silverbrow

I too got an ice-cream maker for my birthday last week, the Gaggia Gelateria. I used Ben & Jerry's basic recipe plus chucked in cookie dough for good measure. If I say so myself this was pretty darn good. I wish I could say it was my first try, unfortunately it wasn't. I left the first batch in the machine for too long and forgot to add the vanilla. Not a resounding success, but for a second shot this isn't half bad. Next time I want to try Keller's base, which I'd forgotten about, and full fat milk, none of this pansy semi-skimmed stuff.

The big warning sign for me is if none of the other diners have food in front of them. If they don't, it's inevitably a sign that the ordering process has gone awry and you won't be eating for ages. It also implies the FOH doesn't communicate with BOH.

I went to Pont de la Tour for a client lunch yesterday and had the most appalling service. I know that there are a multitude of views about the various Conrans, but I think this generally serves some of the best food. Additionally, the location is great if you're based in the City but want to quickly feel like you're out of it (the City, not life). Anyway, back to yesterday. The overriding feeling I came away with was that the whole service side of things was amateurish. I arrived with one guest and we were waiting for a third. When the two of us sat down, a waiter appeared and promptly removed the setting for the third person - when we pointed out his mistake he muttered something about being told it was only for two people. We then ordered a bottle each of sparkling and still water. Two of us were having still, one having sparkling. Now I am perfectly capable of filling up my own glass and that of my guests and I do slightly object to waiters always coming over and topping up. Especially when they repeatedly get it wrong and fill the still drinkers’ glass with fizzy and vice versa, time and again. The waiters found it amusing, I found it aggravating and embarrassing, after all this was my recommendation and I was paying. They then got the place settings wrong, forgetting to give me a spoon with my soup. The chocolate coffee beans they serve at the end of the meal looked old and tired, as though they'd melted slightly and then had resolidified. The problems I had with service are a shame because I think the food here is actually very good. In particular, my gazpacho was beautifully seasoned and my black truffle risotto was delicious, great flavours and perfect consistency. It is also great value for money with a two course lunch coming in just under £30 per head. Maybe this is the problem? It shouldn't be. With a full restaurant they should be making plenty of money to ensure they have the best staff, especially as most bills are topped up with bottles of wine that rarely dip below £30. It's a shame because I think this could be a great restaurant and I believe that it used to be. But service like I got yesterday is shocking and inexcusable. Apart from having a bit of a rant on here I toyed with what I should do. I could have not paid the service charge but I didn't want to make a scene with my guests there. So I decided to phone them and let them know. Their response was "So what do you want us to about it?" Although at an attempt at redemption they did quickly add they would mention it to the manager. In answer to their question, I want them to sort out the issues. I wasn't after a free meal, I just want the level of service to live up to the level of the food.

Picking up on Daniel's point, in the UK at least if you're dining alone restaurants assume you might be a critic. As such, and counterintuitively, you tend to get better service than you might if there were four of you.

Morfudd Not sure if you saw the battle of the ice creams story in ES magazine on Friday night. I can't find a link to it, but it noted that were you up against Mr Whippy and winning.

What with more bombs and the warmish weather I was far too tired to make anything too exciting for dinner. So using some of the veg that arrived in our box and some of the herbs in the garden I made an omelette, something I realised I hadn't done in a long time. Because I haven't done it, and out of curiosity, I decided to consult Escoffier, who notes that in some respects its the easiest thing to cook, because you chuck in a few whisked eggs, but also it's one of the hardest because everyone likes it served differently. Anyway my version was not ideal. I put in the butter, let it go nutty brown (a la Escoffier) and poured in the egg. I watched it cook, put the filling in (herbs and tomato) and tried to fold it. At which point it collapsed, tore in the middle and the innards spilt out over the pan. When I ate it it was tasty enough, but to look at it was no oil painting. So, what's the secret to a perfect omelette? Is it the size of the pan, the number of eggs, the amount of butter, the filling?

On some TV prog I was watching last week, Heston Blumenthal used his blow torch to sear a massive side of beef before he slow (24hrs) roasted it. It did the job, if for no other reason than for about 10seconds the beef was engulfed in flames.

This is fantastic - doubly so because Lola's is only down the road from the City. Morfudd, if there's any free ice cream going count me in, actually, count me in if I have to pay for it as well. How about venturing into the City? On hot days like today I have no doubt you'd do a brisk trade. If you do decide to venture into the Square Mile let me know - and try to come down Ludgate Hill to ensure I get first dibs.

I haven't been it but did walk past and checked out the menu. Frankly I think it looks horrendous. Whoever wrote the menu clearly took great delight in using as many words as possible that people would not understand. It made it look thoroughly pretentious and unappetising. The menu on the website looks relatively sane compared to the one I saw in the window, but even on this one it refers to "braised chanfana,", er anyone any clue what that is? Frankly it looks like the type place where the chef has got a bit overexcited with what he's able to order from suppliers and then realised he's got to cook it all. Having said all that, I haven't eaten a morsel there and it might be delicious. For the record, I don't think it is like Zetter, which tends to have a far more Italian influenced menu. I thought that Pho, a new vietnamese restaurant a few doors south of Portal looked far more interesting.

I'm was just trespassing on the Southern board and came across this thread. Now being from the UK I'm having difficulty figuring out whether this thread is serious or a joke or am I missing something. As far as I can tell, this is about tomato sandwiches, with the added twist that the bread is cut in a circle and has a combination of mayo/salt/pepper on it. Am I right, please tell me this is a joke?

Ramsay's credentials as a restauranteur and entrepreneur can't really be questioned and one of his winning touches is that his food is not ridiculously priced. Claridges in particular, is forever being praised because the set menus are actually very good value. Last night's owner clearly had a blinkered view of economics: the higher the price, the higher profits. What about lowering your price (and therefore reducing your profit per item) but as a consequence increasing your turnover. If more people come in to eat the same food for less money, he'll make more profit. This leads (in theory at least) to a virtuous circle where more bums on seats gives a better impression, which in turn leads to more bums on seats. As such it's all very well being a destination restaurant on Saturdays and Sundays but you do need the random locals to maintain revenues - and profits - for the rest of the week.

Not sure if anyone else watched last night's programme but the thing that really struck me was why on earth do the owners allow GR into the restaurant if they're not prepared to take his advice. At least if they listen to him and things go wrong they can blame him. Whereas if they don't and things continue to go belly-up then they have no-one to blame but themselves. Whatever we on here may think of the series there's no doubt that lots of people watch it and I would guess that last night lots of people in Abergavenny were watching. They're going to be influenced by these programmes. In the case of the Walnut Tree last night, I would have thought the programme sounded the death knell for the restaurant. Locals and others will be loathe to go there knowing that it's over priced and knowing that the great GR is so dismissive of it.

I'm not sure why they harvest so late - I didn't really think to ask. However, the oil from the farm is fantastic, a deep green and peppery. There's more info on it here.

Ok, as promised here are the posts from my blog. I've excluded photos because I don't have the time at the moment (and frankly they're not all that brilliant anyway). For purposes of speed I've copied them verbatim - I hope you don't mind. I'm also going to get round to posting a review of Gia Sotto L'Arco in Carovigno at some point. A quick summary of it is: great food but hadn't realised it was so posh, we turned up in shorts and t-shirts for lunch, luckily we were the only people there. Macelleria It is pretty obvious that being kosher, or at least keeping the level of kashrut that I do, if I want to eat meat at a restaurant, it has to be a kosher restaurant. Nonetheless, I took great delight in the macelleria that seemed to be on the corner of every street in every town we visited. What made these more noteworthy than other Italian butchers was that every night, they built enormous barbecues on the street outside the shop and sold grilled sausages, chicken wings, steaks etc. Unless I haven't been looking I haven't noticed anything similar elsewhere in Italy, so I think it is a Pugliese speciality. The quality of the food is obvious, if for no other reason than when customers decide what they want, the meat is put in a soft white bun and served. There's no thought of sauces to mask or improve the taste - just grilled meat and bread. The smell is fantastic - burning wood and grilling meat. I wouldn't say I was tempted to buy one of the filled buns but the smell did make me stomp around like a hunger-crazed carnivore. Suffice to say when we returned home to the UK, meat was the first thing I ate. Da Tuccino We arrived in Polignano a Mare to be greeted by a bishop in full flowing cassocks, leading a group of choir boys, down the main street and into the middle of what seemed to be a festival. The streets were mobbed with Italians in their finest threads eyeing up each other and the tat being sold on the stalls by the side of the road. The air was filled with scent of too much aftershave and grilling meat, as all the macelleria were getting ready for their nights business. Having had no luck in finding Da Tuccino, a helpful concierge told us it was about half a mile down the coast road, out of town. When we got there a confusing car park attendent had us doing all sorts of acrobatics before we could park. When we did park, our Avis rental Ford Focus looked somewhat out of place next to the latest Range Rovers and Jeeps. It was quite obvious that unlike other areas of Puglia, this was a place to be seen - and frankly the food reflected that. Da Tuccino seemed to be something of an institution, it had the air of knowing just how good it was and seemed to rest slightly on those laurels. It also had the air of being in Cap Ferrat, rather than Puglia and was a little bit too haughty for its own good. The restaurant is famous for its fish which is unusual in this part of the World as Pugliese cuisine includes very little fish, despite the lengthy coastline. Why there's not more fish in the diet I can't explain, but by focusing on fish Da Tuccino is relatively unusual. Given that, I'll skip any details on our starter (I can't remember what we ate anyway) and I'll move on to our seabass in salt. When the waiter brought over the fish for us to inspect before it was cooked, the thing I noticed most was the strong fishy smell and I thought that the freshest fish doesn't smell? Go in to my favourite fishmonger, Steve Hatt on Essex Road and his seawater fish doesn't smell fishy, it smells salty, so I was slightly concerned. Anyway, ignoring those concerns I waited for the fish to arrive, it was duly delivered in its saline crust which was removed with great ceremony. But frankly, when I ate it I was underwhelmed - it didn't do anything for me. I've had much better versions of the same dish at Locanda Locatelli and Sardo. I can't even really explain what it was about it that I didn't like, it just wasn't very special. Frankly, I think that Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray of The River Cafe fame, were wrong when they recommended Da Tuccino's as one of the 10 best restaurants in Italy, in a recent Conde Nast article. It's a good restaurant with excellent staff, but there are much better in the region, Del Tempo Perso and Alle due Corti being examples of this. If one's in the area or particularly keen to see Puglia's finest dressers, then it might be worth a trip, otherwise, head for the hills. Da Tuccino, via Santa Caterina 69/F, Polignano a Mare, 7044, Italy Tel: +39 0804 241 560 Alle due Corti When, in April, I was planning our holiday to Puglia for mid-June, it didn't cross my mind that the weather would be anything other than scorchio. I was wrong. For two of our seven days it rained and was overcast. With sitting by the pool ruled out, we decided on road trips and with the grim weather on Thursday we decided the trip down to Lecce the next day would be well worth it. So full of high expectations for bad weather, we awoke on Friday to glorious sun shine and by 9am it was in the high 20s. Not to be bowed by this turn of events we decided to go anyway. The town itself is beautiful, which is why it's described as the Florence of the South and was great to wander round and stop off for an espresso here, a granita there. With food never too far from my mind I decided to find somewhere decent to eat. I thought I'd found a half decent pizzeria but despite the door being wide open it was totally empty - not a sole, not even a waiter. So turning round I spotted the sign for Alle due Corti and bells rang loudly in my head that this had been highly recommended on egullet. When we walked in, we were greeted warmly but apologetically told that the kitchens weren't quite ready (it was 12.30) so could we wait? The dining room was large, white and had the domed roof common throughout Puglia - all of this ensuring it was cool, a relief from the sun, and so no, we didn't mind waiting. My heart almost skipped a beat when I noticed that the card and paper menu, printed on a dodgy printer, clearly came from the same school of menu design as Osteria del Tempo Perso's, and therefore we must be in for a treat. I was right, but I was also slightly surprised to see (badly) translated English below each dish and the odd ® sign dotting the menu. Anyway, the antipasti arrived and I was in heaven. It wasn't the stodgy fried rubbish that seemed to be prevalent in the touristy places, this was fresh, juicy and life-affirming stuff. The roasted tomatoes were so sweet and were only garnished with some onion, garlic and of course olive oil. Similarly, some yellow peppers that seemed to have been marinated in wine vinegar were brilliantly tangy. Also delivered to the table were some stuffed mushrooms that smelled great, but unfortunately were stuffed with some sort of meat. We had tried to ask for nothing except for vegetables, but our Italian was as bad as their English and so the mushrooms went back to the kitchen untouched. Somewhat stuffed from this feast, mopped up with copious quantities of bread I started to rock slowly in my chair - exercise was required before the next course. One of the many things that surprised me about Puglia was that the food is not particularly light, in fact a lot of it is downright stodgy our primi piatti being a good example: Fave nette cu le cicureddhe and Ricciareddhe® culipummitoriscattariciati. Now, for the sake of bandwidth I won't repeat the name of the latter dish, here on in it will be RC. I can't believe that the second word is all one word, I think they forgot to put in a space, especially as scattariciati is a local cheese, not dissimilar to mozzarella. Anyway fave is a local speciality and it was served with what they described as chicory, but looked to me more like spinach, and olive oil. It was thick, gloopy and delicious. The chicory/spinach added a lightness to it, the olive oil thinned it out. The more I ate, the more I wanted. The RC was similarly delicious, it was basically thick sheets of pasta with a thick sauce of tomato and liberally sprinkled with scattarciati. I have to be honest that in some ways the sauce reminded me in flavour of some of the better pizza sauces you get in the States. Although this might sound like sacrilege it really is meant as a compliment. After all, this was little more than tomatoes, the sauces over there are no doubt full of E numbers up the kazoo and other preservatives and additives. To be able to achieve such taste with so few ingredients is testament to their quality. Alle due Corti was the meal I'd been looking for all holiday. The food was fantastic, the staff friendly and the surroundings peaceful. If you're in Puglia, no if you're in Italy, go there. Alle due Corti, Corte dei Guigni 1, 73100, Lecce, Italy Tel: +39 0832 242 223 Osteria del Tempo Perso It has to be said that despite the rave reviews I'd heard about the food in Puglia, some of it was appalling. One dinner in particular I was thorougly peeved about. We were in Ostuni, having already eaten once at Osteria del Tempo Perso and thought we'd try somewhere different. This was a big mistake. Instead of a delicious meal of simple ingredients of the best quality put together with care, we were served tourist pap that centred around a medieval theme. I am ashamed to be so open here about this experience, especially when I mention that apart from the menu in Italian they also had one in French (although thankfully not in German or English). In my defence the French menu and the medieval theme were not advertised, or obvious when we walked in. Anyway, suffice to say this was deeply disappointing, especially when we knew that del Tempo Perso was less than 100m away. Our one and only meal at del Tempo Perso was on our second night in Italy (the first night's dinner being a late-night pizza in Fasano) and I was ready to taste Italy's finest. Because it had been Shavuot the previous two days, we needed to wait until Yom Tov was out and therefore we didn't get out until late and being still on stuck-up British time, we couldn't face a full meal at 10pm so opted for two courses. Along with never having done a PhD, I regret this. The 15-dish antipasti menu looked astounding, the Polpette di Pane e Menta or Fiori di Zucca fritti in Pastella ensured much mouth watering. But with cozze (mussels) included in the antipasti, we thought we'd better stick to the slightly less treyf primi piatti. Seeing bits and bobs of the 15 antipasti coming out to tables only compounded my conviction that I was to be the only visitor ever to Puglia not to have a decent meal. Thankfully, at about that point our Maccheroncini freschi alla Crudaiola con Ricotta Salata and Fazzoletti di Ricotta con Pomodoro fresco e Basilico arrived at the table. Neither dish is that hard to translate, but you would be sorely incorrect if you mistook the former for mac 'n cheese. Crudaiola is basically chopped raw vegetables (think crudites) and in this case was simply sliced cherry tomatoes and some garlic. This dish was sublime. The tomatoes were so sweet, the garlic adding a bit of depth and the ricotta providing a contrast in textures. I would have been happy to have eaten that every meal for the rest of the holiday. The fazoletti was a bit like cannelloni, but frankly this does them a disservice. The were stuffed full with the mildest, crumbliest ricotta and the tomato sauce was fresher and zestier than Bill Clinton with a Cohiba. The fantastic food is all well and good, but I shouldn't forget about the room. I did find the wall hangings of agricultural equipment and religious icons slightly incongruous, but possibly they were there to remind you of the dual binds in this part of Italy. The other strange thing is that in fact there are two Osteria del Tempo Perso's, one either side of the kitchen. I'm not sure what the significance is of which dining room one is in, we simply walked into the one we first came upon. Anyway, the food comes out of the same kitchen so there shouldn't be too much of an issue. The restaurant itself is located in the back streets of the beautiful Ostuni, which with its wiggling streets and dim street lighting reminded me of Venice (although being several hundred metres above sea level it lacks the lido and canals). You do need to keep your eyes open when walking to the restaurant as there are signs and without them you'll be lost in the Labyrinth and might well come across the Minotaur. Back to the food. For dessert we asked for a bowl of the cherries that we'd spotted sitting in an enormous bowl. We also had a plate of Pecorino semistagionato di Masseria, which for those with a lingual bent will know is an aged Pecorina (di Masseria, meaning “of the masseria/farm”). This was served with a fantastic, zingy orange marmalade. The cherries, were slightly disappointing, not as sweet as I'd hoped, I've just had some from M&S that dare I say it tasted better. The cheese was another matter, it was sufficiently stinky on the nose but subtle on the tongue. The marmalade added a bit of freshness and made it all a bit lighter. Overall a great meal that set the bar particularly high for the rest of the holiday. It was a shame that not all of the meals lived up to it, but those that did were something special. The only reason I've given it a four, rather than five-star rating is because I was miffed that the antipasti was so long and therefore ruled it out for us, but frankly this was our fault for being up-tight Brits rather than getting into the Italian groove a bit earlier in our holiday. Osteria del Tempo Perso, via Gaetano Tanzarella Vitale 47, Ostuni, 72017, Italy Tel: +39 0831 303 320

I was always an EVOO man or nothing. Recently I decided to try cooking with lower grade olive oil and frankly the results were much better. Because ordinary OO smokes at a much higher temp you can cook it, whether that's on the grill or in the oven, without the nasty smoking side-effect. The improvement was most noticeable when I roasted some beef recently. Before roasting I massaged in some olive oil (previously I'd used EVOO) and S&P. This time round I got the nice crisp outside, but none of the eye watering smoke in the oven. I now keep three olive oils - a bog standard for cooking, a medium EVOO and a top quality EVOO for salads.

Ok, it seems that more good-thinking egulleters bought model trullis than I had banked on, so first off apologies for the "who in their right mind" comment. I too saw some fresh capers and was desperate to do the same but I figured that I'd have a hard time keeping them fresh until I returned to the UK and Ryanair would probably ban me from flying with them anyway. The Masseria we were staying at had lots of caper trees/bushes (I think they would be classed as a bush) but unfortunately they weren't quite ripe yet. Nor for that matter were the olives which were only just beginning to grow. Does anyone know when olive harvest time is. I found out from the owner of Borgo San Marco, where we stayed, that they are pressed in March, but is that when they're picked as well? btw following a request from Albiston I'll be posting copies of what's on my blog here, sometime today hopefully.

I'm sure you got one of the nicer models! We didn't see Locorotondo, there is supposed to be another good mkt, but at the moment I can't remember the name. Will post it when I find it

Kevin, thanks for that. Yes, one more restaurant to come, it was in Carovigno, I think it was called Sotto L'Arco, which was great. I think we were lucky with the market at Alberobello. We arrived at about eleven and it was in full swing. Of the three we went to (Ostuni and Polignano were the other two) this had easily the best food market. Apart from there being lots of things outside, there was also a building that had stalls inside. There was a full range of produce on sale, but obviously fruit and veg predominated, in the building there were also several polleria (poultry shops). I know what you mean about the tourist traps though. I was really peeved with the amount of tourist shops selling models of trulli - does anyone actually buy that rubbish? Frankly, the market seems to be the biggest pull and the sole reason for going to Alberobello. If you're not there on market days the best thing is run in quickly to see the trulli and then run away as fast as possible

Ok, as promised here is the link to my time in Puglia. If for recording purposes people would like me to copy the posts here, I'll happily do so. Silverbrow in Puglia My self-indulgent blog

I've just returned from Puglia and don't have the time at the moment to give the full run down of where we went and what we ate but some quick initial observations are: The area where we were (nr Fasano) was far more industrialised than I had expected and so it took a bit more searching to find places that were out of the way. I've read lots of things saying that Puglia is the next hot destination, which is worrying because given the number of tourists that were there when we went there it will be mobbed. PLEASE PLEASE don't let it turn into the next Tuscany or heaven forbid the next Marbella. It's a fantastic place for vegetarians or rather, those of us who are picky about where we eat our meat. You aren't assured of great food (blame the tourists) but when you get it, it knocks your socks off. You can't see it all in a week - another visit is definitely necessary. Highlights on the stomach filling front were: The first thing I ate at our hotel, Borgo San Marco: a salad of tomatoes, artichoke hearts and olive oil. Dinner at BSM cooked by Peppino, who's voice at least meant he could have doubled for Barry White. He is also one of Italy's nattiest dressers. Lunch at Alle due Corte in Lecce. The market at Alberobello, just a shame about all the tourist tat around the market. Dinner at Osteria del Tempo Perso in Ostuni. Any meal including a tomato. I'll post more here, but give me a couple of days to open the post. Thanks very much to everyone on here who's helped with advice for the trip, in particular Kevin. It was invaluable, my one regret being that we didn't make it to Il Frantoio. I was even more aggrieved that others staying at our hotel did and told us just how fantastic it was.

It's a web based tool to search newspaper articles, legal documents etc.

Jack How did you build your outside oven? What plans did you use? Also, what sort of conditions does horseradish need, is the UK climate ok for it?

LKL many thanks for the Maison Kayser rec which I went to. I had a great pain au raisin and brioche and a cafe au lait. My one comment is that I expected both the pain and the brioche to be richer than they were. That's not to say they weren't great.

Ok further to my earlier post I actually hadn't just bough the making of a chef, but had bought the soul of a chef so am I pleased I didn't return it. Anyway, having just eaten my way through the book in about two days I think it's fantastic. I'm not one to brown-nose but as insights into a culture goes this is a brilliant book. I think the way that the three chefs are looked at to describe wider trends works particularly well. Michael I'm interested to know whether Brian did ever go back to the CIA to get his CMC?

I've been looking at making the touchon of foie gras but have one slight problem. Keller's recipe calls for the foie gras to be soaked in milk to draw out the blood. I can't use milk, so is there any other way of drawing out the blood, but not by using milk?