AdamLawrence

Sounds like Midsummer House to me. Adam

A Cautionary Tale I loathe and fear beetroot. About the only time I can remember enjoying it was at the Fat Duck, where it's served as a petit four in the form of a crystallised jelly. Anyway, I decided I'd try to conquer my fear, so last year I tried to make borscht as a starter for a dinner party. I managed to peel and cook the beets without too much stress, but then the time came to puree the soup. I put the stuff in the blender and switched on, and the hot, sickly sweet, smell, combined with the horrible pink froth as the beets liquidised just made me want to throw up. I had to chuck the whole lot onto the garden, and made a salad instead Adam

Jay Just back from a week's golfing in Mallorca, but unfortunately at the other end of the island, so I don't have any specific Palma recs for you. However, I'll offer a couple of thoughts: * the place in general was far, far nicer than I expected. The Tramuntana mountains are spectacularly beautiful, and I must go back sometime with my hillwalking friends to do the descent of Es Torrent de Pareis; * Assuming you'll have a car, try to get to the town of Sineu on Wednesday (market day). Huge market, interesting food products, especially hams and cheeses. There's also a guy selling any number of live birds if you want to appall sensitive types. Lovely town, has a number of nice, trad Mallorquin restaurants for lunch. Two are recommended in the Rough Guide (can't remember the names off the top of my head, but if you haven't got the book I can probably dig them out), but we cocked up and left the guide book in the car and ended up in another, Es Celler S'on Toreo. Grilled rabbit with garlic excellent; wife's bacalao in tomato sauce also very good; crema catalana terrific. Couple of beers, water: 33 euros. Can't complain. * Mallorquin wine is better than I expected, but the Jose L Ferrer stuff, the most common brand is not that great, at least at crianza level (I didn't try the riserva or gran riserva). I preferred the wine of Bodegas Ribas, from the same area, Binissalem, which is Mallorca's first DO. The local whites are ordinary at best. * Seafood was pretty good everywhere we went. * Apparently, the island is one of the biggest caper-growing areas in Europe, and you can find loads in the market at Felanitx on Sundays. I wish I'd known that before I went, I use loads of capers. * If you want to bring back jamon de bellota and don't find any during the week (I didn't, but I wasn't looking that closely), the deli airside at Palma airport sells it. I dare say it's rather more expensive than ordinary shops though. Sorry I can't help for Palma, hope this is useful though cheers Adam ediot: forgot the ham stuff

Jon, not too many people remember the Blue Coyote in St Clement's.... Adam

Google makes this very easy, but also is cheating. But even with Google, I don't understand Simon's clue. Adam

The Chiefs? The Tains? The Pos? V. confused. Adam

Is it Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham? The pressed terrine seems to ring a bell. OTOH the prices are a bit low for a 2-star place. cheers Adam

Really. This is very interesting news, as my parents are from Germany and Austria. I looked at the websites of the German and Austrian Embassies once and there was no suggestion of this as a way to obtain citizenship. I'll have to dig harder, now. Best regards, Claude Kolm The Fine Wine Review When you take American citizenship, I believe you have to disclaim any previous citizenships (a pal of mine is naturalising at the moment). Does this not work in reverse? Adam

Simon took the words out of my mouth. I love kleftiko. It's odd, because normally I'm definitely in the rare lamb category. But every now and then I want slow cooked melting lamb, either shanks braised in red wine or kleftiko. Mmmmm kleftiko................... Adam

I've only ever eaten it in restaurants, rather than cooking it myself, but cauliflower and stilton soup is fabulous. Stilton and celery soup is pretty good too. Adam

Were you in a cocktail skirt, or a suit?

I LOVE the Fentimans products. Don't buy them all that often, but they're really nice to have around if one person won't be drinking, and you want something special for them. The lemonade is probably my favourite. They're about a quid a bottle in supermarkets over here. Adam

I've posted about the restaurant at Tate Britain before; pretty good with a superb wine list (though not the bargain it used to be, apparently). The National Portrait Gallery has a pleasant cafe. Second the Musee d'Orsay - I had a good cafe lunch there a couple of years ago, and the formal restaurant is said to be excellent. And the cream tea at the Eden Project isn't half bad either. I used to eat in the Oxford Museum of Modern Art's cafe lots when I was a student, but haven't done so since I moved back to the city. And when we were on honeymoon in New Zealand we lunched in the cafe of Te Papa, the (then) new national museum in Wellington, which was very palatable - and the museum was utterly stunning. Adam

The trouble is that most of the Germanic grapes grown in England are hybrids such as Bacchus, Dornfelder, etc, that have been produced more with early ripening in mind than making good wine. I'm not aware of many UK vineyards growing riesling, though Camel Valley makes one in a Mosel style; it's OK, I wouldn't go any further. The use of classic champagne varieties is growing though; you have to remember that the grapes used to make champagne are not very ripe, so achieving 14 per cent potential alcohol isn't the issue. The French, Germans etc, have had centuries to work out which grape varieties grow where - the English are really only starting to scratch the surface. Adam

The only world-class wines likely to come out of England will be fizzes. The comparison, climate and geology-wise, with Champagne is actually quite close. Nyetimber is a superb drop, really fabulous, and I like Camel Valley very much too. Adam

Jin - shouldn't you have had Twiglets in there just to keep up the flow? (And they're pretty disgusting). Adam

Matthew Fort describes the cooking of fondant potatoes in his book about Paul Heathcote. I don't have the book with me at the moment, but from memory it involved slices of potato being chucked into a pan with a bit of water and a lot of butter. I'll dig out the book at lunchtime. Adam

Bapi - I agree that it's nice that BS and FC are remembered at Sharrow, I like restaurants/hotels/whatever that feel like an extension of their owners, rather than a faceless corporate place. I think it was just the idea of being welcomed by a dead man that I found a little creepy. Adam

A good friend of mine has been going to Sharrow on and off for years, and loves it. She hasn't been since Brian Sack died, though; the last time was shortly after Coulson's death. Apparently, the menu said: "Brian Sack and the late Francis Coulson welcome you to Sharrow Bay". I found that a bit creepy TBH, but my friend reckoned it was pretty typical of the kind of vibe you got at Sharrow. Adam

The Gault-Millau websitehas an online booking option, which appears to be powered by another site called alloresto. On the other hand, the site is only in French . I haven't used it, and so couldn't swear to its efficacy, but the fact that the services available for booking seem to change regularly suggests that it should be OK. Adam

I haven't seen HSB much in the free trade - don't know why - but there is quite a bit of it in Sussex if you ever find yourself down that way (I have family in the Brighton area). Personally, I find it a bit sweet and fruity for my taste - I like hoppier, sharper beers. But it is a fine pint. A quick Google reveals the Gale's website. The guide facility sadly doesn't list free trade outlets, but does show they have four pubs in Berkshire, in places like Windsor and Sonning, and eleven in Surrey. Mogsob, you're in Chelsea, aren't you? I'd try the White Horse on Parson's Green - even if they don't have it as a regular, they might be persuaded to get it as a guest. I had a look at their site (White Horse), and they have Gale's Prize Old Ale in bottle-conditioned form, which is worth a try (but it's about nine per cent abv, so tread carefully ). I also noticed they sell Rooster's Yankee as a regular. Very different beer from anything Gale's brews - much more to my taste, a powerful, hoppy Yorkshire brew - but wonderful stuff, up there with Taylor's Landlord in my estimation. cheers Adam

Can you really drink Pimm's? I think it's among the most disgusting things ever invented by man. Adam

Doner kebab? At Lord's? Ewwww..... On the rare occasions I go to headquarters (Test tickets are hard to come by, and Yorkshire get to finals once in a blue moon) it is necessary to push the boat out, and take champagne, smoked salmon, strawberries, etc. Adam

There is one very interesting question that is implied by some of Steve's musing and might be interesting to test - does highly spiced food successfully showcase top-end ingredients? It would be fascinating to give two chickens to a highly skilled Indian cook, one a poulet de Bresse or similar luxury bird, the other a more ordinary specimen, have him prepare both in the same way and thus determine whether the spice regime highlights or masks the superior flavour/texture of the better bird. Adam

That's fascinating. The parsnip milk thing is something that Heston Blumenthal has been doing at the Fat Duck for a while (see Fat Duck) but he doesn't serve it with sea urchin or anything like. Great report. Adam