gethin

Not sure what Paracelsus would have had to say about that ! Traditionally Swedish bitters are used to treat blood disorders, digestive problems and constipation and externally for insect bites and such like. Some people also use them to treat ear infections. The ingredients of one popular brand (Optimum Health Co) are "Aloe, Angelica, Rhubarb Roots, Senna Leaves, Theriac Venezian (Blacksnake Root, Cinnamon Bark, Malabar Cardamon, Valerian Root), Zedvoary Roots, Carline Thistle Roots, Myrrh, Camphor, Manna, Saffron" I'm not sure how true that is to Paracelsus's original 16th century formulation. I think Gentian is often included. Certainly in the UK you can get a mix of herbs for home preparation of Swedish Bitters from any decent herbalist (Baldwins for instance). Its then a matter of steeping them in alcohol. My recollection is that Swedish Bitters taste absolutely foul, though I've never tried them in a cocktail. gethin .

Cancel the Monday appontment and re-book for another day ! That way you can have lunch at the Armless Dragon in Cardiff - they don't open Mondays. Gethin

Harvey Nichols do (or did) carry some Mariage Freres teas and possibly other stuff. Gethin

Fellow lone diner really enjoyed himself too ! You may not be lucky enough to find Mr Lynes sitting next to you , but you can rely on the excellence of the food and the staff are always pleasant. Gethin

Think it rules out any direct relationship with Helen of Troys breasts too. There was no one around on 1663 that would have seen them. ! gethin

Try the Stephen Bull method - buy a derelict building and a copy of MAFC. As the builders turn the derelict building into a restaurant, cook your way through MAFC. When you've mastered 40 recipes, open for business. It worked for him, he started with culinary skills at the level of Llanrwst's other culinary export , Glynn from Big Brother, and look at him now ! Gethin

For something that's very French, quite unlike anything that are likely to have ecountered in rural Georgia and surprisingly decent food take them to Le Gai Moulin The menu is 20 Euro's. I almost always stick with oeufs en cocotte with Foie Gras, Steak Bearnaise and Creme brulee, but for the price, everything is pretty good. Gethin

Benoit Serres creme de violette is not hard to find in South West France at least, in Toulouse everywhere from cakeshops to newsagents seem to sell it (along with crystallised violets and violet lozenges). Most of the French distillers who produce fruit based liqueurs make a creme de violette or liqueur de violette. I think the Miclo version is possibly the best- very violetty, though far paler in colour than the Benoit Serres. Briottet, Giffard, Lejay-Lagoute and Les vergers de Ma Pere are other producers who make a violet liqueur. The BS one may well be a closer match for Creme d'Yvette as it has a noticeable vanilla taste as well as the violet and it's certainly better colour wise for Blue Moons etc . (Miclo have the prettier bottle though !) I don't think Parfait Amour would be a particularly good substitute , on the whole they tend to be slightly citrussy, slightly flowery but not particularly violet flavoured (although Lejay-Lagoute do seem to market their creme de violette as Parfait d'Amour, I think they include both names on the bottle). Don't know of any of these are available in the US though. Gethin

Were any other UK based e-gulleteers at Bar06 yesterday and able to sample Gabriel Boudier's new Saffron Gin ? I thought it pleasant enough but not overly exiting, closer to a young genever than to English gin. It reminded me quite a bit of a (presumably saffron flavoured) boiled sweet that an elderly friend of my grandmothers used to dispense when we visited her as children 40 years ago. Its certainly far more saffrony than Old Raj, and has a deep gold colour rather than the slight yellow tint that OR has. Gethin

One innovation, since the half price first week, seems to be the offer of a couple of plats du jour, today- bavette with shallots at £12.50 and braised lambs hearts at £8.50. Does anyone know if they change every jour, or are they using the term more loosely ? The heart was a bargain , 3 half hearts , suffed with parsley and lemon zest, a big mound of braised veg and one of the dinky little copper saucepans full of mash. All very delicious. Most upset though that they have got rid of the gamay d'auvergne from the wine list - they have obviously taken Mr Whiting's cruel comments to heart! I really liked it , and had been looking forward to a chilled caraffe of it while deciding what to eat. Gethin

...umm .... Bloomsbury perhaps? ← Assuming that we are indeed looking at the southern part of Bloomsbury, it's very short stroll to Lincoln Inns Field where she will find The Terrace (modern British with a Carribean slant). There's a three course lunch and pre theatre menu at around £15 which is pretty good value and it's a really nice space on a summer's day. Heading west from Bloomsbury it's not far to Soho so a visit to Arbutus should definately feature in her itinery. Apart from The Fryer's Delight, another economy option is the refectory at the School of Oriental and African Studies. I haven't eaten there for a while, but it used to be pretty decent and very very cheap.The October Gallery (in the street that runs parallel to Southamton Row , one block east,) is another possibility for a cheap lunch, if she decides to alternate real economy with splashing out (which I think might be a better plan than sticking to places around the £20.00 mark). Gethin

If you were heading as far afield as Cordes, I'd say that Les Falaises in Cahuzac would be a better bet. Le Grand Ecuyer has always struck me as a bit hit and miss and better at puddings than anything else. Les Falaises also has the more interesting wine list with lots of interesting stuff from their neighbour Robert Plageoles. gethin

It's a shame that Fee Bros ,Angostura, Peychauds et al can't be prevailed upon to do mini bottles (10 ml or so) like Tabasco do. I usually have a couple of those to hand and they improve a wide variety of food and drink. I try to stick a bottle of orange bitters in my bag if I'm going away for a conference, but except for using it to perk up drinks on the train, I normally sneak drinks back to my hotel room for remedial attention rather than take the bitters down to the bar. I have no shame about adding orange bitters to an espresso in Starbucks though, if that's the best i can manage (which oustside of London is often the case.) Desperate straits require desperate measures! (though I've often wondered why there is no such thing as lemon bitters, which would work even better in coffee ). The eye dropper solution sounds like a good idea. Gethin

Carluccio's in Neal St currently has tomatoes labelled San Marzano at £6.00 a kilo. Didn't look that exciting to me (and I'm pretty sure the box they are displayed in had a Sicilian address- though I may be wrong on that.) gethin

I would personally always prefer two small spoonfulls to one small spoonfull, and two large spoonfulls would be even better, especially if it's from the laverbread stall in Swansea market rather than a tin. That said - the tinned stuffs not bad ! Gethin

Well whoever put together the Arbutus wine list together deserves a lot of credit for putting together a list that , on last nights form, makes it hard to choose bad (or even uninteresting) wine. Must try the house wines next time , if they are as carefully chosen as the rest of the list, they should be worth drinking and very reasonably priced . gethin

Spoke to the Blackstones people at LIWSF yesterday - they reckon the 2006 gin will be available around August . They are indeed planning to use seaweeds among the botanicals and also spinach ! They are starting to pick the 2006 botanicals in the next week or so. (Spring arrives late in the far, far North). I also had a chance to try Zuidam (both their Dry Gin and their Genever). They make the dry gin by distilling off batches of grain spirit with each of the botanicals seperately and then blending the resulting distillates . (They had little bottles of each of the seperate distillates on the stand, although unfortunately they wouldnt let anyone taste them . They did let me sniff them though !) It seems a lot of hard work for a result that is not not noticeably different to more conventionally made gins - its main characteristic seemed to me to be sweetness (though this is based on a small tasting of rather warm gin after tasting several dozens of wines and a variety of odd spirits ranging from a Tea based liqueur (Tiffin) to Miclo's Eau de Vie de Pain D'epices by way of some (rather nice) nettle flavoured vodka. The Genever was good though. Gethin

I'm surprised no one has enthused that much about the wine, rather than just about the availibility of the the large glass caraffe. We sampled 5 wines last night (6 if you include the champagne) and all were excellent , 2 of them seriously idiosyncratic and absolutely splendid. (Both the caraffe whites and the pudding wine were properly chilled too). Nothing on the list is run of the mill and in the abscence of a sommelier (or even a properly clued up waiter) some notes on the wine list would have been welcome. The bottle of Picpoul we had with our starters was extremely good and worked well with both my brandade and my chicken oyster thingy as well as with the eel. It was pretty acceptable with the asparagus too. The Gamay d'Auvergne I had with the rabbit was completely odd and absolutely delicious, fluorescent pink and tasting of cloves, bubblegum and Boots three week wine kits. I'd happily drink this wine for breakfast everyday of the week. The lamb eater opted for a caraffe of Pic St Loup , which was very correct , with the baby plaice going for a caraffe of the Picpoul that we'd had with the starters. We then split a caraffe of very acceptable Marsannay with the cheese before moving on to a caraffe of Mousht with the puddings. This was the star turn - bright orange , tasting, we decided, of church candles, sandalwood, Izal medicated toilet paper and oranges. Be warned however, it just doesn't stand up to sugar, particularly burnt sugar. What had been a complex and delicious wine in the gap between cheese and pudding turned to vinegar in the mouth once i'd tucked into the floating island and it did the same for the creme caramel eater. I'm not sure which of the desterts this would work with, its probably best as a substitute for pudding rather than an accompaniment to one. The food was pretty good throught (actually it was more than pretty good). I thought the rabbit loin was better than the cottage pie bit, and the kidney in the middle, the best bit of all. (I think my rabbit may have had a serious Pernod habit in its brief life, its kidney certainly had a strong aniseed taste). The eel was the best eel any of us had ever tasted - anyone know who their eel merchant is ? Or in fact who their chicken armpit merchant is - who would have thought that a chicken's armpit concealed such a delicious little nugget of meat! I thought the macaroni in that dish was perfect , in fact it was all perfect , the only criticism I could make being that they should provide a spoon to deal with all the lovely juice , though they brought me on fast enough when i asked. The lamb was splendidly flavoursome and tender - though the lamb eater could have done with more starch than the solitary tortelloni (tortellono ?) (Though to be fair to the front of house staff they heard his moaning from the far side of the room and ran over with bread). Lamb eater was also seriously discomforted by the fruit bread with the cheese and he then ran accross the room waving both arms in the air to get some plain bread. I started off wishing for a plain biscuit with the cheese but by the fourth piece of fruit bread I'd warmed to it. It did mean however that I was so full that I had to abandon my plan to have two puddings. Service was charming if a bit erratic. Our second round of starters arrived within seconds of the first round having been cleared away and the mains arrived before we'd got round to ordering anything to drink with them (though that may well have been our fault for talking too much). There was a long delay before the cheese and a longer one before puddings . (I think they were struggling a bit at that point, various kitchen staff seemed to be helping out the waiters) I agree with everyone who has demanded sideplates! They don't have to be big. I think I'll take my own next time I go if this hasn't been resolved. Apart from that, some tasting notes on the wine list and some eau de vie , they have got it all really rather right. I'll definately be there for lunch and more of that Gamay sometime next week. gethin

Any British Oxygen Company Depot should be able to supply you with liquid nitrogen. The minimum order is 25 litres though on this kind of quantity the delivery cost and rental fee for the vacum container will cost more than the gas itself. Your probably looking at £120. Are you familiar with MSK ingredients ? They supply stuff like Gellan Gum (for making gels that will turn liquid when you chew them), crackle crystals , powdered fruits and all sorts of flavourings and colourings. Theres all sorts of interesting stuff that it could be fun to play with . Gethin

I assume that this will still be the 2005 vintage. I hear that they have been experimenting with seaweeds among the botanicals for the 2006. Hopefully there will be some to taste at the London International Wine and Sprits Fair next week. The UK sunday papers this week all carried reports of a German made seaweed wine (tastes like a dry sherry apparently). Is this the beginning of a new trend ? (not that it's that new, the Victrorians used to make a seaweed wine from bladder wrack as a treatment for arthritis). Going back to Gin, Does Beefeater Wet always taste nasty or did i just get a duff bottle ? . (It's not technically available in the UK but I found a supply in a shop in Liverpool that seems to specialise in failed export orders and similar deals - they were also flogging Courvoisier bottled for the Singapore market though those bottles looked so shabby and mistreated for that I gave them a miss). The Beefeater Wet smells of acetone and has a bitter finish - really rather nasty. gethin

Whiskey Exchange is also about the only retail shop in London that stocks Velvet Falernum ! Cotton's now have a branch in Exmouth Market too. Trailer Happiness's decor is perhaps more Woolworth's prints circa 1964 than Tiki, but they do make nice drinks (and they are far less prissy than most Notting Hill cocktail joints). gethin

check out cocktail db for recepies for the seville, the cadiz, the spanish fly , the sherry cocktail and various vartations. check here for a photograph taken down a microscope of a "Kahlua Toreador". Why university scientists take microscope photo's of cocktails and post them on a website is beyond me, but the pictures are pretty (and not remotely like a picture of a cocktail). Gethin

Not cocktails as such , but here is the drinks menu at La Tasca ( a mid range Tapas chain in the UK) . The Soberano Libre and the Rebujito La Gitana are nice sangria alternatives and may be ideas worth pinching. Have you thought of offering Kalimotxo . Not something you'd normally see being drunk in bars in Spain, but a very popular (if disgusting) drink. Queimada (aguardiente , sugar and coffe beans, set on fire) can provide a bit of spectacle. You should certainly try to stock: A few spanish brandies - Cardenal Mendoza is one of my favorites but all the big names (magno, veterano, soberano , bobadiillo Gran Capitan ) are extremely drinkable though generally a lot sweeter and more full bodies than french brandies ) Pacharan ( slightly aniseedy, sloe flavoured - drunk with lemonade as a pre dinner drink or neat (and very cold) after dinner. Ponche (osborne or caballero) Anis a plain Aguardiente and a flavoured one (Martin Codax are a good mass market maker) Licor 43/ Calisay/Torres orange (all sweetish, orangy liqueurs Crema Catalana ( very popular, a bit like Baileys but not as nasty) Xoringer gin With these and some spanish vermouth and a variety of sherry (from very dry to very sweet) , you should be able to come up with spanish variations on quite a range of classic cocktails. Orange , chocolate and cinammon would be obvious Spanish flavours to try to work in. I once bought a bottle of a liqueur made from Acorns in Madrid - it was truly vile though. I guess you won't have have access to N20, but if you did the Epicure, Cigar foam here looks interesting. Gethin

The horseradish vodka makes a nice breakfast when your feeling a little under the weather. Gethin

All the Montezuma's bars I've tried have struck me as rather underpowered in flavour. The chilli is perhaps the exception , but its still a bit one dimensional. That said, I'm not a great chocolate eater, though the stuff they sell in the Algerian coffee shop on Old Compton St , (blue and white packaging , with pictures of tea cups or teapots or something along those lines) is pretty good , especially the geranium one and the cardamom one. gethin