Lattices and lettuces

I get hungry when working alone on the laptop and, if I'm going to get distracted by looking for something on the Internet, it will be food. I have a folder of recipes that's a direct result of this. It's a mixed blessing. Yesterday, I was working on a type of graph called lattice plots, and all I could think of were things like this1:

Not something that appeals to me nowadays (vegetarian), but a nice reminder of the times when somebody cooked for me. I've developed a morbid curiosity for highly processed, dirt cheap food, and was delighted to discover that someone has dedicated a blog to their exploration of it: www.barelyedible.co.uk It's a shame that most of the really impressive terrible food out there is meat-based as I'd love to join in.

In the meantime, I'll continue to look for yellow stickers in supermarkets on slightly less entertaining items. A really good recent find was this wonderful thing:

I'd eaten most of the big leaves a few days ago and the medium ones are quickly filling the gaps. There are too many plants in there for them to really grow healthily, but hopefully enough will hang on to feed one person a salad once in a while. I did keep another supermarket live pot on my desk for most of last year (Basil the basil, pronounced à la Sybil Fawlty) and three plants are just about still alive. Unlike most organisms, window plants like these succeed at being loveable even while you eat them.


References (as a good scientist I cite my sources)
1 http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/tesco-price-comparison/Pies_And_Quiches/Tesco_Creamy_Chicken_Garlic_And_Mushroom_Lattice_Pie_550g.html