Tuesday 22 June 2010

Saturday 19 June 2010

Thursday 17 June 2010

Hey ho!

Hey ho! Just thought I'd dash you a quick missive about what's going on. I'm here: on an island in rural Canada living on a commune.

There may be a slight change in content and delivery as a result: principally because the nearest electricity is far away from the van in the woods where I sleep and partly because I'll be cooking and eating fresh, seasonal locally sourced organic food instead of offal, undercooked street food and spontaneously fermented corn/cactus beverages.

But we can still be friends! It will be fun: I'll finish telling you about all the weird things I ate on my holiday and then I'll start telling you all about the weird food I'm making other people eat. Won't that be fun? Won't it?

OK! The library opens again on Tuesday so I'll let you know what's what then.

Kisses.

Tuesday 1 June 2010

Chicha time.

Chicha is a spontaneously fermeneted alcoholic beverage made from corn! Wikipedia tells me that sometimes the corn is chewed prior to fermentation as the enzymes in salaiva speed up the process. I didn't tell Kate that as we sat down to a foaming gourd a deux in a metal bar in Bogota's bustling student district.

Chicha has a strong, deeply unpleasant odour (dirty dishes/silage) so I was delighted with its relatively restrained flavour profile: the abundant "funk" and fizz of orange juice left unrefridgerated for an extended period tempered with a fruity mellowness reminiscent of peach stones. Unfortunatley it produced burps which smelt like Metallica B-sides mixed with hot seaweed so we just had the one.