Assorted food-related observations

• I love making my own stock with chicken carcasses, ham bones, and so on. It seems pointless, given how cheap and easy it is to buy the stuff, but I find it satisfying to use as much as I can from the animal. I also enjoy the bit where I pick the bones as clean as they can get.
• On a similar note, I get immense satisfaction from cooking with left-overs, odds and ends, and whatever I can find in the back of the kitchen cupboards. It feels like I'm getting something for nothing.
• I can taste a spicy dish and tell you exactly what spices are in it, but I cannot, for the life of me, identify the grape variety in a glass of wine.
• Of all coffees, I enjoy African coffees the most. And I think Hawaiian Kona is overrated.
• I really like going to the Mexican market and loading up on tomatilloes and assorted chile peppers. I think I have ten different varieties of chiles in my kitchen right now, none of which is habanero or jalapeno.
• My favourite meat is venison, preferably slow cooked in either port or brandy. Or both.
• My slow cooker is my favourite kitchen utensil. It feels good to cook while I make breakfast and then know I'll have a delicious meal on demand later that night.
• I cannot cook omelettes. I can't make scrambled eggs in a frying pan either.
• I'm lousy at cooking steak.
• I rarely eat deep fried food.
• I pride myself on being able to cook food from around the world, but my knowledge of French cuisine is practically nil. I can probably cook more Iraqi, Nigerian, or Polish dishes than French dishes.
• My favourite pizza topping is pepperoni, mushrooms, anchovies and jalapeno, with extra mozzarella. These days I prefer thin crispy pizzas to deep thick ones, and I like to eat the crusts, as long as they're properly crunchy.
• I prefer tawny to ruby port. And I'm partial to a good sherry. On the other hand, I never drink Scotch whisky.
• My favourite fruit is mango.
• I loathe raw tomatoes, except in salsa with plenty of lime and chilli.
• I almost never cook desserts or cakes, but I make a totally kick-ass baklava.
• The combination of meat and fruit is something I love experimenting with.
• I often make vegetarian meals, even though I'm not a veggie. I just like the variety and don't feel the need to include meat.
• I find cooking aubergines (eggplants) really tricky, especially the big Greek ones.
• I cannot eat seafood (but fish is OK) or tofu.
• I had a very satisfying moment a few years ago in a restaurant, when I realised that I was no longer choosing food because I hadn't tried it before; instead, I was choosing dishes which I couldn't make at home because I can't get the ingredients or I don't have the utensils. Now, I tend to choose food based on the restaurant's recommendation.