Pantry staples: the desert island edition

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Pantry staples: the desert island edition

Sure, we all need things like flour, oil and vinegar in our pantry, but ever wondered which you’d take with you to a deserted island? The TASTE team shares their epicurean essentials

It’s that time of year when many of us start to daydream about escaping to a remote tropical island, away from the deadlines, mad trolley dashes and bills. We at TASTE are no exception when it comes to fantasising about abandoning the chaos in favour of soaking up the sun on some remote isle (well, with the exception of Michelle, which she’ll mention later). Of course, no island breakaway would be complete without some tasty tidbits to savour while we’re working on our tan. As a fun experiment, my colleagues and I set ourselves a limit of three ingredients that we could take to said island.

Herewith, our answers:

Lynda Ingham-Brown, senior copy editor

“Salt, pepper, olive oil!”

Amy Ebedes, online editor

“Assuming I can harvest salt from the ocean… lemon, cracked black pepper and All Gold Tomato sauce (don’t judge).”

Ashraf Booley, online content producer

“Flour and yeast to make bread on the fire. And nuts.”

Michelle Coburn, features editor

“Gin and tonic, lemons and dark chocolate. I don’t like the sun. I might as well have my favourite things before I die of heat exhaustion and starvation.”

Abigail Donnelly, food editor

“Rum, if it’s allowed on the list. Otherwise I will buy that from duty free on the way in to go with all that fresh coconut water. Also, Tabasco to eat with my daily catch allowance of sea urchin, and a bag of rice to make sushi.”

Liesl Nicholson, managing editor

“Brownies. Bubbles. More bubbles.”

Lené Roux, art director

“Gin, tonic and lemons.”

Clement Pedro, food assistant

“Tabasco, tequila and flour to make chapattis and cute little samoosa wrappers to put all of my foraged crustaceans in.”

Kate Wilson, editor

“Assuming the island is full of fresh produce and grass-fed beef you mean? Maldon salt, really expensive olive oil and smoked chillis.”

Annette Klinger, features writer

“I’ll take a tube of Pringles chips, those pressurised cans of chocolate mousse that you can squeeze out through a nozzle and some good whisky. The whisky can also be used as an antiseptic and mouthwash, the empty Pringles tube will be a safe vessel for my glasses and the empty can of chocolate mousse may come in handy as a weapon.”

We’d love to know, what ingredients would you take with you to a desert island?

Annette Klinger Article by: Annette Klinger

Woolworths TASTE’s features writer maintains that almost any dish can be improved with butter and cream. She’s a stickler for comfort food, especially German treats that remind her of her late grandmother, such as pork schnitzel with sauerkraut and spätzlen. She is a voracious reader of food magazines and recipe books, and instinctively switches over to the cooking channel whenever she checks into a hotel or guesthouse.

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