Debbie does Dining

Solid favourite: Katzenjammers, London Bridge

I just love German food. No, I do. Not more than once a month, obviously - how die Deutsche manage on a solid diet of the stuff is beyond me (solid being the operative word). A shocked acquaintance of mine recently returned from a single week's holiday there some 10lb worse off. Just goes to show.

However, if you're a fan of protein and carbs (and if you're not, this may not be the blog for you …), it's a dream on a stick. Sausages. Dumplings. Enormous cakes, and icing sugar. Dense breads, and braised meats. Even the names impress, like a parade of big-bosomed Wagnerians in battle garb. Kaiserschmarrn. Germknodel. Obazda.

Autumn produce: Puffball

Puffballs are fat fungi. Really morbidly huge. The swollen spheres range in size from golf ball to beach ball, and you can often spot them in late summer nestling unwanted in lawns with uptight gardeners tutting neurotically over their prone forms. When they mature, they turn into teeny spore bombs, liable any second to explode their contents all over your shoe in a highly inedible (though exciting) manner.

But before then, in the first flush of their youth, there are what seems like a couple of precious seconds where they're just like most other mushrooms: savoury and delicious.

 

Anyone for a game of spot the puffball … ?

The future of mint: Breakfast dental floss

Bored of mint? Me too. Every bloody thing from mouthwash to toothpaste to … After Eights is mint mint mint mint mint mint mint. Enough of the mint already. ENOUGH. What better, then, than replace this all-purpose cleanser with the flavour of proper food? Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you breakfast floss.

A Moste Sympel Methode for Makynge PIE

Mmmm … pie. Is there anything nicer than pie? No there is not. The eternal meal, enjoyed from Samuel Pepys to picnickers, they are the very king of British tuck. I've made a pork pie (once). This time, the challenge is a chicken and ham pie. And - this is a big secret - it's VERY EASY. Everyone should be making pie - ALL THE TIME.

Gather round, ladies and gentlemen. Here's how …

Best booze food - from the Great British Beer Festival

Beer is really nice. No amount of anti-drink-driving campaigns, revolting street vomiting incidents and never-again mornings can change my mind on this. It's really, really great.

But afternoons in the pub turn swiftly into evenings, and after a couple of hours on the sauce, thoughts turn to food. "Ohmygod I really fancy a …" But what? What is that je ne sais quoi that defines the great beer snack? Well I sais quoi and I'm going to tell you. 

You want rice with that? Tesco paella sandwich

Oh god oh god oh god. Tesco. Paella sandwich. A bright little sticker proudly proclaims 'As created by the Daily Mirror'. The things I do for this blog …

Launch of Shaka Zulu

DDD + Mr DDD on Wednesday attended the launch of Shaka Zulu, the multi-million pound South African super-restaurant in Camden's Stables Market - as did HM King Goodwill Zwelithini of Zululand. Read on for a first report on the venture …

Monday: A giant statue is wheeled past our dinner table at nearby Yum Cha

Sum of its parts: Yum Cha, Camden

You want dim sum? You've got it. You want, as James Joyce puts it in fey psycho-epic doorstop Ulysses, to "eat with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls"? I sense you are answering in the negative: but please allow me to attempt to change your mind, as we learn together the ancient Chinese lesson: that the least loved bits of beast can have the most to offer …