Reflections of what I have been eating

Looking back over the past week, is is pretty clear that mostly what I eat is ENORMOUS piles of vegetables. Nothing much wrong with that, I guess.

I go through phases - I will have a big bunch of coriander and so will go through a series of recipes using that up. Or prawns are "Buy One Get One Free" at Sainsbury's, so I go wild with prawns are a bit.

One thing that has occurred time lately it that I am a HOARDER. I come by this pretty naturally as my father rivaled the Collyer Brothers. But it is something I have always thought I had sidestepped in my own life. Recent reflections have made this clear to me that this is not true.

Never heard of the Collyer Brothers?
Collyer Brothers

I have been having a massive clear out of everything I own, trying to sell as much as possible on eBay (which I love and loathe in equal measures) and giving it away to Oxfam.

I want to strip everything down and get back to essentials. I keep hearing Tyler Durden in my head:

"The things you own end up owning you."

And I seem to be a food hoarder as well. I love trying new things out. I love having lots of different herb, spices and ingredients in the flat at any given time so I can cook what I feel like.

Indonesian? No problem, I have trasi and ketjap manis and buah keras in the house ...

Thai? Sure, I have lemon grass and nam pla and galangal....

Chinese? Yup, I have five spice and shao shing and soy (three types!)

That I don't really have a problem with. I have a good turnover of these ingredients and it IS nice to have that sort of variety at your fingertips.

But I also have a dozens of tins of pulses (chick peas, cannellini beans, flageolet, haricot etc), kilos of rice (arborio, sushi, short grain brown, Thai fragrant, etc.), jar after jar of dried fruits (raisins, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, figs, bananas etc). It is a HUGE quantity of food for one person.

So, I am not going to buy and more store cupboard type items unless I run out. And then I am only going to buy a select few things. I do not need 6 different types of daal. I don't NEED a second box of cornflour "just in case".

Get a grip...

I am also working my way through a massive collection of teas, which is quite a pleasant experience. I love chrysanthemum tea, having first had it in Singapore. These days, I buy bags of Singaporean dried chrysanthemums in China Town and use them. They are so pretty when they are steeping:

Who wouldn't want to drink that?