origamicrane

Day 5 Morning Session Demo So final day today and the demo was on the following:) 1.Ballotine of salmon 2.Tournedo beef with madeira jus, sauteed veg and pommes Anna 3.Rhubarb and vanilla parfait with rhubarb sauce and champagne sabayon. So first of was the ballotine of salmon. As salmon is a big fish and the demo was for a small audience the lecturer substituted the salmon for trout. We got two patted down fillets of trout and placed them top to tail and trimmed off the fat and cut it so that they were both the same shape. We then saesoned it with salt , pepper and a little cayenne. Lay out a 3-4 sheets of overlapping sheets of cling film long enough to place the fillet in the middle and wrap it up several times so that it is airtight. Spread a layer of chopped herbs (chervil, parsley, dill, tarragon, etc) into the middle length of cling film and place the first fillet down. Then place a sheet of gelatin along the length of the fillet and then place the other fillet on top of this. Coat the whole of the salmon in herbs and then wrap in cling film and roll the fillets into a ballotine(sauasgae) making sure it is tightly wrapped and teh ends are tied and sealed. Then weight the ballotine for poaching. The whole ballotine is poached in a water bath and the cooking time is 3 minutes for every 450g at 65 C. This is a vey precise cooking time after the cooking time you can allow the ballotine to cool in the water bath for no more then 1 hour. that the ballotine out of the wter bath and chill in fridge overnight. The ballotine is sliced up into pieces and served with a drizzle of lemon oil, creme fraiche, a pinch of sea salt and salmon roe. quite pretty right? it tasted quite delicate and subtle with an aromatic undertone it was nice but not nice enough for me to consider making it. Next was the beef. They started by making the madeira jus. This was made from whole chicken legs, shallots, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, mushrooms. Degalzing with sherry vinegar and cognac. Then add 425ml of madeira, chicken stock and water skimming off the scum when required. Simmer for 20 minutes then strain through muslin and then reduce. We blanched an refreshed a load of baby veg and reheated them in a wok with a big knob of butter, alternatively could just blast it in a microwave. Next we caremelised some shallots in butter and soft brown sugar. The final vegetable was a variation of pommes anna. Using a cookie cutter we cut out a big circular piece of potato then thinly sliced it using a mandolin and arranged the circle piece in a pastry circle and brushed with melted butter. We repeated with a second layer. We then enveloped the potato arrangment in greae proof paper and bake them in a hot oven for 12 minutes. After doing this the pommes anna has cooked trough and all we have to do is just fry them off to give it some colour. And then the beef was browned off and finsihed in an oven and served. this was yummy, the jus was very good and very quick compared to the 4 hours it took to make the lamb one. and finally the rhubarb and vanilla parfait i don't like rhurbarb much so i will only write about the vanilla parfait which was deep sweet and very creamy. The rhubarb part was actually a sorbet i would probably replace the rhubarb with strawberry or more likely raspberry sorbet. Whisk up 2 egg yolks with 2T of caster sugar and the seeds from a quarter of a vanilla pod. Then whisk up 2 egg whites into stiff peaks and slowly incorparte 1/4 cup of caster sugar then whisk 1cup fo double cream until it holds it shape but not stiff. Then add the egg yolks to the cream and whisk. Then fold in the egg whites. stick into a container and freeze. The champagne sabayon was 4 T champagne , 6 egg yols 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup double cream whisked up in a bowl set above simmering water. and the final touch was a little sugar work by making a caramel and then using a fork make little strands of sugar that was then shapped into nests, curls and star shapes. and that was the last demo as we left we collectd our attendance certificates a break for now will write about the last practical session later ciao.

Day 4 evening session demo 1. clearings and consumme 2. Pasta See told you we didn't have anything spectacular today. ;) Anyway i have to admit the clearing was quite amazing although very hard to describe. I think the best way to describe it is imagine filtering out impurites from a liquid, in a clearing you are using egg whites and crushed egg shells to bind the impurities before filtering. Imagine tomato juice and filtering so that the liquid was completely free of pulp and a clear transparent liquid. Before the lecturer even started doing anything she steriled all her equipment in boiling water and i mean all her equipment including the egg shells!!! The lecturer had made a tomato and red pepper soup and allowed it too cool. She also had a bowl of egg whites, eggs shells and chopped basil and parsley. So she combined the egg whites, shells and herbs into the soup. Turned the heat on and started to whisk like a mad woman!! She kept doing this until she saw the first puff of steam from the bowl. She then allowed the mixture to heat slowly and the egg white slowly cooked forming a crust on top. This crust was binding all the impuritys together. As the crust rose she checked it and if it looked like the liquid underneath was about to boil over she removed it from the heat and allowed the crust to die down. She repeated this rise and fall 3 times. Now she lined a sieve with kitchen paper and gently ladled the crust and liquid into it. The cleared transparent soup then trickled out. Sorry if this doesn't sound particularly interesting but if you never seen this before you will be amazed. The end result was a clear pinkish clear liquid rather like a chicken stock that tasted very strongly of tomatos, peppers and basil and it was pretty amazing, although is it really worth that amount of work? 2. Pasta again not a particularly interesting topic but what was interesting was the fillings of the ravioli they made. There was one made from ricotta and spinach that had a raw egg yolk in the middle of it after cooking the yolk was still runny and it was like a rich sauce inside the ravioli, very nice. well that was pretty much it for the demo session. It was no where near as exciting as the previous days but was a good insight into clearing definately and advance cooking technique and also showed me an interesting new thing i could do with pasta. Anyway final chapter tomorrow adieu

correctomondo that be gateau pithivier. I didn't write much about it before as it was part of today's practical session and i will write about it now :) May i first apologies that there are no photos today. I screwed up and left my digicam at home but luckily for you we didn't have anything too interesting or spectacular today so you won't be missing out on much. Day 4 morning practical session today's session was making the following. 1.chicken liver and foie gras parfait. 2.plum apple chutney 3.gateau pithivier 4.making a brioche Todays session was a mild disaster. The chicken liver and foie gras parfait. We got a load of chicken livers , foie gras, eggs , butter and a shallot , thyme and brandy reduction. First we had to get all the ingredients to room temp but slicing up the foie gras and chicken livers thinly and place on a tray. The butter was melted and allowed to stand, and the eggs were dropped in luke warm water. The reason we had to keep everything at room temperature was that if one ingredient was too cold the mixture would split. So we sprinkle 1 T sea salt and 1T rose salt on the chicken livers and foie gras. ARRGGHHHH!!!!!!EMERGENCY STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BRAKES ON!!!!!!!!!! At this point things went a little peared shape for me i didn't realise that we were doing just half sized recipes and i hadn't halved the salt!!!!!!! luckily we hadn't started blending up the livers and foie gras, but i spent about 10 minute pick out the granules of sea salt from the foie gras. The chicken livers i washed and patted down with paper towel. I will find out tomorrow morning if the foie gras is edible fingers crossed everyone !!!! Well after i had picked off as much salt as i could we blended up the foie gras and liver in a magimix until it was smooth, then added the brandy, shallot reduction and then slowly poured in the 4 eggs like we were blending a mayonnaise and then trickled in the melted butter. The mixture was then passed through a drum sieve and poured into a cling film lined terrine mould and covered with a piece of silicone paper and put in a bain marie and cooked for just under an hour. I just hope it wasn't over salted 2. apple and plum chutney I hate chutney !!! luckily my cooking partner rita also hates chutney. Rita is Italian and i'm Chinese we don't have chutneys in our respective cuisines!!! As such i can't be bothered to write much about this recipe but save to say its a load of diced plums and apples fruit cooked until death with sugar, cinammon, star anise, onions and a load of wine and vinegar. The end result is a pulp that taste sour although i'm sure there are people that like it 3. The pithivier. First we got our puff pastry out of the fridge and finished the last two turn and folds and then stuck it in the fridge to chill for 30 mins. While that was chilling we made the filling. The filling is frangipane and is made from creaming butter with sugar and then mixing in ground blanched almonds and a shot of rum( or in our case we decided to use vanilla extract instead) this is mixed together and put in the fridge to chill. We then take half of our puff pastry and roll it flat and cut a rough circle out of it using a saucepan lid as a rough guide. We then pile the frangipane into the middle of the puff pastry circle and mould it into a flat circle mound leaving about 1 inch from the edges and egg wash around the filling and edge. We roll out the remaining puff pastry and lay it on top of the frangipane filling. Making sure to remove trapped air bubble we seal down the edges and trim the excess pastry off. We decoirate the by scoring a pretty flower pattern on the top using a sharp knife and we also knock up the side of the puff pastry with a knife and the final touch is just to scallop the edge. we then stick it in the fridge to chill and we shall be baking this tomorrow. 4. Brioche was a write off as we were running out of time and i got hit by the half sized recipe curse again!!! i used the full 6 eggs instead of the half sized portion of 3 !!! oh well!! live and learn just hope the foie gras is ok!! anyway going to tka ea break and write about the demo session later :) ciao for now stay tuned

tarka mobyp i'm glad you enjoying the posts i'm sure that there will be more people interested in going to the leith cooking courses after this thread ends. Yeah che is right think we chould have a thread for cooking course reviews. well think i'm one step closer to one day opening my own restaurant/cafe

actually they demo'd the brioche as well. I'm doing brioche for tomorrows practical, quite amazing how they knead a brioche dough looks like someone having an arm spasm or something, its like they grab and pull the dough up and down from the table looks very strange. anyway let me carry on Day 3 evening practical session so this afternoon i attempt making puff pastry and a pan fried scallops, lemon cous cous fennel and turmeric. So first puff pastry making the detrempe. To non patisserie folks ( like me ) that means 225 g of plain flour and 30g of lard into a blender for about 1 minutes until the lard incorporates. Then flour mix into a bowl with 6-7 T of water and with a knife quickly and rapidly mix up everything until you get a soft plasticine type dough. Well that should be what happens, but in my case it become a load of dry blobs of crumble had to add another 1T of water and after about 1 minute of kneading its formed the detrempe. ( they say that you should only knead it enough to bring all the dough together and not to develop the gluten, whatever that means). We then shape it into a rectangle, wrap in cling film and stick in in a fridge for 30 minute (or longer if you got the time). Ok after the detrempe has chilled we bring it out and flour the work surface. Using a rolling pin we bang down the entire length of the dough this is called 'ridging' and then using short shape forward rolls we flatten the dough out to a dimension of 30 cm by 10 cm. We then get 140g of butter and between two sheets of cling film we smack it until it becomes as pillable as the dough and shape it into a rectangle block by 8cm by 9cm. The butter block is then placed at the bottom end of the detrempe and the butter is wrapped by folding the top layer of dough over and the sides are folded up to envelope the butter. The edges are squared off ( bang them down and in with a pallet knife) and then we ridge and roll out until its is 3 times longer then it is wide. The bottom third is then folded up and the top third is folded on top of that. We turn the dough through 90 degrees and repeat. (this procedure is referred to as a fold and turn) after this we stick it in the fridge to chill again. Well my puff pastry wasn't square and by the third fold and turn my pastry was streaky and the butter spliting out floured the holes and chucked it back into the fridge , will go back to it tomorrow morning to see if i can rescue it. Making puff pastry is harder then i thought. No photos of the dough as its not that interesting, my dough was crap and also my hands where coverd in flour and dough, doubt my digicam would be too happy if i covered it in dough. so on to the scallops. We were given 3 fresh scallops in shell and 3 frozen to cook with. We skinned yellow and red peppers and finely diced it. We fried some olive oil, shallots and garlic and then dropped in the diced pepper to saute for a few minutes. we made an infusion of fish stock,lemon juice, lemon zest, lemongrass, chilli , 2 T of white wine and a few lemon verbena tea leaves and simmered for 10 mins before pouring through a muslin cloth pour the liquid into the peppers and dispose of the leftovers. Bring the peppers and infusion to the boil and then season as required and pour enough liquid to cover 125g of cous cous. Cover in cling film and leave for 7 minutes. Fluff up the cous cous with a fork and then mix in the remaining peppers. I'm not going to go into detail about the fennel and turmeric sauce as i really didn't like it. But it was illuminous yellow and was made from blending up a fennel bulb, star anise dill , pernod straing out the liquid. Then frying up some garlic and shallots in butter add 1t of turmeric, add the strained out liquid boil and add cream. The scallops were simply seasoned and pan fried in butter and olive oil. anyway photos here's my workmate Rita's effort pretty isn't it? here's mine, not as pretty but my excuse is i'm Chinese HAHAHAHA!!! and this was my homework tonight didn't want too cook all the scallops at the school so took everything home with me to cook. that concludes day 3 ciao

Day 3 So today's demo was on advance shellfish the dishes to be prepared today were: 1.Roast Lobster, warm fennel salad and saffron sauce 2.Tian of crab with avocado and gazpacho 3.Pan fried langoustines with green bean salad and tomato salsa 4.Grilled scallops with mild parsley pesto and chilli oil. so we had a quick talk about the different types of shellfish,crustacean, molluscs etc how to tell sex, freshness, generel storage, handling and humanely killing of crabs, lobsters ( this reminds me of a talk i had previously with a biology teacher about the lobster's nervous system and that they believe lobster don't really feel pain ie: they ripped off one of its claws and then fed it and it was happily eating away with its remaining claw, not the behaviour of an animal in extreme pain) something i learn today was that if you keep the crab or lobster too cold it will have a violent reaction and it will pop off some of its claws and legs!!?? So crab, after sticking a skewer into the base of the apron of the crab and straight in between its eyes we dropped it into a pot of heavily salted boiling water. The crab was just under 1 kg and the lecturer said that it should be about 15 mins for every 450g of crab. so we cooked ours for about 25 minutes and then sent it to chill in the fridge. While the crab was chilling we started on the langoustine we ripped the heads off and cracked the tails and peeled off the shell leaving just the tail. The heads were reserved for making shellfish stock and sauces. Second thing i learned today was that if the langoustine is really fresh its really hard to peel the shell off without ripping of part of the flesh on the top, the part that covers the digestive tract. The flesh was skewered with a cocktail stick and seasoned and pan fried in olive oil , butter garlic and a sprig of thyme. This was served with a green bean salad tied into neat bundles with a piece of blanched chive as a string and a simple salsa of tomato,chilli, shallots,parsley and olive oil and vinegar. This was simple but very delicious this is much better then just boiled up and dipped in mayo. Second dish was grilled scallops. He showed us how to open scallops and remove the meat with a pallet knife and how to clean them. We made a chilli oil by heating 6T of walnut oil and 2T of dried chilli until it started to fizzle and then turned off the heat and let the oil infuse for 15 mins. Next we had a mild parsley pesto, what was mild was that there was only one clove of garlic as he didn't want to over power the flavour of the scallops. The pesto was 55g pecorino, large bunch of parsley, 55g pinenuts, clove garlic, 150-200ml olive oil and salt and pepper. The scallops were simply grilled with a dollop of pesto on top and after grilling the chilli oil drizzled on top. After a quick break the crab was ready to disassemble. we were shown how to seperate the body from the shell by applying pressure at the back base of the crab. We ripped each claw and knuckle off and then removed the feathery lungs. Brown meat and white meat were removed and kept seperate. the meat was mixed with just enough mayo to bind them. Then we got a pastry cutter and put down a layer of slice avocado, then a layer of brown crab meat, then a layer of skinned and seeded plum tomatos, then a layer of white crab meat. the gazpacho sauce was made from tomato puree, tomato ketchup,tomato pulp,red wine vinegar, worcestershire sauce, a little garlic, anchovy extract, olive oil, tabasco and salt and pepper. Finally was the lobster the claws and tails were pulled off and the head was choped up for the sauce. First we browned off a load of lobster shells with onions to make the sauce. When the shells have taken on a good colour we added. a clove of bruised garlic, 4T brandy and 150ml white wine this was cooked for 1 mintue and then 3 chopped tomatos, a star anise, bouquet garnie, tomato puree, 1litre of shellfish stock and saffron infused water went in. This little lot was simmered for 25mins strained and then reduced to 150 ml on a rapid boil. Finally 100ml of double cream was added and it was frothed up with a blender. The fennel salad was literally finely sliced fennel that was warmed in an oven for a few minutes. The lobster claws and tails were roasted for 3 minutes in a pan of 30g butter on medium heat with a clove of crushed garlic, sprig of thyme and 2 T of vermouth with the lid on. Then the lobster piece were turned over and cooked for a further 3 minutes. At this point the claws were taken out and the heat turned off leaving the tails to finish cooking from the residual heat in the pan. The meat was then taken out and it was ready to serve. the sauce is amazing ;) a very, very rich lobster bisque. well going to have a break now before i write about teh evening practical session.

che if you are talking about the base of the beef encroute no its not under cooked. What they did was bake off a rectangular piece of puff pastry but they didn't want it too rise too much so they poked some holes into it and baked it on a damp baking sheet this gave then a foundation for the beef to sit on before they covered the beef in a wrap of puff pastry. But if you tlaking about the top and sides yeah from that photo it does look a little undercooked but it tasted fine to me

thanks for that. i can't read japanese but from the pictures i can tell you 1. pin it to a board. 2. slice down the bottom and gut it 3. make a cut to the neck 4. use a pair of pliers or knife to severe the spine and pull it out? 5. trim the fins off is this correct? :)

hi there while we at it is there a link on how to fillet eel unagi? as i got one in the fridge and plann to use it in a bbq but don't want the kids to have trouble with the bones. thnaks

Hi mobyp yeah i wanted to take photos during the practical session but got too carried away getting everything ready in time for my guest to arrive to take photos, will try taking some of the practical session tomorrow.

Day 2 (evening session) 2pm start So the evening session consisted of a demonstartion on how to make puff pastry, crossants, brioche, beef en croute and gateau pilthiver. We will be making the puff pastry in the practical tomorrow as such i will skip the making of that until tomorrow. The most amazing thing was learning how much butter was actually in a single crossiant!!! and its not good!! i think everyone in the room probably decided at that point not to eat a croissant ever again. The next most interesting thing was making the beef encroute in that they baked out a rectangle of puff pastry spread a mushroom pate on it to form a base for the beef fillet before wrapping it up in puff pastry. Anyway pictures below of todays demo well want to write some more on this session but i left my notes at the school today so will write more about this tomorrow.

Day 2 (morning session) 9.30am start So arrive in the kitchen and immediately after the register we get told how to make a bittersweet orange cake. Now i dislike nearly all fruit based cakes as i find them heavy over sweet and usually have a too bitter or sour aftertaste. so i was not particularly inspired by the choice of cake but was more then happy to go though the motions of cooking it. So we boil a whole orange in water for one hour until its soft. Cut this in half and remove the pips, then chuck in a blender and turn it into a puree. Toast a cup of blanched almonds until they are golden and then blend into a rough powder. Then 5 eggs and 225g ( can't rememebr will check and correct tomorrow) of sugar in a bowl and whisk until its fluffy and pale and the ribbons of batter coming off the spoon holds there shape for a second or more. Then we mix i think a tablespoon of baking powder into the almond and fold it into the sugar and egg mixture we dod this in two parts. Then fold in the orange puree again in two parts. we oil a baking tin and line the bottom with grease proof paper. pour in the cake mixture and in the oven for 30 mins on gas mark 4. we check it with a skewer and if the skewer comes out clean its done. Meanwhile we make a orange syrup to serve with the cake. juice of 4 whole oranges zest of 3 oranges juice of 1 lemon 225g of sugar 150 ml water bring this little lot slowly to the boil and let it reduce down by half and its ready, its actually looks surprisingly watery but has a oil feel to the touch. so that was dessert out of the way. pretty simple stuff really but now everyone started about cooking their lunch and a few of us including me had invited guests to come to the school to be our willing guinea pigs Lunch was to be the pancetta wrapped lamb we prepared yesterday and a side of puy lentils and pancetta. At this point things go a little crazy as everyone in the class has 2 saute pans, 2 sauce pans and a cake cooking at the same time so obviously with a class of 16 there wasn't enough oven eyes to go round But it was a nice kind of chaos. not going to go into the puy lentil recipe as i didn't really rate it. Anyway managed to cook the lamb for lunch with turning courgettes and carrots and the puy lentils and the dark lamb jus (which was amazing!) and finish the cake by 12.30pm now usually i hate fruit based cakes but this one was light not too sweet and the orange syrup that came with it was sharp enough to deflect even more of the sweetness. First out of the oven it was golden brown on the outside and golden yellow and orange on the inside with a almost chewy texture and just a little bite of almond but once cooled the textured change to a moist crumbly almost sponge like texture. so was i happy? damn right!! its was excellent. so 1pm exactly i sit down to lunch with my invited guest/ guinea pig and by 1.40pm we had finished lunch and a slice of cake and also managed to clean up all the tables and do all our washing up!!! thanks rita.

it was 20 mins breast down turn and 15 mins breast up and then he rested it for a good 15-20 minutes. At this point he cut it into thirds length wise as in 2 lon piece with the leg and wing attached and the middle breast and body, he seperated the leg from the wing with a diagonal cut. This way he could check how done the meat was. at this point he said the leg and wings needed anpther 10-15 minutes and the breast was about right It came out surprisingly well. The flesh was moist and tasty although i think it was slightly over salted but the flesh came out crispy like crackling with a beautiful golden colour. anyway off to school now will bring more photos and course details this evening. ciao

hehehe i didn't friends bought it for my birthday present but at a guess its would probably be in the £30-40 mark

hi all i got the granite pestle and mortar;) hansome isn't it? well its weight a ton!! and looks like it would survive a direct hit from a bomb! hey trillium did that rice pounding thing and you're right it took the forth to fifth pounding of rice before it become all white. :) anyway it looks very cool on my tabletop now to find all though pounding and grinding recipes:)

I considered the Cookery School, Mosimann, Cordon Bleu and Leiths. Leiths seemed to have the most variety of short courses and the price I think is about right for a 5 day 10am - 5pm course.

oh i know how to bone a chicken now hohoohoh!!

well had my first day at Leith's cooking school and have to say i'm pretty satisfied with what i learnt. Ok first the break down, 5 day advanced cooking course cost: £550 prerequistes: none additional costs: none requirements: bring an apron and tuperware to take food home. class size: max 16 its starts at 9.45am-1pm breaks for lunch and then 2pm-5pm is alternates from half day demo to half day cooking todays demo consisted off 1. Roast duckling, singe fine featjhers off using a flame, cut off parsons nose and trim some of the fat around the cavity. prick the duck all over with a fork, season with salt, and roast on a wire rack, 20 mins breast side down and 15 min turn in a 200C oven. 2. lamb jus, brown lamb bones and add, onion, tomato, thyme , garlic, brown chicken stock, red wine. simmer for 4 hours and finish with butter. 3. ballotine of chicken, this was technically the hardest as you had to debone a chicken without chopping it into piece, the desired result is a chicken carcas minus bones. then the carcus was stuffed with minced pork, pancetta, porcini, breadcrumbs, tarragon, shallots. 4.roasted noisette of lamb pretty simple really butcher a neck end removing the eye fillet and brown sides in butter and olive oil and finish in an oven. serve with the lamb jus, french beans rolled in pancetta, pan fried potatos, chilli onion chutney and basil oil. picture below ;) would have taken more but i was at the back of the class and the vultures had descend before i could take pics of the other dishes, will sit at the front tomorrow. the demo is a little hectic jumping back and forth from dish to dish but it all makes sense and you can ask questions as you go alone. When the dishes are completed the class gets to try the results which are pretty good although i did find the duck a little salty after lunch is the practical part and we are learning to make pancetta wrapped lamb served with lamb jus and turned vegetables. here a photo of the class. so we get to try our hand at cutting out the eye fillet. browning the lamb bones and making the jus and truning a few veggies which i personally think is a waste of good veg but thats just me. and that was the end of the first day. is it worth it? well if it carries on like this every day then yeah i think its worth. But is it really advanced?? not sure as in the demo its advance but the actually practical topic seem quite simple. If they had got us to do the ballotine of chicken then yes i would consider that to be an advance dish but pancetta wrapped lamb??? anyway stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow.

not sure the egullet guideline for plugging brands but have you ever tried the Lloyd Grossman tomato and chilli sauce? that is definitely my favourite pre made pasta sauce. Home made would be simply crushed garlic fried in olive oil and tossed with chopped rocket, parma ham, sauted mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes , cherry tomatoes and a grind of fresh black pepper. ;) great for a light summer lunch

esvoboda Posted: Jul 22 2004, 12:15 AM nice idea but could be a problem due to the different expansivity rates of the metals or could just galvanised the copper core? any metal expert out there as mine is just A-level actually i wonder if Egullet should approach a few catering equipment manufacturers and offer to become there focus group/ testers

also i said that its the dish people most associate with a country. It doesn't matter about its true origins as that will take forever to argue over:) hmmm.. schanpps for germany I know Hawaii isn't a country but whats their most famous dish?

balex Posted on Jul 20 2004, 12:40 PM hehe I agree but was being diplomatic but you have to admit the range of restaurants has increased over the last few decades there definitely more ethnic places open. I honestly think its the conservative natural more then the bad taste buds thats holding them back. I reckon that over 70% of the UK population wouldn't even dare try sushi.

Portugal - piri piri chicken, egg tart nata. Iran - caviar? Pedro sorry about reducing Spain to Paella and Sherry but don't worry i've reduced France to escargot and wine hahaha!!!! but you have to admit for Spain paella sherry and chorizo would be the most synonymous, could add turron too?

Jamaica - deep fried plantain and salt fish patties Cuba - mojito Sweden - gravlax Russia - beef stroganoff, chicken kiev, vodka Anyone know whether Balti are meant to be Bangladesh, Pakistan or Birmingham?? Which country would claim the pita bread and kebabs? the Lebanese? Greek? Doing quite well on northern hemisphere dishes what about the middle east and south? no suggestions for New Zealand ,Australia, Indonesia, South Africa, Emirate states ? Here's a challenge for you Gifted find a signature dish for the Vatican City

shiver me timbers! does polly want a cracker? hmmm anyone got a parrot avatar? and a ship ?