Simon Majumdar

I love bread and rice but as part of my low carb hell, I have to do without both If I go somewhere and they have Poilaine, then I have some but otherwise neither pass my lips. now 55lbs down and counting S

I was there in May for lunch The service was excellent and it has been everytime ( 3 ) I have visited. The fish was wonderfully fresh and provided the perfect light meal. I had some excellent soft shell crab and a grilled something or other which escapes my mind, but it was good They had a good list of wines by the glass All in all for a lunchtime meal, a good selection. The bar area downstairs was packed but there were only three tables taken in the main dining room I didn't know about the link with Bouley. I had one of the more disappointing meals there S

Suvir Fantastic Thanks for all of this offal action. I am off on a trip to Scandanavia this weekend, but I see the next weekend being up to my eyes in entrails S

Tony you are a legend, a great and a God S

Suvir Sorry, I was being insensitive to all that has gone before. Forgive me. I was assuming trotters meant pigs trotters and couldn't quite make the link with my many moslem friends gnawing down on the hoof of pig. S

I love trotters in all preparations just a thought though, would not eating trotters be repugnant to a moslem? S

Suvir Thank you. I can't wait to hear the ideas you get from your Pakistani friend S

As vegetarian food in India is so wonderful, the place of meat often gets forgotten. In fact people assume you are a vegatarian unless you say that you are "non-veg" This often covers up the wonderful meat dishes that you can find in so many regions. One thing i have not been able to track down with any great success is a use of offal I love offal in all its forms. I think it is disengenuous to kill an animal and not try and eat all of it. I love the kidneys, the spleen, the hearts etc but my own cuisine seems lacking. Am I missing something? I have had a wonderful brain curry in Delhi, but that was it. Where in india do they specialise in offal and how do they prepare it. Any clues? S

Hi Tony If, as you say, you spend increasingly less time in the kitchen, how do you describe or indeed see yourself Are you a writer? Are you a food writer Are you a TV Personality And no, you can't say " all of the above' Best S

Steve, good questions. India has had phenomenal revolutions but they have been slower and (relatively) bloodless. Independence, partition etc have all played their part. what has been most influential, I would hazzard has been the opening up of India to Japan and the West. Non Indian companies have brought with them non India wages and non Indian expectations The globalisation of TV has also played a part with Star TV advertising American and Japanese goods all of which push all the right aspirational buttons. I can't truly speak to where chefs come from in India. In rich households many men would not be allowed in the kitchen. In poorer ones they would be out working. Again these strict boundaries are eroding India is a country of 1000 faces and there is no easy explanation for anything that happens there. I always offer up one anecdote by way of describing India Once when I was visiting the Taj Mahal in Agra, I stayed at the very exclusive hotel ( The Oberoi I think ) Sitting on the lawn having a Fresh Lime Soda ( with salt, of course ) I watched the workers mowing the lawn. The hotel had bought a state of the art sit upon tractor mower to do the job. But, this being India they could not get parts nor the correct fuel, so the mower was pulled by a team of oxen with three men behind it to guide the driver There Steve is India in a snapshot. Never, ever expect it to make sense, just enjoy it for what it is S

Blondie from our one meeting, don't you just want anywhere with a bar and high seats and low morals? S

I am lucky to live in the one place I would truly want to live, London. If I had to choose anywhere else, it would be a small isolated cottage on the west coast of Ireland ( preferably Clifden in Galway ) overlooking the bay and within easy reach of the mussel markets and oyster beds.

Gary, point taken,but I don't think people are going there for Mark Askew, however good a chap he is ( NB coming from Skipton is NOT a good thing ) they are going there for the experience of the man whose name is above the door. While I am sure none of us think they are slaving behind the stove, on a Saturday night it would be somehting to know that they might be in place to cast an occasional eye ( question, what is an occasional eye all the rest of the time?) over what comes out of their eponymous kitchen rather than ligging Ooop North S

Steve I am going to chip in here if I may. I think the increase of a "restaurant" culture owes itself to political and sociological factors ( which by necessity are down to foreign influences ) first of all, while India has not had a history of "dining' out, it has a centuries long tradition of eating outside. Street food is the very essence of Indian cuisine and is at the heart of the wonderful "freshly prepared" magic of the cuisines of the sub continent. But what you say is true, there has not been, until the last 50 yrs or so, a culture of visiting restaurants. The emergence of this culture is down to the emergence of a middle class and like wise the emergence of disposable income. Previously in India, and I know this from my own experience, people were very very wealthy or living at a subsistence level. In the last 50 years ( and this is where outside influences have come in, India has moved from a self sufficient agricultural society to one that is now equally based in high end technology. People have money to spend and want to spend it. Just as you will see a raise in restaurant visits, you will see the same in records purchased, books purchased and cinemas visited.

I did see the Lear fight in its full glory ( Ramsay of course, being a glory boy and no more a boxing fan that he is a decent restauranteur only showed for the main event ) Lear did well and worked hard behind the jab. He deserved the win and did well to go over 6 rounds for the first time. Gomez is very limited though, which in a pleasing circle, brings me back to Ramsay S

I wonder if the fat faux scottish chef of some repute and his companion who were sitting in front of me at ringside on Saturday at the Ricky Hatton/Eamonn McGee fight have any relationionship to Gordon Ramsay and Marcus Wareing ( sp?) I am sure that all those who went to RHR and GR's @ C's on Saturday were offered a huge discount by way of recompense for the person who trades with his name above the door "slumming it" with the boxing crowd instead of cooking for those who were paying upwards of £200 for the pleasure of having one of his Sous cook. S

Suvir I am just back from a trip and was lucky enough to read this post on my return. Quite exceptional Thank you. S

Jinmyo A pie by any other name.........

The key, I have found is to have a sufficiently thick batter. this acts to protect the vegetables inside from the oil and allows the contents to steam rather than fry. This releases all their wonderful natural sweetness. in the same way that fish and chips in England had batter to protect the fish while it was cooking. This batter was then thrown away and the fish eaten. fortunately we have become more "civilised" now and learned to love the batter Good gram flour is essential and I like to spice it up with a little cayenne and cumin. Best suited for the contents are cauliflower and onions and also a mix of mashed potato and peas with spices. A great dip is simple yoghurt and carriander whizzed in a blender

On the UK board we have been discussing the pro's and cons of certain "modern Indian" restaurants and it made me wonder if there is a discernable historical path that can be followed with food from the subcontinent in the way that one can see with the development of French food over, let's say the last 200 years What I am really asking, I guess, is " is the food we find in the regions of India today, the same as that we would have found 150 years ago. Have techniques developed ( and not just with the advent of labour saving devices ) and have ingredients changed? This is not a question of whether outside influences have "fused' with the cookery of India, but whether as a culture of its own, the food has grown over time. For example, are there any great histories of Indian food? The sign of a true cuisine, perhaps? S

John - I take that as a huge compliment, you old lefty, you Gareth/Tony - I remain obdurate in my dislike of CSN. I have never had a wow factor there ( four visits ) but I have had a number of Ugh! experiences. in the end, at the risk of sounding "Fascisti" I crave purity from my Indian food. I have no problem with cooking developing over time and indeed Indian food has developed over the years. The range and depth of what is on offer both in homes and restaurants is far different to what has gone before. It is lighter, less ghee based and more judicious in its use of spices. I, of course, am not counting curry houses in this as they remain atrophied in their 1950's splendour ( and perhaps this is why people like them for the comfortable point of reference they offer, like putting on a comfortable pair of shoes ) What many of these other places listed above do is make a change that is based entirely in artifice. So ingredients that make no sense in the context of Indian cookery suddenly appear on Menu. So the Cinammon Club offers a Dhansak "en Daube" for God's sake. I have no problem with the Pig cheek actually Tony as it is a staple of Goan cookery. If it was prepared that way. It is the original cut of meat in a vindaloo. Give me honesty or give me death!! All best S

Stella Or may I call you "mistress whiplash?" A) I am now, even more looking forward to meeting you as I am a very naughty boy. I never said Nigella was just a ding dong with big tatties. I merely said she was a harmless person with big tatties. There is a big difference. Apart from the tatties, of course. S

That sounds amazing for brekkie. I am not sure that we can find serrano peppers here , but I will check it out and give it a try. Thanks S

I love the idea of " any chili stories" Once upon a time, there were two chili's etc...... I am going to go back to my Bengali experiences here. Chili is used predominately as a backnote rather than as a producer of heat. Although to many western tongues, Bengali food may be spicy, compared to most regions of India, it is quite mild. I find when I am making many dishes, a cautious use of chili brings all the flavours to the fore. I describe it as turning on the ignition. For choice, I find using one or two of the small but potent birds eye chili ( from Thailand, I think ) to be the best and I prefer to use the seeds, but some people do not. I find in Dhal a single chili can lift the whole dish and compliments the lemony flavour of mushu ( never know how to spell that ) dhal. I also have a recipe for river fish which involved rubbing the inside and out of the fish with a chili, oil and turmeric paste which has been fried to take off the rawness. I wrap the fish in foil with slices of lime and bake for 20 or so minutes it makes a great taste and a superb jhol. fianlly, I think that my tastes are now so attuned to chili, that I cannot make many things without them. Again for the ignition qualities rather than the heat. I use them as an undernote in soups, stews even in Boston baked beans. One of, if not the most essential items in my larder. S

NYT I saw lot's of mentions of MIGAS when I was in Texas but never quite figured it out. Could you fill me in? Thanks. BTW - if you have not seen my post on the General board, just loved Austin. Probably the most chilled out town I have visited in the US. S