It’s been the year of the plant-based, Netflix’s Street Food sensation and the cancelling of Deliveroo for all eternity (at least on my part). But on a more personal level, it’s been a year of progression and big changes, and many of those can be linked to this very blog here.

I’ve managed to break down 12 months of memories, breakthroughs and generally excellent food into 20 highlights, so without further ado, here are the dishes and food experiences that have made my year.

1. Making fresh pasta

Thanks to inspiration from Gino D’Campo’s Gino’s Pasta, I ended up buying an inexpensive pasta machine from Amazon, not really expecting very impressive results. Admittedly, I have only used it twice, but the two dishes I managed to whip up have automatically made it worth the money.

I first tried Gino’s Ham and Ricotta Stuffed Pasta with Chorizo. It’s surprising how easy the pasta sheets are to make – literally just flour and egg, mixed together into your dough and then fed into the machine, ready to be flattened into usable sheets.

One of the first things I’ve noticed on both occasions is that once you boil the pasta, it becomes very slimy – I don’t know whether this is a tell-tale sign of it being fresh, and therefore a satisfying texture, or just an indication that I haven’t quite perfected it yet. Either way this dish was very tasty, and simple; the most difficult part probably trying to seal the little parcels without them flipping back open to reveal the filling inside.

My second pasta attempt (also Gino) was his spinach and ricotta cannelloni, so a slightly different venture to the parcels. In one sense this is even more straightforward, as the pasta sheets don’t need to be cut into shapes, just rolled up, but I’m still unsure as to how the rolling up and sealing of the cannelloni works, and so, although it didn’t affect the flavour, I ended up with about 38585 excess rolls on each pasta tube. Still delicious though with a simple passata tomato sauce.

2. Loaded Fries

How many times do I have to mention it? Potatoes are my least favourite carb. However, add a ton of mouth-watering toppings to a big tray of fries, and I’m sold. Loaded fries are becoming an increasingly extravagant dish, and so should probably only be indulged in once in a while, but I definitely have two highlights within this category.

The first were the beetroot fries from Seasoned, at Hatch in Manchester. Slightly less heavy on the toppings, these were incredibly striking what with the beetroot salt and creamy, beetrooty feta sauce. The flavour absolutely lived up to the appearance.

Secondly, and possibly the most unhealthy thing I’ve ever eaten was the New Yorker bucket from The Bucket List in Cromer, or Norwich where I tried them. The toppings seemed to be endless, from mozzarella balls, to bacon, to aioli to fried Brie (I think?) and plenty more, but these really were the definition of loaded fries. Interesting that neither of these highlights actually came from London – maybe the fry guys down here have a thing or two to learn.

3. My Mum’s Cooking

Very cringey but can’t be avoided. All I want to do when I go home is eat monkfish paella not paella risotto not risotto and slow cooked pork with everything on the side. No more needs to be said, I’ll just leave the photos here…

4. Annie’s Burger Shack

There’s not a huge amount on the food scene that Nottingham (my hometown) is known for, but one that cannot be missed, and that I only just tried for the first time earlier this year is Annie’s Burger Shack. The menu is incredible. It’s not the burger patties, or the buns that are mindblowing, but instead the incredible combinations of toppings and fillings that make these way more than your standard burger. I’m still desperate to try the Roast Dinner Burger featuring an actual Yorkshire pudding in/on the burger (and literally every single other one on the menu), but for the time being I’ll leave you with The Johnny Vegas Burger, that I devoured on my first visit: crispy bacon, toffee apple butter, black pudding, chilli jam an a mini Guinness jelly doughnut on a stick on top. It’s mad, but that’s the point.

5. Chalida Invite

I don’t really get many invites due to my Instagram engagement being so low, although this isn’t an issue as I’m always happy to pay for food I really want to try. Having said that, being invited to new Thai restaurant Chalida in Chinatown, Leicester Square was an amazing night this year. My friend and I indulged in the biggest thai feast, and the food was wonderful. My highlights of the meal included the Beef Massaman Curry and the Chilli Aubergine. It’s definitely worth a visit.

6. Baking!

It’s not that I’ve never baked before, it’s just that this year, I suddenly realised how much joy it brought me, and has consistently acted as a kind of therapy. When I’m in the kitchen I literally think of nothing else other than when it need to turn down the heat, or what seasoning I’m going to add. I still have kitchen disasters, but this year I’ve impressed myself with some of the outcomes of my baking. Here are a few favourites:

7. Italian pasta, and watching the svogline at work

The tortellini I had in Bologna (the best place in the world to try it) was sensational. One of the nicest things I’ve ever tasted, and as well as tasting it, I got to watch the experts at work. During the city food tour I went on, we went to watch the svogline (ladies who make the pasta), and it was incredible how quickly and precisely they worked, especially when making such tiny parcels. Obviously we got to sample their work afterwards with a glass of wine, and I didn’t mind that too much either.

8. Meeting Nadiya

If you didn’t already know that I met Nadiya Hussain (most wonderful bake off winner in the history of the world, soon to be MBE, and all-round inspirational powerhouse of a woman), then you’ve been hiding under a rock. Yes I embarrassed myself by getting all snotty and cringey and sobby, but hearing her speak about her life experiences live, in person, was really fantastic, and she is as beautiful as she is articulate and kind.

9. Maturing Taste Buds

Surprisingly I used to be an incredibly fussy eater when I was younger – I didn’t like the most standard things, like pasta, or Yorkshire puddings, or even cheesecake and doughnuts (I semi wish that were still the case lol). Over time, I’ve learned that actually I do like most of these things, and this year in particular I’ve been really open-minded in terms of still trying foods and flavours that I mentally perceive to be ‘not to my taste’. One of the most significant food groups is nuts. I’ve always hated the woody, dull flavours but now I’ll gladly throw them into my cooking and baking. I’ll put peanut butter in my curries, almonds in my porridge and even chuck some hazelnuts in with my broccoli! Raw tomatoes are also becoming slightly more palatable to me, so maybe 2020’s challenge will have to be cucumbers (vom, or maybe not).

10. Forman and Field

I love seeing where the food I eat comes from – admittedly some of those places would probably shock, and maybe even disgust me, but in this case, visiting Forman and Field’s smoked salmon factory was fantastic. From the enthusiasm and passion of those behind the family-run business, to the quality of the food they produce and serve, it was a wonderful day, and really interesting to see the whole process, from the salmon arriving into the factory, whole, to it leaving in neat little packages.

11. My First Roast Dinner Cooking Experience

On one of those lovely bank holidays earlier this year, my flatmates and I decided to attempt a roast dinner. About time seeing as I’ve never actually tried to cook one before. We were able to sit outside on our lovely patio in the sun with a bottle of wine, and thankfully the food turned out equally as well. The roast chicken was tasty and perfectly-cooked, the Yorkshires were slightly cake-like but still delicious, and accompanied by roast potatoes, parsnips, veg, gravy and stuffing, it really was a very satisfying feast, particularly as we’d cooked it all up ourselves.

12. Reading About Food

Not only do I love eating, cooking and writing about food, but I also appreciate reading about it and learning from that too. I currently have a huge list of food-related books on Amazon that I want to try and get through this year, some of which I stumbled across myself, some were recommended by Felicity Cloake at her Food Writing Guardian Masterclass, and others I took note of in the bookshop at KERB Seven Dials Food Hall. Speaking of Felicity Cloake, her book ‘One More Croissant for the Road’, about her combined cycling/food-sampling tour of France was one of my favourites. I wish there was more decent food-travel writing out there. I also enjoyed reading more scientifically about food and nutrition, although this can be quite dodgy ground as there are always people willing to use ‘scientific evidence’ to make bullshit scaremongering claims. Despite that, I really enjoyed ‘Is Butter a Carb?’, which approaches the nutrition side of things in a very matter-of-fact way without preaching about lifestyle choices.

13. Toffee Popcorn Pie – A Pie Party

You should know by now how much I love A Pie Party, and cannot wait for Claire’s new range in the New Year, but this special has honestly never left my mind. An absolute flavour/textural highlight on the food front this year.

14. Energy Balls

Thanks to Emma Hollingsworths, I discovered these super simple, easy to make, and incredibly tasty vegan snack balls. There are so many different variations I want to try, and so one of my New Year’s challenges will be to adapt a few recipes for these of my own. A perfect lunchbox snack.

15. Max’s Sandwich Shop

The first sandwich I tried from Max’s was life changing. The Ham, Eggs and Chips Sandwich (below) is the best sandwich I’ve ever had, but it’s not only been devouring his sandwiches from the shop that I’ve loved. I also bought his recipe book, giving you all the recipes for his best-loved sandwiches and fillings plus plenty more. The reviews for this on Amazon are hilarious and just go to show how many morons there are in the world, but I can tell you the focaccia recipe is fantastically foolproof. In case you needed further proof that this book is worth buying for any sandwich fiends, here’s my attempt at his Spaniard Sandwich, with everything made from scratch (to the left).

16. Ainsley

Before this year, when I thought of Ainsley Harriott, all that appeared in my mind were images of him in Ready Steady Cook that was constantly on when I got home from primary school when I was little. Now, however, I’m not listening to him in the background whilst playing with Bratz dolls, I’m following his amazing recipes and whipping up some wonderful meals. Ainsley’s Caribbean Kitchen is one of my favourite recipe books ever, and below are a few of the meals I’ve made so far.

17. Plant-based

My one week a month of veganism is going really well, and I plan on keeping it up forever. Rachel Ama has been a huge help on this journey with her interesting, original recipes, including the French toast and oyster mushroom jerk tacos below. In terms of eating out, my vegan highlights are the Cheezeburger burrito from Club Mexicana, the Seitan wings from Temple of Seitan, and the Philly Cheezesteak Sandwich from Jake’s Vegan Steaks.

18. Paella

One of the most exciting and successful meals that I made this year. I’ve always loved paella since I was very young, despite as I mentioned before the fact that I was very fussy. For some reason I didn’t like normal rice, but I did claim to like ‘yellow rice’ (saffron-infused paella rice). I wish I’d had more seafood in this paella but it still tasted beautiful. Look out for round 2 in 2020, which will be accompanied by my recipe for it.

19. Gadgets

I invested in some fantastic kitchen gadgets this year. From a new non-stick frying pan, to a slow cooker and egg wash brush, I’m acquiring quite a collection. The poached egg pockets I got from my Brunch Fest goody bag worked really well, and so if you struggle to contain your poached eggs to a presentable form, these pouches are perfect for a rounder, cleaner finish. I’ve also already used the multipurpose food processor that I got for Christmas, and it’s been amazing for the pastes I make from herbs, spices and veg to enhance the flavour of my dishes.

20. ¡Comemos!

Had to save this one until last of course. It’s been a year of ups and downs, but this blog has given me real focus. I’m proud of the work I’ve produced, and hope that there are at least a few decent reads on here. ¡Comemos! really is in its infancy right now, and so I’m looking forward to seeing what new material I have to work with in the New Year, and where I can take my love of food writing.

I hope your year has been equally as fruitful, and that 2020 is another year of progression, and growth.

Here’s to the little things that make us happy, and the dedicated work required to reap such rewards.

Happy New Year,

¡Comemos!

xo