670 Grams, Birmingham B9: ‘A cascade of small, meaningful bowls that just ooze flavour’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

Birmingham’s dining scene often leans towards the intense. I recall a hazy afternoon seven years back at the Digbeth Dining Club, a ramshackle food market inside an old factory with few seats, loud music, breakfast cocktails and baos; it was a thoroughly chaotic way to take on board calories. More recently, I loved the city’s Albatross Death Cult, which served 12 courses of scintillating, seafood-focused finickiness to a pounding, darkwave industrial-goth soundtrack.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link

‘£30 for a ready meal?!’ Do Charlie Bigham’s new dishes really beat going to a restaurant?

Like Tesla cars and the ending of the Sopranos, Charlie Bigham ready meals seem to be rather divisive. On the one hand, people clearly love them: about 31m dishes were sold in the past year alone. On the other hand, they generate a heap of mockery. The critique seems to be that only a gullible idiot would shell out up to a tenner on an oven-ready fish pie, chilli con carne or – as one commentator once memorably labelled it – a tray of “Tory slop”.Those critics will be sharpening their kitchen knives because Bigham, who is a kind of Tim “Wetherspoons” Martin for centrist dads, has just announced the launch of his Brasserie range: deluxe versions of his meals with prices that fetch up to … wait for it … £30! Thirty whole English pounds!With a menu consisting of venison bourguignon, coq au vin, confit duck (all at £16

‘It’s about weaponising opinion’: the power of Topjaw’s online foodie show

When the presenter Jesse Burgess goes to a restaurant, the kitchen always sends him dishes he didn’t order. One of the ironies of fame is that the more you can afford, the less you have to pay for it. Except that Burgess isn’t a celebrity, he says. “I’m just a guy who really likes food.”Burgess is the 34-year-old host of Topjaw, a small but mighty internet platform featuring chefs and foodies, whose “Best of” series, for better or worse, has changed the way Londoners – and those beyond – eat out

Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for peanut butter banana french toast | The sweet spot

I can’t be the only one who is a bit ambitious when buying bananas. Despite my best efforts to get through them, a couple of well-ripened, black-skinned bananas in the fruit bowl is an all too common sight. Banana bread feels the obvious choice, but sometimes you just don’t have the time or enough people to share it with. A quicker option that I like to make at weekends is french toast, though I tend to lean into the Hong Kong-style in which the slices of bread are stuffed with peanut butter and drizzled generously with condensed milk and butter. Delightful stuff

Not all Argentinian red wine is malbec | Hannah Crosbie on drinks

You could make the argument that my journey into the wine industry began with Argentinian malbec. Even before I was pouring wines in restaurants, taking orders and learning the table numbers, it was the first wine with which I became truly familiar. It was the black bottle with the white label that lined our supermarket shelves, and what people on the telly with expensive haircuts and thick resin bangles poured into large glasses.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link

Rachel Roddy’s recipe for baked leek and egg gratin | A kitchen in Rome

While sorting out some books the other day, as well as gathering a pile to give away or sell, I spent a large part of two hours looking for books I know I once had, and trying to remember if I had loaned or lost them. And then, in the case of one particular book, ordering another copy. Ten out, one in: not terrible.The book I (re)ordered was Beaneaters and Bread Soup, by Lori de Mori and the photographer Jason Lowe. Gathered over decades of living just outside Florence, the book is a collection of wonderful, practical Tuscan recipes, and also tells a story of Tuscan food through portraits of photogenic local artisans: a chestnut grower, a bee keeper, a man who makes knives … I would mention more if I could find the book, which I suspect was borrowed and never returned – you know who you are! (Unless I have got this wrong and it is behind the bookcase