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Felicity Cloake is the writer of the Guardian’s How to cook the perfect … and Masterclass cookery columns. If you’ve eaten it … she’s cooked it. Discuss her work or ask her a question below the line now. She’ll is answering your questions now.
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Katmurdood asks: I love when you list things you have chosen from a menu and your genuine interest in trying every food combo on the planet. Are there any things you absolutely wouldn’t try, even if it is a local delicacy or the norm in a country you are visiting?
Felicity:
I try to avoid meat if I suspect it’s not been reared kindly which is why I tend to avoid chicken and pork in the UK where possible unless I’m confident of its provenance … but when I’m somewhere I’ll never go again, I’m afraid I often press pause on that because I’m so keen to try new things and that overrides these principles (which doesn’t show me in the best light I know).
I’ve tried most things that have been offered to me, from a fertilised duck egg in Vietnam (meaty) to a pig’s eyeball in Suffolk (wouldn’t recommend even if it was free range), and even human placenta, but I feel anxious about the idea of monkey, and I think I’d struggle with dog.
Some do I know – sometimes they’ll come up and tell me they’ve based their tiramisu or Irish stew or some other recipe on mine, and that makes me very proud (as opposed to the Indian company who printed my dal recipe on their packaging without acknowledgment, which just felt … weird? Like, much as I love mine, surely they’d have a better one?), but when I read really old columns back, I’m surprised some of them didn’t come round and whack me with a rolling pin! I was really quite rude, and now I know how hard it can be to write a recipe that’s easy to follow, I have more sympathy (and a lot of shame; I’m sorry!)