introducing my blog

I love food blogs. I could spend hours wandering through all the food blogs I've bookmarked, plus more, taking in the sights, the smells, the ideas. It is these journeys that have inspired me to create chocolate & jasmine my attempt to write about the food in my life as a very amateur foodie, and I do stress the 'very'.

I currently live in university halls therefore share a somewhat forlorn electric hob with many flatmates, I can only dream of owning an SLR with which to produce delicious food photography, I keep a very limited array of kitchen utensils because I know I'll be moving again, and while I am a competent enough cook, I am still very much a beginner with regards to the vast world of ingredients and flavours. If I had to choose one phrase with which to describe my cooking, it would be 'hit or miss'. I often surprise myself how well or bad something can turn out although I'm a baker at heart so at the very least anything containing flour that comes out of the oven tends to be a hit. On top of all this I live on a (mature) student budget so I often have to restrain myself and therefore recipes are always kept simple.

But for now, I do know that I love to eat and I love to cook. I also know I love taking photos however one thing I've yet to discover is whether I love blogging! So at the moment all I can do is try and hopefully I can nurture this blog into capturing the essence of food according to me.

So why 'chocolate & jasmine'? Well it combines two of my most foodie-loved: sweet delights and Chinese food. Anyone who knows me is aware of my lifelong addiction to chocolates, cakes, pastries, desserts and puddings and the tardis-like second stomach I have to contain such treats (it's evolution I tell you).

The jasmine conveys my ethnic roots. I was born in the United Kingdom however my parents come from Hong Kong therefore my favourite cuisine would have to be what I have grown up with: traditional Chinese, accompanied by lots of fragrant jasmine tea of course.