Portrait of Van Gogh in Grimsby

BBC News has now picked upon the portrait of Van Gogh on display at the Abbey Walk Gallery in Grimsby

You can read more about the portrait here - "THE MISUNDERSTOOD" by Jeanne Donnadieu".

For me the most telling evidence is that the artist lived just four doors away from Vincent van Gogh.  Apart from the likelihood that the portrait is of van Gogh, it is a beautiful portrait, well worth a view!

Cleethorpes not Katapola

Two of my interests are Lincolnshire and Greece.

My blog about Greece (Kalo Taxidi)  is more developed than this blog.

I also have a website, Cleethorpes not Katapola, looking at the similarities and differences between two of my favourite places, Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire and Katapola on the Greek island of Amorgos.

Samphire

I had read about samphire, and seen photos of samphire.  In Greece I had seen a plant that looked as if it might be a type of samphire - but i was not certain enough to know if it was edible, and anyway how would I prepare it?

Then yesterday (20 August 2011) I was in Louth, Lincolnshire, and saw samphire on sale in a green grocers.  Then I saw a goats' cheese and samphire tart in the Cheese Shop (and ate one for lunch - very good!).  A fishmongers also was selling samphire.  I bought a bag of samphire, and we had samphire as a starter last night.  It tastes like salty, less fleshy, asparagus.  We cooked and served it like asparagus - steamed, and served with butter.

Some tips (no pun intended!).

I read that you should remove the woodly bits of the plant, which I tried to do.  But I only removed the brown bits that looked brown and woody.  The green part of the larger stems was also woody, so next time I will remove those as well.

Samphire is salty, so don't add any extra salt until you have tasted the cooked samphire.

Some reading about samphire.

"Join the samphire brigade"  "Join the samphire brigade" - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

How to cook samphire - BBC Good Food

Wikipedia - samphire