Good things

So, I'm kind of into food blogs. I like eating good food, I like making good food, and I like reading about people making and eating good food. There are two problems with this.

The first is that I have to be careful about when I read them. There's nothing like reading about someone's wonderful spanish chorizo stew at eleven in the morning - just when you're starting to think about what you want to have for lunch, but a bit to early to actually have a break.

The second is that right now, I barely have enough cash for the cheap Tesco own-brand things at the moment, much less expensive high-quality ingredients.

I'd always wondered just how much of a difference good-quality ingredients made when cooking. After all, growing up in a society where you're trained to think that the cheaper something is, the better value it is means that you're generally on the look-out for a bargain. But listening to all these food bloggers rave on about their favourite olive oil finally got the better of me. So, about a month and a half ago I took myself off to Whiteleys, near my office, and selected a £12.50 bottle of olive oil. After all, it was (supposedly) summer, and there was quite a bit of salad knocking around my fridge.


I got home, did the salad dance of washing and ripping up leaves, chopping veggies, and putting everything in a bit bowl. Then I poured this on top, along with some balsamic syrup I'd gotten on a trip to Borough Market, and took a bite.

I now understand why people buy good olive oil.