Kikujiro

I don't think mentioning the restaurant's insistence on asking who your employer is when you try to book is sensationalism edit: cnat spel

You don't need to register. I had an extended spat once with Hollinger NM about the Telegraph privacy policy once which resulted in me de-registering. Link brought up the article fine, for now at least

Those of us less familiar with some of these names might appreciate an indicative retail price where appropriate, so we can get our bearings

I think if I start posting here it might encourage me to cook more often. Monkfish studded with garlic, simmered in olive oil with bits of black olive and cherry toms; wok-wilted spinach; spring onions doused in olive oil, salt and lemon and chargrilled. All cooked while reading and posting intensively on eGullet, but luckily nothing went too badly wrong. The end of a bottle of Pouilly Fumé that I had in the fridge. Bought M&S pannacotta, an experiment; rather dull.

Like Gavin, I ate at La Pigalle today. I assume his party had gone, as when we turned up around 8 the other people in the place -- all five of them -- were all speaking French. I was too wankered on arrival -- hence my ordering snails and steak frites -- to comment decently on the food, except to say that the snails were fine but too salty, the steak cooked bleu as requested, and the frites superb [McD standard] but too salty ... Francois didn't seem to notice the fact that I kept addressing him by his first name (I've been once before, ages ago), but was otherwise impeccable.

... a national-rate number, folks.

Superb post.

This is fascinating. One caveat: with the electric kettle the duration of the boil is very brief. My original suggestion -- that you could flick the switch back on to regain boiling temperature -- implies only two short periods of full boil, as opposed to one longer period on the stovetop. I didn't mean to suggest reusing water on a more substantial basis.

Sometimes cooking for friends can be stressful, and I forget to think straight. Thus my decision to use a meat thermometer on the pork was rational, but it would have been better if I'd differentiated between the metal kind that can stay in the oven for a while and the electronic stick-in-to-check-and-remove version. The whole device melted. By a piece of tremendous luck, the meat was raised off the base of the pan and the bit sticking into it was metal and survived. I did some quick research on the web and concluded that the quantity of heavy metal in the battery and/or electronics was not threatening to health and, having informed my guests of the circumstance, served the pork anyway. Deglazing the pan was not an option. The meat was remarkably good: infusion of circuitry? That night I slept badly dreaming I'd killed them.

Did it open on 26 Nov? There was apparently a 'pre-opening party' this weekend. My source reports as follows: Also says the food was great and the drinks were awful.

I have a couple of Globals which I used for pretty much everything and I'm very happy with them. I was under the mispprehension that sharpening them would be a pain, especially as the ceramic sharpener that Global sells is hugely expensive and you need to be good at judging the angle. But that was before I was introduced to the Shinkansen Global knife sharpener, which costs under $30 (compared to >$100 for the Global ceramic stick). It has two ceramic wheels, requires no skill at all, is specifically designed for Global knives. Amazon link above is e-gullet friendly at $28.99.

Yep: I'd say Queensway (Mandarin Kitchen). You're also close to Isola (where I've never been, but it looks fun). Edit: eejit.

Tony, it was Hospital

That article was discussed a bit in this thread.

This is one of those weird cultural gaps. On this side of the Atlantic, we inveterate tea-drinkers nearly all have electric kettles. They're faster, easier, safer. You know when the water's boiling properly without that horrible whistle as it just clicks off. Glenn: you can always flick the switch back on after your showering duties; bet it's just as quick. I've never understood why they haven't caught on in the US the same way. My best guess is that you have less need of kettles as y'all use dedicated coffee percolaters and don't drink much tea. In fact, I mainly drink coffee (stovetop) and only bring the kettle out when I have people round or for some cooking purposes.

Simon, JKL is my regular place for dimsum in Chinatown. Not nearly as good as Royal China, of course. I haven't tried Golden Dragon nearly as often but I did last month and was disappointed in the context of expecting it to be better than JKL. Like everywhere else, JKL has pulled the Chinese-only specials menu, but they do translate it on demand. My favourite of these was a kind of fried pancake with long ('golden'?) mushrooms, which they did for ages, then abruptly stopped. I think. Although it was always a struggle to communicate that particular item when ordering as I never worked out what it was called. In particular I agree with JD about freshness. JD: I've seen this story about JKL before (here or on Ch*nd). As you are seated on the lowest possible floor that can accomodate you at the time, isn't the arrangement (if real) a bit unfair on the upper ones?

The technical description of how lean it was is 'not very lean'. Having said which, it was very meaty at one end, and about 3-4 times as thick as at the other end. Last time I did the same dish it was the same (thin) thickness throughout, so the fat and skin was a much higher proportion of the total. When I stuck the thermo in it registered, like, 90 C.* The belly was certainly not ruined; given that it went so far above the intended temperature, it was still good, which might not have been the case with other meats or cuts. But parts of my portion tasted a little tougher and dryer than I'd have liked. * Edit note: I may have stuck it all the way through the meat? Or misread it? But it was certainly markedly over 70.

Thanks, everyone. In fact, I overcooked the meat slightly, and the crackling (which last time I made the same dish was the best I've ever had) wasn't as good as I had hoped. I was following a Moro recipe (fennel-rubbed belly, highly recommended) and by the time I stuck the thermometer in it was too hot inside. But overall very enjoyable nevertheless. [Edit: last time, the pork was probaby better: Old Spot as far as I remember; this time it was a well-treated drug-free pig but not an interesting breed]. I wouldn't cook belly pink -- as per G. Johnson's post, it needs slow cooking -- but I've had other cuts of good pork cooked medium (particularly some acorn-fed pork at Eyre Bros in Shoreditch that I will never forget).

I'm cooking some pork belly. As far as I can see everywhere on the web, the guideline is that internal temperature should reach 160F, or about 71 deg C. But on my meat thermometer the little pig silhouette is pointing to 85 deg C. It's an okay piece of pork and I don't want to cook the hell out of it. Which number should I head for?

Note moved to this thread, where it belongs, from the VAT thread where I inadvertently posted it. I went to ECapital today and ordered off the lunch menu. The waitress (who admittedly recognised me) was extremely helpful once I'd announced this intention. As far as I can work out, there are only a few Shanghaise specialities on the lunch menu that are not now on the main menu (albeit at different prices?). These include a crab version of the soupy dumplings and a 'Shanghaiese wonton with spicy sauce'. The vast majority of the lunch menu is, predictably, rice and noodle dishes. We ended up having exactly the same as JD -- thousand layers, cold noodles with chicken/peanut sauce/cucumber, scallion pancakes (or, as ECapital has it, spring onion deep dish pizza); plus the standard soupy dumplings and the abovementioned wonton. I must admit that for me the thousand layers (which I hadn't had before), while undeniably beautiful to look at, did not make up in flavour for the textural challenge (cartilage?) they presented. I enjoyed them but couldn't finish the fairly massive portion. (I didn't check the individual prices v. the main menu). My dislocated NY colleague was delighted to find the other two dishes, which are much more standard in NY Chinese restaurants than over here (or at least I've eaten cold noodles and scallion pancakes in a million random NY places and never before in London). I'd been uncertain if we were ordering enough and the waitress had suggested an additional dish of mushu pork (hello US again) with hand-pulled noodles, which I consented to, but when we'd got through the above dishes she came over and said she'd held off putting that item through in case we'd had enough without, so we declined. With a large bottle of water for my tea-limited colleague, £29 including service, a couple of quid a head more than dimsum at Joy King Lau.

[Report on ECapital that I accidentally posted here moved to the right thread -- sorry.] [Andy, please feel free to delete this if you have the energy.]

Surely some mistake. The guide price for the Secret Santas is £5 whereas the model you refer to, even if bought wholesale, would cost at least ... um, edit. edit. edit. damn.

Further to JD's post about ECapital (and similar experiences we've probably all had): does anybody think it should be a requirement for restaurant menus to be available in English to the same level of detail that they are in other languages? Or would that be somehow wrong?

A couple of years ago, when I worked round the corner from Charlotte St, I once dropped into Passione with a colleague on the offchance they could squeeze us in for lunch. They turned us down so, well, offputtingly (nothing they said, nothing even obvious abut the way they said it, just the insubstantial aspects of the interchange) that I haven't been back. Until lunchtime today, when we did exactly the same thing and this time were seated. The food was good. Rocket/parmesan salad was as good as it could be, if enormous and featuring about a kilo of cheese. (Actually dressing, added by waitress after showing me plate, could have been very slightly better done, but I niggle.) Wild sorrel risotto was delicious: soupy, subtle, generous. Times two, with water and one coffee, £38 all in. But man: the atmosphere, again. Nobody took our order for 20 mins, and when I made to do so the waitress practically slapped my wrist. This is the only concrete example I have. Otherwise, everyone seemed very friendly (one waitress was actively trying to be nice). Even ol' Gennaro (Jamie father figure) himself came round genially. Yet the place felt somehow strained, even, um, passionless. Those aforementioned insubstantial aspects continue to weird me out.

Agreed -- none of the reasons they cite for closing (basically working their bollocks off) seem specific to the provinces, just specific to any ambitious high-end restaurant. Now if, for example, they'd complained about the prices they were able to charge vs. London, or the number of people they could attract out to the sticks, that would be different. But they didn't. I also assume that the 'in ... Britain' bit is irrelevant, as you have to work hard in other countries too. Deleting these red herrings leaves us with a more accurate, edited version of John's original question, viz: Who in their right mind would open a restaurant?