tekobo

Enjoying watching the canal flow by here. I will give your proposal due consideration sir. I am minded to propose one amendment and one addition to this initial wager. May we consider best season record in each conference i.e. who is the no 1 seed in each? Also, there may be some merit (and fun) in betting on which bottom placed team will make the most improvement this year. I am open to suggestions as to how to measure this but my plan was that we could only choose between the eight teams that came at the bottom of their division last year. What say you?

Looking through the various categories, there is not an obvious place to put an African recipe section. Keen also that African recipes are cooked by all, not just those who are African given it was @tony b and @Pequod who contributed most to the advancement of the Nigerian suya thread. Up to @DennisLinkletter to decide if there is a sensible place to showcase African inspired cooks. In the meantime we could agree to tag such recipes with the word "African" so that they are easily found by others who are interested. Does that sound OK or do others have a better idea?

Congratulations on the win @tony b. Awesome result, as Steve said, at the competition and dinner!

Of bowties and things. Just waking up in Padova @Tyrus. Verdict on last night's pizzas (we went to two recommended places and shared a pizza in each) was that they are not as good as we make them (to our taste obviously) on the KK at home. The seafood fritto misto snack that we had for lunch was fab though. Won't subject you to swimming across the Atlantic when you lose our bet this year. Will work out a lighter wager that you can afford to send without harming your first born child. No African cooks on my mind at the moment but I think your cast iron pot will do well for a nice slow cooked black eyed bean dish. I normally resort to my pressure cooker these days but there must be some fun ways to use the KK to add smoke and taste in a similar way to open fires back home. Will experiment. Just need to wait for @Braai-Q to set up our thread. In the meantime, you enjoy that bow-tie Martini.

Still resisting joining the air fryer cult. Deep fried in fat still works for me with chips. Not so bad because I am being pretty healthy with my donabe cooks. Really loving the hot pots. They help me get vegetables into my diet in a subtle and really tasty way.

Lobster/shrimp roll. Fantastic invention Tony. No need to choose between your favourites. I am surprised how good those "chips" look, coming from an air fryer. The only reason I can resist is the fact that I prefer fries - which are what we call chips round here. All good.

Looking great @Tyrus. I would ask you to put this into a sports bet in the hope of acquiring it and getting it to the UK - in a heartbeat. What are you using the cast iron pot for?

You had me with the wings without throwing in the mac n cheese Mac. Breakfast here is going to be larger than it should be as a result of your "intervention"!

Deal. To Africa and beyond!

Cool. It would be really good to see some posts of your food. I remember @ckreef saying he was looking forward to some "strange" food when I explained that I am African. It is my honour to pass on the compliment - get some strange onto this site!

Now that is interesting. I've never heard of sosaties. I just took a look in my only South African cookbook, "Cape Town Food", and there is no reference there. The online recipes for sosaties talk about meat with cinnamon spicing and apricot on the kebab stick. Definitely an interesting twist on a kebab. On the list to try this summer, for sure.

You're the second southern African who has welcomed me to the African family today. I am super happy because I decided to try to contact the South African butcher by email and it turns out he is doing stuff for friends and family and I am part of his African friends and family group so I may yet get access to his marinades and/or flatties. Just figuring out if he will do mail order. Hurrah! Oh yes, and I am a card carrying African too. From Lagos, Nigeria.

Mac, outcome was good. Made it to Cardiff safely and bought my cheese today. Chose some interesting Welsh cheeses but can't comment on taste yet because I picked nicely packed rinded soft cheeses for ease of portability. Fingers crossed, they will taste as good as predicted. Alex, if you have a recommendation for a South African butcher I would be keen to know. There used to be a truly awesome South African butcher in Leeds market but he has ceased trading. He did boerewors and loads of different sausages. Our favourite was pork and cheese - weird but wonderfully delicious. I was once called to baggage security at Leeds airport because they were suspicious of my suitcase. It was packed solid with eight of his chakalaka and piri piri marinated flatties. Apparently a suitcase full of eight raw chickens had a similar chemical signature to some form of explosive. Or maybe they just felt like pulling my case. Anyway, v keen for any recommendations of where to buy good South African prepared meat. Shame about your experience at Menu Gordon Jones. I like surprises. Just hope the food lives up to expectations when we go.

Not so sure. Sausage skin is a special thing to be celebrated. Gonna try to bring some fresh links back to cook up on the KK. Cheese what we have taken to Italy to date is our favourite, Lancashire Bomb. Buy two it from Shorrocks. Eat one when it arrives and store the second for a month or two or three. Delish. Planning to take Isle of Wight Blue this time and whatever I pick out at the Cardiff market tomorrow. Will be accompanied on shopping trip by cheese mad Indian friend who can't remember the names of the cheeses she likes but will know when she sees them. Fingers crossed, the Italians will be happy. One of our Italian friends shares the cheese with his friends in the bar so we can't fail him. Bath. Booked in to Menu Gordon Jones in July. Have you tried it? No passing on motorways. Not in any fit state to be driving here. Train all the way. Just have to stay awake and get off at Cardiff Central. Going all the way to Swansea would not be a good outcome.

Off to Italy soon. We don't usually buy sausage but will take the book to inform any buying decisions. Promise to report back on results. Agree re: life being too short for bad food. En route back to Cardiff. We like to wind up the Italians by taking them presents of cheese that we like. Off to the market in Cardiff tomorrow lunchtime to find some good stuff to take on our journeys. Welsh cheese to confound the Italians. Loving it.

Hey @Braai-Q. So, I have followed up on a couple of your recommendations. Your warranty on the sausage book is safe. I bought it for £0.01 plus postage off Amazon and I like it very much. I also realise that I already have a book by Mary Contini called "Dear Francesca" and it is my go to for her pesto recipe and method. I was in London today and called ahead to see if Hix Soho had the rhubarb tart on the menu. The lady on bookings was very kind and undertook to check with the kitchen. Unfortunately this was not the week for rhubarb tart. So...I went to the Rochelle Canteen at the ICA for dinner. My friend and I really enjoyed it. The icing on the cake was seeing Fergus Henderson arrive for a quick drink before service started in earnest. He is a hero of mine. Awesome. Thanks.

So happy to hear that your employer is on board. A little more worried that we might have a disconnect when it comes to the exact nature of the goat. In my paradigm the goat is dead and prepared for your inaugural 42 cook. Your note above seems to imply the goat might have feelings and actually be alive on arrival. I could go with that. You just have to fulfil your part of the deal!

It looks beautiful and so very functional. Congratulations @Steve M! It was worth all the hard work. Raising a glass (screwdriver tonight) to you and yours.

Welcome to the 21 club @Alohapiggy. Metallic bronze is a great colour. I look forward to seeing your new KK in all its beauty.

Yes, Lodge. I love Lodge cast iron gear. I used it because I did want some bottom heat but not too much. I hadn't thought of using it for a pizza though. Good thinking Batman, worth a try to see how it works.

This version just might fatten him up. I am looking forward to the coming season and hoping that Wentz isn't eating lasagna.

You're right. You won't get a table. It is shut on Mondays. Tee hee. I haven't had much trouble booking online at relatively short notice and have also been to her new restaurant, Kyseri. Yes, I had heard of Heston's wife restaurant but I have not made it there yet. I am not in London very often these days but I do try to eat somewhere good when I go. Will be heading to Hix's in Soho soon. They do a to die for rhubarb tart when it is in season. My best friend and I usually have it at the bar with cocktails so no need for a reservation. Two reasons to recommend the Ox Club in Leeds if you are ever up there. Four reasons, actually. The food is awesome, great grill, your telling me about the Ox Grill company and it was their chef who gave me the recommendation re: Rochelle Canteen. Karma. You must go. But not on a Monday.

I laughed when I read this Tony. I am sure that, if I search, there will be record of a similar conversation between you and me. I think I finished it with an acerbic comment about not understanding why you have all those books if you don't plan to use them. I won't repeat rude self here. At $30 a year, eat your books works great for me.

No idle threat here. I promise @Pequod, if you buy a 42 I will make sure you get a goat to go with it.

I thought I would try out soufflé on the KK and wondered how best to do it. As usual, if you look, someone, somewhere on the forum will have done what you are trying to do and will have documented it for your reading pleasure. Unusually, there was only one post. This one: @dstr8is an excellent reference and I don't have much to add. As I start with my soufflé experiments, it would be good to know if others have tried soufflé out in their KKs. Here is my first attempt. It was made with a sweet white miso base. I put them in the KK on a cold cast iron tray to avoid burning up the bottoms. They came out well after 13 minutes in the KK. I like how the reflected heat from the dome gave the soufflés a gently browned top. Might cook for slightly less time next time and I need to work at getting a more even rise. Will try running knife round the inside of each filled pot to see if that helps.