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Sackville

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Everything posted by Sackville

  1. I took a friend for tea at The Orangery in Kensington Palace yesterday and, having read many good reviews, was looking forward to it. Unfortunately it didn't measure up, in my opinion. The one good point was the building -- beautiful architecture -- but the tables were covered in a paper tablecloth... not very "elegant" and the tea wasn't that great. The tea selection itself was limited (English Breakfast, Earl Grey and a few herbal choices) and it was from bags, not loose tea. There was no extra hot water. We had the "Champagne Tea" but there was little presentation to it. When I had the Champagne Tea at The Montague Hotel (near the British museum) the food came served on a gorgeous silver tiered stand and there was plenty of it but this was all just on plain white plates and very scant, in my opinion. We had 4 finger-sized smoked salmon sandwiches on brown bread, which were a bit bland. The scone was not bad but it was served with a very sour jam on top of it and only a thin spread of clotted cream. There was no choice of jam and no extra pot of clotted cream if you wanted more. I'm not sure what the jam was. It looked like blueberry but tasted more like currants without any sugar. We also had a piece of chocolate cake, which was dry and clearly from a box instead of homemade. Add in a 10 minute wait for a table and cool service from the waitress and I found it disappointing for the price (£13.95 plus service). I guess they benefit from the tourist trade. If I remember correctly the Champagne Tea at The Montague was £19.95 but the quality and quantity of the food as well as the service was much higher. I think you got a sundae-sized glass of fresh strawberries too at The Montague. Having said all that, anyone have good recommendations for tea in London?
  2. I don't remove the onions. I might push them to one side a little bit to make room for the chicken.
  3. That looks great! I think you've inspired me for the weekend :-)
  4. I'm sorry I can't help you. I have never had a problem getting my chicken to brown. Hmmmmmm.... I can only assume it has something to do with the Le Creuset tagine and the way it's made.
  5. Having a gas stove helps with that. When I was there we did a lot of camping in the desert and much of the cooking was done with a tagine over a portable gas burner. They also baked bread in the sand, but that's another story altogether! I have to say that my tagine is not as polished as the one in the picture. It's a bit rougher but I like its character. I have two tagine recipes that I learned from a cook in Morocco. She was very sweet, let me follow her into the kitchen and write everything down This was in Zagora, so obviously the cooking would vary throughout the country. Chicken Tagine She also made this Tagine Kefta, which is simply meatballs in a tomato sauce. That wasn't a dish from Zagora though. Our guide said he'd only ever had it in Tata (still in the south but on the other side of the desert from Zagora) and he asked Naima, the chef, to help him recreate it. Although not traditional, I love making these meatballs to go over spaghetti! Fusion cooking You also often got Beef and Prune Tagines in Morocco. This was my husband's favourite. I didn't try and recreate the recipe until we came home though. The original recipe (from BBC Good Food) called for I think 3-4 times the amount of beef but I thought that was excessive and we don't eat much meat so I cut it way back. Meat lovers will want to add more. I use my tagine to make curries a lot too or any time I want to slow cook tough cuts of meat. Anyone else have good tagine recipes to share?
  6. Just to chip in my two cents... I brought back something very similar to this from Morocco (Zagora in the south) and have used it regularly for 2 years now over my gas stove flame (no diffuser) with no problems whatsoever. Admin: Edited to replace posted image from external server with link.
  7. My gosh those look good! Do you think I could make them ahead and then reheat in the oven for a party?
  8. Thank you for your help. I do appreciate it and will check out the Ramen thread. I hope someday I can return the favour by offering a Japanese recipe from one of my books or other help, instead of asking so many questions! I'm still very much in the learning stage for this cuisine, so unfortunately I have many more questions than answers at the moment :)
  9. I'm sorry, I don't even know the proper name for these but one of the first delights we discovered in Tokyo during our short trip was the noodle bar. They were always affordable, usually very simple places. The food seemed to be (from our brief sampling) mostly curry-type soup bases with heaps of thin noodles and some sort of meat or seafood along with a few veggies. Is there a general name for this dish and any recipes out there? If it helps, here's a pic of me eating a noodle soup in Tokyo... fresh off the plane so looking a little jetlagged ;-)
  10. I was looking for harissa recipes on recipezaar.com and was surprised to find only 25 dishes that included this paste -- many of them ones I'd posted! I asked for more ideas in one of their forums and someone replied with the answer that the reason there were likely so few recipes was that sambal paste was essentially the same thing. I have never made sambal paste, but from a quick glance it seems this has more ginger/lemongrass flavours (ie. Thai) while harissa tends to favour garlic and cumin. Are these two things really one and the same or is there a significant difference in their taste and use?
  11. Forgive me if this has already been mentioned and I've missed it but my response to the "why do they only go once" question is: Why should they? The customer will not go back again if the food and service is rotten just to give the restaurant a "second chance" out of the goodness of their heart and the restaurant should be capable of serving good food reliably. I don't want eating out to be like a game of roulette.
  12. I took a friend to Masala Zone in Soho last week -- first time for both of us -- and after hearing so many great things about this "Wagamama" of Indian restaurants, I was disappointed. We were there a bit early for the evening crowd and there were several servers standing around but yet it took them about 10 minutes to come to our table with menus. My friend was German and not familiar with Indian food, so I suggested we started with some poppadums and chutney. I specifically said we would like those as a starter and at the same time we ordered our mains (a lamb vindaloo and a vegetable curry). The poppadums came swiftly (a good thing!) but they were then followed about 30 seconds later by our mains. So much for a starter. No matter, we started on the poppadums but the chutney was less than wonderful. We weren't really given enough for the 4 poppadums and the other alternative to the sweet chutney was a green, rather tasteless paste. On to the mains, which were lukewarm by the time we got to them. I don't think they came to the table truly hot. I didn't try the veggie curry but my lamb vinadloo was less than impressive. The lamb was tender, which was nice, but it wasn't really spicy at all. When I order vindaloo I expect to feel the heat -- that's the point! -- but this was only a medium heat at most. All that to say that I was less than impressed. Although it's cheap and quick, I felt it fell down on the quality of the food and service.
  13. Sackville

    Mos Burger

    Just had to add that I loved MOS Burger when we were in Japan! If only all burger chains were so good and fresh. It's the first burger place I've been to where the food lived up to the pictures (or in this case, the plastic displays!) :-)
  14. It's not traditional British food, in fact it's Anatolian (Turkish), but it is very good! http://www.tasrestaurant.com/ I recommend the one on the South Bank, next to Shakespeare's Globe. If you look at their menu (http://www.tasrestaurant.com/menu.asp), you'll see they do a set meal from £7.95, which is excellent value. And the food is good and generous!
  15. It's all very traditional Moroccan food -- tagines, couscous and so on but extremely well done, with massive servings, excellent service and the most beautiful atmosphere. Dar Mimoun used to be the place of a high-ranking government official, so it is ornately decorated and the tables are set amidst a garden. They do an excellent Bastilla/Pastilla (Pigeon baked in a light pastry, with cinnamon and powdered sugar). By the time you get to desert you hardly have room but I always make room for very fresh oranges, scattered with cinnamon, and of course the mint tea and rich cookies that go with the tea.
  16. Thanks for the clarification. My nabe is not very big. It said 2-3 serving size on the box. We have a gas stove so I thought I'd start the nabe on that and then just use the candles to finish it off at the table.
  17. If you're making it a la Morocco, then definitely chinese gunpowder green tea with copious amounts of sugar! In the desert, even though they don't have any mint, they still call it mint tea. Sometimes they use a plant that grows in the desert (small yellow knobby blossoms) in place of mint. At first, our guides wouldn't let me have it as they said it often caused diarrhea. I persisted (I actually had a need for this tea ) and it worked very well as well as tasting wonderful!
  18. If you happen to be in Marrakech, go down Rue Zitoune (one of the main roads leading off the square, in the far right corner if you're facing the market/souk) and go to a fabulous restaurant called Dar Mimoun. You won't be disappointed!
  19. Thank you for the links and ideas! Now I just have to get busy :-) What do you mean by gas cartridges? When we had nabe, each time it was heated with a little candle underneath the pot that helped finish cooking the nabe and went out after about 15 minutes. We bought a 25 pack of these special blue candles and had no problem getting them back. My husband reckons they'll be easy to find in camping stores.
  20. Hi everyone, I'm new here so hope I'm doing this correctly... I was in Tokyo in January and brought home a Nabe pot. Can anyone tell me what recipes might be good in it? I also got a burner to use with it. Thanks
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