It is my duty to ask Nick whether the lovely truffles he got were...

Truffles

or

Truffles

...one can hazard a guess that only one variety will add 5kg to your weight.... Hell Bells.... adding 5kg via the fungal variety would be painfull... to both your wallet and your gastrointestinal system.

My gastronomics section was looking a little tired... so here's another hot tip for young players needing some extra cholestorol in their diet.

Cyclops Organic Sour Cream from Serra Foods. This IS THE BEST SOUR CREAM IN THE WORLD.

Now I usually keep away from organic stuff at the supermarket- it often has bugs and creepy crawlies on it- either from the natural environment or from being fondled by unwahsed dole bludging hippies while on the shelves. But, this sour cream is the business.....

Why is it that so many NZ dairies and service stations sell Mrs Macs Pies. If you've not had one yet they are nasty watery things made in Western Australia. In a country like NZ where we have small manufacturers making great meat pies we shouldn't have to be eating imported pies.

Those Goodman Fielder 'Irvines' Pies aren't much better.

Methinks that some of the fantastic 'small' bakeries around the place need to do a better job of marketing and distribution...

Pippa, my cousin, has written a book on Juice- my aunt sent me a copy to go with my new Juicer.

The book is nice and light on the 'health nut' side of juicing which is a good thing. Too much focus on 'liver cleansing wheat grass tonic' gives me visions of Jeanette Fitzsimplesimons and her merry band of hippies.

The book is set out based on times of the day. Don't know if my juicer cleaning skills are quite up the the degree of regularity encouraged by the book but there are some really bizarre but quite decadent sounding recipes in there. On my list for this weekend is Strawberry Must: Strawberries, Balsamic Vinegar, Cream, Honey.... sounds strangely divine ...

Thanks Pip! You're on juicing juty[sic] for my post wedding brunch in Feb!

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Zarbo is a really cool Deli in Newmarket, Auckland...

Not one of the really expensive Masticating Juicers but quite a nice Breville Centrifugal Juicer. Works pretty well and with 85 cent per KG Apples available makes VERY nice apple juice.

Will be sure to blog more on my juicing experience.

Now as anyone who knows me would tell you, I'm far from being a tree huggin, yogurt slurpin, sandal shod hippie. But, I'm pretty partial to a well made Hummus Mediterainian Chickpea Dip. I make a pretty mean one myself but also buy quite a lot in the tubs from the  supermarket. I think I'm going to have to do a bit of a review of some of the brands that I have tried. They range from the divine to the downright nasty.... what do you think? Are you a chickpea muncher too?

*rant*

Just been out for a nice Friday dinner out. I'm partial to a nice drop of olive oil, some balsamic vinegar and good bread to dunk therein. It seems however that restauranteurs at several of the establishments I have dined at recently slept through basic high school chemistry. Here's the problem:

If you put the olive oil and the balsamic in the same dipping bowl they seperate- oil on the top, balsamic (being water based) on the bottom. Now the problem with this is when you dunk your bread it must pass through the oil before reaching the vinegar. Because olive oil is a hydrophobic substance the nice coating of oil that the bread receives on the way through prevents any absorbtion of vinegar.

Moral of the story- two bowls. One for vinegar, one for oil. Dunk the vinegar first.