beandork

Promise to give your friend a lift to the fat duck and 'accidentally' forget to meet him. And don't forget to turn your mobile off. It is definitely not a place for people who are funny about their food.

The herald sun could be viewed as impartial on this as Bob Hart's reviews of vdm are as glowing as Downe's was underwhelmed. I can understand the Fat Goose response to a degree, and it's the usual vexation- how can it be that a place that bowls you off your feet so hard with the cooking and attention to detail fails to impress someone else? And the best reply of all is to go look at the Fat Duck and El Bulli threads, keep in mind these are amongst the most lauded restaurants in the world currently, and see how many people were dissatisfied there or felt that their meal was off. For everything, including restaurants, one man's genius is another man's 'meh'.

Can't stress enough the importance of lamb for an australian themed meal. But don't take my word for it! -

source some tim-tam biscuits, get some milo

True. Probably where I differ is I don't have the resources to have the real thing. At the risk of going completely without, I'll take an imitation that at least hints at what I'm missing whether that's a white truffle oil, compound, etc. I know in most cases, nothing beats the Real Thing, but I believe there is a place for imitation/artificial flavours. I believe that markets and seasonality are the key to good produce and good cooking, but I just think there is a significant grey area. A convoluted example is when I had a fish eye in japan, and it was injected with soy sauce and mirin...in this case the flavour was injected, and the distillation of mirin is a process not a million miles from the creation of flavourings. The technique wasn't new, and the fish eye was delicious. Were someone to get machine-reclaimed chicken, cast it into a chicken mould, and soak it with a bresse flavour emulator synthesised from plastic byproduct, THEN I would feel that there was some jiggery-pokery happening.

I've noticed that reviews for VDM fall into the 'love it' or 'totally hate it' category, more so than any other melbourne restaurant. I've been surprised when speaking to other people, usually from the food industry, who despite having not eaten there proclaim to hate the place and it's chef. I've had three lunches there back when it was in carlton, and loved each one. Maybe the degustation is drastically different, but I suspect anyone who finds the food there like cat litter has something other than the food on their mind.

I'd say it's a grey area. On the one hand, you have a new breed of chef and restaurant who will use any technique or ingredient at hand to achieve the best cooking and flavours possible, even using ideas or ingredients from industrial food preparation companies. I'm getting a mental image of Ferran crushing peach smints and rolling a peach in it then sauteing it, from the bourdain/el bulli episode. But on the other hand, if a restaurant is known for its rustic/classical approach and adherence to seasonal ingredients I can see how some people would be put out by the use of artificial flavourings. I personally don't mind the use of additives just as long as the flavour or dish in front of me is awesome. If someone made a compound like a crayon which had the same flavour/texture as white truffle without going off and 1/100th the price, I'd love it. I see a bit of debate on the way, in any case.

after much thought, a nanny's chicken liver pate recipe certainly sent me down a different path at the age of 11. Not really a dish as such, I loved it most on toast.

there's heaps of things, but for me the big 2 are: 1: little flies - in venues where there isn't adequate drainage there can be quite a few little flies buzzing through the air in the restaurant. Kind of an indicator that there is enough still water in the kitchen/venue for them to lay eggs, hatch, get an entire lifecyle going on. Not that I'm fussed by bugs but it's just evidence of a careless kitchen that you can see from only one step inside the front door. 2: if a waiter can't at least tell you they'll be with you soon within a minute of walking inside, that doesn't bode well for the service either I can forgive any number of other combos, but either of the above will have me exit immediately.

hey, I'll dob myself in here - I'm an aussie diner in the UK, and I whine all the time. I like to think however it's because there's so much to whine about. Hey, I just about have to rugby-tackle waitstaff to get the bill in half these places

El Bulli also had a recipe for tempura rose petals And while on the subject of flowers and tempura, zucchini/corgette flowers seem to get stuffed with mousse and tempura'd every other day of the week these days

Had a special night out with my girlfriend in a nice french place, last night together for a while. I had an asthmatic reaction to the snails and was caught short without my puffer. Asked the staff, no-one had one. My girlfriend ended up going from table to table asking if anyone had a puffer, and I was almost choked unconcious out in reception by the time she found one. I felt like a shmuck.

gifted gourmet: you've probably gathered from shalmanese's post, it involves poaching the fish - salmon in your case - in oil at a loooooooooow heat. Tetsuya doesn't finish it with frying, so he ends up with the fillet cooked confit style, appearing raw but super tender. There's a picture at the following link, for inspiration (you will have to scroll down a wee bit) : http://grabyourfork.blogspot.com/2005/04/t...yas-sydney.html shalmanese: not sure about brining the fish. I'd probably just go the whole hog and encust it in konbu Anyway, you've inspired me. I've got to have a go at this method this week.

the tetsuya method, perchance? Be interested to hear about the results

I hear lobster tastes better if you beat it with some rubber hosing first

It all makes me think of eddie murphy: "ICE CREAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!" Just on the topic, I've been hearing a phantom ice-cream van jingle playing in my neighbourhood for the last year or so. I've done so many fruitless laps of the block looking for the bugger and had become convinced that it was some hidden prankster kids playing the ice-cream jingle from a stereo loudly, just so they could watch sad dudes like me rushing frantically around searching for a fix. The other week I finally found the van - and now I've found it's route, just in time for summer, I hope it's not banned

a method I have of heightening taste when ill is heinously inappropriate, but must be mentioned...blowing your nose into a napkin or tissue. Works well if your sinuses are a bit stuffed, if you have just had a mouthful of food you get a few seconds where tastebuds and olfactory senses connect and do their magic. I do however understand that the anniversary dinner at alinea would probably be one of the last places to exercise this technique.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=85963 holy zeitgeist, similar discussion erupting in UK thread...namely the 85 quid selfridge sandwich

I swear, once our southern hemisphere truffieres drag the price of truffles out of the stratosphere these people are going to have to get imaginative with how they inflate their meals' prices! *shakes fist at future* *has a bowl of white truffle icecream*

Came across this article - welsh rarebit selling for £350! http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006170320,00.html For those who are unfamiliar, welsh rarebit is what the rest of us call cheese on toast. Naturally, the price has been bolstered by the inclusion of matsutake mushrooms and umbrian truffles. This smacks a bit of Ramsay's £100 white truffle pizza. The question I pose is : what other food seen as either junk or ordinary could be cast into the pit of fine/expensive dining? Is there a way to do £100 bowl of baked beans? A US$200 hot dog?

have had the usual suspects - horse-meat sashimi, deep-fried shrimp heads, fugu - but the weirdest one I've tried was a whole fish eye, served intact from the fish head. I'd eaten all the meat off the fish head, and my hosts gasped when they saw I'd left the eye. At their encouragement I tried it and it turned out rather nice - like a delicious fatty globule of marrow. They had injected it before baking with a mixture of soy sauce and sugar. Fortunately I had missed out on that part of the preparation otherwise I might never have got it past my teeth.

I'm similar - I love my food weird and stinky, and I gladly accepted fish-eye from the same kitchen which offered me natto.

It would interesting to try one of their lattes

japanese nato (spelling?) - stuff is fermented bean curd, I believe. The smell is remniscent of week-old sports underwear worn whilst having fungal problems and left in the locker to rot. Apparently the taste is good and rather more-ish. I say apparently because I never got past the smell to eat it.

arrrghhh, too late I know, but if your friends find themselves needing fish in the bournemouth area again a swift cab ride to the Ship in Distress in Mudeford would provide a happy alternative.