What are your favourite foods?

I love to cook Indian food. Perhaps the slop churned out by all those so-called Indian restaurants you find all over Britain put people off, so many of them are mediocre and a far cry from the huge variety of food you find all over the sub-continent.
My starting point was a to buy a copy of Madhur Jaffrey’s book, based on the BBC TV series. (Remember when food programmes on TV were actually about food and how to cook it, rather than just bland personalities?) This contains some useful background info and a great selection of recipes from across India, and I still use it regularly.

5 Likes

Thanks @ChrisSU for the recommendation, I’ve found it here on Amazon. This surely opens a whole new world to me.

1 Like

Fugu! This is the taste of a connoisseur :slight_smile: I used to live in Tokyo as an expat, but I did not dare to try it!

3 Likes

@anon23425299 - you missed a real experience there. We really only tried it because of the popular perception, just a thing to ‘tick off’ and we were passing through the major fugu fishing port of Shimonoseki. But seriously, it was by far the best, tastiest fish I’ve eaten anywhere!

@crispyduck - that’s why there’s an apprenticeship with a high failure rate!

3 Likes

She’s written a lot of cookery books! This is the one I meant:

2 Likes

Being a Londoner, I love pie and mash and liquor. I went to Goddards in Greenwich today for the first time in a decade. I am pleased to say they still do the best pie and mash in London – the liquor is to die for. And if they’d had any eels left I would have had those too. :yum:

7 Likes

The like was for the pie and mash. For some reason I struggle with eels. :grin:

1 Like

In my teens I was a big fan of Sunday Roast Beef. Its a big meal to do really properly now. I then discovered Indian food through a guy I worked with. I became hooked on Methi Lamb still a favourite in my mid seventies. I had too many currys in my mid twenties and finished up with a sore esophogus. Honestly.
These days anything beyond Tikka Masala is just too hot for me in my seventies. Thai food is a refreshing alternative.
Home cooked food is hard to compete with restaurant food.
There are a number of on-line suppliers who promise to deliver to your home restaurant quality food. Not tried them, yet.
A knock on the door on a Saturday night at 7 PM with a tasty curry is a welcome event in this household.

3 Likes

I’d say there are far more mediocre restaurants around than there are good ones. Give me a home cooked meal any day.

2 Likes

My sister-in-law and her group of three other friends put aside so much a month and have a nice kitty to spend. They have been to a number of high end restaurants in the West End of London. This has been during this Summer. They may have been unlucky but the experience has mostly been a negative one.
Overpriced with lazy staff and no desire to return. That’s the acid test of a good restaurant.
Would you go back?

You wouldn’t say that if you’d tried my cooking…

2 Likes

If you put your mind to it I don’t think it’s that hard to cook well, and I quite like doing it, but if it’s not your thing, sure, leave it to the professionals.

I learned my culinary skills from my mother – perhaps the world’s worst cook (apart from my sister). You can see cookery is not in our DNA – my dad was a rotten cook as well, though to be fair my brother is a whizz in the kitchen.

Next time I’m in London and wanting to meet up, we’re eating out! :crazy_face:

2 Likes

For 50 years i took jam sandwiches for lunch with soft white bread. My mother made them. And
When i married my wife made them.
Good job i retired at 65.

2 Likes

I am a big curry fan, but younger daughter doesn’t like spicy food so not had as much as I would like in recent years. But we dropped her off at uni for her first year on Friday so curry intake is about to increase!

It’s quite easy (with a cupboard full of spices at least!) to home make curry that beats most takeaways - as long as there is a decent selection of fresh ingredients as well as the spices (garlic, ginger, curry leaves, coriander all fresh)

On a lightly different note, I have recently been splashing the sriracha sauce (gift from elder daughter) over meals that are non-spicy enough for the rest of the family.

1 Like

I had forgotten about sandwiches, which may require a separate thread!

As a child my paternal grandmother told me that her eldest, my father, was weaned on tomato sandwiches. Every since they are my go-to sandwich: preferably brown bread, unsalted butter, sliced tomatoes, salt and pepper. The sandwich is cut on a slight bias (no idea why).

I like tomato with cheese in my sandwich. Another favourite sandwich is Banana with brown bread.

2 Likes

With tuna and a pint Guinness…

Always a good night starter for me. :fire::sunglasses:

Ps.: with Irish music as ambient music

1 Like