Simon Hopkinson’s ‘Week In Week Out‘ is a strong contender for the title of ‘my favourite cookbook ever’. He makes use of so many ingredients I adore, with recipes that make my heart skip a beat and my thighs quiver in fear every time I look at them. A book for the calorie counter it ain’t. The squeamish can also forget it, as Simon is a huge advocate of nose to tail eating. I love this salad recipe from the book because I can’t get enough of that rich, oily eel. 1 small salad frisee (the inside, yellow bits). I used curly endive A squeeze of lemon juice and a tiny splash of light olive oil to dress the above 200g smoked eel fillets, sliced very lengthways as thinly as possible 8 rashers of smoked, streaky bacon, grilled until crisp 1 heaped tablespoon finely chopped chives For the beurre blanc 2 shallots, very finely chopped 4 tablespoons white wine vinegar 4 tablespoons white wine 250g very cold, fine quality unsalted butter, cut into small chunks

Salt and freshly ground white pepperwhere to buy sushi bilao – Make the beurre blanc: using a small stainless steel or enamelled pan, combine shallots, vinegar, wine and water. yo sushi online surveyReduce over a very moderate heat until almost no liquid is left. sushi en madrid chuecaThen, reduce the heat to as low as possible and add the butter one chunk at a time (using a small whisk), until it is all incorporated. where can i buy sushi grade fish in portlandIt should look like light, slightly jellied custard. Season and keep somewhere warm (but not actually on the heat). – Separate frisee into thin leaves and dress with the lemon juice, oil and seasoning.

Arrange evenly on the plate as a base for the salad. – Arrange the eel strips on top, the bacon bits around the edge and then spoon the beurre blanc ‘in and around’. Garnish with the chopped chives.It's not that the steaks, bone marrow, and the triple-cooked chips here aren't destination-worthy, but something magical happens when sriracha mayo-kissed lobster arrives on a pretzel bun. It's a terrific result: the filling is sweet and herbaceous, with just a hint of spice (green chillies). And the lobster itself, from Brixham, is pillow-soft with the slightest chew. We'd expect nothing less - at £25, Hawksmoor's lobster roll is easily the most expensive of its kind in London, but it's also our favorite. The steak maven also offers two other lobster roll varieties - hot, with butter; or spicy, with Singapore-style 'chili-crab' mix - which are also highly recommended. £25 at The Hawksmoor Consider the salt-beef reuben - a New York deli staple - then consider Delancey's reuben (£8.95), which is head and shoulder above others in its class.

Delancey's owner, Dan Moosah, a former poker-player, spent years in New York to learn what made a good salt-beef Reuben tick. Today, the details show: his deli itself is an homage to New York's Delancey Street, home to the world-famous Katz's Delicatessen; the diner-style bar stools are retro-cool, while his sandwich wrappers are printed with a grid-like map of Manhattan. So why the fuss? Is it the salt beef - served hot, steaming, and fall-apart tender? Is it the 'secret' sauce, a glorified Russian dressing that goes well with the tart sauerkraut?Or is it the foolproof marbled rye baked in-house, daily, by a Jewish baker? All of the above, of course. And that's why we'll be back (very) soon for his namesake reuben. £8.95 at Delancey & Co Have we reached peak grilled cheese? Not only is Kappacasein the star of Borough's stalls (it sells close to 900 sandwiches a week) it also set an impossibly high standard for what grilled cheese should be: rich, nutty, sweet and properly griddled.

Kappacasein's secret lies in a deceptively simple three-cheese melt: Montgomery cheddar and Ogleshield from Neal's Yard Dairy; Comté from Borough Cheese Company, and Bermondsey Hard-Pressed, made in-house by Kappacasein's Dairy. Then, of course, there's the bread, a sourdough from Poilâne (only the best) plus more accoutrements, like onions, shallots, garlic. All this is yours for just £5. Some of Nuno Mendes' (of Chiltern Firehouse fame) greatest hits comes from an unpretentious eatery in Spitalfields market, where the cuisine of his Portuguese heritage is front and center: almost all Mendes' dishes are knock-out successes, and his sandwiches are no exception. We'd stake our life on Beef Prego (£9), the greatest steak sandwiches you've never had. It starts with 32-day-aged rump, marinated in a beef-fat-cure for three days, and battered till thin and soft; then grilled till medium rare, over beechwood smoke.There's also a Goan prawn paste, fermented in-house, that lends a wonderful funk.

Throw in some sorrel and chives, and you'll have a supremely-flavourful yet surprisingly well-balanced steak sandwich that you won't want to share. £9 at Taberna Do Mercado Lundenwic appears like any other coffee or sandwich takeaway off Holborn, but we'll suggest it as your new lunchtime haunt. Quick, trendy in a 2015 way (but not conspicuously hipster), Lundenwic can make a serious sandwiches with big, bold flavors. On a given day there are three to choose from; one option, an onion, kale and cheese toastie (£5), stands out because it's not like any other: the onions are braised with beer until caramelized and sweet, the kale is rendered till soft and, thankfully, chewable, the cheddar is mature - just the way we like it - and the sourdough is from Balthazar. In fact, think of the best French onion soup you've ever had, and think of what it'll taste like as a sandwich. Most eel sandwiches are too briny, like canned-tuna sandwich past its prime. Not at Quo Vadis. Jeremy Lee, the young talent behind the stove, makes a strong case for his smoked-eel sandwich (£9.50).

Between two crisp-edged sourdough squares are thick fillets of lightly-smoked eel - oil-rich, tender and sweet - with a heaping of creamed horseradish. It's served alongside slender ribbons of pickled red onion, which cuts through the richness after every bite of the sandwich, so it's that much easier to order a second one after you've cleaned it all up. £9.50 at Quo Vadis It's almost as if Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels wants to stay hidden - try saying the name three times fast - but the secret's out: their Posh Madame (£12) is so good we swear there's wichcraft involved. So how do they improve on the French staple? By fussing all over it, of course. The filling is a mix of Comté cheese and béchamel; the bread a thick, fluffy sourdough; the ham sourced from an Italian producer, who cooks stuffs the ham with black truffles and cooks it slowly to infuse the prized fungus. And the proverbial cherry on top? A petite fried quail egg. £12 at Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels Seven Dials

This is London's best banh mi, but it's not strictly the most traditional - it's roast duck (£5.95) after all, in its skilfully-rendered fat, slightly crackly skin and a syrupy hoisin that recalls the classic Peking staple. Kêu (pronounced 'geh-yoo') takes its banh-mi very seriously, so even the baguette, from Sally Clarke Bakery, is both crispy and airy (most of the bread is hollowed out to give room for the filling). Yes, the duck fat is enough to (literally) induce a heart-attack, but scallions and coriander are strategically layered in to counter the richness. Culinary blasphemy at its finest, and most delicious: you'll find scores of diners flocking to Dishoom in the wee hours to feast off bacon naan. The wildly popular eatery, after all, can sell a menu off a phonebook and still draw in hour-long lines outside its premises. Which is precisely why you should arrive early (11:00 am, to be safe), since breakfast ends at half-past. But don't ever leave without the bacon naan (£5.20).