August 2025 favourites list

Welcome to this month’s list. I hope you love the food writing, tips, travel, and recipes I have collected for your reading pleasure.  

 

 

This month’s photos are from a small wildflower grass verge grown by a residents organisation in Hounslow. The colour and vibrancy of the poppies and cornflowers was so much prettier than just plain lawn. The bees and butterflies benefitted from these flowers more than they would have with grass alone, and we all know how important it is to look after the bees. I had to stop to take a picture, and I hope the residents will be doing more of the same next year.  

Food writing  

A zingy and spicy guide to the different types of ginger in the world: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/different-kinds-of-ginger  

There have been lots of hot takes on the early dining conundrum; whether a 6pm or 8pm table reservation is ideal, whether it is a Gen Z thing, whether it is the end of civilisation… I’m not remotely Gen Z, but have to say, I like an early table for all the reasons this diner does. It might have something to do with living far enough from Central London that any public transport journey takes me more than an hour… https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/restaurants-bookings-early-bird-dinner-6pm-b2801647.html  

Kitchen tips 

I love garlic. But I confess, I don’t enjoy peeling it. I tend to give it a good bash and then peel. https://www.foodandwine.com/how-chefs-peel-garlic-11784335 

I try to match up my cooking oil either to the type of food I’m making, or matching to the likely cooking temperature. Here is a guide to cooking oils and when to use them: https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/you-might-be-using-the-wrong-oil-a-guide-to-cooking-oils-and-when-to-use-them/ 

Cooking pasta is one of the first things many of us ever had to learn, but we might have acquired some ingrained bad habits: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/6-mistakes-you-make-when-cooking-pasta_uk_688ccb69e4b08a266e7d518f 

There are so many kitchen gadgets you fork out for and discover are badly designed, difficult to use, or just not needed as often as you thought. Here are 6 to avoid, and I completely agree on glass chopping boards, just yuk: https://www.pressreader.com/australia/the-guardian-australia/20250327/282106347439901  

Yotam Ottolenghi on umami, fermentation, and how to make your food just taste “more”: https://archive.ph/Z6nwE  

The Yotam Ottolenghi tomato and date salad he discusses in the above article (with an umami boost of fish sauce): https://archive.ph/godoz  

How to get the richness and flavour of restaurant quality risotto at home: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/restaurant-level-risotto-tips_uk_688786dee4b0b5f7e9081232 

 

Recipes  

Minced Lamb and Aubergine Noodles recipe from new cookbook Chinese Made Easy by Kwoklyn Wan: https://www.kaveyeats.com/minced-lamb-and-aubergine-noodles 

This is the point in summer where tomatoes are ripe, red and ready. Felicity Cloake has turned her usual attention to detail to the Italian classic Pasta al pomodoro crudo (pasta with raw chopped tomatoes): https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/aug/03/how-to-make-perfect-fresh-tomato-pasta-recipe-felicity-cloake 

TikTok sensation and School of Wok tutor Emma Chung shares a recipe from her first cookbook, crispy chilli beef with sriracha: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/crispy-chilli-beef-recipe-sriracha-easy-fakeaway-b2789838.html  

 

 

Food and travel  

Mieke, otherwise known by her blog name Dorothy Porker, is a Dutch-Indonesian food author and cookbook writer living in France. She's done us all a massive favour and collected her top food tips for Bordeaux: https://www.dorothy-porker.com/some-bordeaux-food-tips-for-you/ 

One of my favourite things to do when travelling abroad is to visit a food market. Another, is visiting grocery stores and supermarkets. When I tell some people they think it is a strange and mundane thing to spend precious annual leave on. Others agree it is a view into food culture which you wouldn’t get any other way. This piece is a beautifully written celebration of this holiday activity:  https://www.goya.in/blog/the-anthropology-of-aisles-reading-cultures-through-grocery-store  

What you might have missed at Snig’s Kitchen 

My mini blog post on Tom Kerridge's recipe for Barbecue pork chops with spicy white beans: https://www.tumblr.com/snigskitchen/790710841641205760/barbecue-pork-chops-ms-recipe-ms 

My Doll Hello Kitty Dim Sum Japanese prawn flavour instant noodle review: https://snigskitchen.blogspot.com/2025/08/doll-hello-kitty-dim-sum-noodle-review.html  

Please note: as with every monthly Favourites List, all of these items have been selected by me simply because I love them. I do not receive any money, benefits in kind or other incentive for posting these links or recommendations. 

 

Doll Hello Kitty Dim Sum Noodle review

Doll Hello Kitty Dim Sum Japanese prawn flavour instant noodle review

 

I was immediately struck by the Kawaii pink cuteness of this dinky pot noodle product in the Vietnamese grocery shop Lai and Loi in Deptford High Street. I had never seen a Hello Kitty instant noodle product, and I had to have it!

Hello Kitty, or Kitty White, was created in 1974 by Japanese artist Yuko Shimizu (although Yuko Yamaguchi took over the Kitty designs in 1980). She is still Sanrio’s most popular character, half a century later. I was surprised to discover Kitty is meant to be British, and was named after Alice’s Kitty in the Alice In Wonderland books. But the distinctive cat with her big red bow was based on Yuko’s childhood pet, with Shimizu saying “when I was a child, I got a small white kitten from my father for a birthday present”. Kitty is such an icon she’s a UNICEF ambassador and was named UNICEF’s Special Friend of Children.

While I am not a Hello Kitty obsessive, I do have some Hello Kitty products bought on my travels to Japan. She might seem a little bit childish and girly, but there’s something about having grown up seeing her on so many products which means she’s special to me.

Doll is a Hong Kong based noodle brand, part of Winner Food Products Limited. They have been manufacturing instant noodles since 1969. The company also make frozen dim sum and other catering Chinese food products. Their first Doll bowl noodle was made in 1983 and they were bought up by the Nissin (Cup Noodle) company in 1989.

The product

Made by Doll brand, I bought a small cardboard cup/pot of noodles, which are around a half or a third of the size of a standard Cup Noodle. The dried weight was 37g. The packet describes the product as “dim sum noodle Japanese shrimp flavour”. There is so much cuteness to this pack, with drawings of Kitty along the side, with pink prawns and noodles. 

 

There are other flavours available in this range including a Tonkotsu flavour, Japanese Soy sauce flavour, and POMPOMPURIN Braised Beef Flavour.

This product is not suitable for vegetarians, vegans, or those following a halal or kosher diet; there are egg, fish extracts, prawn extracts, squid extract, and shrimp paste in the product.

What’s Inside

There is a small cake of wheat noodles in the bottom. The ingredients indicate the noodles have had some flavourings added such as soy, garlic, and other flavourings.

There are three little packets - soup base, dried veggies, and sauce.  

 

In the little dried vegetable packet there were tiny little Hello Kitty faces, as there are a number of Kitty Kamaboko. These are little pressed dried surimi fish cakes, made of pollock fish. The dried vegetables are carrot, green/spring onion and sweetcorn.  

The seasoning has prawn and fish extract and dried shrimp paste, plus onion powder, garlic powder and flavourings.

But the little surprise here is a Hello Kitty sticker, which now has pride of place on the cover of my diary!

 

What does it taste like

The noodles are quite narrow, which means you do need to stick to the 2 minute “cooking time”, and significantly exceeding this will result in soggy noodles (unless that’s your thing!). They had some bite after 2 minutes, but I felt they were a bit too soft for me. I like a bite to my ramen. 

 

The broth had some good umami flavours, but smelt “fishy”. The shrimp paste used in the seasoning made the soup taste a bit more Thai than Chinese dim sum or Japanese prawns.

This is pretty good instant noodle product, but seems that the Hello Kitty branding has resulted in a higher price point than the quality of the food warrants. I paid £1.75 from a small independent shop, I have seen £1.55 or £1.48 online. Doll brand’s pots of noodles sell for £1.99 for 100g+ packs, so my £1.75 for 37g is steep, taking into account the adorable Hello Kitty sticker thrown in.

I use Gingey Bites’ rating system for my noodles. For Alex’s scoring method and an index of all of her instant noodle reviews, please see: https://gingeybites.com/guide-to-instant-noodles

My ratings:

Texture 6/10

Flavour 7/10

Ease of making 10/10

Would I buy them again: No – but I would try other Doll brand noodle products

Silvana Franco shares 5 ideas to turn instant ramen into a simple midweek meal: https://archive.md/7dHbF

If you follow my instant noodle reviews, you will know I love to add ingredients and flavours to instant noodles. Here, at Kavey Eats blog (run by the brilliant food, travel and cooking enthusiast Kavita – AKA Kavey) is a new spin on modifying Korean instant noodles from Su Scott’s new cookbook Pocha: https://www.kaveyeats.com/tomato-kimchi-ramyun-instant-noodle

For my previous Instant noodle reviews please see:

You can read my review of Itsu’s Chick N Ramen noodles here:  https://snigskitchen.blogspot.com/2025/03/itsu-chick-n-ramen-instant-noodle-review.html

You can read my review of Nissin x Shoryu “Ramen Masters” Cup Noodle: https://snigskitchen.blogspot.com/2024/01/nissin-x-shoryu-ramen-masters-cup.html

You can read my review of Maruchan spicy chicken and prawn noodles here: https://snigskitchen.blogspot.com/2024/05/maruchan-spicy-chicken-and-prawn.html

You can read my review of Nongshim brand’s “Chapagetti” noodles here: https://snigskitchen.blogspot.com/2024/09/nongshim-chapagetti-noodle-review.html

This review represents the genuine opinions of Snigdha, who has received no incentive to write this review, and who purchased the product with her own money.

July 2025 favourites list

Welcome to this month’s list, and my most recent cooking experiments.Happy reading, happy eating, and happy cooking!

Food writing

This edition of Catherine Phipps’ newsletter on pressure cooking is a gem, as Catherine allows her son and his friend (on work experience as recipe developers) take over the newsletter. The explanation of the science of pressure cooking is particularly helpful: https://catherine244.substack.com/p/a-tale-of-too-many-tacos-or-not-enough

Kitchen tips

If you love baking but don’t want to waste a whole egg just on eggy wash, Allie from Lifehacker has tried out replacements and reviewed them: https://lifehacker.com/food-drink/best-egg-wash-replacement

Home made stir fry sauces are much better than the bland, overly sweet ones in the supermarket. I’ll make an exception for Tean’s Gourmet or Asian Home Gourmet from the Chinese/Vietnamese grocery shop. For what it is worth, I make a stir fry sauce for noodles with Shaoxing rice wine, hoisin sauce, light soy sauce, and oyster sauce. https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/jul/15/why-homemade-stir-fry-sauces-are-always-better-than-shop-bought-kitchen-aide

Chicken stir fry with my special homemade sauce

Chef José Pizarro says: ‘Anyone can cook Spanish food – you just need the right basics’. He shares his tips on tomatoes, caramelising onions, cooking rice, and perfecting tortilla: https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/food-and-drink/features/jose-pizarro-spanish-cooking-recipes-basics-tips-b2781025.html

Summer means summer holidays. We explore new horizons and eat new foods. Here the people from BBC Food give some helpful advice on how to recreate those magical holiday dishes at home. https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/recreate_holiday_dishes

Time and money saving cooking tips from Amy Sheppard, the author of The Aldi Lover’s Guide To Cooking: https://archive.md/HTQL0

Summer obviously means barbeques. So here are some recipe ideas from the high and low ends of the spectrum: https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/the-ultimate-barbecue-menu-recipe-ideas-from-simple-to-posh

Here are some barbequeing tips from a professional. Because we can all do with a little help! https://www.standard.co.uk/going-out/foodanddrink/barbecue-tips-professional-b1237430.html

Recipes

After a chat on Bluesky with foodie and world traveller May about using baked beans as a cross cultural mashup base, I was so honoured and pleased that she wrote up the recipe for us. Here is it – Chinese (Hokkien influenced) baked beans with minced pork: https://www.eatcookexplore.com/chinese-baked-beans-with-minced-pork/

 

May's Chinese baked beans with rice

Top chef Simon Rogan of L’Enclume’s summery recipe for Hake with a beetroot salad with watercress. https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/hake-recipe-beetroot-salad-watercress

Using Nigella’s dressing as inspiration, I made a roast chicken and glass noodle salad, with some veggies I had left over from a stir fry: https://www.nigella.com/recipes/turkey-and-glass-noodle-salad

 

Glass Noodle salad with Nigella's dressing

Tom Kerridge’s new TV show has him travelling around Spain exploring restaurants, home cooking, and ingredients. This stew with white beans (Alubias) can be served with grilled pork chops, or crusty bread, or by itself: https://www.marksandspencer.com/c/food-and-wine/cooking/recipes/223900/barbecue-pork-chops-with-spicy-white-beans-recipe/

Food and travel

Kavey's travel blog posts are always a treat, but this special on pinxtos in San Sebastian is unmissable. If the foodie paradise isn't on your bucket list yet, it certainly will be! https://www.kaveyeats.com/favourite-eats-san-sebastian

Food writer Nicola Miller has written about how fridge magnets are the perfect souvenir of our travels in this article for Waitrose Food Magazine. As a fellow collector of fridge magnets, I heartily agree. Scroll to page 71! https://digital-mag.co.uk/waitrosefood-magazine/july2025/

 

Mushroom and porcini risotto

My other writing

I wrote this advice for wannabe barristers on mini pupillage. It’s shadowing a barrister for anything from 1 day to 1 week, with tips on what to do and what not to do (do not be late!): https://snigsclassroom.blogspot.com/2025/06/what-to-do-on-mini-pupillage.html

Music

I was introduced to Nick Drake's music in the early naughties, and it immediately found a place in my heart. All three of the albums he produced in his lifetime are excellent, but Five Leaves Left is my personal favourite. So this deep dive into the making of the album on BBC Sounds has been a treat. Thank you to my Bluesky friend Mark Baxter for putting me onto it.

Available on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002fy4v

 

Beef and pork ragu with tagliatelle

Please note: as with every monthly Favourites List, all of these items have been selected by me simply because I love them. I do not receive any money, benefits in kind or other incentive for posting these links or recommendations.