marlena spieler

Spanish Village Restaurant? I have only one thing to say: Blah well, blah blah blah blah blah. this is cute. but menu doesn't impress me, alas, but then i'm one spoiled muchacha when it comes to mexican food. and if it were available here in britain i admit i WOULD be running. there. now.

Interesting......... One of the Conran Kids wives came to my Mexican workshop for the Guild of Food Writers in November. (she is the daughter in law of a friend, a member of the guild). She was very excited about Mexican food, being from California, and I shared many good recipes with her, I even gave her a bag of fresh white corn tortillas as i was heading out to california the next day. and i promised to bring her back a jar of nopales (which I did, in my carry on case on the plane, and she hasn't collected yet......). does anyone know the date of launch? i wonder if it involves my "student" or a different member of the family.

velveeta!!!!!!! If you had been turned away at customs and immigration i would have understood completely! there are such wonderful cheeses in britain! but they do have horrible horrible velveeta-like slices all prewrapped so that they become one with their plastic enclosures. if one needs processed cheese, this is as close to velveeta as is humanly possible. but then, i consider velveeta an inhuman invention. still, i did get talked into eating a cheeseburger with a slice of velveeta recently and i did notice the lovely way it sort of melted into a gooey gummy mooooosh. and i thought: perhaps now i understand. perhaps my understanding of velveeta necessitated a thorough understanding of the greater world of artisanal cheeses before i began my descent into the processed type. then again, i might just stay with the artisanal beauties. but tell your friend to remember those supermarket plastic wrapped slices when the craving for velveeta hits......... marlena www.marlenaspieler.com

Definately Turkish food! Kingsland High Street, near Ridley Road Market is awash with them. My Favourite is Mangal 2, on Kingsland High Street. Eat salad, get a mixed kebab, and have them make the warm grilled aubergine and pepper salad for you. if you are brave, order a glass of turnip juice; its more like a pickled turnip and beetroot juice, tangy and salty and pickley, and i'm told it is eaten as a chaser for raki. the portions are huge and the vegetable salad wonderful and fresh (this can be a rarity in london, indeed in great britain). so i'd share orders with your eating partner. also, every evening the art duo gilbert and george come in to eat at precisely the same time. sevenish or eightish i forget. also. around the area of ranoush juice is a persian place that serves fabulous grilled chicken wings. also order a plate of sabzi kordan, fresh herbs with bread. the wings were less than L6 last time i ate there. and very nice indeed. its called patough, and is on.......lets see, crawford street. i believe its in the time out restaurant guide for london. its the best london restaurant guide by the way. throw out your zagat and carry your time out for london and for paris (though i'm less happy with its new york version). marlena www.marlenaspieler.com

Hi Marlena, how do you like "l'avant gout" ? Been there in January, had the 30 euros menu. Left me with mixed impressions. Had the "saumon marine comme des harengs", which was nice, but was disappointed with a "tendron de veau, puree de celeri-rave et beurre noisette" : too dry, and sauce didnt quite do it. Left me feeling like i should have gone for the 10 euros lunch menu, which is a really good deal. Paris' chinatown has indeed some really good and inexpensive vietnamese places. Used to go there every week-end for nearly 20 years, and still go back to the same spots. Try "le tricotin", near the Porte de Choisy subway station. Open non-stop from 9am to midnight, always packed. Really good, simple, reasonably-priced vietnamese. Tasty soups ! But everything there is fresh and satisfying. "La mer de Chine", also in the 13th. Heard a lot of good things about it, and i'm sure it's worth a shot. I deeply miss Paris for the amazing overall quality of the food. The little bakeries, the "Banette 1800" for breakfast, cheese shops, caves a vin and other treasures... hi edm, late answer, lets see, about 2 1/2 months late......been travelling. i find l'avant gout mixed, too; sometimes i just walk by during the day to see what the daily special is. daily lunch special: a bargain. I loved their classic, the pot au feu de Porc; its a sort of cured hammy pork, and comes simmered with sweet potatoes and fennel, served with a dull (at least it was when i ate it, though perhaps overly subtle might be the correct term) mustard sauce, but absolutely sensational little chips of fried thinly sliced gingerroot. yummmmm. i could just strap a feedbag of those little spicy bits onto my face and be a happy girl! lets see, other standouts included: a cocktail that involved lobster in a gazpachoey liquid. and a dessert that included black olives and a basil caramel, i think a tomato gelee too on the same plate. a weird dish, but well, i remember and love it. might not order it again, though. the memory is very stimulating though so i'm glad i ate it. i remember good cheeses too. back to the paris vietnamese restaurant substance of this thread, thanks lots for your suggestions! i shall pursue them! marlena www.marlenaspieler.com Oh, and ps to anyone who can't see eating anything other than French food in Paris: French food is wonderful fantastic delightful (or can be) but can get heavy if you're eating out all the time. one just wants something light and vivacious and spicy every so often (ie something without duck fat or cream, too).

eating a perfectly cooked fried egg: once you have the right egg: fresh from a chicken who has led an interesting and active life, and once you have cooked it in the right fatoilsl/fats (i prefer either extra virgin olive oil or very fresh butter though if you've cooked a bit of good quality bacon in the pan, too, i'm with you), and the right amount of this fat, cooked the eggs at the right temperature to reach the barely firm whites, just slightly every so slightly crisped along the edges, and the totally runny golden-orange yolk......... okay. once you've achieved this. you must be hungry for this egg. very hungry. and you will eat it with passion. and desire and satisfaction, and if you are anything like myself, you just might emerge from the table with a bit of yolk in your eyebrows from the sheer motion and excitment of your egg eating. and you will feel good, very good. forget those others who eat every day of egg white omelets. eat a good egg rarely and you'll revel in it. omigod. i think i need an egg soon. i can only eat an egg when i'm very hungry. and i like them for lunch or dinner, too, continental europe style. anyone else out there addicted to oeuf en meurette? (but then i was the person who, during the years in Britain when eggs were really awful, went on egg holidays: to greece, france, italy, wherever, with my little plastic egg container, and brought back a happy half dozen in my carryon. x marlena http//:www.marlenaspieler.com

yeah, i think we need to invite mexicans to come live in britain. they can all live in my house in hampshire! meanwhile, we need to all share any goodies we can find. Lupe Pintos in Edinburgh is pretty good, that is, in the variety of chilies they stock and stuff but with all the cajun and other american things they stock the really real mexican stuff (such as good tortillas) are just not there. Once you could get tamales by phoning the mexican embassy in london and talking to the ambassador's chauffeur who made them once or twice a week that sort of thing. then he went into his own business but i'm not sure exactly what it was cause when i called it was a problem, there were problems......and in the end i had to head back to the kitchen with my corn husks and do the one thing i'm just not good at in the kitchen.........(making tamales, my downfall is that i try to do it with olive oil and other healthful fats, a bad idea) there used to be a mexican cultural group in battersea who could rustle up a mariachi band at the drop of a sombrero or bowler hot, whichever you prefer..........i still think about what event can i plan that i can hire a mariachi band, though i'm not sure now how to find them............ about mexican food in europe, i always say there are two things you can be sure to find in europe: mexican restaurants (everywhere, even in athens) and you can be guaranteed to find a bad mexican restaurant........... dodie, the woman who owns cool chile company is terrific, by the way, and probably the woman you will chat to if you hang out at the cool chile stall. before dodie there were NO dried chiles and very little mexican ingredients at all. marlena ps: last week i made posole from dried hominy hand-carried back from California

for the fifteen years i've lived on this island getting good mexican food to the folks out there has been a particular passion of mine. i wrote several books on the subject, and tried so hard to get more info out there, did a buncha stuff on radio 4 until they stopped showing interest in the subject. my experiences with mexican food in london range between not very good and really really terrible. in the latter category we had a breast of chicken that was so soft as in marinated in something mightly powerful to reduce the flesh to consistency of cotton wool.........in a mole that was basically cadburys with chile added. to a few okay salsas at si senor which is no longer there (did a whole food programme tasting using si senor salsas once). i've pitched television series on mexican foods, consulted with supermarkets on what to put in their range of products (did they listen?) and have been standing in line to promote an importing company that represents several really excellent mexican products but seems stuck in limbo at the moment. at one point i even looked into opening a mission- style burrito place but was talked out of it by powers that be......... anyhow, have i given up? well yes. so i have no answers. except that i might be giving a mexican demonstration or two over this winter, perhaps in conjunction with SLOW, so i can post it when and if it happens. and ps: the only way to get nice warm corny tortillas the way they are meant to be (and not the kind at the cool chile co which is a very nice company anyway) is to make them yourself: buy the masa from cool chile or bring it yourself back from states. no need to worry about having a tortilla press or patting them out, i recently saw an old woman making tortillas by making a ball, placing it between two piece of plastic then smacking the top with a heavy frying pan. marlena maybe we should make a uk based mexican eating club? My carnitas can make a grown woman (me) weep, all the better stuffed into gooey quesadillas.

Isn't Juliano the OTHER raw food "enthusiast"? you know, raw chef to the stars, eat this and live forever. has a book and a following? or is it another Juliano? and what did you eat? m

would anyone like to start an egullet garlic club? I'm not sure what the rules would be, or how they would work, ie what we would do, or where we would be located as garlic-lovers span the world. we could have field trips, we could have recipes we could have lore, we could just get together to revel in our own perfume! yours, the fragrant marlena

you know, word came to me via a very reliable source that when green was writing her first food lovers guide she never went to half the places she reported on (just called around and had stuff sent, and in fact, didn't step north of the border though scotland was included on her catchment area. i don't know about subsequent books as my source quit the job around this time. as for her showing up on one of rick steins programmes, i've seen green on television before and to be kind, its not her media though she did spend a bit of time doing radio in the nineties (as was and do i) ................and everyone admitted that she did wake up early in the morning even when no one else wanted to, so she was reliable and a sport in that regard. has anyone ever seen how she treats people? shes famous for it though i accept the fact that she would not be able to act nastily on television as it wouldn't be in her interests..........

heres where I felt i just had to speak out! i can usually find something good about most restaurants i visit, not to say i'm a food slut, but i am appreciative and almost always find something delicious. even when i was in hospital in nice fighting for my life, i found something delicious on every garlic-laden tray the nurse brought in. the fact is I LOVE GARLIC. Which everyone who knows me will attest to. I don't stint on the stuff and have been known to eat raw garlic sandwiches for breakfast, and why be coy? In fact, this is what i eat nearly EVERY DAY. So when the stinking rose opened up i was invited to come and sample their delights. invited, as in, i didn't even have to pay! so you'd think that might have even predisposed me to liking it. but sad to say, i thought it was the worst meal i've ever eaten. a few months later or maybe it was a year later, they invited me again saying they had a new chef, and dutifully i went back, with several companions. and wow: could it be possible? Could another meal be as awful as the first? Well, it seems as if they outdid themselves and achieved a repetition. The thing is that the garlic they used was preserved garlic, already chopped garlic preserved in oil, and had a nasty rancid flavour, also there was a lot of smoked garlic going around. I have to say, vile vile vile, and if the food has changed and it is now good, please forgive me. i will be only too happy for this to be true, believe me. i have strong beliefs in the power of garlics goodness and hate to see it sullied by.......well, whoever was doing the cooking and menu writing. x marlena

why not just take the metro to belleville and walk around there. on.....oh, lets see rue louis bonnet there is one place i've enjoyed.....also i really like the big one on the corner, but only for pho. the thing i like about the food in belleville is that it hasn't been frenchified and as much as i adore most things being frenchified, and of course the fact that vietnamese food is by its nature somewhat frenchified, i still like the real thing, with the plate of herbs and sprouts etc. (some parisian vietnamese places actually serve the pho as a very refined soup with herbs and sprouts already in it--mon dieu!). i've heard the the thirteenth (ie chinatown) is full of vietnamese places but i always end up at l'avant gout when i get out in that neighbourhood. and there is a place right at arts and metiers which is good, and cheap, but only open til 3 or 4 every afternoon......and what use am i anyway: i forget its name! do try belleville though......... bon appetit, marlena

I went to the opening of Krispi Kreme donuts at harrods.........standing in the queue next to us chatting on his mobile phone was King Constantine of Greece's son (my companion was Greek, otherwise who knew?) yes we ate way too many doughnuts. but i've got a suggestion if you every find yourself with way too many krispi kremes: they DO freeze pretty darn well. Oh, and you must drink Union Roasters coffee with them. The Finest coffee on this whole damned island! marlena

avocado sandwiches: it was late-ish in the nut tree incarnation, when there was outdoor informal dining, you might say, a forerunner of the california cafe style which was to follow. you could sit at a table under an umbrella and watch your kids play, the little train chug through, and have stuff like fresh lemonade, and also the avocado sandwiches, which were made on whole sprouted wheat bread, and contained avocado, alfalfa sprouts, tomato and jack cheese, mayo too. the sandwiches were very plump and well filled, the bread soft and tender and very wholesome.......and you got a little paper container of toasted sesame seeds and cubes of jack cheese to dip into them with with everything you got at this point in the nut tree's outdoor life. alas, i don't remember the happy mouth in san fran...... but i lived at the zoo for a happy month, able to drive past the doggy diner with the head on it (i'm a big fan of that head)......wrote about it a couple of weeks ago, anyone wants to read it its on sfgate.com or my own website........includes a good recipe for roasted duck legs with zinfandel and figs which one veggie reader thought was in very bad taste (ie duck is an animal, and i was living at the zoo........) (man, aren't we a weeeee bit touchy?) marlena

gracias, ExtraMSG, I'd better buy that plane ticket right now. man, the one thing that europe lacks is good mexican food! i haven't been to guadaljarah in such a long time but just hearing your sweet words of descriptions combined with the magic word: nopales.......brings it all back in a rush of sensual feelings. just the smell of the air, and things sort of cooking in the outdoors........... thanks again, m

i recommend paule caillat and her promenades gourmandes as well. I've sat in on her classes, walked her walks, eaten at her table and written about her numerous times for newspapers and my upcoming book on Paris. she'll ask you your preferences and build the event around you and guests. its a great way of socializing too, i've been there where its a group of several couples, or a two day event, or a morning of several old friends who get together with the cooking class and shopping expedition as the focal point. and paule really teaches you extraordinarily good basics in an informal setting. her pastry crust is fabulous and easy. tell her marlena sent you!

I went to the launch for ten star tapas in early july.........last time i visited the website looking for the recipes i saw a slide show of the bash (buried in there somewhere is a snap of yours truly)........ there were some fab fab fab nibbles there that night but not nearly enough of them at the right time and the weather was very hot and we all got very drunk on sherry. which was divine. and the chefs were all there with their signature dishes, all very chatty and cheerful, and it was heaven taking your tiny dish of tapas-goody, slipping it down your throat with a few long slooshes of chilled sherry of different types. the guest list was a bit dire though............lots of young gals looking glam............ many of my food writing enemies hiding around corners ready to spring out at me and grab me or put their noses up in the air and snub me....... but i'll do anything for good tapas and am a big sherry fan. and the olives and almonds were worth WALKING to spain for. nothing is quite as good with a sherry as a handful of salty olives and crisp spanish almonds. x marlena

Hill Station makes wonderful ice cream, and has been working hard at developing the art of fine ice cream making for a number of years. Their (unspiced) coffee ice cream is DIVINE, using coffee from the very excellent Union Roasters (Jeremy Torz and Steven Macatonia, who by the way, trained at Peets to learn their craft). Gina and Charles, two Americans-in-london are the ice cream making brains............. what i wouldn't give to have a container right here in my fridge in hampshire. their candied ginger ice cream is wonderful.....wooooonderful........too.

My daughter is volunteering in a resort/village/clinic an hour and a half north of Puerto Vallarta. Any ideas of specialities, restaurants, etc that she shouldn't miss........ and her mama, too, if she manages to make her way there....... gracias! Marlena

I remember the Nut Tree as a magical place.....I had my sweet sixteenth birthday there.....i loved the innovational way with food, the fruits, the slightly adventurous (in my young mind and palate) spices and fusion.........the toasted sunflower seeds that they used to sell to dip into with pieces of wholegrain bread, sandwiches, the jack/avocado/tomato/sprout sandwiches..........the shop inside where all of the goodies from all over the West were displayed......... And i was over the moon when i walked into the nut tree as a (very) young adult and saw (for the first time) my first cookbook on sale on their cookbook shelf. There was always something to purchase to play with in the cookshop........... Of course I loved the little train, took my daughter on it when she was tiny, flew into and out of nut tree as i was gradually getting over my fear of flying. and remember the wonderful birds, the aviary, and tropical atmosphere of the restaurant. we always stopped at the nut tree en route to san fran. it makes me so sad to see it reduced to rubble. anyone want to buy it with me? i'll do the cookin' . who's gonna drive the train? marlena

Ooooooh YES YES YES! I check into egullet after a lull of several months and immediately I find a recommendation for the BEST (and handsliced) PASTRAMI in the nation (Langers, better than Katz?! ) and my heart races in a way that my husband says he remembers, vaguely, from "the old days". That, combined with a recommendation for LA's finest carnitas and nopales (really? Olvera Street?) have prompted me, this minute, to book a flight to LA (from Europe). Its good to know what my priorities are in life. Thank you egullet, russ parsons, kiss kiss kiss, marlena ps good pickles too? pastrami without them is an incomplete experience though i am looking foward to that soft warm rye bread with pastrami juices soaking in. i'm a devotee of Guss' half sours on the lower east side, though i truly believe that no-one makes pickles as well as my brother once did. If anyone wants to read a piece on pickles I wrote a couple of years ago, http://sfgate.com has it stashed away somewhere in their archives.

Mr. Sinha is the owner of Foods of India. ....I think his name is Arun Kumar Sinha. I never call him. He is largely and wonderfully entertaining and genuine and charming. And certainly with a large dose of eccentric thrown into the mix.

my friend, food writer emi kazuko, inspired by one of the fusion chefs, marinated fresh mozzarella in miso and it was terrific! simply submerge fresh mozzarella hacked into a few pieces, in yellow miso. the miso is very salty and it does a funny firming up thing to the mozzarella. leave it in the fridge 1 to 2 nights. before serving rinse with cold water, then cut up into small cubes (1/2 inch maybe) for a japanese inspired tapa thingie. (save the miso for another use, or for more mozzarella). i found myself addicted to this recently. but you mustn't think of it as mozzarella any longer, it goes more cheesey, saltier, more firm.....and forget about evoo, tomatoes, etc. these are best naked.

if there's a group trip special dinner to tayeb or new tayeb, count me and perhaps a friend or two in (if i'm in the country and not off galavanting somewhere). i love tayeb/nt. their food, their prices, their general ambience. and i like going next door to the sweets shop at the old tayeb and buying a box of too many sweets.