Carlovski

Somebody could try and find the most popular, and create a topic linking to them - it could be made 'sticky' so it always appears at the top. For a full system someone would need to do something like recipegullet - reviewgullet maybe? Something for Jason to knock up on a wet wednesday afternoon!

This isn't really much of a challenge - that's a lot more food than I ever have in, even right after shopping!

Unadvertised cream or tomatoes. Normally commited by pasta dishes. Linguine with clams, spaghetti with ham and peas etc, for some reason (Probably because some fool ordered them once and said 'but where's the sauce?') come swamped in cream or tomato sauce. On a similar note, unwanted peppers. The worst culprit being the mystery raw peppers which make there way into salads they have no place in (I have got them in salade Nicoise, and even in a Ceasar salad!), but also the lesser crime of appearing cooked (Although not normally well) in all manner of pasta dishes, risottos etc

That sounds absolutely vile! Maybe because I have a thing about both hot avocado, and hot mayo. Perhaps it's one of those things that shouldn't work, but just does.

And what is wrong with 'homey' They are coming to your home - homey sounds perfect! Only a fool dislikes a fool!

I did pick up a half decent bird (No sniggering at the back) at M&S a while back. Cant remember the breed - something black leg I think. Probably didn't compare to a poulet de bresse, but definitely a cut above a standard supermarket chicken, and was fairly cheap too (I think it was on promotion, but still not bad without the discount)

In general, avoid.

Back when I was at university, some of my friends lived in the Japanese halls of residence (There was a satellite college of the Japanese university, and we had a room sharing arrangement to promote mixing between the students) Anyway, the kitchens in these halls were far better than ours, every one had a huge rice cooker for a start! It also had the most fantastic Dualit toaster for some reason, a huge chromed industrial looking thing. It did about 8 slices at once, in a ridiculously fast time, and had a huge slot machine style handle to put it in. The guys used to take turns going and getting the bread for the week (Actually we played cards - the loser got the 'honour'!) and used to eat endless late night toast while playing cards - saved on pizza! We probably wouldn't have bothered if it wasn't such a cool toaster. PS, Don't forget, it can do more than make toast if you have Toastabags

I can imagine a situation where, if the local tap water isn't very palatable, where a chef or owner would feel the tap water might affext the taste of the food. I'm not sure how effective water filters are though - never had one. I know I never used to buy bottled water, until I moved to my current place where the water is extremely hard, and has a very distinctive, and none too pleasant taste.

Bit of a cliche, but goats cheese and roasted vegetables (Or maybe griddle aubergines) is good. Also (good quality) sausages and caramelized onions. I like it with plenty of english mustard, although the combination of heat and mustard can produce a rather vicious nasal clearing effect!

I tend to find the sign of a good lasagne is the number of layers, and the amount of pasta. Too often you get too much sloppy filling loosley packed between only a couple of layers of pasta. Not sure I agree with the softness of the pasta - it should be a little softer than how I like none baked pasta (Indeed it is pretty impossible for it not to be!), but it still needs some resilience.

There seems to be a general concensus that meat is served a notch rarer in France than in the US, but I'd also say that the us does the same thing in comparison to the UK (Maybe not in comparison to High end UK places, but definitely in what are laughably called steakhouses). I have a friend who on visiting the US had to basically say burn it to get it back how he would consider it to be 'Medium Well' (As you may guess, he is not really a foody type)

You will probably have to hit the pulses pretty hard! Lentils and beans provide cheap and fairly tasty prorein You can feed yourself with very little money, for limited periods of time, but over the long term you may be deficient in some vitamins and protein. Pasta is an obvious choice, but you can't live on carbs alone. If you have a reasonable stock of spices, vinegars, herbs etc you can make fairly austere meals quite palatable, if you haven't then you can't really afford to buy things with no calorific value, which is why I always stock up on spices, olive oil, vinegar etc when I get paid!

I can't see me completely boycotting supermarkets, I'm happy to pay more for higher quality, but for things which are no better, well I'll get them at the cheapes and/or most convenient place. One thing I have noticed about supermakets though is the price 'compression', nothing is very cheap or very expensive - cheap cuts of meat aren't that cheap, but what should be expensive isn't that expensive either. There is a quote in one of Elizabeth David's books, in the recipe for breast of lamb St Menhould (Must have spelt that wrong!) that a cheap cut in a high class butcher is often cheaper than the same in a so called cheap one, and I agree.

I like my tomato sandwich with bacon and lettuce. Even better is when you leave out the lettuce and tomato

And don't forgot RECIPES LIE! The number of recipes I have seen which call for caramelizing onions, or reducing things down to a quarter, and yet still claim 20 minutes cooking time. Grrrr

Why partially deoderise rosemary? Surely the 'odour' is part of the whole point?

You can take the shortcut method with pomegranates, turn them upside down and whack them with a wooden spoon. In the words of Prince, 'Purple Rain'. I do find a lot of 'old school' french braised dishes are not much diminished by si plifying. Indeed I hate recipes where you remove the meat/chicken and then reduce the cooking liquid. I think it then becomes meat and sauce, rather than an integrated whole. Things which seem to take a long time, and almost as long to wash up afterwards can be worthwhile though. I find it quite therapeutic (Although my housemates think I am mad - taking three hours to make something you eat in twenty minutes) Some examples Fish Pie - Cook the fish, reduce the liqour, make the mash, occasionaly fry off some mushrooms etc - pretty much every ring + the oven. Indian meal - If I am in the mood and make a main dish, couple of side dishes, rice pilaf etc. Lots of grinding, chopping, frying Fajitas. Doesn't sound like it should does it? But if you make your own Salsa (I I normally do two), Guacamole and prepare all the other bits and bobs (I draw the line at making my own tortillas though), then I only ever cook one or two portions worth at a time so it is properly balckened and sizzling.

It is very difficult to avoid the lure of the supermarket. As I only shop for myself (Normally), and am young(ish) and fairly fit, walking and carrying a reasonable amount of stuff is not too much of a problem. I also have a fair amount of free time (All weekend, plus I work flexi) so I can take time to shop. The problem is, there is nowhere. In my town there is no greengrocers, there is a very poor quality fruit and veg stall on our laughable saturday 'Market' (Fine if you want cheap underwear or mobile phone covers). There isn't a fishmonger for miles, and even the small fish counter in the supermarket has gone. The Butchers in the town centre is of the 10lbs of economy mince and family pack of chinese chicken variety, although there is a better one in walking distance, and one where I work. The town centre actually has no food shops apart from two supermarkets and that butchers, although it does have over ten charity shops Oh and a Lidl (Which actually sells better veg than the supermarkets, plus decent everyday olive oil) I use farmers markets when I can, but as I don't drive it is only practical to go to the closest ones. So the reality is that the supermarket probably supplies 60-70% of my food.

i believe vimto is british.it used to be available in India many moons ago.looks like it's still going strong in the middle east. Yes, definitely British. Much more popular in the north as well. I was brought up on the stuff (And still drink vast quantities now!) The now added sugar version is vile though. They have just released a 'High juice' version too. I doubt it will be the same if it actually tastes too much like fruit.

UK Magazine piece on this Supersize me

How about real Greek food by Theodore Kyriakou?

Re - the egg yolk miracle, very clever I am sure, but does it actually add anything to the dish, over say having a poached or fried egg instead? Of course, it would be a bit gastropub brunch, but hey, I like brunchy things.

Going to come up with some sort of penguin recipe then Jason? Can't think of a Microsoft equivalent (Foie Gras maybe? Expensive and bloated?)

Has anyone considered that the food may be better when the head chef isn't there? A creative genius who develops the most wonderful dishes may not necessarily be the best at running a brigade, or coordinating at the pass. To continue the sporting analogies, the best players don't always make the best managers (But they might be good coaches...)