Kerala

Pancakes with bacon, mushrooms and Gouda cheese for me, Nutella and strawberries for my daughter.

Poached eggs on 'nduja toast.

Guanciale continues to rock this house. Guanciale, mushrooms and cream. Giant ravioli made with my 17 yo daughter.

I suspect my freezer and fridge will always have some guanciale from now on. So simple a change and so profound a difference,well worth buying online or traveling across town.

Definitely I have made this with carbonara technique, and had a plate of edible food. From now it will be forever "carbonara" but before now it was carbonara. Of course, no one in my life cares.

You are right, @weinoo but what do you call it when you throw together bacon, eggs, cheese and pepper with pasta for a quick meal? "Carbonara" in quotation marks, waggling index and middle fingers? Like my "Paella" and "Bolognese?" Seems unwieldy. (Full disclosure I call one a paella but the other a ragu.) But, yes, it's a different dish with guanciale.

Amazingly there seems to be no active Carbonara thread. I finally made linguine carbonara today using guanciale rather than bacon or pancetta. Unbelievable difference. I've always been a bit sniffy about people wailing on about authenticity, but I'm having a learning moment. I used this recipe as a starting point. For what it's worth, the amended quantities for seven people were: 420g linguine 300g guanciale 80g pecorino/parmigiano 4 eggs plus 1 yolk

Tagliatelle, ham, nduja, parmesan. No one else at home really wants nduja so I'm working through a pound of the stuff myself.

Saucisson sec with truffle, warmed through in scrambled eggs. Nice.

Nope. Every publican in the UK can do this every flipping Sunday, but I still can't do it reliably after more than 25 years of cooking.

Cleared the fridge. Served with croutons. Stock made last night from wing tips, left over from the Wings Cook-Off.

Loosely inspired by this. I added a teaspoon of baking powder and a teaspoon of salt to a kilogram of wings and let that sit in the kitchen for an hour. Then I mixed in cumin, paprika, garlic powder, pepper and fenugreek (because I had some in my mortar). 220C in a fan-assisted oven for 40 minutes. In the past I've always used some kind of wet marinade, so this was quite different. The skin was quite crispy and the meat still quite moist, but I might leave the wings as one large piece, flat and drum undivided, next time. A work in progress.

My MIL recently put the cinnamon sticks in with the cloves. "When you use one you use the other, it tastes the same. I didn't do it!" No one else even touches cloves except she and I in our kitchen, and my 17 yo daughter only uses cinnamon for western style pastries. Keeps life interesting.

I grew up in many different places in different circumstances. But here's a story. We were in Kerala at this time. When I was about 5, my grandparents lived with us. My father was a Brahmin, and his father allowed no meat in the house. Once in a while my parents would take the children out for a meal at a restaurant. Looking back it was probably a chance for my poor mother to get some meat down her throat just to stay alive. We would have chicken biriyani, served with eggs. I can remember gold leaf on at least one occasion. I loved my grandfather and would always sit on his lap, his arms wrapped around me, listening to him telling me tales from the Ramayana or Mahabharata in the evening. When we came home after our meals out, I would circle him, afraid my breath would betray my sinful supper. Eventually I could bear it no longer and would jump into his arms. "Did you have a nice time?" Yes, Appuppa! "What did you do? “ We went to a restaurant! “What did you eat? “ We had rice. “What did you have with the rice?" There was onion. "Anything else? “ Cashew nuts. " Anything else? “ Raisins. "Anything else? “ Cloves. There were definitely cloves. " Anything else? " There was yoghurt. " Anything else? “ One day my father lost his temper and told him to stop tormenting me. Yes, we had gone out and had meat. Yes, we would do so again. Yes, the house would remain meat free. Food culture was quite complicated in our household.

Macaroni con funghi e nduja.

I am so envious I couldn't bring myself to look through this thread until now. It's as good as I feared. Keep going,please.

Had eggs benedict for lunch the other day. Today's breakfast: blackberry preserve, 'nduja on toast with coffee from the cafetiere.

I went there about 15 years ago. I'd never been to a cocktail bar, and I was flummoxed when asked what I wanted, in the same way I was confused when first asked how I wanted my steak done. Even though I was a novice, I was already a snob and didn't want to go for the usual. "A Manhattan," I replied, never having even seen one before, my right eyebrow rising just a smidgen, channeling Roger Moore as best as I could. It cost 10 euros. Tasted great.

An orange and nuts from a patient. Kung He Fat Choy! said the label. She wasn't Chinese, and neither am I. Chico Spania brand, she says they are delicious and she has only just managed to get her hands on them this year. I'll see tomorrow. I'm very grateful for the thought.

From my lovely sister.

Dessert after a red Thai prawn curry which was not photographed. Tarte Tatin with peaches preserved in brandy syrup.

Looks tasty. What's the meat like? Tough? Tender? Gamey? Neutral?

Chicken and lamb momo from a while ago. Made by my mother in law, who now lives with us. Tomato acchar on the side.

Hmm. Available at my local Asiana. I'll break one into a bowl of udon noodles. Any other recommendations for a newby?

Smoked mackerel, Sriracha, and the evident eggs on bread.