I Didn't Cook - Issue #66

Hey there, Food Lovers!

A warm welcome to all our new subscribers! I hope you'll find this newsletter to be a great addition to our YouTube videos, brimming with additional food presentation tips and creative ideas, along with glimpses into my current culinary explorations.

Believe it or not, I haven't cooked in five days! It's quite the departure from my usual routine, but we recently went on a brief holiday and didn't have or need a kitchen. The break from cooking meant I thoroughly enjoyed eating food made by someone else - except for those dull airplane meals! I'll talk more about that intriguing topic a bit further below.

I'll also share some of the delectable meals I did indulge in and why they were so enjoyable, particularly from a presentation standpoint. Additionally, we'll take a trip back to an older video where I experimented in the fascinating world of homemade natural food colouring. It's amazing how ingredients like beetroot can give food a vibrant colour without altering the flavour.

In this issue:

• Food presentation - What It Looks Like Affects The Taste
• Eating out - What I Enjoyed From A Presentation Point Of View
• Video throwback - How To Make Homemade Natural Food Colouring

Food Presentation - What It Looks Like Affects The Taste

As we sat on the plane, exhausted after getting up at some unearthly hour and hungry, the food trolley finally made its way down the aisle. I opted for the chicken with potatoes and carrots - seemed like a safe choice, right? However, upon lifting the foil lid, my appetite took a nosedive. There, covering half of the dish, was a blanket of thinly sliced, dull green and completely overcooked silverbeet. It was so unappealing that I didn't even think of capturing it in a photo.

That initial sight set the tone for the entire meal. The spinach, bland and uninspiring, dominated the flavour profile in my mind. The chicken was dry and tough and there was a pretty meagre pool of average gravy. The few potatoes and carrots were the only things that I felt like eating. When I thought about it I wondered perhaps if the silverbeet had been nestled at the bottom, the entire presentation would have been more palatable. Maybe it would even have tasted better?!

It's remarkable how our perception influences taste - had it looked more appealing, perhaps the entire meal experience would have been elevated.

Our minds truly wield immense power over our culinary enjoyment!

Eating Out - What I Enjoyed From A Presentation Point Of View

We did enjoy some delicious meals, a cook you own teppanyaki experience and delicious beetroot bun burgers amongst other things. At the teppanyaki restaurant we were seated in front of a hot grill plate. All the ingredients were brought out raw to our table and there was an instruction sheet, a couple of scrapers, a timer and a selection of sauces and accompaniments.

It was such a fun way to enjoy our dinner and try some authentic Japanese sauces. We had a Pork Yakisoba - a pork noodle dish with some vegetables and a sweet/savoury sauce. We also had Tori No Kaarage for our entree, which was crispy deep fried chicken bites with a delicious Kewpie mayonnaise and a side salad. I loved the plates at this restaurant. I don't often go for coloured or textured plates, but this combination works really well. The plate doesn't distract from the food, it complements it and the colours blend well together.

Overall it was a fun experience, the food looked and tasted amazing and we would definitely go there again.

At the burger restaurant you could upgrade your burger to a black or beetroot bun. I thought it would be fun to try the beetroot bun and knew the colour would be impressive. I can't say the bun actually tasted much different to the milk bun they had, but it definitely looked good. Sometimes with food it really is about what it looks like.

I often say flavour definitely has to come first, but that is closely followed by the presentation. In this case the flavour wasn't really affected. I guess you don't need much beetroot colouring to get a vibrant red, so the flavour addition would be minimal. Don't you think the colour was gorgeous?

A while back I made a video on natural food dyes. I had such fun trying out the different methods. If you want to have a look there's a link below.

Video Throwback - How To Make Homemade Natural Food Colouring

In this video we explore how to make all natural food colourings. We'll look at the different foods we can use to extract colour from, and the different methods we can use to get the most concentrated colour we can.

We will also use the colourings we make to colour different icings so that you can see how they turn out. At the end of the video we'll pipe the icings we've made onto cupcakes so that you can see all the colours together.

It's so amazing that we can do this naturally and there's no artificial ingredients in sight!

I'd love to hear about some of your recent meals, whether home cooked or from a restaurant - what did you like about them? Did they look amazing and taste fabulous?

Happy cooking,
Taryn