[Good food in Oxford?]

Thanks for the Al-Shami recommendation - good location for us, too.

[Good food in Oxford?]

Actually, Cherwell Boathouse might be just the ticket. The food, as I recall from a visit about four years ago, varies a lot, but it is unfailingly pleasant there on a nice evening. Not at all a trek - we'll be staying in north Oxford as it is.

[Good food in Oxford?]

Thanks - looks nice, but it's too far away; we'll be on foot.

[Good food in Oxford?]

Thanks - the White Hart sounds terrific, but I don't think it's really practical for our purposes: just too far away. The idea was to walk to and from wherever we decide upon.

[Good food in Oxford?]

Let me revive this thread. Any recommendations in central or north Oxford - up as far as, say, Summertown or a little beyond? In years past, we've enjoyed Chiang Mai Kitchen and, up to a point, Gee's. Neither type of cuisine nor budget a major consideration, though we're not looking to spend Manoir aux Quat'Saisons prices.

Thanks, all.

[Noma]

Have you contacted the restaurant?

[Anchor & Hope, Waterloo]

I agree that hanging around a bar, drinking, while waiting for a table rather spoils one's dinner. However, Anchor & Hope's proximity to the Old Vic makes it an ideal place for after-theatre supper: by that hour, the wait is minimal or non-existent. At the same time, of course, many items are off the menu, but there's enough to put together a good meal. Is that not the key to visiting no-reservations restaurants: going at off-hours?

[What to buy in Japan? Where? Knives? Else?]

Note that Aritsugu has a small Tokyo outlet, at Takashimaya's Nihombashi store.

[Hakata Ippudo]

For this and similar posts, I think it would be helpful if some information about the restaurant's address were included.

[Flour - bulk storage]

On the insect issue, bear in mind that occasionally they'll already be in there. In that case, the longer the flour is stored the more time they'll have to thrive and multiply.

[How do you store your fresh herbs?]

Or wrap stems in damp paper (or cloth) towel, then put in plastic bag.

[Great Valley Mills, PA]

Does anybody know: Has Great Valley Mills, of Barto, Pennsylvania, gone out of business?

[where's the fresh food gone?]

Is this not simply a reflection of the entire economy shutting down for the end-of-year / beginning-of-year holidays?

[Kitchen items you'll never be able to replace]

The Acme Safety Grater I inherited from my mother. The use of the word "safety" is a cruel joke: the thing is made of some sort of razor wire, strung tennis-racket-wise over a rectangular metal frame. It cannot be used without bodily injury. But potatoes grated on it make the only possible latkes.

[Switching to metric for the inept]

Doubling the C figure, oddly, works well enough for typical oven and frying temps. Otherwise, Steven, just use the system for a while and it'll start to feel normal. A great advantage of metrics is that 100g of dried pasta is a smaller and much better portion than 4 ounces.

[Free Range Chicken Advice]

Dry them well before freezing; they'll be just fine.

[Online Coffee Purveyors]

I've been very happy with intelligentsiacoffee.com. Also counterculturecoffee.com

[Opinions on and Uses for Cottechino?]

They can also be steamed, for about 90 to 120 minutes.

[Stollen]

This is probably useless information for most members, but we just brought home the best stollen we’ve ever had – from Pierre Hermé in Paris.

[Madeleine pastry shop]

We were finally passing Madeleine Patisserie on foot yesterday and went in. Nice place, full of people writing on computers (mainly Macs, for what that's worth - perhaps because of proximity to Tekserve?).

We bought some breakfast things and some macaroons, and all were creditable or better. Textbook croissants, baked through (a pet peeve is when the interior remains underbaked) and adequately salted, with a well-developed flavor to the dough. Similar for other things made from the same dough - almond croissant and pain aux raisins. The macaroons vary, of course - there are so many flavors that some will inevitably be more successful than others; sometimes the use of flavorings was a bit heavy handed - but technically very good. We'll certainly return next time we're in that neighborhood.

[Wine lists in high-end restaurants]

I'll be interested to hear from sharonb what she finds on the Meurice wine list - we'll be eating there towards the end of November. On my two past visits to the restaurant, other people chose the wine and indeed the food, so I was insulated from the process. Sharonb is right, I think, that Yannick Alléno is a city boy - I bet the family has roots somewhere in Deep France, though. Either that or my theory about nobody being from Paris is all wrong.

[Wine lists in high-end restaurants]

As with John Talbott, wine is not my beat, but let me interject that if you are eating in a fancy restaurant outside Paris it can be very rewarding to ask about local or at least regional wines rather than going right to the fifty pages of Famous Chateaux. Such restaurants and their wine buyers are likely to have good relationships with winemakers in the neighborhood, and it is possible to raise quite a bit of enthusiasm in a sommelier by asking about little-known local bottlings. Even in Paris, the owner's/chef's/sommelier's "home" region (no one is FROM Paris, of course) can be fertile ground for exploration at a reasonable price.

[Pierre Herme]

Evoking my weeks-old thread on Paris salons de the', I do wish that Herme' would buy a few tables and chairs - and a room to set them up in. <Sigh>

[Fish restaurants in Paris]

This has all been very helpful; thanks, all. Not that any reservations have actually been made - we're in Paris for only four nights, two of which are already bespoken.

[Top Grocery Bargains in Manhattan]

The city's various Chinatowns, and perhaps Jackson Heights and Astoria in Queens, would be good places to start.