I won't be! Coming in from London on the lovely Eurostar so will be fresh as a daisy. Just don't really want to be trawling Paris to find an open place for good food, so all recommendations are very helpful. We're staying in the 20eme, at Mama Shelter, if that helps, but anywhere is fine, we can just hop on the Metro.

Bonjour Paris chowchiens. We will be arriving in Paris on a Saturday afternoon, around 3pm, so after the usual lunch sitting time, and well before restaurants reopen for dinner. I'd be so grateful for any recommendations for places that stay open all day and will give us a relaxed, hearty meal in the afternoon. One that we're considering is La Societe on place Saint-Germain, but other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also, where is good for breakfast in the 20eme on a Sunday? Thank you so much!

That's true ritabwh, I've been using his BW recipe cut out from a British magazine every other Christmas (alternating with goose) for years now and it never fails. It makes my Dad happier than you can imagine.

Fakhita bel laban - I discovered this when I was searching out middle eastern recipes a few years ago - people actually become confused with delight when they eat it, it's very gratifying. It's not especially healthy though, if you're bothered by that sort of thing. I serve it with a fattoush salad (lemony, oily, with bread croutons), which cuts through the richness of the sauce, and hunks of Turkish bread (though a French baguette would do the job) to soak up the incredible cooking juices.

http://www.ummah.com/family/recipes/f...

Bonjour Les Chowhounds

I'm going to be staying in the Languedoc for about 10 days from next week and wondered whether anyone could recommend restaurants in the region - specifically I'm staying first in Gabian, and then near Avene, so I think that's Herault (though I may well be wrong). I'll have a car, so I can drive anywhere, but within reason!

Thanks very much.

Thanks very much hounds, very helpful. BN

Ah yes, sorry, thanks for that. Not doing my homework!

What do you think, chowhounds?

My dear, thank you so much for writing this up. It was, indeed, all thoroughly splendid. Thanks to Michael for the first day's recoms: Mr Gao's soup is fantastic, a wonderful clear broth that made you feel as if it was truly doing you good. A sort of Chinese version of chicken soup, in that way. You can't help but feel better for it. It's great to watch him pull the stretchy dough of the noodles in front of you too. And, to use a great British phrase, it's as cheap as chips. Possibly cheaper. The seafood casserole at Best Fuzhou was delicious but slightly difficult to negotiate with chopsticks, you really need a decent pair of shell-crackers, which they did provide, you just have to be prepared to get seafood up to your elbows. The lychee pork is a kind of Fuzhou version of sweet & sour pork - a virulent shade of orange but delicious. I wouldn't have even found, let alone walked into, either of these places without someone taking me there, so I'm so glad I did. It's such fun to meet other chowhounds too, you always have something in common and everyone was keen to discuss the food and find out about each other.
The next day was a great deal of fun - in London our 'street food', such as it is, is not the sort of thing you eat if you can still remember your own name, so I would never have gone near the carts without Justin's recommendation. I'm so glad I did, it was superb. The corn was, well, weird, actually, to someone who has never even see white corn before, but it was oddly more-ish. I loved the quesadillas, so simple but it was great to see them with a big bucket of fresh dough, with which they make the bread themselves before they slap it on the griddle-thing. Frankly I could live without pandebono, it's like eating rapidly solidifying rubber and a bit sweet for my taste but we all enjoyed the empanadas, they sort of remind me a bit of a cross between samosas and Caribbean patties. I would heartily recommend the lengua taco, it has a wonderful yielding texture and because it's chopped into fairly small pieces, you don't get any of that weird recognition when you put it in your mouth that you're eating the same thing you're eating with, if you see what I mean. I do think that the hornado was the piece de resistance though, despite the skin nearly pulling out my teeth. Any place where they start the day with a whole suckling pig gets my vote. Well done Justin, and thanks, it was a joy. Chowdowns should happen more often! They're such fun.

Hi Jolivore, please could you email me at nancy.durrant@thetimes.co.uk and I can let you know - I'm not allowed to make the arrangements on the boards, you see. BN

Thanks so much for all your responses, the Chowdown is arranged. If only we had time to try all the places hounds have suggested, I'm overwhelmed, so thank you again. Watch this space for reports and thoughts in a couple of weeks time! BN

Thanks so much for all your responses, the Chowdown is arranged. If only we had time to try all the places hounds have suggested, I'm overwhelmed, so thank you again. Watch this space for reports and thoughts in a couple of weeks time! BN

Limster, if you want to try Turkish, you must get on a bus and head up the Kingsland Road a little further to Dalston/Stoke Newington. Practically every other shop is a Turkish restaurant. Mangal is the famous one, and rightly, but there are plenty which are comparable. Further up the road, there is a place called Teste (in fact a Turkish word for a water jug) in which grilled lambs testicles are the delicious speciality (really).

I'm pretty sure you can buy it in Gerry's off licence on Old Compton Street in Soho in London. You can buy anything in there, and I'm sure that's where an old tutor of mine picked it up when I was at university. It's near the Wardour Street end of the road, on the same side as Balans (but well before it). You can't miss it, the windows are full of booze...

I don't know how easy they are to get where you are, but last night we had a dinner for 7 and we ate wild rabbit stew - cooked with cider. It amply served us with some to spare. You can just throw any root vegetables you like in there, I think we had carrots and maybe parsnips. I think it cooked on a low heat in the oven for about 5 hours, which might not be practical in this case but I guess it depends - if you can do it a day or so before it should be fine in the fridge. We served it with bay-infused mashed potato (you steep the bay leaves in the milk you're going to use in the mash) and steamed purple-sprouting broccoli (any old steamed greens would do though). Simple, but effective.

Dear NYC chowhounds

Usually a haunter of the London boards, I'm in New York for the first time in 15 years between 24-30 March, on a work assignment. I'd love to meet a group of chowhounds for a Chowdown at one or two of the places you guys have discovered while I'm there - eating on your own is pleasingly decadent but frankly it can get a bit dull with no like-minded types to discuss the food! Please do get in touch on nancy.durrant@thetimes.co.uk if you are an interested hound, or if you are an established chowdown group which feels it could kindly open its arms to a hound from out of town one time that week. So there is no misunderstanding, I am a writer, and do hope to write about it for the newspaper! I've checked this all out with the moderator, and they've given me the ok to post this.

Thanks! BN

Dear NYC chowhounds

Usually a haunter of the London boards, I'm in New York for the first time in 15 years between 24-30 March, on a work assignment. I'd love to meet a group of chowhounds for a Chowdown at one or two of the places you guys have discovered while I'm there - eating on your own is pleasingly decadent but frankly it can get a bit dull with no like-minded types to discuss the food! Please do get in touch on nancy.durrant@thetimes.co.uk if you are an interested hound, or if you are an established chowdown group which feels it could kindly open its arms to a hound from out of town one time that week. So there is no misunderstanding, I am a writer, and do hope to write about it for the newspaper! I've checked this all out with the moderator, and they've given me the ok to post this.

Thanks! BN

As usual, for a good gastropub, every time I'd choose the Anchor & Hope on The Cut in Waterloo (very close to Southwark tube station). You can't book, but just turn up, let them know at the bar that you want to eat and they'll fit you in within an hour, usually, if there are just the two of you. The food is excellent and the service is friendly and knowledgeable, if not exactly fast. You could also try The Greyhound on Battersea High Street (closest train Clapham Junction - maybe a ten minute walk), though my money is on the A&H. The food is the thing.

For whisky...try Albannach at 66 Trafalgar Square (Great Whisky Bar of The World 2006 - Whisky magazine) - it's a specialist place and also has a Scottish restaurant.

Oooh, my mouth is watering...chowhound is a bad workplace habit.

I really like The Garrison which is a gastropub near London Bridge (99 Bermondsey Street) - we took some Australian friends there and all had a superb meal and I certainly didn't notice it being noisy. We managed to maintain a 7-person conversation without having to split up into little groups. I agree with SpikeyD about The Anchor & Hope - I think it's well worth the wait for a table any day of the week. Fabulous, proper British food done beautifully. Though it's not for dinner, if you're near London Bridge do pop in to Neal's Yard dairy at 6 Park Street, just off Borough Market, and get them to let you taste some of the cheeses you're not allowed to buy in the US. It's artery-fillingly fabulous.

Rasa on Church Street in Stoke Newington (the vegetarian branch - there is also a meat branch and a fish branch within moments of each other) is wonderful, though not terribly convenient for Finchley, I admit. Worth a trip though. Tayyabs in Whitechapel on Fieldgate Street is ex-treme-ly authentic and always packed with local families (though oddly enough, I saw The Strokes in there some years ago, though someone else had to tell me who they were). I haven't been for some time, however - perhaps one of the other British chowhounds can testify as to whether it remains as good as it used to be?
I think that if sandwiches from M&S are being touted as a typical British experience then there is something spectacularly wrong with the image of our cuisine. They might be better than most shop-bought sandwiches but frankly all of them are bland, generally a bit soggy and a sad approximation of a meal.
But that's just my opinion. The Garrison in London Bridge is a very nice gastropub. Wagamama is ok, but only if you've never actually eaten Japanese food. I think you probably need to visit a greasy spoon - calling all North London chowhounds for recommendations, I'm afraid I'm an East-dweller and thus can't help there. That really is a quintessentially Brit experience...

It's not quite an answer to your question, so apologies for that, but this is a great place for breakfast lovers:

http://londonreviewofbreakfasts.blogs...

so you can have your sausage and eat it.

I'm a St John devotee, I absolutely love it, though I tend to go to Bread and Wine in Spitalfields rather than to the main Clerkenwell restaurant. I do think it's best to go early though, as they tend to run out of the nicest (and warm) things rather quickly and you end up eating cold chitterlings and trying to ignore it when the valves hook over the end of your tongue. I'm afraid I haven't been to Fifteen, any praise I have heard has been lukewarm at best and anywhere that serves baked beans after midday and in no proximity to bacon is slightly suspect in my book.

Ooh, I forgot. Rules in Covent Garden. www.rules.co.uk - spectacular restaurant (the oldest in London, apparently) and excellent game. The steak and kidney pie is very good indeed, but the sticky toffee pudding is something else. Back to the nursery with you. BN

If you're interested in exotic flavours and spectacular packaging you can't do better than Rococo Chocolates on either the Kings Road or Marylebone High Street (the Euston Road end). They do beautiful gift selections and the owner Chantal (I think that's her name) is a mine of information on where it all comes from. You may think it sounds disgusting but their sea salt chocolate is astonishing, in a good way. Prestat in Princes Arcade in St James' also does beautiful packaging in jewel colours but I have never tried the chocolate so couldn't speak for the quality. I think, for what it's worth, that Charbonnel et Walker (Royal Arcade, Mayfair) is a bit overrated.

You're so right to decide on St John, either the one in Clerkenwell or the one in Spitalfields (St John Bread and Wine), but it's quite a good idea to book an earlyish table - say, 7pm or so - because most of the things on the menu will still be available. They tend to cross things off the blackboard at an alarming rate over the course of the evening due, I suppose, to their policy of only buying the best available fish/meat etc. on the day.

One of the best restaurants that has opened recently (only maybe 9 months or so ago) and is probably one of the best I've ever visited, is Arbutus, also in Soho (Frith Street - +44 20 7734 4545). I can't recommend it enough. Fabulous French-ish food done with wit, flair and lots of imagination. They also do nearly all their wines by the carafe, if you wish, which means you can match it to each course without getting completely plastered or being stuck with the few sold by the glass. I really can't recommend it enough.

Finally, everyone loves Andrew Edmunds - also in Soho - it's always just gorgeous but it's also rather tiny so you must book in advance. (+44 7437 5708)

Enjoy!

I entirely sympathise, Kunni. I too would be thrilled to receive, once a month, a glossy, shrink-wrapped, fresh-paper-scented edition of Chow through my letterbox. Even the inclusion of infuriating paper advertisements inviting me to apply for credit cards I don't need or want wouldn't dull my enjoyment of it. However, I work for a British newspaper and we're rapidly becoming aware that the web is the way forward, not just for us but for advertisers as well. Revenue from online advertising recently overtook print ad revenue (only briefly, I think, but it's still a massive change) - so I think we're stuck with it. And it's more ecologically sound, I suppose. I do agree though, it's bloody annoying that you can't read it in bed.