Simon Majumdar

I have replied in a PM. Thanks for the support Scott, I shall wear it always S

As I am prepared to dish it out, I guess I should be prepared to take it. Shame that a) You are not prepared to tell me who you are b) You are still worried about things that happened oh, what was it 22 years ago. I have sent you a PM. If you really want to have a go at me let's keep it off the board so we don't spoil the fun for all the others. Oh and I can think of at least four others who were more reviled than me. Like me though they were all asian. That's the kind of place Rotherham was, and from your post, still is S

Macrosan Normally I would not have wine with Indian food. But I shall be bringing along a couple of bottles 1) A Sauvignon Blanc - Bizarrely enough the "cats pee" aroma that is the hallmark of these ( particularly the New zealand ones ) compliments the lighter curries quite well 2) A Reisling - Again the hallmark "petrol" smell seems to work with tandoored food I disagree with Tony, I have to say in that I find Shiraz entirely wrong with Indian/Pakistani food. it is way to jammy. That being said, I am sure I shall help myself to a few glasses S

Sorry to disappoint you all but the lady in question turned out to be a damp squib and cancelled. Some pathetic excuse about a sick mother or something similar. In the end it was another evening of dining disaster for the Majumdar Bros. However, your concern for my faltering love life is heartening. S

Go on then, give me a clue. Which one of the people I came down South to get away from are you? S

I should have known. Once that poltroon Dimmond enthused about this new( ish ) Vietnamese cafe on the kingsland rd, it was bound to be pretty ordinary. Let us not forget, this is a man who thought Trois Garcon was wonderful. Ahem We tried Song Que for supper tonight and while it was not actively disgusting it was as close as I have got to it in the Vietnamese strip The length of the menu and the listing of some interesting looking dishes gave us hope for a good experience and our first orders of soft shell crab and sugar cane prawns were up to scratch, piping hot and fresh. The next two dishes though were a major disappointment. Fried mussels in a tamarind sauce was remarkable in that the sauce smothered most of the flavour but could not disguise the fishiness of the mussels. I write this at night. If I don't post in the morning, they were off and I am dying. Another starter of Green Papaya with chilled pork and prawns was much lauded by Dimmond, but it was beyong bland. It lacked any zing and I am convinced that it had been sitting around for a while Mains of a Pho which supposedly had sliced rare beef, tripe and tendon was based on an excellent stock but there were only the merest slivers of god's good tripe and no rare meat to be seen. Again it lacked any sort of freshness and clean taste. It came with a side dish of Ong Choy with garlic. This had not been drained properly and sat in a sludge of grey water. Quite nasty. A final dish was eels in a spicy curry sauce. Again not great. The bill for two with a beer, tea and mineral water was £41 including a service charge which was well deserved as the waiters seem friendly and attentive. My overiding impression was of ham fisted cooking of not great ingredients served in a alarmingly green room while listening to Mantovani I will leave it to Dimmond 3/10

I suspect this is just the usual shabby new york laziness coming into play Mag's All the following are within minutes of where I live and where you work ( I believe ) all sell exemplary bread that is just one small area of London. You DO NOT get this in NY. I am not commenting on the price as that is another issue altogether Apostrophe ( Great Eastern St ) Flaneur ( Farringdon Road ) Comptoir Gascon There are two stalls in Spitalfields that sell better bread than anything I have ever tasted in NY Even the little Safeway on Whitecross St has started selling a range of excellent Organic breads St John's that's in two minutes thinking. even you cannot complain about these. Oh I fogot, you are from NY, of course you can. S

From m/s to publication can be anything up to a year. Cookbooks of all things are seasonal so I suspect that CP will have this down for their Fall 03 schedule. No slur on Suvir, but there will be rewrites also recipe testing, photography, design, repro, proofing. And they print all their books in Italy I believe so add a months shipping I can't wait either. I will just have to let the neaqrly 200 recipes that Suvir has posted on this thread suffice. S

As was Magnolia'a attempt to dismiss all of London's Fortunately, I have met her and know that this was a minor aberration not complete insanity S

It is I can never remember exactly. I just potter up there when pissed S

I am I find the bread offerings in Manhattan to be risible. That is not to say that I have not had good bread in the US ( Mansion at Turtle Creek take a bow- superb ) but on the whole I do not find it compares with here and as Magnolia quite rightly says, neither compare with Paris I have given up Rice and Naan. Did you not hear me RICE + NAAN=CARBS = DEATH S

I have tried both the city bakery and the 14th st Greenmarket. I would forget them if I was you. Zabar's bread is the foulest cardboard ever. I just know you are joking S

I have to use a Steve P'ism here but anyone who quotes Zaba'rs as a source of good bread CANNOT be taken seriously And restaurant bread in NY sucks even at The Grammercy it sucks. FACT S

NEVER DOUBT A MAJUMDAR BROTHER AGAIN!! S

Are you comparing bread in London to bread in NY?!!! Bread in NY is without doubt the worst I have ever had. Laughably bad. Almost as embarrassing as their attempts to serve cheese, but let's not go there. Where on earth are you buying bread in London? Within a block of where I live, I can buy from four different sources all of which are excellent. Even the crappy Safeway on Whitecross St has a better bread selection that any I have found in NY apart from artisnal bakeries. What are you talking about Mags? you are normally an oasis of common sense amongst the US hordes S

Not that I eat a lot of bread anymore. Let us not forget CARBS =DEATH That being said, I always found the sourdough to be the weakest of the breads they did there so it will be no great loss. I am afraid I will bludgeon through the picket line like the worst of wapping Scabs. S

Why do you think I was asked to leave the priesthood?

It is. I have not been yet but am indeed in preparation which is perhaps why I am being more kindly than the norm ( except to Australians and Canadians ) I shall however spend much of my time in thoughtful contemplation and prayer that none of us ever drinks a finger bowl, asks a sommelier for their best Blue Nun or sends some grouse back because it is full of "pips" S

I am assuming that for all the hilarity these rubes offered, the restaurants involved were still willing to take their cash to help pay the wages of those who are now dissing them and that those serving were more than happy to take the tips. While these things can be great fun ( I have some wonderful stories from my time in the bookstores ) it is worth remembering that not everyone is as obsessed with food and eating out as we are and for many it can be an extra ordinarily intimidating experience, particularly at a high end place. I wonder how many situations we have all been in where we have placed foot firmly in mouth not least of all when we were all in our nascent dining days. Here endeth the sermon S

Just off Marylebone High St is a place called Tagine. It is a very simple and cheap place and well worth trying. Short cab ride from Borough, you can get to Ma I Terra on Gambia St, the most consistent tapas place in town. You can also try the Honest Cabbage in borough which is a fairly straightforward bistro but very nice for a Sunday lunch ( i have not been for a while, so I don't know if it is as good as it was ) S

Andrew For pubs in London, I recently posted the address for a really useful site called http://www.fancyapint.com/ Check it out. It has become a very valuable resource for those evenings when only oblivion will do S

Hi Andrew I think you are as well looking on the threads of this board than buying a guide. Even though there is a preponderance of the higher end places, there is lots of discussion of great value for money places. Of all of them, Time Out is the least offensive and it makes a useful reference and listings guide even if its reviewers wouldn't know a good restaurant if it hit them in the face with a wet flounder ( Guy Dimmond you know who you are you sham! ) Fay M's Evening Standard guide is worth picking up and her opinions are usually pretty sound. You can read many of them on http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/html/food/ea...top_direct.html This is a pretty decent site in general apart from when you have to read the pathetic ramblings of that know nothing arriviste Nick Foulkes. Hope this helps and welcome to civilisation S

I have not tried City Rhodes for many of the reasons expressed here. It sounds way too clinical. Rhodes in The Square was very good on my last visit and, while very expensive, it was more than a match for other places at its level ( GR's @ C and The Square ) S

I think the real truth is in the diversity of eating choices with which we are faced. If a restaurant does not perform on the first visit, then there are too many other places that one can go to to have to return. If the restaurant does perform, it becomes one of the regular haunts. There is little space inbetween. It also depends where one is. For example. I am in NY infrequently enough that if a place does not shine, I have plenty of choices for my next visit. On my recent trip I was at Lupa and Blue Hill. Neither were bad, but neither really shone. If I was living in NY, I might give them the benefit of the doubt, but as it is, there are too many other places I want to try. In London, however, I take a different view. If a place stinks for the first time of asking, then that is it ( GR's @ C's ). If it is OK, I might give another try ( Eyre Bros ) and it could become a regular. If it is teriffic, it becomes one of the regular haunts ( as Sutton Arms is already becoming ) S

I think the description fits so many of my ex's S