My earliest food memory... Eating pork souvlaki on the street in my home town in Greece. Pork souvlaki is basically small chunks of marinaded pork cooked on a charcoal grill and served with salt, pepper, lemon juice, chilli flakes and a dab of mustard on a bit of greaseproof paper. It's still a favourite of mine, though I've never seen it done properly in England. Another one of my childhood favourites was fried fish served with this thick garlic sauce called skordalia. Apparently, I used to eat the sauce straight out of the bowl.

Pickering in North Yorkshire is a country town with exactly the right sort of attractions: 12th-century castle; bustling steam railway; church with medieval wall paintings admired by Pevsner and, not least, a quietly handsome inn on the high street.

Teams of volunteers were heading to an uninhabited island in Prince William Sound near Anchorage yesterday to clean up debris washed out to sea by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami last year and sent by Pacific currents to Alaska.

Can I commend to you an adjective I'd never encountered before? It's "skulduggerous" and the OED citation would run something like this: "2012 Roger Barton The Fish Market: Inside Billingsgate – 'I've never dealt with such a skulduggerous bunch in all my life and I've dealt with some real villains'."

Whether you're after a recipe for a spectacular salad or a brilliant barbecue, these have tasty ideas

Robot "fish" developed to improve pollution monitoring took to the water yesterday at the start of sea trials.

More than £1 million has been confiscated from four skippers involved in landing undeclared fish in a scam described as an "episode of shame" for the industry.

Food icons from around the world

Solear Manzanilla, Barbadillo

Serves 4

Peru's oceanographic agency says it will investigate the deaths of hundreds of pelicans on northern beaches where nearly 900 dolphins were recently found dead.

Ingredients to serve 4-5

Passengers were amazed when their British captain sailed on – and horrified to learn later that two of the castaways died

They're deliciously tasty, good for you and excellent value.