My work tends to entail a lot of meetings or phone calls, both of which are a normal part of the day. I try to make these phone calls rather than face to face meetings as travelling to a location and having a meeting can take up the better part of the day while I would rather be in front of the computer writing or in the kitchen creating recipes. However, there is one person I speak to on a semi regular basis that I prefer to have face to face meetings with.

It’s not because I like to stare into his eyes or anything, really it’s because he speaks so quickly that I find myself not understanding most of what he says. I’ll catch the occasional word in a sentence and if I’m lucky, I’ll get the meaning of what he’s trying to say but as he speaks a mile a minute, I find myself saying “sure” to basically everything and then asking him to put it in an email to me so that I can ascertain what I’ve said yes to. Sometimes, I really have no idea what he is saying and I could have sworn that he said “mushroom pate” whereas we weren’t talking about food at all. I had to wait until he emailed me to find out that mushroom pate actually meant “Martin’s party.”

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I used to work at a telephone market research company during university with a man that existed entirely on salads. No matter what meal I’d see him for whether it be breakfast, lunch or dinner, he would be eating a salad of some sort. That’s not unusual in  itself but he also used to steal toilet paper and decant liquid soap from the work bathroom and I recall seeing him sneaking out of the bathroom at the end of a shift bundling rolls into his bag. “Oh everyone does this!” he said to me laughing and waving goodbye.

Anyway, I sometimes think of him when I make salads. Does he still decant liquid soap? Does he still pilfer toilet rolls? Anyway, this salad is barely a recipe – it has so few ingredients that you may wonder if it is worth making. The answer is an unequivocal yes. It doesn’t necessarily sound appealing but this is the salad that I’ve eaten five times in a row for lunch every day this previous week. It’s the simplest mix inspired from a recent trip to the Yarra Valley at Hargreaves Hill Brewery. They served a slightly more complex version but being me, I just wanted to do it simply and easily.

I grew up with my father eating sunflower seeds in front of the television and I’ve never been a huge fan of them untoasted. However toasting them brings out all of their flavour and they become addictively nutty. The cheese seasons the leaves and the lighter version of mayonnaise means that the whole salad isn’t particularly calorific in count although it tastes so in flavour.

What I really like is its versatility though. You can use any sort of leaf in this-I’ve used baby spinach, cos and iceberg. You can use almost any type of hard cheese-pecorino, romano and reggiano are the ones that I’ve used and you can use any sort of creamy dressing-I’ve replaced the mayonnaise with a creamy Japanese sesame dressing. It’s hard to tip over and the killer combination of just a few ingredients is always delectable. It’s one of those salads that I’ve contemplated surviving on for weeks I enjoy eating it so much.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you think it is normal to pinch toilet rolls and decant liquid soap? I still haven’t encountered anyone else that does this!

Rocket, Romano & Sunflower Seed Salad

Serves 2

• 4 cups salad leaves (rocket, baby spinach, mixed leaf, cos or iceberg lettuce)
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons natural yogurt
• 3 tablespoons grated romano cheese (or pecorino or reggiano)
• 2-3 tablespoons toasted sunflower seeds
• Salt if needed (depends on the cheese that you use, some are saltier than others)

To toast sunflower seeds, spread out onto a baking tray and baked at 180C/350F for 10-12 minutes.

1. Wash and dry the leaves well using a salad spinner if possible and place in a mixing bowl. Whisk the mayonnaise and yogurt together and drizzle on top of the leaves using two spoons to toss the salad. Sprinkle the cheese and sunflower seeds over and toss again to combine. Taste and add salt if necessary. Serve straight away, the only downfall of this recipe is that depending on the leaf used, the dressing does soak in. Rocket is best if you want to make this ahead of time.

Dear Reader, do you ever get roped into those terrifying team bonding sessions at work? Ones where you compete with each other, go away on trips or divulge deep, dark secrets? I recall one team bonding session. Everyone in the group was asked to share a secret, preferably an embarrassing one. One by one we went around the circle of people. To be honest, I can’t even remember what I said – I have plenty of embarrassing habits although they’re not exactly secret as I tell people about them freely much to Mr NQN’s chagrin and or amusement.

We were partway through our circle of people and there was a young guy with a blond crew cut haircut. He swallowed and took a deep breath and grimaced before he started his confession. “When I get on a plane and we take off, I listen to the Top Gun soundtrack and I pretend that I’m flying a fighter plane and that I’m in Top Gun” he said. Everyone around him burst into laughter, we could see that perhaps in his look, he had tried to emulate Maverick or Iceman. And as an unabashed fan of the film (hello volleyball scene!) I thought that I had actually found someone else that was sane at work.

Anyway, what does this have to do with popcorn? Well, my current embarrassing secret is that I am going to bring a batch of this when I see Top Gun in 3D this weekend. This popcorn is based on the Mahalo popcorn from Santa Barbara restaurant in Kings Cross. And it is not only delicious, it’s a meal in itself. It’s for those times when you see a movie but it’s either too early or too late to eat something. The bacon adds savoury, the pineapple sweet and the cheese melts just so and I found myself eating the first batch by myself. Don’t be worried about finding the furikake seasoning, I found it at an Asian grocery store with a small Japanese section. It adds much flavour to the popcorn but if you can’t find it, making it a bacon, cheese and pineapple popcorn would serve you just as well.

And you know what I added to my playlist for the plane? Yep, you guessed it! And yes I do pretend that I’m flying the plane too

So tell me Dear Reader, what do you think of team bonding sessions? Useful? A good excuse to get out of the office? And if you could pretend to be from any movie or television show, which would it be? For me, I would be a vamp on True Blood!

Tropical Bacon, Cheese & Pineapple Popcorn

• 3 rashers of middle bacon
• 3 rings of dried pineapple, chopped into small pieces
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 100g/3.5 ozs. shredded cheese
• 1/4 cup popcorn kernals
• 4 tablespoons furikake seasoning (see buyer’s tip)
• cayenne pepper to taste
• You will also need a paper bag to pop the popcorn

Buyer’s tip: you can buy furikake seasoning in most Asian grocery stores in the Japanese aisle. It is a seasoning that is usually added to rice and comes in a packet form. If you’re having trouble finding it, do check the back of any packets as I almost missed it in the store as the writing was all in Japanese.

Furikake seasoning packet

1. Heat a frypan on medium to high heat. While it is heating, chop up the bacon into small pieces and remove the rind and fat. Fry the bacon until cooked and crispy and then add the dried pineapple pieces and cook for another two minutes. Place the bacon and pineapple into a large bowl, about six to eight cup capacity. Add the coconut and keep warm.

2. Place the popcorn in the paper bag and seal by folding over the top two or three times. Microwave on full power for 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Take care opening the bag, it’s not really that hot but just in case there’s an extra kernel popping.

3. Add the popcorn to the bacon mixture and toss with the cheese, furikake seasoning and cayenne pepper. If you want the cheese melty, just pop it in a 180C/350F oven for about 5 minutes or so until the cheese melts.