origamicrane

so mon petit pois please vote with your feet where is the best english brekkie in London. Failing that where is the best fry up in town? greasy spoon or otherwise!

hi again I'm making chilli crab this weekend and want the full authentic experience of serving it with fried mantou. I have a recipe for the mantou http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/recipe.cgi?r=60722 but the question i have is do you really deep fry the mantou? as it looks to me like it will just soak up all the oil? I remeber the fried mantou wasn't an overly oily bread so do you just brush with oil and bake or do you really just deep fry until golden? thanks

welcome yeah the question set looks like a hell's kitchen type thing. just thought it was a little bit suss as they didn't ask me about food or cooking? What questions they ask you in the second interview? btw good luck :) keep us updated and start a thread if you get on to the show.

Shanghai Blues is definately a good addition to the upmarket chinese restaurants in town but i'm not sure on its longevity? Don't get me wrong i think this place is good and definately on par with Royal China, just not up to the level of hakkasan and yauatcha for comparable price. Should be interesting on how this place evolves over this year. I'm prediciting that service will be more efficient, prices will come down and the food quality will slip a bit too but no alarmingly so.

Just got back from the FOOD LOVER'S audition. kinda a waste of time compared to the other shows I went for. Got there at 4pm at the Holborn Hotel walked into a waiting room of about 30 mixed fruit and nuts all with big stickers stuck on there tops with a number. I was number L189A. (I am not a NUMBER I am a free man!!) It was a pretty mixed crowd a cross section of ages and races and I wasn't the only chinese person there this time. There were two quite cute chinese cookiess there, shame they smoked anyhoo waited a whole hour before they saw me. Walked in stood up in front of the camera and and stated my name, rank and serial number ( name, age, occupation, my application number ) and then they asked me 4 questions Q1.Why do you want to be on TV? A1. I'm only interested in cooking programs as i like to think i am a good cook and its something i love. I grew up in a kitchen and its in my blood. Q2.Where do you see yourself in 5 Years? A2.Hopefully be running my own restaurant serving a selection of the best and authentic oriental and pacific rim dishes. Q3.How do you take criticism at work? A3.If its constructive, valid and reasonable no problem if its unreasonable and rude will get revenge!!!! Q4.How do you feel about working in a restuarant kitchen for 2 weeks? A4.I swap 2 weeks in a western kitchen anyday compared to 2 weeks in a chinese takeaway restaurant. and that was it!!

nope never heard of it but a quick google turns up a page saying kakonda is the fijian version of ceviche. hope that helps

well not sure how much prep time i'm allowed but i think start to finish no more then 1 hour. want something simple and tsty. the wonton not a bad idea as it is very simple. fish is good too but as alot of you said might be a little alien to the ghosts

hi all I'm looking for some inspiration as i'm going for a cooking competition and have to cook one chinese dish. It should take max 20 minutes too cook and have ingredients that not going to freak out westerners. any sugestion?

thats exactly why i'm planning to do it when i hit 30!! basically i got 18 months left!!

just had a chat with the producer and sushi is a no go he said that to make a full sushi platter (nigiri and rolls) would be too complicated to follow on tv. (he's got a point i guess, but i am Sushi Sam! godammit!!!!) Anyhoo he said I should focus on one or two dishes and asked me for suggestions. Looks like I have to fall back on some good old chinese wok power. I suggest a singaporean curry crab which seems to have been well recieved by him. So any one got any other suggestions? Oriental or asian dishes, starter or dessert? But no teriyaki, green curry, black bean sauce or stir fries as they been done to death on tv. hmm.... where are my cook books..... ?

oI! i'm an IT geek!! NUFFIN SCARY ABOUTME MATE!!

I posted something about this a while ago. Some biologist wanted to test the pain response of a lobster so he ripped off one of the lobsters claws but then he noticed that the lobster just carried on liek nothing happened and began to feed on some food in the tank. not the behaviour of an animal in pain.

well i'm 28 I plan to open my restaurant when I hit 30 so it still quite a long way down the line but initial plans are to open somewhere in West London as i know the area well. I would like to open in central london but rent is too high and its a lot more complicated, costs and competition. Also for my first attempt planning to do it relatively small and simple max I think would be a 30-40 seater restaurant and very simple decor. The food will be authentic pacific rim stuff and it will be what I would call casual dining.

are there actually people that take restuarant reviews as gospel? most reviews I read seem to be more about the people writing them then the restaurant? not sure but i think most people read reviews as a form of entertainment rather then a definitive guide? like i'm sure we have all read a rave review about a restaurant visited it and been thoroughly disappointed and vice versa.

Nope I've been cooking mainly japanese food for about 10 years now, learnt it from books and a few japanese friends but nothing professional. Started to branch out to other cusines and did a one week course at leiths last summer. I've done lots of dinner parties for friends did one party for 40 people solo and had my first paying private chef gig in Decemeber and that was really tiring. But the family business is a chinese restaurant and takeaway so i literally grew up in the kitchen so cooking is in my blood. I will probably go knocking on some restaurant doors to see if they want a skivvy to help out at the weekends, just so i can see how things are done in larger operations.

Hurrah!! looks like i'm on this program just got the call and they want me for a weekend in March. Day 1 will be filming me shopping for stuff, meeting Gino and telling him what we are cooking, friends and family commenting on my food. Day 2 will be the actual cook off. Venue still to be confirmed, but they like the look of Oriental City Shopping Centre in Colindale and so do I as that is home territory If they do confirm that venue I will let you all know the date and you can come down and throw organic tomatoes and cabbages at me or Gino depending who you are supporting remember to wear egullet t-shirts!!! oh and the people judging the food will be the general public and if you all come down you can stake the pack in my favour too!!! so its an open invite to all egulleteers !!!!! come down hopefully it be fun and failing that you can try my cooking hope you like it!!! ere we go! ere we go!

hmm... very true basildog they might be far worse then ready steady cook but we live in hope. If i do get on the show and it does turn out to be a complete farce I will treat it as such But remember i'm really only doing it for a laugh hopefully it won't be as sad as Big Brother

Yeah i thought about ready steady cook but i'm an oriental cookie don't think my skills would work on that program think that one of the main reason i got kicked out of masterchef in the second round. But personally I think appearing on ready steady cook might actually be negative for my future restaurant haha! Suzi your post hardly came across as harsh!!! thought it was just standard curiosity into the curious people on egullet.

Hi Suzi well actually should be appearing on masterchef later in the month although it probably be less then 3 minutes. well the official answer is I want to open my own restaurant one day and i think the exposure might help me. The unofficial answers and probably the more true answer is because I'm a leo and therefore a bit of a show off. There is an inkling in my head that hopes that i might one day become a celebrity chef as there aren't many chinese celebrity chefs out there. And the most important reason is it seems like a good laugh and if i get some extra help / experience in opening my restaurant or gaining financially out of this stuff all the better. sorry if i come across as a wannabe but i think there some truth in it but if Ainsley and AWT can make a mint out of their cooking "skills" heck i like a piece of that pie. yeah i know it take hard work and more then a little luck but its just for a laugh

just got back from this place Decor - nice but definately a hakkasan's poorer relative Food - good quality but not spectacular Portions - small to average portions Variety - some interesting additions to the menu but not as wide a variety as hakkasan or chinatown and at 2.30pm they had run out of at least 3 dishes that we had ordered. Service - very slow and inexperienced, we were in a half empty restaurant at 2.30pm and it took us several attempts to flag down staff to top up the tea and dishes came out very slowly. Price - with the current discount the prices are good but when this discount is discontinued they competing directly with yauatcha and hakkasan and afraid they just not good enough. Overall impression is a good attempt but its lacking in several departments maybe they improve with time aas they still only 1 month old but definately room for improvement. In fact it better improve in the service deptartment if it is to stand a chance. I place this restaurant's food level with Royal China but its charging prices in the hakkasan territory must do better but i will definately try it again in a few weeks time. edit: just got a review from the rest of my party that went The overall impression from them was that Shanghai Blues didn't meet up to expectation its decor, food and service it just didn't deliver the wow effect for the prices that they will charge. just wanted to add the desserts are pretty good as usually i dislike chinese dim sum desserts the green tea pudding was lovely i believe it was green tea pannacotta to be precise

hmm.... this could be good but it probably be bad but i guarantee it will be the most expensive dim sum in the UK it will look beautiful, the critics will rave about it and the chinese community will think "what the Fcuk! you paying £15 for 3 har gau prawn dumpling!". Place like hakkasan do excellent dim sum and this is agreed by both eastern and western customers. The Dim sum is expensive in comparison to most chinatown restaurants even Royal China. But the main thing is that they still are identifible as dim sum and they still stick to the philosophy of the ying and yang thing some steamed food some fried food. Now Ian Pengelley sounds like he knows his stuff because he's done his tour of duty in the far East and the fact that he is hiring real dim sum chefs to make the stuff is good too. But it depends how far they westernise the dim sum. If they adapt dishes incrementally then best of luck to them but i'm just waiting for the scallop, parma ham and porcini sui mai topped with beluga! and tomato ketchup as a dipping sauce ( admittedly ketchup is chinese hahaha ) But having said that the chinese takewaway community have been selling made up dishes to the wesern world as authentic chinese food for decades, think chow mein and crispy aromatic duck they're not real chinese but they taste ok to me. It will probably be a hit just because its Gordon Ramsay.

Sounds like a reasonable precaution to me. You never know who might be attracted to these sort of programmes. What happened with the last show, I can't keep up. Are you going to be on it or not? ← Well the guy from CHEF V BRITAIN said I had been short listed but he said he couldn't confirm anything until closer to the filming date in march so still fingers crossed for that. This new one FOOD LOVERS is holding nationwide auditions over the next few weekends should be interesting to see what this one is about hopefully the law of numbers mean i will definately get on one of them

yes! yes! I am a media slut!! yet another tv program!! Granada TV for ITV this time. The program is called FOOD LOVERS. They are looking for cooks and non-cooks that are passionate about food. No idea what the format is yet but the application form states that you need to be available for 2 whole weeks in Spring. Other questions on the application form are 1. Why you want to be on the show? 2. Describe your personality? 3. What type of people don't you get along with? 4. How would you react to critism from a top chef? 5. What are your strength and weaknesses? 6. What is your signature dish? 7. What has been your biggest cooking challenge? 8. What famous person are you like? 9. Have you appears on tv before? 10. If you owned a restaurant what would it be like? 11. Do you have a criminal record? The last page also states that you are willing to submit to a medical examination and a full psyche evaluation?? err... is this normal?? So from the requirements and this list of questions I think we can deduce it will be some kind of competition where you will be thrown into a mixed bunch of fruits and nuts in a restaurant kitchen, where there is a celebrity chef presenting or judging you and a panel of non cooking foodies also involved somewhere. I'm thinking something on the line of Gordon Ramsey's Hell's Kitchen I've been invited to attend an audition next saturday in The Holborn Hotel in London. There actually no info on the show or what is required for the audition. Naturally I will again keep you updated on my progression on this and if there is anyone else going for this or has any info on this gig please post a message. stay tuned

hell while i'm at it a full set of copper pans a full set of global knives a full set of Alessi bit and bobs i have been a good boy this year ( so far)