bakerestates

You can just turn up to New Covent Garden, it might cost you £4 to get in. Try Fenn & Hexton, C&C Fruit Company or just walk through Units C & D looking at what is best and who'll do you a deal. Navel Oranges are £2.66 a kilo - £8 for a £10 box from NE Road seems pretty good but I'd taste them before you commit to a box. There are some varietes that are better for juicing, can't remember right now.

Doesn't Plas Bodegroes have a star....or did maybe?

Far be it from me to propogate and reinforce the sterotypes of Chorlton being the natural home of all things right-on, bohemian and alternative but the flat let adverts in the newsagent on Beech Road do genuinely specify "lesbian cat-lovers". ← Beech road....now that brings back memories. I worked in the Lead Station and Primavera in my student day, i say student but i think 4 hours a week hardly consitues being a student!

try natoora.co.uk

Hereford Road, sit oppsite the kitchen

We get ours from a farm in Norfolk. They are a touch smaller than a pigeon but definitely larger than the pre-packed ones which look foetal! They are free-range but the supply is quite stop/start. The guy only does it as a side project and not on a commercial basis so we take them when offered.

I ate at Mary Gaunt's Caragh Lodge near Killorgin a while ago. Beautiful setting on the shores of Lake Caragh. I can't seem to find a link as google keeps directing to Carrig House which is beside Caragh Lodge. Remember it being pretty good.

I am also seeking places to eat though up to 2.5 hours from Calais. Been to Chateau Montreuil before. Also, a good small hotel or B&B for a long weekend. Thanks

The excellent Morston Hall in Norfolk with 1* also does no choice with everyone eating at 8pm. While no choice makes it different, its not what makes it good. As PhilD points out, it is about pulling all the elements together and its just a question of finding those places. The majority of British do want choice and in most cases mistake choice for quality. They're also always after something on the cheap. I had a conversation with someone over Christmas who was musing on how might a place exist that had no menu but said to their guests 'what would you like to eat today'. Food for thought!

Oddly enough our September and first week of October were well up on last year against a pretty awful July and August (except rooms) which I primarily blame on the crap weather. Number of people in is up and spend per head is holding. However I'm not counting my chickens yet......there is a long long winter ahead. PB

I thought he was Phaethon? edit; ignore me, simlar but not the same.

When I lived in London over five years ago I went a few times - very relaxed, large floor boarded room above the Chepstow Pub. The food on most occasions was excellent and old school as you say - menu in Italian only. The last time (as I moved after that) it was not great, two dodgy fish dishes (on a Monday night) and 5 years ago so.......I think it was about £40-£50 per head for food. Personally, I am waiting for the River Cafe to reopen, as previously said, I think it is bang on for me every time. You might give L'Anima a go.

I find a Cara potato works best - we use one grown on a patch that the grower uses very little water during the growing of them so the skins are quite hardy but the flesh, when cooked is a really good balance between firmness and flouryness. Pedantically I find a gentle simmer is better than a boil as it seems the potato absorbs less water. The size you boil them at can also affect the final outcome - not too big, not too small. And then obviously once drained, back on the heat to mash to let any further water evaporate before adding warm butter and milk (with a bay leaf in) as Matthew says.

How bizzare, have just returned from lunch there today with a supplier. Had not been before but most people in this area rate it as somewhere worth a detour. Very beautiful setting and the restaurant is very comfortable, rambling around a courtyard, white linen, good glassware. Service was fine for me, if a little haphazard - plates handed to me across my host, pudding menu on table as soon as mains had been cleared. Bread was a cold French stick with salted butter. My starter of pork roulade with caper & parsely mayonaise was okay - may needed more kick for me and pork a little tastless. Main of sweetbreads with oyster mushrooms was very cloying and the sweetbreads over cooked to the point of crisp on the outside. Side of 'ratalouille' was just courgettes, melted cheese, odd bit of tomato and too much dried oregano. Pudding of strawberry & almond tart was a little heavy and the almond seemed to be almond essence. (My host had pork belly glazed in balsamic with potato puree - okay. Good cheeses). Wine list long on France obviously. Cost £16.95 for two courses, I'd go again but would like to try a non-midweek lunch. GFG winner, um!

sorry the green and blue isn't that interesting. you could just contact les caves de pyrene directly ← you could and Liberty or Fields Morris & Verdun for some even more intersting wines than Cullen, Selvapiana, Cigliuti etc.............

I think I have posted about Green and Blue Wines in East Dulwich before. I am popping in their this weekend as I will be in Dulwich and have never been to the shop. The reason I recommend, Kate Thal used to be wine buyer for the Dakota/Idao group and they always had an interesting list. Looking at their site they seem to have good stuff; Cullen, Selvapiana, Quinta de la Rosa, Isabel, Cigliuti, Chateau La Lagune, Franz Haas. Piers

And he popped up on Great British Menu last night - I was enjoying it until then but thankfully I was watching on I Player, so fast forwarded him. He was referred to by Jenny Bond as 'the celerbrity chef Gordon Ramsay' rather than 'Gordon Ramsay' or 'chef Gordon Ramsay' - puts him right up there with Ainsley and AWT.

We ate at the Gurnard's Head, about 20 minutes south from St Ives, last summer - it was excellent, really relaxed and delicious, fresh, clean food. We wanted to try the Tate and cafe but could not get parked. Here is a link to their site Tate St Ives Piers

London Stout from Meantime Brewery in Greenwich.

Supposedly beef heads are not allowed to leave the slaughter houses, so a normal butcher won't have them on his premsies unless he is doing the slaughtering which is unlikley as it was banned after foot & mouth. If you/your butcher can get the slaughter house to remove them, which is not as straightforward as a pig (whoses heads generally are supplied to butchers), you have to have a vet on site to okay everything. They would also have to plug the back of the head where the spinal cord went as the aim is not to let the brain intervere with the rest of the meat. The only by-product allowed from the head is the tongue. Most beef cheeks that are used are probably imported from countries where, according to my meat supplier, 'there isn't this bullshit paperwork' like Ireland and France and as a result they loose a bit of money as the heads just get burnt. Of course, my meat supplier may just not want to be arsed to do this, maybe ravelda knows more about how to get UK beef cheeks.

A recent 3 day trip to Priorat & Navarra revealed the following; Buil & Gine High up in the hills of Priorat near the town of Falset. A very young winery producing a range of pure wines which totally represent their terroir. Giné Giné Rosado Quite an exciting style of rose, blend of Grenache and Merlot. Amazing deep pink colour with vibrant, savoury and juicy red fruit. Rich and multi layered. Great food wine. Pleret Negre Dolc Late Harvest Sweet Grenache, Carignan and Cabernet. Lovely desert red. Deep and dark with a herbal scented pressence. Really intriguing. The white version of this was also really enjoyable with a honeyed, cough sweet palate. Baboix Montsat From the neighbouring region of Monstant this was the stand out red. Old vine (90 years old) Garnacha, Carignan, Cabernet, Merlot give a concentrated dense flavour with spice, liqourice with sweet oak. Really good. At the end of this day, we tasted from barrel and newly bottled wines as well as 2001, 2002, 2004 wines from CARTOIXA DE MONTSALVAT This is a tiny producer, only 20,000 bottles a year in a village La Viella Alto, north of Falset. A late cloudy evening with the sun illumating the rocky hills of Priorat. We tasted Montgarnatx A truly gited touch for winemaking giving a sense of place. Granacha and Carignan, full of bright, spicy fruit with lovely enticing texture. Montsalvat Wow, maybe it was the fact that such a tiny cellar could produce something so stunning. Really big, rich, prunes, smokey and spicy. Again, a soft texture that keeps it balanced. I really recommend these two producers. Also from Navarra, Laus. Piers

Excellent post Corinna...especially in light of previous query which is still on the burner and certainly of my annual foray with golf clubs next week. We're heading to the North Antrim coast staying at Bushmills due to its proximity to, er, Bushmills. Any suggestions for dinner within reasonable driving distance of Bushmills. Thanks Piers

hmm.. sounds like he's been reading the latest Frederick Bau book, I seem to remember seeing chocolate in a risotto there. I'd be interested in trying his 100% against others we have.. ← I had the misfortune of tasting a white chocolate risotto (as a main course) once - it was disgusting and the person who ordered it could get beyong 3 forkfulls. The chef who had cooked it had cooked at Tom Atkins for a time.

You didn't like it much yet you went twice in one day? ← No, sorry, I was elsewhere for lunch. Not worth mentioning. I didn't dislike it, I just thought the food could have been better and certainly the service.