Tonyfinch

Blimey Steve. You're a right one to tell people to grit their teeth and not pay attention to a discussion.Would you have done this if people were discussing,say,the benefits of anti-semitism,or of lynching black people?(maybe it would depend on how big they were) I'm not saying that Jaybee,s conversation is comparable but the point is that something is offensive if someone is offended by it,not when one decides whether they should or shouldn't be offended by it. In this case Jaybee had a choice to either comply with or ignore the request. One may not always feel comfortable making such choices,but its Jaybee that has to deal with that discomfort and the woman should not be blamed for expressing how she felt.

I realize it's hardly an original suggestion but if you want "fantastic and memorable" then I think you're hard pushed to beat Le Gavroche. I've been lucky enough to have eaten there 3 times and no other restaurant in London in my experience makes you feel so cossetted and special. On each occasion I have come out feeling elated and I've already chosen it for my 20th wedding anniversary next year (I might even ask my wife along if she plays her cards right). Yeah its bloody expensive but probably not much more so than the others you mentioned and it has the advantage over GR in that you can eat when YOU want and not when you're told-they make you feel your custom is a privelige,not that you're lucky to have been allowed to eat there.

Why would chiding him NOT be the expression of a sincere emotion? I think you're making some rather odd distinctions here. Are you saying its OK to ask him to pipe down if she's genuinely upset,but not if she isn't and is just a "testy sort"? Many people in the West deal with death by NOT talking about it. And they don't want to hear others talking about it either.Death in America is an offensive subject to be talking about in restaurants. She felt offended enough to let Jaybee know and that is her right,whatever her emotional state. Jaybee doesn't have to shut up if he doesn't want to and can politely tell her to mind her own business. Whether one SHOULD be offended by such a conversation is a totally different discussion but to suggest that one should be free to discuss anything in public is nonsense.

I love America but when there I know there's one thing you mustn't talk about .........DEATH!!! It just doesn't exist there and that's it. Americans are all immortal until they die.

Fellow e gulleteer Magnolia and I used to belong to a wine club in London where the guy who ran it,apart from having an amazing cellar,worked on the basis that the older the wine the better. For a comparatively modest fee he would open bottles of 1904 this,1927 that, 1945 the other. Any French red made post 61 was too young for him. While some of these wines hadn't completely dried out most of them tasted like old used vegetable water to me,but he would rave about them,claiming he could detect "the essence of Margaux" or "the soul of Romanee-Conti" and so on. While it was certainly interesting to taste some of these old wines,I couldn't help being a touch sceptical about their quality and the whole issue of keeping wine for nearly a century before you drink it. Surely they are NOT made to last this long and I feel there was something of the emperor having no clothes on about our beloved leader's admiration for them.

I think Evelyn Waugh understood what really matters: "I forget the name of the place.I forget the name of the girl. But the wine.....ah,the wine was Chambertin."

Serious aberration??? That Turkey in Wellingtons was a thing of erotic wonder.By the time he'd finished I didn't know whether I wanted to eat it or sleep with it.I've certainly never been able to look at turkeys in the same light since. If Rhodes does have a fondness for the baroque it certainly didn't come through to me at his restaurants,which offer well cooked,well presented but actually quite conservative,risk free food.Maybe Jay you could ask him about this.Does he feel constrained about experimenting ? Or is he more of a 'well if it ain't broke don't fix it type'?

I lean towards sainthood . As Adam says he isn't condescending or contemptuous towards people and I think he handled the Masterchef format exceptionally well. Also,his Turkey Wellington on TV a few months ago was a piece of gastroporn so hardcore that one was left drooling with awe and wonder. I,ve eaten in both the London restaurants and really enjoyed both meals. However one wonders at his level of day to day involvement given that,at Rhodes in the Square at least,someone else is named as Head Chef on the menu and the menu doesn't change that often which,given his culinary retlessness,you might expect it to do. Maybe you could ask him just how involved he is

Up in the Barrio Alto district of Lisbon,near the Fado bars,is the Lisbon branch of the Port Wine Institute. This is my favourite bar in Europe.Hard to find behind heavy oak doors and a small plaque sign,it is cool and dark,with dimly lit alcoves and comfortable leather sofas and chairs and dark wood furniture. There is no music,no food and no drinks...apart from port,of which there is a fantastic range by the glass.Obviously if you're no port lover this place isn't for you. If you are ....welcome to vinous paradise. I've spent many happy hours in this place (though not since 1995 so I hope its not changed) and drank many fine glasses of port.However a glass of 1945 Grahams,followed by Fonseca 63 drunk in 1992 had me thinking this might not be such a bad place to spend eternity-always assuming various outside caterers could be brought in to cook-. Truly stunning wines

The best saag dish I've ever eaten was in an Indian restaurant in Phuket,Thailand where the spinach had been cooked right down with mustard leaves,mint leaves and lots of garlic and chilli before being pureed with a little yogurt into a smooth,emerald green pool and served with cornbread rotis.Yum!

In 1978 a colleague and I took some emotionally disturbed children on a caravan holiday in Kent, After an exhausting day we finallty got them settled down to sleep whereupon he pulled out a bottle of 1976 Brouilly from Combillaty -a beaujolais cru which he'd picked up at the local Tescos-and poured it into two tumblers. We drank the first tumbler in silence,then looked at each other and went "Wow!" This wine tasted like silken nectar and after finishing the bottle we felt the day had begun again. Objectively it may not count as a great wine but it was a long time before I enjoyed a bottle of wine so much again. The 1981 Grange ,drunk in 1999,was the essence of Australian Shiraz-what all the others are aspiring to.

But are you going to quote her on the menu?(assuming a positive report)

YMing may be so called because the proprieter's name is Christine Yau. According to the Time Out guide she is "dedicated to the cause of promoting good Chinese food in Britain and is one of the driving forces behind the new Chinese chef's course at Westminster College". My meal there was fine, although apart from one dish I can't say the food was noticeably superior to other nearby Chinese restaurants,although the atmosphere and service were more relaxed than in many Gerrard St/Lisle St places. The best dish for me was Spiced Aubergine. I am not a lover of this vegetable but I think this restaurant has it sussed-soft but not slimy,chunky and juicy and humming with garlic,it really hit the spot.

For me external factors always play a part. As a student I worked for two successive harvests on the vendage at Chateau Pavie in St. Emilion. It was a wonderful experience (for the young and the fit) and I was given a bottle of the 1970 which I drank in about '95 and which brought back all the heady aspects of those youthful years.

Cabrales,there were no other dishes on the menu so endorsed. I suppose its not that different to critics quotes on the billboards of theatres " I laughed till I cried" and so on. When you think about it its surprising we don't see critics cited on menus more often if they've enjoyed a particular dish.

Now they're being cited on menus! At YMing in Greek St tonight I opened up the menu to read: "Double Braised Pork In Hot Pot.Highly recommended by Matthew Fort of The Guardian, Jay Rayner,The Observer,Jonathan Meades,The Times-soft and tender £9 " I'm not sure whether the last words referred to Meades or the dish but with such an impressive line up of upturned thumbs I felt compelled to order the dish,which I have to say was more soft and disintegrating than soft and tender,although it was tasty. Question for Jay Rayner. DID you highly recommend this dish?

It irks me no end not only that JSP feels able to sneer at people who make more of a contribution to people's health and well being in a day than she'll ever make in her whole life,but that she feels confident enough to metaphorically wink at us and assume that we will agree that its a shame that really interesting,glamourous people like her (and by extension us) have to put up with these thoroughly dreary people (and their wives) in restaurants. Who the hell does this ugly ageing slapper think she is. Talentless and pointless, I think she should be shot along with Macrosan and Adam (who think you can't get a decent scoff for 26 smackers in London).

Now I think about it she can't be mixing with any Jewish people because in the article she also says that when she first reviewed GR for Vogue she couldn hardly find anyone willing to go with her,so intinidated were they all by GR and a 3 star restaurant. Can you imagine anybody Jewish turning down the chance of a completely free meal at a 3 starred Michelin restaurant ,even if you did have to spend the evening with JSP? I don't think so.She just wasn't asking us. She MUST be an anti-semite.

Steve,JSP is famous for her grotesque teeth so she must hate dentists too. Dentists, ear nose and throat consultants......THAT'S IT ! SHE'S AN ANTI-SEMITE!!

Steve,you should sign yourself off with one of those little phrases "Hates Pie.Loves Plov" Its very hard to get decent biryani or pulao in London restaurants.Some of the Pakistani restaurants do them as a special,but only on one night a week.Rice dishes like these don't take too kindly too waiting around and those kind of dishes are no good the next day. Iranian restaurants cook their rice so it forms a golden crust. You can buy special rice cookers which will do this.They will place a large slick of butter on the rice for you to stir in to taste. I don't know anywhere to get decent paella in London,but many Italian restaurants will do a risotto,insisting that it's cooked there and then and not served from an even recently cooked batch

In today's Independent on Sunday, Janet Street-Porter uses an obviously completely contrived spat between Gordon Ramsay and Terence Conran as an excuse to "review" The Orrery and GR@RHR. Her reviews are utterly without any style or interest save for one very nasty comment that her fellow diners at The Orrery were "thoroughly dreary" and that "they looked like a load of ear,nose and throat consultants from the London Clinic out with their wives" What does one make of such a remark? Do reviewers labour under the impression that it's the job of fellow diners to entertain them? What have ear,nose and throat consultants (or their wives) ever done to Janet Street Porter? One can only hope for Janet Street Porter's sake that she has no need to avail herself of the services of an ear nose and throat consultant (or one of their wives) in the near future or she might live(or not,as the case may be) to regret that piece of gratuitous unpleasantness.

I'm glad it was a Brit and a Swede who scored otherwise you'd be rabbiting on about how French goals are innately superior to any other goals-even in England

According to the Time Out guide Patogh serves meals until midnight daily and Maroush,on the Edgware Rd., serves until 2am.

I would think the yogurt would have to have a very high fat content to be an effective substitute for cream in cream sauces,otherwise it would curdle and split. I've always been dubious about yogurt's claim to being a "health food" . Eating a pot of yogurt may not be as unhealthy as eating a pot of cream.but that's not the same as having health giving qualities.Most yogurt consumed in the West is of the flavoured varieties and are as packed with additives,colourings and sweetners as any other junk food. Some producers of yogurt products make quite extravagant claims on the health front. Can they be justified?

I always thought a confit was a way of preserving meat in fat,mainly found in areas of Southern France. Last night,at Cantina Vinopolis in London, my rib eye was accompanied by "confit tomatoes".What arrived appeared to me to be a cooked tomato with a clove of garlic on top. I've also noticed on menus "confit of vegetables" ,"confit of onions", "confit of beetroot" etc. Is this just modern menu-speak (as in "pan-fried") or is there a special cooking technique being applied?