New ideas aplenty...starring YOU!

Eh-up, Imperialites – welcome back to another instalment of Felix Food! The weather’s turned turtle and it seems all of us in my flat have fallen victim to some form of Freshers’ Flu (despite not being freshers, pah.) That said, however, it’s perfect weather for all the comfort foods we associate with winter: stews, mash, soups... and dare I say it, hot puddings (obviously with more than a side of custard!)

This week we’re trying out something new where we feature a profile of one of the die-hard foodies here at Imperial every fortnight/month. It’s called Foodie InSight just because you can read it both as “insight” or “in sight”... yes, I do love my lame dual-meanings and puns, if you haven’t realized by now. I know there are loads of you foodies out there waiting to have your say, and it’s nice to have a look how everyone’s tastes differ throughout the student population. Our featured foodie this week (Mich) is great with curry and making almost all her meals; however, maybe there’s another foodie out there who’s better at European food and eating out cheaply? We’d love to hear from you, and what tips you have for us!

In other foodie-related happenings, I went to a coffee cupping event (cupping’s just a fancy word for tasting) for the first time ever at Pact Coffee HQ – most who know me will know that they’re my favorite coffee wing(wo)men. Some of you may already be of the opinion that specialty coffee tastings are “as pretentious” as wine tastings; I have very little knowledge of that, so I can’t comment. I can say however that the atmosphere of this cupping was anything but snobby, and most of us were just lay coffee drinkers (not experts with super-refined palates).

It was Brazillian coffee on offer so we learned a lot about its characteristics, and what was happening there... apparently there’s a serious drought that’s wrecked a fair bit of the harvest and caused production for the year to drop about 25% or so. Coffee’s one of those finicky things that’s very easily affected by weather and disease, which has quite a far-reaching humanitarian effect on the farmers and their families. Really sad, so next time you have that cuppa do spare a thought for the farmers that work so hard!

On that note, I’m going to sign off this editorial. Hope you enjoy some of Mich’s tips and recommendations for curry and a GLP (great little place) to visit here in London! Look out for something a bit more up the cocktail-themed alley next week...