Today is a very special day for me because I celebrate theÂ*first anniversary ofÂ*my blog; Drizzle & Dip. I published my first postÂ*on the 3rd of December 2009 When I started out documenting my food experiences, I had no idea how it would work out and how much I would learn. I wanted to cook [...]

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“So what’s it like becoming a Chef?” Often I get asked the question, “So what’s it like becoming a Chef? What on Earth made you get into this career?” And my oft-repeated reply “It’s like NOTHING you can imagine!” To give you a little history, I was brought up in Cape Town with the proverbial... Read More

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WATERBLOMMETJIEBREDIE (Pond Weed stew) From Joan Swart, Hermanus, Cape Town. Rep. of SA Notes on the Waterblommetjies: Pick or buy Waterblommetjies (Cape Pond weed or Water Hawthorne) that have started to form seed, or that already have seed.Â* Waterblommetjies that have white flowers are incorrect as it cooks away completely. Yield: 6 portions Ingredients: 1... Read More

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More than 120 people attended the official opening of Fazenda Rodizio Bar & Grill, a new concept churrascaria restaurant which is based at Waterman's Place on Granary Wharf close to the City Inn Hotel.

Fazenda brings something different to Leeds due to the 'rodizio' style of serving cuts of meat on skewers to diners at their table. This creates an exciting and engaging dining experience between the diner and the Passador serving the meat.

Robert Melman, Director of Fazenda, comments: "We are delighted to have opened a new concept restaurant in Leeds. At Fazenda we are proud to bring all the tradition behind the unique and original Brazilian way of serving meat. The way our gaucho chefs expertly grill and serve cuts of meat to customers in a continuous tableside service is unique and we want to share our passion for great food and the true essence of the gaucho experience."

Diners at Fazenda pay a set price for which they get a selection of traditional Brazilian starters, unlimited visits to a gourmet salad bar and up to 15 cuts of meat including beef, lamb, pork and chicken.

There is an extensive wine list featuring wines predominately from South America, including Argentina and Chile, and also a vast selection of exquisite European wines.

Prices
Evening
£23.95 (Sunday to Thursday)
£25.95 (Friday and Saturday)

Lunch
£13.95 (for a selection of eight cuts of meat)

Price for children under 12 years is £9.95 and children under four years old are free.

Drinks, wine and desserts are extra.

Opening hours
Lunch 12pm - 5pm
Evening 5pm - 12am

Fazenda also features a private dining room that can accommodate over 30 people - idea for corporate events, lunches or dinners or private parties.

Cook Vegetarian! magazine is delighted to announce the winners of its second awards - The Veggie Awards 2011 - celebrating flavour, versatility and innovation in the world of meat-free foods.

Deputy Editor Fae Gilfillan said: "Once again, food companies came up trumps with their entries for this year's Veggies proving that vegetarianism is simply not a boring or restrictive diet. We created two brand new categories this year to reflect the changing food market; Best Veggie Tipple was expanded into Best Veggie Beer and Best Veggie Wine and Best Raw Product was introduced to echo growing interest surrounding this diet. We had great fun selecting the winners but with more and more products nominated every year, crowning our winners doesn't get any easier!"

Inviting entries from the biggest supermarket to the smallest producer, the Cook Vegetarian! team of vegetarian foodies tasted a huge number of products and scoured the web to find the best sites for vegetarians. In each category, one Winner was selected with five other top-performing products or services each being awarded a Highly Commended accolade.

The winners of a 'Veggie' are as follows:
Best Meat Replacement - Quorn Chicken Style Pieces
Best Veggie Ready Meal - Pick Me Nutty Tagliatelle
Best Burger, Banger or Grill - Goodlife Spicy Bean Quarterpounders
Best Veggie Cheese - Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses Blacksticks Blue
Best Dairy Free - Swedish Glace Ice Cream
Best Vegan Product - Anila's Sauces Goan Green Curry Sauce
Best Veggie Snack - Penn State Sour Cream & Chive Pretzels
Best Veggie Sweet - Goody Good Stuff Sour Mix & Match
Best Veggie Beer - Keltek Brewery Natural Magik
Best Veggie Wine - Asda's Extra Special Chateauneuf-du-Pape
Best Raw Product - Raw Health Super Seed Spread
Best Veggie Website - goodnessdirect.co.uk

Foods from South Africa The flavours and influences of food in Africa can be shortly summarised in the following 2 links from the web though the history and culture of eating food in and from Africa cannot be summed up adequately or succinctly in a few short paragraphs. A trip to the second largest continent... Read More

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Braised Lamb Shanks Ingredients: 14 Lamb Shanks (get the butcher to remove the knuckle, and keep separate) 6sprigs Rosemary 3L Red wine 150g Wholegrain or Dijon mustard 12 Cloves 8 Bay leaves 15no All spice 2Tsp cracked black pepper 100g Fresh crushed garlic Salt and pepper to taste 2Tsp Paprika 600g Thinly sliced onion 150ml... Read More

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“Rocketing prices of fuel and food are the penalties we have to pay for incompetent government.. Unfortunately there is little that our rulers can do in the short term to ease the pain of the explosion in commodity prices. ..Looking to the long term, the dynamism of markets will eventually solve the imbalance between demand... Read More

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This recipe is taken from ‘The 30 minute cook’ by Nigel Slater, who is one of the cook book writers I regularly refer back to, and his books are the ones that I regularly cook from. His food is real.Â* No wonder he called his first book ‘Real fast food’ and a later book just [...]

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This recipe were given to me verbally by chef Neill Anthony last week as I needed to make an array of canapes for a shoot. IÂ*was looking for aÂ*few more base options to carry someÂ*pretty toppings. The recipe couldn’t be simpler and this is what I did to make these: Empty 2 cans of chickpeas, [...]

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