The Beginning

The start of a new year always brings a landslide of new blogs from people who set themselves New Year’s Resolutions that they’re desperate to keep. Mine is no different really, except it’s taken me until April to get around to starting. You might think this translates to hour after hour slaving away on content, crafting every last word, ensuring that it is absolutely perfect to be read by literally tens of people, but more realistically it meant getting lost in the frustration of not being able to think of a good name.

I settled on NE9. The more local readers among you will perhaps realise that this is the start of a local postcode, representing Low Fell, where I was born and raised. It represents my food history in a way, where I learned about food and learned to cook, and so really it’s where my food story started, and where its heart will always be.

Anyway, onto the main event (or the main course, he says, tantalisingly offering a glimpse of both the topic of the blog and the trademark wit that you'll come to put up with through gritted teeth).

I love food. I love eating it, I love cooking it. I like great home cooking, as well as occasionally pushing the boat out and trying something a bit different.

I've decided it might be nice to share a bit of this; while I've no doubt the blog will grow and adapt as time goes on, for now I'm thinking it will be a mix of recipes, interspersed with perhaps the occasional restaurant review (if I eat somewhere worth telling you about) and anything else food-related that takes my fancy.

I hope you try some of the food, or maybe just take something away that you can use in your own kitchen. I'll try my hardest to make all of my recipes easy to do in a home kitchen - I don't have tonnes of fancy equipment - and also as accessible as I can ingredients-wise.

Mostly, I hope I can pass on a bit of my enthusiasm for food to even just a few people.

Enjoy.