Tag Archives: Word of Mouth blog

Lunch today: houmous, kidney beans and fresh alfafa bean sprouts, with olive oil + balsamic dressing.

In March I entered my food blog in the Guild of Food Writers‘ awards for New Media.

I prayed to be shortlisted.

I did not pray to win. I feared I’d get punished for being greedy.

(Talk about negative thought patterns!).

Anyway, last week, in the midst of goodbyes to salaried work – guess what? I hear some incredibly timely news: my blog has been shortlisted. Joy!

The awards take place on June 25 this year. Here is my report from last year’s awards.

I remember gazing at last year’s winners and wishing to be one.

O naked ambition!

There are only three of us shortlisted.

Helen Yuet Ling Pang of World Foodie Guide

Tim Hayward of the Guardian and Observer Food Monthly‘s Word of Mouth and myself.

I feel a bit self-conscious – like maybe I should make more effort?  But you know me

– I just want healthy fast food without fuss.

Like today’s lunch.

How much did it cost?  £1.70 for 200g of homemade organic houmous from Better Food Company, about 60p for the tin of non-organic beans and approx £1.40 for a packet of organic alfafa sprouts from Scoopaway – and plenty for several servings.

I must do bean sprouts justice in a future blog because they really are a wonderfood. And cheap and easy to sprout yourself.

I did do posh last Wednesday: a £30 six course taster menu at Casamia for a special birthday treat. I was too busy eating to pronounce but I can say the salmon poached in olive oil with Jerusalem artichoke puree (see pic below) got rated “better than the Fat Duck” by those (not me) who had dined there.

I have just reviewed my few past posts and noticed quite a few BEAN recipes. What can I say? Nothing beats them for health and budget. In fact I feel another one coming on…