Think global, act local?

I may be suffering from a bout of seasonally affected disorder (a holiday? Yeah, right), but watching Rick Stein’s latest foodie-travelogue (his ‘Far Eastern Odyssey’, BBC2, Wednesdays) has really given me a taste for...anything but safe, dull, uninspired British food.

Rick Stein brings a real sense of joy, excitement and humour to all things food-related; he tucks into the world on a plate with the enthusiasm of a puppy dog being told he’s going on ‘walkies’. In the Far East, he’s discovering the energy, history and traditions behind what's possibly the most exciting food in the world, stuffing his face with rich pickings on trains, roadsides and farm workers shacks (hah! Imagine trying to do that on Britain’s motorways); in summary, it’s the most invigorating thing on TV right now, whether you want the recipes or not.

Now compare and contrast Rick’s FEO with his ‘Food Heroes’ series, the UK equivalent of his odysseys. Throughout the last series, we drifted through self-conscious farmers’ markets packed with self-righteous posh families getting off on the frisson of having their (organic) carrots wrapped up in yesterday’s Guardian - a sharp contrast to the vibrant, bustling markets of Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Phuket. We met grumpy pig farmers grunting on about profit margins, cheese makers promoting expensive cheese that ‘smells like fart’ and WI members who yakked on about the war years - yawn, yawn, yawn.

Despite all the flim-flam about the rediscovery of ‘forgotten’ cuts of meat, restaurant mission statements supposedly promoting locally sourced food and food writers (myself included - eek!) banging on about the UK ‘food revolution’, modern British menus are too often largely based around the practicalities of convenience, either for the home cook or the restaurant chef. Real food represents culture, heritage and survival, not snobbery, ignorance and elitism - and in the UK, it’s still generally in tragically short supply.