Each year the winner of the World Porridge Making Championship takes home the Golden Spurtle Trophy—the spurtle being a a rod-like kitchen tool from Scotland used to stir oatmeal while it cooks—but this year's winner didn't spurtle his way to victory. The 2010 champion Neal Robertson attributed his perfect porridge to the water from the hills above Auchtermuchty, Scotland, where he runs The Tannochbrae Tearoom, and his use of a Spon instead of the traditional spurtle. More

©iStockphoto.com/ burwellphotography I was pretty giddy to read the Guardian declare that "we're currently in the midst of a porridge renaissance...everyone from McDonald's to Michelin-starred restaurants serving it." If 2010 is the year of porridge (or oatmeal, breakfast goop, whatever you want to call it) then shoot, let's get this party started. Thanks to Robyn, for Christmas I got the soon-to-be-most-vogue accessory: a spurtle. Yes, it's basically just a wooden wand (fine, a stick) but it's the official stirring device, particularly in the UK. At the end of the Guardian piece, the writer described her idea of a perfect bowl: Place a quarter of a cup of unsoaked McCann's steel cut oats in a pan with one cup of... More

A spurtle. [Photograph: etsy.com] Of all the thingamajigs floating around in drawers, the spurtle might be the coolest. The wooden stick is something of a magic wand for porridge—it's engineered to prevent the lumping and congealing of mushy hot cereals. On October 11, expert porridge makers from far and wide will compete for the coveted golden spurtle trophy at the sixteenth annual Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship in Carrbridge, a village in the Scottish Highlands. This year, Matt Cox of Bob’s Red Mill—the first and only U.S. participant—will compete with his oatmeal brûlée topped with pears, cherries, hazelnuts and distilled spirits, stirred with a custom-made Myrtle spurtle (naturally). Part of me still wants a spurtle to be an... More

Photograph from matsuyuki on Flickr "Please, sir, can I have some more?" You know the line even if you haven't read Charles Dickens' classic Oliver Twist. But did you ever wonder if a bowl of gruel was worth asking for seconds, as the title character did? Well, members of The Royal Society of Chemistry in London followed their curiosity, and, based on an array of Victorian-era recipes, replicated what they supposed gruel would taste like. The BBC asked some brave samplers what they thought of the concoction. But the slushy gruel, containing oats, water, milk and onion, got a mixed response from tasters."It's extremely bland," said Jennifer Gilson, a retired scientist. "There's no flavour at all without the onion."But... More

Photographs by Shimin Wong Most of us think of comfort food as fat food: creamy risottos and pastas, hearty stews, buttery mashed potatoes, mayo sandwiches, hot chocolate, cheesecake, hot fudge sundaes. In Asia, there are a host of dishes people make a beeline for when they get off a plane, return from grueling military training, or when they've had a rotten day—dishes I affectionately call "a highway to a heart attack." (A straw poll will likely turn up "lard" and wok hei or "wok's breath—the essence imparted by a hot wok to food"—as determining factors in succor-level.) One would imagine the ultimate comfort food to be riddled with saturated fat and swimming in carcinogens then. Interestingly, this granddaddy of... More