Lifestyle

The only thing missing from this bean was chocolate

If there were a smell I could capture, bottle up, and treasure forever, it would be the toasty and heartening smell of cacao roasting in the morning.

Hidden in plain sight: the bakery behind Oxford’s café counters

You may not know the name, but you have almost certainly eaten the pastry. Does the bakery behind Oxford’s favourite cafés hold its own at the counter?

Why are we so afraid of being bored?

We’ve come to think of boredom as an inevitable but unpleasant gap between activities, or as space to fill, but we’ve stopped seeing that space as worthwhile in itself.

Corn-ish at Oxford: A reflection on identity

Cornish folk are few and far between at Oxford. As a Cornishman myself (albeit half Cornish), I can vouch for how little people know of our nation.

Oxford’s community: life beyond the spires

Students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds are twice as likely to be low performers. Think about that for a moment. Sometimes at Oxford it’s easy...

Face to Face // Screen to Screen

If there’s one thing a national lockdown has given me, it’s time. Weekly screen-time reports never fail to astound me – minding my business,...

‘L’appetito viene mangiando’: why Southern Italian food is the best in the world

To make Italian food is a labour of love, and requires a love of labour

Nostalgia: it isn’t what it used to be

I remember a time when I took for granted that I could eat at restaurants, lay around in the park, and visit my family. Weeks...

Productivity fanatics: A society that’s forgotten to press pause

There’s a wonderful irony to the fact that the mediums we turn to so frequently for procrastination are the mediums that shame us the...

Food waste apps: small difference or meaningful change?

64% of all food waste actually occurs during harvest

Diversity, waste, and travel: what globalisation means for food

For many people, being at home during lockdown means that there is an abundance of time to spend preparing, eating, and thinking about food. Combined with...

A Note on Self-Forgiveness

TW: disordered eating, suicide In quarantine, where rooms are small and walls are thin, it’s very easy to become aware of the expanse of...

“Superstition ain’t the way” – did Stevie Wonder get it right?

On my left wrist sits a tiny silver star on a chain. On my right hand, a ring my mother was given by her...

The Real Cost of Eating Out

It’s a familiar feeling. You enter a restaurant, sit down, and by the time you open the menu and see the outrageous pricing, it’s...

Food for Comfort

Age 11, my secret banking password was RoastBeef, so, yes, I would call myself a foodie. Age 21, I eat three square meals under lockdown, so...

Home Workouts: A Guide

With term looming and a reading list down to our feet, we’re all getting our fair share of mental exercise. But with thinking comes frustration, and...

The Kitchen as a Political Space

Men tend to ‘enter into’ the kitchen whereas women are understood to be already there.

Genetically Modified Foods: Friend or Foe?

The EU has not approved any genetically modified (GM) fruit or vegetables as safe for human consumption and in the UK they are mainly used to...

Domestic, Religious, Uncanny: the Symbolism of Food in Art

The quotidian, comforting presence of food renders the trope ripe for subversion

A bygone age: restaurant reviews

I revel in the hyperbolic criticisms of journalists whose only job is to become eloquently irate about slightly sub-par food.

Hands or Cutlery? Resolving an Immigrant Identity Crisis

You are not merely what you eat, but, equally, how you eat.

Ode to a Waitress

‘I’d rather be doing anything, anything than this shit’, falls out between hysterical bouts of sobs – my Mum didn’t sign up for this....

Leaders of Tomorrow? It is Time to Practice Some Humility

At a recent job interview, I was asked whether I considered myself a follower or a leader. Later at lunch with some other candidates,...

Folding@Home: the virtual fight against a global pandemic

As we all isolate at home in the middle of this outbreak, it is difficult not to feel powerless. We are not medical professionals,...

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