Carlovski

Damn. Why don't you guys just learn how to spell? St. John as "Sinjin" I know from my "Jane Eyre" days. But if a church were called St. John's, would you also pronounce it Sinjin's? Mercy. ← Hey, it's our language! My favourite is Beaulieu - took me ages to work that one out. BAck on a food note, what about Paella? I've heard loads of variations on the 'Authentic' pronounciation - any definitive answer?

Good ideas Carlovski. Your post reminded me another dish I make quite a bit-- broccoli and anchovy. Similiar to what you post above, but with anchovy added. Mince anchovy, garlic, dried red pepper together, sautee in olive oil. Add in par boiled broccoli and sautee a bit longer. Drain pasta, add in to marry wtih sauce a bit. Add some pasta water if wanted. Serve with pecorino. Orecchiette pasta works well for this. (I cut up the broccoli stems and florets pretty small for this). edited to add: for an extra savory element and pork substitute: anchovy! (won't work in all cases of course). ← Yep - I add Anchovy too sometimes (Then again I do love the little things!)

Some more ideas... The smoked salmon and cream one has been mentioned - I make it slightly differently using creme fraiche, a little lemon zest and juice and a spoonful of french mustard (Odd I know, but it really works!). I normally do this with farfalle. The cheap offcuts of salmon are ok for this too. Tinned sardines, garlic, chilli, white wine (or vermouth) and a little bit of chopped tomato. Fresh basil if you have it. I prefer this with long pasta - linguini normally. Whole head of roasted garlic, cream and thyme - squeeze of lemon to taste (I normally do this with some crumbled bacon too, but it is optional - or use some fried breadcrumbs for texture) Good with orrichiette. Evoo, garlic, anchovies (Optional), chilli and seasonal greens of your choice. I love this one. I will be eating this at least once a week when purple sprouting broccoli comes into season (My favourite!) Slight variation - finely chop up the stalks of 'normal' broccoli, retaining the florets. saute in Evoo with garlic and chilli, add vermouth or white wine and bubble down. Cook the pasta, throwing in the broccoli for the last few minutes. Add grated parmesan to the 'sauce' and toss with the pasta and broccoli.

The first one is always rubbish. Thats it's job. Don't even try and rescue it. First Pancake - straight in the bin. Or maybe the dog (can you give dogs pancakes?). Lemon and sugar please. I've flirted with fancier concoctions - caramelized bananas and ice cream are good, but for pancake day I stick to the basics (Although I might have a quick bacon and brie savoury one to prove I am slightly grown up) It's not the same without playground bragging about how many you ate the next day though

Not any help re location, But there is a Pub in Winchester (The Westgate) which does good indian food - it turned Gastropubby about 4/5 years ago (Typical 'Modern British'), but started to struggle. So a local indian chef (Winner of the BBC cook of the year in about 1997 apparently!) took over the kitchen - pub runs the bar, he does the food. Seems like a reasonable arrangement. Does make you hungry if you just go in for a pint though...

I have a couple of recipes which call for adding egg yolk at the end - what are peoples opinions on that? I also have been known to poach an egg to serve on the smoked haddock risotto I mentioned above.

Almost every Chinese restaurant in the UK, even the most bastardised, dumbed down one has chopsticks on the table. You quite often see people (Especially when trying to impress girlfriends ) start trying to use them, getting increasingly frustrated and then giving up and reverting to a fork.

The bright lights variety is fantastically colourful - lloks like someone has gone crazy with food colouring. I like to use swiss chard with pasta, cooked in evoo with garlic and chilli and sometimes anchovies. I also use it to make vegetable frittattas.

in japan bream is considerd to be the best fish. personally my favorite fish overall has to be cod. ← It's amazing, a while back, at my local farmers market a local fisherman was selling sea bream and sea bass. The Bream was less than half of the price, but he couldn't shift it, although the sea bass was flying off his stall.

I'm a big fan of the often underrated sea bream. Also lemon sole - maybe not quite as good as dover sole (although sometimes I even prefer it's softer flesh), but about 1/3rd of the cost. Also Mackerel and Herring.

Ahh, I see. Your right, any cold vegetable dishes always tend to be single ingredient, maybe two. Bang Bang chicken is the closest I can think of.

I've seen a couple that could be called salad - sichuan stir fried cucumber, served cold for example.

The Cafe menu seems on the mark as well, but can someone explain this on the brunch menu? Please avoid spirits when eating oysters

Beef and wine stew with Black Olives.Interesting recipe - Not Boeuf Bourguignon but an interesting variation on the theme.

Re the Citrusy discussion, many recipes call for orange peel to be added to beef/wine stews (And that's what it is, Stew. French stew with wine in it, don't feel we need to be too precious about it) I use what my Butcher refers to as Rib trim, just the right amount of fat, good flavour and pretty cheap. I also tend to use a fairly hefty Spanish Rioja. And some thyme if I have any. Might not be authentic , but it's tasty and warms me up on a winters day.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but this is just WRONG!

Things I use it for :- Heating up leftover stews, chillis etc Cooking rice - This stems from when I only had two working hobs - you really are just boiling the water, and letting it steam away (How I do it anyway) Occasionally for softening butter. Cooking the steam in the packet veggies I occasionally buy if feeling very lazy! Part cooking potatoes for baking, 8 min in th emicrowave and a blast in a hot oven for 20-30mins - not quite as good, but also half the time as doing it properly.

Lucky you! looks like you got the real deal. I usually make do with the Lee Kum Kee brand (Which is pretty good) Basic use is to fry a few spoons in oil before sir frying meat/vegetables/tofu etc. It turns the oil deliciously red and fragrant (And Spicy!) For plenty of ideas, and a fair bit of background I recommend readin Sichuan Cookery by Fuschia Dunlop. Good recipe for fish braised with the chilli bean paste. I went through a phase of putting the stuff in virtually everything I cooked!

hoho! you're treading on dangerous ground me thinks ← Hey, just because it's a stereotype doesn't mean it isn't true!

Could it be a 'Class' thing (Though hate to use the term). People who go to good restaurants are also more likely to holiday in Italy or France than Spain?

Haven't they got a couple of bottles in your college cellar you could grab? I'm still jealous!

I backed you up on the Lidl issue! Spinach and potatoes screams aloo sag to me - but then again I try to spice EVERYTHING up! I've never cooked brisket either - As I tend to cook just for myself, and occasionally one other it isn't really the sort of thing I do. I think I have a couple of tempting sounding Simon Hopkinson recipes knocking around somewhere though....

Footlong meatball subs from subway - with cheese of course! KFC hot wings Kebabs. Lots of Kebabs. Nasty thick, cardboardy takeaway pizza with too much rubbery cheese and far to many jalapenos. Only when drunk obviously. Shall I cancel my eGullet membership now?

You know it's expensive when you purposely let it hit your shoeless foot to soften the blow - Bones heal right?

My housemates make one with supermarket pizza bases (deep pan) topped with copious amounts of Heinz BBQ sauce, grated commercial mild cheddar, bacon, and sausages. I find that quite unusual (It's also quite impressively nasty - but hey, they like it)