New & Unread Topics
Topic Replies Views Activity
Does Elon Musk set a good example…? 3
General Discussion 59 933 10h
Purchase of motor home 1
General Discussion 15 153 1d
It’s time to stop Israel, by any reasonable means 21
General Discussion 63 537 13d
Any suggestions for someone who can help with planning permission 14
General Discussion 23 185 25 Sep
Rats in rhe chicken feeder 2
The last is my favourite
Better than
I read the whole article and am wondering why the world gastronomic capital France was left out 
I don’t agree with that. France does have a deserved reputation for great cooking, largely because royalty, aristos and the haute bourgoisie of Europe hired FR chefs. This cuisine migrated to hotels and restaurants. FR haute cuisine became the benchmark for ‘fine dining’.
But I agreed with my boss when he said, as we dined at a top-end Parisian restaurant, “Kid, we wuz eatin’ better in Italy”.
Having had the good luck to have eaten in the best restaurants, grand and not, of most of the world, given only one choice it would have to be Italy, at the expense of fruits-de-mer of Brittany; suckling pig - and proper paella - in Spain; the world’s best steaks in Belgium, feijoada and asado in Brazil … not to mention south-east Asia.
‘Time’ magazine had a front cover a year or several ago ‘London: The Gastro Centre of The World’.
There’s a logic to that. Where there’s lots of money and people who are willing to spend it on fine dining but the standard of the local cuisine is less than they expect, top class chefs will come from all over to providethe necessary. And so they have, with local home-grown talent coming in on the act.
One can eat the very best of most countries in the world in London restaurants.
The same goes for wine. The Brits have long had associations with the vineyards of Bordeaux and Burgundy, as they have with Jerez and Porto. Before ‘Claret’ became the wine of the top table, Cahors was the wine of choice for the court of H Vlll.
A cruise along the wine aisle of a UK s/mkt shows how fortunate is Brit drinker. FR does fab Sauv Bl but NZ does as well, if not better. Same with Pinot Noir.
Vin de table? Difficult to beat value for money with Chilean reds.
Pity about the swingeing tax/duty … 
In deepest 86, we have a truck stop reasonably near by and it’s packed with very nice, and affordable, Portuguese wines. We often stop when passing, just for this reason.
Lots of interesting local grape varieties, OTOH one can say the same about SW France.
Is one of my target areas for a new gaff. Where’s this truck stop, please?