Ok, so I have not written my blog for a while after quite an enthusiastic start. A tiny daughter, a decent sized vegetable plot and many large work things have been keeping me busy.
Another big reason for the absence has also been due to a conversation I had with my mum.
I was walking with my parents through the lovely landscape of Speen trying to get Ella to have her afternoon nap. As she started to nod off, my mum started to show some concern towards my royal wedding rant. Particularly with regards to some of the language, which I guess any good mum should do, but also because of how negative the tones of what I have been writing about were. My initial response was that she was missing the point, and I kind of acted like an angry teenager and shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t care what you think” I said.
The whole point about addressing the unfairness of the royal family is to positively state how nice it would be if our system worked differently, or worked fairly, and that money was used for the wedding was used for better causes.
However, I do realise and accepted that anyone who makes a bit of noise and attempts to point out why things are wrong, come across negative. Take Johann Hari, who I cannot recommend enough, although he is campaigning for some of the most important causes and raises some amazing points, he is sometimes portrayed as “negative”. I guess when people write about things that we don’t really like to think about or admit, it doesn’t sit very well, and anything that disturbs our middle class bubble view of things never goes down well (not accusing my mum of this by the way). So from here, to not only please my mum but actually just to talk about some less serious things, I am going to alternate my blogs. One which will try and raise a serious point and give some food for thought, and one which is just generally nice.
So as my first positive blog, I want to tell you about a condiment.
I love condiments.
I love all condiments, ranging from a simple ketchup or mayonnaise, to a complex, deep and broody chilly sauce.
My recommendation is Quita D’avo. I have just got back from Portugal, after not having been for a while, so I am literally eating this stuff for breakfast.
Quita d’Avo offer a range of Timorese sauces with a plethora of different heats, textures, flavours and end uses. Some are marinades, some are full blown chilli sauces, and some are well, just freaking awesome. Out of their whole range, my suggestion to you is the all rounder. The Quinta D’avo, Preporado Timorese sauce, “the spicy sauce from Timor.”
Where to begin.
When this sauce first hits your lips, you get a nice punch of acidic, lemon flavours which to be honest is kind of surprising. As the flavour develops, the lemon fades, with a wonderful chilli kick replacing it with a hint of red peppers. There are a number of undertones including other citrus flavours, and some kind of special ingredient I cannot quite put my finger on, which I guess is part of the delight. Honestly there is a glut of flavours in this bad boy.
I would recommend eating this sauce with literally anything but it works really well with chicken, sausages and fish. One thing I will say is that it is a dominant flavour so it will kick the shit out of anything else you are eating, in a good way.
A great point about this sauce is that regardless of what you seem to mix it with, it just works. I have even smeared this all over vegetables to give them a bit of life.
I have just picked one sauce, which actually weirdly is not on their website, but take a look on here and you will see how extensive their range is.
http://www.quintadavo.com/
Also, some good news, Simon Dudderidge informs me its available in Waitrose! Get down there.
