Charlene Leonard

nope.

anyone know what Heston has done with the rest of the liquid nitrogen...? --------------------------------------------------- Smoked eel and creamed horseradish Cornish Cock Crab Bread and Butter Pudding with Orange Custard ---------------------------------------------------

Magpie Cafe.

the local chippie 'round corner from Rotherham Comp?

bringing this back to the top again.

surely that's a given - some luxury Country House for a slap up dinner for two. I have no internet access over the weekend, so you will all have to wait until Monday morning to see if you are correct. (no-one is so far).

surely the dessert would be 'Waffle served with lots of cheese'

there's your answer....

Locanda Locatelli? But i think the starters are more expensive than that so suggests it would be somewhere outside of London.

maybe an additional clue - the region the restaurant is based in, London, South West...?

In the UK there is a cookery programme called Ready Steady Cook BBC Ready Steady Cook where 2 contestants bring in a bag of ingredients and the 2 chefs have to cook something for them in 20mins. The budget is £5 ($8) but they also do gourmet bags. The programme is pretty dire but I like the concept. This is in a similar vein to Mamster's Mystery Basket except we don't really have to cook the recipes and hopefully others will suggest bags and I am doing it purely from a selfish point of view, in that I really don't have the skill to participate in this thread but am really interested in what others come up with. This is what I would take on the show (yes, I really am that sad to have thought about it!). I've guessed how much each item would cost. Ingredients (Approx.cost) Tin of tomatoes (40p) Piece of Pancetta (£1.00) Potato (30p) Morel Mushrooms (£1.50) Chicken leg (£1.50) Total £4.70 From what I can tell they have these ingredients already; In the fridge Dairy products - milk, cream, butter, eggs Fresh herbs Lemon and limes Garlic In the cupboard Dried herbs and spices Stock cubes Bread Flour Sugar Red and white wine Anyone want to participate?

the abalone was expensive - about £40. Royal China was great on our last visit, excellent friendly service and superb food. A belly of pork dish was sublime as was a dish of green beans with pork. Smoked shredded chicken was v.tasty. Only duff dish (the one I picked ) was beef with green peppers. Sushi Say is on Walm Lane in Willesden Green run by a husband and wife team. There is a small sushi bar at the front where you can sit but also about 15 tables as well as a tatami room at the back. Wonderful belly of pork (do you sense a theme here?!), delicate super fresh sushi including buttery soft toro as well as loads of other stuff if you don't like sushi.

there's also Kulu Kulu on Brewer Street, it's a conveyor belt one though - kaiten sushi(?)

The branch of Royal China in St John's Wood, has quite an extensive range of abalone on its menu... honestly give Sushi Say a go - I'm thinking of having an egullet event there in the not too distant future so come along if you can.

If you don't mind a tube journey then Sushi Say in Willesden Green (Jubilee Line) is excellent, but it's not cheap (surely, in London anyway, cheap sushi is an oxymoron?).

well the website says this... "We tested serving size with a number of food writers and chefs. Their conclusion was that, with our oil, you need only 30-35% of the amount you usually use of common extra virgin olive oil. In other words, for every teablespoon (15 ml) of ordinary extra virgin, you need less than a teablespoon (5 ml) of our oils" but I suppose it would, wouldn't it?

Manni Olive Oil a while back Locatelli was in The Guardian waxying lyrical about this olive oil. I was going to buy some but you need to order 10 bottles minimum and at 50Euros a bottle, it is slightly out of my price range! Maybe we could do an en masse egullet order....

see Macrosan, that's where you're going wrong! Seriously though, I think you'd be surprised how many people just hand over their credit card without checking the bill first. I can see no other reason for restaurants leaving the slip open except for them trying to get more money out of the unwitting customer.

sounds good to me. We could turn at at Neals Yard with a dozen bottles of wine and take over the shop!

there's no such problem in the UK. Restaurants are able to print the slip without the 'gratuity' line if they have already added service but some choose not to. Good Food Guide deplores this so much that they even name and shame restaurants which choose to leave the slip open despite adding service charge already.

Bapi, you really are the King of the Country House Break. Would you consider (when you have a spare day or three) putting them all into one thread, then over the coming years I can work my way around all the lovely places you have recommended.

what happens if everyone/the majority want their table at 8pm? would you rather be able to state the exact time you come (does 15min either way really matter?) and then have to wait for ages whilst the waiters and kitchen deal with everyone at once or arrive at 8.15 instead (think about it Tony, 15 extra minutes in the pub) and have a more relaxed, even paced meal?

I thought most restaurants had this sort of staggered booking. Loads of places have asked if we would come at 8.15 instead of 8pm, doesn't bother me in the slightest. Having two sittings on the other hand makes my blood boil.

could you not stock all the goods at the back in the kitchen with a board/sign out front advertising what you have on sale? or do you think that people want to see the goods on offer?

been quite a few times as is near where I used to work and was never over impressed by it, thought it was 'OK'. I like the room and it is a great place for cocktails but haven't been for a while so I'll definitely give it another go.