Is less more?

Is less more? I’m very bad for reading many, many recipes online and looking at them and saying to myself “I should give that a go”. But when the list of ingredients is longer than my arm and the amounts of each is soo little I often wonder are they really needed.

I was making fondant icing for a cake a long time ago and didn’t have any vanilla extract left. It was only 5ml required for the recipe. So I called my mum and asked about it. She said that such a small amount in the recipe shouldn’t make a difference. For all the little it was, you wouldn’t taste it.

This stuck in my head for a while. The idea that something might have been added out of habit and actually wasn’t needed in the dish. This is how it was taught and now everyone must do it this way.

I’ve just finished watching the new season for “The Bear”. It showed the hard work and dedication that goes into running a restaurant. In one scene they even talked about not repeating ingredients. Only using them once in a menu. This idea seemed crazy to me. Crafting a menu with the ability to only use an ingredient once. So many times we use ingredients over and over. Throwing more into the pot hoping that something magical happens. Yet it can be as simple as just using 5 ingredients and celebrating them.

In the past I have been bad for this. Putting soo many ingredients into sauces that everything gets lost. I do want to try and do more with less, celebrate the ingredients more. I think some of this has gotten lost in our modern world.

I can have a rack full of spices from all around the world and do very little with them. It’s a big problem, have everything there but no way to celebrate it.

In an upcoming series I will try and play with these ideas. Using the same 5 base ingredients to make 10 different dishes. Then a super simple series, celebrating the main ingredient showing ways to cook around it.

Suzhou

An Ancient City Persevered in the Middle of a Metropolis.

Since I arrived in China many, many years ago. I’ve been told how beautiful a place it is. How I must visit and see it, how deep the history and culture run in this city.

So, over the May Day holidays it’s was the time to travel. It is not the best time to travel as everyone has the opportunity to travel then. Taking the high speed rail on the first day of the holiday, almost 21 million people in China did the same. Getting tickets was very hard. Trying to figure out the trains as you can only reserve tickets and not buy them at that point. It’s a very different kind of train journey compared to back home. Back home the trains run every half hour at best? Here every 4 minutes. Going to a train station here is like going to an airport.

So the plan was to explore Suzhou. Easier said than done. No direct trains, meet on the middle and take the metro the rest of the way. This was a mistake haha. An hour from Nantong to Shanghai to meet the world famous Jimmy Cowan. Then 3 hours on the subway. As a plan it sounded ok, but the reality was the hottest, sweatiest and cramped 3 hours I’ve ever had travelling.

Having friends in the city often helps when it comes to travel. They know the best places, they know the hidden places not on the map. No better way to get the best from a city. Over the years I have met a few people from the city and this was my time to see why they love this city so much.

It’s a city that does not disappoint. Getting out and about exploring the mixture of modern and ancient architecture existing side by side. The city is big but not congested. It’s spread out, has open spaces, lots of parks and gardens. I can understand why people love it so much.

Food and culture are so linked together, going and trying some of the local food was great. The noodles with a sweet vinegar broth, the massive lamb skewers, the bamboo flavoured ice cream and the little steamed breakfast buns.  The food was very nice and great to see how the food is similar but slightly different.

Seeing how well the city has been preserved was amazing. It is a city with many gardens, getting a private tour of one the gardens was a great experience. Meeting with a good friend Chen and her son. She gave us an experience we will never forget. Being able to walk around and ask questions from the manager of the garden. So much deep history and knowledge that gets missed by most. It was a great honour to have this privilege.

The older and ancient side of the city has been so well preserved and integrated into the modern city. I was amazed at how quiet the cultural attractions were. Right in the middle of the city. We came off a very busy street and inside is it’s almost silent. Amazing to find such peace in the middle of a massive city on a holiday week.

Leaving the old city and its walls behind we went to see the modern side of the city and were blown away by the scale of everything. When you can see a building from halfway across the city, you know it’s going to be big. Amazing light shows, monstrous buildings and amazing people.

We only had a few days in Suzhou but I can understand why people have such a love and pride to say they come from there. I will definitely go back. As with every time I travel, you can’t see it all and something will always be left on the table. Guess that’s a good excuse to go back again. If you want to know what highlights we saw, send a message. I am more than happy to help.

Peace ✌️

Chengdu - A Panda’s Paradise

During the last holiday I jumped on a plane and headed off to see a good friend who I hadn’t seen in a long time. That is one thing that living in China has given me, friends from all around the world. Jojo is from South Africa, living in Chengdu for the last few years. I’d said I’d come for a long time and it was finally time to go.

Chengdu is known for its spicy food. Anyone that goes there always talks about it. I’m not the biggest fan of eating spice food or hot pot. But this was top of the list. As many of my friends know, travel for me is about food as much as seeing the sights.

Jojo is one of the OG members of The Monday Club. We used to sit and talk for hours about the topics that men are normally too scared to talk about. So when I landed at his apartment at 2 in the morning, we started talking like the good Ould days. We went to bed too late to get up early haha.

Leshan and the Pandas had to be seen. With a few other recommendations from friends in the city, away we went to see Chengdu. Leshan was amazing, I’ve never seen such an amazing man made cave structure. Hand carved or such a massive scale. Well worth looking at. The Pandas were awesome to see. So playful, energetic and yet lazy. Sprinting to lie down beside the food haha. This made the trip.

While food is always high on my agenda, catching up with my friend was more important. With some recommendations from some locals we headed to some restaurants but it was just so so. It was more a place to talk more.

I will be back to Chengdu at some point, I’ll get the hot pot, the spicy food and spend the next day regretting it on the toilet lol. If you get the chance to go. I recommend would recommend it every time. An amazing city to visit, feeling worlds away from Nantong.

Planning a New Journey

I am currently trying to plan out summer. For a long time I’ve wanted to go to America and go coast to coast. Looking at the map and trying to figure out where to go and where to stay. I find myself doing the same thing. It used to be I would plan around seeing different sights, landmarks and famous places. Now I’m more interested in planning around food places.

There have been so many places that have blown up over social media for spots to go. I want to try all the American diner style restaurants, in and out, red lobster, Wendy’s etc. I want to make sure I don’t miss any original or authentic gems along the way. I know there are different places that I’ve seen across several different social media accounts. I mean I could probably spend the whole trip just following the guys from the burger show on first we feast.

Am I wrong to plan a trip just around food? It’s a daily part of life but should it be the main point of the trip? Am I willing to get up at 2 in the morning to go and sit outside Franklin’s bbq just to make sure I get some.

I’m using an app called roadie. It lets you plan out your trip from start to finish, adding waypoints along the way. Most of the points I have picked so far have purely been down to trying food. Broken Spanish in L.A, Chico’s tacos in El Paso, Buckie’s are all on the list. I definitely more interested in the food than the sights. I will hit the sights along the way, pick up a few souvenirs and have a good time living out my cannonball style cross country adventure.

If you have any suggestions of places to go or things to see. Let me know. I’m want to hear about the best hidden gems along the way.

I’m heading to Chengdu for a 3 day adventure to see one of the boys. I have only three things on the list. Giant Buddha, giant pandas and spicy hotpot. Here’s to another food adventure 😁

Bohol and back….

So recently I took a short trip to the Philippines. Two places were on the hit list, Manila and Bohol. Manila was a little different from what I was expecting to find, I had read a few guides and seen some videos. I thought I knew how busy a city could be, but Manila still has a wildness to it.  The motorbikes cutting up the traffic, the sheer volume of traffic. My friend came to meet me, it took her two hours to get across town. She did admit to not following the satnav so well, but still.

What I thought was one big city is actually several smaller ones that have merged together over time. This is what I think adds to the traffic and the chaos. Many people recommended trying different places, from Barbara’s, Jollibee, Tropical Hut and J.Co to mention a few.

Barbara’s is a must go in the old part of the city. Sitting right beside St. Augustine Church, it is a restaurant serving all the classic dishes from back when the Spanish used to rule. Amazing service, tasty food and a dining room that would take you back in time. They even have a band that will come around and play any song you want. They can sing in 5 or 6 languages, super talented guys. They made the experience even better.

Fast food always comes into play when you are on the move all day. Anyone I asked about kept recommending the same place, Jollibee. I saw spaghetti on the menu for a fast food restaurant and said why not. I’ll be honest, I was surprised by how good it was. I’ve never thought of spaghetti as fast food, but put it on a plate with some fried chicken and you are golden.

Tropical Hut was another place I had to try. Again cheap food and the burger was on point. It didn’t look like much but the taste makes you think otherwise. I’ll be back in Manila and Tropical Hut will be hit.

J.Co has the best doughnuts. That’s just a fact. Big shout out to Ronan for that recommendation.

Bohol, an island paradise. I could have spent a month there with easy. I meet many amazing people there including Kean. An amazing chef and teacher, she gave me a traditional cooking class showing many different local dishes. This was something that was a little hard to find and made my time on the island having this experience.

I very much enjoy linking a story to food, then when I eat that food again I can relive that memory. This will be a memory I will be happy to remember.

Bohol is and will be one of the best places I’ve been to. The untouched beauty of the island, watching people live their normal lives and not being caught in a tourist trap. It is well worth the several delayed flights to get there haha.

What is Food to You?

Food means different things to different people. For some people it is just a daily requirement. You are hungry, so you eat. You don’t really care too much for it, you just want to fill the hole in your belly. For others it is a way of life. They get up and all they are thinking about is food. They live and breathe it all day, everyday.

If you are not interested in cooking then you fall into the first camp, you don’t see the point in it, you don’t have a love for it. I have met many people like this. They just want food on a plate at the cheapest cost to them, time and money.

The other end of the scale are people that love cooking. They can spend all day just to make stock. I have done this before and felt very good about it. Chefs that go to work everyday and working long hours to produce the food that goes on the plate. Then the supply lines that come from that. Farmers, butchers, growers, bakers and the others. All working together to create, make and produce food for us.

Shopping in supermarkets takes away from this thought process. Chicken comes from a packet, vegetables are always there, milk is chilling on the shelf. But we don’t see the work that went into putting that product there.

I feel like everyone, from the bottom of the chain to the top needs to appreciate the work that goes in. We need to have a better understanding of the process and we will appreciate and respect the food more.

If we can do that, then food will mean more to us than something to fill a hole.

I have spent hours before preparing for meals, Christmas is the prime example, I can spend days getting ready for it. All that work, time and effort just for a few hours. I know that food is appreciated, the time for me is well spent.

So let’s all take a little more time to appreciate the process, remember what goes into our food and praise the unsung heroes of the food world around us.

Cooking with Cookbooks

Cookbooks, with all the technology that we have these days, apps, ai and the internet. When was the last time you went looking through a cookbook for a recipe. I can be very bad for this. I know the recipe is in there somewhere but I’ll just have a quick google and see what comes up.

I am also very bad for buying cookbooks. I have 3 shelves full of them, some bought as I like the chef, others just because they were cheap. Either way they sit on my shelf collecting dust just waiting for me.

There is a lot of time, effort and knowledge that goes into each of those books. Research, development, testing, making, taking photos, writing, publishing, printing and shipping. Just so I can let it collect dust.

The more time I do spend reading and looking through them. The more I see recipes that I want to try. I get inspired to cook more.

I do find that with living in China some of the ingredients are hard to get. Trying to get different types of cheese here can be almost impossible sometimes. Or I find it online, order it and by the time it is imported and arrives, I’ve forgotten what I wanted to do. I love Mexican food, I needed some dried chillies before for a recipe. They took 5 weeks to arrive. I had forgotten that I’d ordered them.

A missing ingredient can sometimes make you not want to make the recipe. I say if you can’t get it, substitute it for the closest thing you can.

There is a lot of knowledge in your cookbooks. Over this next year we will be trying to bring you some of those recipes with our own little twist on them. So go read your cookbooks, look at the pictures and get inspired to try, cook something a little different, cook something that is out of your comfort zone. Try cooking with cookbooks and not letting them die on a shelf collecting dust.

Food for Every Occasion.

What is your comfort food? That one dish that when it’s cold outside, you don’t want to go anywhere, you just want to stay inside. For me it has to be a curry. It’s simple to cook, everything goes in one pot, you can put the heat on low and just let it go. This for me is something I want to curl up with a bowl of on the sofa, put on my latest series and zone out to.

There is something nice about this idea, a dish that you know you can get right with little to no effort. The only one to judge it will be you. That to me is the idea of comfort food. And I like me, you live by yourself. You then get to have left overs the next day. A day later the flavour has gotten deeper, changed a little and most times gotten better.

Then at the other end of the spectrum we have special occasion food. For me this is something along the line of a special steak that I’ve been wanting to try. When we celebrate, a birthday, end of a semester etc. that’s when I will have something along those lines.

A standard sirloin steak is good. But a 35 to 40 day dry aged Angus ribeye with lots of marbling. That’s something that needs a special occasion. A treat for a job well done. In that, both foods have their own place, each food is worth the wait, each plate has a different meaning and both of them do the same thing.

Years ago I was at a friend’s wedding, the ginger giant that is Kris Duprey. I was sitting with the lads and their future wives. I’d spoken to the groom and wanted to have a bit of fun with a friend, Seth “The Tank” Mathers. More like a septic tank haha.

Everyone else got served their chicken dinner, my placemat was still empty. Seth started to laugh thinking they forgot me. Then my steak arrived, same as the grooms. Seth’s jaw hit the table and accusations of corruption erupted. Was funny to watch.

The point is, both dishes served their purpose, both have their place but a steak will always be the show stopper.

All food has its time, place and purpose. Just depends on what you need it for. But eating steak at a wedding was great while the boys ate chicken haha

What do you want to try?

In the next few weeks I’ll be heading off for a short holiday. I want to escape the cold in China for a week to 10 days and jet off to and go island hopping in the Philippines. As normal before I go, I have been checking out things to do, places to go and things to see. I have a bit of a plan, but then it came to food.

I have a friend that has been living there for a few years now. So I started asking her what the local food was like? Were there any good restaurants or places that she would recommend? Are there any one day cooking classes/ experiences I could do. Her response wasn’t so good. She said everything is just fried in oil. No need to explore any further. This disappointed me slightly.

So I started to dig a little deeper, searching online in different apps, websites and videos. One of the islands I will visit is Bohol. It has a bee farm and an oyster farm. I do like honey in my porridge and rice pudding. So I’ll have to call in there and see what it’s like keeping bees in a tropical paradise. Oysters, I’m not so keen on. Give me a big plate of scallops and I’m super happy. So we shall have to see how oysters are cooked here.

I do think that when we live in a place there is soo much that we miss as we aren’t looking for it. It’s very easy to keep going to the same place. Fall into the same habit.

I remember reading a study before about food tasting better on holiday. It was all to do with your mood. The food didn’t taste any better than normal, you were just happy to be on holiday and were more open to tasting food as to eating food.

So when I jet off, looking for a bit of that winter sun (I can’t wait to get a bit of a tan). I will be trying to find some local food that is a bit out of the ordinary. A little bit different from what my friend has told me. I want to get a taste of both sides, the food you get as a local and the food you get a tourist. This is one way I find that you get a better experience of the country and culture. This will not be a trip to Benidorm, conquered by the English many years ago. As much British food as you can handle in the hot Spanish sun. No thanks.

So I look forward to to bringing you guys some videos and pictures back from my travels and hopefully a new dish or two.

New Year, New …….?

The new year has begun, everyone had a big party or sat on the sofa with a bottle of wine and a movie haha. But, it is the start of a new year, we will all spend the next month trying to make 3s into 4s without anyone noticing. Then we all have them, we are told they are a great thing to do, new year resolutions.

This time of year everyone is going around saying the same old, same old of …… new year, new me. The real question is how long does that last? The reality is normally only a few weeks. This year I as a person and us as a channel won’t be making this resolution. I don’t want something that will easily break as I didn’t really mean it to start with.

This year we want to say yes. Yes to new experiences, yes to new food, yes to new challenges. For many years now I have been watching Yes Theory. They very much live this lifestyle in saying yes and seeking discomfort on a daily basis. It’s time to apply this a bit more to my own lifestyle and experiences.

For this year we will be saying yes to a lot more. We have a few different trips coming up this year. Some short ones and hopefully one big one. The hope is to go big and try as much as possible. We want to meet and have new experiences and conversations with people at the top of their game. From high end restaurants to street vendors, inspiration can come from anywhere and anyone. The simple idea of being too scared to ask is one that must be overcome.

I have been very bad for this in the past. Not wanting to venture beyond my comfort zone, only sticking to and trying foods I know I will like. This is hope that going forward I will try more. I want to dive deep into local culture and see what gems can be found. What can be taken away and applied in day to day and party cooking.

When we travel, we will be going to try as much as we can on a local level. Local delicacies as much as we can stomach. When cooking we can become very set in our ways. We cook the same things over and over again. This year we want to be different, expanding and growing and building relationships and a community around us.

I am a very visual learner, that why I enjoy making and watching videos. The ability to watch someone making something, working with their hands, it brings me joy. Then I try to copy it as best I can until I get it right after a few tries. This is one thing that I have enjoyed most about cooking, you never fail, you just find a way that it doesn’t work.

That is our plan this year. To say yes to more, to go and explore, to build with people around us. To try new experiences and push our boundaries.

Here’s to the dash. Enjoy this new year and we will see you very soon.

Christmas Dinner.

It’s Christmas time, that one time of year when the whole family gets together. A table that normally seats 6, now seats 10. The cook is always stressed out making sure everything is going well, while waiting for everyone to secretly judge the food.

Being out in China it has been a little hard to have what you would call a traditional Christmas dinner. The ovens are too small, the turkey is hard to get and knowing what to search for. Can’t search for parsnips, they are white carrots, can’t search for brussel sprouts, they are little cabbages. Learning these things and changing how we cook.

I get the idea of having a big bird on the table and carving it up for everyone to see. The difference is the turkey is bigger than the oven here. So I had to go another way. Looking online, watching videos and reading recipes, soon sous vide was the way forward. Poaching the turkey in a low temperature water bath.

This has had the best results I've found as all the flavor gets sealed in. It does take a lot longer, but I think it’s worth it.

When it comes to ham, you just have to do it yourself. There are guys that sell them but its a lottery and an expensive one at that. So again, had to do the research and figure out how to do it. Found my pork butcher, getting him to cut things a bit different for what I need. It was a challenge but totally worth it. Getting to control the whole process, it gives a much bigger sense of pride.

The Roast Potatoes, one thing that is a must as Christmas. Potatoes here are just potatoes. No one is asking for Maris pipers, or Queens or Comber. You just get what you get. That has caused a real struggle at times. The best method I’ve found is the triple cooked chip method from Heston. When I do this, I get the best “Roast” potatoes I’ve had. Is it cheating? of course. Is it worth it? oh yes.

Thats a little low inside the cheats and methods I use to make Christmas dinner when I don’t have the full use of a British style kitchen. It is not the most traditional style Christmas dinner, but it gets pretty close and i’m happy with that for now.

There will be a few shorts coming out around cooking the turkey and other Christmas food. Please keep a lookout for them. Other than that, Merry Christmas from everyone here at Ding Cooks. We hope you and whoever you are celebrating with have a great time.

Merry Christmas.

Why a Cooking Show?

Cooking is something that unites us all. You can be good at it, you can be bad at it. It doesn’t matter, we all have to cook. My Mum always did the cooking when I was growing up. It’s something that she has made her living doing. From outdoor catering events for 300 people to midweek meals, she has done it all.

Watching my mum cook over the years, while I didn’t help too much. It did have a big affect on me. No matter what I ate I wanted to know more about it. Know how it was made, how long it was cooked for, where the ingredients came from. This led me to get more and more into food and food culture.

Moving halfway around the world, I missed the taste of home. There was only one thing to do. Get in the kitchen and start cooking. Back home I had messed around with cooking, did a few dinners but it was only for fun. As my Dad has said many times to me “Must do is a great Master”. Spending more and more time in the kitchen, watching cooking shows, reading cooking books, my skills have improved.

Having spent more time cooking for myself, then friends, then parties, we have arrived at today. my food may not be the most authentic, but it tastes damn good. I love that part when having a party that everyone stops talking. Everyone has full plates and for a solid 10 minutes no one says anything. That to me is the greatest compliment.

Having had friends over and so many of them thinking they can’t cook or scared to try. I want to spread and share this with everyone. The hope being that everyone can try, learn and cook for themselves. One friend would come over for dinner and no matter what I made he loved it. He couldn’t cook and I hope that through this, he can be inspired to learn and others like him. It can be done, it’s not as hard as it seems, you can do it too.

The idea of “Ding Cooks” came from a passion for cooking and wanting to play around with cameras. Then we have came to here, 20 plus episodes in, 3 mini series on the go. It is something that I do truly love doing. Getting to share something that I am good at with people from all around the world.

Hope you have enjoyed reading.