muichoi

I think the usage of the word to mean Dinner is a specifically upper middle class phenomenon found mostly from the period 1965-85 approx.

I guess you mean that the beef leaves too much deposit on the pan? 3 things-mix the beef with its marinade really well-at least 40 'grabs' with your hand(I like to add 1 pinch of soda here), use plenty of oil, and leave to sit in the pan a short while before stirring quite calmly. You need to let the surface sear a little each time before stirring.

Fermented Durian sauce....does this really exist? I want, I want ,I want!

Sorry, I was talking about the storage of the wine, not the beer! How does 'great rustic character' coincide with the false gastronomic idea that 'grilled first class chicken' is 'boring'?! multi-elemented and over-ambitious plates very imperfectly realised are very, very much more boring,though sadly much less rare, than great ingredients simply but perfectly cooked. This latter regrettably barely exists in Oxfordshire. If it did, I'd be thrilled.

Duncan, I really don't like to be down on a restaurant in public, but at the simplest level didn't it strike you how awful the bread , tinned olives and adolescent attempt at Hummus were? as I said in the previous thread,if they were interested in beer I wouldn't criticise the wine list, but what a way to store the stuff, apart from anything else. Why on earth do such places need to offer so many choices of such overcomplicated food? Unless such a place has a really top team in the kitchen-in which case it's a restaurant not a pub-they should offer things they can do well, taking advantage of local supplies, which can be excellent. What a great thing it would be to find a place that would offer 2 or 3 choices at each course, nice things like grilled lamb chops, a top class steak, fish and chips, grilled first-class chicken, with simple garnishes made from the best stuff, great beer,well chosen and stored wines-it wouldn't be impossible and would be a hundred times more popular than the proprietors may think. This place made me very sad.

Spelling mistakes on the menu. Unless it's Chinese, when the reverse applies.

Great pics. Does anyone have a recipe for that pigs' ear preparation?

I quite agree with Ben about going lightly on the seasonings. The best cantonese cooking relies on a clear and precise rendition of the original flavours. My difficulty with this dish is cutting the ribs cleanly enough. If soda is considered necessary, I think it would be better to mix it in , leave for a hour or two then wash it off, continuing as normal.

Jh, I don't think szechuan pepper and rock sugar really belong here. Personally I wpuldn't use oyster sauce either-a muting rather than enhancement of flavour.

I'm pretty sure those are reconstituted dried-the fresh ones I've had don't look the same. Certainly saves a lot of bother! that looks like a fantastic dish-but a very expensive one here!

Maybe they added them to the pot as they became available....

That recipe seems to me to use the spices in inordinately large amounts?........

I think it's time to abolish 'plating'. Bring back silver service!

It's a question of expectation. Traditionally in French and Cantonese cooking, the meat is pink at the bone, which some balk at. One soon comes to realise that the taste and texture are much better like this,though, and there's no reason for it to be unsafe. It takes too high an internal temperature to get rid of the pinkness. Of course this assumes that you're roasting proper chickens.

Can cooking be literate? I don't understand your point. ← Of course it can. This food isn't. It has no basis in anything at all in any gastronomic culture, though it thinks it has.

I've got some of these. They are indeed absolutely overwhelming,even narcotic in effect!

Great and informative post, though to me this kind of cooking is just illiterate on many different levels. Why?it's so boring.

hzrt8w,looks fantastic, but PLEASE wear a glove or heavy cloth on your left hand or you're going to do yourself a nasty injury.

If you're a wine lover, The Square-fantastic and well priced list. I'm not terribly impressed with the food. Le Gavroche is a wonderful old-fashioned restaurant that should not be underestimated, and some wine bargains to be had. haven't been to Sketch.

It's the oil-rich layer of bran which is prone to infestation and rancidity.

Isn't the real reason for the non-acceptance of brown rice in rice-eating cultures its extreme perishability? I advise keeping it in the freezer-on the other hand,I don't really like it. I have heard that manually threshed rice is far superior nutritionally to that done by macine, which makes sense.

Sounds good, JetLag-duck blood sausage is a true delicacy. Is the blood in set custard form or like eggs used to thicken the soup at the end?

hzrt8w, this looks great-do you think that it would be necessary to blanch the pea shoots if a very intense heat source were available?

JH, this is brilliant. I used a very good abalone-scallop sauce. Highly recommended to the sceptical. ← Muichoi, Did you use the 1 cup or so of wine? I am just curious if anyone used the wine for the first time and what their comments are. ← It was slighly less, I think-but try it, the results are quite surprising.

JH, this is brilliant. I used a very good abalone-scallop sauce. Highly recommended to the sceptical.