Adam Balic

Nice shot Austin (I'm looking forward to reading your impressions of the food in Laos and seeing how it compares to the pre-revolution cuisine I have read about BTW). This is one of my lunchs, plonked on a pate. Good (Italian) natural lighting and a £100 digital camera, snapped off with no real thought. OK, it isn't art, but a lot of images of this quality are now apearing in the print, and I imagine that as little thought has been put into these as well. So for a professional to survive now, does this mean that you have to put into a project? Writer/researcher/photgrapher, rather then food photgrapher? Or has this always been the case?

I'm not sure it's about 'schools'. Fashion in the 60s was revolutionised by light, mobile 35mm cameras with fast lenses, fast film and a magazine industry and audience hungry for a new informality. The idea of a Bailey/Duffy/Donovan 'golden age' is hindsight. Today we're seeing cameras that can get a great shot without a great deal of technical wrangling and an audience who want to see food looking a bit more accessible. It's not like anyone sat down and planned it. My concern is what it leads to next. ← I love the fact that the more relaxed attitude towards food images means that images of markets and produce etc get published much more often. I find this to be informative and educational. But, I guess this comes at a price.

I very much like the style of Robert Freson, would this be considered newe or old style?

Old: Any Delia Smith New: Any Jamie, Nigel, Nigella, Hugh ← Ah yes, the ""Lets be avin' ya!" v "Many kids can tell you about drugs but do not know what celery or courgettes taste like. " schools of thought. I like the old style shots as when they were good they were iconic, but I also like the 'honesty' of the newer style. For instance, in the old style shots with perfect perfect food, you felt like shit as your attempt at X recipe never looked as good as the photo (years later you find out that the perfectly golden piping hot roast chicken was; cold, painted and had a cigarette shoved up it's arse). Although the newer style may need less set-up and equipment, I'm not sure that it is easy to do well. I am of the strickly point-and-shot level of amateur bumbler and I can rarely get a good shot, even when the subjet looks great in the flesh. Some people seem to think they can, but this isn't the case often. So I think that from whatever school the images come from, a great image will remain a great image - Fergus Henderson on the meat hook, for instance.

Potentially, it would be useful to the discussion if examples of 'old high-brow' and 'new-pleb' styles of photography were given? Of similar subject material even?

Potentially, similar to the situation with "Anya" potatoes in the UK. They are a desiree x pink fir apple cross, while they resemble that latter and are a good product, there are inferior in flavour and texture to the parent. However, Anya was developed in 1985, while the PFA was developed prior to 1850, so I guess there could be other practical issues involved, like disease resistance, yield, storage etc. Still you have to hate the marketing speak, 'a tomato so tasty it can be eaten in a salad' for God's sake.

Frankenfood, no? ← "Experts say the new tomato is so tasty is can be eaten in salads, as a snack on its own...." I'd like to meet one of these experts while stamping on their throats screaming "Why does everything have to be about fucking marketing you gormless pricks, there have been excellent tomato breeds avalible for tens of decades, don'tcha think we know this"

I made this for dinner a few nights ago and we all really enjoyed it, thank you very much. I made a slight change and added some finely shredded ginger to the sauce, but other then that I followed the instructions exactly! Finally got to use the maltose that I bought many years ago.

Waverly Root mentions in ‘The Food of France’ a “Lou Pastis en Pot” from the Medoc (he mentions that name is derived from the old langre d’Oc (Occidental?). A earthenware pot is greased with lard, and lined with fig leaves and a few bay leaves, pork and beef are mixed with herbs and spice, then placed in the pot. New wine is poured in and it is cooked until half reduced. So far so conventional, but, the stew is allowed to cool, then it is capped with lard and stored for a day or so. More meat and wine is added (after removal of the fat) and the process is repeated. After a few cycles you get a jellied meat conserve. I have made it to this stage and it very good. Waverly Root suggests that as you take out the meat you replace it, so the individual stew can last for years. Years maybe, but 600 is even more fanciful then Rabelais.

That would be why AA Gill makes eGullet sound like an Australian site then. Those darn Australian rascals.

AA Gill mentions this egullet thread in the Sunday Times.

OK, I have made the first dish from Charles Perry's new translation of the 13th century Kitab al-Tabikh (The Book of Dishes), more commonly known as "A Baghdad Cookery Book". It is a very important work as it influenced the food of the Middle-East and Europe for hundreds of years. Todays culinary movements will have to survive to arond 2300 to make a similar impression. The recipe I decided on was Limuniyya (Lemon dish), as I have a personal like of sour dishes an this particular dish is one that was copied into early Europian culinary texts. Basically it is a very mild stew of lamb and veg, flavoured with spices and thickened with almond milk and mastic. I haven't cooked with mastic before, so I was quite surprised (stupidly) by its effect on the stew. It is a famous thickening agent, but I wasn't expecting the alteration it made to the mouthfeel of this dish. Essential it made the dish feel 'modern' as so many processed foods are thickened with similar gums. I know that mastic is now rarely used in Arabic savoury cooking, has anybody come across it's use? The spices from the top clockwise: Ginger, coriander, mastic, cinnamon (actually cassia), black pepper. The finished dish.

Very interesting stuff. As well as a thickening agent the almonds are a flavouring agent. Even modern sweet almonds will give you some 'almond' flavour if the almond milk is held in the raw state for a few hours. Based on my experiences in Morocco, I'm guessing that medieval almonds contained a resonable percentage of bitter almonds, so maybe even a stronger flavour? Like the proportion of spices used, another thing that isn't written in the recipes.

In "Traditional Recipes of Laos" by Phia Sing (published by Prospect Books), who was the Chef at the royal palace at Luang Prabang half a century ago mentions three 'Lap dishes, of water buffalo, fish and chicken. Interesting stuff, as there is so little published on the food of Laos it would be very interesting to know how these older recipes compare to what is made now? Did these recipes survive the revolution? Have dishes changed in a significant way, in a similoar way to the use of pork in souvlakis in Greece for instance.

There is a lot of gloop yes, but if it is brown then something is wrong as there is usually a big emphasis placed on bright colours or whiteness. In this case I reckon that there is a transcription error as the use of egg yolk and almonds is redundant - as they are both thickening agents. I lot of very similar recipes say things like 'if you have no almonds, then use egg yolks'. Also, these are not 'recipes' as such, more memory aids for professional cooks, I I think that a lot of very obvious things will be left out - which unfortunately doesn't help modern day cooks. I think that if you follow individual 'recipes' exactly then you will end up with some pretty nasty food, better to read many similar recipes to get an overall 'feel' for what is intended (he says while ducking the faux wimples through his way). Very nice cheesecake, similar tarts are still being made in parts of the UK, which is nice.

I think that a lot of the beef dishes where once based on water-buffalo. The dried skin of his beast is/was used in some dishes. Game dishes seem popular also. Also "padek" (fermented whole/large chunks of freshwater fish) is used a lot in the cuisine.

You beat me to it! Prospect Books has published two very interesting books on the traditional foods of Laos (especially fish).

More then likely depends on what type of Thai and Laotian food you are talking about. They share a long border and I would guess that along this the cuisines are going to be more similar, then say the south of Thailand and the North of Laos. One difference would be the access to the sea and hence seafood. Loas has a big fish cuisne based on freshwater species (although many of them resemble altwater type fish). Since we are talking about Laotian food, here is some I made aweek of so ago. Pounded lemon grass stalks, filled with a pork mixture, then grilled.

Dinner went 14th century and French tonight Well actually similar dishes are found in English and Italian recipe collections from the same period, but this is from Le Viandier by Taillevent (Guillaume Tirel) from the end of the 14th century. Some of you may recognise the name. BLANC BROUET DE CHAPPONS. Cuis en vin et en eaue, puis despeciez par membres, et frisiez en sain de lart, et puis brayez amendes et des brahons de voz chappons, et des foyes, et deffaictes de vostre boullon, et mettez boullir sur vostre viande; puis prenez gingenbre, girofle, garingal, poivre long, grainne de paradiz, et deffaictes de vinaigre, et faictes bien boullir ensemble, et y fillez moyeulx d'oeufz bien batuz; et soit bien lyant. If Old French isn't your thing then try this: Cook them [capon] in wine and water, dismember them, and fry them in lard. Crush almonds with some capon livers and dark meat, steep in your broth, and put to boil on your meat. Take ginger, cloves, galingale, long pepper and grains of paradise, and steep in vinegar. Boil well together, and thread in well beaten egg yolks. It should be well thickened. Here are the spices. From the clockside from the clove, ginger, long pepper, grains of paradise and galingale. Although I can get the ginger and galingale in the fresh state here, I decided to use the dried versions in this instance. After pounding, this is the resulting powder. All of these spices are "hot" and a quick taste comfirmed this, sort of a medium chilli sort of heat. This fits into the notion of balancing of the humours, which was the medical theory at the time, the hot/dry spices complimented the cold/moist chicken. Maybe even a dish for old men with young wives... So the chicken browns nicely in lard (thank god for Polish delis), while the sauce is prepared seperately. Yay pressure cooker. The finished dish. Also served with a green sauce from the same period. It is very similar to extant green sauces, except maybe that it is thickened with bread. Green sauce was good, but I didn't get the spice mixture right (a common issue with this type of cooking) - too much ginger. Also, I need to get an immersion blender.

Is farmed seabass ever any good? Will it beat Westmorland services on the M6 at Tebay, it has a farm shop an everything.

Risotto alla Milanese from the Lombardy thread. This recipe contains beef marrow, red wine and beef stock, so it isn't as yellow-yellow as many recipes for the same dish. Great flavour though.

In general the worms are actually in the viscera and are not active. When the fish dies they move into the flesh. They do this as their next host is a dolphin/seal/whale etc and this increases their chances of being eaten. But, I sure that parasits can cause irratation. Salmon leaping out of the water is thought to be a response to sea-lice infeastation in some cases. Unpleasant, but normal. 1/3 of the worlds human population is infected with some type of worm, avout 10% of these have a disease state. The same will be try of most wild animals.

Worms in fish as described and like this are very common. In fact it is quite rare not to fine them in wild caught fish. Some fish types have more then others, but I nearly always find one or two in fish of a certain size.

Velvet swimmer crab (Necora puber). One of the most common crabs in UK waters. Smallish, but very good flavour for stocks and stews. These chaps ended up in the pressure cooker to make a SE-Asian soup base.

It should be remembered that while a lot of the media's interest has been in the possibility of the strain mutating so that human to human transmission is possible, this strain of virus in its current form is still a threat to poultry. In fact this influenza strain was first isolated from a dead chicken from Aberdeen in the 1959. Given the present UK government's reaction to F&M, it is entirely possible that they will place a ban of the out-door rearing of poultry. Infact, noises to this effect have already been made.