My week avoiding ultra-processed foods: ‘Why is it this hard?’

I’ve been eating ultra-processed foods (UPFs) all my life. Breakfast as a child was often Coco Pops, Rice Bubbles or white toast slathered in spreadable butter. Dinners usually involved processed sauces, such as Chicken Tonight or Dolmio, and my lunchboxes always contained flavoured chippies or plasticky cheese.I don’t blame my parents for this. Now I’m a parent too, I have cartons of juice and flavoured yoghurt as part of my parenting arsenal

How to make mapo tofu – recipe | Felicity Cloake's Masterclass

Mapo tofu is a Chengdu favourite typical of the “spicy generosity” of Sichuan food, Fuchsia Dunlop explains, though it’s perhaps better not translated as “pock-marked old woman’s tofu”. It may even convert you to the joys of tofu itself, should you still be on the fence about the stuff, because its creamy softness is the perfect foil for the intensely savoury, tingly seasoning involved here. It’s also ready in mere minutes.Prep 10 min Cook 7 min Serves 22 garlic cloves 1 small knob fresh root ginger 4 spring onions Salt 250g plain tofu (I like a soft one, but see step 3)2 tsp cornflour, or potato or tapioca starch 1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns 2 tbsp neutral oil 40g pork mince, or beef mince, or a plant-based alternative1 heaped tbsp Sichuan chilli bean paste (also called spicy doubanjiang or toban djan, see step 8)½ tbsp fermented black beans, drained1 tsp chilli flakes, drained if in oil (drizzle this on top, if you prefer)85ml waterIf serving this with rice, which is how it’s generally eaten (though you could have it with noodles instead), put that on to cook. It’s also nice with some steamed green vegetables or a cucumber salad on the side

Corenucopia by Clare Smyth, London SW1: ‘Posh, calories-be-damned cooking and a dad rock soundtrack’ – restaurant review

A Michelin-adjacent bistro with white tablecloths, red-trousered guests and a chunky wine listIn a room packed with fancy types just off Sloane Square in London, I am eating a £52 plate of dover sole and chips while Status Quo’s Rockin’ All Over the World blasts cheerfully through the room. The chips are very nice, all crunchingly crisp and yieldingly fluffy in all the right places. All 12 of them were perfect, in fact, stood aloft in their silver serving vessel. “A-giddy-up and giddy-up and get awaaaay,” sings Francis Rossi as I perch on a velvet, pale mustard banquette that’s clearly so very expensive that I shudder every time my greasy paws so much as skim close to touching it.Clare Smyth, of three Michelin-starred Core fame, is letting her hair down with this new project, Corenucopia, where she’s cooking a less pricey, more comfort food-focused menu

Two stars from Michelin, one for hygiene: star chef’s poor score ignites UK dining debate

According to a critic who has eaten at every three-star Michelin restaurant in the world, Gareth Ward, the star chef and owner of Ynyshir, on the southern edge of Eryri national park, is a groundbreaking visionary.“He knows which rules to break and when,” Andy Hayler wrote. “He’s like Picasso; if you look at his early still lifes, they’re unbelievably perfect.”Food safety officers at Ceredigion county council clearly do not agree. Ward’s two-Michelin-starred establishment was given a one-star hygiene rating in a recent inspection, which means it is operating below minimum legal standards

The rule of thumb when using a mandolin in the kitchen | Letters

My sympathies to Lucy Mangan after she “sliced half the ball of [her] thumb off with the mandolin” (Digested week, 9 January). I fear that mandolin injuries may amount to a significant drain on the NHS. A few years back, I was in an A&E queue, having mandolined off my thumb tip. The chap behind me had done exactly the same thing, though, unlike me, he had brought along the severed tip in a shopping bag, on ice. (My wife later thought she’d found my thumb tip in the sink

Still confused about swedes and turnips | Brief letters

When I was growing up in Sunderland, the big round vegetable with orange flesh was a turnip and the small round purple and cream vegetable with white flesh was a swede (Letters, 14 January). When I moved to London, the big vegetable was called a swede and the small one a turnip. After 57 years of living in London, I’m still confused.Linda SealHammersmith, London In the quiz by Thomas Eaton (10 January), Swindon Town were incorrectly listed alongside Elgin City, Juventus and Marseille as having had league titles stripped from them. In 1990, after finishing second in the old Second Division and winning the playoff final, they were found guilty of financial misconduct and denied promotion, but they never won a title to have it stripped from them