November is a big month for veggies with the Vegetarian Society announcing the winners of its best independent restaurant competition. Honours went to The Dandelion & Burdock in Sowerby Bridge in Yorkshire, and Middlesborough's Waiting Room, but there are a host of veggie eateries serving up exciting dishes, imaginatively presented. They are ideal for the kosher diner ready to try an alternative to traditional haimishe restaurants.

During these times of financial gloom, political volatility and dark and chilly days, we need comfort. What better way to find it than through the traditional ways of cooking, serving and eating food where every mouthful is a taste of the past?

This extraordinary vegetable, with its polished purple exterior, begs to be cooked and, at the moment, British aubergines are seasonal and delicious. Now they are accepted as succulent, filling vegetables but there were times when aubergines were regarded with suspicion.

For centuries, aubergines - like potatoes, tomatoes and peppers, a member of the nightshade family -were eaten in India and other Asian countries. Europeans remained sceptical - maybe because of the deadly nightshade connection.

I use plenty of olive oil which is healthy but expensive - should I be using it in place of all other oils?

A fifth of calories consumed around the world come from rice, and in recent months, due to climate change, the growth in world population and stock market volatility, prices have escalated. So rice can no longer be considered the bland accompaniment to meat, chicken or fish but a precious ingredient in its own right.

Only an ostrich could have failed to notice the increasingly gloomy current financial situation.

With markets crashing around our ears, banks tumbling and financial commentators predicting a winter of discontent, media coverage is stirring up a fever pitch of insecurity. It does not take a genius to work out that it's time to rein in those luxuries and conserve the pennies.