My first porridge

I wanted to taste porridge for a long time, but despite my frequent trips near Scotland and the foodie recommendations from well experienced friends in matters of porridge and my interest for various traditional foods, the moment of true porridge was delayed for a couple of years. (What a shame, I know!) But in one of those moments when you realize that it should be 'now or never', I finally made it! I bought two colourful boxes from Glen Oats, and after a little while, I proceeded to the tasting. 

The porridge, available in three variants, simple, berries and gold syrup, was produced especially for the German market. They look colourful and funny, maybe with a design too charged in my opinion, but friendly enough to convince you to buy it. Especially if you never had the taste of the porridge, it may be a proper incentive. The preparation can be done within minutes, making it a perfect choice for the fast breakfast or lunches spent near the computer: boiled water poured over the content till the designated limit. You should mix well before starting to eat, in order to create a mixture as compact as possible.

As a general recommendation, it is better to consume them while hot. I tried one of them also one hour later and was not very happy with the taste: some traces of gluten, the whole composition was a bit sticky, and without too much taste. But fresh, it can be delicious and bringing good energy.  

My favourite out of them is the berry: it's fresh, fruity and mild. It goes with a breakfast based on fruits or as the only meal of the morning, accompanied by a simple tea or a coffee. 

The corn syrup is a bit too sweet for my taste, with a very milky taste. At a certain point, it tastes a bit artificial, but maybe one should pour less water. For me, it was enough for the morning, together with the coffee. 

My first meetings with porridge, although with the ready-made ones, was fine, good enough to make me curious to try an original meal one day. 

What's wrong with my spinach?

I am not a very big supporter of spinach, but the main reason is that besides the classical frozen type with eggs, I have no other idea how to eat it. As a kid, I was offered the glorious example of Popeye the sailor as a possible evolution in my adulthood, but I was rather Olive's type.

Lately, we are fighting hard to eat as healthy as possible, and we try at least once the week a new green salad. I noticed that spinach leaves cannot be find easily in Berlin, and the box frozen variant doesn't look too healthy for me. At a Turkish grocery store I spotted a plastic box with fresh spinach leaves, and bought it. I only hesitate if one box will be enough or maybe we will be so in love with the green menu that will want to eat over and over again and we will not find enough spinach in Berlin to feed us.

Happy, with the box of spinach on the top of the kitchen table, we started to worry. How will be eat it? Raw, like the rabbits, or in combination with some other veggies? Would we want to make a smoothie too? 

Creative as usual, I cleaned some leaves, added some pomegranate and some boiled couscous and started to eat. My childhood intuition was not wrong. Raw or boiled, with eggs or pomegranates, spinach is not my type of taste. And left the half eaten salad in the fridge for the next days.

After a couple of days, an unpleasant metallic smell was left in the air every time we were opening the fridge. Tried several times to figure out what it is all about, but failed to identify the cause. Exasperated, I started to smell one by one the bowls and the guilt was exclusively to our spinach leaves. 

How dangerous are the oxalates

Curious to understand what happened, I did some intensive research the days after. The real story goes that spinach is very rich in iron, hence the metallic smell I felt in my fridge. What was subject of debate and scientific consideration in the case of spinach was the oxalic acid, which can be found equally in kale, chard or parsley. In the case of spinach, though, there is the highest concentration, of around 750 milligrams/100 grams. 

One of the most frequent warning I noticed, especially in the dedicated German-speaking literature is to avoid reheating the spinach leftover as it has poisonous compounds and can lead to sickness and even death. Honestly, the warning regards probably industrial quantities of spinach, and not the small portion that we usually have for daily consumption.

The oxalic acid is a common chemical compound in plants and animals, and is regularly consumed in very small quantities in different foods, such as nuts, most berries, seeds or leafy greens. The poisoning danger appears only in the case of the consumption in large amounts - probably more than 1 kg./day. A frequent consumption of such foods can lead to kidney stones.

According to the medical evaluations, oxalates, that are fungal in origin and cannot be destroyed by heat, can inhibit calcium absorption. Another possible dangers are tyroid disease and fybromalgia. 

The conclusion(s): eating 'green' doesn't mean necessarily eating 100% healthy, but if it is with measure, everything cannot be but fine.

New British food discoveries

Travel is always an opportunity to get closer to new recipes and food habits. During my last trip to England and Wales, I discovered a few new traditional recipes and fruits. 

I am always excited to taste new fruits and flavours that I cannot find easily in Germany. There it is also an exquisite selection of quality fruits. Such as, the seedless Egyptian grapes. Grapes are in Egypt the second fruit crops after citrus. Due to the religious restrictions, there are no world known brands of Egyptian wines. There are several table grapes available, but the one I tried were a ruby seedless type, very delicious, with a balanced taste: not too sweet but not too sour either. A delicious choice for ending up in a healthy way a summer meal. It also confers a very good hydration.

I have a lot to learn about food and types of food and thus, no wonder that I was not familiar with fish and chips. Berlin has currywurst and the States the hamburger, and the Brits do like the fish and chips. As in all cases, this fast food meal was the result of the rapid industrialization being aimed to offer to the developing middle classes a fast meal between shifts. In entered the British world in the 19th century and remains a popular food whose preparation can go beyond the simple and fast recipes. Compared with similar 'fast foods', it require a bit of style, especially the battered fish. A little bit of vinegar, added to the water and flour mix of the batter brings more savoury to the fish. Creating the delicate slices of potatoes also requires a lot of patience and exercise. A delicious healthy tomato salad is a fresh add to a rich meal. 

If asked one month ago what the name ''Pukka' suggests, I would immediately mention a very boring computer game I used once to play for the sake of filling my time while thinking at something else. I was completely ignorant about what Pukka pies mean and how much they are part of the British eating vocabulary. The company created in 1963 produced nowadays around 60 millions pies pro year. The company has its onsite beef butchery, and the pies are free of hydrogenated fats, preservatives or artificial flavourings. The most frequent recipes include: steak and kidneys, beef and onion, potato cheese and onion, chicken and mushroom. A successful business and branding story.