curlywurlyfi

I second that. I live in Notting Hill, but used to live near Ma Goa, and I sometimes make the trek from NH to Putney specifically to pick up a takeaway. Coconut cabbage with mustard seeds may not sound inspiring, but trust me.

Well, I went to Taqueria on Wednesday night with a couple of friends. We'd been warned it gets busy later on, so we got there for 6.30pm, although, typically, being the one that lives the closest, I was the last to arrive. S was already two margaritas down by then - good effort. It was relatively empty when we arrived, but heaving by the time we left - people waiting for tables on the payment. And ordered pretty much everything! Literally everything on the starter menu (menu here). Spicy soup very good (reminded me of tom yum); spicy pumpkin seeds; pickled green chillies stuffed with tuna; jicama sticks; tamal; and something whose name I can't remember but was a disc of solid rather dull cornmeal filled with black beans (?) I found the tamal truly bland, despite spicy dipping sauce - imagine a slab of polenta strewn with raisins, steamed in a banana leaf. My fine dining companion, who knows about these things, assured me that the blandness of the corn is the point, and that if I ate enough of it I would develop my tastebuds. But I say, why eat vearrrrk bland food when you can have zinging fresh + spicy flavours? We then ploughed into the tostadas + tacos. Prawns in garlic on avocado mash was OK - not very inspiring prawns. Beef salpicon nice, but very, very light on beef (I mistook the slivers for bits of red cabbage, initially). Other choices involved chorizo + potato, pork with pineapple, sea bass, skirt steak. A side of black beans was rich + smooth. Opinions were divided on the puddings. Hibiscus + orange sorbet had half the house saying 'tastes like pot pourri' + the other half knocking over people's glasses to get at the bowl. Vanilla pudding with caramel was panna cotta (never a bad thing in my book) with golden syrup. Mexican hot chocolate tasted like a less intense version of Green & Black's Maya Gold. So - mixed. High points? REALLY good margaritas - the salt round the rim had a delicious subtle smokiness to it, + not too sharp with lime juice. Sea bass ceviche was excellent, ditto skirt steak with cheese (hey - meat + cheese - where you gonna go wrong?) The unlikely-sounding char-grilled lettuce with lime + orange crema was fabulous + smoky. And we had to order a second round of the corn on the cob rolled in butter with powdered chile (tip: avoid the one rolled in mayonnaise + grated cheese - it looks like an albino hedgehog). Low points? Quite a few of the dishes felt as if they had been hanging around for a while - lots of the tacos were soggy in the middle, as if they had been pre-assembled. Pork ('al pastor') was very chewy/dry. And a lot of unclear, unzingy flavours - if I'm going to a place run by The Cool Chile Company, bring on the chiles, no? I've not had a huge experience of Latin American food (read: have been to Puerto Vallarta + that's it), and the insistence on serving ground corn discs with everything dismayed me, by the end. I wanted more of the delicious chorizo/pork/fish/whatever, + less of the bland filler. Sure, that's not how they serve it in [insert Latin American country here], but hello, this is Westbourne Grove, not Mexico. For this feast, plus eight margaritas, a couple of beers + some water, five of us paid £160 inc service. Not bad. But I wasn't inspired enough by the food. So for me - glad I've tried it, but I won't be back. Oh and I forgot to say - it was unbelievably hot in there. No aircon, and only one door onto the street for two large glass-fronted rooms. if you go, don't wear much.

if you scroll down about halfway through the first post in this thread, you will see Suzi from the UK forum nobly torching the surface of her lemon tart, to provide scrackly brulee topping to the waiting hordes.

slices of sticky gingerbread? iced with lemon or ginger icing? gets better the longer it's around. millionaire shortbread - layer of shortbread on the bottom, topped with gooey fudge, topped with dark chocolate? heart attack in a baking tray, but delicious. Or flapjacks (think this means a different thing in the UK) - what I mean is, mixture of oats, sugar (or golden syrup to make them chewy) + butter, pressed into a pan + baked. Can add nuts, chocolate chips, dried fruit, orange zest, banana, crystallized ginger, coconut, etc.

I got back later than planned, and found old friend Boris waiting on the doorstep, starving after strenuous (he claims) boys' footie evening in Hyde Park. Allayed his immediate hunger with Castle lager + some really horrid Spicy Oriental Beef Flavour Corn Snacks from Tesco, while I got on with Emergency Chicken + Its Slightly Discordant Accompaniments. - microwaved sweet potatoes, flesh scooped out + mashed with the half tub of cream cheese that was malingering in the fridge + some chopped sunblush tomatoes - courgette 'coins', steamed, then tossed with soy, rice vinegar + red chilli flakes - roasted cauliflower - chunks of chicken breast, fried in olive oil with garlic, parsley + lemon I had bought chocolate chip cookies for pudding, but we were stuffed. The sweet potato mash was lovely. I might swap the sunblush tomatoes for sage or crispy bacon (or both) next time.

- cut them into chunks and roast them with olive oil, rosemary + quartered lemons (discard lemon before serving or you can be sure one of your guests will eat a lemon quarter - yuck) - short batons, stir fry with garlic till brown + caramelized, great with fish - short batons, stir fry with garlic, add prawns, coconut milk + Thai spicing for quick 'Thai' soup - grate + fry in olive oil, then stir in plain yoghurt, chopped parsley or basil, maybe some garlic, serve warm - make mashed potato with a little saffron in the milk, meanwhile fry grated courgette in butter + garlic, stir into potato - cut into 'coins', steam, toss with soy sauce, ginger, red chilli flakes, chopped fresh coriander, serve with white rice

OK - my question is about soba noodles (100% buckwheat version). I've bought them from the Japanese supermarket, so all the packet instructions are in Japanese. I tend to cook them just for me, so I can stand a little stickiness/chewiness, but I'd really like to give them to guests, and I would welcome a foolproof way of getting them nice and slippery and tender and - most importantly - separate! any hints here? I tend to start mine in boiling water like normal pasta, but this may be entirely wrong.

you could also look at this thread for ideas.

- toss through hot pasta with diced fresh tomato, torn basil, EVOO, s+p, microplaned garlic - ricotta + spinach filo pie (lots of nutmeg, couple of eggs, bit of Parmesan)

as in dried plums. The French Agen ones are nice, but really any old brand will do. when they're done they're delicious in tagines (if not strictly correct, with all that alcohol) or baked in a custard or at the bottom of a chocolate souffle.

oh I wish I'd seen this thread sooner - I walked past Lola's last night! fabulous idea morfudd. I once (for charideeee) inveigled an icecream van on Beachy Head to let me pull + sell icecreams to the general public for half an hour, and it was such fun!

quick question - do you pit the cherries? or cook them in any way? I do similar with prunes in brandy (recipe: stuff as many prunes into a jar as will fit, top up with cheap brandy, put lid on, leave in dark cupboard for at least one month, voila) but, as Jen says, it's cherry season...

My best friend + husband are in town this week + I made supper for the three of us. Had to assemble it in the 30 minutes I had between getting home from work + them arriving. - quick-fried pork with apple, mushrooms, white wine, thyme + cream - Puy lentils with EVOO - peperonata (chunks of green, red + yellow peppers, fried hard + quickly so the edges scorch a little, then a little chopped tomato + water added + simmered away till thick + sticky) - grated courgette, cooked in olive oil, then mixed with yoghurt, garlic, basil + parsley (this was inspired by an eGullet post which I have just spent 30 minutes trying to find! Bittman's recipe originally, it said) - this was the hit of the evening - cold green beans tossed in honey mustard lemon vinaigrette - leftover croutons from last night's gazpacho To finish, strawberries + apricots tossed in a little lime juice, with the sole remaining panna cotta from last night. Almond thin biscuits, but we were too full, so I made Lucy + Dom take them home!

thank you all for your invaluable suggestions, and you will see, from my final menu, that I incorporated many of them! this was a smash hit dinner - I was really pleased - esp with the gazpacho. Please don't let on that its secret ingredient is a carton of Libby's tomato juice... - suitably garlicky gazpacho, with croutons made from the herb bread I had originally intended to use to be dipped in EVOO. The bread had gone a little stale by Monday night so would have been totally stale by Tuesday - but transformed into croutons, it was perfect - 18-egg frittata! with bacon + peas, parsley + nutmeg - Puy lentil salad with lemon + spinach + lots of EVOO - roasted cauliflower with cumin - vanilla panna cotta with strawberries Andrew + Mary who have just been on holiday in Uzbekistan brought me back a Kilner jar of dried Uzbekistani mountain mint leaves, so we had several pots of that after dinner. Tasted like meadow... We had some fino to start - Gutierrez Colosia, beautifully pale and delicate, and then Domaine du Petit Chaumont Gris de Gris 2003 rose afterwards - not an expensive wine (about £6, from memory), but very good - fruity but dry. This was my second attempt at making panna cotta, and despite using a different recipe, they were still like little rubber hockey pucks. Disappointing. However, when I came back into the kitchen after my guests had gone home, the texture was totally different - perfectly wobbly and tender. Note to self: serve panna cotta at room temperature, not straight out of the fridge.

Elie - all your dinners look outstanding! Would you mind explaining why you chose to cook the eggs this way (and how you do it)? Thanks!

Inspired by this thread, and the fact that blueberries were on special offer at my supermarket, I made these last night, and I have to say, kind of disappointing. Sorry, middydd. Not lemony enough, too sweet, and the stub was soggy (top nice + crispy though). I will have to keep trying!

Am having several old friends over for dinner tomorrow night. My kitchen, which is also where we eat, is too small to really cook in when seven of us are sitting down at the table. With this in mind, I'm planning a menu 99% of which I can prepare tonight. I am also suffering budget constraints. So far, this is what I've come up with: - bread + EVOO + balsamic for dipping - gazpacho - Puy lentil salad - xx - cold grilled courgettes with basil + lemon - vanilla panna cotta with fresh raspberries So - what I need is some sort of protein at the main-course point. and I have completely run out of inspiration. I had thought about combining my lentils with eggs to make a hard-boiled egg curry a la Delia. That might work (and would be nice and cheap). I also thought about making a big tortilla, but one of my guests is Spanish and I'd rather not show myself up quite that much. Bright ideas, anyone? all suggestions gratefully, etc.

slab of the banana bread I baked late last night to take this morning to my boss who's just had a baby. Had got as far as blurging everything in the blender before realizing that my recipe called for two eggs and I had none (used them all on Monday in my frittata). Thought 'sod it' and baked it anyway, with a slosh of Cointreau to make up the liquid a little. It looked OK this morning after cooling overnight on the rack, a little sunken perhaps, but rather than take her some sorry effort, I thought I'd better have a slice to check. And you know what? it was really OK! a little crumblier than usual, but perfectly sliceable and moist from the pureed bananas. She had a bit with her cup of tea + declared it lovely.

present at the barbecue on Saturday night was an American friend who fell upon my beans crying 'pinto, pinto, I used to put these in my chili', so in his eyes at least they are the same. But I accept this may not be THE most scientific corroboration...

well, I took them as Tonight's Mystery Ingredient! to my friends' barbecue on Saturday night, + we boiled them briefly + then dressed them with olive oil, salt + parsley. Fine, but nothing mind-blowing. And such a pity they lose their beautiful speckling when cooked. thanks for all the suggestions, everyone!

Well, life, otherwise known as Solstice, thank you Franco, has handed me a small paper bag of fresh cranberry beans. They're so pretty! But I have no idea what to do with them. Anyone?

ah, beaker, thank you.

went online just now to order my inaugural box from Abel & Cole (largely because everyone on this thread has been so happy with them), and see that for them, asparagus is 'out of season'. In JUNE??? think that's a bit rubbish. so will not, after all, be ordering from A&C.

Only a week late, I see that Tom Conran gave these eggs five out of five in hisbreakfast test for The Observer Food Monthly. (He also tests marmalade, for any interested parties...) Fi

hollandaise.