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Age is just a number

“You can’t beat death But you can beat death in life, sometimes…” Charles Bukowski – The Laughing Heart Being in your mid-50s is sort of a weird, transitory period. You’re not young, you’re not even middle-aged, to be honest, unless you think you’ll live to 110 years old. But you’re not old-old yet, if you […]

Are you what you eat?

If this was a newspaper, this post would akin to a “Letter to the Editor”. I’m not a dietician, nor do I play one on TV. The opinions I express are just that, opinions, albeit backed by a certain amount of research. The question I’ve been pondering is what is the best sustainable dietary regime […]

Why the name of the blog has changed…

My readership, in their teaming dozens, may have noticed that the title of this blog has changed slightly. I took the word “beer” out. To be honest, I originally added it for alliterative effect, to follow “barbells” and “books” but also, beer was a major part of my life for a long, long time. If […]

The battle of the spicy vegetable condiments – Kimchi vs. Pikliz

Yesterday I realized that I had accidentally made the most blatantly pretentious fusion snack possible. As I got home with steaming bag of Korean takeaway food, my first instinct was to use the Korean fried chicken for some sort of sandwich. I quickly took stock of what was in the fridge and made a wrap […]

Pikliz – Haitian spicy pickled veggies #Superfood#takethatkimchi

Dear readers, I apologize for not having brought this recipe to your attention before. One of goals of this blog is share healthy and tasty recipes that elevate your daily cooking. Pikliz does exactly that – it adds a zingy, spicy, crunchy texture on top of fried foods (such as falafel), rice and sandwiches. It […]

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The best “plain” rice you’ve ever had – REvisited!!

Probably the biggest sin for a Caribbean cook is to make boring rice. Caribbean cooks have, of course, a number of rightly famous and delicious rice recipes (red beans and rice, dirty rice, congo beans and rice and, of course, the inimitable Haitian riz djondjon to name but a few). Their biggest “hidden talent”, in […]

Veganism and Strength Sports

What follows are my personal, unscientific, non-triple blind tested observations on the effects of a plant-based diet on training for strength sports. Is it better, is it worse and, if so, why? Is it harder to stick to a vegan diet? What are the non-sports benefits? What is over-rated about a plant-based diet? What are […]

YouTubular – The best videos of the week

I watch a lot of YouTube. I have “cable” TV, Netflix and Amazon Prime but I only tend to browse through the choices/channels on the weekends and, typically, give up and pick up a book instead. Youtube, however, is addictive. There is a lot of bad content so the trick is having a “nose” for […]

Aging, self-image and weight-training

How old do you feel? How old do you look? If you’re past the age of 40, in your minds-eye, what version of you is your self-image based on? Maybe this is a purely masculine thing, but if I was honest my “mental avatar” is me, albeit circa 29 years old. I mean that is […]

Down the Youtube rabbit hole

Over the last few years I have realized that I tend to watch more Youtube content than I do mainstream TV. My habit began when I realized that YouTube contains some fairly solid powerlifting content. Then I discovered a number of good cooking resources, some excellent podcasts, alternative journalism and down the rabbit hole I […]