Jenni

A soft drink that isn't coca cola/pepsi/other major brand. Would love to see some Fentimans or something like that.

^^ Kim, we stumbled upon the Covent Garden branch by chance when we were out on the prowl looking for breakfast! You may want to ring in advance to check, but they certainly had a printed breakfast menu, so it wasn't just a one-off. I would definitely like to go back again for a meal at lunch or dinner. It was quite a nice restaurant, looked rather posh without being overly stiff and formal. I guess it would depend on whether you and the people who will be with you like Turkish food, but if you do, then I think it will be an elagent setting to enjoy such food in!

Hi Shaun, Personally I would not use yeast or sugar in my dosa batter - natural fermentation is sufficient and these additions are not traditional. I don't know where you live, but I am in the UK at the moment and it is taking between 12 and 24 hours to get fully fermented batter at the moment. The weather is warming up, so that should improve. Try using a little more urad dal if fermentation is not occuring, and don't forget my trick of using whole (skinless) urad. Apparently the reason it is better is that when urad is split, there is some heating involved and this can kill of that natural yeasts present in the urad. Also, try mixing batter with clean hands when you are combining the batters. This is a tip that many South Indian mothers give! I have never use channa dal in dosa batter, but would be interested to taste a dosa made this way. In terms of rice, I have been researching this and my understanding is that too much parboiled rice in dosa can make them less crispy. Also, apparently whilst short grain rice is important for idlis to get softness, it is not so important for dosa. In fact, in theory longer grain rice might make crisper dosas. Don't have a consensus on that one yet! I am finding it hard to fully understand your grinding process, but I do know that the urad should be ground into a very smooth frothy batter, not granular. As I mentioned before, utthappam is usually made from leftover idli batter, as it is thicker. It is usually spread out on the pan, but I am guessing yours was a little too thin so spread on its own. Incidentally, I made utthappam this weekend! Having said all of this, your dosa look a nice colour and I hope you enjoyed them!

On a casual day out in Lyme Regis my family and I ate at a tapas bar called Sotanos. Friendly staff and delicious food, perfect for a relaxed sharing meal. What stands out most in my memory were the enormously fat spears of asparagus served with a generous amount of melted butter.

Eat breakfast at one of the 'Sofra' restaurants. I tried it at the covent garden branch. Halloumi, sauteed spinach, mushrooms, deliciously rich shots of hot choc, feta, pide, plus a range of meaty things including spicy sauseages, tonnes of eggy dishes, an enormous selection of teas...these are all available!

Don't know what else it does, but baking soda is good if you have heartburn! 1/2-1 tsp in a glass of warm water does the trick.

Ok, so my photos aren't anywhere near the standard of other photos here, but I promise that the salads are delicious! In case anyone is wondering, the salads were packed in a tiffin box to take on a picnic. Here are the three salads together. The largest container is green lentil and tomato salad. Cooked green lentils are dressed with olive oil and lime juice (plus salt to taste). Then chopped tomatoes, finely chopped spring onion and finely chopped seasoning peppers are added. Seasoning peppers are a Trinidadian thing, so maybe you won't be able to get them. They have all the fruity flavour of a habanero but none of the heat. No other pepper tastes like them, but I also make this salad with green or red chillies so you could try that too. The middle container has courgette and feta salad in it. This is from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian book. Courgettes are cooked briefly, then combined with feta, spring onion, dill, lemon juice and olive oil. It's so simple, but absolutely delicious. I really recommend that you try it! Ok, so there's no way to make this look good! There are many Middle Eastern and Asian mashed aubergine dishes. This one is roasted aubergine mashed with garlic, tahini, olive oil and a slight splash of lemon (plus salt to taste). I often do mashed roasted aubergine with yoghurt and mint too. All these salads are good at room temperature or chilled if you desire - season slightly more for chilled as the flavour is lessened when served cold.

I don't often get a salad bar salad, but if I do it's often at a deli or middle eastern cafe. I always go for legume-y dishes - chickpeas, lentils, beans, etc. Great texture and flavour in salad. I also love anything with tomatoes and onion. In fact, I remember once at a restaurant in Spain I ordered an onion salad as a starter. This consisted of tonnes of onion and a slight sprinkling of tomato, and I loved it! Wouldn't say no to a little feta, mozzerella, halloumi, etc. with my salad, and I love yoghurt-y things too.

I will confess that I have not eaten much Japanese food, but from what I have read I understood that they are very in to seasonal dishes made with seasonal ingredients and even carefully plated to represent the season. So I would imagine that there must be restaurants that specialise in this. Maybe it's just Japanese restuarants in the US that don't?

Pam, do the dried petals have much fragrance? Some dried petals I have had have been very fragrant, others less so.

I have heard of the baking soda thing (at least i have if baking soda is another name for bicarbonate of soda - can someone confirm?) but I also heard that this destroys some of the vitamins. Don't shoot the messenger if this is bad science, but I would love to know if it's true.

^^^ They are a much loved green in the North, especially the Punjab. Sarson ka saag (or sarson da saag in punjabi) is a delicious dish of mustard greens (and often spinach and/or other greens) cooked for a long time till lovely and tender, then mashed with what I like to call a swizzle-stick, thickened a little with corn flour (not the white corn starch we mean when we say cornflour in the UK, but a cornmeal like flour). It is seasoned with spices that often include ginger, garlic, onion cumin seeds, chillies and garam masala. Best served with makki di roti, which is a flat bread made from corn flour (think a bit like corn tortillas), plenty of butter and a tall glass of lassi or buttermilk…. Btw, just to clear any confusion, I live in the UK. I am part Indo-Trinidadian though, and that little bit of ancestry has given me a huge passion for India and Indian food.

Mustard greens!!! Didn't know they were cooked much in America!

Not sure anyone likes karela on the first try. You eat it very grudgingly as part of the meal, pull a face when told how good it is for you, smoether it in rice, etc. Then one day you find yourself craving it! You learn to cook it, at first in ways that "hide" some of the bitterness, and then (with increasing glee) in ways that flaunt it to it's fullest. Then you realise, you love it! And then you force it upon your unwilling children, and the circle of life is complete.

As a non-drinker myself, I have noticed that more casual restaurants now have "mocktails" on their menus. Now, I have a sweet tooth and do enjoy a nice sweet drink on it's own when I'm in the mood, but I do find most of the mocktails too sweet to have with a meal. For example, I like sweet lassi as a refreshing drink on its own, but with a meal I will choose salt lassi (or buttermilk if available) every time. That's not to say I won't drink a mildly sweet drink with my meal, but when half the glass is grenadine syrup, I'm not a fan.

I have nothing important to add, just wanted to say that I would watch that show.

For someone who prefers to cook in home made ghee or very good oil, doesn't want to re-use oil, and doesn't have a huge income, deep-frying looks less attractive! But as moopheus says, the main reason is that deep fried foods are so delicious that I know I'd make them too often. It'd be pooris every night! So as you can see, it's a personal reason. I agree that many deep fried foods are easy to make at home and delicious too, and I wouldn't say they necessarily belong in this thread as something that it's "not worth making at home".

^^^ Moopheus, that along with the price of buying extra oil/ghee for frying is why I do not deep fry at home. I prefer to indulge when I eat out, and the professionals do it without me setting my house on fire and making the food really greasy because I haven't done it right.

Fantastic pic, wish I had some wild garlic like that near my home! This is a really interesting thread, I hope others can add more. Apart from nettles and blackberries I haven't foraged much myself. My Dad makes sloe gin and various country wines though, so he picks a bit more. Would love to know about green leafy things that can be foraged.

Ok, ok guys, I was just asking! I'm probably spoilt as I just came back from Amritsar, where I ate veerrrry good naan! Luckily, I don't mind not being able to make superb naan at home, as I'm more of a paratha girl myself!

All these people who are making great naan without a tandoor, how are you doing it? I have never been able to make naan at home that matches up to proper fresh tandoor-cooked naan.

Hey, coconuts aren't unhealthy! Ok, so because they are high in fat they have a significant amount of calories, but all you have to do is not overeat (well, not everday)! Oh, and go and see some elderly people in Kerala or Thailand who have eaten coconut everyday in large quantities and will laugh you out of the house if you suggest that coconut is bad for you.

Can't speak for anyone else, but to me bread just isn't all that. I don't especially like eating it and I don't especially like making it. (Shocking, I know.) I have other things to do in the time I could be making that small loaf, you know? Hey, fair enough. I'm not a big bread person either - make chapatis mostly, and not every day at that. Just thought you might be craving home-made bread!

For the people with bread making woes, why not make a smaller loaf?

I'm excited! I want outdoor cooking, horseback riding and other assorted fresh air adventures! Do you ever go camping?