Gus

Cuisine A La Leke in Deptford high street is supposed to do good West African food.

Will I have to kiss goodbye to the prospect of getting my paws on some of this?

Lunched at Richard Corrigan at Lindsay House in London last week, which was great. To drink we had wines by the glass and one of three options was a sangiovese from Argentina. Laugh at my ignorance, but I wasn't even aware they grew decent sangiovese in Argentina. Anyway, it was delcious, velvety and smooth. And at about £7 a glass in the restaurant, very reasonable. So I emailed Richard Corrigan asking for the details, and they are below. But I can find almost nothing about this wine by googling, let alone where to buy some in the UK. Be interested to know what people make of it, or where I might find some. “Villa Vieja”, La Agricola Sangiovese, Mendoza, Argentina 2003

Curries made with ground beef (or ground lamb) can be good, esp with nan breads to scoop them up, rather than rice.

Stir fry ginger and garlic very quickly (10 seconds) then add ground beef. Lob in spring onions, and vegetables finely diced too if you like. Then lob in chili bean sauce (hot!) and a larger amount of hoi sin sauce to taste. And perhaps some soy sauce. You end up with a chinese sauce to be stirred into noodles. If you make the flavours very strong, you can stir relatively small amounts into large plates of noodles. Alternatively, make it milder and eat like chinese spag bol. Freezes well, too.

Do people think it's really worth using decent wine for cooking. There's an adage that you shouldn't cook with wine you wouldn't drink. Well certainly, I wouln't use corked wine for cooking. But is it worth using decent plonk. After all there are plenty of cheap wines which, in certain contexts, I happily enjoy drinking, and it seems to make more sense to cook with them than with burgundy. Although a society woman in Paris that I met via work told me you should only use good wine in coq au vin, preferably more expensive than you are planning to drink with the meal. Can this really be so? And how do different styles of wine lead to different wine-based sauces?

Stick big, expensive sausages into non-stick frying pan on lowest possible heat. Get back into bed. After 10 minutes get out of bed and turn sausages before returning to medium-warm bed. Re-warm bed for another 10 minutes at least. Stick sausages, so slow cooked they are juicey yet coated in a slightly sticky, slight caramelised gloop, into a big roll and douse with ketchup, and serve with strong tea. Yum. Oddly, I have distinct passion for left-over cold pizza for breakfast (when I happen to have some).

You only need a maitre d' if there's something wrong with the meal, or if it's at a poncey restaurant where you can't get a reservation in reasonable time unless you know the maitre d'. Or if you're the kind of diner who enjoys making some complaints while having the meal (always makes my heart sink to dine with people like this; a sour self-consciousness descends over me til i leave the restaurant).

Always been pleased with the Wine Society. Excellent delivery service, and confident that I'm never being ripped off. And they also have some interesing wines that I don't see many other places. Also, if I want, say, an Alsace medium white, I feel happy to turn to the relevant bit in the catalogue and pick one knowing it won't be bad, which is a good think. Actually, getting the catalogue every three months alone is worth the membership. The only bad point is that many of the wines they offer don't get reviewed by the reviewers in the press. Not sure why. Although I guess, for example, the Sunday Times Wine Club would not benefit much if the Sunday Times started recommending Wine Society wines. Also, I guess you don't get the special offers you see in some supermarkets (Morriosons are obviously clearly out some Safeway stock; I got Penfolds Bin 389 for under a tenner, and the stupidly named but very nice for the price Fat Bastard chardonnay there for under £5 a bottle).

You see I was a bit befuddled by the wines. None of them grabbed me somehow. Maybe that's because they've arranged chavster-style, but it was also because I'd never heard of any of them. I wondered if the company was simply using marketing hype followed by customer loyalty to sell not-very-good wine. Also, I dug out an old newspaper review, which gave wines there huge praise a year or two ago, when the service just started. I decided to pick those wines, but none of them were there. Google searches also established that they sold De Torens Fusion V, which I'd always wanted to try. They don't do that now. What I can't see are safe choices that would make the discount attractive. And I don't have the confidence that I do when ordering from the wine society - the wines they choose have always seemed good to me. So I'm wondering whether to even exercise my money-off voucher now...

I've got a £20 off voucher for Virgin wines if i spend more than £50 on a case with 12 or more bottles. If anyone out there has used this service and has any recommendations, I'd love to hear them. Most of the wine on the site, I've never heard of. It's http://www.virginwines.com

Absolutely, definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, the Charlotte Street Hotel. It's splendid, and not far away. Great for celeb spotting, but relaxed and charming. Check they do champagne, but I know they do great food. 15-17 Charlotte Street London W1T 1RJ Tel: +44 20 7806 2000 Fax: +44 20 7806 2002 Email: charlotte@firmdale.com If you want a cheaper alternative, go to Balans restaurant (there are two, one called the cafe i think; restaurant has an open front which is good in summer). Mainly gay clientelle (it's in Old Compton street). They do great brunch. Again, check they serve champagned in the morning. Balans 60 Old Compton Street, W1D (020) 7439 2183

Have always, always enjoyed eating at Tas in the Cut, by Waterloo. How many restaurants with great meats also win vegetarian food awards. And great value buzz yet pleasant room.

I had exactly the same experience as Moir last week, the same food with the same wine. But I came to some different conclusions. Let me start by saying that I enjoyed it. That said, her point about course after course of flavour has something to be said for it. She talks of wanting a roast chicken, a green salad. I can relate to this. Jelly and mousse does have this effect. But I wonder if the answer to this is not to have the tasting menu, but to have the courses instead. In fact, I almost wish I'd done this. Although I *had* to try the tasting menu. What I do disagree with are the comments about the wine. We had the wines matched to the food, and they did this brilliantly. In fact my girlfriend cannot have cows milk (or butter, obviously). The restaurant not only adjusted and substituted courses, but also changed her selection of wines, and did this brialliantly. Moreover, the way the wines complimented the food was excellent.

I was taken to the Perseverance for a business lunch. Was OK, although could, really, have been a bit more comfy (we were downstairs, by the way). To be honest, when it's a business lunch I'm normally concentrating on the conversation rather than the food (dreadful waste - the restaurants for business are far grander than the ones i pay for myself in my own time). Went to Cigala paying for myself plus girlf. Thought it was OK, but too expensive for what it was. And for the same money, there are better places elsewhere in London. Although on expenses, maybe it's a good bet. It's sufficiently expensive to be a treat, and it's different enough to be of interest to people that do lots of business lunches. I'd glady do business lunch there for this reason. Although in my view, the best place for business lunch, that's not far away, is Cafe du Marche in Charterhouse Square. Bliss.

RE The Wine Society - I think a problem, which isn't their fault, is that too few of the newspapers include reviews of the Wine Society's offers. In the case of some of the papers, I wonder if it's because it competes with The Sunday Times wine club. Incidentally, I also got my membership as a Christmas present. If anyone has any specific recomendations, I'd love to hear them.

I'm glad my suggestion to talk about wine was well received. Thought I might be branded a spliter! Using the Wine Society at the moment, in the belief that they'll select good wines, esp from France. But being a non-expert, I might be mistaken in my assumptions. Do tell me!

Can't help directly. But saw your post and had two thoughts. I put a UK-related wine inquiry up on the board once and got almost no replies. Suspect it's breaking the rules, but if you put your inquiry on the UK board in the restaurants section, I bet you'd get a better response. This wine board is international and mostly used by non-Brits. Also, I empathised. I'd be interested to see your answer as I'd also be interested in doing such a course. Said I couldn't help directly... but indirectly this will have punted your post back onto the front page again. Good luck!

I think the key to this is a decent mexican restaurant. Sure, some people want to try to cook mexican food from scratch (esp on a boar like this), but not many. Certainly not as many as would go to a good mexican restaurant. The two objections raised are 1) ingredients and staff, and 2) a supposed stigma attached to mexican food (two varieties are recited: the tequila slammers version, or the peasant food version). In fact, I don't think there is a stigma with mexican food. Certainly not now. The days when are, say, bangladeshi food would have been described as "foreign shite" are long gone. And if there is a stigma, it's at a haute-cusisine level. Most of all, though, I don't think a haute-cuisine level mexican is needed. What we could do with in London is the mexican equivalent of Tayyab. Cheap, good, authentic foreign food in large portions and basic but pleasant surroundings. If Tayyab switched overnight to mexican (heaven forbid, because I love Tayyab) it would still be full, despite its not-ideal location (for a mexican, not a pakistani, that is). People are crying out for good, cheap, wholesome exotic food, but hardly anyone does it. Instead in this country we get shite restaurants and extremely expensive ones that only restaurant reviewers, the wealthy and those having their birthday treat can go to. Imagine: authentic chicken mole with salad, rice and beans, more than you can eat for £10. I'd go every week...

charlotte street hotel in charlotte street does very good american brunches - blueberry pancakes, waffles, etc. v. good. although not that cheap...

cook your rice, but not too much, then spread it out a bit to get rid of some of the steam, then lob it in the fridge. when cooled, beat up an egg and lob it in a hot oiled wok. scramble it, then get the egg bits and set to one side. now heat the wok up full, a generous amount of oil and lob in a little bit of garlic and ginger, plus other ingredients you want (perhaps a bit of diced ciar-siu pork or ham, a few prawns) then add the rice and stirfry it until cooked. it probably still won't taste like chinese restaurants, though, at least the ones in europe... you need MSG for that..

i had excellent duck spring roles before sitting at the chef's table in the kitchen of claridges. they were wonderful. but since i don't exactly eat their often, i'm more interested in place to go with my mates. so pleased to see your review. incidentally, i think one of the noodle bars in greenwich, the one further from the DLR, is excellent... such value.

Great to hear about the place near the dome. Been wondering what it's like, because you'd imagine it's awful, but at the same time it wouldn't - the whole place wouldn't - look out of place in China. And far more intereting to hear about new places than arguments again and again about Gordon Ramsey.

To Spam: Name them! (I say this not as it might sound - as a challenge - but because it would be good to know where they are). Restaurants in this category, to my mind, are the best. The ones where you have meals you really enjoy with friends, where you go to have a good night not a special treat (with all the stress and risk of disapointment this entails). I'm nowhere near Battersea... so if you wanted to name your top 10 around london, go on!

then you didn't have the seafood spaghetti in a paper bag! seriously, surprised you found the food SO bad. i mean, it's not a fancy food place. but what it does is good, basic italian cooking. the pasta and pizzas are splendid. the think i like about it is that - unlike most restaurants in london - it isn't just aimed at people eating on expenses, those building credit card debts before the recession kicks in, and people trying to impress on dates. there's nothing pretentious about it. and in summer you can eat outside.