HubUK

Can anyone name their top 10 choice of cooking / recipe books? If you can't name 10 that does not matter - jsut name however many you have. My current must have is Rick Stein's Seafood but, so soon after Christmas expenditure, at £25 will have to go on the wish list. It really is the business in terms of everything to do with seafood from buying through preparation to cooking and beautifully illustrated so you cannot fail to know what is going on. With this book one could become great!

Perhaps I didn't put my point over too well. What I was trying to say was don't just be critical for the sake of it. If the design is bad you can say so as it is fair game and hopefully constructive - but if the content is good say so also. I know there are people who criticise my site both for its design and content and from time to time I get a spate of real hate mail (some weird people out there). You just have to get a thick skin - I chose to expose myself on the internet so I must take what goes with the territory although I would like to see more encouragement for people that are striving rather than just outright criticism.

This is down to you (the users of Chef2Chef) - if you don't nominate replacement sites then they cannot replace the bottom ones. This has happened a few times now. . . . . . but does eGullet want to risk competition?

When they first started the list they used to show the average vote for everyone. This led to some real in-fighting and tactical voting. Vote 5 for your own site and vote 1 for the site you were competing with. Then even if they had a higher score you could console yourself with the fact that the average was poor. This led to several people leaving the list even though they were at the top because it was generating a lot of hate mail. There was blood everywhere. I don't mind if you vote for my site by the way - before eGullet or www.recipes4us.com knock me down!

While the kids were eating their tea tonight I scoffed a cold Mushy pea sandwich - and on fresh cut bread for a change! The peas were left over from lunch which was faggotts in gravy with mushy peas and thick slices of thickly buttered bread - real comfort food!!!

I will admit to having a sudden corn beef hash from time to time when the urge takes me but what is truly delicious is a hot bake bean sandwich. Plenty of butter and hot baked beans - eat over the saucepan or a bowl as the butter and beans are likely to dribble everywhere once you have taken your first bite. If you don't get the angle right it will all dribble down your chin!

I believe the deep fried Mars Bars are a delicacy found in Scottish Fish and Chip shops!!! From time to time I wil publish some of thes wacky recipes if I think they will appeal to the kids: Snickers Candy Bar Pie Twix Holiday Yule Log There are a lot of them out there!

I had never cooked risotto until a year ago when Shirley Cline from San Fransisco taught me how to via email. Two of my favourite ingredients now are garlic and fresh sage and then to those I might add mushrooms and some bacon. One of the recipes I created is Hub Tiger Prawn & Wild Mushroom Risotto - www.hub-uk.com/foodpages07/recip0339.htm (Edited by HubUK at 3:49 pm on Jan. 14, 2002)

I think it is wrong to criticise any site to do with food or chefs merely for its design. It is the content that is important - you don't have to be a web design genius to have something interesting to say about food or great recipes. Some of the best recipe sites out there would not win prizes for design but they are first rate in terms of content. As to voting - most people can vote whenever they go online so it does make it rather meaningless in terms of being a judgement. However it is another link to a site and someone new will find the sites through it - I average 50 new visitors per week from it so that gives you some idea of its value. And this is for the Fat Guy (whose logo I love) . . . I am always looking out for food articles to include on Hub-UK if you are interested in becoming a contributor. For starters I have had a quick look at the article called 'Balsamico' which I would like to reproduce. You get full credit and links back to your web site - sorry that is all I can offer anyone as the site has yet to earn me a bean and is run out of my own pocket. This applies to anyone else who is interested in contributing . . . if you don't have your own site you can always specify a link back to eGullet. The site currently averages around 2,000 page requests per day. (Edited by HubUK at 3:30 pm on Jan. 12, 2002) (Edited by HubUK at 4:33 pm on Jan. 12, 2002)