Pistachios for breakfastSince I have cut out all dairy from my diet (I now feel 100% better) I am still unsure of what to eat in the mornings. I absolutely loved cereals and yoghurt and muesli and lots of milk so now am a bit stuck. Am trying to have fruit juice and fruit in the morning but sometimes I need a little more. I am having toast and jam, sometimes granola bars but today I had a bag of pistachios.

I know it is odd but that was the only thing in the kitchen this morning. I ate the unsalted Marks and Spencer brand ones which were great. I then Googled what they are exactly and found out that the pistachio is the name of the tree and we eat the seed of the pistachio fruit. Did you know that –it is a fruit seed not a nut.

The reason why the Diabs were always eating nuts like pistachios are that the trees are native to the middle east, namely Iran and Afghanistan but the US –mainly California is now the second largest producer and exporter of the tree’s seed. I guess we call it a nut to make life easier and because it looks like a nut. Unlike olives which need to be cracked by hand, the pistachio shell cracks itself when the fruit ripens, apparently you can hear the pop.

Just some interesting food for thought today – I was unaware of any of these facts but they say, you learn something new every day!

SOMA ice cream
The berriest ice cream you have ever had. It was almost too flavourful as it was soo potent. You are not used to eating pure crushed blueberries mixed with a little bit of water and sugar - blueberry ice cream is usually almost 90% artificial with blueberry flavour added.

When I tasted this ice cream it tasted nothing like the bluberry ice cream that I am used to. Instead it tasted strong and the blueberry flavour was almost over powering as it is so concentrated. I saw them make a huge batch of the puree and it was basically a 10kg bag of frozen blueberries poured into a large blender and pureed with ice.

Am sure the mango, strawberry and the pistachio were made the same way. Oddly enough, I didn't like the ice cream as it was too much, too strong and maybe the right balance of sugar and fruit was not made, the mango seemed too sweet while the blueberry seemed too sour.

Oh well - I will definitely keep taste testing!

Go to the Jane Corkin gallery and then SOMA, in the Distillery District, for art, chocolate and ice cream and let me know what you think.