jeremysco

That must be close to your worst food experience ever. I just hate that when it happens. The worst meal I ever had was at The Admiralty a couple of years back. All four of us had an remittingly dire experience from start to finish and paid through the nose for it. Despite (some) good reviews since I just cant bring myself to even go in the building again. Poor, poor Macrosan.

Bit of a late thought but the ground floor at 190 Queensgate has a nice airy room for brunch which often is fairly empty but has a simple brunch menu. The bar area next door has big leather sofas and all the newspapers etc.

Thanks Cabrales, that makes me feel a whole lot better about the Dinner table I got last thursday at RHR. I rang at 10.30am and was offered either 7.30 or 9.45 in a phone call at 2pm. (This was my first experience of beiing offered a timed meal at RHR and it implies that times cant be so hard if they are still trying to have two sittings) I saw two tables turned after we arrived and only the large table for six remained empty all night. The late comers were all city boys coming straight from work. I know this cos both tables spoke loudly in Texan. I have eaten in restaurants every day for the last week (our kitchen is being rebuilt) and every restaurant has been full or almost full. Conversely I walked past a Fish! restaurant last night at 9pm and there were 2 people in the whole place.

When my wife took me to Le Manoir for an anniversary lunch a couple of years ago we sat next to a table with a youngish couple with a high chair for their baby who ate specially prepared apple puree (ordering off menu at six months old!) and a child of about five who had the full tasting menu and hated almost every bit of it and left practically £95 of grub on the table. His high-pitched whining and complaining ruined our meal and I hope it ruined his parents too. My advice would be to try and take in maybe the Conrans (Bluebird, Quaglinos), possibly the Peoples Palace and also the River Cafe which always seems to have a fair number of children in it at weekend lunches. The Conrans are not fine dining but the food is relatively simple and they do have chips. The Peoples Palace did a very simple pasta for a child once when we went (although that was some years ago) and the River Cafe can be excellent.

Just a note. Ive eaten at RHR four times in the evenings as well as a couple of lunches. I have never been asked to leave early nor has it been suggested (the earliest that I have sat down is 7.15) nor have I seen tables turned when I have been there. Guess I am just lucky. The seating times offered have been staggered, with 15 mins inbetween. Whether this is for the kitchen or in order to allow the obsequious maitre'd to call you by name when you walk in I dont know but I have been greeted by name every time I have been through the door. Twice I have got tables through cancellations. On these occasions I rang either the day before or on the day. It seems that businesses and self-centered tossers regularly book a number of tables at different restaurants as a matter of course and then cancel according to their needs/whims. Finally the service at RHR is less oppressive than at Gavroche. I even managed to get the wine left on my table!

I add a heavy dash of lea and perrins to eggy bread and scrambled eggs. Try it with hand cut (ie thicker) serrano ham or similar. Also add thyme if you like or rosemary.

Bapi, The Trinity is next Saturday . Who did you sell your kidney to? Was it St Johns?

Just another plug for south of the river but Chez Bruce is always good if you have a few in your party. They have a private room that is very reasonable and Bruce Poole has his stars for a reason. Great food but at prices which will not use all of your bonus at once.

Thanks again Pallab. I gather from your email that this is your first posting. As a relative newcomer myself I can tell you that the depth of knowledge of some of these guys can be very intimidating! I am in the " I dont know much but I knows what I like" camp. I was a waiter all through school and university as well as working part-time in kitchens for about two years. I then managed a cajun wine bar (!) in Leicester for one year before it became more of a cocktail bar and I left to help open a real ale pub. Ever since then (12 years ago) I have been in print sales and spend most of my time taking people to eat lunch. The joy for me in a big sale is not in the commission but in the meal that we can go for to celebrate. I am lucky enough to have eaten at Gavroche, RHR, Le Manoir, Oak Room, etc and been paid to do it. It is fantastic to hear people with as much love of food talking about it and helping to give a greater understanding. It is also great to read the petty arguments. Whatever you do, dont just look at the British pages. The other nationalities are just as good.

I was cooking pheasant casserole and it being about 10 at night thought that I would leave it on the gas hob on very low all night. I went to bed and so did everyone else in London. This meant that the gas usage dropped and so the pressure soared. Low bubbling became a roaring flame. I woke up at 6am with a house full of fowl (geddit) smelling smoke and eventually a drycleaning bill for my flat mates suit. He had pressed it the night before and had hung it up in the kitchen ready to go to an interview the next day. He didnt get the job.

I am going for supper at the Trinity Restaurant in Orford Suffolk next Saturday and was wondering if anybody knew about it or about the chef. I have been told that "they are the people from Hintlesham Hall" (where Alan Ford cooks) The address to site/menus etc is below. All tips or suggestions gratefully received. www.thecrownandcastlehotel.co.uk Anyway having built myself up for a meal at Guellers in Leeds on my last trip out of London (thanks for all the suggestions)instead I arrived on a train that ran five hours late and ended up with a tuna sandwich and a can of perrier. So this is a long awaited treat. Completely unrelated but I cooked some rhubarb with moscavado sugar and a sprig rosemary last night. It was absolutely superb. I cant believe that its original but I'd never heard of or tried it before and it was done on a whim. Anyway its to be reccomended.

Congratulations Indiagirl. My best friend took a similar journey and is still enjoying new experiences. She had come to be categorized as someone who was "vegetarian but eats prawns". As she said to me once," If I ever go to dinner at someones house again and everyone is made to eat prawns because of me I will scream" Apart from your own desire to experiment did you ever feel pressure from outside? Not from people saying that you should eat meat, but because what you were prepared to eat effected what other people ate too. One of the reasons that vegetarians got such a raw deal in western culture was that they were often eating with an omnivore majority. Obviously this wasnt true within your own family and its culture but what about now? As most of the meat that you have had has been braised or poultry I assume that it has also been well cooked. Do you realise the complete alterations in meats between rare and well-done? Do you think that you could ever eat a bloody steak?

Just out of interest, since it all began with stevie P having a go, does anyone know what "American pie" actually is? I'm fairly sure that it must be rich, thick, fatty and full of air.

Basically it goes like this. Steves right. Most British food is crap compared to refined French, Italian etc. Yeah, yeah, I like pie as well. However this is basically because we were too busy subjugating indigenous peoples to spend much time in the kitchen. Give us some credit. We realised this and we decided to get someone in to do the cooking. All those Italian and French restaurants around the world are just packed full of WASPs spending money on good food. Alternativly, and bizarrely, the food could be bad because the British actually cooked more for themselves. In the UK meals were eaten at home after buying or growing and cooking raw ingredients. The French have a tradition of buying cooked food. They do this both at restaurants and at delis. If you are in competiton with the guy next door then you make the food that you sell better than his. Why the french "added value" to their food I don't know but I'm glad they did. Could WASPs stand for Wiseacre American Steve P?

There you go. I'm spoilt for choice. Winteringham Fields is a long way but it is on the motorway and it does look good. Anyway I just love a restaurant that has the initiative and gumption to write on its web site "If you wish to be picked up from the station in Doncaster, please let us know in advance and we will be pleased to send a car for you. Some of our guests prefer to arrive by helicopter; landing facilities are available nearby in the village." Now thats my image of a real e-gulleteer Thanks for all your help. My meeting is now next week but I will post a note to say how it went and where would let me in.

I believe that the number of Indian restaurants in the UK increased dramatically after Idid Amin exiled 50,000 Ugandan Asians in 1972 as part of his Africization programme. A large number of the refugees came to the UK (whose then Prime Minister, Ted Heath, faced considerable opposition to his decision to stand by the UK's obligations). The immigrants were dispersed over the country and especially sent to places which had available housing. These included already declining industrial areas in the north (Bradford) and Glasgow in Scotland. One of the reasons that Amin expelled the Asians was their conspicuous commercial success. He confiscated many prosperous shops and factorys. Starting where they left off the refugees proceeded to set up businesses all over the UK. They have become an exemplary economic success story. If not always a culinary one. Might I suggest that the differences may be down to the availability of raw ingredients when they arrived in different places and adapted the menus to local situations. The Scots have always liked rich and fatty foods when they were available. The new restaurants noticed and took it on board.

Couldnt agree more about the snootyness. I always think that beer goes very well with spicey food, especially slightly sweet beers (cutely labelled as Indianand brewed abd bottled in London). I went to the Bombay Brasserie Elephant about six months ago and was worried they were going to throw us out when we ordered 4 beers. One thing is for sure, the wine lists for most of the Indian restaurants could do with a lot of work. Are there are guides as to / suggestions for what is best for which dish? The range is to wide to generalize. Anyway. All this has perked up my tastebuds. I'm off to Tabaq in Clapham for some great pakistani nosh. Table booked for 8.15 Bye.

Thats more like it! And would you believe it but I've been to Honley and walked past Mustard and Punch. My brother in law lived there about six year ago and I went to stay for one night. We went into Bradford and had a curry to forget. I will look up Guellers as well. Maybe I can squeeze in all three if I really try.

Is that really it? Oh god what is a man to do? Somebody must know somewhere? Not one yorkshireman to stand up and boast "T' best food in t' worlds from Yorkshire!"

In the UK a great place to get really great mushrooms is at Booths Wild Mushroom Company in Borough Market London.

Suvir I hope that the Liberal, which is run by a manageress and admitted women over 60 years ago is not really as full of t*ssers as some of the clubs Simon used to belong to. Simon is right though. Avoid Soho House and the Groucho if invited. The Agency is the only other one that I have been in and it was good. Although I dont think that I am able to aspire to be classified as a "mid range professional". I was introduced to the liberal by a teacher when I was a secretary and I know my place. Personally, I dont go to the club to meet new people but to enjoy the old fashioned facilities. I am a young(ish) fogey. The porters know your name, everyone is unfaillingly polite and the drinks are stonger than most bars in London. Indian clubs sound great places to have been in when you were growing up. The out door cinema reminds me of one I go to on the greek island of Paros. We take a picnic of last years homemade thick, strong parean wine (we tread the grapes ourselves in a pit in the fields) and fresh figs from the trees in the garden and watch lousy acton movies with greek subtitles. Sadly I cant eat a fig in London now. They just dont come close.

The clubs in the replies are just fancy restaurant names Im afraid. They are not real clubs with memberships etc. If you would like to come to a Gentlemans Club when you are in London then I would be more than happy to meet and take you to the National Liberal. It is at the lower end of stuffy but it still has a beautiful building in Whitehall and fires burning in summer with old men asleep in front of them. No business discussions inside and no mobile phone either (bliss!) You have to wear a jacket and tie or preferably a suit but tweeds will do. Gulls eggs in season at the bar and a fantastic view off the London Eye over the gardens and the river. There is always a roast and full range of grills as well as a la carte (from the kitchens of the 5* hotel next door) and club menu with 3 courses for about £12. The best bit is subsidised wines and a great place to have a snooze after lunch.

I have to go to Brighouse in West Yorkshire next week. It is just North of Huddersfield and West of Leeds. Has anybody got any ideas? Probably lunch and an evening meal.

I used to cook InkCap mushrooms in omelettes and they are fantastic. They have delicate flavour but a great texture. They are also probabley the most comman mushroom to grow wild in the English garden. However be warned that they should never be eaten if they have even slightly opened and that they also should not be eaten if you are going to drink within 24 hours as they contain a varient of the chemical used in Alcabuse and will make you violently ill. Obviously this means that I havent been able to eat them for a while.

In the UK Lurpack in just a standard everyday supermarket butter. Nothing special. Generally the higher the fat content the better. Try to find butters at 80%. I especially love Butters made with sel de mer. In the UK Waitrose sell a couple of different ones. I think that Butter is best thickly spread on fresh bread with wild smoked salmon lemon and pepper. Or in a bacon sandwich, or on asparagus or french beans or blackened on Skate or...