Welcome to September’s Observer Food Monthly | Food

Friday has always been my day off. For years, that day started with a long and leisurely breakfast at the Wolseley in Piccadilly that would often run into lunchtime. After the restaurant changed ownership , I vowed never to set foot in it again, and to this date, I haven’t. A pity, as I loved the glamorous room, especially at night, the warm and welcoming staff and the food. The Wolseley’s creator, Jeremy King, is the subject of this month’s Lunch With interview, where he tells Tim Adams about his post-Wolseley ventures, those that are already open and the pleasures he has in store for us.

Talking of pleasures, Julie Lin of Glasgow’s Ga Ga Kitchen offers us her recipes for capacious bowls of noodles with lime leaves and dried shrimp, prawn fitters, dried mushrooms and egg gravy. Big flavours for big appetites.

You may well have to resort to a bit of online shopping for a few of the ingredients, but your time will be deliciously spent.

Max Rocha of Cafe Cecilia brings us recipes from the restaurant’s new cookbook. Gratifyingly, these include the signature Guinness bread and its fried bread and butter pudding with cold custard.

Living just a steak bake’s throw from a football stadium, I can often be found with my handy litter-picker after a match, removing the odd stray blue and white bag from my bushes. Recently though, there has been much less post-match foodie litter. The reason is that in-stadium eating has moved up the league table. Why would fans grab something on the way, when there is great food at the ground? In this issue we celebrate the best football scran, including the world’s first vegan club.

Elsewhere, Anna Jones reveals her life on a plate, and supper club superstar Rahel Stephanie tell us about her secret ingredient, the wonderfully fragrant pandan, while Jay Rayner talks quick fixes, the magic of turning the mundane into the sublime by the addition of a bit of imagination from his pink lemonade and sumac lolly to a bells-n-whistles pot noodle.