Kikujiro

FG, at the rate I break wine glasses, yes. edit: this isn't a profound conviction. When I'm feeling flush I may well start buying nicer wine glasses. But at the moment it's not high up my list. I still haven't found my fuzzy logic rice cooker yet.

Cabby, you're being wilful, aren't you? Tigers are found in Asia, not Africa. Some subspecies of the animals you list (like mountain zebra and black rhino) are endangered to the point where eating them is really unconscionable. But others are less endangered and can be found in some places. Many farmers do tend to plug leopards and lions wandering on to their farms (in Southern Africa, e.g. Namibia, a 'farm' can be a massive expanse of mountainous land without much growing on it). But why go all that way for lions and tigers and bears, oh my!, when you can order delivery right in your own back yard? edit: I think this subject deserves its own thread. Adventures in Eating or GFT?

But glasses of any quality end up going cloudy if put in the dishwasher, so you must get through them more quickly, no? Like Tony, I don't have expensive glasses. But this is mainly because I break them on a regular basis.

Must do: Borough Market. See all the raw milk cheeses and the USDA-banned hams and weep

Vengroff, I think that's based on where mogsob lives It's hard to give detailed recs without some more idea what people are looking for. I mean, there's no point in suggesting Providores if they want Petrus, or vice versa. Indian food is an easy suggestion as it's better over here. Same probably goes for Middle Eastern but I don't know enough about the options on that front. Chinese, on the other hand, might not be worth their time, and don't even think about sushi ... On the other hand, not being a big fan of NY-style pizza, mogsob's Pizza Metro might not be a bad idea ...

Saw Gangs of New York last night (at the last minute, I suddenly discovered it was on; peculiar, as films in the UK generally open on a Friday). I found much to admire about it, particularly the opening sequence (funny to see Scorsese openly drawing on Wong Kar-wai's Ashes of Time, and a very Woo-like bit in a church, the Woo film in question having been a tribute to Scorsese, oy), Day Lewis (who I'm not sure I like but was excellent, although oddly seemed to have become De Niro as the latter was too old for the part), and the scale and energy of the reconstruction, which worked for me. Oh, and the very historical materialist approach, unexpected from Scorsese. And the final shot putting back what so many films have been airbrushing out (am right on this, no?) My companion said she had not been so bored since Titanic. Wasn't there a thread on Gangs once? I was avoiding reading until I'd seen it. Must have been posted on OTC, unnecessary really for a film whose main character is a butcher.

JOHN: Well, all right. Let's see. (He reads.) I find that I am sexist. That I am elitist. I'm not sure I know what that means, other than it's a derogatory word, meaning 'bad.' -- David Mamet, Oleanna

From what I remember, Vaughan Johnson's wine shop (in the mega-glitzy waterfront development) is a good bet. I think the standard wine guide is John Platters, also online. This includes his best-of-the-best five-star wines for 2002 and 2003. Pinotage rocks (Hamilton Russell is a respected producer [edit: but not of pinotage ]). Edit note: don't obsess too much about much older wines. The production has got so much better over the past years that the really old wines are on the whole not as exciting, relatively speaking, as they would be in other places.

Paula, Given that they're from NYC and have 'cosmopolitan' tastes, I'd say that a visit to one of the good Indian restaurants over here might be worthwhile; it's one area that's probably better represented over here and the rise in 'serious' Indian restaurants, as well as those focusing on a particular region/cuisine, has been rewarding. There have been a lot of threads on the subject on this board. Claridges is a good place for tea. Other than that, what do you mean by 'continental' dining? Are you looking for the 'best' restaurants in London (eg Gordon Ramsay) or the most distinctive (eg St John)?

Cabby, Like Stephen, I've had medium-size game (like kudu and impala) but nothing big. How big do you want?

Last night I dragged myself all the way to South Kensington to catch the limited run of François Ozon's Les Amants criminels at the Cine Lumiere. Makes an interesting contrast with his more recent and high-profile 8 Femmes. Where that was a highly artificial, campy comedy, this was ... well, not. Luc and Alice, sort of lovers, kill a schoolfriend and then drive away to the woods to bury him, where after a Night of the Hunter kind of boat trip they end up being trapped by a man who lives in a hut in the forest, and Luc in particular has a whole new range of experiences ... preferred it to 8 Femmes, and I should point out it contains scenes of rabbit skinning and consumption, as well as the eating of, um, other kinds of meat.

Jinmyo great idea. thank you. They just cancelled on me for Sunday, but will use next time

This reminds me. I have friends coming over to dinner on Sunday. They come every couple of weeks to eat and catch up on the Sopranos (they don't get the channel that's showing the new series). I always feel I should cook something vaguely related. But ... they're vegetarian. So no baked ziti :( I've been through pretty much everything I can think of, from pasta alla norma on, and I'm getting desperate (quite a way into the series now). Any ideas for a Sopranosesque vegetarian meal (a contradiction in terms I think) that isn't yet another variation on alla norma? And is appropriate to winter? (No, they don't eat fish or seafood either.)

Akiko, I've certainly seen dragon processions in the past, but I don't know who organises them or how to check.

there were alleGedly other Restaurants too ...

I think we've been round this block before, but Artisan supply quite a few high-end places, no?

Veritas ,Union Pacific, Eleven Madison Park, Gramercy tavern ... edit: damn tags edit 3,4,5,6,7,8: argh.

Yes, but it dates from Feb 2002.

Who better to answer that question than the FoodTV Network? (I hope someone who knows more chips in. I just remember various cakey things. I'm sure you could preorder these from an appropriate Chinese bakery. Save you time.)

Sorry, the two posts were meant to be referring separately to Jay's use of the word hamachi for yellowtail, and to Craft's name-check serving of yellowfin tuna (on which I am not agreeing with Steingarten so much as asking for comments). But I had yellowtail in my head when I wrote the second post, now corrected

There's clearly no excuse for raspberry balsamic, but pomegranate molasses is a perfectly respectable ingredient used in much middle-Eastern cooking. The Moro cookbook (which generally rocks) has this to say: The book's own uses include a marinade for grilled quails. One day I will invent a stunning cocktail that features the stuff Edit: oh yeah, I should finish that link.

Incidentally, Jeffrey Steingarten's new book has this to say on the subject of yellowfin: edit: doofus

Jay, Thanks for this. I haven't been to Craft and I think I'm more interested in trying it now. A small point, but isn't 'a white fish called hamachi' more simply described as 'yellowtail'? In the US they seem slightly more keen on adopting foreign words than over here. Like, 'prosciutto' is American for 'raw cured ham', a much more specific meaning than it should have. Whereas many people here would call the same group of hams 'Parma ham', a much less specific meaning than it should have. Um, I'm rambling now.

Porkpa, Do you mind disclosing the total price per head of your meal, and what else (such as drinks) you might have ordered?