If you fancy having your vegetables plucked from royal soil that of the Duchy of

If you fancy having your vegetables plucked from royal soil, that of the Duchy of Cornwall no less, then you might not have to wait too long. Prince Charles has initiated a pilot project from his Duchy Home Farm estate and it's going like a palace on fire. Box schemes have become a very popular way for the food-conscious punter to buy locally and organic- ally grown fruit and vegetables and have them deli- vered to the door But there are box schemes and box schemes. Left on the plate was a perfect little sea horse, about the length of my little finger. "You left the best bit," I said to my fellow diners, as I popped it into my mouth and crunched They looked aghast "But that was the garnish," they cried "Ah," I said, recovering immediately "Tastes just like decoration, only better.".

My finest moment came at the end of a dish of deer penis in China - something that I'm sure even the deer would con-sider their best bits. If not ammoniacal, it gives me the wonderfully peculiar feeling of biting into cumulus clouds. Even inedible rinds, such as the boot-leather rind of a Parmigiano Reggiano, is never wasted in Italy, but tossed into the makings of a fine minestrone soup, where it softens over the long cooking and leaves its ineffably fine flavour.Determined never to leave the best bit, I now curi-ously eye any old fish-tail, potato peelings, or leftover egg-shells, just in case I'm missing out. In Spain, pigs' ears are cooked in a delicious, addictive casserole with pigs' trotters and chorizo sausages. In other countries, you can't even buy a pig's head complete with ears.

In Peking, duck feet are deboned and tossed in a salad with cucumbers and yellow mustard sauce, while in Canton, steamed and braised chicken feet are the juiciest stars of the dim sum trolleys. In a Greek home, one is honoured to be served the head of the spit-roasted lamb, especially if it comes complete with tongue and brains. Nor would a Greek home throw out the stems and leaves of the beetroot, but simply treat them as a beautiful vegetable that requires a little steaming and a dressing of olive oil and lemon juice while still warm.There are some best bits we are all aware of; like the curl of orange coral on a sea scallop, the fatty tail of a grill-scorched lamb chop, and the luscious bone marrow in osso bucco, far more exciting than the dull meat clinging to the bone I always try the rind of a white mould cheese such as Brie. But how many best bits had I unknowingly left behind out of unwillingness or ignorance, until then? I made a fool of myself over my very first Shanghai hairy crab in Hong Kong one winter.

Having picked out the sweet, succulent, ginger-fragrant flesh, I put down my chopsticks. My host blushed for me, before pointing to the roe-laden head, explaining that it was the eggs that made the crab such a delicacy "Tastes just like scrambled eggs, only better," he said And of course he was right. He then pointed to my discarded prawn heads from a delightful dish of prawns steamed in their shells. "But you've left the best bit," he said, as he picked up one of the heads and sucked like a vacuum cleaner.The trouble is, one culture's best bit is another's garbage. "Tastes just like oyster, only better," said the restaurateur.