Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Destressing with Nigella, Kylie and Jamie

My favourite way of destressing is to watch cookery shows. I just find them immensely soothing. Don't get me wrong, I don't run off and make every single dish. I just lie back, relax and enjoy the show.

I think I get this from my mother who also loves them. In the old days when we had a VCR, my mother would video tape them. And before that when cookery shows were not really around she'd cut out recipes from magazines and make a scrap book. I don't have a scrap book. Initially I used to save my recipes in a word file which, much to my chagrin, has got corrrupted. So now, I will eventually upload all my favourite recipes to this very blog.

Back to the cookery shows. Well, my very favourite was Jamie Oliver. And in particular the Naked Chef series. Jamie was young, happy and so different from the run of the mill TV chef. His later shows where he's more serious or the ones where he has a live audience I'm not so fond of.

Then there's Nigella. Again I liked the original shows much better, but this time I prefer the more serious Nigella who doesn't keep smiling coquettishly at the camera every 5 minutes. Still, recipe wise I think I find Nigella uses easier to find ingredients.

Kylie Kwong I like mainly because of her accent and the novelty of her travelling around all the Chinese province. I don't find a lot of the recipes very appetising though, as she features recipes with ingredients I'd never in my life ever want to eat. Chicken feet anyone?

There's another Australian cook I like: Bill. Really calm collected, and I like his recipes. Not heard of him? Find out more at http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/shows/bills-food/

From the Americans I like only Giada I think. I find Americans don't do great cookery shows.

And then there are food blogs ofcourse and food podcasts.

I listen to one podcast called "Cooking with the Moms" which is done by 2 nutritionists which I find very informative. You can find the podcasts here http://mealmakeovermoms.com/podcast/
They also do a food blog.


And out of food blogs I like http://www.bongcookbook.com/ which is written by a Bengali lady living in the US.

Unfortunately, over here with the channels I receive I only get to watch Nigella and Kylie. But it's better than nothing.

So that's my secret to destressing. What's yours?






1 comment:

Swati Jhaveri said...

I love watching the cooking shows as well! A great way to destress. I love reading as well - a book really transports you to another world. Am reading a great book at the moment - its a real-life memoir written by 3 men who were kidnapped by FARC rebels in Colombia - it is just a really vivid depiction of how humans react in extreme situations and the boundaries of our abilities / capabilities - a real insight into human nature.