Easy Recipes From Around The World

As it gets quicker and easier to travel to different countries and sample different cultures our tastes in food and drink have changed. I can remember a time when Chinese, Indian and Italian meals were a rarity and for the adventurous only, but now they are the norm for many of us. Thai, Mexican and Japanese cuisine are becoming popular - will they top roast beef and Yorkshire pudding in the UK?

We now have access to more varied ingredients, if they can't be found in your local shop they can be ordered from the Internet. It's easy enough to find exotic and varied recipes in magazines, books and on the Internet and on this lens we will explore different recipes from different cultures.

During the last week alone I've made a curry, spaghetti bake, tortillas, pepperoni pizza, steak and kidney pudding, sweet and sour chicken, Lancashire hotpot and tonight I might just give my kitchen a break and head off to the fish and chip shop!

Of course none of those are very exotic nowadays, so when I feel like being adventurous, or if I'm entertaining to impress I dip into one of my recipe books and cook up a storm. My favourite cookbook at the moment is America's Most Wanted Recipes.

I was quite impressed by some of the meals served to me in restaurants when I visited America last year, having previously believed that all they could cook was burgers. It's nice being able to copy some of those recipes and share the memories of my visit with my friends and family.