Akiko

Each time I go, I'm even more impressed. We went the other night (Mr. Akiko, my friend who is the chef of Ann Sather's in Chicago, and I) and while I am definitely a meat enthusiast and what Fergus is famous for is the meat... but with his vegetables, I'd happily be a vegetarian. The salad and the mash and the turnips, were all incredible. And that was just our sides! The last time I was there we had the globe artichoke which was also incredible. For starters, Chris had snails wrapped in bacon on a skewer (bacon was lovely, couldn't really taste the snail but was a nice texture), Carol had garlic soup (very nice), and I had the marrowbone salad, which in my opinion was the best out of the three. Then Chris had the bath chop (slices of deboned pigs head wrapped in the tongue and panfried), Carol had the roast beef on dripping toast (the name alone makes my mouth water!) and I had the leg of lamb. I was a little worried about the bath chop but it was actually excellent. Super rich, parts of it like crackling and other parts as fatty as bacon... maybe fattier. Everything was very good, perfect roast beef (nice and rare, my mother in law would have been horrified but I think roast beef should be very rare), some of the spiciest (almost like wasabi) english mustard I've ever had, and very tender roulettes of lamb with the crispiest crust. And since we couldn't let Carol leave the UK without having spotted dick, we had that (lovely custard cream with flecks of vanilla to pour on top) and an eccles cake. That lancashire cheese they serve with the eccles cake is absolutely the perfect complement. Just writing about it is making me want to go back...

I was wondering how the bill came to so little... now I'm thinking that they definitely made a mistake in our favor. Tony, thank you for all the suggestions, we ordered just about everything you suggested and then some more dishes on top of that! The lamb chops are incredible as is their chicken tikka starter. My friends loved the dry meat curry and there was a special meat biryani and it was excellent. And of course, I love their paratha and the keema nan. Is Paratha made with yeast and Nan with no yeast? That's what one of my friends' thought. Or is the only difference the addition of ghee? Some of the best lassi I've ever had. I didn't pay enough attention to what happened to our tip... the bill was so cheap and the food was so wonderful and most of us being americans, we tipped quite generously..... since we were waited on by several people, I hope it was pooled and distributed.

Charlene, I haven't done it yet, but my vietnamese friends say that you can freeze lemongrass if you prepare it first. So, pre chop or peel and feed the lemongrass bulby part into a food processor (With 50 of those things your hands might get tired otherwise!) and then freeze. They say you can then just break off bits as you need it.

You have just left the window open for me to ask a question that I've been wondering forever... neophyte to Indian and Pakistani food that I am... what is biryani? I see it on so many menus and have been tempted to order it just to find out what the heck it is. Thanks for all the suggestions Tony. I'm going to print that out and bring it with me as my "map" to ordering!

OOH, Tissue, elaborate. Are you a kansai girl? Do you have rice with all your meals? Even with a dish of noodles? (at least MY kansai friends all did this). What do you find the difference to be?

Sam, That is a definite, on my first and last visit to st John's there were so many other "new" things on the menu that I'd never tried before while bone marrow salad is something we ate all the time in NY (Prune Restaurant) and grew up eating the bone marrow in other ways that we skipped this. But since then, I've heard that Fergus's bone marrow salad is the "quintessential" experience... besides, I haven't had it in a long time and I miss it . Can't wait to have it.

Tony, Were all the things you ordered for us at the egullet dinner actually available on the menu? My girlfriends who I grew up with in Chicago are arriving this week and amongst the restaurants that I've handpicked for them to go to is New Tayyab. It will be the first time I go back since our dinner there with you and I'm not sure what to order although I know they will love everything. We'll definitely have the paratha, I've had it several times since but never as good as New Tayyab... what else is actually on the menu and would you recommend us not to miss ordering for them? What other egulleters go to New Tayyab, and what are your favorite dishes there? We're also going to take them to Providores Tapas, St. John's, and Le Pigalle if anyone would like to recommend favorite dishes from those places!

Although I love yaki-imo, what I'm talking about is a little different. To the sad demise of my Japanese language skills... I can't remember what this is called. It's dried like a dried apricot, It might be called Hoshi Imo... or something like that...sweet potato thats been hung out to dry or some such literal translation. Like a sundried tomato the sweetness is intensified and the texture is not the fluffyness you get with yaki imo but an almost chewy moistness. And when you grill it... mmmm mmm! Although you can eat it as it is, that is pretty good too. I think it might be something that people in Northern Japan do... because I never saw it in Tokyo or south of Tokyo.

The konnyaku batake jellies are better than the others, its the texture... and while I haven't conducted any experiments, I do think it gets chilled and still retains that chewiness better than the other versions. Although yes, with the other versions there is not the same risk of choking. Some day if and when we have kids, I might have to cut those things into little pieces before my kids can eat them.... same as with the mochi.

Hanpen... oooh, you just gave me the shivers. Hate that stuff, my mom always insisted in putting in her soups... couldn't leave it in your bowl, we were made to eat everything. Like corrugated cardboard left to soak for a long time, until it gets a spongy texture just for you to eat.

But there is "gourmet" soy sauce. I wish I took notes on the things that I bought and ate while I lived in Japan but I took it for granted that it was just part of my life that would never go away. I have no idea what the "better" brands are or regions (or small local garage type places) famous in Japan for their high quality soy sauce, but these do exist. One of my happiest eating memories in Japan is in the winter when dried sweet potato slices can be bought. I liked to put slices of those dried (still moist and chewy on the inside) slices on the grill and then dip them in the excellent soy sauce that I bought from a local gourmet store.... mmmm, among the best things I have ever eaten. YUM!

I've never had mochi in my oden... that sounds wonderful... steaming broth, fish cakes!, fish balls/meat balls, I too am a very happy camper. Especially if you give me lots of yellow mustard to eat it with. I'm really missing japanese 7/11 now... the one around the corner from my apartment in Japan made surprisingly, very good oden and was often my dinner in the winter months. mmm, oden broth

Am I the only one who likes the konnyaku batake jelly candies? In the summer, my husband and I put those things in the refridgerator, and slurp them like mini popsicles into our mouths!

Tissue, try the chopped up version on your bowl of rice. There's a different texture to the different sizes of natto and whether they are chopped or whole. It affects the taste too, some of those big bean natto versions make me cringe... I'm not sure if its the size or the fact that I think it becomes a little too... beany. I like the chopped and the koh-tsubu (small beans). But you should try them All!

My husband banned it from our home... so I'd always order it at restaurants.. and then I got him to have a bite here and there. He still does not especially like it... but I think I'm getting him there... fried bacon bits in your natto is also good. I'm being quite serious. But then fried bacon bits are good in a lot of things!

It makes me sad to read bad experiences at Prune, its like one of those things that you so enjoy and want everyone else to have as good an experience. When we lived in NY we probably had dinner at Prune around twice a month. I only had one not great dinner there and (I've read that she does not like hearing this) I chalked it up to a bad night in the kitchen, especially since she was not there that evening. Conversely, I was very excited about all that I heard concerning tasting room... was disappointed the first time, went back and was disappointed the second and never tried it again. Maybe I should have given it another chance. We did try brunch once, at Prune and were not amazed. But dinner was always outstanding. And Prune's papadums are the best I've ever had... her pomme frites are no slouch either, and seasonal fresh veggies are always mouthwateringly wonderful.

This is totally normal! I was taught to grate it with gloves on because its a skin irritant (no idea why it doesn't irritate your mouth)... sometimes I do get an itchy feeling on my lips from it... there are tricks to neutralizing it... which I've forgotten. do you know of any, Kristin?

I love it too, with natto, on soba, and in my tonjiru YUM! poured on hot rice with some soy sauce is pretty good too. I never heard the viagra thing!

Mayonnaise? I've never seen that but that actually appeals to me... spicy natto rolls anyone? If you mixed some thai/vietnamese chili sauce with mayo and put a dollop of that with a dollop of natto in a handroll? But the kim chie sounds like a horrid combination... although I've recently been put off of kim chie because I had an encounter with some rancid gaktogi as well as kim chie this past weekend.. it almost made me wonder if some people actually like their kim chie that way (came from a pretty reputable korean restaurant)... like actually prefer rancid with their korean pickles? Sort of like game and degrees of highness (is that even the right way to use that word?)

Where do you people store these things? The other day I was looking at our overstuffed bookshelves thinking... we need another bookshelf, and then I had to realize that 50% of the books on the shelves are cookbooks and I sheepishly thought, maybe I should get rid of some of these instead and make some room for my husband's stuff... I can't part with my beloved cookbooks.

KIM CHIE NABE!!! Which probably isn't really a nabe at all but some dish the Japanese have stolen from Korea and renamed... I could really use this right now... have a cold and my nose is all stuffed up

I will go back because all of you have raved but I had a main course last week that tasted like I had been given a plate of salt. Chris and I went for dinner, he had a lovely scallop appetizer (huge with the orange bit left on, scrummy) and a decent veal chop with anchovy gratin. I had a huge portion of pork terrine for a starter and then the ricotta pancake with purple tipped broccoli in a butter sauce.... I don't know what happened here. Maybe they thought they were using unsalted butter and then doused the thing in salt afterwards to make up for it when actually they used salted butter and then accidentally the cap of the salt shaker came off and all of its contents went into my dish... But I'll go back, because I want so badly for this to be as good as I've heard and it is such a lovely little room.

Has anyone else ever had this? I grew up eating laughing cow cheese as well as string cheese (which I also still love). I also love artisanal cheese plates, but laughing cow cheese and string cheese is sort of like... candy while the artisanal cheese plate is more like the kind of thing a pastry chef turns out. Both have their place. This year when we went snowboarding in les trois vallees I found apericubes... little individuallly wrapped cubes of tomato, ham, and blue cheese flavoured laughing cow type cheese. I'm hooked... I can't believe England doesn't import the stuff and I can't find it outside of France. I've told my husband that the next time he goes for work (which is next week) I want him to come back with 10 boxes of the stuff. I especially like the tomato... and when its spread on a carr's water biscuit, that's the best. I'd like to eat just that for dinner.

That's hysterical (about the proper way to sprinkle furikake)... have you ever seen Tampopo? It remiinds me of the scene where they are having dining etiquette class (the table of women dressed oh so properly eating spaghetti?). Funny. My mother never taught us anything like that... and I am happy if I've managed to keep the jar away from my niece, whose ultimate goal at a meal will be to pour the entire jar out on her dish and eat just that.

Rick! The vendor from the cool chile co, also conned my husband and I to putting a peppercorn in our mouths a few weeks ago (I posted about it, have no idea where it is now!). I agree with you, quite an amazing experience! My mouth was salivating so badly that I was almost drooling. I can't wait to see how your strange flavour chicken turns out.