It takes about 10 days to cure a decent bit of salt beef. Curing salts and spices can be sourced from sausagemaking.org who have an online shop. Add a few juniper berries, cloves and bay leaves for even more flavour. The silverside came for F.L Edge, a great butchers shop in East Harling.  Ok, it is in Norfolk, but only just. This piece will be ready for my daughters 21st birthday party on Dec 17th.

La Hogue Farm was on my route on Thursday so I called in to take a look.  I didn't have time to try the cafe which looked really inviting and had an interesting menu.  Has anybody been? I came away with an excellent pork pie and a lemon and ginger loaf, both of which were very good value. this is much more than just a cafe and deli - take a look for yourself - a great stop off the A11 close to both Newmarket and Mildenhall.

Oh dear, suffolkfoodie has gone to London, Veggieplot has been publishing books and InspectorX has been on the road, visiting hotels. Nobody left to explore Suffolk! InspectorX did manage a family outing to the Bury St Edmunds Christmas market today.  The lack of artisan foodie producers was dissappointing.   They were probably at the far better Craft Markets at Blackthorpe Barns. We did eat a good Suffolk Ham and Cheese Crepe ( £5!)  a funnel cake ( £3.50) two cups of mulled wine, weak and warm for (£7) The best thing we ate were the two Tin Miners Pasties (£2.75) from Edis of Ely in St Johns Street on the way home, and they have been on here lots of times before.

On the specials board at Baileys2 in Bury St Edmunds yesterday, a homemade sundried tomato scotch egg. It was deliciously fresh with a nicely soft  yolk.  The caramelised onion jam was rather tasty too. Baileys2 have just won the Suffolk magazine award for best Tea and Coffee Shop in Suffolk.  Well done!

Well, at last we managed to get a table at The Dark Horse. We were going to have an aperitif in the bar area but my moth phobic daughter would not sit next to the display of moths and butterflies in the glass case, so we headed straight for the table instead. The menu includes many restaurant classics and I tried the scallops with pea puree which were very good.  The vegetarian main course was a cabbage roulade stuffed with goats cheese and butternut squash. It was also good, but we all agreed that the starters were better than the main courses. The house wine is an aquired taste but the mint tea arrives made with fresh mint which deserves a mention. Well worth a visit if you can find it.

Great to see the slightly hippy, bohemian Rainbow Cafe in Cambridge is still going strong.  It was one of East Anglia's first vegetarian restaurants and opened in the 1980's. Lunch yesterday was Gado Gado ( the picture does not really do it justice) resh seasonal vegetables stir fried and served Indonesian style with turmeric brown rice and side dishes of peanut sauce, plum sauce and tamari added an extra punch of flavour. What a fantastic menu of interesting vegetarian world food.  I fancy the Vegan Artichoke Parcel next time.

Dissappointing Thai food at The Beehive, Horringer, sadly spoiled by the heavy handed use of palm sugar in all of the dishes sampled. The subtle flavours of sour, salt, spice with a hint of sweetness usually associated with Thai food were totally overwhelmed. Pad Thai was so sweet that my daughter said that it reminded her of a bowl of Sugar Puffs.   The Ocean Fire pictured was a mixture of fish with coconut cream and some green curry herbs and spices and the coconut rice could have been served as a dessert.

Maison Bleu are running their month in Provence special menu, which is very good value at £29.95 for three courses; the restaurant in Bury St Edmunds specialises in fish dishes. Granny took the suffolkfoodie offspring for dinner and this is what they said...

"A very good choice with at least six options for each course.  Yummy food with all courses being beautifully presented and delicious."

" The staff were friendly, chatty and responsive - they all had personality"

Pictured here are the Sardine and Mackerel  Rillettes, with shallots, parsley and capers and toasted bread.

Life is hectic and yesterday when I was exhausted from gardening I had a sudden urge to go inside and make drop scones. I just love that moment when the batter creates bubbles as it cooks.  I think if they could talk they would be saying "turn me over now". Here is the recipe:

We like pies at suffolkfoodie and are rooting for the eccentric Tom to win The Apprentice. MyPy, what a great idea..... and thinking of the classic Suffolk pie;  Who would you name one after?