The Botanical Kitchen
Recipes, travel and the occasional rant
When you Google ‘city of love’ you’d expect Verona to be high up there on the list. It’s not. It’s not even on the list. Truth be told it was never really on my list until last summer and even then, it only made my first point of call because I have always wanted to […]
When I lived in Japan I didn’t eat fish and so I missed out on sushi. I kick myself now. I could have had four years of the best sushi in the world but at the time I was too afraid of ‘fishy’ fish like salmon and stuck to the safe vegetarian options and cooked […]
Every other year we have a driving holiday. It’s a little compromise I have with my husband who cannot bear to fly. This summer it was a whirlwind drive from Calais, via Eurotunnel, to Strasbourg to Lucerne to Verona to Venice to Milan to Engelberg to Calais and then home. In just over a week! The […]
Have you noticed how many varieties of pumpkin and squash there are nowadays? Perhaps it’s because I’ve only recently started to like eating them but I find that every market – even my local – has at least four or five to choose from. I have tried growing squash on the allotment but other than one […]
Last year was the very first year I went to a festival. I don’t know how I have got to the age of 46 without having experienced this most British of summertime activities. We chose Camp Bestival. We had heard nothing but good things so literally the day before we booked, loaded up the car […]
I have been observing the wellness dialogue from afar. It’s really interesting to see how many instagram streams there are in this area. Vibrant, plant based food. Mainly vegan or vegetarian. It all looks delicious. It’s always pretty but it’s never enough is it? This is my biggest annoyance about ‘wellness’ foods. The portion sizes in all these […]
Once upon a time I lived in Aix-en-Provence. I was living in halls of residence. It was my third year at university. I was away from my parents and there was much hair to be letting down so I went to every party there was. Don’t get me wrong. I was still a complete and utter swot […]
I’ve been living in a work bubble over the last few weeks but today is a rare day off and I’ve been enjoying some cooking time alone in my kitchen. No children’s chitter chatter. No husband playing loud music. Just me and my pots and pans. Blissful. I have just made myself an enormous bowl […]
It has not been a good year for the allotment. It’s really strange how we’ve had no luck and no time. Usually one or the other motivates us to go but it’s been hard to get excited when everything we’ve planted gets eaten or dies. The slugs have just taken over this year with the […]
It’s the end of a weekend of midsummer celebrations in Sweden. I think they have the right idea. Decorating the village, house and of course dining table with lots of fresh flowers and grazing on festive food with friends and family is my idea of wonderfulness. And the food must of incorporate herring. It’s an […]
As a child I remember my grandmother ask after the weather forecast. London is pretty unpredictable but we did have some scorching summers when I was little. There were no iPhone apps so I would show her the newspaper. She’d nod and then get to work making poppadums. My job was to carefully go and […]
It’s mango season! Last week I bought a box of 12 Kesar mangoes for £10. So expensive! My mother will wait until boxes hit £5 but I’m too greedy and can barely contain myself walking from vendor to vendor on Ealing Road in Wembley. I bought two boxes because we ate one in the car. […]