Kikujiro

Well, I tried the sliced beef with broccoli this evening. I think I need to try it again The problems I had are as follows. Principally, when I put the marinated beef in the hot oil, the marinade instantly solidified around it and turned golden brown. Thereupon it was less a question of stirring it than of trying to separate it while it bubbled away (bubbling started instantly). Also, no question of pinkness so I just did it for 60 seconds. Broccoli went fine. Sauce thickened almost instantly to a kind of jammy consistency, which was too dense to distribute around the beef and broccoli. I have some theories about what I did wrong but if Ed (or Toby or anyone else) can provide hints for next time I'd be grateful. Theory 1: wok too small. Not sure how this could have affected things, but I want a bigger wok anyway. Theory 2: too much marinade? Or too thick and not drained enough? Theory 3: oil too hot? (And if so, how can i judge when it's the right temperature?) [i have a confession: i didn't use all the oil specified. But it more than covered the beef and all the oil specified might have been too much for the wok] That's it for theories. Will try again soon. It was fun, and the end result was quite edible, though far from what I should have produced, I'm sure. Ed, thanks again for the detailed instructions and all the help. [if anyone wants to move this into the Chinese forum, please go ahead]

Thanks, G&S. Hm. Maybe I should tune my palate while I wait.

Someone gave me a bottle of Lafite Rothschild '97 for Christmas. I confess I don't know from big-name bordeaux, but I feel I should do the right thing by it. A trial account on Robert Parker tells me to drink it between now and 2015. Should I be holding out? For how long?

Couldn't vote because the answer is neat if it's a good aged one (I currently have some Botran Solera 1893 and some Zacapa Centenario), and otherwise in a caipirinha (or a caipirissima, which according to American Bar is the proper name for one made with rum) by preference (in which case I'm usually drinking Havana Club 3). Much prefer these with rum than cachaça, and roughly made so the tastes are almost separate. Sometimes also in a daquiri (not frozen), or in something I once saw called a Cuban Sidecar (or was it Havana Sidecar?) that is essentially a margarita with rum instead of tequila. Oh, and sometimes HC 5 with hot milk and nutmeg.

Just plain "apparatus" is an alternative form of the plural that would work better than -uses.

Fish. FISH. Fi-i-i-ish.

Presumably a copy editor is the person who points out that 'apparatae' isn't a word?

4 is substantially closer to going-to-bed-time than getting-up-time. Especially when you've found yourself on eGullet past 3am several times in one week

Enough of us and we can do a Reservoir Dogs walk. 5am is fucking early.

I miss a regular work structure. Anyone else think this thread has gone a bit off-topic?

Y'all better be hoping noone from Zoetrope's rights department is a member.

Dale, Fat Guy asked the question I was going to, viz., what do you think I should keep at home to be able to provide mixed drinks? But I was curious that in your answer you specified in particular Beefeater or Tanqueray gin. I've been drinking Bombay Sapphire. Should I switch? And why?

Fair enough. Will try to get there again soon.

Tourism is for office workers.

Hollywood, I think you mean 'office workers'.

Count me in. I could do with moral support, plus someone to blame when I'm sweet-talked into buying five-day-old fish by some deceitful purveyor.

Miss J, there's a place on Wandsworth Road, more or less opposite what used to be South Bank Poly, that's pretty good. I forget the name; been a while. (Edit: never made sushi at home so wouldn't say it's recommended for that particular purpose.) Has anyone here done Billingsgate? I haven't, but keep meaning to.

Miss J, I went to Kulu Kulu once, but it was a bit late in the evening I think. Under those circumstances just thought it was okay, but maybe an unfair test. Not to be confused with gulugulu (?) near Seven Dials, which is an all-you-can-eat kaiten sushi place

I try not to turn in any direction out of Ealing Common station very often

Vanessa, The sushi I've had in London has never compared to HK, LA and NYC, but you can certainly do better than a supermarket ... My favourite in terms of quality v price (sh! Plotnicki will hear) is Sushi-Hiro, opposite Ealing Common station. However, it has the most bizarre opening hours so you need to double-check in advance unless you happen to be passing. I haven't been, over here, to the high-end places around St James etc., but I assume you can get decent advice on those. Nor, have I yet been to Nobu or Ubon, or Tsunami in Clapham, though I intend to. Defune in Mayfair wasn't bad the one time I went. Of the conveyor belt places, avoid Yo!. I have an odd fondness for Itsu, from the Pret people, which actually has a very limited range of somewhat fusioney sushi, but at least it tastes fresh. When I used to work around there, I sometimes ate at Moshi Moshi in Liverpool St station, which was fine when you got the new stuff. The trouble with all these is that they have a very limited range of actual fish, having worked out how to either produce multiple variations on a limited palette of ingredients (Itsu) or that lots of people really want silly vegetable inventions and small plates of noodles and teriyaki chicken (Yo!). (Oddly, I actually rather liked Miyabi, the Conran place in the Great Eastern hotel, except being Conran people were smoking cigars in the tiny room.) In Soho, I've posted on Sohojapan, far from bad. I sometimes go to Ten Ten Tei, an unpretentious place on Brewer St, but mainly for non-sushi food (nasu dengaku, grilled aubergine with soy paste, is heaven on a plate). My fantasy is that someone will open a place over here that has the excellent quality, sake list, informality and affordability of Blue Ribbon Sushi in New York. They could call in Birringusugaito.

Bizarrely enough, a thread on Petrus (the restaurant) on the UK board some time back mutated into a discussion of Disney food, after Cabrales asked about it. I think my own post is a little unfair on the California Grill, which I remember quite enjoying. I also realise that the phrase I was looking for was 'heirloom tomatoes'

I have a question too: does the steak want to be partially frozen for the sake of cutting it, or the marinade, or ... ?

Thanks for all the advice, and Ed, thanks for your detailed post, which sounds like an excellent way to get stuck in. That will be my next project. I'm encouraged that I have all the pantry items already (does Shiaoxing wine keep, or is it like, um, wine?). I think I need to buy a bigger wok. All this will happen very soon after Christmas Suzanne -- it's not the flipping technique per se that concerns me. I'm usually a bit gung ho with imitating techniques I've seen. It's more the issues I described before (number of ingredients, how and when do you make adjustments, and so on). Ed's and other's posts have been very helpful in this respect. (Edit note: having said which, I think using a too-small wok did make the technique harder, as well as reducing the heat's effectiveness by overfilling.)

We'll do it your way then edit: done you wrong through bitterness or otherwise?

Whoa. Excellent advice. In this case, they're much softer than I expected. We might avoid the blanching entirely and just do them in the butter for a minute or two. We might also peel them if we're feeling energetic. Just so I'm clear on what you're saying, you'd fry the treviso stems in butter as a foundation for the broad bean paste, rather than as a tack-on to the soffrito, and you'd add the paste at the end with the whole beans and the chopped leaves? (Course, you would also be using a wonderful stock, not the nasty cheat I am.) Thanks for your help. This interactive cooking thing is fun. I must try not to get too much oil on the keyboard.