Suzi Edwards

I've been using Abel and Cole for a while now for a weekly fruit and veg delivery but I've been wondering if there's anything any better out there. Does anyone use anyone of note? Abel and Cole are great: they deliver ontime and the variety is good but we've just moved from a portered building and i am a bit worried my veg might be stolen from my doorstep :-) (they can't deliver after work...)

how about making food look good? or maybe it's just i don't have an artistic bone in my body :-)

There is a really nice B&B called "The First Colony Inn" in Nags Head. It is very "English". I think you'd enjoy it. www.firstcolonyinn.com Also, in Manteo, The Tranquil House Inn. www.1587.com very nice. i think, with a bit of luck, jack will drive (i can't) so hopefully we can see one or two other things. jack's from dc originally so i think he wants to show me his old haunts. i need to get onto the hotel situation too. thanks for the suggestions. we're having a heatwave here at the moment, it's about 75 degrees ;-)

now we hadn't found that one! we were planning to fly into dulles, spend a day or so in washington and then fly down. don't think we're too insane...we were planning a trip to the us soon, and this seemed like a fun way to do two things. now, i'm trying to think of something suitably delicious and british that we could bring. anything you guys fancy? PS, can we get two t-shirts please? one xl (if there not too big) and one medium?

[This is actually Tarka's partner...] Fresh from the success of the UK eGullet St. John dinner - where we had suckling pig - we'd like to come to the pig pickin'. Actually, Tarks's a native Brit and I'm American. I promised to show her the culinary delights of my homeland, I just never thought a pig pickin would be the first experience. Sounds like great fun. We'll be sorting out flights from London soon.

you're a wise man, tony. we ate starters off the polish set menu (£12.90 for three courses and a shot of vodka) and then had salads but we were still slow to join the mosh pit. we all chose polish ham with beetroot and horseradish to start and it was really flavoursome ham with some pretty powerful horseradish. jack carried on with the set menu and had polish sausage (the name escapes me) with onions that came with enough vegetables and potatoes for all three of us. this restaurant is remarkably good value but i'll probably wait until winter before going back for the poliosh specialities. and the final good thing is that even if you do eat too much, the empire is rolling distance away so you won't miss your gig.

thanks for all of the suggestions. we went for bar estrela in the end and ate like kings for £18 per head!!! the tapas was a bit hit and miss (crab and avocado salad was made with fish sticks) but the seafood (cockles, mussels and clams) were excellent. i'd never had cockles in their shells before. really good. also drank (far too much) vinho verde which was also a first for all of us and it went down really well.

my "research" has consisted of googling and there doesn't seem to be a single reliable info source on edinburgh. and i'm a sucker for marketing speak... lots of ideas seem to be coming through now though so i am prepared to cancel all plans at the drop of an egullet hat :-)

We're planning to eat at the Tower (0131 225 3003) and Scalini (0131 220 2999) and I got chatting with two ex-Edinburgers last night (David and Jonathan who have kindly promised to add to this thread with all of their excellent suggestions........) and it seems there are a few more places they can suggest. I won't steal their thunder by adding their recommendations just yet, but I will say they've warned me off the Mexican places ;-) There's a place called The Witchery which keeps cropping up on my searches. It's been around for ages (in fact, the resturant I worked at in Edinburgh (now sadly gone bust) was ran by ex Witchery staff who really put me off. This was 10 years ago though...) and has a reputation as a "romantic restaurant" Let me know how it goes.

i've completely screwed up. i promised my best friend that i would book a table for nine of us to eat somewhere in the clapham/oval/stockwell/tooting area TOMORROW night. gulp. i've got my phone on divert so i figure if i can find somewhere in the next couple of hours she'll never know :-) i'm thinking tapas, maybe portuguese...any ideas?

i'll get smacked for being off topic here.... i saw him do personal jesus on the tv but am DEEPLY jealous that you went to glasto. moving swiftly back to food related items....what was the food like there? ;-)

ooh. i saw the edera stuff but i thought i might save that for a "proper" night out. i'm going to see dave gahan and am spending the day in an advanced state of excitement.... i read a review of the polish place recently. i think i'll give it a try. vodka shots might be the right rock and roll start to the night. have you been? can you recommend anything?

am off to the wild west tonight and am looking for a place for a light supper before going to a gig. so, ideally somewhere really close to the shepherd's bush empire. any ideas?

went to the peasant last friday. might go again as they have a lovely outside balcony that was really, really nice to sit out on on a hot night. we ate: chorizo and pear salad and grilled goats cheese salad to start. we followed with a chicken and avocado salad and tuna with a roasted pepper sauce. it was all kind of adequate, i can cook better myself at home, but it wasn't expensive and the setting was nice.

I've been going to MetroGusto in Islington recently. There is thread on this board about it. But being one step above a luddite i can't point you to it. There are plenty of shops in Islington, and there's a small farmers market on a Sunday morning.

i wish they'd had the rhubard and custard thing when i was there. you don't see enough rhubarb in resturants. it strikes me that the tasting menu is slightly more adventourous than the carte. more foams, deep freezing raspberries etc. sounds like you had a good meal though.

cheers for those suggstions guys. i've dug out a few other places so i'm just planning it now. oddly enough, edinburgh seems to have four mexican places, so i'm going to try those in the vain hope that somewhere in the uk can serve good mexican food.

there is nowhere, i repeat, nowhere to eat in roses other than rafa's. it was closed when i was there :-( i'd book for every meal if i were you. also, try out the crazy golf on the road up to the peninsula, i think it might be right next to the hotel you're in. they have lovely koi carp in the ponds and pipe fake toad noises.

i've only been to dublin once but ate at a great place called "the chilli club" it's a tiny, tiny thai place with about 10 tables. it is at: 1 Anne's Lane Off South Anne Street Dublin 2 T: 01 677 3721

I'm going to the fringe for a week in August. Last time I was in Edinburgh (earlier this year) we went to Martin Wisharts (excellent) and Stac Prolly (or Prolly Stac, can't quite remember) which was ok. We'll definitly go back to the former...but am keen to keen to get any other recs. It has been so long since I was there I can't remember if places tend to do pre theatre menus (or whatever the fringe equivalent would be ;-) ) and if that might be a good idea. Also, would probably like to linger over lunch rather than eating at night.... So, any recs appreciated, also on perhaps some less fine dining establishments as i think it's going to cost more than two weeks in the maldives at this rate.

of course. it's entitled "Seaside Eateries" and "Diana Henry takes a tour of the coastal route around Britain to find the finest eatablishments serving life from the ocean waves" it covers the whole of the uk and other local resturants to you who make it are the victory inn in st mawes, porthminster beach cafe in st ives and the carved angel in darmouth (slightly further afield)

From Food and Travel today: "The dazzle surrounding Rick Stein's seafood restuarant tends to obscure the other eateries in Padstow so it's thrilling to find little star like Margot's. A tiny bistrot just up the hill from the harbour. Beaming staff, casual furniture and changing art on the walls make it feel cosy and the food- baked sea bass with lemon, grilled sardines and mussel soup- is gloriously simple. £25 Go Basildog.

i'm not sure there's a relationship between brindisa and moro but they do have a shop next door to moro that closes at six and is well worth a visit, if only to beg a taste of the reserva iberico ham.

and there was me telling everyone that i was simon's otter in shining armour. sniff. sniff. out of interest, given the huge amount of restaurants and the fact that there are only seven nights in the week, what makes you go back to somewhere if you haven't had a great meal there? i work on a one stike you're out basis at the moment.

Moro is in Exmouth Market and I think it's the best place at that end of town, if you're in a hurry you can eat at the bar. Also in Exmouth Market there's a Pizza Express (always empty), a place called Meze that I haven't tried but seems to do OK business, a Strada and a "tapas" bar. I use the phrase loosely. I'd avoid all apart from Moro. There's a tapas place called Lakorn Thai next to Sadler's Wells but the spicing is in insipid and again, I'd avoid. I've only eaten at the Fish Shop once (last month) and I have to disagree with Simon, I didn't really have a very good meal and the fish wasn't really, really fresh. I would go back if people who had been recently said it was really great as it's about 300 metres from where I live :-) Depends how far from Sadlers Wells you want to go.... Oh, and there's a nice pub called the Harlequin at the back of Sadlers Wells. Great music on a Sunday night. I think it's a "proper" london pub.