muichoi

Very sad-I wish for the standards of the days of Le Souffle to return. Contrary to the popular view things have changed very much for the worse at the top end. I have some wonderful memories of that restaurant.

Is everyone happy about that, Jon?

Er.. you may have difficulty with asian cuisines in general, then. Actually with great food in general, thinking about it!

Superb. A shame you didn't take tripe and testicles, though! eventually i think one finds the connection between live animal and meat very appetising rather than unpleasant. And that's an amazing price.

Huntsworth wines in Kensington Church Street is an excellent shop with surprisingly good prices on many things.

My problem with the real Pixian stuff is the quantity of MSG. Though maybe I'm just being unchinese. It's sometimes available at Wing Yip too. The LKK version seems to have changed for the worse recently.

Ox cheek now at Jack O'Shea's, at a fairly hefty £9.50 per kg.

Interestingly I went to the Mayflower on Saturday and found it far less good than previously. Red n'Hot is very, very good-but print out the menu online if you want the more exciting offal dishes, which seemed to have been excised on the 'English' menu. Superb technique in all the classics.

I'm pretty sure that all calves brains in UK restaurants are imported.

I tend to agree with basildog. Someone once fed me an M&S baked potato flavoured crisp. I am still recovering.

I'll never understand why anyone would want food to be 'cutting edge'. It's like wanting a bottle of burgundy to be 'cutting edge'. Perfection will do for me!

Thanks indeed-the Savoy project is riveting-I hope your liver holds out to the end!

Nothing much different, Chris. I'm starting a new batch from a different source soon, though. Maybe that will make a change.

Normal hog casings.

Every way, with the same result. Actually broiling from frozen gives the best results, but there's a loss of succulence.

Simply this-I've been making many kinds for a while and they are really good, but the texture of the (always natural)casing when cooked never pleases me-a damp bend rather than the crisp yielding I'm looking for. Ideas, anyone? Thanks!

Hear, hear. It's usually a way of 'adding value'-ie economising on the quantity of raw materials. Very dull.

I've bought these for many years, Prawncrackers. It's a matter of breed, not just elevage, and sadly even French battery birds are better than domestic organic ones, with the noble exception of the Label Anglais.

Looking good, though not better than mine, made with caputo flour, my own aged starter and cooked in 90 seconds-but Chorizo????

Very much cheaper to order direct from Spain-many companies will send them. Brindisa have good stuff but their prices are crazy for everything.

Not too much different, but the second time the rind came almost clean away from the meat, burst and burnt.

I think it's better to leave it out than substitute. It's an entirely different flavour to any other blood sausage I've tried, and I seek them out.

That looks fantastic-a dish I'd given up on-the glaze is new to me, and I've not tried with a Silver Hill Duck before. I shall try again next week. Do you prefer honey to maltose?

I forgot to report the results of my torch/lye version. I did it twice, the first time was brilliant, the second very much less so. So I shall move on to the vodka version, though I suspect that the meat itself is the most important variable.

He is very good, slightly annoyingly, probably because he knows how to cook. Also spot-on about risotto, possibly the most abused and misunderstood culinary concept of our day. There's even a 'Risotto Bar' now, for god's sake!