Mattywisk wrote on Jun 15^th, 2014 at 1:16pm:





There is absolutely nothing that compares to a damn good pork sausage. It's not only about the flavour, but also about the 'mouth feel'. It's down to the fat content and size of the grind. If you have the right equipment, oh my goodness, the world of sausages is your oyster. I make my own, it is so satisfying. If you can get natural casings, even better.

strawberries in Norway .... I don't know if it's the cold weather or their cow manure  but the flavour .... I just can't enjoy eating Aussie strawberries anymore

Mattywisk wrote on Jun 22^nd, 2014 at 8:27pm:


supermarket berries suck ... they pick them green so they've not had a chance to develop the flavour ... but I've always had strawberries in the backyard, and even though they were good compared to supermarket stuff, they were crap compared to those I tried in Norway .

When I was a toddler in Ireland, we used to pick Blackberries from bushes that grew by the roadside. We also used to get Periwinckles from the rocks by the seaside and cook them in their shells. I remember collecting wild Hazelnuts a few times as well. That reminds me of something else I also used to enjoy as a baby, tripe cooked in milk.

Q: What happened after an explosion at a French cheese factory?

A: All that was left was de brie

I remember strawberries had a better taste than they do nowadays. The hubby's parents were farmers, and used to grow 2 types, really massive ones, and really small ones.
The taste was extraordinare, and I think it depends on how it is grown and cared for. In them days, it was usually farm families with some tractors, but doing a lot by hand, planting them, picking them, manually changing the water pipes.
Seemed different then.

It's the same with apples. We have this small orchard with 3 varieties, they are old trees, organic apples with a flavour you can't buy in a shop...except, now the cockatoos have come since the last drought, it's goodbye to apples, and I did net one of the trees, and that tree died!

But foods seem so bland, and so that is why so many spices and flavourings are recommended to add to the recipe.

I went to Italy in 2001, and found their coffees and gelati were to die for!

Now we have all these coffee machines and different types of coffee blends, and it's good.

I found food in New Zealand was more flavoursome, and for some reason, their potato (chips etc) were amazing and it's obvious from the first bite.

We stayed at a place called Orewa, where there was a 'all you can eat for $29" restaurant called Joust, and it had a lot of varied foods and deserts, that I want to go back there just for that! The most delish coconut ice I ever had.
And funny enough, someone else I spoke to about it, mentioned to me about that amazing coconut ice....so there must be some secret ingredient......

John Smith wrote on Jul 5^th, 2014 at 8:42am:


Collected from rocks, boiled in a pot and picked out of their shells with a toothpick!