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Well to be fair this is a British newspaper so you would probably expect a slight bias. We don't get a lot of exposure to American cookbooks here.

Why the slights against Jamie and Nigella? Their cookbooks are some of the absolute best for day to day cooking. Unless you are having a dinner party; have access to unusual ingredients and are a good cook most of Gordon Ramsey's books are not very useful.

HFW has some very good comprehensive books around meat and fish which are also excellent.

I've got to disagree with a lot of the "vodka is entirely neutral" comments on here. I used to be of the same opinion but went (skeptically) to a vodka tasting hosted by Ketel One.

The vodka was neat and room temperature and we had 3 to taste blind. They were all remarkably different and all four of us expressed the same preference. The base was Absolut, not a terrible vodka but definitely the most chemically tasting. Then Grey Goose which was good, but we all preferred Ketel One. We then found out they didn't distill their own alcohol which was disappointing.

Oh, and I won a 4.5l bottle of Grey Goose the other day. Not sure what to do with that yet! Photo!

Good to see this much under-rated variety of beer get a look in. Most people are put off by the dark colour but give them a go, you might be surprised. Much more flavoursome than an average lager of course. Two of my favourites are:

London Porter and Porteresque

I'm a big fan of beer with food, and not just curries! Beer has for too long been an underdog to wine and both have their place.

From the other side of the Atlantic, some darker richer sweeter ales are a good idea, maybe Old Peculiar or Hobgoblin.

I'm glad to see so much beer coverage on Serious Eats recently, it's positively been a glut.

Being a craft beer weirdo I created a site in case any of you want to see the English side of beer: What Ales You

My personal favourite, Old Empire although the new strong Brew Dog beers are interesting!

I'm impressed with the way America seems to be pushing more high quality beers, my impression had always been the bigger breweries had all but wiped out this sort of stuff.

Shameless plug: For an English view on the worlds of beer and ales, check out the beer rating site I created: http://www.whatalesyou.co.uk .

69c for a single quail's egg! Here in England I bought 12 for £2 ( ~ $3.50) and served them as appetisers soft boiled with homemade celery salt. I was quite pleased with them actually.

For brunch, eggs florentine (or maybe royale if they have it).

And those eggs better not be hard!

I absolutely agree on the thighs comment. They take a bit more work to cook but are much more flavoursome, tender and juicy. I typically brown them off in a hot Dutch oven, then cook slowly for about 40minutes in the oven with veg and sometimes tomato or stock based liquid depending on the recipe. If desired, make a sauce from the pot at the end. Beautiful and actually easier to get cooked right then breasts in some ways. And much much cheaper (here in England at least).

Long time lurker but this is my first post on the forum.

Anyway, I thought this thread would be a good first post since I went to an Eritrean restaurant last night, a country next to Ethiopia.

The food was all served on massive flat breads that were more like delicious fluffy pancakes. It was all eaten with your right hand. We started with delicious spinach rolls and a spicy samosa style pastry. This was followed by a huge dish filled with spicy lamb curry, a chicken dish and a variety of vegetables dishes.

It was a fantastic family run restaurant and I will definitely be going back. has anyone else had any interesting African themed meals?