Kikujiro

Steve, When will you next get your cocktails mixed by Dale? Do you do this Dry Jan thing every year? I am palpitating unpleasantly at the thought.

I'd be there like a shot but I'm away

Fellow members, I too have been guilty of oldthink. I will reimmerse myself in the prolefeed speedwise. Beware of thoughtcrime lest you end up an unperson

Oh, Toby's right. I always assumed that Peking came from a transliteration of the Cantonese pronuncation , which would also explain why "Peking duck" triumphed in a restaurant industry in the US largelu run by Cantonese. But it seems is in fact that it is to do with weird transliteration systems designed to reproduce the same sound as "Beijing". Less clear is which system. Some sources claim "Peking" is Wade-Giles but others point out the correct WG version would be "Pei-Ching" (which makes more sense). Seems we may have some Germans and Scandinavians to blame.

Yuh, but it's arguable that Peking is just a transliteration of a different spoken Chinese, unlike Florence, which is clearly an English bastardisation that has become its own. Just to confuse the issue, it's still (more or less) Peking if you're Cantonese, no? (For me, the city is always Beijing, but the duck can go both ways) So who's been to Xianggang recently?

Dietary laws aside, is kosher your Maldon? (Or is Maldon our kosher?) I use Maldon for everything except salting boiling water (a waste) for which i keep cheaper sea salt. (Pasta wants to be cooked in much saltier water than feels right.)

Nasu dengaku. Made by other people.

Not even cooks have to cook.

Went to Angel Mangal last night. Simon's right on this one. Oh, and Tony is absolutely, definitely right on New Tayyab.

How much is this thread still about the UK?

Have been to the Boston branch of what according to the original post is the 'bad' Penang. Hm. Everything I like about US-Asian cooking and miss in London, including OTT decor. Roti canai better than I have yet found in London (which is saying very little).

i. drivers' licenses. A NY-er colleague of mine, now resident in London and back home for the Christmas hols, got a new photo drivers' license, with, he insists, absolutely no proof of identity whatsoever. Is this true? If so, poses interesting dilemmas given the centrality of driver's license to US proof-of-ID proceduer. ii. telemarketing: still don't get much here. woooooot.

It's some kind of warning. I'm not sure what of.

Individual membership of Costco in the UK is apparently limited to: (a) Current or retired employee of: Banking/Finance Civil Servant Education Fire/Rescue Local Government Medical/Health Service Police Force Post Office (b) Qualified as: Optician Dentist Pharmacist Solicitor/ Barrister/ Magistrate/ Advocate are there similar rules over there?

At least they knew what you were talking about.

One undeniable advantage for NY is that TONY, unlike TO London, puts its basic listings on the web. It even counts results. As I see it: New York: Broadway 34 Off-Broadway 21 OOB 25 Total 80 London: West End 50 Off-West End 19 Fringe 42 Total 111 edit: whoops, not this week's Time Out but one from a month ago. This week's has 38 theatres listed in Fringe.

I don't want to quibble needlessly, and I have absolutely no investment in claiming a greater theatrical vitality over here -- am quite prepared to believe NY has the edge -- but for the record there are 61 venues in the off-West End and fringe theatre categories in this week's Time Out

Wilfrid, What is 'cabaret' in current-day terms? Would it include, say, jazz singers? Or ... ?

ACNielsen reports 'half of all heads of household [in the US] are too tired to put much time or effort into evening meal preparation, and nearly two-thirds are constantly looking for faster ways to do household chores. Such time-pressured sentiments are making convenience-oriented food and cleaning items some of the fastest-growing consumer packaged goods (CPG) products on the market ... 50 percent of respondents (heads of household age 18+) agreed that: "I am so busy and in such a hurry all day that by dinner I'm too worn out to fix a meal that requires much in the way of time or effort."' Not necessarily predictably, 'those most likely to agree with the statement were younger and had somewhat higher incomes' (my emphasis).

Give me a broadband connection and no life and I can work wonders.

Sounds like a job for Kikko-Man.

More global perspectives. Santa Fe New Mexican Liverpool Echo Abstract of an article in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association (sorry, couldn't be bothered to remove footnote references). Canadian Packaging This Is Chippenham The Oprah Winfrey Show This Is BrightonHove Herald and Weekly Times

These lines are meant to be sung, surely. Anyway: in Thailand they're tackling the problem theatrically.

So older people are resistant to marketing? Surely in recent years the advertising industry has had to get a lot more self-reflexive and ironic in order to deal with cynicism over advertising among the young.

Tony, you're probably right, but (i) why do you think that is, and (ii) what do you think causes younger people to grow out of it? (Thesis one. Young people still living at their parents' homes have to eat out to have their own social life. Second, they tend not to have a large budget to do so. Further, youth culture privileges drinking over eating anyway. I don't think this is a very good explanation though.)