And as for a chilled Banyuls – red or white – lovely.

When La Senora and I were (a lot) younger, we once bought a very large bottle of what I can only describe as cheapo "party" wine, the sort of stuff you'd only (inadvertently) order by the carafe in a pizza parlour.
The lady behind the counter told us that, if we put the cork(*) back in, it would keep for up to a week.
La Senora and I looked at each other utterly nonplussed, the words "bollox to that" implied but unspoken.

EDIT : It's coming back to me now ... there was no cork, she actually advised us that screw tops were great because you can put the top back on and it will keep.

Not just left-over wine ... but left-over food too.
I was puzzled watching Nigel Slater describing what to do with leftover lamb ... he went to his fridge and extracted a joint of lamb of about a couple of kilos to chop up for a shepherd's pie.
Sorry Nige, if I've got any roast lamb left, it won't be enough for a shepherd's pie.

Only tried the red, in Perpignan (of course ).
I always like to try local stuff wherever I am, it's part of the point of going to places, whether in this country or abroad.
Liked it but haven't seen it here.

I have a new bottle of Booth's own-brand Manzanilla chillin' in the fridge.
I may report back on the quality later.

cod'ead wrote:Another blast from my past: Fernet Branca... Having seen the bottle occasionally but having never tried it, I googled to find some description of the taste. http://goargentina.about.com/od/Restaur ... Fernet.htm Would you agree with this description? ... "The easiest way to explain the taste is to imagine Jägermeister without the sugar. You shoot it, immediately getting a strong hit of mouthwash - drying the mouth out, stinging the tongue." Jägermeister, to me, tastes like cough medicine. I'm guessing the barkeep put the Pernod in your hangover cure to mask the taste of the Fernet Branca.

cod'ead wrote:Another blast from my past: Fernet Branca... Having seen the bottle occasionally but having never tried it, I googled to find some description of the taste. http://goargentina.about.com/od/Restaur ... Fernet.htm Would you agree with this description? ... "The easiest way to explain the taste is to imagine Jägermeister without the sugar. You shoot it, immediately getting a strong hit of mouthwash - drying the mouth out, stinging the tongue." Jägermeister, to me, tastes like cough medicine. I'm guessing the barkeep put the Pernod in your hangover cure to mask the taste of the Fernet Branca.

There is no making the taste of Fernet, it can be minimised but not masked. There's definitely liquorice in there, the concoction that I was given in Spain was as close to Owbridge's Cough Mixture as I can recall

Probably the foulest tasting beverage I ever tasted was an Albanian plum brandy that someone left at mine after a party. Sliwowica it wasn't. The tiniest sip would leave an aftertaste that lingered, to the point where a belch or fart, even hours later, brought back the taste.

We had a barbecue once and some latecomers arrived just as the coals were dying. I piled on some more charcoal and had the bright idea of pouring some of the plum brandy onto them to reignite the fire. Instead of the clean blue flame that usually accompanies such actions, black greasy smoke rose from the ashes, like burning sump oil.

I think I left that bottle in a cupboard when we eventually moved house

Popped in Morrisons earlier and found four big punnets of blackcurrants and two trays of baby plum tomatoes, all on short-date and for next to buggerall.

I'm currently (no pun intended) boiling the blackcurrants to make syrup (far better than Ribena) and the tomatoes for a pizza base

We have a (relatively new, at 10 years) French deli on our local shopping street in Hackney. Stephane, the owner, comes across as a stereotypical grouchy Frenchman – until you get to know him. When I told him that we came regularly to Collioure, his eyes glazed over in delight. I can get Banyuls from him – and also really good duck breast from the south west, from foie ducks (which have the most unbelievable layer of glorious fat). The only thing I haven't yet managed to train him to get for me is proper boudin noir, which is so, so much moister than British black pudding. I'm working on it.

We've 11 lbs of the bloody things in the freezer, I'll be making jelly and some kinda cassis type thing with them when we get back from St Ives.