Adam Balic

Wilfrid - The sausage I dig. I mostly steam it then gently fry it to crisp up the skin (I like the carmelisation flavour), slice on the bias and add to rice/curry/stir fry/noodles etc. With the duck I will steam it in the bag, to warm it through. Congee is the most refined of rice dishes.

Could you make a type of Chinese Cassoulet with the sausage and the duck or would it be to sweet? You understand that I am only trying to impove the cuisine.

In my local Chinese supermarket I have noticed cyrovac bags of "Wind dried Duck" legs. What is it, how is it made and can I use it instead of confit duck legs?

Boiled two kilos of squat lobsters in salted water. Served with melted Italian alpine butter, toasted sour dough bread and lemon wedges. They really are the nicest flavoured crustacean that I have eaten. Pity they aren't commercially fished. Shaved a small summer truffle over some egg pasta (sauced in butter/olive oil). Nice. Truffle has made fridge a little stinky though.

But they have and they haven't been particularly successful at it. That's really what has us scratching our heads. Oh, in that case they should make it more French then, that always seems to work.

Ron - weirdly all the food here seems to be ment to be eaten while drinking or with a hangover. Best hangover cure to date: Vodka and Irn Bru (revoltingly sweet Scottish soft drink/soda) and black pudding and egg butty. A scottish friend told me the correct way to eat a Scotch pie: Make hole in lid, tilt to pour off fat, replace drained fat with sauce (brown) eat before it cools/sets.

No at all, it doens't need to be 'relevant', nor do I think that it would nessarily be improved by it, but it is curious that somebody hasn't given themselves the task of doing just that.

Yes, but forget the natives for the momment. Why hasn't somebody else stepped in? Doesn't make sense. Why hasn't some French chef crossed the bordre and set up? New season olive oil sorbert with a white truffle gnocco etc. After we set up the Ortolan farm, we really should do this new project.

We even have deep fried pizza here in Edinburgh. Today the University cafe was offering macaroni and cheese with chips. In this case, yes, Carbs do equal death. Especially when you combine them with fat and them fry them and sprinkle to whole lot with cheese. I like Scotland, in Australia I am of average height, but over here I am taller then most. Especially in Aberdeen.

Persians, Chinese and Thai all had a cuisine that was reserved for nobles etc, was very refined and was far removed from the food of the general populartion. Is this a form of Haute cuisine (sorry I was afraid to read the 'What is Haute cuisine?' thread)?

Steve - good point (although, I beleive that there are a few people in Italy that are doing similar things to Stein, although not with fish). Have you got any feel for why no foreign chefs have gone into Italy in the last ten years and represented the cuisine contempory modern gastronmic way? If the food/ingredients themself (not to mention the wine) excell, why hasn't some young turk spotted an oppertunity and gone for it? This doesn't make sense to me at all. Not enough Haute cuisine diners going to Italy?

Yes indeed. Over 650 pages on intelligently written Thai recipes, culture and history. Very 'authentic' sounding recipes, loads of information about why you make a curry paste in a particular way or why some ingredients work together. Also a large section on street/hawker type food. Nice hot pink cover too.

Oh yes most definately, it is a really rather funny, even if most of the context is not apparent most of the time. Reminds me of some of the threads on this site actually. How could you not read a book with two of the characters called Lord Kissmyarse and Lord Suckfizzle (I think the "F" is actually a "P")?

Pork? How about overload of pleasure suffered at the hands of four large breasted Valkaries, wearing nothing but skimpy bronze breast plates and Devil-may-care smiles, whilst in a bubble bath of asses milk with the water jet dial turned up to eleven? Just a thought.

So your saying a holistic approach to roast potato judging will be made? Risky.

"Gargantua & Pantagruel" by Francois Rabelais. Very funny it is too. "Thai Food" by David Thompson. Great cookbook, maybe the 'Classic' Thai cookbook of the future?

Will these be plain roasted spuds or will there be additional flavours (large hunck of meat, garlic, rosemary etc)? Maybe the two fats have diffrent properties when it comes to interacting with flavour componants, so what is the judging critria? Crispness of skin? Fluffiness of inner potato? Colour? Flavour? Aroma? Are you going to use the same spuds, what happens if one of the competitors brings in special Stud potatos? I would hate to see one of you using "Baking-White" while the other comes in all gussied up with "Spuntas". Rules, It think there neeeds to be rules.

Peter - I though we had a chat about getting our facts straight before attacking others?

Suvir - the eggplants that you use for this dish are they the same as what are called "Indian eggplants" on this site? Indian Eggplant?

Nah, you just have to give the finished dish a long winded name.

What Wilfrid said about a zillion words ago. Modern Gastronomy

Oh dear -- can't top that for poetry! And here I was going to suggest stuffing them with meat or the old crumb-and-cheese mixture. How prosaic. Well that really is the tricky thing with cooking with eggplant. You have to get all verbose with it. Eggplant

I asked about what exactly they were as I find that the baby European types can be very watery and collapse down down to nothing on baking. On that note I would suggest a Thai curry (red or dry) with snake beans. Preserves the colour and shape of the veg., looks like amethyst jewels on a red velvet cloth.

Show off!

When you say baby eggplant, do you mean small versions of the large purple European type of one of the Asian types of eggplants?