Category Archives: Gastronomically speaking

I AM mycophobic. I am ill with the fear of mushrooms. I fear how bland most commercially available mushrooms are. I fear that I will never again enjoy the pungent aroma and flavour of the delicious wild fungus that, in … Continue reading →

ASPARAGUS has long been a most venerated vegetable. It is thought to have originated in the Middle East – the Persian word “asparg” means sprout – and upper-class Greeks and Romans cultivated and consumed it from as early as the … Continue reading →

MY maternal grandfather, Jack Kirk is a legend. If you haven’t heard about the famous KwaZulu-Natal midlands farmer, horseman and beekeeper before, it’s probably because you have neither met me nor visited the Lufafa Valley near Ixopo in aforementioned province. … Continue reading →

SO, Valentine’s Day is upon us once more, which – if the Hallmark hypothesis is to be believed – means candlelit dinners, boxes of chocolates, bottles of bubbly and mounting pressure to be loving, romantic and starry-eyed. But perhaps, as … Continue reading →

MANY people believe, as late American television host and comedian, Johnny Carson declared in the early 1990s, that there is only one fruitcake in the world and that it is passed on from family to family each year. That is … Continue reading →