endless autumn

If you order a good bottle of wine they give you real glasses.

Sorry not to be more specific. I will be staying between Llanes and Ribadesella and would love to know where I can buy seafood, especially spider crabs, turbot, percebes, cockles etc. I would also like to try to make a fabada (for which I will need good beans, good bacon, good chorizo etc. ) and to grill some beef. I wondered if there was anywhere in particular anyone would recommend I go to buy ingredients. I am just keen, in general, to know if there are any good (fish) markets, butchers etc. which I should try to visit. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you M

Thanks for your advice, butterfly. I think I am most likely to be staying within 20k or so of Llanes - I am yet to decide which house to choose, however. I tried some of the milk from Cantabria (from a man wearing three-footed clogs) which was superb. I'll have to do a retrospective comparative taste test...

People on these boards seem to agree that Asturias produces superb raw ingredients: beef, milk, seafood, cider, beans, etc. I visited the region last year and was aching to cook with the produce and so am going back to stay in self-catering accomodation. I am most likely to be towards the East end, near the Picos, but am willing to travel to buy good food. A very open-ended question, but: does anyone know of good places to buy the best of the local produce? Thanks in advance...

I agree entirely about this dish: too much going on by far. When I had it, it was also poorly cooked: heavy lumpen batter, completely inappropriate for the titchy wee squid inside. And deep-fried, battered, thinly-sliced chorizo: who could have thought it a good idea? The fish was separated into flakes to ensure it was served tepid; everything was precisely spaced around the plate. As for the dessert, there were two themes: jelly and ice cream; and two base flavours: vanilla and orange. These were then combined in every mathematically possible variation into an undulating chessboard of jelly/ice cream squares, about one foot square. It was tiring to eat, not just because of the size but because of the almost imperceptible differences between each combination. I usually crave elaboration when I eat out as it is something I cannot achieve at home; Mr Aikens just left me slightly confused, though.

If it's £50 without booze, Richard Corrigan might be able to do something for you. They have a selection of private rooms but I haven't seen anything too complementary about the place recently. You do have the fun possibility, though, of being served by an undercover reporter from the Evening Standard masquerading as an illegal immigrant.

Coriole (Aus) make a Shiraz/Sangiovese which has primary cherry characteristics but good tannins and a bit of a kick from the shiraz. Shouldn't really work but it does.

I just use a soft brush and a damp cloth. If the area is really dirty, trim it off with a knife. Some chefs in the UK (including Gordon Ramsay) insist on plunging the mushrooms into several changes of water to rid them of any grit, but this just turns them into sodden fungal sponges. (GR also recommends adding raw morels as a garnish, so I think we can ignore his advice.)

The honey which I bought was cut straight from the frames of the hive. It comes from Barnes and is about £25 per kilo, which works out at about £2.50 for a good size piece of honeycomb. It is quite intense, though not a dark honey; I like chewing the wax. There are numerous supposed health benefits for eating local honey (allergies, hayfever, asthma etc.) but I like it because it's from just round the corner and tastes nice.

Do you mean A Gold? It is a wonderful British deli with some really excellent products: cakes and pickles made in a friend's kitchen, London honey, Pitfield beers, Richard Woodhall bacon etc. It's pricey but extremely good.

Tas on The Cut is perfectly serviceable, certainly far better than Gordons for food. (I think the stuff looks terrifying.) Anchor & Hope pretends to open at 5pm. If it does, that should solve your problems.

The english name is cep or penny bun. They don't taste of buns any more than they taste of liver.

There's a good recipe for it in Joy of Cooking. Use their wholemeal bread recipe and you have the fun of including bacon dripping in your ice cream. Much like Walls does in England, but they miss out the whole cream/ eggs stuff and just go with the pig fat.

If you look in the Joy of Cooking, there is an illustrated passage which describes exactly what Jack suggests. You can even take it along to your friendly butcher and show him where to cut/what to do.

I have a soft-spot for Jacquesson's Rose: follow this link to find stockists. http://www.wine-searcher.com/wine-select.l...8521B3MN5MX0FFQ A beautiful, delicate, fruity (but bone dry) wine.

I suppose it's not much of a surprise, but rovellons are prized both in Andorra and the Pyrenees Orientales. I think them a little bland if texturally impressive (they are very resilient and toothsomely crispy). The Nicois also esteem sanguins, lactarius sangifluus, which, again, leave me cold. I may well have missed it in the post above, but does noone eat Hedgehog mushrooms? They are a favourite of mine and are growing in abundance in the UK this year; they are not much eaten in Catalonia, though, I don't think, so I wonder if they are eaten much at all.

This beef is very famous - Brown Cow Organics, winner of various awards. You can get it in Lidgate every so often: try ringing them if you'd like to try it. It has a website (www.browncoworganics.co.uk) which will tell you more about it and they do local mail order. The idea of land as the most important thing is not new: it is the founding principle of Biodynamic farming (and I guess organic too). There was an article by Amanda Hesser in the NYT a year back or so about a sheep farm in New England with the same sorts of ideas.

The thing is, I think I prefer a bit less beef than some. The Steingarten article which discusses the perfect bit of beef distinguishes between meaty (acidic/metallic) and beefy (buttery, nutty/gamey). Of course, I like the beefy characteristics, but I prefer beef before it has lost all its meatiness (and acidity). Some furry, blackened, crispy bits of rare-breed beef are simply too much: their texture may be superb but their footiness overpowers any balancing flavours. I probably lack taste, but there you go.

Rare breed meats are becoming more popular, or at least people are talking about them more. What I haven't heard (or seen) is someone differentiating between the different taste profiles of different types of meat. With pork, you know that a rare breed pig with a decent amount of fat will baste itself better, produce better crackling, taste 'porkier', but noone I know has articulated the difference between, say, a saddleback, a tamworth, a middlewhite and (pace jamie's pal) an essex. I wish someone would. With beef, we know that Welsh Black, Aberdeen Angus, Charolais, Belted Galloway and Dexter (etc.) are all well-rated, but I don't know which tastes beefier, meatier, more acidic, sockier etc. Obviously the way an animal is raised, fed, slaughtered, hanged has a massive effect on its taste but I don't know which breed has the characteristics I most seek, or, at least, nothing beyond my own experience has informed me. (Though my preference is for AA.) Mr Meaty-Whittingstall has provided taste tests for chicken (albeit on a minimal scale) and there is the odd trade article taste-test etc. but I haven't seen as in-depth an appreciation of species-specific variance/ variety in the UK as eg Spaniards and Turk would profess about lamb. Anyone care to step forward?

When I went I was stunned by its inconsistency too: amazing deep-fried pig intestine (sweet, dry, fluffy, crunchy, savoury, sticky, crisp: delicious); gloopy salmon in something icky which was more than a little high: texturally disgusting and generally gross. We hadn't specified anything we didn't like and went with a Chinese friend of my father who frequently visits Hunan (the province), who knows a lot about food and who charmed Mr Peng with enquiries as to whether he was related to the Peng dynasty famous for its chicken dishes. So I'd imagine we were treated relatively well. I'm planning to go back to give it another go but just hope they decide to serve me things which are good. They certainly know how to fry, though.

They are a mean-spirited bunch there (it's in Notting Hill). They only serve you a teensy bit of picanha (the best bit: rump cap) and try to fill you with chicken wings and sausages. The barbecue isn't smoky enough and the rice/ beans are poor. Salads are to be avoided. Caipirinhas are premixed, warm and poured over ice. When I last went, they tried to rush us out, which is the opposite of what a rodizio should be. Eventually, they just stopped bringing food. They claimed the picanha had run out. Also, the waiters are colorados (Internacional supporters); I am from the super raca gremista and so don't take kindly to them.

There's a magazine called 'Special Champignon Magazine' (good title) which is on sale fairly widely in the Pyrenees Orientales and should be available 'in a good maison de presse near you'. If you have a look in the back of the magazine (have a look in the front as well: some decent recipes from proper chefs and beautiful photos of fungi) there is a list of mycological associations by departement who will organise forays. I don't know how useful they will be (they won't be taking you to their favourite may well be gracious enough to hand over some of their spoils to an enthusiastic beginner.

A tempura batter would ensure maximum laciness/frilliness. See this thread for a wee discussion - these people are more expert than I am.

Cauliflower mushroom: not one of my favourites. I have tried it in traditional mushroom preparations (creamy soup, risotto, sauteed with parsley/garlic etc.) and it's never really sung to me. Two things I intend to try this year when my trusty spot erupts: battered, deep fried slices with a sharp dipping sauce - the lacy texture should ensure beautifully crisp batter; and a clear, dark oriental soup with slices of cauliflower poached in the broth.

I though it was pretty poor: the food descriptions were dull, the puns to be expected. I think it's quite depressing that in following his favourite technique of setting up the first paragraph to culminate in a bad pun, the best he could come up with was 'A Wok in The Black Forest'.