sockettrousers

Thanks for all the suggestions. We didn't go to Nahm in the end althoguh we didn't make it to Tom Aikens either. I suspect I've enjoyed his cooking at Peid a Terre in the past so I'm slightly disappointed. Mayb next time. Where we did eat and I'd thoroughly reccommend is Osia We ate there on our first night and when I was challenged for a good restaraunt that could take a business dinner 10 at short notice I opted to eat there again. I might have been away from the capital too long but the food at Osia is certainly different to anything I can get in France - not Heston Blumenthal or Sketch different but just drawn from a different set of tastes. Pretty good value in the wine cellar too. We also ate at Nara - excellent and very authentic Korean. Osia has a good bar for a pre dinner cocktail too and on the subject of bars, I'd also recommend the Player Bar - especially the Martini. Thanks for the help rog

I know this is probably an overposted question but I think it rates answering on a monthly basis :-) : After about a year away following 10 years as a london restaraunt narg, I'm returning at the weekend. I have a week in London and about 3 free nights. Where should I eat - I'm already meeting friends at the Cinnamon Club and I'd really like to try Naam but I've heard a lot of bad reports. Is Naam worth the cost/trip across town and what else is hot at the moment in town? r

I wouldn't wear Dockers if they were given away. Certainly not to Trevillant. If you're making an effort to eat somewhere special, make an effort and dress for the occasion. It can't make things worse. If you're not comfortable being ultra smart, wear a linnen suit and a casual shirt (no, not a polo shirt). If you're really worried, carry a tie in your pocket just in case you are under dressed. If you're a film star or a pop star, wear a tee shirt with your linnen suit - you can leave the tie at home in that case. I'd try to avoid walt's walking shoes. Forget those awful penny loafers too - you don't want to look like a banker. Madame should wear a simple frock and as many solitare diamonds as she has limbs.

I'm not sure that good sushi and reasonable go together - I find that sushi is one of the (few) foods where quality is generally proportional to price and I've never had what I'd class as really good sushi outside Tokyo, never mind Japan. The best sushi I've found in London is probably at Defune. It's near Marylebone high street. When you give up trying for cheap sushi and jut want the best in London, I think Nobu's sushi bar takes some beating. Some of the best O-Toro in the west. If you're in the area, I can also recommend Yan-Baru on Harcourt street just off the Edgeware road near Edgeware Road tube. It's a pretty basic Japanese place in a cellar. You can eat pretty authentic Japanese lunches (the Unaju is excellent) and low end Kaiseki style in the evening. I used to work next door and was constantly amazed that Yanbaru was never picked up by Time out etc. I think the London Japanese community keep it secret...

I went to Bhutan for a couple of weeks about two years ago and ate quite a lot of emadashi. It's not curried chillis, it's a side dish which consists of chillis boiled in water and then thickened with goats cheese. It's very good but very very hot. The strange thing is that although the Bhutaneese do eat a lot of chilli, they aren't particulalry hardened to it's effects and so they all sweat a lot and complain when eating emadashi. For the sake of completenes, Thai is the spiciest cuisine I've eaten. Bhutanese and Anglo Indian have some hot dishes but Thai food (especially in Thailand) has some staggeringly hot dishes and very little of it has no chillis.

No, we live in Vence. I'm very surprised that only one member (so far) has eaten Veyrat's food recently. cdh's friend's menu sounds pretty good. Especially "ail of 'langoustines' served with a frozen herb powder and an acidic sauce" and the "...effervescent tablet of truffle powder". r

Ever since Gault Millau gave Marc Veyrat its first ever 20/20 I've been planning a trip. Before I commit, I'd be interested to hear if anyone here has eaten M. Veyrat's food. If so, do you think it's worth the trip from 06 and the thousand plus euros for dinner for two and a room? r

One of the best things about moving to France is the fact that you can buy proper offal in the supermarket: pigs tail, cow's lungs and whole (or half) head of veal just ready to boil up.

Traditional Thai? Without chilli? Your version does sound simpler, I'll give it a try but I did think that the secret ingredient I found that got me closer to the 'real thing' was the coconut milk.

Thai boxing ring chicken. Or my interpretation of it at least. I've never found a published recepie that's as good as the stuff you get in Thailand so I'm on a quest to recreate it. So far, the recepie is different every time I make it based on the last time I made it/I have in/can buy but as long as you have lots of birdseye chilli, corriander, coconut milk, fish sauce and palm sugar you can't go far wrong. Some or all of the following will help: ground corriander seeds, lime leaves, galangal, ginger, garlic, tamarind pulp, lime zest, lime juice or shrimp paste. You're looking to make a thick sweet chilli paste that will caremelise during cooking. Mix everything together, marinade the wings in it and slap on a charcoal grill. Even better, give the chicken wings to the dog and spatchcock some quails.

Cow heel is fairly common in my native Lancashire and getting trendy in many British restaraunts. Can't say I'm a great fan of the traditional Lancashire dish (boiled with vinagar) but in the hands of a top chef I like it. BBQ ducks feet reminded me of a boxing day trip to a Chinese place in Soho (London) where we ordered braised ducks tongues. I like beef tongue but ducks tongues were slimy with a rubbery core. Not recommended. r

Or, if you want an easier read but without as much depth or rigor, try Peter Barham's The Science of Cooking

I'll raise you Japanese food torture*. I've eaten still kicking prawn sushi. I asked for ama-ebi, the sushi chef said he didn't have any but turned around and pointed at the fish tank offering "<undecipherable> ebi, very good" instead. We agreed and within split seconds, the prawns were out of the tank, shelled and on rice in front of us. Putting them in your mouth made them twitch. We also ate four year old oyster, shark smelt and fermented squid liver. In the same meal. Of course, raw and live are the same word in Japanese - I first discovered this in a teppan house where what I thought was fresh lobster was actually live lobster, grilled to death 6 inches from our noses. rog * of the food, not us. It was delicious.

No, we call it Ring of Fire. ...and the Johnny Cash song still brings a smile to my face. Every time.

I'm pretty sure that ulcers are not caused by what you eat (or drink), they're a viral infection so you don't need to worry about chilli induced ulcers. On the general subject, I believe that one can quite easily build up a tolerance to spicy food. My wife an I took our 2 month honeymoon in Vietnam and Thailand. When we got back to the UK (where I think the Thai food is still a lot hotter than the US) none of the spicy food seemed hot enough. Since then our tolerance has definitely declined; still good but not invulnerable We regularly discuss going back to Thailand to freshen up our curry muscles...

A lot of the really high end Japanese grown rice varieties are not available outside Japan. Japanese rice is relatively easy to get in the US but other countries vary. It was until recently difficult to get in the UK and is still pretty tough to get in France Japan is no longer self sufficient in rice, the government dropped this requirement (in force since the war) a few years ago. I imagine the subsidies they were having to pay to encourage farming were just too much to bear. The Japanese only really import Japanese style rice from the US as far as I know. There isn't much consumption of other varieties. rog

I have a friend who regularly has burritos smuggled into France from San Diego. They have to be frozen and encased in styrofoam to last the trip. I on the other hand smuggle black pudding back from England to France everytime I visit. anyone who visits gets the same request. Airport food smuggling is an icebreaker discussion for all ex-pats I also know Japanese people who regulalry smuggle kilos and kilos of rice whenever they leave Japan.

I have a friend who regularly has burritos smuggled into France from San Diego. They have to be frozen and encased in styrofoam to last the trip. I on the other hand smuggle black pudding back from England to France everytime I visit. anyone who visits gets the same request. Airport food smuggling is an icebreaker discussion for all ex-pats :-) I know Japanese people who regulalry smuggle kilos and kilos of rice whenever they leave Japan.

Specifically the exhaust manifold. It's an australian tradition - supposedly. Keith Floyd tried the same thing in Floyd Down Under. The piece was pretty ammusing and very Floydesque. He tried the steak, immediately spat is out and announced it was bloody awful. This guy seems to have a lot more success and knowhow. I like the cooking times quoted by speed.

Susan, You're right, I did want recipes. Still, nobody asks a question on the internet and expects a straight reply. Thanks for the shrimp pointers, I'll give them a try. r

Not sure if I have the _new_ ww cookbook, I have one which was only OK. I found the recipes tended to be a little uninspiring - the UK books seemed to try and cram a traditional mean 'n' two veg recepie into the limits rather than attempting to be creative within the limits. I suppose we ended up re-using about 10% of the recipes we tried.

I've decided that I (once again) need to lose a few pounds. I've been successful in the past with weight watchers which is basically fat and calorie control. The way we kept sane on this diet last time was very low calorie in the week followed by a no holds barred meal in or visit to a restaurant at the weekend. Does anyone have any suggestions for low calorie recipes that will keep our spirits up during the week? rog

I'd recommend confit turnips. Chop them into convenient size pieces and cook them very slowly in (oily chicken) stock. In general I'd recommend the small or baby varieties of turnip, if you confit them, lop the pointly bottom off them so they will stand to attention whilst cooking, you can even leave a few sprigs of green on the top. I'd also be tempted to make a Japanese style pickle out of them if you have a lot. As other people have said this should really be Daikon but who knows what will happen. I imagine the sugar, salt and water will remove a lot of the bitterness. rog