The Pasty: great British food.

There has been a bit of confusing lately about what a Pastie or Pasty actually is. A writer from the New York Times had never had a pasty and attempted to correct The Economist when they referred to them. He thought that ‘Cornish Pasties’ was a misspelling of ‘Cornish Pastries’ and didn’t think to check his facts before ridiculing them on his blog. In an attempt to highlight his foolishness The Economist sent him an American approximation of a pasty which quite frankly looks disgusting.

Luckily I am not an American, I’m from Devon (not far from the home of the pasty, Cornwall) so I know a good pasty when I see one. Originally pasties were eaten by Coal Miners and were half savoury, half sweet. The pastry crust was originally meant to be thrown away (think of it as an early type of Tupperware). A true Cornish Pasty should be made from steak, potato, swede and anything else lying around.

According to a comment thread on Reddit some areas of American where Cornish immigrants settled still eat traditional pasties. Wikipedia suggests “Parts of Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and the Iron Range of northern Minnesota” are all keen on this food of the gods.

A Google image search for ‘Pasties’ suggests that Americans (always ready to lower the tone) use the word to refer to nipple coverings. Perhaps somebody should inform Pasty Muncher about this. A quick search of a few job sites shows no vacancies for either Pasty tasters or Pastie appliers which is unfortunate. Either way, I know what I’m having for lunch today!

Idiot of the week: Giles Coren

Finding an idiot on the internet is never hard work. This weeks idiot is Giles Coren was probably acting up for the publicity but I couldn’t resist. I shouldn’t really encourage such blatant attention seeking but then again this is a blog and as such I have a duty to be outraged and ill informed.

Coren has written an article for The Times attacking that great British institution which is a satisfying if deadly part of our culture. No not the BBC, the fry up! To be honest whist I enjoy the occasional greasy breakfast I would eat one regularly as they are clearly very unhealthy. I would much rather have the traditional French breakfast because I’m a traitor. I also don’t agree with not changing things because they are traditional. I would place more emphasis on our culture being dynamic and open minded towards positive changes rather than having the view that we should stick with old fashioned notions of Britishness. Old fashioned notions of Britishness seem to include being mildly racist and a bit sexist.

Anyway all of this has nothing to do with breakfasts or pretending to be outraged for the sake of a good story. Over educated foodie Coren (who describes his income as ‘$250,000 and Higher’ on his Myspace page [edit-Giles email to say that the Myspace page was actually created by an imposter.]) says two things in his article of note amongst lots of talk about dehydration and excessive salt. Firstly

You never see a person with a degree eating a fry-up, do you? Certainly not someone with a 2:1 or better in a humanities subject from a university founded before the invention of the iPod.

I would disagree with this, I have a 2:1 degree in a humanities subject and I have been known to eat a fry up. Then again I don’t have a First in English from Oxford like Giles. He also says

The fried English breakfast was conceived during the Industrial Revolution as a form of fast fuel for a working class that actually worked…But you don’t burn 3,000 calories driving a forklift truck, or answering the phone at Argos, or fiddling your disability benefit.

That well know working class occupation, cheating the social! I would pay good money to see Giles fight 3 overweight truckers in a match to decide what should be called the Great Bristish Breakfast. It would be a good match as long as the fat truckers didn’t have heart attacks.

Tesco Finest Espresso: Worst Coffee Ever?

Tesco Finest Espresso: A Review.

This ‘Espresso’ is far from fine. In fact I think It might be the worst coffee ever.

I should preface this by saying that I understand that by paying very little money (compared to other coffees) for pre-ground coffee made by a supermarket I was never going to get an amazing cup. I did however expect to get something drinkable. I normally buy Illy pre-ground which is vacuum sealed and, I think, about as good as you can get without buying beans and grinding them yourself. (Note for coffee nerds: I know I should grind at home, point me in the direction of an affordable grinder please!)

I thought I would try Tesco’s ‘Finest’ Espresso as it is much cheaper then most other espressos (but not the cheapest). Unfortunatly the beans were ground to a fine dust which my Espresso machine was unable to deal with. Every other coffee I have used has producted a shot (of varing quality) in about 20 seconds with no problem. The Tesco coffee took about 2 minutes of splutering. I think this is beacuse the grind is so fine that the water is unable to pass through. The resulting shot was disgusting. I was about 40% powdered coffee and 60% bitter undrinkable water.

The packet said ’suitable for all coffee makers’ but had instructions for using a cafetière (French press). Who the hell makes Espresso in a cafetière?! Wikipedia has a useful definition:

Espresso is a concentrated coffee beverage brewed by forcing very hot (but not boiling) water under high pressure through coffee that has been ground to a consistency between extremely fine and powder.

Illustration by Lokesh Dhakar.

That’s not possible with a cafetière is it? I tried using the coffee to make a regular cup in my cafetière in the hope that I could use it to make regular coffee with it but even this was completely undrinkable. It was bitter, burnt tasting and had none of the complex coffee flavours you might expect.

I will complain to Tesco and update here if they get back to me.

How coffee should taste.

I’ve just read an interesting article on the Times website about the quality of coffee here in the UK and overseas. Jeremy Torz, who is the co-founder of Union Hand-Roasted was bemoaning the size of the drinks offered by the main retailers. Apparently the large, very milky drinks favoured by much of the population came about as a way of being able to charge more for our daily cup.

“It would be difficult to sell a small 6oz cappuccino, the traditional Italian size, for much more money, so to make a viable business out of it, they started to make the drinks bigger. And how do you do that without overdosing everyone on caffeine? You add more and more milk.”

Photo by Csaba Bajko

The result is that all the wonderful flavours traditionally found in coffee are swamped by lots of sugary milk. This could be seen as a dumbing down of the flavour, instead of complex notes we get just plain old sugar. People seem to like it however, coffee sales have never been so high. Even independent coffee houses are benefiting from the influx of Starbucks, Neros and Costas around the country.

These are the tastes and aromas which coffee tasters look out for:

Here is what an average Latte provides (can you tell I have a degree in art?)

Torz suggests we are become more choosy about who prepares our drinks

“Watch your barista and see how much attention he pays, if he can’t do a standard espresso right, no amount of milk is going to make it any better.”

5 steps towards a healthier lifestyle

Let me preface this by saying that I am in no way suggesting that I am an expert when it comes to healthy living (or a great example) but I do have an interest. So while I believe that this post is probably relevant to a lot of us, its also a reminder to me! Also, i’m aware that this list is very basic and a little patronising but i wanted it to be easy to remember and simple.

Step 1. Consider what you eat.

Okay I know this seems a little too obvious but it has to go on the list! We are all becoming more and more aware of what we should and shouldn’t be eating (to the point where you might well feel like shouting at the TV after an evening of watching adverts preaching on and on about it). The fact is that most of us (or is it just me?) could probably come up with a few things to consider within a few minutes. Here are mine:

• Make less food. Because once its cooked there’s no way I’m throwing it away.
• Only eat what was on your plate. As apposed to finishing off my girlfriend’s leftovers also.
• More vegetables. I brought a cookbook (this one) which has a section about interesting ways to cook vegetables rather than just boiled potatoes and broccoli.
• Replace crisps with fruit and nuts.

© Larsz@flickr

Step 2. Change your lifestyle so that exercising comes naturally.

The hardest thing about exercising, i find, is finding the time to do it. The mornings are unbearable this time of year so getting up before I have to is beyond the question. Once I get home from work it is normally 6pm, I like to relax then cook dinner which makes it about 7.30-8pm before I feel like I have any spare time.

The best way i’ve found to get around this problem is to build exercising into my day. This also solves the problem of my car not starting half the time. By walking to and from work I get about 1 hour and 25 min gentle exercise a day during which time I can catch up on podcasts or listen to music so it doesn’t really feel like hard work. The only problem with this approach is that it isn’t particularly hard work! Walking burns around 135 calories per 30 minutes compared to 240 for jogging, but every little helps!

Another way in which you can build exercising into your lifestyle is to take up an active hobby like mounting biking or surfing.

Step 3. Raise your heartbeat for 30min 5 times a week.

This reduces the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and obesity. It can also help you sleep, reduce stress and give you more energy. One of the most common ways of increasing your heartbeat is jogging but many people find this a strain on their legs and back (as most of us have to jog in urban areas, on tarmac.) A good alternative is swimming as it is low impact and exercises more muscles than jogging.

Personally I lift weights and occasionally jog along with the walking to work I mentioned earlier.

© MikeBaird@Flickr

Step 4. Drink more water

According to The British Dietetic Association we should all aim to consume 2.5 litres of water a day of which 1.8 litres should be from beverages. For me this involved cutting out a few coffees and replacing them with a class of water. I still haven’t got to 1.8 litres a day though, that seems impossible for those of use who can’t work sitting on a toilet.

© Piddy77@Flickr

Step 5. Relax.

“Work-related stress, depression or anxiety account for an estimated 13.8 million reported lost working days per year in Britain.” (Health and Safety Executive)

What use is all that exercise and healthy eating if you don’t get to chill out on the sofa afterwards?! I’m not going to patronise you (more that I have so far) by telling you how to relax. Just remember if someone asks you to get back to work or do the washing up tell them that this is part of your new healthier lifestyle so leave you alone!