muichoi

If you like Chinese food and have someone who knows something about it it's surprising how well some of the less sought after chinatown places will do when approached for a banquet menu ordered in a dvance. Or you could go to Phoenix Palace, which does these things wonderfully well at not too great a price. Ordering in advance is the key.

yeah, the reason is expense. most contemporary chefs have never even tasted a sauce made in the manner of escoffier or careme, so they're really in no position to judge them. i happen to think that outside of world-class restaurants, what passes for glace is typically a shortcut on a shortcut on a shortcut, and is not even in the same league as the classics from which they devolved. as far as escoffier's recipe goes, it's possible that it won't actually be what the o.p. is looking for. the high ratio of veal to chicken suggests that it's really just a slightly more chickeny variation on a neutral white stock. the huge quantities of meat and bones will add savor and general deliciousness, but i doubt the overall effect will be an intensity of chicken flavor. if extreme chicken is what you're after, check out the thread on making stock in a sealed bag. i haven't tried it, but it looks like a promising idea. ← Precisely-there's a man who knows what he's talking about.

I've had a fujianese fish sauce before. Particularly pungent.

Methi-fresh fenugreek leaves, which perfume the body intensely for days after consumption. I like it.

That's a pretty difficult appellation to be choosing on appellation alone-an awful lot of rubbish from this village still makes it onto restaurant lists.

If it's still hot from baking, because it's technically raw.

I hate room temperature butter. It should be cold, and above all should be sliced and deposited on the broken off section of bread rather than spread. Though in general the traditional french way, no butter at all, is better. Warm bread is even worse-camouflage for poor quality and indigestible with it.

Tragic, the whole thing. The glorious restaurant(s) at the Connaught should never have been closed like that. There's nothing in that style in London now, and I suppose there never will be, notwithstanding the repellent and untrue comments made by Angela Hartnett on the state of the restaurant before she took over.

I also deplore stock cubes, but they certainly provide plenty of umami! MSG by itself is a far better booster, though I would not countenance its use in occidental cuisines.

HERE HERE!!! YOU GUYS DONT REALLY GET IT....... ←

Why do trade suppliers always propose the most tedious and useless cuts to the public? I never use any of these.

He's better than most, certainly, and I'm sure there are some economies of scale involved in operating five very similar restaurants in close proximity. Yet a bottle of 1996 Château Labégorce Cru Bourgeois Margaux will still cost £60 at La Trompette and £18 at the off-licence across the road. Not my definition of "amazing value". ← Not my definition of a very good choice, either! It certainly helps to know the retail/auction prices of wines that interest one.

Thanks Dougal for the very comprehensive reply, and to Norman.

Actually the lists at Mr. Platts-Martin's restaurants offer amazing value, in general.

I understand that, but it refers me immediately to the alimentary canal. I am not alone.

To be fair, they don't use the term "mission statement" on their website. I think what they are doing is excellent; I wish more top-end restaurants gave similar assurances: "The choice I have is to purchase the cheapest meat I can from intensively farmed systems to increase my profit, or to stick to my principles and source it from animals that have enjoyed good standards of welfare, even if this means I have to pay more for the produce and ultimately charge my customers more. I’m going to stick with my principles and hope you agree this is the right thing to do. It should be a given that the menu is seasonal, sustainable and sourced locally where possible. [...] I think it’s imperative we be given information about the food we eat in order to make an informed decision as to whether or not it is something we would like." http://blog.restaurantalimentum.co.uk/?page_id=53 ← In that case I apologise, but do feel that the food should speak for itself. And please think about changing the name-it's like calling a restaurant 'Intestine' or 'Diarrhoea'.

Is that the worst name for a restaurant ever? I hope the food is fabulous enough to counteract the absurd pompousness of having a 'mission statement'.

Thanks! 1 and 2 are quite different to each other, aren't they?

Does anyone happen to know what the UK equivalent of pink salt is?

Horrifying-though I agree with them that unpeeled potatoes are grossly uncivilised.

I must admit I wouldn't dream of going to a restaurant which uses the repellent term 'fine dining' of itself. Yuck.

Label Anglais-not the special reserve, as Matt says, are the only non French bird available here that I've found worth eating. I really dislike the pappiness of Sheepdrove and Daylesford. I usually go with the various French birds that go under the 'Label Rouge', in a different class. There was a time when even supermarkets carried them.

I second the recommendation for Irene Kuo, and i think the wei-Chuan books make sense even for beginners. It's not an easy cuisine to learn except by lots of eating and experience, in contrast to most South-east asian food which just needs good recipes. Pei-Mei is irreplaceable, but the Grace Young books I find poor, a gushing style and clearly the kind of books that are written as a research project rather as a distillation of a lifetimes knowledge.

Chefs like really good wine, served in large quantity.

I think the mystique is a Pomerol/merlot thing-wines that don't place too many demands on the palates of the world's wealthy-though to be fair it is not really meant to be judged at this age.Certainly hard to understand what's so exciting, though, I agree. Now DRC-that's another story!