endless autumn

Is the place in Southall The Glassy Junction? I think it does Punjabi food and has some Indian beers on tap, but haven't been there myself. In fact, I haven't really heard anything about it good or bad.

(Not a recommendation, but an observation) There is one pub I know which sells Indian food: it's the slightly grim Fullers Pub to the North of Mohsen on Warwick Road. The menu is very much from the 'luminous curry' school, but is purely 'Indian'.

This does sound like it will work. Do you think mayeb using the broiler and rotating it every so often will make for even a better result? Can you elaborate on the spiced mince and/or marinade you use? Elie ← I marinade the flattened slices of shoulder in milk, olive oil, onion juice, salt, pepper and sometimes some wild oregano if cooking a doner. If making a shawarma, the marinade is (of course) quite different: citrus zest, oil, cardamom, cloves etc. - can't quite remember exactly what, though it's written down somewhere. As for the spiced mince, I guess I do something a bit like an adana kebab: cumin, coriander, pepper, chilli, often with some onion juice and crushed poached garlic. I have tried with the broiler but prefer just using a hot oven as it cooks the underside by indirect heat at the same time and ensures the fat and mince cook through from the inside out (with the skewer conducting heat).

If you have a wide, flat skewer and a deep roasting tin you can reproduce something akin to a shawarma or doner by cooking it balanced over the tin in a very hot oven, turning to crisp and cook through and slicing off the outermost layer as you go. It is a bit raggedy, but the taste and texture are definitely comparable to a conventional upright gas heater. I interleave lamb fat, pounded shoulder and spiced mince, secure and compress with an onion at each end and it works well enough.

They're a different species, no? We only have summer truffles (tuber aestivum) here, I thought, whose season should be over. It was a brilliant year for these, I hear, though. I saw Roger Phillips unearthing specimens the size of his fist on some depressing programe hosted by Tony Francis. This was filmed in November.

Two suggestions for Sanlucar which are extremely well-known, but none the worse for it. Casa Bigote is as trad a fish restaurant as it comes; the (apparently) simpler the dish, the better it will be. Casa Balbino is a bustling bar famed for its lacy peerless tortillas de camarones; it is unthinkably cheap. There'll be plenty about them on these boards I should think.

Why don't you try Wild Harvest - they're very nice and the selection of white truffles which they had before Christmas was far superior to the diddy little bullets on sale at Booths. Wild Harvest have Perigord truffles for £755 a kilo, but if you turn up and bargain with them you may be able to get a slightly lower price (as they will save on delivery). Here is their website. The price list appears to be out of date as it still has white truffles, which are over.

there are plenty of vegetarian options (dhal, baby aubergine, baby pumpkin, sag aloo etc.) but everything is quite hot (including the raita) and so it's not necessarily the best place to take people if there's a fussy eater or two in the pack. not that vegetarians are necessarily fussy (except about meat).

Michelin are ringing kitchens at the mo letting them know their rating in the guide...

Omigod. ← Omigod indeed. Apparently (I'm retelling what my wife has told me), the food is offered as a series of "balls", following their "pelotas" concept, literally balls in Spanish, which is the name of one of the shoe lines. So for instance they have a whole rice and something-or-other ball, a zuchini and potato ball, etc. I promise to take some pictures next time I'm in the area. Silly. ← Is this the bizarre (and empty) place which looks a bit like a shoe shop where you sit on a raised series of steps on a mat next to a lamp eating spherical objects? It is without doubt the least likely to be replicated concept I have ever come across.

I had some excellent advice from kind members about what to buy from Lavinia. You can try some of vserna's excellent wine and there is an excellent selection of wines from around the world. It's not the most atmospheric place but it's well worth a visit. See this thread

Puigcerda doesn't really have any top restaurants I don't think. There is perhaps something at the Hotel del Lago but I'm not sure - I haven't eaten there. Just a couple of miles to the east, Llivia has a couple of places which are perfectly passable, though neither is any great shakes. Can Ventura is very trad, with competent but broadly unremarkable food; another restaurant (a little more forward-thinking) is in a glass walled barn just to the West (I think) of the Plaza, though I can't remember much about it. Sorry. Perhaps you should try to track down Fabián Martín (who is apparently currently residing in Llivia), the inventor of the world's first absorbable pizza...

britcook: I don't know if you are based in the UK (though from your name, I'd guess you might be), but DP 96 is on sale in Costco for c.£50 (though that may be VAT exclusive). I'm not a member, however, and so will be drinking ASDA Buck's Fizz this Christmas.

I think there are several tiers to this question. a) can we make objective judgments about gastronomy such that we can evolve an idea of what 'the ideal gastronomy' is, or is this a necessarily subjective realm? b) if we can make objective judgments about gastronomy, then does 'the ideal gastronomy' actually exist, or is purely theoretical? c) if 'the ideal gastronomy' does exist, then what is it? d) moreover, on a dry, philosophical level, is gastronomy the sort of thing which can have have an ideal? e) if it is the sort of thing which can have an ideal, then to what group of things does gastronomy belong? I am not too hot on philosophy, so will only give a partial, brief reply and let others take the bait if they wish. Noone would deny that some substances are better to eat than others: a ripe peach will beat a brick every time. To an extent, therefore, individuated objective judgments about gastronomy can be made. However, it is not so easy to make value judgments about two entirely different dishes served in different surroundings at different times in different restaurants which are broadly held to be of a similar standard. Be that as it may, while the nature of the diner's experiences is subjective, the experiences themselves are objective. We should therefore be able to get somewhere in establishing if 'the ideal gastronomy' exists and what it is. Indeed, it could be argued that 'the ideal gastronomy' does exist and is concrete to the extent that it can be substantiated in the sum of a responsible elite's experiences. This begs the questions, though, who are this responsible elite (Michelin? The restaurant critics?) and what is the sum of their experiences?

My favourite green bean salad is from Roger Verge (I think): Boil green beans until still a little bit squeaky and refresh in cold water. Mix 2 or 3 tbsp of double (heavy) cream with the juice of half a lemon, a small teaspoon of Dijon mustard, some salt and pepper and a little fresh chervil (optional). Dress the beans in this liquid and sprinkle on some finely sliced hazelnuts, toasted in a heavy pan until golden brown.

Arbutus berries don't have the greatest reputation in antiquity either: they're part of the diet of primitive (and sometimes Golden Age) men, along with bitter acorns.

I have. Thought it was pretty shabby. Nasty, stupidly shaped room, only two dry sherries (Tio Pepe and La Gitana I think) - both had run out. I'm sure the produce is fine and the cooking will probably perfectly competent, but the atmosphere was terribly polite-o English, noone seemed capable of standing/ drinking/ eating/ talking at the same time and it simply wasn't very fun. The wines were dull and overpriced. I went to the old, tiled tapas place on The Cut afterwards, which, though the food is distinctly middling, has good, plentiful, cheap wine, and an old man wedged up under the rafters wailing flamenco classics. (Not necessarily a reason to commend it.) It is painful to think of how Brindisa would look in Spain.

I agree that the area does have its own clear identity, but I don't think (in culinary terms) that it is as developed or as strong as other regions. Some of the regional specialities are neatly recorded in a series of postcards: Anchovies with Red Peppers, Ollada (made with rancid lard?) Crema Catalana and so on are all printed there; there are a few thinnish touristic cookbooks concentrating on Roussillon; but again, the range of great regional dishes seems quite limited. In restaurants there are only a few dishes which seem to crop up across the board: usually something involving anchovies to start, some form of grillade/ simple fish dish next, and a crema catalana to finish. I do not want to eat the same thing everywhere I go, of course, but there doesn't always seem to be a common vocabulary. Ollada, for instance, is not something which turns up on restaurant menus in the same way a cassoulet does around Carcassone/Toulouse/Castelnaudry, Fabada does in Asturias, Bouillabaisse does for a whole stretch of the Mediterranean just a couple of hundred kilometres away. It's precisely because there are such wonderful ingredients (Roussillon Apricots, Ceret cherries, copious wild mushrooms, Rose des Pyrenees, Pyrenean Lamb, superb peaches, excellent seafood) that I am surprised by the lack of good restaurants which make the most of the local produce. There must be exceptions, of course, and that's what I am hoping people will be able to inform us about!

I seem to remember having something combining oyster and goats cheese in Tragabuches in Spain. (Almost all of the twenty-odd courses seemed to have either foie gras or goats chees in them.) It was not a success: the oysters just seemed lost under the rather emetic cheese.

The Chateau de Riell is a beautiful place, but I have never seen it anything other than swathed in cloud. I suppose if you can ask for a view of Canigou, though, that theories about Molitg's microclimate cannot be true. Just a couple of thoughts about places closer to the coast. In Port Vendres, there is a fish restaurant called La Cote Vermeille: very trad, quite starchy, but reliable nevertheless. It is not particularly 'de la region', but the wine list has some excellent regional wines - you must try the Casot de Mailloles Collioure Blanc - and the food is much better than I have had in Collioure. Otherwise, I have heard good things about eating at Chateau Rombeau, which is in Baixas on the plain. I am not quite sure what the deal is, but it seems that you turn up, eat a simple lunch in a simple room on the estate (when my parents went there was a large wedding going on) and drink large quantities of their excellent wine. I suppose this might be more attractive if you don't really come from a winegrowing country, though. The problem I have had with restaurants in the Pyrenees Orientales is that they lack regional identity and don't really celebrate their produce. I think this is why people aren't particularly enthusiastic about the region for food, not because they lack starred places etc. I hope you manage to track some good places down...

I seem to remember there was a fairly priced Roche Aux Moines with a bit of age to it (£30ish?) and a very reasonable Priorat (£24ish) which tasted of Harpic but was surprisingly pleasant. The list does have some good deals but there is a lot to sift through. Oh, and I seem to remember that the whites were more than a little overchilled, but there's not much you can do about that, I suppose.

I am going to Asturias tomorrow and so might be able to offer some advice upon my return. vserna, Eric Malson and Tony Finch have talked about Asturias in the past on these boards and there should be enough to search through. It seems generally accepted that a visit to Casa Gerardo is a must. Hav a look at this thread for a breakdown.

Try them with lamb, green lentils, aubergine and roasted cumin. Everything is cooked together with some onion, garlic and stock and is very good indeed.

Has anyone ever cooked anything like this? I thought that the egg was frozen (either raw or semi-poached) before being deep-fried. Is this how you do it? Or is there some other trick?

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against tumblers. It just happens that the last two times I've been I've had wines towards the top of the list - a Toques et Clochers Limoux and a Bandol - and they've spontaneously produced teensy but rather nice little wine glasses.