Before my first visit to the UK I thought that there was no such thing as great British food. I was given loads of valuable information by my (in their opinion) well traveled friends about the food in the UK. They issued warnings like 'Be prepared to be unimpressed, it's all so bland', 'The ketchup in the UK is strange' , 'They put butter, yes butter on every kind of sandwich', 'The only flavour of potato crisps you will find is salt and vinegar'

This sage advice advice had me contemplating packing food to avoid the potential starvation was dooming my travels. The year was 1998 and I was terrified of British Cuisine. Once on British soil I found most of the advice was rubbish. After about 10 years in the UK the only time that I've experienced bland British food is when it's been poorly executed. Any cuisine can suffer the same dreadful fate when left to uncaring hands.

Hold on, this rambling is not about about poorly executed food, But a celebration of Great British Food!

If you follow me on twitter you could probably tell from my tourettesque rants about Lost that I'm slightly obsessed with it. More like majorly obsessed! To the point of struggling to know how I will cope without it come May of this year. I guess I'll just have to re-watch it time after time in a dimly lit room sitting in a tear stained housecoat sipping coffee from a caffeine stained mug. Oh the depression that may ensue.

Watching the episode that was rather Kweon-centric it occured to me that of all the Asian food I love, I've not had any decent Korean. My First foray into Korean was in the American Midwest. With most things in the Midwest, unless it's down-home BBQ, it's not going to be a mega success even if it is Korean BBQ.

I had a mooch around on the Internet to see what was on offer in London in the way of Korean cuisine. The search led to several sites that had such horrendous music playing I quickly turned to expert advice rather than doing my own research. After a quick querie on twitter I asked my favourite restaurant obsessive she suggested two places. Purely out of location I picked Kobe.

What more could you ask for on a Saturday morning than a game a pin the tail on a tranny, buy a cupcake, pick up a vintage find, win some lovely jewelry and eat confections by yours truly!

If you came down the the Eat Your Heart Out Bring & Buy Fundraiser on Saturday the 10th of April you could have done that and more!   As with all things EYHO this was a avant-take on church hall fete.  All money raised went to support eight international unfunded artists. The funds enable them to continue to create new work for inclusive audiences across the UK.

EYHO founder Scottee invited me to join in the sale and I could not turn down the offer.  A bit of a major accident happened on the night before the Bring & Buy, Scottee fell off the stage at the Round House, so rather than hosting the event he was laid up in the hospital getting stitches and casts galore.  Myra Dubois and Ms Anabelle Sings did a wonderful job of hostessing the event.

There were stalls from selling vintage togs and jewelry from the likes of Tatty Devine, Phillip Normal, Rainbow Faggot and Bourgoise & Maurice. Art By James Unsworth & Ryan McClelland. The sweet tooth was catered for by Molly Bakes and some loud American known as ScottCanCook.

I began my love affair with samphire purely by accident.  I received it as a gift from a market fresh produce delivery company called Solstice. They used to have a handy little webshop that had almost everything gastronimic you could imagine. It was good enough to negate a trip to Borough Market and it's droves of food gawkers.

When I opened the punnet I was intrigued by the look of samphire. I took a bite of it raw and was completely hooked. Samphire is a coastal plant that grows in the sea marsh. Samphire has vibrant green stalks, akin to baby asparagus. In the states samphire is called sea bean. so seek it out! It has wonderfully crisp and fresh sea taste. I love it raw and lightly cooked.

This is a super speedy meal that gives the taste of dining alfresco next to the sea.

Don't you hate when you are a fully functioning adult, living a happy life only to find out that your childhood was a fraud?

Ok that may be a tad dramatic, but when thinking back to some of my favourite dishes from my childhood the situation rang true. I loved eating out at Chinese restaurants as a child. Growing up in Pueblo Colorado, Mexican food reigned supreme. There were other world cuisines, but they were few and far between.

My favourite Chinese restaurant in Pueblo was The Mandarin. I'd always go there and order among other things 'Happy Family' and crab rangoon. You can order Crab Rngoon in most Chinese restaurants across the states. Crab rangoon are wan-ton wrapper dumplings filled with a combination of cream cheese, crab meat, spring onions and garlic deep fried to golden brown perfection.

After about 10 years in the UK I began to wonder why I never saw them in the plethora of Chinese restaurants here. That's when my childhood became a sham! (Sorry with the amature dramatics). My childhood was not a sham, just my favourite dish served at Chinese restaurants was a fraud.