Hector

The best food in bilbao is found in the Casco Viejo, the old town that is. It was quite hard for me and my company to find the restaurant streets, but with a little half-broken swedish spanish and some friendly locals, you can accopmplish anything! We went to the great local bars and restaurants in the casco viejo were locals met and drank beer and txakoli, ate loads of lovely pintxos consisting of loads of dried ham y un a montón de sausages, peppers, eggs, anchovies, vegetables, bacalao, local cheese, rice, bread, and all the finest of the finer things. Then there where awesome traditional basque restaurants who served nothing but classic basque cuisine. The cheapest and best restaurant was called "La Columna" or something... it was hidden in a narrow street, and was introduced by us by some local drunk but friendly old man. Here you could eat a big plate of iberian ham, black and red chorizos for nearly no € at all, and that was just the starter. The meat dishes (except the more exellent charcuteries) was kind of dissapointing, so go for the seafood. Go for squid and salt cod, then you wont be dissapointed.

I love the Swedish "Boiling Soup With Physics" by Hans Uno Bengtsson and Jan Boris Möller. It's a basic book, on how you make sauce, fry your steak, marinate your meat (DON'T MARINATE), makes your sauce, boils your vegs, boils and fry your fish makes mashed potatoes, etcetra.... in the most scientific effective succesfull way. All acording to the law of physics. it's great, hope it's translated to english though.

Use Absinth instead of pernod (whoa, what an exiting different of flavour) or use absinthe, hence real absinth is mainly these days only found in the Czech Republic for obvious reasons.

What's this then? (sorry for the small pic)

Apparently it came from a "Polly-O" ricotta recipe book years ago, yet I've run into other Italian-Americans that make it, so make of that what you will : Pie crust 3lbs. ricotta 1 3/4 lbs. of a combination of ham, cheese (provolone) and salami, diced 4 eggs 3/4 lb. grated cheese (parmesan) 1/4 cup flour Mix all together; put in pie crust. Bake at 350F for 3/4 of an hour. Lower temp to 300F and cook for 1/4 hr. ← I thought there always was spinach in Tarta Pasquale, that's how I always got it. With spinach and ricotta!

Yes please... sounds like an interesting variation on butter poached lobster. For our St Patrick's Day dinner yesterday I made a Guinness, lamb and root veg stew, champ potatoes with sour cream, and warm apple cake for dessert. ← this is a bit late for St: Pats but anyway: Dublin Lawyer (serves 2) 1 big live lobster. 50 grams of butter 4 tablespoons of irish whisky 150 mililiters of creme double 1 dash of lemon juice 1 teaspoon of english mustard salt n pepper Boil the whole lobster shortly in lots of water. Pick it up and put it under running cold water to cool it. Take out the meat of the "tail" and slice it up. cut the shells in two lengthwise. take away the intestines and take the rest of the meat. Save the shells. Break up the claws and remove the "grizzle". Cube the claw-meat. Melt the butter in a big frying pan and sauté the lobster meat shortly. The lobster meat should be cooked but shouldn't get colour. Put the whisky in the frying pan and flambe the lobster meat. Then stir down the cream, the lemon juice and mustard. Season, and bring to boil for a real short time. This whole process described above should be very fast, hence the lobster meat doesn't become hard and stiff. Warm the lobstershells in the oven at little heat. Pick up the lobster meat from the sauce and fill up the shells with the meat. Let the sauce boil a bit to get some flavour, and then pour it over the lobster. Serve imeediatley.

Don't forget the seafood. there's great irish seafood out there. mainly in Ireland though! Oysters and Guinness Fresh Oysters served on crushed ice with sliced lemons, the oyesters are spiced with a hint of cayenne pepper. Served with a large pint of really cold Guiness to drink! TOO GOOD.. Dublin Lawyer. A whole beautiful obster cooked in butter, creme double, irish whiskey and french mustard. Love this. Cockles and Bacon Rashers Cockles cooked with bacon and parsley. Mussels in white wine sauce. Blue Mussels served with leeks, onion, garlic, parsly in a thick white wine and cream sauce. Cod's roe Ramekin. Nice gratin of spice Cod's roe. Works good on Saint Paedrics.. Let me know if you want any recipe.

Here in sweden, there's no "Easter Brunch".. But we have easter dinner at easter day. The standard family menu is something like this: Like in every other holiday here (except Saint Martins Day and Crawfish days), we serve lots of pickled herring as a starter or part of the whole meal (which then ussualy then is a Swedish Smörgåsbord), there's probably thousands of variations of swedish pickled herring. in mustard sauce, in garlic sauce, in chives sauce, in dill-sauce, in orange sauce, in lemon sauce, in caviar-sauce, in beer-sauce, in onion-sauce, in sherry-sauce, and most recently in chile-sauce, in thai style-curry sauce, in pesto sauce, in guacamole sauce, in nouvelle cuisine style mustard-sauce, in whatever imaginable sauce. there's a swedish herring pickle varity on it. Most people even have cured salmon with dill amd mustard sauce, smoked conger eels (delicious), boiled and raw vegetables along with the herring. At every easter we got these boiled eggs a long with the herring which everybody in the family play games with. We smash togheter each others eggs (everybody has one), and the one egg which shell doesn't break is the almighty winner of the table! Many people even boil their eggs with onion shells to get a brown colour, and the children always paints their eggs before dinner. My family ussually serve some kind of meat after the herring. Like fresh boiled spring chicken, or pheasant in a devils sauce, but mostly Lamb with loadsa herbs like mint, rosemary, parsley, .. toooo delicious. All of this is swallowed down with some good swedish aquavit (schnaps) and loads of Danish Beer!

Don't put cognac on deep fried fish and flame it up! As one of my friends did. He was looking for some new culinary treats, but he was very drunk at the time (it was at a party). so what happen did happen, and the result on the plate was DISGUSTING

Where can I taste the best Bush Tucker food in Australia? Is there any good Mod Oz restaurants which has particulary incorporated native ingridients in the more "modern" aussie food? Is there any place on the net where you can purchase bush tucker products like Macadamia Nuts, Lilli-Pilli jelly, Native Spiceberries, Lemon Myrthle etcetra?

Would Peelzym work with Pomegranates?

Did you knew that Ho Chi Minh was actually serving as a chef under Auguste Escoffier. And was in Escoffiers eyes, the best chef he had ever worked with.

I know! We ussually first fry the whole chicken, stuffed with the parsley butter and and all the skin at each end of the whole chicken is knit togheter with a kitchen-thread so there's no hole in it. Then we fry it and roast it in the very oven at the end. We neither flour it or bread it. Or we use chickenbreasts which we fill like Chicken Kiev. those we bread. ← Wowser! This sounds "akin to" (a Texas or Southern US term) a fried turkey. I am thinking that the next time we fry turkeys that I want to do this with a chicken. Please give us some more details on stuffing with the parsley butter. In the cavity? How much? I am assuming that you mean in the cavity since you sew it up. Hmmm . . . We have a surgeon in our entourage. Finally he can do something useful in the kitchen. ← Hmm. we use ALOT of parsley butter, ain't got no measure because there isn't any. just alot of good parsley ( flat parsley hasn't been famous in sweden for a long time, but just recently it was introduced by middle eastern emigrants). salt, pepper, and lots of butter! (if somebody wants to add some shallots or garlic to the butter, that's okay) to fill the cavity. We then use thread and needle to sew togheter the birds skin at each end of the cavity. Then we spice it with salt, white pepper, and some old people even use cinammon which I don't really like along with the chicken. Then you fry it in butter for a long time, and roast it at the end. But the things you serve the chicken with, is equally inportant. Boiled fresh new-potatoes and then some boiled green beans and carots (so that they remain solid, please). fresh cucumber which is sliced thinly and pickled in equal parts of salt and sugar (eg. 50 militer each) and 100 ml of apple cider vinegar. + some water. Then toss the cucumber with lots of parsley. And toss more parsley over the chicken. and over the carrots too (and butter if you want to)! serve with a cream sauce, made by adding a tabelspoon of flour to the reheated chicken fat, and mix it up, like you make a roux. Add lots of cream, or maybe chicken stock + cream. You can even fry some finely chopped shallots in the roux if you like that, or add white wine to the sauce. Skim the sauce, and season it. Here in sweden, people like to add a few dashes of tasteless colouring soya only for colouring it. We want the sauce brown.

I know! We ussually first fry the whole chicken, stuffed with the parsley butter and and all the skin at each end of the whole chicken is knit togheter with a kitchen-thread so there's no hole in it. Then we fry it and roast it in the very oven at the end. We neither flour it or bread it. Or we use chickenbreasts which we fill like Chicken Kiev. those we bread.

As long as I known the recipe(s) for frying chicken doing the american way. I have always wondered why you put it in buttermilk? what does the buttermilk do? Here in Sweden, we fill the fried chicken with parsely butter, and serve it with it, along with a cream sauce, and pickled but fresh cucumbers.. Along with new-potatoes. All coated with tons of parsley! aah.. delicious.

Roasted Breadfruit and Peas and rice. Good Soca Music and a Banks Beer, all under $8.00. Also try Bajan chicken with Macaroni pie. Jamaican curried conch, Trinidadian Roti, and ofcourse lobster on the beach. I can go on. ←

Though I do like simple Ayran (as sold by the kebab-falafel-street vendors around here) I prefer the Indian version, called Lassie.. It's yogurt and salt, mixed in a blender with ice. Very refreshing. It's important that you use a blender for drinks, hence the food-blenders makes the yogurt skimmy, which isn't good.

Is happy that Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham, still has it's 2 stars. Hence it's a great place.

Does anyone has a good recipe on how you make good Zaatar. I've bought a big packet of Sumac the other day.

I'll hope you'll try the boiled lambs head and the fermented shark meat while you are there. Then you'll definitly get a memorable dining experience!

Fergus Henderson.. Definatley!