The Wheaten Mill in Elmsett made this and they sell through the Co-Op (and probably other places too). It was nearly as good as our own home-made coffee cake and looks just the same. A bit less icing and more coffee flavour and it would have been perfect, but much much nicer than most shop bought cakes if you can't be bothered or run out of time to make one to have with your cup of tea.

Had to spend the day at Papworth hospital this week (not as a patient) but long enough to try their breakfast of deep fried sausage, deep fried bread, deep fried mushrooms, black pudding and bacon. But I did have tomatoes and it was only £3.49 for six items.

In a city said to have more restaurants per head of population than anywhere in the UK, there is no shortage of foodies. This year at the Edinburgh Festival there are events about the history of dieting, the challenge of food security and how to forage for wild food. One science-based event on sensory dining brings together a scent technician, a linguist, a chemist and a neuroscientist to look at how tweaking our various senses affects our experience of food. It will take the form of a sit-down meal with each of the five courses exploring one of our senses. Food for Thought, a theatre collective, will perform music and drama with their menu 'Dinner is Swerved' at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 3rd - 25th and it's sold out! Let's see if we can get them to come to Suffolk...

I've just had a Fab Colchester Adventure!

After throwing myself on the train with one minute to spare (without the luxury of a coffee to enjoy; which while we're on the subject is called a Palamino at Liverpool Street station, ie, what used to be my Bloody Awkward - espresso with a bit of hot milk) I sat feeling pleased with myself for making it, until I realised I was on the wrong train. So in order to avoid a hefty surcharge I had to get off at Colchester and wait for the right train. Luckily it was nearly lunch-time so although I wasn't optimistic I decided to try harder than the baked potato shop and found, to my delight, a kiosk selling hot salt-beef sandwiches (on really nice bread stuffed with pickles and mustard) and fresh watermelon and ginger juice, for under a tenner! Highly recommended. Don't know if he has a website but it's called Culver St Baristas. If I didn't live near Brick Lane where we get salt beef 24/7 I would deliberately get the wrong train just for this.

Do we like this idea? Are things moving in foodie-world or am I just distracted by that really fit waiter with no shirt on...?

• ready at the bar
• the different types of rum
• how to make a rum punch
• which is better?
• the judging...
• the winner!
•  

The perfect thing to do on a hot Saturday afternoon - book a rum tasting at Cottons in Camden. We went for a birthday treat and tasted six rums and two cocktails from all over the Caribbean. With their Global Rum Ambassador Ian Burrell away in Cuba we had the session with Andre, his nephew, who soon had us behind the bar mixing the cocktails. It was one of the best £25 I've ever spent, we left in a VERY good mood!

Started in Italy after the war when there wasn't much money about - yes, its an old idea - promoted in seventeen countries in the world and recently hi-jacked by Starbucks, here's how it is intended to work.

Choose a nice local independent cafe that has a discreet 'suspended coffee' sign in the window to buy your lunch, buy yourself a sandwich and a coffee. At the same time, pay for an extra coffee, asking for it to be suspended.

Johny Cakes - a man who has lost his job (it happened) is facing being homeless (not quite) and is looking for work, will see the sign that the cafe has out the front, saying they are taking part in suspended coffee, and asks if there are any suspended coffees available. Within five minutes he has a warm drink in his hands, thanks to the anonymous act of kindness of yourself and the cafe. Some places have extended it to food - I would like liver and bacon with mashed potatoes and runner beans please. 

This Saturdays media contribution to foodie enlightenment - featuring Pump Street bakery, and rather too many blogs from the US we think. But we do quite like A Girl Called Jack who has the cheapest tastiest recipes imagineable, proving that as long as you know how to cook, being on a low income doesn't mean you have to go to Iceland for everything.

... we were predicting ceviche as one of the latest things (See the Beach - our featured post) along with all things Peruvian and food made with eggs. And it looks like we were right.

...look for foodie pictures on the internet.