Tonyfinch

You need to come off the pop for a while Gary. You've lost the ability to tell the difference between a pig and a dog.

I once wrote To Jane McQuitty after she'd once again followed in the wine critics tradition of describing a Madeira as "ideal with cake for elevenses" to ask her whether there was actually a world she knew about where people ate cake and drank Madeira at eleven o'clock in the morning and where was it? It is obviously to be found here. I shall visit at the first morning opportunity.

Basil, I phoned them and they were very helpful, ringing me back with taxi fares and times etc. They're a 20 minute walk from the ferry point. Think we'll see what the weather's like before making a decision. We're staying in a B&B at the top of the town-Roselyn? Hotels were all booked up except the Metropole which I remember Macrosan saying was hideously overpriced Really looking forward to seeing you and yours on Sunday

Baz, do us a favour. Pop round and tell 'em I'll have the sole and the pork belly, there's a love LML-very un Fat Quackery type menu no?

Tried to get in for Monday but they were fully booked. Still The Black Pig will make an interesting alternative. You can now come to your neck of the woods and not even think of going to Stein's.

What is? You don't know that you will agree with Majumdar's assessment until you try it our for yourself surely? I meant more bloody shame he hated it so much. You're right it, doesn't mean I will. I usually agree with him about Indian food, the India club excepted.

Bloody shame. I had hopes that this might be THE one. Isn't the chef the guy that took Tamarind to a Michelin star? Or am I mixed up? What we need is an Indian chef to name an Indian restaurant after himself. It's a shame Cyrus Todiwalla doesn't do it, its such a great name.

Gary, I'm lost in awe and admiration and sighing for my youth. I love the hotel's touch with the Smirnoff next to the tomato juice at breakfast. A touchingly old fashioned recognition that alcoholism is a path that sometimes needs clearing rather than blocking.

Anny, I'm a bit confused. Do you mean that if you want to eat in the cooking area as opposed to the main restaurant it costs £100 per head as opposed to £25 per head? Or do you get completely different food or something?

That's fine. I prefer being made to feel important to receiving favours. One might have to return favours

Will be there for dinner this coming Monday- and at Margot's the night before after Basildog kindly agreed to squeeze us in to his fully booked restaurant. Will report back

Crispy lentil dish? Circe, would you care to expound? The Cinammon Club is dire. An Indian restaurant ashamed to be Indian. Zaika is not hard to book. I got in the other Saturday at a couple of days notice.

Zaika was discussed very recently. Scroll down to thread: Compare and Contrast-Zaika and Tamarind

I offered a few months back to take Monica there, so Monica if you're interested you can PM me.

I've not been to Baltic but out of the ones I know I think RSJ is definitely your best bet. An alternative could be the top of the Oxo Tower (what's the restaurant called?). I've been up there but I haven't eaten there-It's a Harvey Nichols place Lovely views. Is it a rip off?

Went to Gordon Ramsey last week. Dinner was £65 for three courses. So drinking tap water you could get away with about £75 for two inc. service. Wine/bottled water/coffeee obviously extra but even so we "only" spent about £110 each. And this is the most expensive restaurant in the UK besides Sketch in London and (probably) Le Manoir near Oxford. Seems three stars in France and top places in NY are much more expensive.

Jon's right. The Capital, Foliage, Restaurant One-o One and The Square are all open on Sundays-The Square for dinner only. Nobu is also open for Sunday dinner.

Finally got to Zaika last night. First thing I noticed was that there were Indian families and couples eating there-not something I can say I've noticed particularly at other "upmarket " Indian restaurants. I enjoyed the meal and the evening. It knocked Cinammon Club into a corner. The lobster dish Jay described above was outstanding, as was Roganjosh-a lamb shank and pieces of lamb in a rich dark, onion and tomato sauce. A "duck platter" starter was less successful-the duck was dry, a pointless quality in duck. A trio of scallops was a touch bland. Spicing was generally subtle and complex,coming through on the palate giving some of the dishes a "long finish" as per wine. I can't say I feel as effusive as Jay. I think I just have a problem with this genre of Indian restaurant. Why Frenchify? Why call the tasting menu "Menu Gourmand"? Why describe a sauce as a "jus"? Why have pointless streaks of colour across a plate? Why have an "amuse" (a frothy coffee cup of coconut and pistachio-tasty but a bit sweet for an opener)? Why call something a "risotto" instead of a pullao (not French, I know, but part of the same thing)? I'm quite willing to accept that this is my problem as its obviously the way Indian restaurants are going and I can but keep trying. But despite enjoying it I still say give me New Tayyab anyday.

The myth that smokers need to smoke at all is pure myth. Why Alan Carr's "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking" is not available on the national health is beyond me. It is a book which would do more to alleviate health problems than any other book ever written.

Funny. Until that meal I always thought finaciers were people who shouted at each other all day in the city and then went out and drank bucketloads of champagne and then shouted at waiters in Indian restaurants.

Delighted to see Carnivore in Nairobi still in (if only just) but its got to be for the experience and the atmosphere rather than just the food. A huge restaurant with a massive pit furnace in the centre and dozens of servers walking around with massive skewers of goat, impala, ostrich, ibex, ("some more ibex with your wine sir?"), giraffe etc. as well as the more conventional chicken, lamb, beef etc. its a vegetarian's deepest circle of hell (and worthy of inclusion on those grounds alone IMO) But in the end it is just BBQ'd meat, hardly inventive cooking. There's actually better cooking going on in Kenya-at the Minar Indian restaurant in Nairobi and at The Tamarind fish restaurant in Mombasa (actually I haven't been to any of these restaurants since..er...1985 but I HEAR they're all still terrific.)

Actually I don't think the vegetarians would have fucked the onion soup as I'm pretty sure it was made with chicken stock-and a damn fine chicken stock at that. Come to think of it, the others may correct me, but I don't recall anything on the menu at all for veggies, at least not in the main courses. I agree with the above comments. Odd to criticise foie gras for being too much like liver because of course.....it is liver, but the tranche was more like the texture of fine calves liver rather than the melt in the mouth goo that you can get from sauteeing (as opposed to roasting) it. The food was all very intense , beautifully presented, very heavy on sugar at the end with pre dessert, a whole panapoly of amazingly rich desserts, chocolates and little cakes at the end with coffee etc. I really enjoyed it but it reconfirmed my feeling that I could only eat this kind of meal once every....oh I dunno....two days?

In Ethiopia and surrounds the basis for these stews are known as "wots"-onions,garlic,chillies,herbs tomatoes (sometimes),spices and butter/oil sauteed slowly until they become dark and rich before the main ingredient is added. Also in Ethiopia a spongy bread called Injera (various spellings), often made with a slightly fermented sourdough, is as common a staple as maize

I forgot to mention Cassava(Mogo in Swahili) a hugely popular staple throughout the region. Coconut and sugar cane are also ubiquitous.

In Kenya the staple is Ugali, ground maize-polenta, basically-which is boiled and stirred until it becomes a thick porridge and then is shaped by the diner into a ball and used to mop up the meat or fish dish or what ever constitutes the stew. Lots of maize is also eaten on the cob, not boiled with butter but roasted and sprinkled with chilli and lime. Roasted meat, mainly goat, is cooked at parties and gatherings on holidays and weekends.Groundnut oil and palm oil are the main cooking mediums. In parts of East Africa Indians were bought over to build the railroads. They were kicked out of Uganda in the seventies but they remain in Kenya and Tanzania and Indian food is very popular throughout the region.