Category Archives: Posts

More illusions of grandeur

By E | Posted on: November 19, 2009
Vegas is hard. Too much to do. Too little time. Too little money. Too little sleep. Too many (beloved, evil) slot machines. You have to keep up with a crazy city built on illusions, some of which come in the form of being constantly accosted on the streets by people trying to entice you with [...]
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Human again

By E | Posted on: November 15, 2009
There is a very particular kind of pleasure attached to arriving at a destination, particularly after sitting on your arse for thirty hours to get there. Imagine, then, that the destination is Las Vegas, and that the pleasure of being able to walk again is complemented by an arrival hall that makes no mistake about [...]
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Game Plan

By E | Posted on: November 12, 2009
I was recently delighted to discover that the Caviar deli at the Waterfront sells duck fat – and at R10 for 250ml of the real stuff (self-packaged, presumably recycled from all their own duck business, as it should be)!. I’ve also been on a bunny hunt ever since I saw this recipe for grilled rabbit [...]
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Notes from a gastronomic blasphemer

By E | Posted on: November 4, 2009
I’ve just returned from a few days in the horrible, big city (not soap opera) they call Egoli. Yes, Johannesburg has “vibe”. It’s got “buzz”. And if legend is anything to go by, it’s full of people who are much friendly than in Cape Town (we’re all inglorious basterds here). But it’s also a vast, [...]
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Pork the pork

By E | Posted on: November 1, 2009
I often come across recipes by Yotam Ottolenghi via my Guardian food & drink Google feed (isn’t it incredible that that phrase makes sense?), though his column there is called “The new vegetarian“, so I rarely pay it much attention. But last weekend I had the good fortune to be stuck in a country house [...]
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Note to self: Stay at home today

By E | Posted on: October 20, 2009
When I have the time and inclination (to waste time), I quite enjoy meandering through supermarket aisles – that’s typically also when I go in just to pick up some milk and apples, and come out with three big bags of stuff I didn’t know we “needed.” So I also sometimes get excited by the [...]
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Stout times

By E | Posted on: October 14, 2009
The other day I remembered with fear and trepidation that Christmas is, like, just now! And I haven’t been feeding a pudding with brandy for months yet. I hadn’t even baked it. But I’ve been keen on trying a cake this year instead of pudding since I really like to eat the stuff sliced, with [...]
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A (non-Orwellian) perspective on language and thought

By E | Posted on: October 7, 2009
From Adam Gopnik’s Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life (Alfred A. Knopf, 2009): ‘The subject [of this book] is liberal civilization and its language – the way we live now and the way we talk at home and in public. These are essays without an agenda, but this book [...]
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Take one crayfish

By E | Posted on: October 3, 2009
Or two, if you are a lucky one. Eat them however you like. But do not throw out the shells. These need to be roasted and then boiled with a bunch of other goodies to make an unbelievable stock. Since you’ll have no idea how to do it justice so soon after the making, stash [...]
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Purple Haze: a hand-cut, home-made picture essay

By E | Posted on: September 27, 2009
Lessons learned: 1. Hand-chopped burgers held together with duck fat and smothered in mature cheddar are seriously good. 2. You cannot laugh and eat a burger at the same time. Seriously.
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