PS

My experience in France is that it's white sugar all the way there, so I tend to go for white to recreate that. Also, a Sicilian friend always uses white. I think if you use brown you can taste the difference it makes to the coffee - but if like that taste, then why not have it?

Did you have any luck with this, Andy? I'm off down that neck of the woods soon, but the dining out options aren't looking too good...

Mine seem to last up to (and often beyond) the use-by date quite happily.

I never refrigerate eggs - they come ready sealed. Plus, they poach a lot better from room temperature than from 4 degrees.

I think Stein's always pushed the simple/rustic rather than the elaborate. Le Tupina seems perfectly in line with this as well. His series tend to have a slightly home-made feel about them (check out those title sequences), and the food is usually attractively home-makeable as well, rather than the aspirational food porn that other TV chef shows can veer towards. I'm enjoying the show so far. Nice part of the world too.

Mm-mmmm! That hackin sounds interesting. Thanks Adam.

Forgot it was on last night. Can anyone fill me in on what was covered and how? I don't suppose it's repeated at 3am on BBC3 or something? Cheers Philip

Adam, two questions: Where did you get those raspberries? They look superb. Any chance you could stick a photo of the Cumberland haggis recipe in your blog? That's where I'm from and I'd love to see it (can't promise being able to make it, mind).

I'm looking forward to following this, Adam. I don't get to Bower's very often as Crombies is much more convenient for me, but I'm always impressed by the place - it's good to see trotters and such like in the window. Likewise with Armstrong's (my not getting there very often, as opposed to the trotters in the window). I get very frustrated that I'll walk past a window full of great-looking fish on a Saturday lunchtime when I'm on my way to play hockey, so don't want to buy fish that will become tainted by mouldering hockey kit, and then I'll walk past an empty window on my way home. Such is life... Anyway, keep up the good work. Philip

I think the pan had just been left on the hob for a hell of a long time (you could see it smoking away for much of the scallops piece) so was bloody hot by the time he came to put the scallops in.

I must have been to Chez Michel five or six times now. In my (admittedly relatively limited) experience, it's been the most consistently good bistro of the new wave bistros, or whatever the accepted term for them is. I've always approached it as a pedestrian, either from the metro at Gord du Nord, or on foot from our hotel - once through the Pigalle, once from the Opera and once from the Canal St Martin. None are particularly attractive approaches, but they are another side of Paris and interesting as comparisons to the more touristy areas. I've never felt threatened arriving in the early evening or departing at 11pm. If you don't like big rail terminals at night, there's always the Poisonniere Metro to the south, which allows you to head up by the St Vincent de Pau church. You can get a hint of a feel for the area from the Bourne Identity. There's a scene where their mini is parked up in front of the Gare du Nord and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it scene where Jason Bourne makes a call from a payphone with Chez Michel's frontage in the background.

So, if I were to drop by for lunch on a weekday, what sort of time should I get there to be (reasonably) sure of getting a table? Does anyone have a note of Le Comptoir's service times?

I've still not quite made up my mind about V&C's Vin Caffe. Overall, it's pretty good (the wines and desserts especially), but each time there's always something slightly disappointing about it. Trying to think of examples... The first time I went, they had venison stew in a tomato sauce with potatoes. The sauce was wonderfully vibrantly tomato-y, but the venison was really dry. It would have been great if they used beef, but I think they were going for a Italian-Scottish combination. I think I may be being a little harsh as on other occasions I think I've just suffered from selection envy, where my fellow diners have picked something better than my choice! But, hey, I keep going back (been there four or five times now) so I guess I must like it really. They usually have a couple of seafood options as well as the decent desserts, so that should cover all bases, persiancook.

I'd love to be going back in January! If I can only persuade an airline to start a direct flight from Edinburgh to Bordeaux... Wish I'd tried the entrecote when I was there as well.

I was there in the height of summer last year and got the impression it would be an ideal place on a winter's evening. Don't get me wrong - I did enjoy my meal there, but I think the massive cooking range and all the roast meats it can provide would be best appreciated on a colder day than the August scorcher I experienced.

I'm sticking with it, out of sheer desperate for food programming and the hope that it transmutes into a decent show. That said, I was interested to see the organic pig section, the beer bit (both too short and just skimming the surface of the topic though) and Heston's chocolate/water mousse (but why not close up of the finished product??? Had he arsed it up and they didn't want to show that? Or were the crew incompetent enough to forget that people might actually want to see what the end result looks like?) Yesterday I videoed it, so I was able to fast forward through the more irritating sections (whatsherface's Vietnamese monkfish thing, the celeb cooking section). I'd recommend this method to anyone with a low irritation threshold.

Offal's always good for a quick and cheap meal round our way. Liver tends to be eminently affordable and black pudding's great (and very filling) in lots of combinations - in salads with poached eggs, with mashed potato, with apple, in a roll with a fried egg (the best breakfast! ).

I think the porridge oats are sifted so that the end result is less of a paste and has more texture when served. The oats were then served in snail stock (chicken stock in which the snails had been cooked, if I remember rightly), so there's a crossing of flavours right there. The green paste was parsley butter, which isn't a particularly outlandish ingredient, presumably made up of butter, garlic and parsley (and maybe almond?). The ham mentioned by HB was, I think, the shredded stuff piled on at the end. Personally, I don't see this as any more complicated than any of the dishes I had in a couple of one star places in France a couple of weeks ago (eg a snail tart from Le Vieux Pont in Belcastel).

Thanks for that Gary. It did seem to be where the programme was heading... The Glasshouse again, eh? Should be interesting.

Due to a video-related disaster, I missed the last couple of minutes of the programme (it cut out just after Derek Brown ordered the lamb). Could someone please enlighten me as to what the ex-inspector's views were and what GR/M le chef had to say about it? Cheers Philip

I've never understood this, as you can happily listen again to the Beeb's music output from Radio 6 or Radio 2, for instance, which will have a much higher copyrighted music per minute ratio. In fact, they rarely, if ever, play more than a snippet of the selected tune on DIDs, so you wouldn't go there for illicit copies of music.

Shepherd's = lamb Cottage = beef Both, in my experience, are topped with mashed potato. Sliced potato topping has you veering into the territory of a hot pot.

How were they price-wise? Let us know whether it was value for money once you get the corks out...

I don't have much to compare them with, but try the Auberts, first on the list in the Hachette. Good wine and very reasonably priced.

That's the secret, I think Lucy. When I was making a terrine at New Year I dug out the book I'd used for a previous effort (Jane Grigson's) and was surprised to find that I'd managed to scribble how much of everything I'd put in the first time (except the bloody salt of course, which had gone in in pinches here and there). From that info I was able to ensure that the second terrine didn't leave me tasting garlic for the next week (I'd been a little too enthusiatic about it the first time around).