Harters

Cheers, Martin. What was up with Ditirambo? I'd started to pencil that one in already, not least with it being right on the plot for where we're staying.

Dunno what the pork dish was - but it doesnt sound like the pork with preserved cabbage - which doesnt have noodles or broth.

Thanks for the heads-up. Indian home cooked food in Manchester. Game on, I think.

I suspect probably not. They've already knocked through and there's temporary screening over the archway. I think they could fit out and then just remove it and be ready to go (although, if it was me, I'd take the opportunity to close off the original bit for a few days for a lick of paint and so on). Good design, in my view, it'll mean both bits will still feel quite very intimate.

My salamagundi at the Sportsman last July was mainly salad leaves,with softened carrots and a couple of other veg, together with a poached duck egg. Very simple, very light. Gary's photo doesnt look too salady to me.

I find it hard to find “proper” Italian food in the north west. And, by “proper”, I mean top quality ingredients, cooked simply to allow the natural flavours to shine through. Even in the good places, the menu seems to read more of Carnforth than Calabria. So it was with some surprise that I saw this little place scoring a 5 in the Good Food Guide. I was even more surprised to read the online menu and see hardly a nod towards the usual run-of-the-mill Anglo Italian trattoria stuff. It just had to go on the list to be visited. And it is a tiny place – just 14 covers, although they are about to expand into the shop next door to take them up to 32. Piero runs the kitchen upstairs with a couple of helpers; his wife, Dawn, is a very welcoming front-of-house. Although she misses a trick in not offering an aperitif. The menu is a mix of Sicilian and Northern Italian dishes, with a few more generic items thrown in. Caponata is about as Sicilian as it gets and, although not the world’s greatest fan of fried aubergines, I ordered it. And was really glad I had. It was a lovely silky soft stew of aubergine, celery, pine nuts and olives – sweet and vinegary at the same time and served warm – not hot or cold - warm. The other starter was more of an assembly job – bowl of rocket, handful of crayfish tails, dressing of oil, lemon and garlic. A pleasant enough light beginning. We then shared a plate of linguine with lemon sauce. Perfect “al dente” pasta. A clingy dressing that had a faint taste of lemon. Perhaps too faint in our view. For mains, a beef dish which, in the Sicilian dialect, is “canni cunzata”. Very thin slices of beef rump, marinated in oil & garlic and then quickly char-grilled. It was served with some grilled tomatoes on the vine and was an absolute belter of a dish. The other plate was a simple sounding sausages and lentils. But here, two large and very meaty sausages, made on the premises, were spiced up with a decent chilli hit, before being sat on Umbrian lentils, cooked with carrot and celery. Excellent contrast in texture and flavour – but you still knew you were eating something very much still a rustic dish. Sticking with the Sicilian theme, my partner ordered a cannolo for dessert. Rich with sweetened ricotta and orange peel which the menu notes is candied by Piero over a period of 12 days. I went for a chocolate semifreddo. This was another rich, delicious concoction, although there wasn’t really much of the “freddo” left. At this point, Piero arrived for a brief chat with each table which is always a nice touch. A couple of excellent espressos finished off a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Probably my favourite overnighter place in the Lakes. We were there in November (review on the "main" Lakes thread)

We only subscribe to BBC Good Food, occasionally also buying Olive and Delicious. I was recently sent a copy of "Great British Food" and have just taken out a subscription. It's much more of a food, rather than recipe, magazine. On the strength of the one issue, I think it's a good read. A few seasonal recipes included. http://www.greatbritishfoodmagazine.com/

I'm actually not travelling from London this trip - we're in Northampton overnight and for a little while the next morning. I'll file away the Boot, though. I usually use the M40/42 route for trips "down south" and am off to Dover in April. John

We'll be driving back to Cheshire and fancy lunch anywhere between Northampton and Stoke. A decent pub not far from the motorway would be fine. Any thoughts?

Ok, here’s a question. How do you know that you’re visiting a French restaurant in the UK? Menu uses French terms? Nope, lots of pretentious places do that. Place is owned by someone French? Nope, cuisine could be anything, particularly if, as with L’Endroit, it’s owned by a Belgian. Menu is packed full of classic French dishes – the sort everyone recognises as French? Well, certainly. But, it seems, the other way, is simply that the owner says it is. As in L’Endroit, whose website declares the “emphasis is on traditional French cuisine”. And then offers a menu almost utterly devoid of even nominally French dishes – from the black pudding starter, through the Scottish venison stew and finishing with the selection of English farmhouse cheese. That is not to say that these and the other menu offerings do not sound quite good in their own right. I would happily eat such a meal but not necessarily when I’ve driven 20 miles to eat at a French restaurant. The website also makes mention that game is a speciality in season and, indeed, it is – pigeon on the starters; pheasant, mallard and venison on the mains; roast partridge, teal or woodcock on the night’s specials. It’s a pleasant and quite spacious room in the town centre (although damn cold if your table is near the door which opens directly from the street). I’m sure there’s little competition at the level in the immediate vicinity and tables filled up quickly with mostly regulars, who were warmly welcomed by the staff. They get full marks for bringing a bottle of chilled tap water and bread as soon as we sat down – but they immediately lose points for the bread being bog-standard supermarket sliced wholemeal. It was a cold night and I quite fancied soup as a starter – but, whilst L’Endroit might be seasonal with its game, asparagus was just wrong. I went with a slice of goats cheese roasted with their own honey (jars available for purchase). Not a great success, unfortunately. The honey had burned and become hard – it stuck to the plate and to my teeth. It could still have worked if the cheese had had some salty goaty punch to balance the sweetness but it didn’t. The salad garnish was the best bit. My partner had gone for “Shetland mussels with a chive cream” – or moules a la crème had they been trying to push the French bit. Nice plump mussels with a flavoursome creamy broth – it only needed some decent bread to mop up but, of course, that was not to be had. For mains, slices of lamb leg were OK but underwhelming. They came with haricot beans which we were prepared to believe had been soaked and cooked rather than a tin opened. And a very nice dish of dauphinoise potato. And a decent gravy. I’d ordered, from the specials, the only very distinctly French dish available – a cassoulet which included home made sausages, both and pork and pheasant. This was a comforting and generous dish for a winter evening – a plateful placed in front of me and a pan of “seconds” placed alongside. We passed on desserts, even though they were generally French, but did have decent coffee. It was a pleasant enough evening and, I suspect if we lived in the town we’d probably become regulars. As it is, we don’t and we won’t. L’Endroit features in the 2011 Good Food Guide with a score of 3. Frankly that is just fanciful overrating, when compared with other Cheshire and Greater Manchester restaurants.

Havn't been for a goodly few months, adey - but it's always been a decent cheap lunch for a greedy bastard like me. Indian buffets are always so much better than the Chinese variety.

Anyone been to Wishart's place at Loch Lomond?

So, how was the trip, offcentre? I've just come to the thread to start thinking about a trip we're making in the spring. We're staying Campo de Fiore and will be looking for eats there, or nearby. A mix of casual and upmarket.

Me too. As folk will have seen from my posts, the vast majority of my restaurant visits are to non-starred "good neighbourhood places".

By the by, you often see "gambas pil-pil" in Spain. The prawns are served in very hot oil and are spluttering (which is what I've understood the onamatopeic "pil-pil" to refer to) J

Don't have a problem with the credit card. Don't much like it but then I'm not trying to run a business. As for dress codes, I generally don't like them. But I think if a place decides it's having one, then I think it should stick to it. On a purely personal level, I will not eat at restaurants that require me to wear a jacket. Not least as I don't own a jacket.

As with most traditional dishes, Mum knows best. And it's certainly something I remember Mum cooking when I was a kid. Only ever lamb (neck chops), onion and potato. Meat not browned. Casserole not covered so the top couple of layers of potato went crispy. Served with pickled red cabbage, of course. Nigel Haworth (mentioned above) has a recipe which pretty much mirrors Mum's version. http://www.visitlancashire.com/site/food-and-drink/best-of-lancashire/lancashire-recipes/hotpot-by-nigel-haworth

We'll have had a long day's drive south and reckon on an overnight stop at Carlisle. Is there any halfway decent nosh in the city or very immediate neighbourhood? The usual guidebooks turn up zilch until you get to south Cumbria.

SINDHOOR, MAULDETH ROAD, BURNAGE Amongst Indian restaurants in this area, Sindhoor is a triple rarity. Firstly, it’s Indian rather than the more usual Bangladeshi ownership. Second, it has a “proper” menu of individual dishes – none of the “any protein with any sauce” gloop of the high street curry house. And, finally, the cooking is South Indian – one of, I think, only two in Greater Manchester. From the offerings of the page of starters, there’s not much that immediately tempts – perhaps lamb chops or one of the rasam soups. But turn to the page of dosas and let your greedy eyes feast on the list. A masala dosa was enormous, perhaps not quite crispy enough for perfection but a good filling of potato, onion, well spiced and with a good chilli hit. From the same page, a new one for me – sambar vada. Two vadas, like damn big dumplings, had been cooked, fried and then allowed to soak in the sambar. I’d have happily eaten the sambar on its own as a thick lentily soup, fresh coriander and curry leaves providing a fresh and complex flavour, along with chilli. This was almost a meal in itself. Almost. For mains, I went with Chicken Chettinad (Google later telling me this is a classic from the region of Tamilnadu). This was a very rounded dish, again fresh with the taste of curry leaves and coriander, the chilli softened by coconut. I ordered plain rice which was more of the claggy than fluffy variety. My partner went with a Keralan version of a veggie biriyani. The veggies mainly a delicate mix of broad beans and peas, this seemed a more refined version of the usual North Indian offerings. Certainly it was hotter, yet at the same time softened and almost sweetened a little with distinct flavouring from mint and coriander leaf. Alongside, a little dish of lime pickle, another of a chunky cucumber raita and a small pappadum to give a little crunch. A worthy addition to the small list of decent South Asian restaurants in the area.

I'm going to have to hide this thread from Mrs H. She keeps hinting that we got to go eat Kenny's food - it's ever since he did that fish wrapped in bread dish on Great British Menu (and she ate a blagged version at the Harwood Arms).It's a real schlep from here.

Ten most enjoyable eating experiences of the year. Various reasons why they make my Top 10 and in no particular order: Dining Room, Abersoch, Gwynedd Fat Duck, Bray Fraiche, Oxton Moti Mahal, London Petit Poisson, Herne Bay Prashad, Bradford Sharrow Bay, Ullswater, Cumbria Sportsman, Seasalter Harwood Arms, London Noura, London I'll make mention of two other places, not in the UK, that would replace the Harwood and Noura in my "overall Top 10 of 2010": Mezodopolian, Yeroskipou, Cyprus Don Quijote, Los Cristianos, Tenerife

Lisa - good to hear you're running a reputable business there. The issue here is that the OP indicates that the operator of this particular pop-up intends to deliberately flout the usual health regulations and employment legislation that applies to the industry. And s/he fully expects to get away with it as, with only being in business for a month, will be long gone before the agencies have a chance of catching up with her/him. Let us hope that no employee suffers injury because of this criminal activity.

I see this as no different to any other business operating "in the shadows". There is a legal obligation for the business to comply with statutory provisions about health & safety and employment. However, the nature of the beast is that it is likely to have set up, operated and be long gone before it came on the radar of any enforcement authority. I despise the owners of clothing sweatshops which operate in my part of the world for the way in which they exploit their employees and it looks like I'm going to have add the operators of pop-up restaurants to my hate list now.

Stonking is, well, it's the dog's bollocks. And these are definitely the danglies. Nice to see some plates actually quite full of food. Makes a refeshing change.