Tags: cooking

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Friday, January 29th, 2021

Eggs - Hicks.design

Most days I cook eggs 🍳 and then paint them 🖌. These are those eggs.

Lovely!

But, wait …what’s this?

My favourite condiment with fried eggs is marmite mayo (4 parts mayonnaise to 1 part Marmite).

Okay, now I think this officially qualifies as outsider art.

Tuesday, February 18th, 2020

An app can be a home-cooked meal

I am the programming equivalent of a home cook.

The exhortation “learn to code!” has its foundations in market value. “Learn to code” is suggested as a way up, a way out. “Learn to code” offers economic leverage, a squirt of power. “Learn to code” goes on your resume.

But let’s substitute a different phrase: “learn to cook.” People don’t only learn to cook so they can become chefs. Some do! But far more people learn to cook so they can eat better, or more affordably, or in a specific way.

Tuesday, June 26th, 2018

Recursive Recipes | Make food from scratch

Watch the prep time increase as you make more and more of a recipe’s ingredients from scratch.

I guess Carl Sagan was right. To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

Sunday, February 25th, 2018

Cooking with Ursula K. Le Guin

Recipes inspired by The Left Hand Of Darkness.

I mostly stuck to Le Guin’s world-building rules for Winter, which were “no large meat-animals … and no mammalian products, milk, butter or cheese; the only high-protein, high-carbohydrate foods are the various kinds of eggs, fish, nuts and Hainish grains.” I did, however, add some hot-climate items found in Manhattan’s Chinatown for their space-age looks and good flavors (dragonfruit, pomelo, galangal, chilis, and kaffir limes).

Serve with hot beer.

Saturday, February 24th, 2018

Food for thought (process)

I love, love, love Sam’s comparison’s between cooking and front-end development.

We should embrace the tools we have access to and appreciate our ability to learn, but also realize that maybe a gas stove or a certain design tools might not be for everyone. We have to find what works for our cooking or designing/coding style or the project/meal at hand.

Monday, January 1st, 2018

Food I ate in 2017

I did a fair bit of travelling in 2017, which I always enjoy. I particularly enjoy it when Jessica comes with me and we get to sample the cuisine of other countries.

Portugal will always be a culinary hotspot for me, particularly Porto (“tripas à moda do Porto” is one of the best things I’ve ever tasted). When I was teaching at the New Digital School in Porto back in February, I took full advantage of the culinary landscape. A seafood rice (and goose barnacles) at O Gaveto in Matosinhos was a particular highlight.

Goose barnacles. Seafood rice.

The most unexpected thing I ate in Porto was when I wandered off for lunch on my own one day. I ended up in a little place where, when I walked in, it was kind of like that bit in the Western when the music stops and everyone turns to look. This was clearly a place for locals. The owner didn’t speak any English. I didn’t speak any Portuguese. But we figured it out. She mimed something sandwich-like and said a word I wasn’t familiar with: bifana. Okay, I said. Then she mimed the universal action for drinking, so I said “agua.” She looked at with a very confused expression. “Agua!? Não. Cerveja!” Who am I to argue? Anyway, she produced this thing which was basically some wet meat in a bun. It didn’t look very appetising. But this was the kind of situation where I couldn’t back out of eating it. So I took a bite and …it was delicious! Like, really, really delicious.

This sandwich was delicious and I have no idea what was in it. I speak no Portuguese and the café owner spoke no English.

Later in February, we went to Pittsburgh to visit Cindy and Matt. We were there for my birthday, so Cindy prepared the most amazing meal. She reproduced a dish from the French Laundry—sous-vide lobster on orzo. It was divine!

Lobster tail on orzo with a Parmesan crisp.

Later in the year, we went to Singapore for the first time. The culture of hawker centres makes it the ideal place for trying lots of different foods. There were some real revelations in there.

chicken rice fishball noodles laksa grilled pork

We visited lots of other great places like Reykjavík, Lisbon, Barcelona, and Nuremberg. But as well as sampling the cuisine of distant locations, I had some very fine food right here in Brighton, home to Trollburger, purveyors of the best burger you’ll ever eat.

Checked in at Trollburger. The Hellfire! 🌶 Troll’s Fiery Breath and bolognese fries from @trollburger. Burning crusader. Having a delicious Nightfire burger from @trollburgerBN1.

I also have a thing for hot wings, so it’s very fortunate that The Joker, home to the best wings in Brighton, is just around the corner from the dance studio where Jessica goes for ballet. Regular wing nights became a thing in 2017.

Checked in at The Joker. Lunch break at FFConf. — with Graham Checked in at The Joker. with Jessica Checked in at The Joker. Wing night! — with Jessica

I started a little routine in 2017 where I’d take a break from work in the middle of the afternoon, wander down to the seafront, and buy a single oyster. It only took a few minutes out of the day but it was a great little dose of perspective each time.

Today’s oyster. Today’s oyster. Today’s oyster. Today’s oyster. Today’s oyster. Today’s oyster on the beach. Today’s oyster on the beach.

But when I think of my favourite meals of 2017, most of them were home-cooked.

Sirloin steak with thyme. 🥩 Sous-vide pork tenderloin stuffed with capers and herbs. Roasting pork, apples, and onions. 🐷🍏 Fabada Asturiana. Rib of beef with potatoes and broad bean, fennel and burrata. Grillin’ chicken. A bountiful table. Grilling lamb. Summertime on a plate. Rib of beef, carrots, carrot-top chimichurri, and kale. The roast chicken angel watches over its flock of side dishes. Ribeye.

Saturday, March 5th, 2016

Why I Quit Ordering From Uber-for-Food Start-Ups by Robin Sloan in The Atlantic

Something to remember the next time someone describes an experience as “seamless” and means it to be positive:

This is the Amazon move: absolute obfuscation of labor and logistics behind a friendly buy button. The experience for a Sprig customer is super convenient, almost magical; the experience for a chef or courier…? We don’t know. We don’t get to know. We’re just here to press the button.

I feel bad, truly, for Amazon and Sprig and their many peers—SpoonRocket, Postmates, Munchery, and the rest. They build these complicated systems and then they have to hide them, because the way they treat humans is at best mildly depressing and at worst burn-it-down dystopian.

What would it be like if you didn’t have to hide the system?

Sunday, August 2nd, 2015

Salt of the Earth

It’s Summertime in England so Jessica and I are eating the bounty of the season. Now is the perfect time for lamb. Yesterday we went to the Open Market and picked up half a leg of lamb (butterflied) from Tottington Manor Farm. This evening, we marinated it with rosemary, thyme, garlic, olive oil, and lemon and then threw it on the barbecue.

While we ate, we listened to a podcast episode. This time it was a documentary about salt from my Huffduffer feed. It’s an entertaining listen. As well as covering the science and history of salt, there were some interesting titbits on salt-based folklore. There’s the obvious one of throwing spilt salt over your shoulder (in to the eyes of the devil, apparently) but there was also one that neither of us had heard of: that offering someone salt at the dinner table is bad luck and warrants the rebuttal “pass me salt, pass me sorrow!”

Well, you live and learn.

Then we started thinking about other salt-based traditions. I have something in the back of my mind about a new year’s eve tradition in Ireland involving throwing bread at the door and sprinkling salt in the doorway. Jessica remembered something about a tradition in eastern European countries involving bread and salt as a greeting. Sure enough, a quick web search turned up the Russian tradition: “Хлеб да соль!!” ( “Bread and salt!”).

This traditional greeting has been extended off our planet. During the historic Apollo-Soyuz docking, crackers and salt were used as an easy substitute. But now when cosmonauts arrive at the International Space Station, they are greeted with specially-made portions of bread and salt.

We finished listening to the podcast. We finished eating our lamb—liberally seasoned with Oregonian salt from Jacobson. Then we went outside and looked up at the ISS flying overhead. When Oleg, Gennady, and Mikhail arrive back on Earth, they will be offered the traditional greeting of bread and salt.

Sunday, June 28th, 2015

100 words 098

When I’m grilling outside, I cook on a gas barbecue. There are quite a few people who would take issue with this. Charcoal is clearly better, they claim. And they’re right. But the thing is, I can fire up my gas barbecue quickly and just get down to cooking.

When I’m programming on the server, I code in PHP. There are quite a few people who would take issue with this. Any other language is clearly better, they claim. And they’re right. But the thing is, I can fire up my text editor quickly and just get down to coding.

Thursday, August 15th, 2013

Ooh, Yay!

This is a great idea—the Brighton Cookbook Club:

You know when you get a new cookbook, but you only ever end up using two or three recipes from it? Coming along to Cookbook Club means that you’ll get to try a whole range of recipes from one book to see what you fancy, maybe broaden your palate, and have a jolly fun evening meeting others while you’re at it!

Thursday, March 21st, 2013

Life & Thyme

Good writing. Good design. Good food.

Saturday, July 21st, 2012

The Time Traveler’s Cookbook: Meat-Lover’s Edition : NPR

A PDF to download and read that is both funny and fascinating.

Thursday, June 21st, 2012

Aio e Oio: Food for Friendship | Born Hungry

This beautiful piece of writing from Steph is making me hungry.

Sunday, May 13th, 2012

The Tink Tank » Jeremy Keith’s Pork chop recipe

Léonie is collecting some recipes from web geeks. Here’s my contribution via Valentine Warner.

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

mariobatalivoice

I am very disappointed that the internet didn’t tell me sooner that Steve Albini has a food blog.

So just in case you didn’t already know: Steve Albini has a food blog.

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

How to Barbeque a Man on Vimeo

Valuable advice from Slowtron on cooking perfect longpork.

Monday, August 15th, 2011

Food Sense | Plant-Based Eating At Its Best

A gorgeous adaptive (though not quite responsive) design …and it’s all about food.

Thursday, March 17th, 2011

iPad: The Microwave Oven of Computing | Techinch

Y’know, I think this comparison actually makes a lot of sense.

Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

Kitchen Interfaces Suck; Let's Break Down Why | Co.Design

Aza Raskin on the UI failings of kitchens.

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

The Jean-Paul Sartre Cookbook

"Tuna Casserole Ingredients: 1 large casserole dish Place the casserole dish in a cold oven. Place a chair facing the oven and sit in it forever. Think about how hungry you are. When night falls, do not turn on the light."