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muichoi

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Everything posted by muichoi

  1. I'll take your word on the inconsistency. I don't unfortunately visit often enough to have experienced it. A very nice piece from AA Gill this morning-'The star system has created exactly the opposite effect to the one intended. It has encouraged restaurant food to be snobby, twee, hagiographic, meritlessly elitist, uncomfortable and bereft of any human emotion that is desirable or attractive'. Regrettably he's absolutely right. The current London restaurant scene is simply unutterably tedious and depressing.
  2. Absolute nonsense. It could more sensibly be argued that this is the only london two star that deserves them.
  3. I'm glad to read of your loathing of 'balsamic' vinegar. Its general substitution for proper vinegar is a horrific symptom of the infantilisation of gastronomy that has taken place over the last twenty years. I like the Ledbury. It isn't worth £120 per head, but as the MD of Natoora are you sure you feel comfortable regretting high prices?
  4. muichoi

    Pacojet

    I agree-Pacojets are for playing cheffy games rather than serious cooking.
  5. Stone, Vine and Sun have an excellent selection and much more sensible prices than all the above. The website is terrible, though, it must be admitted.
  6. muichoi

    Dinner! 2008

    Did I understand that you were teaching an Indian cooking class? I suppose you could call this a primitive form of paratha.
  7. muichoi

    Dinner! 2008

    A paratha is also rolled completely differently.
  8. Tuna is not correctly cooked rare. It should be thinly sliced and cooked through, as the Italians do. Think veal escalope. Fish should either be cooked or raw IMO.
  9. Unfortunately this is true, unfortunately everybody (have you seen Professional Masterchef) aspires to earning "a michelin star", nobody seems to ctually aspire to earning three (putting financial considertaions aside), which seems very sad for UK food ← I'm not sure I agree-certainly an ambition to have one Michelin star is silly, it might as well be three-but surely the ambition should be to cook fantastic food in an establishment where people have a wonerful time. Nothing to do with stars at all.
  10. muichoi

    Dinner! 2008

    C. sapidus, chapatis are made from atta and water with an optional pinch of salt. Water is added to the atta to make a firm but supple dough, then this is kneaded thoroughly( about 52% hydration). This is then wrapped and rested then divided into walnut sized pieces which are rolled into circles then cooked on a griddle. After the second side is finished the chapati is held directly over the flame until it puffs. It sounds easy but requires a lot of practice.
  11. muichoi

    Dinner! 2008

    Those are pretty unusual chapatis! the use of ghee is not normal here, indeed you could argue in particular that its use during the cooking process makes them not chapatis at all, not to mention the shape!
  12. Absolutely-not quite as bad as 'fine dining' though, the proclamation of which should be a capital offence.
  13. Precisely. It's a cuisine utterly without culture.
  14. Agreed-though I don't think the availability of virgin thigh fat is necessarily an economic issue, and foie gras is rather cheap these days, particularly compared to first quality fish.
  15. Agreed. Interesting how much emphasis Michel Roux places of presentation in his comments. I assume thats one difference between amateur and pro. Amateurs we want it to be edible and (preferably) delicious. Pros want it to be delicious and look good to boot. ← Yes. But food doesn't have to be 'plated ' to be ravishingly beautiful, and blatant portion control is very inhospitable.
  16. What's interesting is the unquestioning acceptance that 'plating' is a necessary skill for a professional chef( the term meant something entirely different in the late 60s!). The idea that food comes out of top class kitchens already on the plate is a phenomenon from the last 25 years or so-I tend to think that economics have a lot to do with it. There's nothing wrong with it , of course, but it seems never doubted now that this is the only way to do things.
  17. I like St. John, but it's really not that good, just famous.The Gavroche , the River Cafe and the Capital are worth the money, the others not IMO.
  18. Still. though, its one of the most influential cookbooks of all time - at least in the United States. Given the time it was written I don't think the processes are over complicated. They are the techniques used by top French chefs then and to a large extent now. I still refer to it from time to time when I want to be reasonably authentic when cooking a French classic. Don't hate it, just ignore it. There are plenty of alternatives these days, but do remember that there weren't back then. ← I don't think any professional would make, for example, a hollandaise sauce in such an incredibly fussy way. It attempts to make supposedly difficult techniques simple, but always misses the important point, for example in this case describing the look and feel of the correctly cooked yolks. Such examples occur all over the book.
  19. I have to say that 'mastering the art' is perhaps the most overrated cookbook of all time. Persistently they make simple processes complicated and thus render what should be foolproof fallible. I hate it.
  20. muichoi

    Paella—Cook-Off 31

    Good. I've always been outraged by the inclusion of chorizo.
  21. I go when I'm passing. There are some good things-the bread is excellent and fairly priced, some of the cheese is good, ok-ish veg when prices aren't silly, and meat that's not too terrible for London. The pre prepared food is a sick joke, though, and the appalling stench gives the whole place rather a grim feel. There's a whole lot of stuff that's just entirely redundant including the whole first floor.
  22. Chinese food and cognac. Thai food and thai whisky. Massive generalisations of course, but these cuisines aren't for wine at all.
  23. I agree in general. But it's the 'sodding Connaught'. It's meant to be expensive.
  24. I saw it. I am increasingly unconvinced by her judgement, though, and I can't imagine why she thinks she should be able to get a cheap bottle of wine at the Connaught. What I long for is a temple of classic Haute Cuisine in London. I suppose it can't happen now, after the cultural vandalism of shutting up shop and bringing in Ramsay so misguidedly.
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