Having spent a couple of months in India where, despite relishing the local food, I missed cooking for myself, I'm enjoying getting back to the kitchen - and to the Otago Farmers Market.
Chillies are native to Central and South America, and widely used in Mexican cuisine, where they were cultivated some 5000 years ago.
Kerala promotes itself as "God's own country'' and God has been generous here.
Now that pepper is ubiquitous, it's hard to believe the demand for it drove Arab and European explorers to brave the dangers of the unknown and build and destroy empires.
Autumn has hit the Otago Farmers Market in Dunedin - piles of pumpkins and squash of all colours and sizes - small bright orange ones, smooth shiny dark green ones, the familiar grey ones, the knobbly green and yellow kumikumi, and even a long, trombone-like Italian zucchini at Wairuna Organics' stall.
While there are few bad New Zealand sauvignons these days (except perhaps at the very bottom of the ladder), it has to be admitted that most are simple wines driven by oodles of fruit and a lively zesty finish and tend to be boring after a glass or two.
Mark Scorgie, of Gourmet Ice Cream, in Dunedin, is always experimenting with new flavours for his ice creams and is bubbling about his latest - dandelion and burdock, a type of thistle.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to premium spirits. Connoisseurs look for complexity and aroma to savour, but the bright young cocktail set want to mix them flamboyantly with other flavours.
One of the most interesting cookbooks to cross my desk (and my bench) recently is Kate Fraser's Cooking Times: A culinary journey through Kiwi kitchens from the 1930s to the present day
Among the pile of ‘‘healthy'' cookbooks to arrive for review recently, is The Usborne Healthy Cookbook, by Fiona Patchett (hbk/ spiral $30).
Exploring a cookbook of recipes from another cuisine is always exciting, especially if there's a good story with it.
This is a delicious, sweet, dry, fragrant curry, adapted from Mahdur Jaffrey's indispensable World Vegetarian (1998).
Most wine drinkers recognise red wine varieties such as merlot, cabernet, shiraz and pinot noir, but there are numerous others, a few of which are being grown in New Zealand (and Australia) now.
Pumpkins are everywhere at the moment - big orange ones nearly large enough for Cinderella's coach, small dark green buttercups just sufficient for a single serving
Like all good stories the story of the pavlova is complicated and full of red herrings and folklore.
Dessert wines, known affectionately as stickies, are little treasures, rich, fragrant, intriguingly sweet with complex flavours but not cloying.
After writing about various uses of pumpkins last week I could not resist this delicious recipe
Last weekend's Savour New Zealand was a treat for almost 600 food and wine lovers.
Sauvignon Blanc can be good value at around $18-$20. For this, you mostly get a lively wine with bright fruit and crisp finish.
Stephanie Alexander shares a favourite healthy recipe for silverbeet and potato torte from her latest cookbook Kitchen Garden Cooking with kids.
