athinaeos

Chanos (Serranus cabrilla?) from the Aegean Sea of Greece A humble fish that is perfect for a soup.

Barbounia from the Aegean Sea of Greece. Fresh and tasty to the extent that they could lead you to addiction. All they need is shallow frying in olive oil and asyrtiko white wine. Using knife and fork is strictly prohibited!

I can recommend two places in Limassol. "Forsos" is for meat, in the village of "Moutagiaka", very near Limassol. You go and order "meze", and they bring you a little bit of everything. Do not bother with a main dish, I hope you will be very happy with the "meze" variety. Try to taste everything. "Ladas" is for fish, in the old port of Limassol. Consider appetizers like octopus, or shrimp, but have a fresh fish for the main dish. Happy eating.

Have lunch at the Nuernberger Bratwurst Gloeckl am Dom Frauenplatz 9 tel 089 29 19 45 0 and enjoy pretzels, wurst and dark beer of heavenly quality for a very reasonable prize. The place is right next to the famour Church and is usually packed with Munich residents. Seating is relaxed, ie you walk in and if there are empty places at a table, you sit there, and mingle with the other patrons.

Thank you all for your contribution. I must say that the "tongue in cheek" designer dish attracted my attention for its bold statement, while the calm and restrained power of the traditional simmering in court bullion reassured me that there is a domain of eternal senses and tastes. The Monte Cristo sandwich is a smart newcomer in my book, and the pastrami a target for my next visit to a good deli. Alas, I have not yet decided which recipe to follow. So please wait, I assure you that once I have prepared something, I will post it.

Fellow Food Aficionados! Today my friendly butcher promised to supply me early next week with fresh beef's tongue and cheeks. As I am very rusty on cooking these parts, could you kindly make suggestions. Many thanks!

in greece we have a dish called "lamb fricasse" which uses a lot of lightly cooked lettuce! in essence it is a lamb caserole dish to which you add - after the lamb is tender - fresh diced lettuce, dill, sliced fresh onions, and let them become soft you serve the dish with an egg and lemon sause and pair it with a pinot noir

the discussion and exchange of ideas is wonderful, but at the end of the day this is all about the end result and not about intentions, means, concepts, and other types of abstract issues if before i taste a dish my mind is full of preconceived notions, i am most likely to fall prey to these notions rather than taste what i eat in other words, i believe a gastronome should be a pragmatist rather than an idealist in terms of real contribution, i would like to use music as a domain for metaphor let us assume that arzak is the mahler of european cooking does this make aduriz "benjamin britten"? i do not think so if we judge by results and not hype and publicity and what does this make adria? i would be inclined to say schoenberg the benjamin britten of cooking has not been invented yet

it is a mater of taste: i find that lamb fat has very strong taste and overpowers the subtle variances of the meat's taste, provided of course that we have quality meat i therefore prefer to use extra virgin olive oil that works quite nicely with the garlic, oregano and rosemary, and creates with the meat's juice a very fine and subtle complement to the meat

I have cooked lamb many times and would like to suggest a simple but effective recipe. the key is the quality of the meat and the use of olive oil. Whatever you do, do not use the lamb fat in your gravy. Use olive oil instead. 1. Season the roast with a lot of garlic, coarse sea salt, black pepper, and a mix of oregano and rosemary. 2. When you start the roasting process, use top heat for 20 minutes, and turn the leg a couple of times. You need a nice crisp surface all over the meat volume. 3. After that reduce heat to medium, add the garlic and cover the baking tray with aluminum foil. 4. Roast for 30 minutes for every kilo of meat. This is for a well done leg. 5. Remove from the overn remove the foil, collect the juice that should be plenty for your gravy, and all the garlic. Leave the meat to rest for 30 minutes before serving. 6, Remove the fat from the meat juice, add olive oil and all the garlic (which is very tender by now), a few drops of lemon juice and place in a pan. Add a little flower and simmer over very low heat until it thickens. You do not need anything else! Good luck!

hello, i have done this many times - it is the traditional greek food on Easter Sunday here are the key issues: - weight of the lamb: it should be between 20 and 30 lbs - if it is less, the bone to meat ratio is very high - do not put anything inside it - the whole point of the exercise is to taste top quality meat - all you need to do is season the meat with coarse sea salt, pepper and garlin and oregano (if you like it) - rub the garlic and the oregano on the meat - one of the risks in putting the lamb on the spit is that the lamb disengages form the knots and although the spit rotates, the lamb remains stationary - this is a disaster that can be avoided by asking practical advice from someone who has done something similar - i could not possibly describe how to do it here - get real charcoal - the flavor of the meat will justify your choice - place the lamb not directly above the fire, but slightly in the side - allow for 30 minutes of cooking for every 3lbs (but this is valid only for the wight range i gave at the beginning) - CRITICAL: at the beginning of the roasting you should place the spit relatively hich and rotate at high speed - you do this because yo do not want to burn the skin and the flesh - it will ruin the taste of the whole thing! after one hour of "warming up" you can start lowering the spit and reducing the rotation speed, but you should also monitor the fire - you do not want at any stage of the roasting the fire to be very strong, because even if it does not burn the meat it will dry it - when is is done? the leg and sjoulder bones should be totally exposed i hope this helps

i follow the simple version of the recipe with minor changes: 1. i do not salt the shrimp at all 2. i prepare a very dense reddish sauce from gamba's heads stock - this sauce has salt in it and a bit of garlic and pepper 3. 30 seconds after the gambas have been thrown in the pan, i add a cup of the steaming sauce for every pound of gambas in the sizzling hot pan , remove the pan from the fire, and leave the whole thing to homogenize itself in the very hot pan for about one minute

i have been to arzak's twice and to mugaritz's once in my humble and totally unbiased opinion, nothing can stand in the way of the universal magnificence of arzak it is not only the food it is what arzak has said in total honesty: if i do not cook well, all the local clients will punish me and they are too close to me! jokes apart, the atmosphere in arzak's is also fantastic! ordinary people, enjoying the food and the overall experience if you add the impecable but not stuffy service you get the whole picture! i am not so sure about mugaritz i had a six-course menu and i only really liked the rack of lamb! the deserts however where fantastic! and the somelier very helpful! the overall experience was unbalanced and lacking in excitement

final four: only four months after i started my quest, i am about ready to visit the culatello land, and would like to present the final four list; this is the list of the establishments i plan to visit within the constraints of my trip; comments are as always welcome! La Buca - Zibello Al Vedel - Colorno Romani - Vicomero Al Cavallino Bianco - Polesine Parmense

i would suggest a slightly different approach to the filling: eggplant puree mixed with the ground meat the key flavour here is the smoky flavour of the eggplant (you broil it until the skin becomes solid and the inside is moist) combined with garlic and the lamb (you brown the garlic and the meat lightly and then you mix it with the puree, adding salt, pepper, parsley) as i like cumin very much with lamb, i also add a pinch of freshly ground cumin note: do no add tomatoes in the mix before you make the raviolis add a bit of flour in the mix

in greece when the squid is big (over 10 cm) we fill it with a mix of diced onions that have been lightly caramelized, loads of fresh parsley, black pepper and feta cheese - we add a few grains of rice to absorb the liquids and bake the squid in a very hot oven for about 20 minutes there is also another filling with mussels and shrimp

hector, it is very good to hear that honest Maria and her humble lamb saved the day for you! when you visit Crete again, try to visit some of the villages in the mountains or away from the tourist centers of Crete

thanks again, you have been most helpful!

pille, pair them with asyrtiko wine (i believe this is what busboy was referring to) and you will have a ticket to heaven! (i gather you have already been there!) regarding your trip and restaurants in athens, when will you come and for how long? many restaurants are closed for holidays during a period in the summer

the thread is great busboy, congratulations for putting all of this together!

thank you very much, this clarifies the matter if we were to summarize the top 5 (five) seafood restaurants in madrid, which of the following (and others)would we include? - casa rafa - casa d'a troya - O' Pazo - Combarro - Kabuki kindly help

many thanks to all for such an enlightening exchange of views and ideas! rafa's seems to be quite a natural place where you can have natural food! i have one question though: Rafa's seems to be in Roses only; or is there also a branch in madrid?

i have some good friends in Askifou, Chania, Crete; it is a plain 600 metres above sea level; people there have goats and lamb in the nearby mountains and produce the best cheese in Crete; my friends - Sifis and Ioanna - have a little cafeneion which in greece is a place where you can have coffee, some raki (a 40 degrees proof drink) and a little to eat; when i go there and provided that the place is not very busy, Sifis - the head of the family - sits with me and we drink and eat together - and during the course of the "meal" which lasts for at least 4 hours, he talks about the tradition and culture of the place and some of the legendary products; one of the stories i love is about yeast enzymes; the Askifou area produce some of the best barley rusk bread in the world! according to Sifis the secret lies in the yeast enzymes which are at least 100 years old - i must confess i didn't have a chance to verify this, but i somehow belive him

thank you for the recommendation could you kindly provide some description of the forthcoming change so that i am partially prepared and do not collapse under the pressure?

how true, especially when the menu includes dishes from different cultures do your russian friends contribute some of the dishes?