Dear LPG readers, 

I can’t help it, like a lot of other people who lived before the age of streaming. I remember when the cinema and what was on TV was enough to satisfy our need for television entertainment.  I think my age dictates that I still prefer the box in the corner of the room’s terrestrial offerings to going through all those other channels on offer these days.  

I have to say that I do tend to gravitate to the cooking programmes and love nothing better than a Saturday morning breakfast accompanied by offerings from people like Jamie Oliver, James Martin, Pierre Koffmann and so many others.  I can often be found sat in front of the telly with my breakfast boiled egg and soldiers while imagining the taste of whatever gourmet dish is being prepared on the screen in front of me.  The weekday morning TV cooking segments have me hooked too, although I draw the line when it comes to watching Gordon Ramsey in a bad mood.  Then we have all the competitions, such as Master Chef, Bake off and my favourite Come Dine With Me which I can’t help but get drawn into even though, I am rarely tempted to actually try any of the demonstrated dishes myself.  

The one thing that never ceases to get to me though is the judges’ critiques of the finished dishes.   There is always that underlying feeling that I know I could not do better than any of those brave contestants who face the television watching nation, armed only with a frying pan and the instruction of their Michelin star-accredited celebratory cooking instructor.   

I also know that I don’t have any credentials when it comes to discerning a good plate of food, especially by sight alone.   I can accept what is said by most of the experts but why it never occurs to them to add a little more seasoning if they really need more.  I wonder if any other reader agrees that how much salt and pepper you use is really a matter of personal taste (health permitting)? 

While we are on the subject of pepper, I find it so odd that the British seem to mistake the word spicy for the word peppery so much of the time.  As a person with an Asian heritage, I suppose that I am used to a dinner plate with a few adventurous flavours included, and I have to say that I am not averse to a really ‘hot’ dinner although, even with my relatively high heat tolerance, I always feel the need to remind everyone that spicy does not necessarily mean hot.  I know that I have grown up eating dinners that are more likely to have herbs and spices included as standard, which have armed my taste buds with a relatively high tolerance and appreciation of food that leaves a broader array of spices on the tongue, and I am not only talking about the heat aspect.  

I have always known about the general healing properties of many of the store-cupboard pots of the stuff that I would imagine are to be found in the average UK kitchen, but I took a closer internet look recently and discovered a little more about how they can help.  


It occurs to me that so many people who discover the health benefits of these spices consequently take them in capsules and pills, while we older people who have often become stuck in our culinary ways only ever cook and eat traditional English meals which are often bereft of them. 

I did a little internet research on the subject and hope that, while we have become a truly cosmopolitan nation in the past few decades, those die-hard people who still prefer plain English cooking take a look and have a go…  

Perhaps it is time to take the age-old proverb a little more literally: ‘variety is the spice of life’. 

KE, Deptford. 
 

 

KE shares a little of what the internet has to say about the healing properties of Herbs and Spices…

 

 

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… and also offers a few beginner tips…

 

 

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