hungry? try our new book

At the beginning of last year, we asked all the people who read our weekly newsletter
if they thought it would be a good idea if we wrote a recipe book to feed families with
good stuff (having written not one but two smoothie recipe books already).

Hundreds of mums and dads got in touch to say they thought it'd be a very good idea.

So here it is...

A guide to healthy, tasty, no fuss food that the whole family can enjoy
(and that don't take ages to make)

It's filled with over 100 delicious, simple, healthy recipes (from 2 minute
breakfasts to proper Sunday lunches) and over 85% of the recipes in the book
contain at least 1 of your 5-a-day.

 

There are loads of tips and ideas for getting everyone involved in making,
cooking and eating. We've even picked out the bits kids can do in a rather
fetching grey to make it even easier.

And there's as loads of other stuff for kids to do, make and help out
with to get them involved and excited about food. 

Or just keep them entertained while you're waiting for bread to bake or
just need something to do on a rainy Thursday.

In other words, a book that makes it easy to get good stuff into your family.
Without having to spend hours labouring over the stove, making different
meals for everyone or faffing about with miniature sushi.

So to celebrate the launch of this very fine book, we're giving away 20 copies
away to the 20 people who tell us their best hungry stories with a happy ending
by Tuesday 14th June.

 

Or if you can't wait that long, you can buy yourself a copy right here or
in WHSmith, Waterstones and other good bookshops across the land
(as demonstrated above).

Either way, we hope you like it and enjoy many a memorable meal and
muffin from it.

Thanks to everyone who entered our competition. Amber, Flo, Madeleine, AJ, Fiona, Annie, Hannah P, Louise, Ami, Florence, Grace, Hannah, Anne Marie, Alice,  Anya, Andy, Nicky G, Sarah _nb, Anna and Tom – make a space on your bookshelf. Copies winging their way to you very, very soon. 

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Comments

[Rachel Stewart]

Hunger story...my fiance and I went to Madrid a few weeks ago, not knowing that their meal times are very different to ours. We set out at 7pm to find some yummy food to feed our hungry tummies, to find nowhere was open until 9.30. We wandered for 3 hours, with our tummies getting grumblier and emptier, until finally, we came across a glimpse of hope in a teeny tiny tapas bar. Tradition says you order 3 tapas things between 2 people. We had 6...and they were just what we needed :) The smell of fresh veg was enough to make our mouths water, as well as reminding us of yummy innocent veg pots which just made us even hungrier!, and within a minute of our plates being put in front of us they were clean and our tummies were satisfied once again :)

[José de la Iglesia]

Well; I am Spanish. All I can advise is that next time you contact local folks. Only 3 for 2? Were you ill or something? It would make sense if you are planning to have them in 5 or 6 different bars. regards, and keep visiting our wonderful country

[nicky thomas-davies]

The date My Wedding day 4/8/87
the place - Birmingham

Having arranged a low key wedding with a lovely picnic, i left the arrangements for the wedding night before our paragliding holiday to my new husband.
Piling out of the evening karaoke disco at midnight I looked to him and expressed my delight at being his wife and my intense hunger. I imagined a feast laid on in our room, perhaps a romantic restaurant, even a curry (we were in birmingham after all). No. We went to Mr Egg. i ask you, Mr Egg. After my initial disappointment it turned out that they made a cracking poached egg on plum tomato dipped bread sandwich that's been one of my fave meals ever since!!

[Evelyn]

My husband is like jekell and Hyde when hunger comes into play! About 6 days into our honeymoon we decided to venture into the nearby village for dinner instead of staying at the hotel. I started to do a little window shopping and was enjoying my evening stroll but dear hubbie was getting hungry and impatient. we didn't speak the language and couldn't decide on a restaurant and ended up having our first row as a married couple. As we walked in silence the smell of a BBQ caught our attention. We discovered a fantastic steak house and husband was back to mr nice guy once we started to eat. He apologised for his temper and we had great fun making up ;) I have since learned to always travel with a snack to hand in case of emergency! :)

[David M]

When I was 14 I went on an exchange trip to Germany with school to a small town near Hamburg. As with many European countries, school in Germany starts and finishes a lot earlier than in the UK, so on the first day I had breakfast with my exchange partner at about 6.30 before going into school with him. They also gave me a ham and cheese roll to take, which I assumed was for lunch. By midday I was pretty hungry, but the roll didn't exactly fill much of a gap so I bought a banana and a massive pastry as well, which left me feeling nicely full.

When we headed home soon after though, it turned out that the roll wasn't lunch but rather "zweite Fruhstuck" - literally "second breakfast". The mother of the family had in fact cooked a big lunch of frikadelle (meatballs) with pasta, and lots of vegetables - which I didn't exactly need, but I was too shy to say anything else (and probably wouldn't have known what to say in German even if I wasn't!)

Feeling incredibly full by then, I probably could have done without the afternoon playing football that followed, but at least it worked off some of my enormous "zweite Mittagsessen"! We then returned home to discover that an old woman had turned up (I think she might have been the grandmother, but to be honest I was never really sure) with a selection of cakes which we had to sit down and eat. And then only a few hours later came dinner - barbecued sausages with potato salad - in typically German-sized portions.

I went to bed feeling more stuffed than I have ever felt before - so I suppose this wasn't so much a hungry story as a not-at-all hungry story, and while it doesn't exactly have a happy ending, at least I didn't embarrass myself by being sick or anything! And thankfully, my German had improved by the end of the week!

[Kerry Crichton]

My sister and I went to see The Delinquents on Boxing Day 1989 (we were 14 and 13 hope that makes it okay to want to see a Kylie film on the day of its release?). Bus service was pretty poor as it was boxing day we got as far home as we could and then waited for Big Clive our dad to rescue us. We were we so hungry we played at imagining what we wanted to eat. This didn't help not one little bit. No prizes for guessing we had leftover turkey when we did make it home.

[D]

Many moons ago, when I was just a wee slip of a thing, I was out with my mum as she did the weekly shop. I was sat in the little seat at the front of her supermarket trolley (as I said, we are talking a very long time ago here). At one point, my mum spotted someone she knew, so stopped to have a quick chat (which as usual turned into more of a lengthy natter). I must have been hungry on that day, as when she turned back, I had grabbed the loaf of bread she had recently put in the trolley, opened it up and started to eat it. I didn’t just take out a slice and eat that though – instead, there was a hole the size of toddler’s fist running all the way through the loaf, and an awful lot of crumbs down my jumper. She wasn’t best pleased, as the rest of the loaf was pretty much ruined, so we had to go back to get some more bread (as well as paying for the one I’d eaten, of course!). In the bakery aisle though my mum suddenly spotted what looked like her purse lying on the floor. And sure enough, it was hers - she’d dropped it earlier without realizing! So my hunger saved the day, as if I hadn’t eaten the bread, we wouldn’t have gone back and someone might have walked off with the purse!

[Cris]

My 6'4" boyfriend and I were on holiday in Dubai and met up with an old friend of mine for dinner the evening before we flew home. After a day of drinking at the rugby sevens you can imagine we were quite starving. My friend on the other hand was a yoga and green tea fanatic who suggested this minimalist Thai restaurant. Needless to say it wasnt enough for the big man and to this day (6 months later) he claims he is still hungry after that Thai meal in Dubai. :)

[Tom]

After deciding one sunny Sunday to go for a "bit of a walk" with a good friend, we ended up trekking along the Thames for about 8 miles from Barnes to Waterloo, getting very hot and hungry. We'd been clever enough to pack a few beers to keep the thirst at bay, but sadly lacked the common sense to pack any food. By the time we got to Vauxhall, a saviour lay in sight - the pub! After getting a drink in, and feeling very happy with ourselves, we then realised that we didn't have any money left for food and the place didn't take cards. Luckily for us, some chap there decided that he didn't want to eat his burger after only having one nibble of it, then leaving for some reason. After both looking at this near-pristine burger for a few minutes, we caught each other's eye and were both on the same wavelength - we haven't got any money, we're famished, and there's no-one around to see us act like tramps. 1 minutes later, it was cut in half and vanished. Hunger satisfied, although there was a brief moment of shame afterwards, particularly when I recalled the story to my girlfriend...

[Anna]

hungry story
when i was working on an american summer camp, me and a group of friends decided to sneak out one night and go skinny dipping (how naughty!). after the skinny dipping one of our party suggested we go for a walk round the lake, saying it was only a couple of miles and we would be home in no time. needless to say, it was more than a couple of miles, and it took us all night to walk round, all growing very tired and hungry. then, around 5am, when we were almost back at the campsite, we happened upon a convenience store just about to open- and in the process of preparing bacon sandwiches. after the skinny dipping and all night walk, they were the best bacon sandwiches we had ever tasted.

[Ruth]

Imagine the scene: 17 teenagers trekking across the Andes as part of a World Challenge. Apart from the fact that we all had the theme tune from Spongebob Squarepants stuck in our heads, the main topic of conversation was food, what we were craving and what we would eat on returning to the UK. Marmite, spag bol, a roast, fruit (smoothies!)... the list was long and varied. On reaching the end of the trail, we found we had a four hour wait for our ride to the nearest town, which was 30 miles away. We settled down at the edge of the road, cooking up some camping food (hmmm... reconstituted curry). At which point we noticed an orange tree with huge oranges growing at the side of the road. Plucking one off each, we set about devouring them. Never has a piece of fruit been so sweet and juicy as that Bolivian orange.

[laura]

Once upon a time, many years ago my mum, brother and I went on a walk. Before we left my Mum made our dinner so all she had to do was pop it in the oven when we returned home. She had made broccoli wrapped in ham with cheese sauce...if you have been deprived of this meal you MUST try it- j'adore. Anyway, we returned from playing with sticks in the mud to find the dish on the side with just broccoli laying there naked by itself. My mum thought she was going mad and started to make the sauce again...and then it clicked. Our cat Fatty (rather aptly named) had devoured the whole dish, leaving thoroughly licked broccoli by itself.
So this is a story of a hungry fat cat, and consequently dinner-less children.

[Sarah_nb]

It seems silly now, but in 1999 a lot of otherwise quite clever people were getting very upset about the Millennium Bug. Some of them sold everything, quit their jobs and moved to tiny Scottish islands to wear clogs and learn how to be from the previous millennia.

The most annoying thing about the Millennium Bug was that everyone was talking about it but nobody had a sodding clue what it might do or if it even existed. It wasn't how I pictured the turn of the century, so I decided to leave the country and swapped London for Barcelona the week before Christmas.

All was well in Catalonia. I spoke about 50 words of Spanish, none of them being 'bug' so we got along fine, except for one thing. The food.

It smelled unbelievable. The ham smelled like sex, the seafood smelled of sunshine. I walked endlessly through cobbled back streets and seafront promenades, leaving a trail of saliva behind me, and every day cursing more and more my vegetarian bones.

On New Year's Eve eve, I took the train out to Montserrat. The monastery was the first place in days that didn't smell of food. I queued with the tiny old women to walk past the Black Madonna who gave me a suitably judgemental gaze and then I spent all day exploring the mountain, stopping to read a book in some ruins.

When I woke up - sweet baby Jesus! I fell asleep!

When I woke up, I swore a lot. It was dark. Being midwinter that didn't mean much, except that I knew that the cable car and funicular both stopped around 4pm that day and I was up a blooming mountain with no torch. I had two choices, wake up the monks or walk down the mountain.

It took almost three hours and more than a few stumbles to reach the bottom. I'd climbed down a totally different side to the one my train had arrived at that morning so there was no station awaiting me but I could see some lights in the distance so I walked on. It was a taverna.

Mentally, I ran back up and kissed the Black Madonna. But it was closing, and the owner (who was round as he was tall) pointed to his watch and then the wall calendar. Evidently this was family time and here was I: English and shivering, with a face that was only clean where my angry tears had shifted the muck.

He put a bear-sized hand on my shoulder and guided me into a chair next to an open clay oven. A large glass of red wine appeared and duly disappeared. It was replaced along with some olives and pan con tomate (still my favourite Spanish starter). And then the smell. Behind me, in the clay oven, was a terracotta dish out of which was wafting an aroma so outrageous it had to be illegal.

I am lucky and have never known hunger before or since that night. I knew I was eating rabbit because my beautiful host did a little charade for me to explain his dish. It remains the best meal of my life. Nothing awakens the taste buds like fear and hunger met with generous hospitality. It was enough to make me wish the Millennium Bug were real, so I could have an excuse to live my days by the side of a mountain, making stews.

[Edward Grainger]

Glastonbury 2010. You know the drill, find a space in front of the Pyramid and wait for the act you want to see. Trouble is, I go by myself which means either trusting a total stranger to keep my place, or just standing there for the duration. I select the latter. It's baking hot, so calls of nature are not a concern, but did I remember to fill a bag with handy nourishment before settling down? Nope. Many hours later, after an exhausting and, let's face it, undignified session of jumping up and down to Ray Davies, Faithless and then Stevie Wonder's headlining piece de resistance, it occurs to me that nothing but water has passed my lips since breakfast 15 hours earlier. I remember the Jerk Chicken gang barbecuing the night before on a huge griddle. Salivation proves all too possible as I join the seemingly interminable queue for what feels like the rest of the night (maybe 20 minutes) before discovering that the chicken is indeed as good as it smells. Just hope they're there again when Beyonce finishes her set in 3 weeks time!

[Nicola]

One highly eventful family holiday back in 2000, my family and I decided to drive to Italy over a 2 week period. After several days I could not find a simple cheese and tomato sandwich. Cheese yes, but alas no tomato! Kindly enough, when I got back I was bought several tomato seeds to grow my own tomatoes, and have happily been growing my own veg ever since!

[Becky]

A couple of summers ago my friend and I decided since the weather was so nice we'd go to the local Abbey for a picnic. We got a load of gorgeous food some wine, packed it all in a picnic basket and set off walking. We got about half way there and needed the loo so stopped off at the supermarket to duck in. When we got to the Abbey we discovered we'd left the picnic basket at the supermarket and were just about to go back when we bumped in to a group of guys who invited us to share theirs once they'd heard what happened. My friend is now engaged to the guy who invited us to join them and the picnic basket was waiting for us when we called in to the supermarket on the way home!

[Josie]

Once upon a time there was a very keen foodie- that's me, by the way. I was feeling particularly keen and eager (and hungry) one day. I went online, did some research and before I knew it I was enrolled on a two-year professional food and cookery university degree and studying part-time to become a chef! A year in; i'm more passionate than ever, learning loads and having a ball. I think it's going to be a story with a very happy ending!

[Emma B]

Me and friend went travelling in Hawaii and had to walk 10miles to get all the food we could carry on our backs - in hope it would last a week. We had some eventful evenings with the 'food' we had to eat in an outside kitchen. One night we were dishing up some tinned salmon only to turn around and find a wild cat on the plate licking it all up. It was toast for dinner that night. But the 1st July came and as a celebration and sympathy for the lack of food we had, a family staying at the same B&B cooked as fresh tuna in a broth like style with loads of vegetables - never been so happy to see food in my life!

[Flora Harris]

My mum made chocolate brownies when I was five and left them cooling on a rack before she cut them up. I was very hungry for those brownies and when she came back there was a fist-shaped hole in the middle. I had washed my hands and brushed my teeth so she couldn't prove it was me. But it was! And she nicknamed me "Scoopy" anyway!

[karen turton]

when at secondary school many years ago, a group of us went walking on Dartmoor for the day. when we arrived back at the bus station at the end of the walk, a tramp was seen rumaging through the bins for food. we collected all our left over food together and placed it very carefully on the top of the next bin saying loudly '' what a pity we cannot eat this foof''. we all then ran up the steps. a gentleman came up a few minutes later to say he was enjoying his feast.

[L.K]

This is a story about transformation.. This is a story about a food lover who transformed her husband's hated ingredients into his favourites! This is a story about a man who used to hate pineapples, apples, spinach, carrots, tomatoes (often), coconut, chickpeas and many more. This is a story of being clever and having the taste to cook the right meals with the right ingredients and at the right times, then giving them names! This is a story of being creative with what you eat! This is a story of a hungry man who had no alternatives, munched on a "specially for us' menu prepared by his 'loving wifie' on their anniversary, with meals that had everything he hated! he actually had no other choice, but saying the right words, playing games with the food helped the starving man to develop new conceptions of those delights.. he is now actually asking for those special meals..

[Hannah]

Many many years ago (more than I want to think about) When we were 17 a friend and I went Youth hostelling in the Lake District.

We did lots and lots of walking, most of it up and down the hills and mountains in the area. One day we walked up a very big hill, the idea was to eat our packed lunch at the top. Imagine our surprise when we got to the summit to discover that the track marked on the map was actually a proper tarmac road and parked at the top of this very big hill was an ice-cream van. A very surprising and very very nice way to finish lunch on a sunny day at the top of a hill with fabulous views.

[Hazel]

I was on holiday in Spain with my family and we decided to hire a car and drive out to see the whole area more. We ended up driving for a number of hours through some hilly terrain, and we were getting very hungry, with no shops on the country roads, or any signs of life. We took a break to take in the views when a great big hornet bug took to chasing my mum and sister up and down the road, wearing them out immensely, much to my own amusement! After my mum and sister had jumped back into the car to hide from the flying bug, we continued on our way, in the hope of coming across a shop or cafe. By now we were getting extremely hungry, my mum and sister in particular. Eventually we ended up in a very untouristy little village. The good news though was that there was one small cafe. We went in and all the locals went quiet to stare at us tourists. We did not care. We went straight up to the cashier and pulled out our Spanish phrase book. We ordered 5 lots of chicken with chips, speaking in Spanish. We were given a look of incomprehension. We decided to try to order in English. Again, confused looks, and the locals started murmuring. So taking the lead, I held my hand up to show 5 fingers (ok, 4 fingers and 1 thumb!), then started flapping my elbows and squawking like a chicken (I was getting desperate). Immediately they understood what we wanted and all the locals erupted into laughter and started mimicking the chicken imitation. We were all too hungry to be embarrassed! Needless to say, the chicken was very good.Thinking back now, I do not know why we did not just point out the phrases for the chasier to read. Perhaps it was lack of fuel to the brain!

[Claire]

Once upon a time, not too long ago, it was the day before my wedding. As you can imagine my soon to be husband and I were very excited and extremely nervous. My husband , which he now is, was going to cook us a very special breakfast of bacon sandwiches and tea. Imagine how upset I was when the bacon sandwich came out cold and burnt. I realise I placed a lot of importance on that breakfast, but it was our last breakfast together before we were married! Anyway, later that morning we drove to our respective families and were not going to see each other until the actual wedding.

The next morning, with the big day ahead, my tummy was doing strange summersaults and I was feeling rather nervous. I put my hand in my bag to find a mint, and found a folded up piece of paper. On opening it, I found a beautiful, heartfelt note from my husband telling me how important I am to him and how much I mean to him. He wrote this letter while making the sandwich, hence why it was burnt. The letter reminded me of why we were getting married to each other and really calmed my nerves. Now I can’t help but smile whenever he burns bacon…

[Elisabeth]

In our teenage years my mum left myself and my sister alone for a week whilst she went on holiday (don't worry, we were about 18 or so..nothing dodgy!)

There was nothing in the house and we both couldn't be bothered going shopping so we lived off various variations of Quorn fillets. Quorn fillet with tomato puree, Quorn fillet with cheese, Quorn fillet with Oxo cube.

I now cannot eat Quorn fillets.

[lou]

last christmas, me and my buddy trekked to putney, from north london, to see our friend play a dog in snow white *ahem*. there was wine in the interval thankfully. sadly, we ran out of time getting there and stupidly skipped dinner so we didnt miss a minute of action.
by the time we'd had 'after performance drinks' and headed out for our saturday evening we were the most hungry we had ever been in our lives. ever. on the way home in the wee small hours we had a lightbulb moment and popped into a pizza place. genius...
...it was 241, so we made friends with a group of people also waiting to take advantage of this glorious offer and split the bill. clever eh. slumped over the counter waiting to inhale our magherita, it finnnnnnally came, after hoursss of no food, and then wait for it... the group we made 'friends' with chose their most agile team member, snatched both pizzas, and ran off. they stole it.
snaffled it.
thieved it.
deprived us of carbs in our hour of need.
we. were. distraught. and the pizza place closed. we dragged our weary bodies to the nightbus, crawled on, and went home wimpering and dreaming of melted cheese.
when we got in. i saved the entire day. ditching my usual obsessions with organic, fair trade and natural food i scooted through the freezer and discovered WAFFLESSSSS, which i proceeded to cook for us to perfection and serve complete with a duvet.

there is a moral in this story innocent folks; who knew that if you whack the toaster up to 4, and repeat the toasting experience either side, you can TOAST a waffle. i didn't. i ruddy well do now. and one day, you will remember this advice.

the end.

[www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawltRxUR2ykL4xYQedm7yg0exizxTH3oCSU]

Back in 2003 I was invited by my brother on a team building exercise for the company that he worked for. It was a weekend away at one of the Territorial Army bases in the Midlands, carrying out problem solving tasks in our group, and competing against the other teams from different 'rival' companies. The first night was a good introduction for the weekend ahead - after walking for over an hour at midnight we arrived at our accommodation... a disused barn with no windows or doors, and a comfy concrete floor to sleep on.

After 3 hours sleep we were awoken and told breakfast would be served in 15 minutes and then the days 'activities' would begin. Needless to say, I felt a little rough. The rest of the weekend continued along these lines, exhausting activities (mentally and physically), food rations including out-of-date chocolate and cold beans, and the first hard frost of the year (it was late October, the weekend the clocks went back, and that extra hour in bed proved not to be as good a thing as I'd thought, as when I woke up I really struggled to move and to not see double!) By the Sunday afternoon, the activities ended, and the results were announced. We all stood, hoping that we had managed to finish high up, somehow helping to make the torturous couple of days more worthwhile. But it was not to be, we finished rock bottom. Fantastic.

On the drive home I began to fantasize about the delicious food I could indulge in that evening, to replenish all the energy I had spent in finishing last. Unfortunately I was a student at the time, and so all I could imagine eating when I got in was at best a fish-finger sandwich, or a couple of packs of Asda's famous (at least in our Uni house at the time) 8p noodle blocks (Mmmm). As I walked into the house, my house mate Joe happened to have his parents down, and they were just heading to the takeaway Chinese just up the road (why hadn't I thought of this option?!) and they offered to buy mine for me as a reward for the hard weekend, or something. Cantonese style sweet and sour chicken balls have never tasted so good, and probably never will again. Thank you Joe's parents. It really was just what was needed.

[Zoey]

I took place in a charity trek where the journey there didn't go as planned. I ended up getting delayed in various continents for over 24 hours... with no local currency, there's only so much plane food you can take. When I finally arrived over a day late, our guide took us to the most amazing local restaurant where my taste buds went into over drive. The local delicacy of 'fanny jam' was particularly interesting...

[NickyG]

Whilst on a cruise, following many vodka jellies and various coloured cocktails, we were very hungry. So hungry in fact that we couldn't wait to be served in the captains lounge (very posh) and so went to the self service restaurant. We hungrily helped ourselves to some lovely quiche, chips and found some cheese sauce which we liberaly poured on the chips. Lot of ketchup on the quiche and ready to enjoy! Once tasted we realised the quiche was bread and butter pudding (with ketchup!) and the cheese sauce was custard (on chips!). But so hungry was we, we still ate it all! [The following evening we noticed that all the food had now been labelled]

[Anya]

I'm 19 years old and have been having chemotherapy for the past 6 months. Every time I go into hospital, I spend 3 days feeling mildly sick and not at all like tackling hospital food (I've been put off carrots and quiches for life), as well as having incredibly powerful steroid induced hunger. It's a crazy crazy combination. But I never eat a single thing!

When I finally get home, I eat about a weeks worth of food in one day, my Mum can hardly keep up! (Incidentally, she lives off veg pots whilst in hospital). There's a happy ending of a very stuffed, happy girl each time, and even more so that my last chemotherapy is Monday and I'd love 100 healthy recipes to keep me going!

[Alice]

The day of the hunger

The day started hungerlessly enough, with a breakfast of cereal and toast, followed an hour or two later by another breakfast of croissants and hot chocolate- a sort of last supper to celebrate the last RE lesson. Cakes, biscuits and merriment were soon to follow, and Alice felt happily full. After further cake and a quick watching of made in Chelsea, school was finally over, and Alice’s lovely friend Lisa invited her to her house for lunch. Pasta, pesto and asparagus soon ensued, with the two gleeful girls greedily filling up their sugar-stuffed stomachs.

“Hold on”, I hear you say, “this is supposed to be a story about hunger! And so far all we have seen is fullness!” But fear not! For the hunger is just around the corner…

(Or on second thoughts perhaps fear lots as the hunger is probably the scariest monster there is…)

After lunch, Alice and Lisa set off to the pub to meet with their friends and teachers for more post-school amusement. Unfortunateley, Alice had unwittingly brought very little money and so had to scrounge of other people, but enjoyed herself nevertheless. At 10 O’ clock she was one of the last people there, and made her cheery way home, content in the fact she had had a nice evening and NEVER HAD TO RETURN TO SCHOOL (…apart from for exams).

However, the next day, Alice woke up RAVENOUS. She ate breakfast. Twice. But she was still hungry. Lunchtime came and went. But she was still hungry. Thinking back on the day before, she remembered the pasta-filled hilarity at Lisa’s house, and thought what a wonderful supper that had been. She could not for the life of her think where the hunger had come from. And then suddenly, two hunger-filled days later, it hit her. She had not eaten dinner. No. The pasta had been lunch. Dinner had been notably absent.

Having finally found the cause of her hunger, Alice was able to correct the terrible situation, and fill the gap that fateful Friday night had left.

She is now able to live a happy life full of hilarity and joy. But sometimes, late at night, she can still feel the hunger that that missed meal left.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY: Never miss a meal. It will leave you hungry. FOREVER.

[Dee Cooper]

I was about 14 and I'd gone for a walk on Dartmoor with my older sister and her new boyfriend (I wonder if they'd preferred I wasn't there!!). We got really, really lost (like you can on Dartmoor) and became hungrier and hungrier (we hadn't taken anything to eat or drink which is really silly!). We sat down to try and work out what to do . . . and we noticed a packet of plain crisps floating in a bit of bog water beside us. We were so hungry that we decided to eat them. They must have given us back our energy because we worked out how to get back to the car and all was well!

[HR]

I was so hungry once on the way home from shopping, and the journey would be about an hour. My little sister had a nice bag of snacks she was munching on, and when she was not looking, one by one I pinched them! By the time we got home and everyone was getting ready for dinner, I was full up!

[Mildred]

On a boating holiday in the Norfolk Broads we were happily chugging along to lunch at a riverside pub when we noticed a storm brewing. The boat was struggling in the increasing winds so we had to moor up at the next available spot. We were in the middle of nowhere but there was a pub a short walk away.
The pub was not serving food until the evening, the tiny shop attached to the pub could not be opened because there was only one barmaid in the pub and she wouldn't leave the bar and we had no more food on the boat.
A local gave us directions to the nearest village to buy some food from a petrol station and said it was about 5 miles walk. We walked in a gale over farmers' fields for what seemed like forever until finally the petrol station came into view. We stocked up on food and were told to follow the river back as it was quicker.
Then, like a mirage in a desert, a fish and chip shop was spotted in the distance and it was OPEN!!! We were exhausted and grumpy walking all that way with the strong wind in our faces. The restaurant was open so we sat down and had the best fish and chips ever. Full bellies and happy faces restored! Not looking forward to the walk back to the boat we followed advice to walk along the river and found that it was about 2 miles instead of 5!!

[Laura Pickett]

We flew to Dublin on an early morning flight and drove down to Tullow and checked into our hotel. We were all absolutely starving and thought we would find nowhere to eat but stumbled across a garden centre who were just beginning to close up after lunch. Martin had all the yummy bits left over of roast pork and beef and a massive plate of vegetables, my eldest son, Clem, had the largest gateau you have seen, little one, Monty had a whopper chocolate cake and I had a slice of lemon meringue pie - it was all totally scrumptious and was made even better by the lovely irish ladies who did so much to make sure we were all happy and well fed!!!

[Leo Gilmour]

When I was about 10 I was teased by my family and got so upset and angry I ran and hid in my room and locked the door! all day my parents and my sisters would come and get me to come out but I was so stubborn and hurt (I have completely forgotten what they said!) that I refused! I lay in my bed all day, feeling very very sorry for myself. Eventually it was dark and I was SO UNBELIEVABLY hungry my tummy was sore and rumbling so loudly! I decided to make some imaginary food, delicious hamburgers and amazing cakes and pretend I was eating it!! I even pretended it satisified my hunger but just as I finished my imaginary feast of amazing delights there was a knock on the door, and my father (I was definitely a daddy's girl) said there was dinner waiting for me, a juicy steak and perfectly cooked vegetables. I lept out of bed and ran downstairs, forgetting my pride, and since I was so hungry, the steak turned out to be the yummiest and most satisfying I have ever had! YUM!

[Nathan]

I took my wife to the top of a very tall mountain to propose to her. She had no idea about the proposal and was complaining about being really hungry. I got to the top proposed and then we had a picnic. The happy ending is we will be happliy married for the rest of our lives!

[Verity Hawkes]

My room-mate and I decided to go on a diet whilst at Uni. We'd heard a lot about SlimFast so decided to give it a go. After the first shake on the first day we walked to Uni (45 mins), talking about food all the way and what we would eat after we could eat 'normal' food again! Needless to say the diet only lasted 24 hours and taught me that my love of food should never be denied!

[Gemma]

When I was in labour with my first son I was 'nil by mouth' I had a high risk pregnancy and the docs thought there was a high risk that I would need an emergency c-section. After the longest (and most painful) 36 hours of my life I gave birth totally naturally to the most wonderful heatlhy baby boy. AND I WAS STARVING. My best friend visied us in hospital only 15 minutes after he was born and brought crispy baguette, butter and pate (something that was off the menu for the long 9 months whilst pregnant) and my favourite innocent smoothie with strawberries and bananas and I gobbled it up. It was the best meal of my life!

[Jen]

When I was little I had to go into hospital for a minor operation and I wasn't allowed to eat anything from the night before until after my operation. I remember waking up from the anaesthetic starving and then being given this tiny meal in the hospital. When I got home there waiting for me was corn beef hash - I think I must have eaten about 4 bowls of it and it remains to this day one of my favourite comfort foods.

[Christine Pinkney]

I have ME as well as other things and that means I'm poorly a lot and don't have a very good immune system and not always a good appetite but the good news is I'm always hungry for Innocent special fruit smoothies especially pomegranate, blueberries & acai and they fill me full of good stuff!

[Anne Marie]

I'm a Children's Dietitian and spend most of my working life talking about food. I also therefore spend most of my life starving!

Imagine this- the end of a morning clinic my tummy feels like my throat's been cut and is vociferously protesting 'growl, grumble'. I start seeing my last little patient who's mother is politely ignoring the constant interruptions of the increasingly loud borborygmii (best word ever meaning abdominal noises!).

Enter 3 year old Harry (names changed).. 'Mummy, that lady has a hungry bear in her belly! We need to give her some scoobie snacks' at which point he so proudly shares with me his half-eaten cheese spread sandwiches. 'You can have my crusts' as he shoves them toward my mouth!

I tell you- I was so close to biting his grubby hand off I was so hungry!

Lesson learned I now carry my very own scoobie snacks to keep the bear in the belly at bay!

[Catherine Owen]

just this week, i had been very busy wasn was off to give a talk in a little village hall as part of my work ... normally we eat very lovely healthy orgasmic veggie food, and i had had a bit of tea, with my three children. driving along i felt a bit peckish again, and while the sat nav did the thinking i fantasised about bag of chips ... hadn't had one for months. i laughed at the idea of the little village-with-double-barralled name having a chippie! imagine my surprise as i turned the last corner, and saw a mobile chip van parked outsode the village hall where i was to give my talk ... i was early too! result! back to veggies now tho :-) and steamed new potatoes xxxx

[Hannah]

Excuse me to David M. but I'm German and whenever I go there I have perfectly normal sized portions, thank-you very much!
This is to evryone:
When you are telling you foreign "Hungry" stories, can you try not to be offensive about other countries, because there are plenty of people who may come from that country and cpuld feel offended!

[Lily Potter]

on the road, from South London back to Norfolk. dad had a brilliant idea for a shortcut, so we were somehow managing to get to Norfolk via Dover. (and if you speak Road, thats a long way.about 5 hours.)we were meant to be stopping for a maccie d's or something, but we hadn't passed life for what seemed like... a lifetime. It was like the soundtrack to world war three, so much tummy rumbling and baby crying and "are we nearly there yetttt." (answer... NO.) so imagine our surprise when we saw this little chippy in the distance. sadly, there were many more hungry people,so we queued for another 45 minutes.or at least another 45 minutes until I root around in the boot a bit and find a Tesco bag of bread, bananas, smarties, smoothies, and tomatoes.

[Ainsley]

In Paris in February (the night before going to a conference where we learned all about Innocent from Joe) we had spent a day on boats, up the Arc De Triumph, to the louvre etc etc and at 10 at night we finally got taken to find a restaurant. Yippppppe! But our teacher went to find something that was "just at the end of the road" and while he was gone someone fainted! So we abandoned our spot on the dark street in search of food and found an amazing Italian restaurant with the nicest/clumsiest waiter ever and got great food that hardly seen the table because it was eaten so fast! And just for good measure after finishing my bolognase I finished any ones who had left a bit before desert! I dont think food will ever taste that good again...unless of course it is made by Innocent!

[Jessica]

LAst year I tried to grow tomato plants from seed, hoping that I'd have so many tomatoes I'd be able to freeze some as a quick and easy sauce for emergency hungry suppers. unfortunatly I dont have a greenhouse so the plants had to live outside and what fruit managed to grow stayed green. I was a bit dissapionted until I remembered reading about green tomato chutney, a quick internet seach for a recipe and a chutney making afternoon and I had a tasty chutney for eating with cheese on toast, another wonderful supper/lunch staple. my dad also really likes it!

[Gillian Thompson]

My cat tried to eat my pet hamster once, but the hamster got away and my cat got some biscuits.

[robin]

really really hungry at school and wanted an ice cream, i had already spent my lunch money, but while walking around with my head down on a warm day found 50p, i went to the ice cream man, said anything for 50p, he said no, but will make a 99p ice cream 50p size for you, yay i said, i get ice cream.

[David Stevens]

While backpacking around Oz with my girlfriend we decided to go on a weekend trip to a deserted island in the great barrier reef. Before leaving for the island that morning I said to my girlfriend maybe we should bring some food with us as it's a "deserted" island, she laughed and said surely there would be a shop or something somewhere on the island as it was a national park and there had to be some facilities there! I agreed and off we went but still stopped off on the way and bought some chocolate and potato salad!! Don't ask me why!

When we arrived to get on the boat we were meet by a nice gentleman who gave us a big tanker to fill up with water as there was no drinking water on the island. This got me a bit worried, my girlfriend still assured me there would be something on the island. Water tanker filled and chocolate and potato salad packed we headed off for the island, within 15 mins we were on a beautiful tropical island, the gentleman helped us off with our bags and told us he'd see us in two days. As he waved from his now speeding away boat I looked to my girlfriend and seen the first look of worry in her eyes! At first glance around there was no sign of any thing that resembled a shop or restaurant!! I began to worry, but decided to keep calm and get on with it. So our tent was pitched and we got settled, Hunger was now setting in!! I decided it was time to take out the potato salad and chocolate I had bought to the delight of my girlfriend. It was now 5 o'clock in the evening and was getting dark outside, having only eaten a spoonful of potato salad and a bite of chocolate each we headed off to sleep fearful of the hunger pangs tomorrow would bring.

The next morning I woke up early and decided to wander around the "island" to see if I could forage for some food, having wandered the deserted beach I decided to go and see what I could find in the tropical forest. 2 hours of wandering and having lost half my body weight in sweat I stumbled out onto a vast green space, thinking I was delirious from hunger I saw two people waving at me and shouting. As I walked towards them and could hear them more clearly I realised they were two golfers who were telling me to get off the fairway!! Not knowing what the hell was going on at this stage I started walking again only to find that the other side of the island was used as a all inclusive resort for passing cruise ships!! While wandering around the resort my sense of smell brought me straight to the buffet area which was now serving lunch, having satisfied my hunger needs I practically ran the 2 hour walk back to tell my girlfriend of my find. Lets just say that night both of us eat for a family of five in the resorts dinner buffet :)

[Gareth Cotton]

As she approached her face became clear or should I say clearer? She looked tired and also very hungry and ill. I knew she needed food, a lot of food, but I'd eaten it all. Instead of making my presence known I hid in the bush. Crouched down my hungry stomach was doing its level best to make itself known. Suddenly my mid drift growled like a Bengal Tiger cat, 'feed me, feed me' it chanted. I was so hungry I thought my stomach was literally talking. Meanwhile, Rita, as she would later become known to me, had fallen. She was in a ditch and was covered in mud and cattle sick. Although I was starving it didn’t stop me from laughing, nothing could take away my sense of humor not even food, or lack there of. ‘Oi darling, oi darling’ I said as the hazy glow of the moonlight reflected on her sick laden kompff(german for head). She turned her dirty face and said ‘ Hi I am Rita and I am hungry, can you spare me some food’, I could tell this broad was greedy, you could see it in her eyes. but I didn’t for one second expect her to steal my heart. Even though she stunk, was covered in mud and cow sick I could see a spark in her eyes that told me she could be worth spending the rest of my life with. I approached her cautiously after all I was naked and was approaching from a bush after dark, 'Hey love, fancy grabbing a pint and a little grub, my shout' I shook my fanny pack so she knew I meant business. 'Yeah alright' she replied shaking her muddy Converse off. That night we ate, like never before, we laughed, cried and then had sex. It was the best. Rita and I have been happily married for 12 years. In fact Rita is actually Catherine and we have been together for 4 years and recently got engaged, I just thought I stood more of a chance of getting the book if I reflected some of your brand associations of solid family values.

[Louise Wright]

For mothers day last year, me my sister and my brother decided to take our mum out for dinner and our mum invited her mum, her partner, her partners mum and a few other family too. The idea was we would pay for mum and mum would pay for her mum. We ordered our food after asking if anything had run out (being told quite a few things had run out) then the waitress disappeared, after a long time coming back to say alot of the starters had sold out even though we were expecting them to have arrived by now! we ordered more starters. the starters came out after 2 hours. the waitress was taking ages to come with our dinners and she kept saying how it wouldnt be long but she came back after another hour to say im so sorry they lost your order they havent even started it and by then more main dishes had run out. we ordered different meals and got our food after another hour on top of that. the food was delicious and the waitress announced to our table after all of the problems we had with cold food, late food, lost order, long wait, drinks not turning up etc that the whole meal would be completely free! not bad considering there was 8 of us and it was absolutely lovely food when it did arrive so a 3 course meal that tasted amazing was our saviour!

[InfamyInfamy]

One day I was hungry, I ate something, and then I was happy. The end.

[Grace]

On holiday in Berlin i ate a kilogram of stollen because there was nothing else going...
Is that wrong?
Quite probably.

[ruth]

I GET HUNGRY!!!

After 4 years of suffering with severe anorexia and various hospital admissions Im proud but also scared to say that I GET HUNGRY!
due to this i have discovered many delicios dishes! HOWEVER the best has to be after my recent holiday to Disney land, althoug we visited various restaurants throughout the trip the best meal was on the flight home! LEMON CHICKEN AND RICE courtesy of virgin atlnatic! :') when i told the air steward this was the best meal i had eaten in 2 weeks he looked hesetant and laughed and then told me how pleased he was, on telling my dad however i dont think he was too impressed after this was the only free meal of the 2 week trip and some dinners had been rather pricey! heheee

[Ami]

@Ruth, massive cuddles for you! :) xx

[Florence]

6 years old and sitting in my potential headmasters office with my family, and all I could think about were those biscuits. On a standard white china plate just out of my reach the biscuits sat there, knowing full well what they were doing to me. I don't think I was even particularly hungry, but I just knew I had to have those biscuits. They weren't particularly special either; a standard foxes family selection. But I needed those biscuits.

I spent the whole interview agonizing over the pros and cons of getting one of those biscuits - in my mind I'd already selected the gold wrapped one, tantalizingly close to the edge of the plate and so curiously wrapped that I felt compelled to investigate - but the matter was how. Should I just lunge? Should I be polite and offer them around? The fact that they weren't mine to offer didn't concern me.

As I fidgeted I realised that now was the time - seize the moment! I lunged for the plate and shoved it under the headmaster face and said oh so sweetly :'Would you like a biscuit?' He was shocked. I had rendered him almost helpless by nearly impaling two chocolate fingers up his nostrils, and he just didn't know what to do. It was a disaster.

Of course, all the adults laughed. My older sisters joined in, not entirely sure what was going on, and I felt myself go bright red. I thought it was polite. I felt it was the only thing one could have done when face with my paralysing dilemma. Apparently not.

I got my biscuit (the gold one) but did I enjoy it? No. I just nibbled at it and became aware of the fact that you must NEVER offer someone their own biscuit. Never...

[Ami]

When I was maybe 8 or 9, I got to experience dinner in two incredibly different ways whilst on holiday in Nigeria. Both meals, to this day, shape my life... and you will see what on earth I'm talking about as you read on! :)

The first dinner - or should I say dinners? - came from The Sheraton. At the time, this was one of Nigeria's most exclusive (read: expensive) hotels. Situated right in the heart of Lagos city, the place was garnished heavily with sparkling fountains, cream-clad porters, gold trim, and towering palm trees that waved at my little brother and I wherever we explored. (We swore blind that this was true.)

Now, we'd never have been able to afford even a night's stay there - not a cat in hell's chance! But as (bad) luck would have it, our luggage had boarded a totally different flight... and was now somewhere in Asia. Oops! And so, faced with Furious Father, Menacing Mother and two children screaming blue murder (as their last meal had been breakfast... they'd slept through the food on the plane as usual), the airline staff decided to put us up at The Sheraton for as many nights as it took for the luggage to be returned. All expenses paid for!

I still remember the look on mum's face as she told us we could order whatever we wanted for dinner. Her eyes were glittering with unabridged excitement. And, as we stumbled into the lavish hotel restaurant, a single word crossed my ravenous mind:

FOOD!

I ordered my favourite dish ever - margharita pizza with extra EXTRA cheese . I ordered the other two nights we ate there, too - but it never tasted as good as it did on that first night. Cheesy, crispy and wonderfully filling in all the right places. I remember nothing else about that hotel in as much detail as I do that pizza! :)

But wait, I hear you cry - but what of the second dinner? Aha - you shall have to read part two to find out. ;)

[Ami]

Part Two! :)

Where were we before? Ah, yes - The Sheraton. Skip forward a few days, and you arrive at Unwana. Unwana is a small village in South Nigeria, so small you could drive through in less than a minute. During our stay we lived above a church in a small flat. There was one bedroom to house the four of us, a kitchen the size of a Western utility room, and a bathroom I shouldn't describe in case you're eating. My little brother and I complained non-stop... until we discovered that in Unwana, kitchens are open fires, and bathrooms are patches of earth out back. We stopped complaining.

One day, mum discovered we'd run out of food. Dad had left a few days before to attend to some business, and we weren't sure when he'd return. We tried to remain cheerful for her, as she was already very upset. But no breakfast soon extended to no lunch... and began creeping into no dinner. I had started feeling faint by this point (as water was also scarce) so rested on a sofa, trying to ignore this new feeling of searing, intense hunger. I fell into an uncomfortable sleep.

Unbeknownst to us, some of the women in the village had come to say hello; and after hearing what was happening, decided to cook for us. Someone had a spare turkey from the recent Thanksgiving celebrations, and the others contributed absolutely anything they had, however little - vegetables, rice, sauce, spices. Soon, almost the entire village was helping out.

I stirred again only when a calloused hand gently shook me awake. An absolutely MAGNIFICENT smell assaulted my nostrils; and a slender bronze skinned woman smiled down at me, pointing over to a cluster of pots on the floor. As I stumbled toward where she'd motioned - remembering a little too late to give her a heartfelt 'thank you' - that single word I'd thought at The Sheraton crossed my ravenous mind again.

FOOD!!!

There was more than enough to go round. Some of the village kids came to be fed too, playing with shadows cast by the candles dotted around the room. I remember it being one of the most magical, satisfying meals I have ever eaten. I don't think I've ever tasted turkey that good in all my eighteen years... and I don't think I've said 'thank you' so many times, either! :)

Ten years on, I still think back to that trip. The wonderful hospitality of that airline's staff, and the wonderful generosity of Unwana's people. It always reminds me that no matter how big or small the gesture, selflessness can make a day... or save a life. :)

========================

The end! I hope you enjoyed... and sorry it's so long! xx

[Andy]

A long, long time ago, I was cycling up a mountain in Austria. Well I was young and in lurve, and trying to keep up with my boyfriend. I was very hungry due to the physical exercise, and breakfast being so long ago. We stopped for a brief rest, and I noticed that the mountainside beside me was covered with small bushes, bilberry bushes! Needless to say we devoured them greedily, and had purple stained faces and hands for the next day or so. I have never spotted them growing wild in such outragious profusion since, to my regret.

[Gemma Anderson]

A few months ago I was on a fieldtrip in spain. A few friends and I were hungry and we decided we wanted to go out to eat, but we found that nowhere was open. We wandered around for a few hours getting more and more hungry and found a lovely little restaurant which gave us free tapas, a delicious main meal, and a free ice lolly and shot of caramel vodka at the end of the meal! We recommended the place to the rest of the people on the field trip, including our lecturers, and by the end of the trip most people had eaten there! They also served very large beers (at least 2 pints in one glass), which I decided not to partake in!

[Fi]

My recently-filled tummy can only focus on most recent events, but I feel it is an appropriate story all the same. I just drove for an hour across the M25 in the pouring rain and with an empty belly. I didn't know what might be in the fridge when I got home apart from some rhubarb and vanilla yoghurt. When I arrived, there was a banana, some strawberries and melon in addition to aforementioned yoghurt. After some quick pseudo-slicing with a spoon (the most efficient cutlery usage when you're in a hurry), and a brief spate of frenzied nomming, I have myself a bowl empty of yummyness and a belly full of it. Result!

[Fiona]

I had been travelling round Europe with a friend and was heading home on the train with no money but a very empty stomach. A young Indian man across the aisle ordered loads of food and I watched every mouthful that he ate. He finished and there was half a roll left on his plate. I was hoping that he might go to the loo so I could pinch it, but the waiter cleared the table and shortly afterwards we arrived in Parish where we had to change trains. The Indian man asked if we were going to London. When we said yes, he said he was too and he knew we had just over an hour to wait. Would we do him the honour of going with him to a cafe so that he wouldn't have to eat alone? Of course, we said yes and were soon enjoying a simple meal that was like heaven, while our host sipped a coffee. It turned out he sold carpets and regularly visited Europe. When we thanked him for the meal, he said all he asked was that we would do the same for someone in the future - so thanks for asking the question Innocent, reminding me of that man's kindness and how it's been a while since I've done the same - definitely going to make it one of my things to do this summer!

[Louise]

my hunger story...I was in El Salvador with Habitat for Humanity in summer 2001. As a vegetarian, I knew it would be tough, but I'd no idea how tough! Breakfast every day for the 10 days we were in the hotel was scrambled eggs, refried beans and bread rolls. Lunch was more bread and fruit. Dinner every day was yet more bread, rice and stewed cabbage and carrot. Every single day... By the end of the build I'd lost half a stone and had forgotten what real food tasted like! Then, on the last night in the hotel, 29th July 2001, I smelled something like nectar...the rich, sweet-scented, mouth-watering aroma of...wait for it - Cup-a-Soup!!! One of my team-mates had forgotten he had the powdery provisions in his case. He'd also forgotten to offer me a sachet, but that was quickly rectified - nothing as scary as a starving vegetarian. Shaking with anticipation, I swooned as the hot water hit the red powder and unidentifiable dried veg, as a heady tomato scent wafted towards me, as the first incredible taste sensation filled my mouth... I've never enjoyed a powdered soup as much before or since, but I remember it vividly! I led my own team back to El Sal in 2004, but this time I brought the Cup-a-Soups myself...thank you for reminding me of it! :)

[Hannah Parkinson]

When I was little apparently I couldn't wait until dinner time, so I went into the garden and ate a worm... the happy ending is that I wasn't sick and I never went hungry again - because the rents were scared as to what I'd eat next!

[Harry Potter]

My Names Harry Potter And This Website Is Okay But It Could Do With Some More Information......Thanks H Potter xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

[Annie Darkhorse]

We have two lambs called William and Harry. We put them on the lawn to be lawnmowers and after about two weeks they had eaten most of the grass and were beginning to look over the fence at our veg beds. So we decided to move them the next day, but when I got up that morning to let the dog out, there was Harry outside the back door! Off he scampered, followed by William. They cantered away down the road and went into our neighbour's garden. Oh what jolly fun we had, chasing them back home. Half an hour later, hot and sweaty, we got them into the new paddock and they instantly settled down to graze. Phew.

[Fiona Whyton]

Family holiday in France 8 years ago. Ambitious stop plan - drive through most of France before arriving c.6pm at our well chosen logis for some authentic rustic French food and a nice bottle of wine.

The reality: 4 car convoy gets hideously lost and manages to drive the wrong way through Le Mans, twice. Change of lead driver, someone who can read a map and speak French (allegedly) in the front car. Eventually arrive somewhere near our logis about 9.30pm. All starving and complaining. Turns out logis is in the middle of the countryside with no streetlights and virtually no roadsigns. See group of feral looking teenagers, drive past them. Get more lost, drive back towards them. Send out best French speaker to find out where logis may be and to look for the nearest carrefour. Third best French speaker realises after another 20 long minutes of driving that carrefour doesn't mean roundabout but actually means crossroads. Is instantly promoted to top translation job.

Eventually arrive at logis extremely tired and very hungry at 10pm. Wonderful, wonderful owners are very glad to see us and lay on a fantastic spread of bread, rillettes, pickles, ham, cheese, cornichons. It is the best food we have ever eaten and as for the wine...

[AJ]

My chum went out to the public house for a small sherry a few weeks ago. On his way home, with post- alcohol munchies kicking in, he decided to stop and get a Chinese of Beef Chow Mein. On the long, tiring and hungry journey home (about 10 mins walk from pub to house) he decided whilst feeling a bit squiffy to sit at the bus stop and eat his takeway. And what utensils did he use for this? Does he carry a portable cutlery set? No no no, why bother with all that when you can eat with your house keys? Eeeww.

[Madeleine]

This is not technically my story, but the story of a boy called George (my cousin), who was once so hungry when he woke up and found that everyone else had gone out (he was about 15). He couldn't cook, never bothered. So he ate a tin of cold baked beans for breakfast. I think they're disgusting, but cold! Yuck! If you give me the book, I'll give it to George for his birthday and then he'll have no excuses not to learn to cook at least 1 thing!

[Clare]

I'm both often very hungry and also the last person in the office. Do you notice that your biscuit tin is sparse on return to the office in the morning? It's because me and people like me are stealing your biscuits under the cover of darkness!

[Marcia]

Wow, it's so hard to pick just one!
How about the time I went to Spain and stayed in a beautiful converted castle that hadthe most amazing buffet breakfast. The problem was I was pregnant and so couldn't each most of what was on offer (cured meats, soft cheeses, runny scrambled eggs, pate) but didnt want to spoil it for my husband so had to look happy while he scoffed the lot! The good news was just a few months later I could have what I wanted again, and sushi, and chocolate mousse - not all at the same time you understand!
Or when I had chemotherapy and couldn't face eating, it all tasted awful, so I had to keep trying things till finally I found some things I could eat - thai curry, chips with vinegar, my mum's chicken soup. Oh, the fun I had when my tastebuds were back to normal a few months later!
Or going hungry because my son was going through a fussy stage and only wanted to eat my food and I was so desparate for him to eat that I ended up feeding him my lunch and dinner for a few days but got to eat my own food eventually!

[sophie]

One day at school we had a exam during lunch so we didn't have any time to eat our pack lunches, when i got home, STARVING! my had a innocent veggie pot waiting for me, YUM :)

[stephanie foster]

I have fond memories from my childhood of sunday lunches because me and my sister always were taken out for a very long walk often through the nearby woods, so by the time we got home we'd all be starving and then mum would pop out to the kitchen and start lunch! the end result was always that by the time the food came out we were so hungry it was 'Bloody delicious!!!!' :)

[S E Smith]

Last Friday when I arrived home from work I was ravenous so I picked up a nectarine from the fruitbowl and started to chomp on it as I was at the same time- putting down my laptop bag, undoing my tie,unfastening my top button and generally getting ready for the great Friday night relaxation, as you do. At first I didn't register but what I thought was a hardish piece of nectarine, was a part of the inner stone that had broken off and, you've guessed it, I kept on chomping away as I was so hungry and then experienced searing pain as some splinters lodged in my gum, between two of my teeth. I went into panic mode but try as I could,with dental floss, toothbrush, toothpick, carving knife- I was getting desperate at this point- nothing would shift them. So I ended up whiling away several hours in casualty and eventually a very kind medic extracted them. Funnily enough I didn't eat anything at all that night, but made up for it on Saturday. So please be aware that even innocuous fruit can sometimes be the cause of a trip to hospital but mostly they are good for you.

[Anne Johnston]

Hunger story:
Every year my school takes part in an event called 'The Ten Tors' and is basically a massive trek across dartmoor and is 35 - 55 miles.
We were on a training weekend and all we had to eat was granola bars and a few bags of 'rations' which were a sealed bag full of heatable food which had no taste and made you feel a tad ill if you ate to much of it, now as i had been already feeling a bit ill i had decided to skip the dreaded ration packs and was munching away on a granola bar. it then started to rain, and remember this is dartmoor so when i say rain i mean each person has their own indavidual cloud which pelts them with water and the occasional bambardment of hail stones, we had to just keep plodding on and the only food we had eaten was a macdonalds bagel on the way down and i can tell you by then i was already craving a smoothie! So we were plodding in the rain in the dark when we saw the dim lights of our school van come to pick us up and take us back to civilization, we dragged ourselves in and were awarded with a well earned sandwhich. I had never known a sandwhich to have tasted so good!

[Hannah]

When I was a child of about 9 or 10 I was allowed to make myself a hot chocolate. Not really understanding measurements at that age, I thought 'tsp' meant tablespoons so I made my mug with 3-4 tablespoons of powder. As I was drinking it, I thought it tasted odd but was so proud I'd made my own hot drink I drank it all up.

About 10mins later I started sweating and feeling sick. I couldn't work out why. I sat on my mum's knee and she asked me how I'd made the hot chocolate. I explained I had definitely followed the instructions, 3-4 tablespoons of powder topped up with hot milk. She went to get the tin, we read it together and we realised why I was feeling so ill! Well after a while and a few drinks of water I felt fine again.

The happy ending is that after that, I learnt how to read measurements and haven't made a dodgy hot chocolate since!!

[lou]

Having spent seven years suffering from anorexia and weighing 5 stone I realised that I didn't want to be in hospital any more and that I actually was really, terribly HUNGRY and that it was about time that I started eating and making myself better. Smoothies and veg pots were key components of my new healthier diet. Wahey!

[flo]

The ultimate meal for ravenous moments= the MEGA SNACK.

Consisting of various combinations of bite sized pieces of carrot, cheese cubes, olives, breadsticks, iced gems, raisins, apple, cucumber, grapes, crisps, cereal, nuts, apricots and any other food you can successfully cut into a cube of around 3cm.
I lived off this at Uni in hungry and poor times and still love to indulge in a meal that includes every flavour combo going on at once..

[Amber]

My friend and I were a bit depressed one day (due to the fact that she was having family troubles and on the way to college my bus ran over a man's leg and about 20mins later I found out my boyfriend's mother had died) and so we decided to cheer ourselves up after college with a meal at Wagamamas.
We were already starving, having both skipped breakfast, and so we jumped on the first bus we could see that was going in the right direction. However, this was a bus which (unbeknown to us) took a more complex journey round the side roads and back streets of the local area.
So we sat down and talked about our sorrows and dwelled upon the events of the day, whilst our bellies rumbled louder and louder.
We were about 10minutes into our journey (about a third of the way there) when we got stuck in traffic. We waited and waited, edging forward at a snail's pace when I got a text from a friend who lived in the area we were currently stuck in saying that there had been two traffic accidents near her flat.
Two!!
When are there ever two completely unrelated accidents????
And considering the fact I had already been in one that morning with the bus, this was proving to be a very bad day for driving...and for me.
We stayed on the bus (eyeing up some old lady's shopping bags, thinking of asking her for something to snack on)hoping it would clear but our hopes and wishes were in vain: it took us a ridiculous 2hours to get out of the jam and to get into Wagamamas.
We had been awake without food for about 9hours and considering the fact we could have walked there in 1hour, we were pretty miffed.
Finally, when we arrived, we sat down,and being regulars,ordered our beers and food right then and there and (im)patiently waited.
The food was great, better than usual infact (which may have been due to the starvation or the chef, but who knows?)
But believe me, I have never been so happy to see food in my life, let me tell you.

[Nina Martin]

Being half japanese, flying to Japan is the norm, but when you have a little brother (who thinks that the most suitable thing to do on an aeroplane is say:"I wonder what happens if the engines overheat- will we crash and burn? Or will we land in the sea and drown? And what happens if the landing gear doesn't come down?" etc.etc.) and a fear of both heights and aeroplanes, food isn't the first thing that you reach for.
The whole trip to our family's house in japan from london takes about 18 hours, plus the hours before that when i was a nervous wreck and wouldn't eat anything added up to no sleep and no food for about 30 hours, then the jetlag kicked in and i slept for a whole day. But, when i woke up, i woke up to the smell of a delicious japanese breakfast which was awesome :D

[Fran]

Once upon a not-so-muddy field on Worthy farm, I was attending my first ever Glastonbury at the tender age of 26. It had been all kinds of amazing, and as the sun set on our last night we stood dancing to the LEGEND that is Stevie Wonder and I wondered if life could get better! Then something happened...

As my friend Katy (yep, with a 'y' not an 'ie') and I were getting pushed to and fro by the people trying to eek the last bits of magic from Glastonbury, we looked at each other and knew what we needed. The meagre, overpriced fish and chips that lacked salt and vinegar no longer were fuelling us, and as we wandered through the sparkling fields in the dying hours of the festival we were desperately seeking sustenance. And then through the crowds we saw the lights that drew us to them, like a mother gathering in her children...

The lampshades and that smell... It was crumpets! And my what crumpets they were! With every topping your heart could desire. And not just crumpets - they had tea too!

And so, as my first Glastonbury experience drew to a close, it did so with a pair of buttery crumpets and a cup of Love tea, warming not only Katy and my cold little hands, but our hungry little souls!

[Jade C]

Once upon a time it was nearing dinnertime and I found myself very hungry.
So, I wandered into the kitchen, opened the fridge and found.... a few apples and a pack of ham....
Shortly after, to my surprise, my dad came through the door with a few bags of shopping.
It's my job to pack away the shopping, so I began and what did I find?? Why only an Innocent Moroccan Veg Pot - my favourite!!!!
So that night I satisfied my growling tummy with one of my favourite meals, and have started to make sure the fridge is never too bare to make up a veggie-delight dish of my own!!
Thank you Innocent!!

[Zhen]

My family and I went to Florida on a holiday, but the villa company Thomas Cook sent us to turned out to be fake and we were stranded with no where to go. By the time it was 10 at night, everyone was stupidly hungry and seeing weird things in their vision. We stopped at a petrol station and bumped into some lovely people from Disneyworld. We told them our story and the lovely lady actually took us to a hotel and managed to book us in at a discounted rate, and we got to go and eat at the lovely restaurants. Never has food looked so delicious, especially when you've been starving for so long. Mmmm. Fairy food mother <3

[David]

Has it been decided who won yet? I'm hungry to know...!

[Lana]

On a school trip to Italy when I was 15 which was my first plane ride without my parents and all my friends were going- how exiting!
We got to see all the sights and were surrounded by wonderful food! The food which unfortunately we could not get access to as everything was set up for us as group meals! (and was very strict) So every night we sat down to a starter of generic pasta with tomato sauce often sprinkled with bacon and then plonked on front of me every night was an unidentified meat *sigh* E-v-e-r-y n-i-g-h-t My classmates were not so impressed by the inconspicuous nature of the meal or the fact there was no variety. I had been a vegetarian for quite a few years! Indeed I had filled in the "dietary requirements" section of the forms and had complained every day but no heed was taken which left me very hungry!
On the last day we were finally given some free time to do as we pleased and we pleased ourselves by having a true Italian pizza with amazing toppings followed by a delicious ice cream (two scoops) with a view of the Coliseum which was truly the best part of the entire trip! I got to appreciate the true yummyness of Italian food in Italy!

[samia]

nice blog ,now i feel hungry
now >.<

[recipes]

Wasp dudes! Awesome stuff keep it up.