry in Liverpool this week, give these two places a miss. You could cook up a lovely one for family and friends for a fraction of the price.Plus I'm sure you would smile heartily at whoever eats you curried goodness and not stretch all over them without their consent. Failing that, you could place an order at Kebabish Original on Lodge Lane... I have a lot more to say about them. They won't be letting you down anytime soon.