Cheapskate... Where to eat out for under £15

Noura, 16 Hobart Place, London SW1. Tel: 020-7235 9444

I gave this a full-blown review last year, but a return visit here comfirmed that it fits the Guzzler bill to perfection. It's a mirrors-glass-stainless-steel-bare-wood-bar- and-open-kitchen stab at a chic Lebanese brasserie. There are bevvies of eager waiters with courteous and charming manners. Noura makes it easy for the novice to savour Lebanese cooking. There is a plethora of set menus - 15 in all, with the basic selection of six mezzes at £8.25 designed for Guzzlers. The menu runs the gamut from habra nayeh to all manner of kebabs by way of batinjan el rahib, mouhallabieh, moutabbal, foul moudammas and the inevitable tabbouleh and hoummos. Breads, hot and all puffed up from the grill, are outstandingly good, and come with disarming regularity.

Quick bites... Where to eat out in 15 minutes

Osteria d'Isola, 145 Knightsbridge, London SW1. Tel: 020-7838 1055

Oliver Peyton's palace of varieties. He's dumped the smoothie-chops restaurant on the upper deck and converted the whole place into an eaterie that is part brasserie and part wine bar in a rather retro, kind of 1950s scarlet Alfa upholstery way. You can get cheerful, and alarmingly poor, working your way through the thunderous Italian wine list, or you can dabble, nibble, chat and chunter over pasta and pud, and some more complex dishes, produced with the vim and vigour you expect of uberchef Bruno Loubet. Service can be a bit up and down, but Peyton's pizzazz more than compensates.

On the menu: Ayrshire milk

Is that milk from Ayrshire or milk from Ayrshire cows?

The latter.

So, can we all go home now?

As long as you take some Ayrshire milk with you.

Why?

Because it has a higher protein and lactose content than ordinary milk.

So?

That means it's richer and sweeter.

Which means you're more likely to get a heart attack from it?

Ah, but the fat globules are smaller and more uniform and easier to digest.

Who says?

Duchy Originals, who have just launched Ayrshire milk from Prince Charles's very own Highgrove Farm.

How very original.

On the net: Shortbread

Shortbread is a summery sort of biscuit to eat on the lawn with strawberries and Pimm's and pink lemonade. The history of firm favourite Walkers Shortbread can be found at www.walkersshortbread.com. Elsewhere, you'll find Marshfield Bakery in Wiltshire, who have won awards for their shortbread. Flavours include apricot, blackcurrant, cherry, chocolate chip and traditional butter shortbread. Just £2.50 will get you an eight-bar gift box. Fudges, baking in North Devon since 1926, also produce a mammoth shortbread, stamped with a Cerne Abbas giant. It'll cost you the comparatively midget-sized sum of £2.07 for two .You can buy shortbread from both companies through www.speciality-foods.com.

Just out: Peche platte

Form: A small, irregularly formed quoit; skin blushingly pink for the most part and dusted with a light down.

Flavour: Incomparably delicate and refined; honeyed and perfumed; touch of lychee; perfect sweet balance.

Verdict: Peaches, in case you didn't know, were known as persian apples (hence the Latin persicum malum); there are two kinds, clingstone and freestone; the peche platte is a white fleshed fruit of the freestone variety; they are small; they are easily bruised; their season is short; they are expensive; they are the peach any self-respecting peach-lover must have. And even non-peach lovers.

Price: 49p each at Waitrose.

This is a strictly non-supermarket own brand selection, but all are available through the major stores.

The taste test: tomato and basil pasta sauces

Sacla cherry tomato and basil £1.49

Seeds of Change tomato and basil £1.79

Bertolli tomato/ oregano/garlic £1.69

Dolmio tomato and basil £1.29

Ragu traditional recipe £1.19