PCL

I had some foie at France-Soir on Toorak Road last week. They were whole slices taken from an 'entier', 'mi-cuit' block, very tasty, very good. But I wonder if such blocks are available through retailers. And any ideas on why the stuff isn't produced locally??... wonder what might happen if I keep a couple geese in the backyard...

Le Trois Garcons restaurant in London's East End.... Dubya should be sending troops in there instead. All you UK Gulleteers, start lobbying Tony "I love Bush" Blair to get serious about crimes against humanity at the above mentioned establishment.

Gul_Dekar.... FIND OUT WHERE THIS MYTHICAL PLACE IS PLEASE??? I've lived here most of my life, and have known of no such creature... if your information proves to be correct, I shall be eternal grateful and will sing your praises on eGullet forever more.... ...and... SG, I haven't tried the lam mee, but then again, I'm not a fan of that particular specialty... Shiewie... I totally forgot about the kaya toast, man almost as good as the one in a tiny Hainanese coffe shop in KK, Sabah!!.... thin toast, rich butter, and dripping with viscous KAYA!!!.... also, will take your words to heart and attempt the Hokkien Mee at Seng Nam. Also, thanks for the TTDI tip, I've seen people in Secret Recipe but I tend to avoid places like that when I'm in KL. Cheers!!

I noticed the Foie Gras in NZ thread and admittedly didn't read it in much detail, but here goes... Has anyone come across or knows of any foie gras producers that may be operating in Victoria? or indeed anywhere at all in Australia? I'm just finding my feet again after having been away for a while and it would be good to know where I can get fresh foie gras for all things fun and good... thanks in advance.

Antarabangsa is currently my ALL-TIME FAV!!!.... missed it when I was last in KL about 3 weeks ago, won't be making that mistake again... my folks live in TTDI so we generally head to Damansara Uptown mamak for Nasi Lemak, they're good too, especially the Ayam Goreng....oooohhh... it's 2.20am in Melbourne at the moment... no mamak stalls, .... mouth watering... also, the site mentions Madam Kwan's in Bangsar... if you're serious about food and Nasi Lemak, avoid at all cost. The place is a dressed up, overpriced Bangar-Yuppie-Kia-Su type place. The food? Um, can't remember how it was I was so disappointed, although they did use to have a good happy hour deal, not sure about now, drink first, then head to the mamak down the road for the real deal. ...must go have Maggi Mee... cepat dimasak, sedap dimakan!

Thanks Shiewie, will check out the site, looks good from a glance. I noticed you mention "Yut Kee" on Campbell Road, is that behind the Sheraton Imperial Hotel on Sultan Ismail??... 'cos if it's the same animal... man, Yut Kee is totally retro awesome cool. I was working on site when the hotel was going up and my dad introduced me to Yut Kee. The best Swiss Rolls and butter cakes from the kitchen out the back of the shop, the WHOLE OF KL... it's not halal, but I must mention for non-Muslim M'sians that the pork chops are way good, as are the Hokkien Mee, kopi-o. Wow, nostalgia... will definitely check it out next week!!

Wow, it's so cool when Pan goes into "Official" mode... he's your man when the going demands a cool, calibrated, countenanced mind... I believe Roger McShane is the person nominally in charge of these pages. A PM will be sent. Also, c'mon guys!!! NASI LEMAK!! where are your favs? Especially in the KL region, I'm arriving next Thursday and I'm thinking I need to expand my Nasi Lemak boundaries, let alone my waist line!!

There are loads of other types. The hokkien variety includes salted duck egg (hard boiled) yolk....very tasty There are also dessert varieties using a more translucent rice, with red bean inside, or just plain. And this thread has just reminded me to go check with my Aunt to see if she's making 'em again this year. And a question, do you guys eat yours dipped into a little sugar? A very cantonese thing.

I worked at an Izakaya for a while, and the grill was one of my stations. I have two things to add on the yakitori front... 1. Chicken skin. there's a thread on this somewhere here... it's great, but make sure it's organic, and clean... slow dry heat... sea salt... mmmmm 2. Ox Tongue... or Gyu-Tan in Japanese.... sliced thin, say around 5mm... slightly faster heat, ..... sea salt.... mmmmm

That's near my parent's place in TTDI, easily accessible by the new LDP!!... wow... gotta head down there... they, my folks, generally get their Durian from a stall in PJ, near SS2, guess everyone's got their favourite supplier... the old family favorite is actually in Ipoh, in Tambun opposite the Tambun cemetery... the old guy has been selling since day dot and now his daughter and grand children help out... right by a nursery and under the old tree... a scene out of paradise I say... ...hmmm... I sense a thread evolving from this.... ... and Mike, oops, Pan, any chance of correcting the title of THIS thread?? I just noticed they spellt Malaysia wrong!! [Editor's comment: The title of this thread has been corrected shortly after midnight on June 1, 2004]

Just stating an opinion... the food could just do it for some, not me however Da Noi I've heard lots of good things about too. The sous chef from my once favorite, Sud on King St (before the boys sold out!) was there for a while. And as for Supper Inn... not so much the other end of the scale foodwise, it's pretty authentic if you stay away from sweet n sour and lemon chicken and all that shit, the congees are great value, especially the offal, and the steamed oysters/mussells, always good. Definitely a winner for a post-drinking food binge... Also, if Flower Drum proves to be inaccessible, the Tea House in Chinatown would be a great alternative. The baby abalone with XO sauce and vermicelli is to die for although still prohibitive at 7 bucks EACH... personally, I prefer the Tea House on Burke Rd Camberwell, both with info on the citysearch URL posted by petemelb.

Just read this entire thread and thought I'd share the following... - mouth watering thread... - feeling a little homesick (Ipoh born boy here, back in Australia now, was living in London for a couple years...) - durian season? woo hoo!!... will be in KL in a week or so... can't wait... - Pan, you're an inspiration... Tourism Malaysia should get you on board to promote the east coast. and a question... no mentions of Nasi Lemak??... that stalwart of convenience and good taste??... how do you like your nasi lemak? I'm a biasa kind of guy, a bit of sambal, egg, ikan bilis and peanuts... although a good dollop of sotong never goes astray...

Rock sugar is an indispensible ingredient in most braised belly pork recipes. A decent lump or two in each batch helps to balance out the combination of soy sauces used (light/dark/thick/viscous/non-viscous). It's like when you stir-fry or when you do anything else with soy sauce (ie. for saucing steamed fish with "cilantro" and spring onions "scallions" i think you yanks call 'em)... a bit of sugar always balances out the potential harshness of the soy. And yeah, it lends a delectable sheen , some call it glazing over said foods when used properly... i'll leave the tonic soup thing to my nightmares of my mum in the kitchen and the claypot brewing away...... YEEEEECCCHHH!!!!

That sounds fair. And I can't resist the posting from petemelb... The Adelphi? You've got to be joking. Melbourne has been choked by the "I've Just Returned from Bangkok with a Sackful of Lemongrass" syndrome for years, and while Ezard isn't exactly all chilli and peppercorns, one might be forgiven for assuming that nouvel cuisine is still a valid concept, albeit somewhat bastardised. Tired hotel, tired food.

The Drum keeps on beating... couldn't resist that one. The staff are still the same. Gilbert was a great PR man, and perhaps inspiration and driving force behind the works, but he left behind a great ship, awesome crew, so as long you've got cash in your wallet, or an expense account or two, the Drum is still up there, but anyone going there should be encouraged to eat off the menu... there's only so much sweet sour one should consume in a lifetime, and frankly, the majority of the non-Chinese clientele have no real idea of what the Drum is really about. Be prepared to spend to around $150 sans vin per person.

you can boil the steamers or run boiling water over them, then air dry them. don't worry about food bits as you're sterilising them with the boiling water.

Good to know I am not alone... has anyone actually eaten there? I am hoping that by perhaps talking a bit more about the food to actually therapeutically rid myself of the horror and psychological scarring that I have experienced from the entire ordeal... ...and for the record, I didn't think Bond Villain... even they have better taste, perhaps Rejected-Austin-Powers-Movie-Set might be better, even then, I don't think it would have made the grade...

I had dinner there last night, on Club Row, E1, off Bethnal Green Rd... but more about that later... I searched it on the UK forum this morning, and hey, some of you even thought it had disappeared of the face of the planet, which unfortunately for me, it hadn't... ...it was meant to be a dinner without expectations, as even without having seen the brief but explicit comments on the forum, LTG has been widely touted as a place without much substance, but high on the camp... Mrs PCL and friends had decided to do a 'fun' evening, and I had been warned at length not to criticise the food and just enjoy the company... it should be noted, however, that pre-dinner drinks at Lounge Lovers, owned by LTG was great, nicely mixed/built cocktails, kind of reasonable at around £6-8 on average, although pricey for this end of town... the eye candy was even better value. But dinner... first of all, the dining room had a pervasive odour about it, much like the kitchen greasetraps, which led me to believe that the extraction system simply wasn't working. The deco, well, if you like kitsch, then good. Too much plastic, rhinestones, and an unappetising stuffed bulldog on a pedestal as soon as you walk in... a stag's head on one wall above the toilets, numerous other bits of, well, um, stuff... so, dinner, almost everyone had the grilled goat's cheese salad to start, whereas I opted for the grilled king prawns with a salsify emulsion... everything smelled the same... the cheese was rubbery, the salad dressed with a sweetish, pre-mixed sweet sour sauce type coating, and the prawns well, the highlight of the evening... firm, juicy, nicely charred, but the emulsion, well, maybe they'd forgotten to lace the plate with it... ...seeing as everything was in the same price bracket for mains, ie. £18-20, I went for the venison fillet with foie gras and duck breast... why? because i wasn't feeling myself after having gotten off an overnight flight in from Dubai that morning, and would rather have been chomping on a piece of grilled skirt with shallots...and because in a way, i was wondering how spectacularly they could mess this one up... and in no way was i dissappointed in this regard... ...it was FUBAR... the venison and duck tasted like so many layers of parchment soaked and then set alight, the foie, well, i'm not sure they knew what its really meant to be because it wasn't so much more than a charred, and i mean, carbonised slice of some type of liver, i don't think foie gras can withstand the level of heat this particular piece of re-carbonated protein was subjected to... and the sauce, ostensibly a demi-glaze but upon closer inspections, probably something from the Bottom Of The Barrel... and it wasn't even warm, tepid would have been preferable to the temperature it was served at...makes you wonder about safety... and wine?...more BOTB... and the prices, well, like what everyone has said, too pricey for what you might even find in the bargain bin at ASDA... I won't even go into what we had to drink... ...or for dessert... as if the horror of it all hadn't hit anyone but me at dinner... I felt so bad about what was in front of me that I didn't even bother to scavenge tasters off of other people's plates... my wife thought I was sick... ...as for the bill, well, £50/head was what it came to, and to make things even worse, they had to give everyone multiple card chits due to some malfunction in their system whereby they couldn't put more than 40 quid on at once... plus they couldn't take AMEX.... I was like, THIS close to saying I wasn't paying the gratuity, but in the end, was too dejected, and perhaps weakened by the unholy experience to even protest, I just signed it away, hoping to erase it all by walking out the door... the truly startling thing was that fellow diners (dare I call them that??) were cooing, ooing and ahhing over "lovely" tasting and "fantastic" plates, I mean, did they all come in with their tongues numbed??.... and to be honest, I felt like death this morning, not from any nasties or anything but just from the knowledge that I had subjected myself to an experience which I could have avoided... and never before had previously read reviews of a place been so accurate that I would be driven to add this one piece of pathetic protest for the sake of posterity... In summing up, the Lounge Lovers was great, Cable Row E1 for reference, but how LTG has managed to endure by dishing out utter - don't know if I can say it, but I will anyway - crap and charging a bull at you for it, is beyond me... explanations welcome, and I suspect it to be the greatest joke every played on the London restaurant scene... make it expensive, and people will come just to say they can spend... but really, I'm the one who feels FUBAR and BOTB for having even agreed to go there in the first place.

hmmm...my dinner that night after de-boarding from the Eurostar was, two fried organic eggs, which were HUGE, and a few bunches of fresh asparagus, all bought at the Sunday market at Bastille, plus some pancetta sauteed with leek and Szechuan pepper, mopped up with a yummy baguette from the Paul bakery at the Eurostar terminal in Paris, and a couple glasses of Louis Jadot Pinot Noir 2001!!!... ...i'm still dreaming of the lunch, and how I'll be back there at the end of April for a rendezvous with the guys we met... salut!

totally overpriced when i walked by a couple weeks ago.

A couple weeks ago I posted with a request for help, seeing as Mrs PCL and I were to be in Paris over a weekend, and facing the prospect of dinner plans gone to the dogs given that La Regalade was fully booked. It seemed like all was lost, until a look at John Whiting’s awesome not-so-little list inspired a last minute call to L’Os a Moelle, resulting in a seating at 1930 on the Saturday night. Tucked away in my little brain however, was an intention to visit Chez Denise in Les Halles after reading Loufood’s blog and also to satiate a long-held craving for decent red meat (I’ve been living in London the last 2 ½ years, and with only frequent visits to Tuscany for excellent Bistecca Fiorentina in Pietrasanta). L’Os was great. Been meaning to go there since reading Steingarten’s book a couple years ago. The fixed price menu Euro 35.00 per head had two choices for the five courses on offer, and the wine was a chewy 2001 Burgundy. My wife and I went for the whole menu, two choices per course meant that we could taste EVERYTHING. We were pretty beyond satisfied at the end of it all. Briefly, the menu went as follows, but please excuse the vagueness as I do not take notes: Soups: Broth of fowl with pine nuts & Bouillabaise 2nd Courses: Foie Gras seared with balsamic & Escargot Fish Courses: Red mullet fillets & St Jacques Meat Courses: Slow roasted lamb with shallots and garlic & roast sirloin Deserts: ahhh.. I don’t remember!!… But it was good. However, Chez Denise was sublime. I didn’t book, and we just wandered in for lunch on the Monday. It didn’t look good as most of the tables had little cards set out, and a group of elderly gentlemen were already tucking into plates of cold cuts. You could almost see medals hanging from their lapels. But they found us a table nonetheless and brought out a simple Bordeaux. We both started with the escargots as Loufood did, and as expectations suggested, they were simple, but punchy. My wife ordered tripe with calvados for her main, and I opted for the onglet. On the hand scribbled board were a selection of boiled dishes, the potee d’auvergne popping out like a meercat, but the trotters from the day before prevented me from pigging out again. A pair of gentlemen sat down beside us and it was obvious from the start that they had been coming to this little bistrot for a while. We exchanged smiles as our mains arrived, probably prompted by my gasp of exhilaration as the onglet was placed in front of me, smothered in shallots, with the charred aromas of the meat filtering through the embellishment. A few hurried mouthfuls of the tripe brought another grin to my by now greasy face. When the next table’s potee arrived, my entire being was washed with envy. A succulent pork shoulder and accompanying brined belly stuck out the top of the copper presentation pot and even above the heartiness of the protein-fest before me, I couldn’t help but oggle the dish. The maitresse of the house brought out a gratin dish of potatoes and minced beef for the gentlemen, which they heaped on their plates before tucking into boiled sausage, cabbage, turnip and carrot in their pot. After a few “C’est bon”’s and knowing glances, Monsieur B. offered the potee to me, saying that they would like to see me taste it. Hah!… who said sharing isn’t kosher? And with that, we were away…. …the ice was broken, and food was passed back and forth, and bottles of wine splashed into outheld glasses. The conversation lit up over food, food, um, Iraq, food, food and just joi d’vivre… M.Bernard, the Chef, was floating around the room towards the end of lunch and he sat with us, ordering one of the waiters to bring over the HUGE bottle of Marc. I never thought this kind of thing happened to hapless weekenders simply out for their lunch before catching the Eurostar back to London (arrrgghhh)… And this was when one was initiated into the inner circle… …apparently M.Bernard prepares the most exquisite jars of Foie Gras in his kitchen, and by his need to share his product, one may procure the little pots of gold directly from the back of house. Photos were taken, email addresses exchanged, and of course pots of gold purchased. I decided to write this, just as I’m thinking of searing a couple slices of foie for dinner tonight, and also of how if I hadn’t lurked around EG, I may never have had the finest afternoon’s dining in my life so far. You don’t need stars or innovation or foam for a life-changing meal, and with that one day at Chez Denise, I believe I rediscovered for myself the joy of eating, which is that it is to be shared in communion. In summary however, everything at Denise was good. Honest may be the better word, but the potee, man… several versions of it have been bubbling away on my stove since, and as for the fois, I’ll be back for more at the end of April. Thanks again to John Whiting, and Lou.

Thanks for the ideas. I've got L'Os a Moelle for saturday night, so will have to be vigilant for Sunday. Will try Le Violon for lunch on Monday. Apparently there's a 24hour bistro open on the left bank somewhere covered in another thread so may chance that for Sunday... but given the replies, I think I've got a good chance of finding something for Sunday!.... ...can't have too few options! Thanks again.

Bon soir Gulleteers... I've just realised after ringing a few places (bistros) in Paris (Le Reg, Close des Gourmets etc) that most are closed for the Feb/Mar skiing holidays... I'm just trying to save on some international dialling bills, and thought it might just be best to see if anyone in the Paris area knows if any places worth visiting might be open this weekend, but having said that, they're all probably going to be packed... but it might be worth a shot. We're staying in the Marais, arriving Saturday morning, leaving Monday evening... fingers crossed, and thanks in advance...

yeah, i went to google and it told me the same thing-ish... saved me a long distance call to grandma...!!... ...feeling humbled by my lack of familiarity with my own history... ...anyway, gonna go pick up a couple slabs of belly pork tomorrow...oh yeah

Wasn't Delicious or Observer either... last week's Slater piece was on grilled pork salad... but pork nonetheless... anyway, what is Yuan sauce?... Yuan ain't no Chinese Dynasty I ever heard of... better ring my grandma and find out... and as for Hugh, I like the chap, he's very enthusiastic, I've been left peckish after more than one Sunday morning watching his show on the Home & Leisure channel... but you guys know the best belly pork?... (Peter Gordon's at The Providors on Marylebone High St is pretty up there)... Crispy Roast Pork in Chinatown... my mum used to make it at home... ahhhh... now that's pure beauty...