davebrown

Thanks for the suggestion: I'll look it up. I kind of assumed that "cuisine" in the title of the thread category included cooking, if it was regionally appropriate (like locally in season). If I'm wrong let me know and I'll locate better in future. Dave

Welcome to the world of raised pies. You can get spring-loaded gismos in the UK to hold the pastry up which work well. This counters the ugliness (which has never bothered me). Try adding a strip of finely chopped leeks and herbs in the middle of the filling.

This weekend I podded some, steamed them and slipped them from their skins before combining with creme fraiche, shreds of horseradish and thinly sliced wet garlic. Then served with blinis and smoked trout. What next?

OK. I can understand how a dish of potatoes sliced and baked in cream etc can end up with a name derived from the French, but a deep fried disk of battered potato? Did some gang of French navvies present themselves at a Smethwick chippy one lunchtime, recognise a familiar fried object, then order in in their native tongue? Was the chip shop proprietor so taken with the new appelation that it stuck, and spread to other shops nearby?

Well it's a radical move but at least someone has found a use for vegetarians. In the chippies in Birmingham you can get a slice of potato deep fried in batter called a scallop. Whilst this label has obvious comic potential, I've never seen it fully exploited. Possibly those Brummies who genuinely believed that Nicky the Greek was battering shimmering molluscs have died out through natural selection. Either that or they moved to South Queensferry.

Indeed. You've always got to be suspicious of a food that nobody actually dislikes. On the plus side, I hear they are very good at reducing inflamation after sprains.

Thinly sliced, salted rhubarb with sushi ginger and a neutral oil is good with cured or raw fish.

I wonder what influence food photography has on the presentation of food on plates in restuarants? Because images only appeal to one sense - sight - there may be a tendency to give disproportionate emphasis to architecture. Thus stacks, angles, sqiggles etc. When you are faced with the food rather than the photograph you experience it in a much richer way, and sometimes the architecture can stand in the way of the enjoyment. Has anyone else had to dismantle their food arrangement in order to eat it?

For tomatoes that taste how they used to, sow the seeds that we used to sow. In the UK, see http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/hsl/index.php

Probably you weren't putting enough malt vinegar on them. With the fat leaking from the fried fish on the same plate, it's the ancestor of the warm salad.

Tinned cod roes, deep fried in batter, brown sauce, mushy peas. I fear I may be losing credibility here before I've actually gained it, but what the hell it's my mouth.

If you want a sandwich that really tastes of sandwich: scraping of marmite, peanut butter, thinly sliced banana and bitter orange marmalade. Trust me.

The point is that the juice soaks into the toast and makes it soggy. I seem to remember some Italian salad that works on the same principle: but you can't make it in 3 minutes, it costs more than 40p a portion and you'd get funny looks ordering it in caffs.

First post after many thoughts. I've often been struck (usually after making breakfast) that tinned tomatoes on toast must be one of the best value meals (according to my crude savour to pound indicator) you can buy in the UK. Any other nominations? Marmite is a bit more of a problem to assess. Savour, it delivers, and the price per scrape is very affordable: but look at the cost of a jar of what is a waste product of the brewing industry. How can this be justified? Dave