origamicrane

hmmm... your response tells me two things you have never run your own business and you have not thought through the economics of credit cards. (please do not take offence this is just an observation) I think that all the people that say cash is king basically understand that cash is equal to a 100% cash, where as credit is only worth 95% cash. Why should I as a proprietor allow the banks to skim 5% of my turnover? The banks do not protect me as a proprietor either, as a business we can only do so many checks if someone comes in with a stolen or forged card and the machine clears their purchase. I lose the money, it comes out of my pocket if the bank refuse to pay me and my lose gets transferred to my customers in terms of price rises or me reducing the quantity or the quality of my food. And you as a customer should realise that that 5% transaction charge is transferred directly to you. You are paying 5% more for everything you buy!!! So not only are the banks making money out of the transaction they are then charging you interest if you don't clear your balance at the end of the month. So you are more likely to be paying 6-10% more then what you ought to be for everything!!!! So do you still think that 1% cash back on your purchases is still a good deal? And are you saying that it better to lose your credit card then your cash? Well if someone steals your card and uses it yes you are only liable for $50 but you will have the hassle of cancelling you card waiting a week for your new card to arrive, time spent reporting the lost card and dealing with the credit card company. Credit card fraud is one of the biggest crimes hundreds of millions are lost every year to the banks. Where do you think they recoup their money? yep bank charges and increased transaction charges which again are transferred to you the customer. as to your point about keeping track of your monthly spend i don't see the relevence all you are saying is that its more convenient? are you really happy to know you pay an extra 5% of your monthly spend for the conveninece of you checking your accounts? Also if you buy everything with your credit card, everything you like, everywhere you go, is trackable by the banks and the government. Are you really happy to know that the banks can build a virtual picture of the type of person you are? to know intimimate details about everything in your life? They can then use this information to target you with products you never you knew you wanted or needed. credit cards are evil!!! they are the financial parasites of the modern world!!! And if i still haven't convinced you that credit cards are bad, this generation is more in debt then any previous generation why? credit cards! we are spending money we don't actually have. Cash is king because either you got it or you don't. Anyone can get credit its a buy now and pay a lot more later culture.

hi due to my new job starting early ?I couldn't find time to go to the fish course will have to leave it for another day or might just get a stage at one of the fish restaurants? hmmmmm..... hehehe anyone reading this from J sheekeys? fish works? cafe fish? that can offer me a stagiaire day ?? Found a few short course that looked interesting some at leiths, cordon bleu, cookeryschool, books for cooks, divertimenti, etc just not during the time I had off work. Again because the job started early it scuppered my plans for a stage at valeries but I still plan to go there sometime really want that cheescake recipe!! in fact will probably contact a few of my fav restaurant to see if i can get a trainee day with them. In fact had to take the day off work to take up alex's offer of a stage but it was well worth it yeah atari-ya is great isn't it feels like you popped into a local fishmongers in Japan. hmmm i wonder if they be willing to train me up??? i have been a customer for 10 years now??? There is also an interesting second hand japanese store opposite north Ealing station on Queens drive seems like all of the japanese family when they leave the country sell their equipment to them and sometimes you can find some interesting crockery and cookware.

Don't ya love it though when 'common' Asian stuff gets into a FDR folks go all ga ga and ooh la la over it? ← yeah but at the same time there so many yummy stuff from back home that they would run a mile from

ok this might deserve a new thread but how about making fried fish bone crackers? those are yummy too.

oh and there's more I got another training day organised for this weekend 180 vegetarian lunch service in a buddhist temple in london. this should be interesting

Hi all !!WARNING!! !!long post!!!some of it convulted!! lots of spilling mistakes!! Yesterday took up AlexW's kind offer to do a stagiaire (trainee) day at Indigo Restaurant in London. Seemed a little random at first to be actually offered a trainee day from a post on line but as they say never look a gift horse in the mouth and after the last couple of months with my tv malarkey was more then happy to go on a little faith. I shouldn't have worried Alex and his team were a really nice bunch, very friendly and welcoming and more then happy to answer all my questions and let me wander around the kitchen. In fact everyone seemed to be really interested in making sure that I got all answers I wanted to know. Thanks again Alex hope I didn't get in the way too much and say hi to the rest of the team for me will definitely take up your offer for another stage when the winter menu comes through and if you ever need help let me know especially if its a computer or chinese food related question Ok The following post is for people that think they might like to work in the catering trade. My background is an IT consultant but family business is a chinese restaurant and takeaway as such I grew up in the kitchen cooking is very much in the blood. I hope to one day open my own restaurant serving what I would call modern oriental cuisine and others might call fusion alhough they would be wrong The reasons I went for this training day are 1. I wanted to see how a Western kitchen was run compared to a Chinese kitchen. 2. Hopefully pick up a few cooking tips to improve my own cooking. 3. Maybe get some inspiration. 4. Have some fun and try some great food. So arrived at 9am met Alex and got changed into whites. Then Alex gave me a tour of One Aldwych showing me around the hotel facilities and the two restaurants in the hotel Indigo and Axis. Then into the Indigo kitchen were I met the brigade. So here is a list of what i did. Morning: 9am-3pm First task dice pancetta a nice simple task to begin with just to warm me up and to make sure i'm not a complete beginner. straight after that went on to pastry and following a recipe made a thyme scented cheesecake scented cheesecakes. After that helped cook the risotto well to be precise stirred a massive pot of risotto rice. Watched Alex make a lobster stock. Then onto touch to watch the lunch service. As the orders were being plated Alex would let me taste the food and explain what each dish consisted of. Evening: 3pm-10pm Helped pipe ganache into chocolate shells, dip in melted chocolate and cover in cocoo powder to make the truffles very fun but messy job. Peeled sweet potato an carrots. Then came the really fun part it was the staff tasting of the new menu So the kitchen cooked off one of every dish and then took it downstairs where each dish was explained to the staff and then we dived in. I got to try every dish on the menu and pretty damn good if you ask me After the tasting made some raspberry and cinnamon muffins, chopped some potatoes, cooked some mushrooms, and as promised picked some spinach, watch them cook for the evening service now i know how to get that really crispy skin on to a fillet of fish, chargrill some veg, help plate a load of desserts do two main courses. So what did I learn ? Some of the stuff i'm about to say is pretty obvious and some of it is generalised and it is only my opinion and i am comparing a surburb restaurant to a 5 star hotel restaurant. Learnt that western and eastern kitchen are very similiar in operation but its the implementation thats different. A western kitchen is more regimented and jobs and roles are specific. In a chinese kitchen each person looks after a different section of the larder but when it comes to cooking everyone cooks everything. All recipes and methods were documented try finding a recipe in a chinese restaurant!!! Also daily duties were written down and timetabled. There is a lot more wastage in a western kitchen edible food that looks subpar will be chucked. Think one of the things that did surprise me was that you can get more out of your suppliers then just a cheap price and a xmas gift as Alex makes deals with his suppiers to provide training days for his staff. Which i think is a great idea. All through the day I found that I was asking question less about cooking and more about management, logisitcs and just generally running the kitchen. Any questions I had about cooking seemed to be answered by just watching them cook but it was the way that the kitchen was ran that was very different to chinese restaurant. For a start everyone I met and spoke too generally had an interest in cooking you may think that is pretty obvious but this is not true in a chinese kitchen. In fact all the workers that have actually worked in my familys restaurant I think I can only remeber 2 that were genuinely interested in the food and one of them was a English guy strangely enough named Alex??! The one overidding thought I had in my head the whole day even on the train home was not if i'm going to open my restaurant but when and how i would set up the kitchen and run it. Going to do a lot of thinking and cooking over the next few weeks and think i will try and get a trainee day at nobu or hakkasan to see how they combine western and asian staff and cooking. But had a very fun day, learnt a lot and ate a lot of good food. But be in no doubt that it is hard work and a tiring day I was on my feet for 13 hours and I wasn't even do any heavy work or cooking and still feeling tired. But i would highly recommend doing this for everyone interested in cooking or if you have a urge to work in a kitchen. oh just to show how much of a food geek i've become was really pleased to try out different knives as i got a wusthof and global knife but never used a kyocera ceramic, shun or porchse knife

Waaaa, they passed up the culinarily entertaining moi. i could have given them something to chew on........seriously, not surprised the final choices were....less than......effervescent or full of ideas. mostly the big room was filled with people who were aggressively boring, but had that look in their eyes: CHOOSE ME AND I'LL BE FAMOUS. oh well. but it would have been fun to have done the programme...... x m ← well that £250k it more then enough to get a place up and running and the main appeal to me will be its £250k of someone elses money and also you will have all that free publicity and they got a 1 in 10 chance of winning I like the odds better then masterchef where is was 1 in 96. Naturally the prize will have a load of condition attached so i doubt you will have carte blanch to do whatever you wanted. and you are right there is no way any of that lot would be able to work as a head chef or at least they won;t be able to learn it in 2 weeks. Don't worry marlena they didn't select me either!!! b*stards! I've been on 2 shows already and I wanted to go for a hat trick!! godammit!! well can;t really complain i suppose i got more then my 15 mins of fame already time to retire into obscurity. You know i'm strangely surprised that Caroline was selected as she was on masterchef too!!!

wow! its really entertaining!!! £250,000 prize money!!!!! to start your own restaurant!!!!! bloody hell!!! that dumps on Masterchef and in fact any other cooking competition!!!! Hell I wish I got onto this program!!! Although looks like they only wanted beginner cooks. I very much doubt any of them are egulleteers The contestants are the usual mixed bag of fruits, nuts and cookies. Seems like Novelli is going for the carrot and Rhodes is going for the stick. Think I might have to watch this to the bitter end Henry is so going out! he has no character and they have to keep the camp guy he so nice

and another thing i'm pretty sure when it comes to the health of a nation The chinese do pretty well compared to other countries!! Anyone know where we stand in the world league of longevity and health?

I think it could be one of several things. 1.The ghee might be different in the uk 2.MSG 3.Food coloring 4.The recipe beening tweaked for UK tastes

oh thats about the same then my 200% mark up is purely on base ingredients for the dish once you added on labour and the rest its a very different story. The general public knows nothing about the economics of a restaurant. Think that why so many people that attempt to open restaurants fold within a year! they haven't done their maths first!!

sorry sorry that was my chinese side speaking for a chinese restaurant 200% is the average mark up. but I believe that the average mark up in most western restaurants is 65-100% correct?

this is just "decadence dining" its like putting caviar on a hot dog or gold leaf on your sushi you eat it because you can afford it not because you are hungry or if its worth the money or you will appreciate it more then any other burger. If i was a rich film actor like Pierce Brosnan sure I have a £55 wagyu burger everyday, hell i import the beef myself. Imagine what Elvis would have done if he knew of wagyu beef while he was alive? Doubt the vendor would have a better profit margin probably just the normal 200% mark up!! Where the vendor really profits is the amount of free publicity!! This story has had a page in virtually every newspaper and food mag.

this is pretty daft as suzy said too much of any food gonna make you fat. I eat dim sum once a week and I don't think I would want dim sum more then once a week ? or is that just me ?? And when was the last time you saw a fat person in hong kong? unhealthy or unfit yes! but fat ? no unless they were a 40+ housewife ( ouh i'm gonna get flamed for that! ) I think the average girl in hk is like a size 6 and trying to find XL guys clothing in HK like a major struggle i know i am XL.

that site looks like a medical supplies website???

Supposedly it is a little less than 1/8 of a tsp. but I like the three finger method better. ← what about a bunch? so how much is a bunch? small bunch? large bunch? of herbs?

then that proves the point that its not the taste of fish you dislike its the taste of stale fish you dislike. I used to hate sushi until one day i had proper sushi its a complete eye opener. And i suspect it be the same for you if you get hold of really fresh fish. Next time you have sushi get a selection of the different fish and before you pop it into your mouth smell the fish. You will find that it has little to no fishy smell its smells of the sea but not strong fishy smell. ( or it shouldn't anyway) Out of the sushi fish you do like locate them at you fish monger and buy those and look for recipes for those specific fish. When i try to introduce people to sushi i ask them if they like smoked salmon. If they like that then give them salmon sushi and from there you can introduce them to other fishes. With you i think you need to do something similar. you like sushi so go for some asian recipes. Simply steamed fish with ginger garlic and spring onion and then pour on some sesame oil and soya sauce. Fish i would recommend you should try are monk fish, sea bass, tuna belly, salmon. Get the freshest piece you can and simply grilled them with salt and pepper, olive oil and a squeezse of lemon, remember not to over cook it or you will lose the flavour. The idea is for you to train your palate but if white fish not your liking do you like shellfish? go for prawns, scallops etc they just as yummy

oh they are essential for barbecues You won't need fire starters or lighter fluid with one of these. just get a few chunks of charcoal place them on a few sheets of crumpled newspaper. blow torch the edges of a few lumps of the charcoal until they turns white and then light the newspaper. very quick, painless anbd fun

Edinburgh is a lil' out of my way seeing as i'm in london but thanks for the tip.

really? cool will pm you for more info

thought about doing that but worried i'll spend 3 weeks washing dishes and chopping vegetables ← I wouldn't worry too much about washing dishes but everybody has to chop. You won't get treated so well in the kitchen if you go in there with grand ideas about cooking straight away. Remember, the chefs working in whatever restaurant you choose have probably worked in the trade for a few years, why should some wannabe be able to come along and jump straight in at the top and start prepping signature dishes? Having said that if you spend some time there they will soon allow you do do more exciting things if they think you are up to it and aren't getting in their way. Ask a restaurant if you can spend a couple of days in the kitchen, its very enjoyable and a big eye opener. ← true true! my favourite cheesecake of all time is the one at valeries so i think i will have a chat to the kitchen there. should have time today will pop in later.

thought about doing that but worried i'll spend 3 weeks washing dishes and chopping vegetables

ok so i got a nice 3 week break between jobs and so i'm looking for some food things to do. So i booked my one day fish, knife skills course at billingsgate seafood training school for next week. Going to call up degustibus tomorrow and see how much their one day bread making course is. I remeber reading about a chocolate course in one of the fancy chocolate store in london but i can't remeber the name of it, anyone know which store it is? So looking for a few more things to do, any suggestions? I already looked at leiths, cordon bleu, cookeryschool, divertimenti, books for cooks and the two above. Ideally want something short and not too expensive. Actually if i walked into one of my fav restuarants and offered to pay them £100 to teach me one of their dishes you think they would go for it?? hmmm... i wonder maybe i make a visit to patisserie valerie tomorrow ok this might be a little risky but if you are a chef and want to offer me some tuition let me know.

hmmm... how about heat treatment? or a quick blast in the microwave ?

I thought it looked really good! ← Only joking! It made me gag looking at it! ← maybe he was trying to give the judges a heart attack?? oh btw I didn't make it onto Come dine with me sigh!! they said as i live too far from the other contestants as the others are all in South London ho hum! guess i try another show.