Timothy Burke

A simple and defintively Scottish desert would be Cranachan. Look up a recipe - they do vary - but basically it's double cream, toasted oatmeal, malt whisky and, essential in my book at least, raspberries.

Sorry for you troubles. Did you think that's how they actually meant it to taste - or do you think something had gone wrong at manufacturing or during transportation.

Gary - I'll be passing by Malton later this week - don't suppose you've started doing lunchtime food during the week yet have you?

You could try the Haycock in Wansford in England - also just back across the A1. Not been for a few years but I believe it's still OK and a has a lovely setting - for Peterborough. www.thehaycock.co.uk

We'll have them in Leicester. Can't guarantee the same trade as Mayfair of wherever, but there would be less competition .

All very pertinent I think. As a Metro reviewer I've been given only one short brief: "put lots about what the food was like" - and that's what i try and keep to. Feedback suggests some strong impact - though I didn't place much credence in the recent complaint from a restaurant at 4pm on the day of publication that trade had dried up following my luke warm review. If I only had that power...

I've only been to Jhe new Jury's Croke Park in Dublin but found it an excellent hotel. Can't advise any more but can apologise for the sarcasm offered above. Have a good trip.

I've just had a kitchen fitted this week, with the floor to go down next Monday. It was a deeply traumatic expereince but I'm just starting to come out the other side and the view is lovely. An oven with even and reliable temperature, a gas hob that is properly controllable, beautiful units with draws that stay shut when when you close them, two square yards of extra workspace, discreet recessed halogen spots rather than a harsh strip light - it may have cost an arm and a leg and ruied my house for three weeks or so but I think I'm going to enjoy this. I keep going and stroking the units and pushing shut the draws just to watch the soft-close mechanism do its stuff. An island? not really an option in a 6ft by 11 ft kitchen. But the sense of pleasure at having beautiful things around me? Not nirvana but something very pleasant nonetheless.

Which presumably must mean Leicester polled SMALL. Nothing within 27 miles even in our regional category. Must do better.

Strictly speaking it's a shop rather than a food hall but the feel is the same and it is known as the Fortnums of the North, so I plump for Lewis and Coopers in Northallerton, Yorkshire for that kid in a candy store feeling.

As Andy Lynes points out we do have restaurants. The asian restaurant scene is marked more by quantity than quality. There are some fantastic cheap and cheerful dhabas offering home-style food, a wide range of vegetarian options and countless tandoori restaurants on a scale from poor to good. In the last three months there have been two very intersting openings Red Veil , which is at the fine dining end of the scale, avoiding huges lists of slightly different curries and offering items such as sea bass, scallops in goan dressing, lamb shank in kashmiri spices etc. Then there's Halli which offers first rate Southern Indian vegetarian from Karnataka. Both of these are less than three minutes walk from the Station so timid types who fancy trying them won't have to walk through strange city. In other cuisines Entropy is definitely worth a visit and also very close to the station. There are some other decent restraurants but much of the best food follows the money out into the county, such as Firenze in Kibworth Beauchamp, The Grayson in Quourn, Horse and Trumpet in Medbourne and of course Hambleton Hall in Rutland. Oh, and right on Sat.

Sat Bains with a Michelin star for one. Then Matias Carlsson at La Toque in Beeston. Then there's some excellent modern Indians , such as Memsaab, and some excellent fusion such as Geisha and Chino Latino. Forget about the MSN thing which was a complete non-story as has already been suggested. I think for a relatively small provincial city you can eat very well in Nottingham. What concerns me more is the feeble prejudice on show about the place in some of the the posts above. You'd hope that someone from Ireland would know better than to stereotype a place for its violence.

I was in Reading in the early 1980's having a cheap set lunch in a Chinese restaurant as was was my wont on the day my dole cheque arrived. A well preserved lady d'une certain age arrived and I was asked if she could could share my table. I of course graciously indicated my consent. She saw my music paper on the table - it was the New Musical Express - and said "oh, have they reviewed the new Led Zep?". I was natutrally curious at why this matronly figure was concerned about critical reaction to the world's biggest rock band, but showed her the review anyway. Now remember this was the height of new wave when Led Zeppelin did not enjoy the critical status they deserve. In fact the review blamed them for every musical crime of the last twenty years, plus inflation, unemployment, the cold war and quite possibly leprosy too. She started reading it and muttered "now that's unfair...oh they've got that wrong...no that's not the way it happened..". I had to ask: "You seem to know a lot about the band..." "Well, you know the know the guitarist," she replied. "Yes, Jimmy Page" I respond. "I'm his mum!". I apologise profusely for any offence, swallowed my prawn balls and left as quick as I could.

You will love Waitrose - plus they employ helpful, intelligent human beings which I always find is a bonus. It's a partnership so from what I hear it is a progressive place to work for.

Restaurant magazine visited the Balti triangle a couple of weeks back and seemed to find it rude health, eating 21 meals at an average of under £7.50. It's going to depend on quite what you mean by old school but Adil's at 148 Stoney Lane sems to fit the bill with flock wall paper and a menu under the glass tabletop. Food maybe not the best though - the honours there going to Zeb's at 250 Ladypool Road which appears to be "sleek and new" following renovation after the infamous tornado last year. Never been myself - we do quite nicely for curries one way or another here in Leicester as it goes.

Chris is my editor - I do part of the East Midlands for him and he's good to work with, though I don't get to read his Birmingham stuff. I'm sure he'll pleased to be noticed - cryptic stuff about short trousers notwithstanding.

True perhaps if you are working at the level of Norman, Rayner etc... I write for a regional edition of a free daily paper, and can assure you my instructions are simply to focus on the flavours and appearance of the food. Yes we give a context for the restaurant, but flexing my journalistic muscles? Nah. i just describe the meal. What feedback I get from readers says they like the fact the reviews "say what the food was like". ← Have no doubt what you say is true. Just curious. Does your paper pay for the meals you review or do you accept hospitality? ← The paper pays expenses and I visit unannounced and anonymously, so hospitality has never been an issue.

True perhaps if you are working at the level of Norman, Rayner etc... I write for a regional edition of a free daily paper, and can assure you my instructions are simply to focus on the flavours and appearance of the food. Yes we give a context for the restaurant, but flexing my journalistic muscles? Nah. i just describe the meal. What feedback I get from readers says they like the fact the reviews "say what the food was like".