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Happy Birthday

This week my blog is one year old.

Yes, it’s a full 12 months since I tentatively published my first post – Crunchy Fruit & Nut Pilaff. The idea was to blog about my twin loves of Good Food, Great Music, with a name inspired by the title of the first Buzzcocks album Another Music in a Different Kitchen.

Narrative posts would be published here twice weekly on Word Press, with shorter, more frequent updates on Twitter @differentkitch. Posts would be accompanied by a favourite music track, added to an ever growing Spotify Playlist.

113 posts, 382 tweets and 87 songs later, that is pretty much how things have panned out. Followers across my three chosen platforms currently total 1,371 – thanks to every one of you whether you have read, baked, or hummed along.

Total Word Press views have been 3,427, spread well (a bit like the jam shown below) across all kinds of recipe and post. However, the three most viewed posts suggest that you are a sweet toothed lot. Top is The Sweetest Feeling, about afternoon tea at the home of Tiptree jam in Essex, see below.

It is followed by Cappuccino Cake…

and Double Choc Cherry Muffins…

Total Word Press likes have been 2,077. The award for most likes goes to Stairway to Heaven – posted from a famously named canalside cafe, reimagining an inspired Jimmy Page sat there with 12 string guitar and home-made scone.

It is closely followed in likes by Passion Fruit and Lime Pots…

and Selkirk Bannock – a Scottish tea bread that many seem to have found irresistible (and it is)…

I’m grateful to all our guest posters – Eva, Jon, Kelvin, Lesley and Pam for their delicious creations. Here’s Eva’s Austrian Apple Cake as one example…

I’ve posted while on my travels over the year – from the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, from Qatar, Australia (see below), and various parts of the UK. Adding to an international flavour has been the likes and kind comments received from readers in countries all around the world. Thank you! There will be more interesting travel in the year ahead.

The roster of favourite bands whose live performances I have posted about include Roxy Music, Fatboy Slim, Elton John (shown below), Inspiral Carpets, Arctic Monkeys, Muse and Billy Joel. Phew – equalling that list will take some doing in the next 12 months. I will see what I can do.

A reminder that the entire back catalogue of posts and recipes on A Different Kitchen can be accessed from the categories list or search facility at the foot of the home page. Similar posts are also highlighted at the foot of whichever post you are reading. Go explore!

Continuing the birthday/let’s-eat-cake theme, here’s an appropriately titled track for the Playlist: Michael Jackson with Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough.

A special shout-out to loyal follower, Nina, whose actual birthday it is today.

Onwards into a second year. I’ll be back on Wednesday with a brand new recipe.

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Blog Music

Piano Man

This weekend I went to see Billy Joel play live at the British Summer Time Festival in Hyde Park, London.

Early on in the set, he announced that he had good news and bad news. The bad news was that he had no new songs to play. The good news was that this meant he would play all his greatest hits. Cue a loud cheer from the festival crowd.

And what an impressive roster of hits he has. I associated him most with easy listening, FM station-friendly ballads like Just the Way You Are and She’s Always a Woman. His set showed, however, a very much wider range of musical influences.

He’s in piano jazz territory with New York State of Mind, gospel in River of Dreams, and a capella with a hint of doo wop on The Longest Time.

His rock n roll side is there to see on We Didn’t Start the Fire and It’s Still Rock and Roll To Me. Then there are simply great pop songs like An Innocent Man, My Life, Tell Her About It and Movin’ Out.

It was clear that his backing band are very able musicians, and I liked the fact that, unselfishly, he gave over space to them to showcase their talents. This was unexpected and helped keep the set fresh. In the middle section of River of Dreams, the percussionist took centre stage for some powerful lead vocals as they segued into River Deep, Mountain High, Later in the set, the guitarist sang Nessun Dorma, with Billy accompanying him on the piano. The encore included a rousing version of A Hard Day’s Night.

Possibly the greatest reception came for Piano Man, his song about the hopes and fears of a set of characters in a New York bar, told from the view of the resident pianist. The whole of Hyde Park joined in the singalong chorus. Joe Jonas from the Jonas Brothers came on to help sing Uptown Girl, which must be a contender for the perfect pop song (and which I am adding to the ADK Playlist).

On one of the hottest days of the year, Billy Joel played all these hits and more, carrying on for 2 hours as the sun slowly set over London. Now in his mid-70s, I do not know if he will perform on these shores again, but if not, this was a special and memorable way to bow out.

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Blog

Don’t Look Back Into the Sun

I recently spent a few days in Margate on England’s Kent coast. I had heard a lot about how it was regenerating itself from a classic, but decaying, traditional seaside resort into a modern centre for music and the arts, with independent cafes and eateries.

Beach, food, music and the arts – it sounded like my kind of place.

The town’s provenance as a centre for the arts is well founded. The long sea front has unbroken views facing west, and the quality of the natural light is what reputedly attracted classical artist JMW Turner to reside and paint here. The description of the light is accurate – there are cracking sunsets every evening, especially this time of year when the days are long (see my main photo above for one example).

This is the home of Tracey Emin, and the town’s heritage trail is full of references to other legendary Brits who have also made this their place of abode. Here is the vista that inspired TS Eliot to write his epic poem The Wasteland. Hawley Square, with imposing terrace houses looking out over a beautiful old public garden, has been home to John Keats, Lord Nelson and, erm, Hawkwind.

The artistic regeneration has been kickstarted by the arrival of the Turner Contemporary Art Gallery, built on the site of the guesthouse that Turner stayed in while visiting here. It has a huge window looking out to sea, dressed for our visit by Brazilian abstract artist Beatriz Milhazes. It reminded me of a stain glassed window, see below.

Dreamland, shown below, is a 1930s amusement park, restored to all its retro glory and serving also now as a venue for visiting bands. The summer programme includes Placebo and Queens of the Stone Age, so they are clearly having success in attracting top quality music.

Near the Turner, and just across from the main beach, is the Old Town. Programmed for clearance in the 1960s, it was, thankfully, saved and is now a thriving centre for independent shops and cafes. We enjoyed grabbing a takeaway coffee or sandwich and taking it over to eat on the beach. Takeaway of choice was Sub Rosa, which specialises in fresh bagels. Below is my soft, chewy and delicious ‘everything’ bagel with cream cheese.

It is impossible to tire of the views across the sands, see one example below.

In another direction, you may just spot one of Antony Gormley’s iron men figures gazing out to the horizon. Be warned, however – he does get completely submerged at high tide (the statue that is, not Antony Gormley, obvs).

While there is lots to enjoy and get excited about at Margate, I do need to add some note of caution and balance, before everyone signs up to a short break there. The regeneration is still, very much, a work in progress! The arty points of interest, vintage clothes shops, adventurous foodie cafes and cappuccino bars rub shoulders with a serious amount of shabby and decaying buildings, graffiti and neglected public spaces. If that sort of thing disturbs you, then it may be best to leave your visit till the rebirth of the town is a little further down the road.

With its juxtaposition of crumbling facades of a once great English seaside resort, artistic heritage and modern day grunge, you may be excused for thinking Margate would be the perfect place for those bohemian songsters, The Libertines, to open a boutique hotel. Well, guess what? Pete, Carl and co have invested in the Albion Rooms, a stylishly kitted out 8 room hotel with bars and music venue (see below). It also has a recording studio, which is used both by The Libertines and local indie bands.

So I will finish by adding The Libertines to the ADK Playlist. Here’s a track that could easily have been written about the glorious view from Margate’s beach, just across from the Albion Rooms. This is Don’t Look Back Into the Sun.

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Blog Snacks

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Summer is cricket season, and there are few better ways to spend a warm, sunny evening than going to a Twenty 20 (T20) match. Especially so when you take along a rye sourdough doorstep sandwich, with pastrami, pickles, salad and mustard mayo, as shown in my photo above.

What’s the back story to my Pastrami Blast sandwich, as I call it? Read on.

In the T20 Blast (as the competition is called), each team has only 20 overs (i.e. 120 bowls) and about 90 minutes in which to score runs. The solemnity and gentle patience of Test cricket (which is played out over 5 days) goes out the window, as the batsmen try to whack as many shots as possible over the boundaries and into the crowd. The whole affair is accompanied by lots of cheering, whooping, hollering, bursts of fire, pop music etc. You get the picture.

Food and drink is an important part of the enjoyment. There is a good variety of outlets on offer at our local ground, and fans are free to bring in their own food if they wish.

When I was in Australia this winter (their summer) I enjoyed following the Aussie version of T20, which is aptly entitled The Big Bash. Adopting the Melbourne Renegades as my team, I saw them play home games at the Marvel Stadium. It is quite something having Marvel as your stadium sponsor – see my photo below. Who needs security guards or CCTV when you have Iron Man (in Hulkbuster guise from Avengers: Age of Ultron) making sure no spectators step out of line?

The T20 Blast reminds me a lot of baseball, which I have enjoyed watching on visits to the US, at the home stadia of the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants.

I’m reminded of a meal I bought while at the Mets Stadium, billed as Hot Dog and Chips. Seeing the word Chips in place of the standard fare of French Fries that was on offer at every other American diner, I presumed the Mets were offering fans the plump, deep fried fingers of actual potato that we are more used to eating in the UK. Imagine my surprise when I found my Hot Dog to be served with what we in the UK would call a bag of crisps. Two nations separated by the same language, eh?

My most recent visit to the T20 Blast was to see my local team, Hampshire Hawks, play the Essex Eagles. With thoughts of baseball in my mind, I decided to make and take in my own deluxe sandwich, influenced by some of the great varieties I have enjoyed in New York delis. Here’s how I made my Pastrami Blast.

I began with a generously sized portion of freshly baked rye sourdough bread, and lined it with a blend of white wine mustard and mayo. To this I added about 5 slices of pastrami and some pickles.

Next up are sliced tomatoes and chopped scallions (or spring onions) picked fresh from the garden. The inside of the upper slice is also now lined with mustard mayo.

Next, I added pieces of crunchy iceberg lettuce, and pressed it all together.

Wrapped in foil, I opened it up at the game (see my main photo at the top of the post), enjoying it with a pint of East Coast IPA from the bar, and (you guessed it) a bag of chips i.e. potato crisps.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the baseball games I’ve been to in the US – watching the sporting drama unfold on the pitch, savouring the continuous round of hot dogs, beers and sodas, and observing the customs that are so much a part of the game’s culture. One is the 7th Inning Stretch, where the spectators are encouraged to partake in communal aerobic exercise (presumably to help work off all the calories consumed during innings 1 to 6).

There is also the singing of this classic, which I am adding to the ADK Playlist. In a rather neat closing link, I am going to see Billy Joel play live at Hyde Park in London this weekend. Wonder if he will play Take Me Out To The Ball Game?

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Hysteria

My summer of great live music continued this weekend, with a trip to the 65,000 capacity Milton Keynes Bowl to see Muse.

I’ve been a fan of the globetrotting Devon trio for many years, but until now have been put off going to see them live by the fact they only ever play enormous venues. However, with the current Will of the People Tour and album being another massive critical and commercial success, I decided that this was going to be the only way I would ever see them play. So, last autumn I took the plunge and decided to join the Ticketmaster online queue to buy tickets.

Muse are known for putting on a spectacular live show, and this one lived up to those expectations. The stage production was dramatic, exciting and high quality, with burning fire on stage, streamers and confetti spraying out over the arena, and searchlights beaming across the night sky.

Huge screens relay scenes from the band’s own post-apocalyptic science fiction movie, in which masked and hooded freedom fighters rebel against a towering, horned tyrant. The backdrop to the stage is a huge, animated model of one such fighter, the mask of which acts as a prism through which constantly changing lights and colours are emitted. The band members are intense and energetic, and the whole production high octane.

Ironically, I read a recent interview with singer/guitarist Matt Bellamy, in which he said the band had decided to make their current stage show less complicated than previous tours!

While the stage show is amazing to watch, it is ultimately the music that counts, and the band were on top form. They played for 2 hours and featured tracks from right across their career, from early songs like Plug-In Baby and Hysteria, to new songs from Will of the People. I’m pleased to say they took in lots of my favourite tracks, such as Starlight, Supermassive Black Hole, Undisclosed Desires, Madness and Psycho.

I have only ever been to Milton Keynes twice before, and each time to see a concert at the Bowl. The first time was David Bowie on his Serious Moonlight Tour, and the second time for Simple Minds on their Once Upon a Time tour. Both of those were quite a while ago, so it is good to see that the Bowl is once again hosting top quality bands like Muse.

It is something of a trek for me to get to Milton Keynes and back, but I am really glad I made the effort on this occasion. Next up on my exciting summer of live music will be Billy Joel in London.

Wow! A few days’ rest and recovery are in order, and I’ll be back at the weekend with some food-related stuff. In the meantime, here are Muse at their hi-energy best, with Hysteria.

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Fresh Strawberries

This time of year, paying a visit to a Pick Your Own (PYO) Strawberry Farm can be a lot of fun for all the family. Just look at this character greeting us on arrival this week at our local PYO – how could one resist?

The previous occasion when I visited a PYO Farm was Christmas Eve. We were in Victoria State, Australia, and had decided to make fresh strawberries the pudding course in the dinner for 9 that we were hosting on Christmas Day. Strawberries for Christmas? It sounds a bit weird to we northern hemisphere types. Even more so when the PYO Farm’s festive musical accompaniment to the strawberry picking includes Shakin’ Stevens belting out Snow is falling, All around us… (What? There was a bright blue sky and it was 30C).

Just to put any concerns at rest, let me make clear that this post will not conclude with me adding Shaky to the ADK Playlist. Phew!

This week’s trip was to Pickwell Farm in Southampton. The coastal area stretching east from the city’s outskirts towards the village of Hamble has been a soft fruit growing area for decades.

As my photos below show, the strawberry plants are plentiful, and the fruit ripe and rich in colour.

Here is the haul from our visit – a kilo and a half of fresh strawberries.

The kilo has been made into jam, by boiling the fruit in water with preserving sugar. The half has been made into fresh ice cream – I used the recipe I posted last summer which you can check out here. Alternatively, you could make Eton Rifles Mess!

Do you have a Pick Your Own Farm near you? If so, why not check it out. With the fruit still on the stalks, you can be assured of optimum freshness, and be your own boss of quality control. You will be doing your bit to support local businesses and reducing food miles. What’s more, the prices should be much less than you’ll pay in the supermarket (hey, there must be some trade-off for providing all that manual labour!) Best of all, it is a really fun activity.

I toyed with adding Strawberry Fields Forever to the ADK Playlist with this post. However, good though the Beatles are, they aren’t really my era, so I’m going instead for a fave Scottish band, Franz Ferdinand. This is Fresh Strawberries.

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Blog Music

When the Sun Goes Down

I spent a great evening this week, in the company of 45,000 other music fans, witnessing the arrival of the Arctic Monkeys in Southampton, on the UK leg of their 2023 world tour.

They were in great form, performing tracks from across their back catalogue, as well as some from their most recent album, The Car.

It is now around 17 years since they made a big splash on the music scene, with their cleverly written cameos of northern life set over brash and urgent guitars. Alex Turner’s lyrics, were, and have remained, consistently witty and well-crafted.

Like many others present for the show, I have liked their music since those early days, so the decision to open their set with a rousing version of Brianstorm got the evening off to a terrific start.

Anyone listening to their most recent album will know that, these days, their influences seem to be as much Burt Bacharach as The Strokes, with the gentle melodies, crooning vocals, acoustics and string arrangements that fill out The Car. A number of those featured here, namely Body Paint, Perfect Sense and There’d Better Be A Mirrorball. For the latter, the Monkeys’ very own mirrorball descended from the rafters, glistening and illuminating the vast stage as it rotated.

In total, the set lasted 1 hr 45 mins, culminating with an encore of I Wanna Be Yours, I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, and R U Mine.

Funniest part of the evening came during a set from the support act, Swedish rockers The Hives (who were terrific). Singer and frontman Pelle Almqvist had said to the audience on a number of occasions how pleased they were to be in Southampton, and then decided to ask some fans in the front row to introduce themselves. Where are you from? he asked the first young man. Portsmouth came the reply.

Anyone who has experience of fierce rivalry between neighbouring cities will understand how a small chorus of boos then emerged from around the mosh pit. I got the impression the significance was rather lost a bit on Pelle, however.

I will definitely be adding the Hives soon to the ADK Playlist, so watch this space.

My favourite tracks in the show were probably a very upbeat and rocky 505, and the extended version of Body Paint, which looks to have become something of an anthem performed live. For that reason I’m adding it to the ADK Playlist, so that when I hear it back now, it will remind me of a great concert.

The Arctic Monkeys are due to headline at the Glastonbury Festival next weekend. I believe it is being televised by the BBC, so it will be a real treat for any music fan. I will take the opportunity to watch it all again.

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Blog

Here Comes the Summer!

We’ve been enjoying a sustained period of warm and sunny weather in the UK recently, and my normal routine has adapted accordingly.

Foodwise, the gas barbecue has been in action in the back garden. I jointed up a chicken and prepared it in a couple of different ways.

The breast meat I diced and marinaded in the Qatari spices I bought at the Souq Waqif in Doha, on my trip there a few months back. After several hours in the fridge, I threaded the pieces on to skewers with slices of red pepper and courgette – see my main photo above.

The Qatari spices have been a reliably good blend that hasn’t disappointed – the meat is turned a golden yellow (which I guess must be the turmeric), and it delivers a spicy yet subtle kick.

It was also great cold the next day, sliced in a sesame bagel with mayo and salad from the garden.

I slashed the thighs and drumsticks with a sharp knife and coated them in a Mississippi Spice Rub I was given as a present. These I am allowing to cool, before taking off the bone for use in a salad.

Musicwise, I have some outdoor concerts coming up that I am really excited about, as they feature some of my favourite bands. First up next week is the Arctic Monkeys, and then Muse at the end of the month. More about these in upcoming posts.

My daytime exercise regime has moved primarily from indoor gym and yoga to outdoor swimming. The Club I belong to has a heated open air pool, with terrace and cafe bar, that is a great resource this time of year. On weeknight evenings I play bowls in the local leagues. Now it’s June, there is sufficient light for us to play until around 9pm, before both teams adjourn to the pavilion for drinks and chit chat.

Whatever you get up to, make the most of summer! Enjoy this feelgood track from The Undertones – Here Comes the Summer.

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Hamble Spring Market

This Sunday we went to our first Hampshire Farmers’ Market of 2023, at the nearby village of Hamble. It took place down by the waterfront, where the River (also named the Hamble) meets the Solent (which in turn flows out to the English Channel).

As the sign above shows, it is actually possible to walk or cycle there via the England Coast Path. You can also ‘park and float’ from Warsash (on the other side of the River) via a great little ferry.

I always like visiting these local markets. The food is original and high quality, and it’s an opportunity to support independent producers in a sustainable economy. You can buy as much or as little as you wish, and packaging is minimal, as shoppers usually bring their own bags.

The sellers are generous with tasters and free samples. This adds a lot of fun and, like the produce itself, is not something you’d normally find in the branch of a big supermarket chain.

I’ll start with New Forest Shortbread. This lady bakes all her own in a 200 year-old cottage in Burley, in the centre of the Forest. I particularly liked the coffee shortbread, blended with Mozzo coffee roasted in Southampton.

A few weeks back, we were having a tomato shortage in our local shops. No chance of that now however, with this array of beauties grown just across the Solent on the Isle of Wight.

Lovers of charcuterie were also well served by this selection of spicy cured meats.

And why not combine this in a tasty sandwich, with some fresh sourdough bread.

We brought home a box of four fishcakes by Catch, who are based in Calshot, a little way along the coast. You can mix and match flavours, my fave being mackerel and beetroot.

Brownies are always a hit, especially when you have this amazing range of flavours to choose from.

Basingstoke’s Longdog Brewery were attracting a lot of interest with free tasters of their excellent beers….

…so much so that I just had to take home a bottle of Longdog IPA, which I enjoyed later.

It went down a treat sitting in the back garden listening to some music. A track came on my headphones which I hadn’t heard for some time, and I was reminded how great a song it was. Time to add it to the ADK Playlist, therefore. All the way from Montreal, here’s Arcade Fire with The Suburbs.

Cheers!

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Two Worlds Collide

London is a stimulating place to spend a few days, as I did this past weekend. The place seems to be constantly evolving, and there is always something new to discover. I usually find it a dynamic and cosmopolitan environment where I can indulge my interests in food, music, heritage and culture. Well, this weekend was certainly that.

The main reason for our visit was to see Inspiral Carpets in concert (more of which in a moment).

While in London, we took the opportunity to visit Greenwich. A green oasis of parkland on the South Bank, it is also very, very old – full of symbols of empire and bastions of British sea power from centuries past. Greenwich Palace was the home of Henry VIII in the 16th Century, the site subsequently becoming the training college for officers of the Royal Navy.

The Cutty Sark, 19th Century sailing ship on old colonial trade routes, is now here resting in dry dock, and open to public visit. Like many of Britain’s institutions at the moment, the Royal Museums Greenwich are wrestling with how to most appropriately acknowledge and learn from their historic links to colonialism and the international slave trade. That’s a debate I expect will continue for some time to come.

And when you climb the hill to the 18th Century Royal Observatory (famous for being the home of global time zoning and Greenwich Mean Time) the old and new worlds become starkly apparent. As my main photo at the top of the post shows, looking out across the National Maritime Museum, these ancient symbols of British power and wealth are now dwarved by the 21st Century equivalent – the gleaming towers of Canary Wharf and the financial district.

Amidst these contrasting scenes, the daily life of Londoners goes on. These picnickers are enjoying the sunshine and fresh air. And we joined them.

Housed in an ornate, grand arcade, Greenwich Market is a real foodie delight. Although I am not vegan, I was particularly struck by the colour and invention on display at the Vegan Garden stall, as my photo below shows.

I couldn’t resist a slice of chocolate, pear and almond cake, which was delicious with an americano, see below.

The undoubted high point of this wide and varied culture fest, though, was seeing the Inspirals live at one of London’s iconic music venues, the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire. 90 minutes filled with one classic track after another, my favourite aspect being the Doors-esque Farfisa Organ lines played faultlessly by Clint Boon.

For the diehard afficionados, here is a setlist rescued from the stage at the end of the gig (and in case you’re wondering, no, those aren’t my fingernails).

The band have recently released a compilation of all 24 singles, with a selection of remixes. I could honestly have chosen any of them for the ADK Playlist. After a stimulating and hugely enjoyable few days, I will settle on this one, which seems to resonate with some of the themes in this post: Two Worlds Collide.