Let's talk about crisps…

Although I never used to hate them, crisps were never high on my food agenda. At parties, gatherings or when particularly peckish I’d nibble on the odd few. I’d also usually head for salt & vinegar.

These last few weeks I’ve found myself drawn to crisps in a big way. Why? Why, oh why?

Walkers Roasted Red Onion & Balsamic Vinegar flavour are specific winners at the mo, as are Pringles Thai Lemon Grass flavour. I don’t understand how it’s happened but I’ve found myself cramming fists full of them into my mouth to the point of near suffocation. Despite the danger of choke hazard or the risks of laceration to the inner lining of my mouth from pointy crisp edge, I’ve been throwing caution to the wind and devouring them like a total crazy!

Is there any cure I ask myself. Is there a self-help group? A Potato Products Anonymous?

Not sure what has set these new savoury wheels in motion but it’s certainly got me thinking. Crisp cake…..
No. That’s just plain silly.

For those who may have dropped in from outside the UK – and there used to be but I think they had their fill of cake and have moved on to slimmer pastures – crisps are potato chips. Chips are entirely different here – chips in the UK are what folk in the US call fries – only they’re fatter (the chips, not the Americans, let’s not get in to THAT debate! Although I think there’s little difference between the UK and US on that score these days…)

Now that it’s becoming chilly and autumnal, I’m also becoming a bit obsessed with soup. I wonder… is this all because I’m getting older? I can’t possibly abandon my loyalty to cake/biscuits/sweet baked goods, it’d be too much of a wrench…

Please help

Shocking, lazy, uncaring….

I know – it’s true. My blog has been left cold and unloved for a while. It’s not as if I haven’t had anything to write about. I don’t have an excuse. I guess even nice blogs have bad authors…

I’ll try and make amends.

I’ll begin with macaroons. I may have mentioned them before but last weekend I went to Paris – for dinner more or less – oh the glamour! It’s like being part of a Pretty Woman movie spoof. Except that I’m not pretty, or a woman. Nor am I a hooker with a heart. I just went to Paris for dinner.
Dinner was fab – Hotel Costes is the epitome of cool. Our waitress looked like she’d just nipped off the catwalk at the end of Paris fashion week and back to her day job. The woman walked like she was on castors! It was too chic for words.
Anyway, back to macaroons. On Sunday we went to Laduree on the Champs Elysees for breakfast. They make the most unbelievable macaroons. I can’t even think of a way to describe them – the only thing to do is to experience one. It’s almost magical in a food kind of way.

Eurostar was fun but looking a little tired these days and you don’t get the fun stuff anymore. The glasses are all nasty plastic tubs that look like the containers you get filled with pills/medicine when you’re in hospital.

The week before Paris I did some sightseeing in London. Strange as I actually live in London but my brother and sister in-law came to stay and we did some tourist stuff. It was brilliant. Some things I hadn’t done in ages and others never before. For the first time ever, I climbed to the top of the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral (for those of you who may not be in the know, it’s the 2nd largest cathedral in the world after St Peters in Rome). The view was stunning. As good as the view from the London Eye but a darn sight cheaper and the surrounding architecture (the cathedral with it’s dome designed by Christopher Wren) more beautiful. The steps were narrow and winding and could cause sweaty palms even to the hardiest of tourists. I urge everyone to visit.

This week has been busy at work – lots to get done and not much time to do it in. I’ve given up on any sense of urgency and I’m allowing myself to be swept along in everyone else’s waves of panicky delirium. It’s easier to let someone else do the worrying I’ve decided. It then leaves me plenty of time to look forward to the weekends and to decide what I should have for dinner each evening!