Tonyfinch

Er....shouldn't that be two? (or more peut-etre?)

Having partaken of Sam's roast rib I can vouch for her method. However a bone out cut which really works is rolled sirloin.

The fat is not always invisible. In a French restaurant butter will be presented. What is the cheese course but pure naked wedges of fat presented to you after you will typically already have consumed plenty in the form of foie gras or butter and cream in your starters and pre starters and main courses. And then in you're in for a dessert fest. filled with cream and sugar. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy these meals as much as anyone from time to time. But any idea that they are "balanced" in the sense of weight (as opposed to texture or flavour or colour etc.) is a nonsense. Clearly this type of balance is not as important to French cuiusine and despite attempts in the past to "lighten" it-Cuisine Minceur etc.-the culinary philosophies needed to do this properly have clearly been ignored.

To flavour,colour, texture etc. I would add "weight". French rerstaurant meals often use very rich ingredients-lots of foie gras, cream, butter,cheese,alcohol and sugar. It is easy for such food to leave one feeling bloated and sated at a relatively early stage in the meal. Recently,at a two star French restaurant in London, having declined a proffered cheese board, I was served a "pre-dessert", a dessert, and then chocolates and other sweetmeats with coffee-talk about sugar overload (I know you don't HAVE to eat it all but.......) Chinese, Japanese and other Asian cuisines at the top level are far and away ahead of French cuisine in terms of paying mind to the weight of the meal, but their influence on French restaurant food has been minimal because of rigidly conservative concepts by diners regarding the ingredients they require from a French meal (is there a top French restaurant anywhere which doesn't have at least one foie gras preparation on its menu?-there's your required fat content in any one meal for a start) and because of the French need to titillate the palate with an ever increasing number of courses rather than concentrating on satisfying the body and the soul.

No no. A brew off means a group of us get together and make our own hot chocolate and then taste and compare. As for me I'd just melt a load of finest dark chocolate and thin it down with a little water.

Weeell.........only just. I don't know about France so much but from a UK perspective, given the huge interest in and market for non-European cuisines the impression is that Michelin has had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the modern era. Even now it barely acknowledges the massive importance of Indian and Chinese cuisine in Britain and those few Indian restaurants it does recognize are Frenchifying the food,decor and service. And very high end and cutting edge restaurants such as Nobu and Nahm would never be awarded more than one star no matter how high the quality because to do so would mean questioning the hegemony of French cuisine.

Wot Craig said plus very thick,heavy and unbalanced-bit like a lot of people I know really

You could call it "Fressing With Plotz". My Booba would buy it.

Generally African restaurants have failed in London in the last decade and that's less to do with the food as a failure on the behalf of anyone who would be an African restaurateur to comprehend the service needs of London diners. African restaurants are traditionally slow and dismissive toward customers. The food is actually delicious when it arrives but too often the African concept of service jars with that of the customer . You can buy in to the "African time" notion of service or you can eat elsewhere. Like so much in Africa the concession to Western values will be ignored,one of the reasons why the post-pub African has never caught on like the Indian or the Chinese.

Mexican food as served in London is mushy pap designed to be sucked up through a straw by people with no teeth who need something to soak up the tequila. It is the worst cuisine in London and there isn't a Mexican restaurant worth going to. Some American type restaurants (Armadillo?) may serve some Mexican influenced specialities but you'd have to check.

At this rate we might have to organize The Great British Hot Chocolate Brew Off before long.

I don't want to put you off or anything but the 91 Grange needs at least another 8 years. I've had two bottles of the 83 recently and its only just beginning to open out.

The place is...."wall to wall celebs"......"if you have to ask the price you can't afford it".........."most fun I've had with my clothes on for a long time"..........Jesus Christ, do people actually get PAID for writing this drivel?

What sort of restaurant is La Table du Baltimore?

Blimey Bloated. We were there. I've just posted when I saw your post. We were the three guys (one bald) and the Asian woman on the corner table by the window. What time were you there?

Lovely meal at The Sutton Arms last night with the Majumdar boys. To me the place encapsulates the words "Dining Room" as opposed to restaurant, with its slightly rough and ready furniture and informal, very friendly atmosphere. Anna must qualify as the friendliest and pleasantest server in London. The place is "honest" in the sense that while it has no pretense towards gourmet fireworks it serves well cooked ,high quality ingredients at more than fair prices. The same goes for the wine list which has interesting selections, again at fair mark ups. Skate in gram flour with cucumber relish, Baked Egg and Cep, Veal chop on mustardised lentils, Onglet and Chips , bitter orange tart and chocolate pudding (and that was just my meal) were all washed down a treat by glasses of Lindaeur and bottles of Lastours Corbieres and topped off by coffee and calva. A satisfying meal that reinforces eating out as THE way to spend the evening.

Wot, straight out of his lunchbox?

Well I wasn't talking about it being painfully hot. Most properly cooked spicy food has a gentle pleasant heat. The practice of setting yourself alight with food is a peculiar ritual enacted by males who live north of the M25 after twelve pints of lager on a Saturday night.

My theory is different. Fire may be dangerous but it is also purgative and purifying and cleansing. When I eat chilli hot food I feel that my insides are being cleansed by the spice, that it is burning up all the poisons in my system and rendering me fresher and healthier. I know other people who feel this way. Of course I don't have any scientific basis for this theory, but then there isn't one for the other theory either.

Don't know about the best in London as I don't go out for burhers that often but I had a fine example ay Smollensky's in Wapping recently-really taste,juicy meat. I also enjoyed the burger at The Prospect Grill but found the rye bread bun a little unusual and slightly dry. Loved those caremelised onions though.

Interesting. Dry White Bordeaux is desparately unfashionable in the UK and its hard to find good examples through casual browsing. A possible reason is that the market is obsessed with single varietal wines and there is a perception that these are somehow superior in quality merely because they ARE single varietal. Also, possibly, Bordeaux is so well known for red wine that people believe that the white must of neccessity be of inferior quality. A few years ago I drank my way through a case of white Chateau La Louviere (can't recall the year) and enjoyed it as much as any white wine I have drunk since. I'll certainly keep a look out for 2001s since if they're that good there could well be bargains to be had.

Really? I thought I read somewhere that this was their biggest selling pizza, along with the Four Seasons. Why would they take one of their most popular product off the menu?

Sorry. Wrong thread.

Exactly why I've gone off Pizza. The best mouthfuls are the first two or three. Then its downhill from then on. By the time you get to the end of one of those big buggers it's like eating tomato and mozzarella flavoured wall filler.

Aha! Some Hunan revisionism at last! Soon you'll all be hating it as much as me.