Akiko

has anyone been back to Pigalle recently? Has the hubbub died down and have they gone back to their former ways? I never got to try it and would like to.... but don't want to be disappointed.

OOOOH, Jin you genius. What do you think about mochi rice (glutinous) made into triangle onigiri and then lightly pan fried (I love crunchy).... then I could plate the salad with an onigiri and the cod on top and have a nice fish-rice-salad first course... I still think that chicken sandwich course needs a lil somethin on the side of it.... and to answer you question Suzanne... nothing else is in the fridge (I don't think... although I always find something that I've managed to forget about ) it would have to be something I can pick up at my sainsbury local or tell my husband to pick up at villendry.

HELP! I suddenly find myself making dinner out of leftovers for more than just my husband and I... his best friend and sister have invited themselves over.... I plan to make a very odd dinner of... leftover roast chicken sandwiches... We roasted a chicken last night, brined, spatchcocked, slathered in goose fat, lemon, thyme, sage, and garlic.... and then painted with honey and mustard... we roasted veggies in the drippings (mmm goose fat) and I had made lemony gravy out of what was left in the pan. There was also some orangey cranberry sauce on the side. My husband is picking up ciabatta from villendry and I will paint one side of the sandwich with gravy and chicken and the other side with cranberry sauce and roasted veggies... To supplement that... because there isn't going to be enough to satisfy everyone... I'm going to stretch what was supposed to be dinner for two into dinner for four... sweet miso marinated cod, rice, and salad with ginger carrot dressing. NOW, should I serve one of those things as a first course and the other as a second? And does anyone have a recommendation or what I could do as an easy dish to add on to the menu????? I know, its a very odd, eclectic dinner but.... I DIDN'T KNOW THEY WERE COMING AND THE STUFF THAT IS ALREADY IN THE FRIDGE NEEDS TO BE EATEN! Help me...

Miss J, I love the sound of your dinners..... mmmm Sunday night is turning into "good cuts of very fresh fish" night for us. I was able to get some lovely salmon and just as wonderful yellowfin tuna from applebee's at Borough Market. So we had poke (pronounced pokie) Three kinds of poke: Yellowfin tuna cubed, with seaweed salad, sesame oil, chopped thai bird chilies, soy sauce, toasted sesame seeds, a little bit of rice vinegar, and green onions all tossed together. Yellowfin tuna cubed, with seaweed salad, roasted peanuts, peanut butter, soy sauce, chili paste, sesame oil, green onions all tossed together Salmon thinly sliced, with seaweed salad, furikake, soy sauce, sesame oil. Baked scallop gratin in the shell layered on top of enoki mushrooms and slathered with chili garlic mayonnaise. (I've never bought live scallops before... I thought they would stop being so alive after I put them in the refrigerator for a day but one clamped itself down on my finger... at which point I made my husband break them all open... I still had to clean the buggers though) - a nobu recipe simplified Some rice and cukes with sweet miso (white miso sauce made with sake, mirin, and sugar. yummy. the leftover fish was cooked, minced, and then mixed with the leftover chili mayonnaise and eaten with rice for Monday night's dinner.

I am reading through Su Mei's book right now and am finding her to be very insightful about the different regions and history of Thai cooking. It's a great read. Hot Sour Salty Sweet is on my wish list of books... it is very expensive which is what has kept me from just picking it up at the bookstore.

WAH!, So is it possible to make kalbi out of English cut Short Ribs? I just came back from the butcher who only had English cut Short Ribs today and the cut looked so beautiful (even though I've never seen it), I bought two big steaks. One I will try to do a steak with... but the other, can I cut the meat into strips and still have kalbi?

After a few pre dinner drinks at our new flat.... we never made it to Baltic, thought that vodka shots on top of the shochu ones we had already imbibed was not a good idea. So we went to Petit Robert instead, where the three of us promptly made two bottles of wine disappear. What a lovely place with excellent food. We shared starters of oxtail and foie gras on a bed of potatoes and filo wrapped prawns in a spicy tomato sauce ( I must admit, I think the spicy tomato sauce was ketchup and cocktail sauce mixed together). The prawns were an amazing texture soft and then crunchy on the outside with the filo. I had the rack of lamb (wonderful), my husband had the sea bass with a fennel cake, and my sister in law had the bangers and mash. The mains are served with a huge plate of veggies and chips, the chips were great, that crispy texture you get from double frying... I couldn't stop eating them, especially dipped in the au jus from the lamb or the bangers and mash. MMMMMM. Highly recommend it.

Oooh, Thank you for all the tips, I've printed them out and tonight will be making my first chicken stock from the carcass of the roasted chicken from last night's dinner. And Dave, was that a joke? I'd love to see you do that with Mayonnaise? For that matter, does anyone have tips on mayonnaise making? I made some miso mayonnaise last night using a Nobu recipe... it was not very thick, rather watery (called for two eggs and one cup of oil with some seasonings of rice wine, salt, miso... hang on, was I only supposed to use the yolks?)... but maybe that texture is what he intended, not what I intended at all. Should we start a new thread on mayonnaise?

Thanks Chaz, You are the second person to recommend The Baltic to me (Simon Majumdar was the first), so we're going to go for dinner and drinks tomorrow night. Do you have any recommendations?

Gavin, I'm embarassed to say that I have no idea what the fishmonger's name is or the name of the shop and did not even chat with him about what was fresh... I got it at borough market, the salmon was excellent quality, the yellowfin tuna was okay (I think, I'm judging by pretty high standards) quality. Does anyone know if there are "standard" days that London gets fish deliveries? Any rules of thumb such as, "don't buy fish on the weekend"?

I will admit that while I know the difference that chicken stock makes in adding depth and base for all manner of sauces and soups.... in New York I bought it from Citranella because they did such a good job at doing it, and then I didn't have to. Here in London, devoid of my supplier, I'm going to be making my own. Who has some great tips? What do you add to yours? Nothing? Onions, carrots? How long do you let yours simmer? The only thing I'm sure of is not to let it come to a boil.... learned from watching Tampopo. Thanks!

On Sunday night we had some sushi quality salmon and yellowfin tuna to deal with so we... marinated half the salmon (very thinly sliced) in one lime with the zest, olive oil, lemongrass, a little light soy sauce (for less than an hour because that lime is very good at cooking the salmon). marinated the other half of the salmon (again very thinly sliced) in lemon, yuzu juice, cilantro, and chili paste. Added some sea salt just before serving. Marinated the tuna in soy sauce, sesame oil, rapeseed oil, rice wine, and sesame seeds, with a little galangal grated in. Then, coated the tuna in black pepper some salt and lots of sesame seed. Grilled the tuna just to sear and then sliced it up. Set out some table salad, avocado, julienned cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, mint, and cilantro. Put lots of dipping sauces out and then set a hot bowl of water on the table so we could dip our rice paper in, put some veggies and fish inside, roll it up, dip it in some sauce and EAT! Yum. We had some fish leftover so I cooked it up, chopped it up, and then seasoned with more salt and pepper, added mayo, sprinkled green onions and sesame seeds into it. And we had tuna/salmon salad crostinis for dinner last night with some proseco. Best tuna-salmon salad I've ever had.

Kikujiro, I actually meant to PM you about that and then so much time had elapsed, I couldn't remember the meal well enough to it justice. I want to thank you even though it wasn't what we expected the meal was excellent. Ibla, is no longer Italian but it is very good British food. The service is excellent, the details of the decor and place setting (down to the embroidered napkins) were also stylishly set. Nigel did justice to pea and mint soup, perfect lamb (although out of season, it was some of the most tender spring lamb tasting lamb that I've ever had). My husband had something... that I can no longer recall but we were very happy eating it.... I really should have written you when I could remember the meal in better detail. I would still put it on your "to go" list. They really should change the logo and name though, somehow Ibla no longer fits.

Korean people usually "wean" their kids onto spicy food. My friends all grew up having their kim chi dipped into water before eating it (to wash off some of the spicyness) as children. And gradually became able to eat the whole thing. My niece who used to scream spicy at me and stick her tongue out for me to wipe with my napkin if I gave her anything with any remote scent, let alone taste, of red pepper or ginger on it, has started to love pizza with very spicy sauce (she is now five). When she says that she loved it, I tell her, "but it's spicy and you hate spicy. If you like the pizza that means you now like spicy." And she puts her nose in the air and says, "IT"S NOT SPICY." I love thai food but you are right, it is very regional and so not all thai food tastes similar. I've had a couple of northern dishes that were blander and am not so entranced by those. But the dishes I've had in the south of Thailand.. SERIOUS YUM! Lotus of Siam is no longer run by the woman who made it so great (in fact, I don't know if it exists at all in LA anymore). She's now in Las Vegas and boy is her food amazing. She makes a rice salad that looks like it's made out of uncooked rice that was deep fried. The texture and flavour is unlike anything I've ever had. And Sripaphai in Queens is the second best I've had in America.... although I've never been to Arun's in Chicago. Is Arun that great? Or is it more about the presentation?

Simon, Your review comes with good timing for me! I haven't been back to J Sheekeys in three years but Chris and I are going for dinner in a week to see if it is still as great as I remember it. Now, I'll look forward to it as my next great meal. Thanks, Akiko

I had dinner at Spoon back in May, which was so unimpressive that I can barely remember anything about it... except that it was ludicrously expensive. I did however like the decor at the Sanderson. The phillipe starck touch runs all the way to the laundry bags. They give you beautiful white sacks with a rose emblazoned on it to put your things in (similar style to the chairs with the single eye on the back of them). And there is a very "designer" bar called purple decked out in guess what colour. Its usually quiet and serves great vodkas and martinis. Again, ludicrously expensive.

Hah! Mein Buddha, I love that post.

Jinmyo, Lemon Tuile (I love lemon!) how did you make this?

After all those insightful posts I feel silly asking this but over the weekend I cooked porkchops here in Britain for the first time and the cut here comes with the nice fatty rind on it... so to make it nice and appealing I actually did the narrow fatty edge first (without having any clue that I was helping the fat into the pan and making it tastier)... but the cut wasn't thick enough to balance on its own so I held it.... getting splatters of oil on my hands and cursing all the while. How do you keep the meat balanced on the narrow side without it falling over?

Thomas, Does the shop on store street sell those stone bowls that you make dolsot bibimbap in? Ever since Jinmyo put that picture on her posts, I've been craving it and my husband has sent me several emails with just the words "bibimbap" written over and over, simply to end in, "I think I'm dieing from lack of bibimbap". So, I'm looking for a place where I can buy those stone bowls... It's a nice easy thing to do for dinner. Have you tried Kikuchi's which is next door to Han Kang? I once heard that they have decent sushi... and in my quest to find good sushi in London, I've filed it away in my head.... but I miss good Korean food too, so I will definitely be trying Han Kang. Simon... if you go on Saturday and they have - jap chae (vermicelli noodle stir fry type of thing liberally seasoned with hot sesame oil), pajang (vegetable/seafood pancake things), duk bokki (rice cakes in very hot bean paste), kim chie chigae (kim chie soup), those things are standards and almost on all Korean menus and are very good... Thomas, do they do these dishes well at Han Kang?

I will readilly admit that I cheat. I will use canned ingredients and especially rely on chipotles in adobo sauce to give instant heat and flavour to pork chops, steaks, salmon... It's been my secret weapon in whipping up fast, easy, flavour packed meals on weeknights after long hours at work when you just can't be bothered to slave for an hour (or hours) prepping your meal. So does anyone know where I can get this product in London?

If you "sear" the natto it you will lose all the gluey little threads, and that roasted flavor comes out, its really quite good. Morimoto's natto and miso thing that he did searing the natto with miso on top is probably delicious. I do have to warn you though... have you smelled natto? Cooking it intensifies that smell and helps it permeate your whole kitchen My husband has banned natto from our apartment, as much as I love it, I'm not allowed to bring it home, or kiss my husband after I've eaten it! Akiko

Personally, I love natto, but I will admit, its an acquired taste. Something about that bitter, slightly nutty, flavour and the uber okra-ish texture.. I just think its the best. I missed the show, will someone describe to me what the chefs made with it? What foods did they combine it with? Did they bake, saute, sear it?

Your posts always make me laugh. (In a good way.) They are also very informative, by the way.

Many thanks for all the suggestions. Simon, is Tagine the same as Original Tagines? I put it into the search engine on Squaremeal.co.uk to find the address and that is what came up. Although I'm none the wiser as to where dorset street hits marylebone high street... Gavin, we'll definitely try Tas and Kikujiro, we'll try Ibla and I'll report back to you about the meal. Kit and Magnolia... can you give me directions? I put Baker & spice as well as Lisboa Patisserie and Maison Blanc and Paul into the squaremeal... and nothing came up. Thanks again.... Akiko