Author Archives: sheg4184

Stop and Smell the Flowers

Posted on 9 June 2015 by sheg4184

“You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry, don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.”  ~ Walter Hagen It has been unbelievably hot in Manila this past month or more. Every day for weeks … Continue reading →

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Thunder Storms

Posted on 1 June 2015 by sheg4184

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks! ~ William Shakespeare, King Lear The rainy season is almost upon us. Tonight the thunder and lightning pre-empted … Continue reading →

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A Birthday Surprise

Posted on 26 May 2015 by sheg4184

An unexpected shake-up of carefully choreographed plans found me spending my birthday, not in the south of France with a good friend, but in the country lanes of Hampshire with our older son, on the rim of the South Downs … Continue reading →

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Purple Yam Comes Home

Posted on 18 May 2015 by sheg4184

I first came across Amy Besa in her beautiful coffee table cook book, Memories of Philippine Kitchens. A chance meeting at Enderun, a few emails, and I finally introduced myself properly at a Christmas Fair in New York, where she … Continue reading →

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The Goose Station: Reinventing Philippine Cuisine

Posted on 12 May 2015 by sheg4184

“Of all our senses, taste, such as Nature has created it, remains the one which…gives us the maximum of delight.”  ~ Brillat-Savarin Last month I had the joy of meeting Rob & Sunshine Pengson at Madrid Fusion Manila (MFM). Rob’s … Continue reading →

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Sashimi: a Japanese Cooking Philiosophy

Posted on 4 May 2015 by sheg4184

As a rule, the philosophy of cooking aims at the creation of new tastes that do not exist naturally… but Japanese cooking methods are antithetical to this philosophy. The ideal of Japanese cooking is to retain the natural tastes of … Continue reading →

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Simple Joys

Posted on 27 April 2015 by sheg4184

Tokyo. A shopper’s wonderland. My friends are green with envy at my good luck. Sadly, I am not a woman who lives to shop. Basement food halls, malls and department stores make my eyes blur with panic. Too much stuff. … Continue reading →

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Seducing the Soup

Posted on 20 April 2015 by sheg4184

Turkey, like the Philippines, is located at a geographical and cultural crossroads between east and west, right on the cusp of Europe and Asia. Turkish cuisine is a synthesis of centuries of cultural and culinary fusion: a patchwork of Mediterranean … Continue reading →

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“There is Hell Waiting Here”*

Posted on 13 April 2015 by sheg4184

The sandstone Sphynx bares its chest like a beacon above Anzac Cove. Bleak, grey, weeping seas, diluted with the blood of thousands, Johnnies and Mehmets both. No beaches worth their salt, nowhere to land, the King’s young allies culled by … Continue reading →

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The Whirling Dervishes

Posted on 7 April 2015 by sheg4184

A different city. A different dance. Not London but Istanbul. Not Sadler’s Wells but the Galata Mevlevihanesi. Not a ballet, but a timeless, hypnotic ritual dance created by Persian poet, prophet, philosopher and mystic, Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi. The Mevlevi … Continue reading →

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