meemalee

So I went to Iceland. And despite my misgivings (mainly concerning the ash-cloud ) I really, truly loved it. One of the things I loved was their attitude to food which is totally in keeping with my own philosophy - if it moves, we can eat it and, what's more, we should eat every last bit of it. With this in mind, I'd done my research and discovered that a particular Icelandic speciality is svið . Svið, dear reader, is singed sheep's face or head. Traditionally, a whole sheep's head is singed to burn off all the hairs, boiled, de-brained ( thank God ), and then sliced in half before being served. You're drooling at the thought, aren't you? Apart from at Þorrablót , the mid-winter festival, the only place in Reykjavik to serve this traditional beauty is a cafe called Fljótt og Gott , which is set within the BSI Bus Terminal on the outskirts of town, and is ruddy difficult to get to by foot, but worth nearly getting run over for. So it was the third day of our tr...

It's Competition Time here on meemalee's kitchen ! I'm dead excited as I've never had anything to give away before. It's not like any of you would want my collection of pointy-heeled shoes. Actually, you might, but you're not getting them. Weirdos. I digress. Anyway, how would you like the opportunity to come to the BBC Good Food Show in Birmingham next weekend? In their own words : " 100s of Exhibitors will be gathering in the NEC to get you all prepared for a very foodie summer! Find products you can't buy on your high street and watch live cookery demonstrations from your favourite celebrity chefs such as James Martin and the Hairy Bikers. Plus don't forget your ticket to the BBC Summer Good Food Show also gives you entry to BBC Gardener's World Live ! That's two Shows for the price of one! " More excitingly than even that (I know, it seems impossible), you could take part in the MasterChef Live Experience : Compete in the Inventio...

I have been desperate for a Vietnamese place to pop up near me for aeons. I work in Holborn and there are more Japanese joints than you could shake a stick at, but no sign of Vinafood save Pho on St John Street, which is just that little bit too far for me to make a lunch hour trip. So when the Grubworm informed me that Potemkin at the end of Leather Lane had turned into Cafe VN , I was almost shaking with excitement (yes, I'm a food nerd). I don't know how I'd missed this, as he himself calls me Foodie Central and I traipse down Leather Lane at least twice a week. We organised a meet-up with several others for that Friday and I waited. And then on Thursday, overwhelmed with pho cravings, I stopped waiting and ran down to Cafe VN by myself. Actually ran, and I never run. First impression was that I'd wandered into a trendy staff canteen. Everything was bright, shiny, plasticky white and green, and faintly painful-looking as if to encourage you not to linger. And to...

A long, long time ago, a scamp that I barely knew by the name of the Food Urchin caught me at a vulnerable moment and used some kind of Derren Brown-style trickery to convince me not only to make his dinner for him, but also to package it up and bring it to him. It turned out he had previous form, as a whole cavalcade of foodies had somehow been suckered one by one into providing sustenance for this miscreant under the auspices of something called Where's My Pork Chop ? What's worse is that, rather than be grateful for our offerings, he felt at liberty to criticise our food and he even began to court the MasterChef finalists , as apparently none of us were high-profile or sexy enough. The swine. Eventually, we could take no more, and we rebelled and demanded some recompense. Astonishingly, he more than rose to the challenge with his #WMPCIMU . Crank up the sound, watch the video and then join me in applauding the Food Urchin , for he is indeed the Fire Pit King. Incidentall...

Anyway folks, I'm off to Iceland for a bit. No, seriously. BYE!

Some people don't like century eggs. Those people are wrong . Whenever I visit Burma, I try to consume five times my bodyweight in food - that’s just the way I roll (sometimes literally, on the way back from Heathrow). Give me a break, I only make it out there every couple of years, so I need to make it last. This means I eat out (and in) about 12 times a day and succeed in putting on at least two dress sizes. I’m completely spoilt for choice when it comes to eating out - there are 135 ethnic groups in Burma each with varying cuisines. I’m a mixed bag myself - I worked out the other day that I’m 38% Shan, 32% Bamar, 13% Intha and 17% Chinese. I used a spreadsheet and everything. I guess it’s the Chinese in me that drives me to visit Shway Bè in Mandalay (that and the magnificent mascot - see above), for Shway Bè is ostensibly a Chinese restaurant, though most of the food has a Burmese twist. And when we’re there, we always order the roast duck (Shway Bè means ...