A report has found Sydney Water did not perform an "appropriate level of due diligence" before it claimed in June 2024 there were no known PFAS hotspots within its drinking water catchments.

This juicy poached dish packs in hearty flavours and pairs well with buttery potatoes, rice or couscous Al cartoccio is the Italian form of en papillote, meaning “contained” or “in paper”, which is an effective cooking method that traps the moisture (and flavour) released from the ingredients and creates a steamy poaching chamber – it’s a bit like a Turkish bath for food! Once out of the oven, but still sealed, the scented steam trapped in the paper returns to liquid and creates a brothy sauce. Fish with firm white or pink flesh that breaks into fat flakes is particularly well suited to cooking al cartoccio, both whole fish (cleaned and on the bone) and individual filets (estimate 110g-140g per person). When choosing fish, keep in mind our collective default to cod and haddock, both members of the so-called “big five” that make up a staggering 80% of UK consumption. Instead, look out for other species, such as hake, huss or North Sea plaice, ASC-certified Scottish salmon, sea trout or farmed rainbow trout. For more detailed and updated advice, the Marine Conservation Society produces an invaluable, area-by-area good fish guide that uses a five-tiered system to rank both “best choice” and “fish to avoid” based on the species, location and fishing method. Also, don’t forget how well fish freezes, so always check the frozen food section, too. Continue reading...

Strawberries and cream meets Eton mess, using just a single egg white and past-its-best summer fruit – a towering success Just a single egg white can be transformed into enough elegant meringue shards to crown more than four servings of pudding, as I discovered when, earlier this year, I was invited by Cole & Mason to come up with a recipe to mark London History Day and decided to do so by celebrating the opening of the Shard in 2012. Meringue shards make a lovely finishing touch to all kinds of desserts, from a rich trifle to an avant-garde pavlova or that timeless classic, the Eton mess. As for the leftover yolk, I have several recipes, including spaghetti carbonara (also featuring salt-cured egg yolks that make a wonderful alternative to parmesan) and brown banana curd. Continue reading...

When I opened my first restaurant, just before the war began, I was a perfectionist. My time in an army unit taught me about discipline and what’s really important Every chef longs to open their own restaurant so, when I did, it felt like a dream. I had been away working in some of the best restaurants in Europe. My business partner had a great spot for a restaurant in the centre of Dnipro, my home city in Ukraine, and we opened to rave reviews. My team and I were all a similar age and we had a shared vision: to create modern Ukrainian food. But by February 2022, just three months later, we knew war with Russia was likely. I was already in touch with friends in the army and, if Russia invaded, I knew I would fight. When the war started, all the team gathered in the restaurant and I said I would understand if anybody wanted to leave Dnipro and move west, where it was safer, which lots of people were doing. Nobody wanted to. We decided that anyone who wasn’t going to join the army would keep the restaurant going. The team started cooking for hospitals and the national guard, and making up food packs for people who needed them. Continue reading...

Three treats from her new book, Baking and the Meaning of Life The combination of pineapple, salt and tamarind was part of my childhood in Malaysia. In fruit salads and the famous Penang laksa, the mix of sweet, tangy, salty and acidic is so vibrant and distinctive that, for me, it is almost synonymous with the country of my birth and, more importantly, its incredible range of foods and flavours. Naturally, then, I wanted to recreate that in a cake. The choice of an upside-down cake was obvious when thinking about pineapple, and adding tamarind to the caramel felt an exciting addition to the flaky sea salt we all know and love. I have always been intrigued by the fact that small children, my own included, who seem so sensitive to spice in anything else, love gingerbread cookies, which have such a robust flavour profile and warm spiciness. When my boys were going for a birthday sleepover, I had the idea of translating Nigella Lawson’s chocolate Guinness cake into a ginger version, replacing the stout with ginger beer. It was a very successful experiment – the cake retains all the damp luxury of the original, with a backbite of ginger that engages intriguingly with the chocolate. The children loved it, as did the adults. Continue reading...

Evidence of millions of animal bones at sites in West Country and Surrey points to ‘age of feasting’ These days, revellers converge on the West Country from all parts of the UK and beyond to take part in the wonderful craziness of the Glastonbury festival. It turns out that at the end of the bronze age – also a time of climatic and economic crisis – the same sort of impulse gripped people. Continue reading...

Cheap ultra-processed food behind rise in overweight children, with one in 10 now obese globally, says Unicef More children around the world are obese than underweight for the first time, according to a UN report that warns ultra-processed junk food is overwhelming childhood diets. There are 188 million teenagers and school-age children with obesity – one in 10 – Unicef said, affecting health and development and bringing a risk of life-threatening diseases. Continue reading...

A species more than 360 million years old is spotted migrating up the Margaret River in the state's south-west after record winter rains.

It's barely the size of a sesame seed, but the shot hole borer has quickly devastated Western Australia's tree canopy. Experts are warning other states and territories to take action now to avoid a similar fate.

US southern-style restaurant chain was met with outrage for changing branding to more minimalist style Cracker Barrel announced on Tuesday that it’s suspending plans to remodel its restaurants just weeks after reversing a logo change that ignited a political firestorm. The 56-year-old restaurant chain, known for southern-style cooking and country-store aesthetic, faced intense backlash last month after unveiling a rebranding effort aimed at modernizing its image. The company rolled out a new minimalist logo and plans for more contemporary interiors, and it updated menu items. Continue reading...

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield say it is ‘not the Ben & Jerry’s’ they founded after being ‘silenced’ by Unilever over matters of social justice The co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s have called for the ice-cream brand to be made independent and excluded from current owner Unilever’s plans to list its ice-cream business on the stock market. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield say The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC), a new division of Unilever that is set to be separately listed in November and includes the brand founded by the pair in 1978 alongside Magnum, Cornetto and Wall’s, “must free Ben & Jerry’s” in an open letter to prospective investors and the group’s board. Continue reading...

With six friends and multiple kids in tow, Sarah Ayoub tests 10 brands of frozen sausage rolls to find the ones with crisp exteriors and convincingly meaty flavours If you value our independent journalism, we hope you’ll consider supporting us today With spring picnics and footy finals on the horizon, sausage rolls – one of the pinnacles of frozen celebration foods – are in order. But with up to a dozen varieties in your local supermarket freezer, it’s hard to make an informed choice. I rounded up six friends (plus a couple of kids) with discerning frozen-food palates: people who love a sausage roll and see it as a culinary staple, whether it comes from the servo or a bakery, and parents used to baking them in a pinch for dinner or for a crowd at birthday parties. Continue reading...

From pairing with fried fish, to being the reviver of a leftover Sunday roast, brown sauce doesn’t just have to be in a bun I like my bacon sandwich with brown sauce, but that means keeping a bottle for a long time. What else can I do with it? Will, via email In the early 1980s, Tom Harris, co-owner and chef at the Marksman in east London, made a beer mat from penny coins for his dad (and in the quest to secure a Blue Peter badge): “The instructions said to put the dirty coins in brown sauce overnight,” he recalls. “The next morning, they were all shiny and looked brand new, so there’s another use for it right there!” Brown sauce is “an absolute marvel”, agrees Sabrina Ghayour, author of the recently published Persiana Easy, and not just for its cleaning prowess: “If you break it down, the sauce is packed with some pretty interesting ingredients, including my beloved tamarind.” It’s worth exploring your bottle options beyond HP, too, not least because there was much controversy back in 2011 when the brand gave its recipe, which had remained unchanged for more than a century, a tweak. “They reduced the salt [from 2.1g per 100g to 1.3g] and it completely upset the balance,” Harris says, “and that’s a great sadness.” That’s why Ghayour’s go-to these days is Tiptree: “It has a slightly less vinegary punch and a more rounded sweetness,” which comes with the added bonus of making it “even more versatile”. Got a culinary dilemma? Email [email protected] Continue reading...

High levels of lead detected in the water at Perth Children's Hospital do not pose a risk to patient safety, health authorities say.

Europeans put their faith in centuries-old, all-natural production to maintain US custom Giuseppe Alai wanders through the cellar of his dairy in Emilia-Romagna, the air filled with the smell of ageing wheels of parmesan lined up in endless rows. Pointing towards the thick rinds wrapped around them, each bearing the distinct dotted engraving of their Parmigiano Reggiano mark of origin, he recalls an anecdote from his grandfather at the end of the second world war. A wheel of parmigiano reggiano. Continue reading...

ABS data shows Australian diets contain less sugar than three decades ago, meeting WHO guidelines for the first time Australia is now meeting the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guidelines on sugar, which recommend keeping sugar below 10% of daily energy intake. New data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows there is less sugar in our diet from food and drinks than three decades ago. Between 1995 and 2023, there was a 65.28% drop in the proportion of children drinking sugary drinks. The number of adults drinking sugary drinks fell from 40.2% in 2011–12 to 29.9% in 2023. However, adults still consume about 5% more sugary drinks than children. On average, Australians have less sugar in their diet than they did a decade ago. Continue reading...

Format to be tested in last quarter of year after chain’s value cut by a third amid ‘intense strains’ on hospitality industry Pret a Manger is finally caving in to competition from supermarkets by launching meal deals, after the value of the chain was slashed by a third amid “intense strains” on the hospitality industry. The sandwich and coffee chain said it intends to test the meal deal format in the last quarter of this year, as a medium-term strategy to grow the Pret brand and return to sustainable profits. It did not say how much the meal deals will cost. Continue reading...

South Australia's Limestone Coast is home to lush terrain in Australia's driest state, but its groundwater supplies are slowly in decline.

Elevate this everyday favourite with a serving of lemon and paprika-spiked greens Eggs in a basket are a treat. The easiest way to make the necessary holes in your sliced bread is with a round pastry cutter – or a heart-shaped one for fun. Break the eggs into their bread ‘baskets’, then fry up their “hats” to go alongside. To make this a grownup rather than a nursery dinner, serve with lemon-and-paprika-spiked chard, or spinach or kale, if that’s what you have; I am growing a surfeit of chard, so I always need new ways to use it up. Continue reading...

After years of partying, I realised the exhaustion and anxiety weren’t worth it, and turned my back on Friday night Fomo. I still enjoy the dancefloor, but I always know when to leave Most of my adult life has revolved around music: clubs, bars, festivals, house parties – anywhere I could dance to loud music. I loved how energising and cathartic it was to get immersed in it, to lose myself a little and move my body expressively without judgment. I’d get so absorbed that I would lose track of time; once, at Burning Man, I was awake for 36 hours exploring the festival, meeting new people and partying. When I became a DJ, these kinds of events increased. Late nights out would last until the morning. Often, they became marathon weekend sessions, which ran from Friday night to Sunday lunchtime. It wasn’t all dancing and shenanigans – there would be moments to sit around and chat with people, too. I’d be out at least three times a week. Even though I’d get tired, I would always find some way to push through to the early hours because I was scared to miss out on things. Fomo (fear of missing out) drove many of my decisions. Continue reading...

Orchards, dairies, vineyards and farm shops are among the delicious pit stops on a new series of ebike tours around the county It’s farm-to-fork dining at its freshest. I’m sitting at a vast outdoor table in Herefordshire looking out over rows of vines. On the horizon, the Malvern Hills ripple towards the Black Mountains; in front of me is a selection of local produce: cheeses from Monkland Dairy, 6 miles away, salad leaves from Lane Cottage (8 miles), charcuterie from Trealy Farm (39 miles), cherries from Moorcourt Farm (3 miles), broccoli quiche (2 miles) and glasses of sparkling wine, cassis and apple juice made just footsteps away. This off-grid feast is the final stop on White Heron Estate’s ebike farm tour – and I’m getting the lie of the land with every bite. Before eating, our small group pedalled along a two-hour route so pastorally pretty it would make Old MacDonald sigh. Skirting purple-hued borage fields, we’ve zipped in and out of woodland, down rows of apple trees and over patches of camomile, and learned how poo from White Heron’s chickens is burnt in biomass boilers to generate heat. “Providing habitats for wildlife is important, but we need to produce food as well,” says our guide Jo Hilditch, who swapped a career in PR for farming when she inherited the family estate 30 years ago. Continue reading...

A good fig brings gorgeous late-summer notes to your dinner table There are a handful of moments on the culinary calendar that feel like striking gold: rhubarb in January, peas and broad beans in spring, summer cherries and tomatoes, and, for just a few short weeks in late-summer, figs. Typically, they might be torn over yoghurt and granola for breakfast or baked into a tart with frangipane, but they belong in the savoury kitchen, too. Combined with salt, savoury ingredients and a little vinegar, a good fig will bring a gorgeous sweet-sour note to your dinner table. Continue reading...

Add some lighter, veggie-filled meals to your weekly rotation, with one-pot pasta recipes and easy tray bakes with minimal prep.

In the combat zone of the supermarket duopoly, Tennilles_deals is our protector, guiding us through each aisle with her weekly videos of sale products Read more in the Internet wormhole series Maya Angelou once said “a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people” and when she said that, I can only assume she had Australian TikToker and micro-influencer Tennilles_deals in mind. Who exactly is Tennilles_deals? Firstly, she’s the Mother Teresa of Aussie supermarkets. Secondly, I don’t know anything about her personally because this savvy queen doesn’t market herself like your average influencer. She lets her work speak for itself. Continue reading...

This Canadian staple has long been interpreted differently, with various nuts and biscuit bases, but which version nails it? Canadians are famously nice – think laid-back Keanu Reeves, sunny Pamela Anderson, the charmingly incompetent Inspector Gadget – except when it comes to their beloved nanaimo bars. Get the ratio of this three-tier national treasure wrong, as the New York Times stood accused of doing in 2021, when its Instagram account posted a picture of squares that one user described as “an insult to Canadians everywhere”, and you’ll discover you can push them only so far. The Times is not alone in attracting ire. So popular are nanaimo (pronounced nuh-NYE-mo) bars, named after the British Columbian logging and mining town where they are said to have originated, that Canada Post put them on a stamp in 2019 … only to face similar howls of outrage, albeit in Canadian: “One hesitates to be critical,” Nanaimo’s mayor explained carefully, “but it’s not a very accurate depiction.” Continue reading...

The nation's drought supports will come under scrutiny at a major national forum today as southern farmers continue to battle dry times.

People in village of Jaškovo celebrate after reclaiming Guinness world record with line of almost 9,000 baked strudels A Croatian village has made it back into the record books, reclaiming its title with a line of nearly 9,000 strudels stretching more than 3km. Two tonnes of flour and three tonnes of apples were used for the world’s longest line of strudels in the small village of Jaškovo, organisers said. Continue reading...

Tuck into great food and drink at hotels, farms and B&Bs in France, Ireland, Portugal and beyond A hamlet of restored rural buildings in the Ortolo valley in Corsica reopened in June as A Mandria di Murtoli. Guests can stay in a former sheepfold, stable or barn, or one of five rooms in the main house. Three of the smaller properties have private pools, all rooms have terraces and there is a big shared pool. The buildings have been refurbished by Corsican craftspeople in a minimalist Mediterranean style, using local materials. Continue reading...

<ul><li><p>Red Bull driver just 0.077sec quicker than McLaren rival</p></li><li><p>Dutchman’s flying lap beat record set by Hamilton in 2020 </p></li></ul><p>The beaming grin on Max Verstappen’s face showed what claiming pole position for the Italian Grand Prix meant to him and his Red Bull team. As records fell in a blur of speed at Monza, the world champion was perhaps the most unlikely victor after an impossibly tight contest.</p><p>The transformation since the 2024 Italian GP could not have been more stark. Over a tumultuous 12 months Verstappen has clung on to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/nov/24/max-verstappen-fourth-consecutive-f1-world-title-las-vegas-gp-race-report">seal his fourth title last season</a>, seen long-term Red Bull <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jul/09/christian-horner-sacked-by-red-bull-after-20-years-as-principal-at-f1-team">team principal Christian Horner be sacked</a> and the team comprehensively out-paced by McLaren. Here, they at last found a sweet spot that has been sorely lacking.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/sep/06/max-verstappen-pips-lando-norris-for-italian-f1-grand-prix-pole">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Unicef expects August malnutrition cases to top 15,000, as famine declared in Gaza City spreads south</p><p>More than 7,000 children under the age of five were put on recovery programmes for acute malnutrition at clinics run by Unicef in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/gaza">Gaza</a> in just two weeks of last month, figures reveal.</p><p>The overall total for August is being compiled by Unicef but is expected to exceed 15,000 new patients, more than seven times the total in February.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/06/unicef-under-5s-recovery-programmes-acute-malnutrition-gaza">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Nick Hamman wants to help the local economy by enticing people to seek out township barbecues and family-run sandwich shops</p><p>Solly’s Corner, a fast food restaurant in downtown Johannesburg, was bustling. Slabs of hake and golden chips sizzled, green chillies were being chopped and homemade sauces distributed liberally into packed sandwiches.</p><p>Food influencer and radio DJ Nick Hamman stepped behind the counter and was greeted as an old friend by Yoonas and Mohammed Akhalwaya, the father-son duo behind the family business in Fordsburg, a historical south Asian and Middle Eastern area.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/06/tiktok-star-nick-hamman-south-african-cuisine-local-food-economy">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Hollywood actor helps out at the Swan at Enford in Wiltshire as he and his neighbours fight to save their local</p><p>It was a pleasant surprise when a visitor to <a href="https://www.theswanenford.co.uk/">the Swan at Enford</a>, a thatched pub tucked away in the folds of the Wiltshire countryside, found themselves being served a pint by one of the UK’s most famous actors.</p><p>“They had come in off the main road and asked if it was my pub,” said <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/rupert-everett">Rupert Everett</a>, the star of films such as Another Country, My Best Friend’s Wedding and The Madness of King George.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/sep/06/pint-pulling-rupert-everett-surprises-country-pub-punters-wiltshire">Continue reading...</a>

<p>On the border with Slovenia, the Italian region of Friuli–Venezia Giulia continues a centuries-old tradition of farms opening their doors and serving up a feast to the public</p><p>In <a href="https://guardianbookshop.com/trieste-9780571204687/">Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere, </a>travel writer Jan Morris described the city’s many faces and “ambivalence”, maintaining that, unlike most other Italian cities, it has “no unmistakable cuisine”. But I had come to Trieste to experience, if not a cuisine, then a culinary tradition which, to me at least, does seem unmistakable: the <em>osmiza</em> scene of the surrounding countryside.</p><p>An <em>osmiza</em> (or <em>osmize</em><em> </em>in the plural) is a Slovene term for a smallholding that produces wine in the Karst Plateau, a steep rocky ridge scattered with pine and a patchwork of vineyards that overlooks the Adriatic Sea. Visiting <em>osmize</em> is a centuries-old tradition in which these homesteads open their doors to the public for a fleeting period each year. Guests order their food and wine at a till inside – where a simply tiled bar, often set into local stone, might boast family photos, halogen lights and a chalkboard menu – before heading outside to feast at long Oktoberfest-style tables and benches.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/sep/06/farmers-table-foodie-trip-to-trieste-italy">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Pleasingly simple as curries go, this seasonal dish can be vegan if you choose dairy-free yoghurt and gluten-free if served with rice in place of chapatis</p><p>My grandmother, Narmada Lakhani, passed away earlier this year aged 92. Well, we <em>think </em>she was 92, but no one recorded her birth date, so we can only estimate. What we do know about her, though, is that she had a very cheeky laugh, and that she loved lager tops, penny slot machines and tucking £10 notes down her bra, ready to hand out to an unsuspecting grandchild as a gift. She never asked if I was happy, only if I’d eaten well, which I assume to her were the same thing. At this time of year, eating well for her meant tucking into sweetcorn, so, in her memory, I’m going to do the same.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/sep/06/kidney-bean-and-sweetcorn-curry-recipe-meera-sodha">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Should your makeup be fragrance-free? Is it time to purge your kitchen of plastic? Are all food dyes dangerous? These are the everyday ingredients that could be harming your health</p><p>‘Far from being a rock or island … it turns out that the best metaphor to describe the human body is ‘sponge’. We’re permeable,” write Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie in their book Slow Death By Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things. While the permeability of our cells is key to being alive, it also means we absorb more potentially harmful substances than we realise.</p><p>Studies have found a number of chemical residues in human breast milk, urine and water systems. Many of them are endocrine disruptors, which can interfere with the body’s natural hormones. “They can mimic, block or otherwise disrupt normal hormone function, leading to adverse health effects,” says Dr Shanna Swan, professor of environmental medicine and reproductive health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. We (often unknowingly) ingest, inhale or otherwise absorb them, and while toxicity depends on dosage, the reality is that a lot of us are exposed to them daily.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/sep/06/how-spot-chemicals-avoid-food-kitchenware-cosmetics">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Five areas of focus at world’s largest heart conference said to mark ‘turning point’ in cardiology and patient care</p><p>Doctors, scientists and researchers have shared new findings on ways to tackle heart conditions at the 2025 European Society of Cardiology annual meeting, the world’s largest heart conference.</p><p><a href="https://www.escardio.org/Congresses-Events/ESC-Congress">The event in Madrid</a> was attended by 33,000 health professionals from 169 countries. More than 1,100 sessions featured “gamechanger” research, new guidelines and groundbreaking trials.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/sep/05/gamechanger-new-research-heart-conditions-conference-madrid">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Over a decade Koren Helbig has come up with some simple habits to reduce food waste at her place. Here are some ideas that may work at yours, too</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/series/change-by-degrees">Change by degrees</a> offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint</p></li><li><p>Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a></p></li></ul><p>We’ve all been there – reaching into the fridge to find a forgotten cucumber shrivelled beyond recognition, or a half-eaten bag of baby spinach quietly collapsing into sludge.</p><p>Australian households throw out almost 2.5m tonnes of food every year – or the equivalent of 7.7m meals a day.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/sep/06/food-waste-tips-scale-daunting-solution-in-our-own-home">Continue reading...</a>

<p>The Swede has has not necessarily become a fan of Irish football, as she sports a club jersey made with help from Fontaines DC</p><p>The humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza is a serious mission with an incongruous detail: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/greta-thunberg">Greta Thunberg</a> sporting a jersey of the Dublin football club Bohemians.</p><p>The Swedish activist wore the pale blue shirt during an earlier flotilla in June and again this week as vessels prepared to leave Barcelona.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/05/bohemian-fc-thank-greta-thunberg-for-wearing-their-kit-during-aid-mission">Continue reading...</a>

<p>From a herring festival in The Hague to the best pizza in Rome, our tipsters share their perfect foodie travel moments<br>• <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/sep/01/tell-us-about-a-travel-experience-that-benefited-the-local-community"><strong>Tell us about a community travel experience</strong></a><strong> – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher</strong></p><p>Despite its name, Flag Day (<em><a href="https://vlaggetjesdag.com/">Vlaggetjesdag</a></em>) in Scheveningen – a seaside resort close to The Hague – is actually more about fresh herring. Fishmongers bring in the first catch of the year in June, the <em>hollandse</em><em> </em><em>nieuwe</em>, and mark the start of the herring season with festivities, marching bands, wearing traditional costumes, and even an auction of the first vat of fish to raise money for charity. Don’t miss the chance to share a <em>jenever</em> (gin) with a Scheveninger, who will tell you how this year’s herring compares with last year’s.<br><strong>Olivia</strong></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/sep/05/readers-favourite-food-experiences-meals-europe">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Thousands watch the competition on a live stream. People cheer and chant like it’s a football match</p><p>In 2020, I was on a camping trip with my Swedish friend, driving through Carrbridge – a village in the Scottish Highlands about two hours from where I live in Aberdeenshire – when we passed a&nbsp;sign saying “Welcome to the Home of&nbsp;the World Porridge Championship”.</p><p>It triggered a vague memory of seeing the competition on the news as&nbsp;a child. When my friend looked it up, he&nbsp;found out that the last few winners had actually been Swedish. He started teasing me, saying: “We’re&nbsp;better at making porridge than&nbsp;you.” So I&nbsp;thought, “We’ll see about that.” Two&nbsp;years later, I ended up entering the competition myself.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/sep/05/experience-i-am-the-world-porridge-making-champion">Continue reading...</a>

Coles says the cost of living and supply chain disruptions are behind its decision to continue selling caged eggs until 2030. A consumer expert says it is likely the supermarket's competitors will follow suit.

Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia have placed restrictions on the importation of unprocessed Tasmanian potatoes, following the island state's outbreak of mop-top virus.

<p>Hosting lunches for a year taught the cookbook author that bringing friends together doesn’t have to be stressful</p><p>Hetty Lui McKinnon always wanted a round table. When the Chinese Australian food writer moved to New York, she finally got her wish.</p><p>The table<strong> </strong>literally and figuratively opened her home up to a community she was trying to create. “When you eat around a round table, everyone can see each other’s faces. Everyone can speak equally,” McKinnon says. “It created this incredibly warm environment.”</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/sep/05/hetty-lui-mckinnon-recipe-host-with-sandwich-on-becoming-imperfect-entertainer">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Americans are fretting over a type of man who drinks matcha and expresses alternative masculinity – but the ‘latte liberal’ stereotype has existed for decades</p><p>Another week, another somewhat fictional online buzzword to parse. This time it is the “performative male”, basically the idea that posturing straight men only read books to get laid, outlined in recent trend pieces including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/style/performative-men.html">the New York Times</a>,<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/459062/performative-male-gen-z-soft-boy-tiktok-harry-styles-jacob-elordi"> Vox</a>,<a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/the-performative-male-is-gen-zs-overconsumption-final-boss"> Teen Vogue</a>,<a href="https://hypebeast.com/2025/8/behind-the-curtain-of-the-performative-male"> Hypebeast</a>,<a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/performative-male-style"> GQ</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/discover/performative-men">millions</a> of TikToks.</p><p>According to the Times, this man “curates his aesthetic in a way that he thinks might render him more likable to progressive women. He is, in short, the antithesis of the toxic man.” Apparently these heterosexual men who read Joan Didion, carry tote bags and listen to Clairo are not in fact human beings who enjoy things but performative jerk-offs who don’t really care about any of that girly stuff and are just trying to impress their feminine opposites. As Vox put it: “think Jacob Elordi when he was photographed with <a href="https://archive.is/o/erbyp/https://www.gq.com/story/jacob-elordi-book-in-pants-pocket-trend">three different books</a> on his person, or Paul Mescal <a href="https://archive.is/o/erbyp/https://www.tiktok.com/@indiemixtape/video/7307892527317716266">publicly admiring Mitski</a>”. Reading! Enjoying music by women! Perish the thought.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/sep/04/matcha-latte-performative-male">Continue reading...</a>

<p>Some claim eating steak and whole sticks of butter has improved their skin, cleared brain fog and even eliminated farting. Experts say an all-animal diet carries risks</p><ul><li><p>Read more in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/series/antiviral">Antiviral series</a></p></li></ul><p>Ex-vegan turned carnivore Isabella Ma, better known to her nearly half a million followers on Instagram as @steakandbuttergal, has glowing skin and a flat stomach. She looks directly at the camera as she <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@steakandbuttergal/video/7535868477165407502">chomps down on an entire stick of butter</a>. It’s part of her <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DKxgKF4hnH7/">“high fat carnivore diet”</a> to which she attributes a whole host of health benefits, not least of which is the claim she <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DNYY99iRwb2/">“literally never fart[s] any more” and has a single “scentless” bowel movement a week</a>.</p><p>A lot of gym bros also back the diet touted for helping people lose weight and build muscle, such as Antonio Angotti, who<strong> </strong>says the fat in red meat <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DNBK3n5MJp5/">“includes almost every nutrient humans need to thrive”</a> and invokes religion as part of his dietary choices, saying he eats <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DNYlT6ENK78/">“just foods God will actually bless”</a>. It’s also been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/sep/12/carnivore-diet-meat-plants">platformed by Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson</a>.</p><p>Natasha May is Guardian Australia’s health reporter</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/series/antiviral">Antiviral</a> is a fortnightly column that interrogates the evidence behind the health headlines and factchecks popular wellness claims</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/03/what-is-carnivore-diet-meat-benefits-science-does-work-why-so-many-influencers">Continue reading...</a>