PS

Watched it last night and I can't say I'll be desperate to catch it again. Yes, the service element is interesting, but that's lost in the cuts to the Big Brother-style monologues from the contestants and shots of who is eating in the restaurant ("who?" being the operative word in most instances, apart from those who are gurning or gesticulating widely in the back of shots in an attempt to get noticed on the telly in which cases the operative word is "tosser"). And surely the chefs have been told to play it up for the show? They're giving the level of abuse that you might expect them to give professional staff who had really ballsed things up, as opposed to rank amateurs.

How much are they asking for them? In the last couple of weeks I've paid between £3.50 and £5 for a pair of shanks, which felt pretty reasonable to me.

I've followed Jane Grigson's Charcuterie and French Pork Cooking a few times, and it's worked fine, although I tend to undersalt as well. It's surprising how much you need to put in these things. Adam, do you have any suggestions for where to get caul in Edinburgh? I've tried a couple of butchers to no avail.

The Punchbowl's been taken over by the guys who own the Drunken Duck. I'm hoping they're not giving it the wine-bar style makeover that the Duck has had recently. I want to go to the Lakes for a Lakeland pub experience, not a transported city-centre bar session. The food and ales are still very good mind, but a little bit of the character's been lost I feel.

If Half soft and scrambled eggs, soy, wasabi, smoked cod froth is "an egg laid by a cancerous chicken, then covered with shaving foam and stubble" resembling "nothing so much as a putrefied head wound" then I'm going to have to get myself a cancerous chicken, cos I loved it!

Artisan is a great shop - I got some magnificent Sillfield bacon and Staff of Life bread, amongst lots of other local goodies, last time I was in Kendal. The in-shop restaurant, which seems to use the produce/products in the shop, is decent as well. I think the menu was created by Stephen Docherty, ex of the Punchbowl Inn.

Julia Child's MAFC Vol 1 is excellent. Vol 2 is not essential to my mind. I also really like Jane Grigson's Charcuterie and French Pork Cooking. And in French, and surprisingly easy to follow even with my basic language skills, George Blanc's Cuisine en Famille - great for Poulet de Bresse recipes.

Adam I read in the Evening News recently that the Edinburgh farmers market was going to become a weekly event and that a Leith farmers market, to be held every Saturday and Sunday, was being set up. Still nowhere near daily, but it gives me some chance of getting to a farmers market if I'm busy on a Saturday, which is normally the case. Cheers Philip

Each to their own, I suppose, but I always found Meades' restaurant reviews very entertaining and informative. I also found his opinion on the various restaurants that I'd also eaten in/I went to subsequently to be spot on. His reviews usually had enough detail on the establishment in question for me to get a good (and accurate, based on the ones I visited) idea of what the restaurant (and often the surrounding area) was like. IMO, obviously.

To be fair, back when Meades was writing his Times column he was clearly anti-Michelin, anti-celebrity chefs and pro-artisan/peasant and French cooking, as evidenced by his choice of La Tupina as his "desert island" restaurant. That's not to say he didn't rate Pierre-White, Ramsay or Gary Rhodes - they got good reviews, but with emphasis on their ability, not their celebrity status. Indeed, his review of one Rhodes establishment began with a good half page decrying the focus on celebrity above ability.

I saw this when it was on release in the UK back in January. It wasn't a bad film, if a little on the long side. I don't know how much of the film's gyst was the director's slant or objective. Unfortunately, my main memory of the film is feeling ill from about 20 mins in. Whether I'd a spot of food poisoning or whether it was due to sea-sickness brought on by the extremely irritating hand held camera work that never stayed settled on a subject, but instead zoomed into extreme close-ups on someone's eyebrow while they talked or, more often, followed a dog sniffing around in the background, I don't know. I got the impression that the cameraman had some sort of attention deficit disorder or just couldn't be bothered to give the interviewees any time. There were some interesting characters in there, the odd amusing moment, and the Mondavis don't exactly come out of it well, but I'm not sure I'd go so far as to recommend it.

I'd agree with Fisherman on that as well. The staff were friendly without being in-your-face and certainly weren't stand-offish. Nothing appeared in front of us without an explanation. Indeed, they seemed delighted to explain what was on the plates, so I'd be surprised if they missed an opportunity to do so. Unless there's different staff on at lunch and dinner, but I don't think that's the case.

The half soft / half scrambled egg is, I think, pretty much as it sounds. I would guess that it's a case of very lightly scrambling some eggs so that they are still very liquid, soft boiling some other eggs, roughly chopping the latter, then mixing the two and filling a vacated eggshell with the combination, plus the wasabi/froth. I've not attempted to replicate it to confirm this, but it seems reasonable and it was very tasty. I forgot to mention this in my previous posting, but Mr Rogan has been on the receiving end of a shearing, so don't expect to see the flowing curls of some of the publicity shots. Must be easier to control in the kitchen though. Is the chicken with liquorice a newie? Has the revised spring menu been instigated? (I'm looking for an excuse to revisit)

I was back in the old County last weekend and had the pleasure of dining and staying at L'Enclume on the Friday. It really was a great experience - certainly up there in my top-meals-ever list (and as I had the Intermediate menu, I'm delighted to still have the gourmand option to look forward to). I'll try not to repeat what has been said already, but give my overall impressions and what stands out in the memory after a week or so. The setting of the restaurant struck me a perfect for what Simon Rogan is doing. Cartmel is in an idyllic location, even in last Friday's p*ssing rain. It's just outside the Lake District National park, down on the coastal plain - a tiny old market town, surrounded by green fields and narrow country lanes. L'Enclume itself is suitably rustic and of a nicely balanced design inside - smart yet informal, I felt - with a garden that I'm sure will be a great place to sit out in in the summer, and the river flowing past between the restaurant and the Priory. Anyway, the meal. I'd originally planned on the gourmand, but my wife was confident (wisely) that there was no way she could manage all 23 courses so she was going for the Intermediate. Penny informed us that if we were going for the tasting menu we'd have to have the same one (which I suppose is fair enough) but as the dishes I really wanted were all on the Intermediate, this was fine by me. Wine-wise we went for a bottle of Cremant de Loire for the first batch of tasters and a glass of (I think) Cote de Rhone for the mains, cheese and puds. This worked well for me. The CdL, though very pleasant, was not so overpowering as to get in the way of any of the flavours. Food highlights for me were: Half soft and scrambled egg, soy, wasabi, smoked cod froth. The soft egg gave it just that little bit more texture than it would have had as scramble, and the soy and cod lifted it nicely. Flaky crab, curried avocado, parmesan yoghurt sorbet. Loved the sorbet! Combined nicely with the crab. Cubes from land and sea, eucalyptus hollandaise. Mentioned elsewhere above. I'll just add mm-mmmm! The main of beef fillet and waberthwaite air dried ham, apple, juniper berry juices was superb also, the ham giving the fillet (which I usually find a bit on the bland side) just enough of a leg up in the flavour stakes. A lovely little rectangle a crunchy (but not crisp) ham sitting on a pillar of apple on the side was like distilled crispy bacon. I'd have to say that I felt that all the courses were very very good, except for the monkfish (replacing the usual John Dory in this dish), bergamot aromas, bitter caramel, the fish in which seemed to be leave a pool of water on the plate which diluted everything else. I've always found monkfish a bit disappointing though, so maybe it's just me. Great cheese trolley too. I had to hold myself back from asking for a piece of each of the 20-odd (if not more) on offer. All the way through the meal service was perfectly pitched - friendly without being matey, and chatty without being invasive. (This was the same throughout our stay, with everyone being perky and friendly at breakfast too, which is some going. Hats off to them all!) And watch out if you have post-dinner coffee - it came with three petit fours which were pretty much an extra pud - a shot of tiramisu cream, raspberry turkish delight and something else that escapes me, but I've a feeling it was very chocolatey. So go easy on the (thoroughly decent) selection of bread rolls they'll keep offering you to make sure you've still got room. So, a great meal. I'll definitely be back, both with Jules and with someone who has a bigger appetite. I really have to congratulate Simon Rogan for what he's doing in Cartmel. It was a really ballsy move setting up in such an out of the way location, but it looks like he might just make it a destination restaurant. From what Penny was saying, they seems to be getting North-West Englanders during the week and London/Home County types on the weekend, so I hope that word keeps spreading and L'Enclume goes from strength to strength. And breakfast was excellent too - yep, eggs benedict, but preceded by some delicious fruit salad. I'd recommend staying at the restaurant - not only is the breakfast excellent, but also income from accommodation can be the sort of extra that keeps places like L'Enclume alive while it builds its reputation.

I'm there in a couple of weekends' time. Looking forward to it even more. Which menu option did you go for Fisherman? And what is on offer for breakfast? (I'm not sure I'll be able to see past eggs benedict, however)...

From the Beeb

Someone should tell them that Rogue (new in the Bib Gourmand section) closed before Christmas...

I have to say that I'm not surprised by the local reaction - the majority of locals would be aghast at paying £30 for a meal, let alone upwards of £50 (I'm from Cumbria, so I'm writing from experience). When I ask friends and family whether a particular restaurant is any good the commonest quality of a good review is "big portions", so quantity tends to be the watchword rather than quality. I've got feeling that that's gradually changing as more decent restaurants open up, however. The produce of the county is superb and the popularity of the Lakes with tourists should help restaurants that would struggle if just depending on the locals. It probably is tricky to get the staff as well, but it is a beautiful part of the world and maybe staff salaries will go that little bit further than in the big city? And if L'Enclume's reputation keeps growing, who knows? Philip

It's beautiful. I've been in the winter any number of times and, if you wrap up warm, it's perfect.

It's potent stuff - you can really taste the fish and the salt - best spread very thinly indeed. Available in plastic as well as porcelain pots. Nice tip for the Gent's relish/scrambled egg combo - I'll have to give that a go.

I was in Lyon at the end of last year and would recommend La Meuniere, Rue Neuve: One of the starter options was a sample of ten starters, which seemed a good ways of getting up to speed with bouchon cuisine - help yourself from the bowls brought to the table, including lentil salad (I have no idea how they made lentils taste so good!), tete de veau, pied de veau, pied de mouton, herring, musseau in vinegar... My main course was a whole roasted veal kidney. De-lish!

Menus are so loaded with idioms that they can be hard work, even if you have a knowledge of basic high-school french. On our first La Regalade visit five or six years ago, part of our first grown-up trip to France, we recognised the odd word on the menu, but not much more. We ended up opting for the chicken ("coq" was an easy one to spot) and the veal ("veau" - pretty straightforward as well). We were a little surprised (but too aware of our linguistic shortcomings to show it) when scallops ("coq st jacques") and an enormous whole roast kidney ("rognon de veau") were delivered to the table. Both were superb, by the way, and we had a great meal. But we also resolved to make a point of improving our food vocab tout suite.

I'd second Bux on that one - eating well and reasonably in Lyon is a joy. You may be struggling on the separate non-smoking dining rooms though - the bouchons I ate in last year were all one-room places. I can't say I remember them as particularly smoky, however.

The for let sign at the Marque in Causewayside gives the reason for the lease being available as "due to relocation", so perhaps the Marque is setting up shop somewhere else. Unless they're just reducing the chain to the Marque Central? As a footnote on Centotre - it's owned by one of the Contini brothers (Philip, I think) of Valvona & Crolla fame. He's left V&C amicably to set up his own operation, so with that sort of pedigree you'd expect the ingredients to be high-quality, as they are based on my one visit. It does get mobbed, though. V&C are also setting up an off-shoot cafe in Multrees Walk, next to Harvey Nichols. Due to open in "the Autumn", so it looks like they've missed the Festival boat.

Gary - there is a recipe for this on the internet somewhere that gives fresh cream as the ingredient, but I've double checked in my Georges Blanc book and it does say "creme fraiche", and when I cooked the dish it tasted not too far away from what we had in Vonnas.