Cooking With Richard

In Japan:

In Britain:

This was a rather lovely, friendly restaurant that we discovered in Rue Mouffetard, Paris.

We had a starter of escargots (snails):

N-sama had a beef stew which tasted like a peposo:

I had a very pleasant cassoulet:

Altogether, a highly recommended restaurant, not particularly because the food was outstanding (although it was very good), but because the place was cosy and friendly.

Photo and someone’s boggy entry.

Mushi (insects) are very popular in Japan as pets or even for eating. We got these tasty mushi from a popular mushi shop ….

From here:

N-sama bought me a tiny helicopter for Christmas, so here it is in action …

Hmmmmmmmmm…. Second time lucky?

OK … third time?

IT FLIES!!!

Edit:

The Professionals fly:

Lamb and mint sausages (from the local conbini of all places), with real mash and onion gravy.

Lamb sausages are tricky to cook — I nearly set the kitchen on fire several times — but they taste great. Last time I had them was in Cyprus.

Night night …

I think the white duck’s wearing the trousers …

Previously …
Preeeeeviously …

All the ladybirds except the one at the bottom are evil invaders from Asia, the Harlequin ladybird:

The first Harlequin was found in a pub car park in Essex in 2004 and since then the ladybird is spreading aggressively throughout the UK, even as far as Wales:

We reported these to the survey and got back a nice response:

Dear Richard

Thank you very much for your ladybird photo. You have correctly identified a harlequin, Harmonia axyridis. This is a valuable record for our survey.

At the moment ladybirds are forming aggregations in preparation for winter - which they spend in a dormant state. This is why they are so conspicuous at the moment. Harlequin ladybirds characteristically spend winter in buildings and are particularly attracted to light coloured stone at this time of year. We think this relates to their behaviour in their native range (Asia) where they head for rocky mountains to overwinter.

In the spring the ladybirds will start to emerge and again this is a time when we see lots but not as many as in the autumn because quite a few will die over the winter time.

It would be great if you could record all your future observations on-line - www.harlequin-survey.org

You may like to know that we now have confirmed records of the harlequin from many sites across southern England, East Anglia and the Midlands. Further north there are a large number of records from Derbyshire and Cheshire and a few from Staffordshire, Humberside, Lancashire, Yorkshire and county Durham. The Harlequin has now also reached Wales, with records from Glamorgan, Monmouthshire, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire.

If you would like to download a colour ladybird identification sheet, please click on the link at this website page http://www.ladybird-survey.org/UKladybirds/UKladybirds.htm

Thanks again and best wishes,

Hawaiian macadamia nuts covered in chocolate from our friend Kimiko-chan … delicious:

Conkers!

Found by the canal (it is shroom season now):

The real thing:

Fried oysters from Hiyashi HAYASHI in Miyajima — おいしかった！

Lunchtime kaiseki from a really excellent restaurant in Hiroshima called An. The first dish was a western-style chilli-prawn:

N-sama had this seafood dish with rich sauce:

Icecream:

Usaji:

Special OKONOMIYAKI from Hiroshima, with soba noodles:

“Please do not feed pigeons, crows, &c.”
The crow is saying plaintively “If you feed me, I can’t live without your help.”

Lady M took us to an Ethiopian restaurant tonight and this was the first time I have enjoyed Ethiopian food. The meal consisted of small lamb and chicken dishes surrounding a sourdough pancake called injera. To be honest the pancake was very sour and somewhat unpleasant.

The lamb and chicken dishes were pleasant enough once we’d ordered some rice to replace the pancake.

Notice my rather excellent ELER / Schneier T-shirt in the above photo.

I laughed out loud at this:

“Bruce Schneier generated his RSA key with the two largest prime numbers.”

Update

A short explanation on the above: There are an infinite number of prime numbers as is taught in any basic number theory course, so there are no “two largest” primes. But the meta-joke is that if Schneier had actually chosen the two largest primes then because the numbers would (presumably?) be close it would be wide open to a Fermat attack.