“As a teenager, I often got the wrong end of the stick by thinking I was the centre of the universe. I was convinced that my potential was limitless; one day, I promised myself, I would be like King Midas,…
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At around 7:00 pm on 1st July last year, Claire drove me to John Radcliff Hospital in Oxford with high fever and acute pain in my lower back and legs. As she drove, with mounting concern by both of us,…
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“Pistol shots ring out in the bar room night” is the opening line of a Bob Dylan 1975 song called Hurricane. This line sets the scene for an epic 99-line lyrics that lasts around 8.5 minutes of urgent delivery of…
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When I was a schoolboy (yes, a long time ago, very funny!), I would walk home after school with one thing on my mind, visit the kitchen first to see what I can forage. Often, my mother would be busy…
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As the COVID-19 ‘lockdown’ is being gradually eased all over the world, we hesitantly emerge from our home-confinement with blinking eyes kitted out with home-made masks, clutching almost-empty sanitizer bottles, sporting bad haircuts that make hairdressers rub their hands in…
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There is a realistic danger that you may sue me for wrongly and maliciously claiming that this dish is simple, when it actually is not. Please bear with me and I will explain. Baba Ghanouge (let’s call it BG from…
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Some forty years ago, a story broke in the British media about an unfortunate event where the local fire brigade was called by an old lady who had her cat stuck up a high tree. The fire brigade was kind…
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There must be thousands of different types of soup worldwide, as they exist in every cuisine from East to West and from North to South, with all the cultures in between. Although I like many types of soups, I am…
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When it comes to amateur cooking, we like to be assessed on our successes. We don’t really like to talk about or publicise our failures. The soufflé that doesn’t rise, the steak that rivals old boots in its toughness, the…
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Hummus is perhaps the most popular dish in the Middle East bar none! It is simple, cheap, versatile, and suited for any meal of the day. No mezzeh collection would be authentic without a hummus dish. It can be eaten…
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