On my trip to Munich last week I got into conversation about food with my tubby, but super-friendly, taxi driver. He was delighted that I could speak half-decent German with him and was very positive about his British customers, but he said "is there a real British cuisine? My British customers tell me about the great Indian, Thai, Italian, etc restaurants in the UK but I cannot buy a cookbook on British food!".

This brings me to the perennial embarassment for me that many foreign visitors have either been ripped off or served poor food in the UK in the past; actually it is not just foreigners, some of my best friends from Glasgow or Manchester have found the same in London. Nevertheless I explained to him that there was a new wave of British chefs and food writers who were not only very capable but had nicely modernised traditional British dishes.

I have often been asked by French, German and Italian colleagues as to whether there is a real British regional cuisine. I have always said "yes" out of pride but have struggled a bit to give examples. I was therefore delighted when Mark Hix published "British Regional Food" which seemed like proof of what I had hoped existed but could unfortunately not prove very well.

On Saturday 28 October 2006 one of the recipes from this book was published; "Leek and Potato Stovies with Arbroath Smokies" . We had smoked haddock (OK, not Arbroath smokies) in the freezer, parsley in the herb garden and spuds so I thought let's try this recipe. When I lived in Glasgow I knew quite a few families who cooked leftover meat, veg and potatoes as stovies, but this was usually based on mixing the veg and diced meat with mashed potatoes then frying them as cakes in a frying pan. I was a bit worried about how the stovies would bind together based on roughly chopped spuds, leek and flaked haddock. I wondered about mixing an egg or a bit of cheese through but stayed true to the recipe.

My worst fears were realised when I tried to flip a stovie and the whole thing disintegrated. I do not know if it was due to:
1. My 15 year old non-stick pan being slightly sticky
2. Overcooking the leeks sligthly and ending up with slightly soggy stovies
3. An over-optimistic recipe (let's face it there are some!)
4. Me being a clumsy oaf!
It did taste OK but not the most brilliant fish or fishcake I have tried.