Desert Island Dishes

A play on Desert Island Discs, here are my Desert Island Top 5:

1. Caesar Salad

Hold the chicken, I could eat this salad everyday for the rest of my life. I can make the dressing and do sometimes but there are plenty of good makes at the supermarket, so why bother? I buy Cardini's-I schush it up with freshly grated Parmesan and lemon juice. I also believe that quality smoked bacon is at the heart of any good Caesar.

2. Oysters

I love all seafood but I LOVE oysters. For a long time they didn't appeal as I was terrified of my gag reflex being triggered in some posh restaurant but I finally got the courage and experienced a little bit of heaven. My husband instantly regretted encouraging me to broaden my tastes - I already had expensive tastes, this was going to cost him. You can't get a closer taste of the sea, I love mine with just a squeeze of fresh lemon but I wouldn't say no to a good shallot vinaigrette either.

3. Beef Wellington

I was going to say Roast Beef because it seemed wrong not to include it but actually, a good Welly takes it a step further-Meat wrapped in pastry-yeah baby. I love this old-school classic with a Madeira jus, roast parsnips and glazed carrots and peas.

4. Sushi

I could eat this every single day, unfortunately Portsmouth and the surrounding areas are devoid of decent sushi bars, in fact there are none. Whenever I go to the US, I make sure to eat as much sushi as I can, because one, the bars are great and two, it is so much cheaper with an amazing range of fish. My husband and I, before we were married went to Memphis, famous for BBQ, Blues and The King. We turned our backs to the sticky ribs, monster-sized burgers and smokey, pulled pork and had sushi instead. We drank way too much sake, leaving us to crawl back to our hotel and missing the blues down in Beale Street. But the sushi was amazing. From what I can remember.

5. Lemon Tart

I don't have a sweet tooth really but I had to squeeze a dessert on here somewhere. It was a toss up between chocolate mousse and this one. The pastry has got to be home-made and if there is a slight wobble on the filling, then all the better.

I am salivating as I think of all those dishes! Here are the dishes I'd leave at home:

1. Fois Gras

Not an ethical stand, I just really hate the taste, surprising because I am a massive fan of offal.

2. Spaghetti Bolgnese

Every man I have ever met reckons he can make the best Spag Bol. They can't. To me, this dish brings back very bad memories, as a child there were a lot of meals based around mince, a cheap meat-this was a weekly staple. We had that fake Parmesan cheese that looked and smelt like the hard skin grated from someone's foot. It was also the one dish my parents always choose to throw during an argument, the messiest dish to clean up. But to be fair to them, we had it so often the odds were stacked against them.

3. Bird's Trifle

The most disgusting concoction on the planet, I don't even know if they still make this but my heart sank whenever I saw my mum soaking those concrete cubes of sponge, with a similar texture to florists foam, in the unset jelly liquid. Everything about that trifle was wrong.

I tried my hardest to think of other foods but I couldn't, I guess I'm just too greedy.