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Dia de los muertos

November 1, 2008 Leave a Comment Filed Under: Uncategorized


At the café this week as it was Day of the Dead, so celebrated in Mexico, I cooked my chilli sin carne. Soak Black beans. Fry onions, garlic, add chopped tomatoes. Add dark chocolate and the beans. Finally add a teaspoon or so of chipotle (a smoked chilli pepper) paste if you have it. I got some from my trip to Mexico last year, visiting the mole and chipotle factory in Xico. 

I spent some days in this tiny mountain village, near Jalapa (where Jalapeno peppers come from). I’d just seen the movie ‘Apocalypto’ directed by Mel Gibson, which recounts the moment when the Spanish arrived, leading to the downfall of the Mayan culture. 

In Xico, everyone looked so Mayan; long aquiline profiles, hooded eyes, small, stocky stature.

“They look straight out of ‘Apocalypto’!” I exclaimed

 “Not surprising. Many of these people were extras as it was filmed in the area” said a local.

This festival was to celebrate El Virgen, the Virgin Mary. The streets were covered with colourful sand paintings, along which the processions lumbered. A heavy float containing a statue of the virgin in her rather gaudy finery was carried, preceded by women swinging incense. By the second day everybody was pissed and dancing trance like folk dances in the street. The atmosphere and music in the thin bright air was mesmerising. In the afternoon it rained and I watched as the whole village recreated the sand ‘carpets’ in minutes, using large wooden stencils and coloured pots of sand. 




Back in London, in the café, I tried to make corn tortillas but they failed. I had the wrong cornmeal and the dough was more like polenta.
One of the gorgeous staff turned up saying they were itchy because they had been having threesomes all weekend. Suffering from a similar problem, (but no threesomes!) I just happened to have a tube of cream for thrush. It was placed for general staff use on the spice shelf.  Like Barking Batteria, the samba group I sometimes play with, there is a sexual openness that is refreshing. Flirtation abounds. One particularly Venusian worker has already cut a swathe through half the staff, leaving them love-lorn and mooching amongst the pots and pans; whispers and cuddles as they brush past each other on the way to the oven; glances and coquettish quips across the mango soya shakes. 
‘Barking’ has told me, only mildly joking, that I will not be considered a core member until I have had at least a threesome with members of the band and caught some kind of STD or crabs. It sounds easier to join the Hells Angel’s where I believe, you only have to bite the head off a live chicken and wear your leathers after they have been pissed on by the rest of the gang.
Food and sex are intimately connected are they not? There is no more guaranteed method to seduce a woman than taking her out for a meal. Vice versa, they say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. My particular favourite aphrodisiac is sushi; light, clean and revitalising. The fetish scene, for instance, has ‘munches’, non-sexual gatherings where people who are interested in BDSM can meet, eat and chat.

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

This is my food and travel blog, with recipes, reviews and travel stories. I also stray into politics, feminism, gardening.

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Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
Doing a spring budget recipe cooking demo for @bre Doing a spring budget recipe cooking demo for @brentcouncil Willesden library. I’ve been doing this a few times a year for the last few years. Wouldn’t it be great if they had a kitchen set up permanently. Libraries are community centres and could be used to teach how to cook from scratch.
Mother’s Day flowers from @siennamarla who is ex Mother’s Day flowers from @siennamarla who is experiencing her own first Mother’s Day with Ophelia. I’m still living in chaos & work was slow yesterday due to rain. Only another month…
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I did a bushcraft workshop with @naturalpathwaysbu I did a bushcraft workshop with @naturalpathwaysbushcraft Hannah Nicholls in Kent. An all female group, this felt very empowering and I must get myself one of these fire sticks. @kent_downs_aonb
Me @hamyardhotelsoho where I participated in a BRI Me @hamyardhotelsoho where I participated in a BRILLIANT block printing workshop with @mollymahonblockprinting it was a belated birthday present from @siennamarla The hotel is gorgeously designed, look at the fabric wallpaper behind me. Every corner is a feast for the eyes. Lunch was included and unlike many hotel restaurants the food was so tasty (and vegetarian), perfectly judged in quantity. Congrats to the chef. I got so excited on Friday I bombarded my timeline with stories which may have been a tad overwhelming. I’ve had a great week, going to Kent @kent_downs_aonb to meet foraging chef @luciathewildkitchen and bushcraft teacher hannah @naturalpathwaysbushcraft so it’s been one of extremes, from urban high glamour to roughing it outside in frosty countryside. I’m loving life as a journalist and photographer, I get to meet so many inspiring people. At home things are a bit grim because I’m having building work done and for almost 3 months I’ve lived in rubble, without heating, and sometimes without cooking or hot water. So these days out are fab for my mental and physical health. I will be posting more on Kent, Molly Mahon, Ham Yard hotel and the building works. #springiscoming🌸 dress by @designerfriday
Artichoke lasagne. I made a white lasagna with bec Artichoke lasagne. I made a white lasagna with bechamel, Parmesan, mozzarella and artichokes. I prepped the artichokes from fresh but you could use jarred. I had this @nonna_betta in Rome. It was so good I had to figure out how to make it myself. #artichokes #carciofi #romanjewishfood
Hags by Victoria Smith @glosswitch on twitter. On Hags by Victoria Smith @glosswitch on twitter. On the demonisation of middle-aged women. We are all karens now. We’ve passed our last fuckable day. This book, an easy read, not an academic one, is brilliantly written, with an ice cold anger at the way women over 40 are erased, told to shut up. Yes we call the manager. We are sticking up for ourselves. We don’t take shit anymore. We aren’t beholden to being liked by men, being girl-friend material anymore. Embrace your hagdom. You can buy your own flowers. #books #feminism #hags
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@silvia_nacamulli has just brought out a fantastic @silvia_nacamulli has just brought out a fantastic book ‘Jewish flavours of Italy’ . She lives local to me so I went round to see how she prepares artichokes for the famous carciofi alle guidea and artichoke stew. You need mamole artichokes that are in season now from @natoora I’ll be publishing a longer video on YouTube and a piece on her cooking in the @hamandhigh
Whipped feta dip is so simple: a block of feta, a Whipped feta dip is so simple: a block of feta, a couple of spoons of yoghurt, some lemon juice, whizzed up. Add black pepper or herbs. #5minuterecipes
This is what I’ve been doing for the last month. This is what I’ve been doing for the last month. Want to replace window overlooking garden with a wider, lower one but struggling to find something nice. All new sash windows look kinda fake. #vintagewindows #building #exposedrafters
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My piece is The Great Read: My piece is The Great Read:
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