Adam Balic

Yes and it is exactly like red putty. It was described to me at the market as been made from sun-dried tomatos, does that sound correct? I like the rolls and also, the cold crumbed fish/artichokes with sultanas and vinegar (I had thought that it was a Venetian thing, but I also think it could be Italian-Jewish?). Had one interesting pasta of swordfish with green apples, mint and pinenuts also.

Is this a Croatian joke? Because Rick Opolo is Croatian! So even if you don't like zinfandel, you should check out Opolo Winery. Seriously, though, zinfandel has a distinctive pepper character that many people just never warm up to. I've noticed that people either love it or hate it. S'okay. More for me! I suspect that it may be like coriander (fresh), which just tastes very unpleasant to about 10% of the population. It (Zinfandel) has a distictive medicinal/metallic taste which I don't like (who would?), I wonder how many other people get this flavour as well?

Recently I was in Sicily for a week or so, on of the food products I brought back was "Ricotta Salata" (salted ricotta). Although I didn't actually see any evidence of it, it is apparently used by Sicilians as Parmesan would be used by Northerners. Although, it seems to be aged in general, at the markets you can buy fresh to old versions. The cheese that I bought from the Syracuse market was somewhere in the middle. Tasted on its own it isn't that interesting, but on pasta it is excellent. Almost a creamy flavour develops and currently I am usin it to the exclusion of parmesan!. A good product which I would recommend trying.

Have been reading this with interest as I presently have a 2.5 kg Turbot which will be for dinner tonight. Vmilor - The Black Sea turbot Psetta maxima. maeotica is a sub-species of turbot. What Johnathan has most likely cooked and what I have is North Atlantic version of Psetta maxima . I was had the choice between fish caught on the west coast or east coast of Scotland this morning, and even though they are the same type of fish they look very different, due to differences in camoflague colouration. The West coast fish are much lighter in colour to blend in with the more sandy seabeds. Unfortunately, the buttons are very small in comparison to your Turkish turbot, so no sucking tonight.

Marrow bone seems to have been a riskier meal back in those days. According to the Norse myths, Thjalfi the giant was enslaved by the god Thor for cracking open the leg bones of his magic goats to eat the marrow. Glad I don't have to worry about then when I go to St John. Click. Which potentially was slightly harsh, as Thor would eat his goats and they would magically come back to life again right?

That's the one, very good French cheese. There is also a Honey shop in Bow street (off the grassmarket). Going down hill on Broughton St, there is a corner store on the roundabout (next to the brothel, ah sorry, all night sauna) that sells goodish veg. and fruit, but will rare exceptions veg is not great. You could try Harvey Nicks for some veg, like la ratte potatos etc, but the place isn't brilliant. Every 1st and 3rd saturday in the month there is a farmers market on Castle terrace. Bacon can be very good and there are numerous types to try (try some of the Scottish cures like Ayrshire cure and Ayrshire sweetcure - both un-smoked so you should get some smoked bacon as well). Oh and Crombies product on of the less offensive, approachable haggis around. It is actually good.

Good, if exspensive, meat from Crombies (excellent sausages and Shetland lamb) in Broughton st. "Something fishy" in the same street does good oaked smoked salmon, kippers and various styles of haddock. Also in Broughton st is the very good wine store " Villeneuve wines" (is in a basement shop on the northside). "V&C" on Elm Row is consistantly voted in the top five UK delis. It is very good for some things, but the condition cheese can be a let down. They import veg from Milan market, although the tomatoes are proberbly the best in Edinburgh, they certainly aren't the best in Milan. Decent, if not great bread, but better bread (best in Edinburgh by far) is to be had at a french deli in Cannon Mills (forgot the name), which also has very good french meats, pate and salumi etc. Also in Cannon Mills is the sometimes mad Spanish deli "Dionika" which sells excellent Pata negra etc. Cheese - go to Mellis, several branches, but if you go to the Stockbridge store you can go to the Butcher "George Bowers" for excellent game, wild boar lamb, bacon etc and Armstrongs the fishmonger again good smoked fish and excellent fresh produce. The butcher and fishmonger are on Raeburn place, which also contains a very good Deli (Herbies). Near here is Raeburn wines, which sells proberly the most interesting selection of wine in Edinburgh. Veg? Wrong country, sorry. Try 'Tattie shaws' in Leith walk. Also on Leithwalk are two very good "Chinese" supermarkets - craving for Durian? No problem. For cakes etc, try the French place in Cannonmills (it is not far from the botanical gardens, which are very good at the moment).

Marrow was a very popular ingredient in European cooking until very recently. English Cooks seemed to be adding marrow to everything until the 19th century. Infact, archaeologists point out that or ancestors were busy cracking the bones of animals and each other to get at the marrow. Since "marrow" just means core, the exact meaning can vary a lot, but for most cooking purposes it refers to the yellow fatty marrow of the femur etc. Yes, it is fatty, but it also has structure. So you can poach marrow forinstance, but see what happens to a stick of butter if you attempt that. Marrow is Everymans Foie gras.

I will be in Prato and Florence at the end of the month so I have my fingers crossed.

We actually had flash flooding in the main street of Syracuse and had to send on day drinking bar. Not that we wouldn't have been doing that anyway, but choice is important I think.

Sadly it pissed down rain for most of the time we were in Sicily last week, while it was relatively sunny in Scotland. Bugger.

Just got back fron Sicily on Sunday. The above are all good suggestions, but also dried herbs. If your friends are in Syracuse then they can go to the market (which they should do anyway). The market had one shop that sold dried herbs and seeds etc (wild fennel seeds are v.good) and also products like sundried tomato paste. Cheese would be good, some places will even sell shrink wrapped stuff. There is a very old, but rare dessert wine from Siracuse "Moscato di Siracusa", which is good and some of the Malvasia de Lipari are excellent. I bought a bottle of each of these wines, plus a bottle of grappa made from Passito Malvasia de Lipari, which is very interesting. Also brought back to Edinburgh were; - Salted and dried ricotta - Various dried herbs and seeds - A bag of fresh Cedri (citrons) and lemons (several unusaul types in Sicily) - Mazipan type products, also the paste for making Latte de Madarola - salted Capers and caper berries from Lipardi - Various biscuits - stock cubes - the above mentioned dried tuna flesh (orginaly it was dolphin, the mammal, I believe) - some sort of bortaga product which is more jammy and compressed the usual. - eggplants and peppers

But what about the Aussie Cheese Fries? A veritable mountain of fries, gobs of ooey-gooey Jack and Cheddar, lots o'bacon, served with Ranch dressing for dipping. Enough fat and cholesterol for the whole table for a week, all in one appetizer! What's "Jack and Cheddar" and "Ranch Dressing"? I don't think we have these in Australia.

Well originally they were identified in the Mediterranean, rather then M. edulis which was more common in the Atlantic. It is now known that the two species hybridise readily, so mixed populations commonly exist. The exact species in Australia is was/is a matter of debate, it was thought that Mytilus galloprovincialis may have been introduced from Med post-European settlement, but shells of the species have been found in pre-settlement Aboriginal middens. This suggests a much wider distribution then was orginally thought. I personally would like to see more data, before and definative labels were applied, it would be very interesting to know how different the Australian mussels are to the European.

Pedro – El que hem menjat is a one book that I wish was translated into English. I have seen some short translations of Pla’s writing and I have enjoyed what I have seen very much. The woodcock that I get are hung for about ten days. The game dealer advises that the head should be bent around and the beak thrust into the thigh before roasting. Now here is something you may not have heard, the distinctive flavour of the birds ‘trail’ (guts) is thought to be due to the presence of many tapeworm parasites. The contents of the birds bowels are released when the bird is flushed by the hunter, the parasites remain behind and these are flavourful component that gets mashed up with the guts to form the rough pate. Or so I have been told by a parasitologist! I have mashed the guts to make the ‘Pate’ and eaten it, delicious but preparing ten day old semi-decomposed bird bowels is not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.

Many European ethnic types and their children eat raw mussles and clams. Sometimes it is the best way of eating them. Well the shells look like they have been banging about on the beach for a while, but the size differential is about right, although the really big horse mussels are not that common. In Australia the common mussel species eaten is Mytilus galloprovincialis, which is very similar to M. edulis and hybridises in Europe. As I said before the mussels in Europe taste much better then in Australia, wonder if this is diet or species based?

You eat the smaller clabbie dubhs, you can eat the larger ones, but you have to remove the 'frill' and they are mostly wrapped in bacon and grilled or used in soup at this size. Their flavour is exceptional. Do you know the species of your mussels? Would be interested to know. The common species in Australia is different to that in Scotland, they Scots version is much better. So sweet. Surely most of the mussels consumed in the US are rope or stake grown? No grit or mud issue then.

Have you any other traditional recipe for wookcocks? They are still relatively common here and avalible from the local game dealer for about £3 a bird in season. The same dealer tells me that they are often taken by shooting parties, but mostly discarded as they are not known to the clients, unlike say peasant or partridge.

Obviously not eating an unopened bivalve has its merits, but not to eat a oyster is too much of a sacrifice. Or are there seperate rules for mussels and oysters? After all, you open an oyster and eat it raw so how could you know it it was ever going to open? I haven't too much of an issue with picking mussels off rockes etc and eating them raw. I don't eat un-opened mussels once cooked as these are, well, un-opened. I suspect that at least some of the issue of not eating un-opened mussels is that before they were grown on ropes or stakes, it was possible to get a long dead mussel full of mud and grit. Mind you I currently live in Scotland and the mussels grown on the west coast are pretty fine and from very clean water apart from the occasional radioactive contaminant. Should you ever be on the West coast of Scotland it is well worth looking for Horse mussel (Modiolus modiolus) known as Clabbies or Clabbie Dubhs from the Gaelic meaning 'large black mouth' amoungst all the regular mussels. Different species and they grow very large, flesh is very bright orange.

So if toxins are being concentrated in filter feeders, how does only eating a sellect part of the scallop help? I have heard from experts that the more delicious a shellfish and the less like mouse guts the edible bits look like, the less likely you are to get poisoned. What was said above and sometimes if the mussles have released their eggs/sperm they become flabby and seperate into two halves as mentioned above. You want to eat them when they are full of eggs/sperm.

It most likely is a number of species, as mints are a very diverse group and are often cross bred and they vary a lot within a particular species. e.g. Spearmint is Mentha spicata, but not all Mentha spicata are spearmint. Peppermint is mostly a hybrid of Water mint (Mentha aquatica) and spearmint (Mentha spicata). "Green" mint is often a non-spearmint variety of Mentha spicata. In the UK "Curly" Mint (M. spicata variety crispii) is common, but I as many Supermarket mints are imported from Israel and Africa etc, they are likely to be a number of different things.

Well one guys personal Hell, is another guys hideously calorific and sticky-under-the-upper-lip-make-you-talk-like-Mr Ed-on-speed comfort food.

Every meal would be numerous offerings of peanut butter and chocolate based desserts.

The fish used varies with the location of the store and how 'up-market' it is. Userly there is a choice of three of four fish types, but more is not un-common. Some common choices are: King George Whiting (very good fish), whiting (either a local type or imported frozen from Europe), flake (=shark, once either school of gummy shark, but now it can be any shark), hake (again, the name covers a number of fish types), flat-head, garfish (not a common, but good), snapper. One of the good things about the fish in Australia is that they are cooked to order. Fish fillet dipped in batter and fried in front of you.

Less then half then huh? A clear bias in your sampling I'm afraid.