Nicolai

Its a Pub! An English Pub! I mean what do you expect from an English Pub? Fine dining or to partake in reveries???!?! C'mon, there is a perfect good reason why the authorities impose a closing time of 23:00pm. There is even a special name for the customers: "LaggerLouts" The term Gastropub simply means you can get plastered and served grub at the same time! Come to think of it, they should be called Grubopubs.

LoL. Yes the Laimoun Shami is the Levantine Lemon from Belad al Sham or in other terms the land of Damascus which is the Levant (Al Mashrek) as follows: Syria - Lebanon - Jordan - Palestine - Israel. The Levant is originally from the French language of the verb "lever" and the "soleil levant" is the rising sun or where the sun rises Al Mashrek vs Al Maghreb (Morocco - Algeria...) where the sun sets. Damascus being the city that dominates this vast area has thus inherited the appellation as the name is Dimashk al Sham.

1- The type of lemons mostly available in Egypt were/are what is called Laimoun Banzahir. These are closer in taste and shape to limes than the Meyer or Eureka lemon variety. Of course oranges were available but Egypt was not known for its citrus crops quality or quantity and it was difficult and costly to source the yellow common variety. 2- I edited the recipe for ease of preparation and should read as follows: Time of preparation: 60mn Cooking Time: 60 mn Difficulty (from 1 to 5) : 5 Ingredients for Kobeba Shami: 1/2 kg of ground meat (lamb or beef) 2 glasses of Burghul (cracked wheat) 1 large onion finely chopped Salt and Pepper 1/2 glass of olive oil or frying oil (irrelevant as Kobeba eggs or balls or torpidos or whatever you wish to call them should be deep fried). Ingredients for Stuffing: 1/4 kg of ground meat (lamb or beef) Salt and Pepper 2 spoonful of olive oil or frying oil 1 large onion finely chopped Almonds and Pine Kernels Way of Preparation: A) Stuffing: Fry the meat in oil with the spices and the onion until done then add almond and Pine Kernels (you can lightly fry these and then add to the meat as an alternative). B) Kobeba: - Soak the Burghul in boiled water (2hrs) until soft and then drain any excess water. (I would advise to only wash the Burghul in cold water and not soak in boiled water). Some recipes call for a full soak and some for a wash. The difference is in the final product as to whether you like your kibbe with bite or smooth. Pounding the mixture with meat or cutting in a blender has also a similar effect and it is a matter of taste. - Add the ground meat and other ingredients and mix or pound in a large mortar. - Knead and divide the mixture to the size of an egg and flatten in the palm of your hand. Fill with the stuffing mixture and close the shell to form an elongated egg shape encasing the stuffing (torpido shape). - Deep fry in oil and serve. - Another option is to grease a baking pan with oil or ghee or butter then spread half of the Kobeba mixture as a base and spread the stuffing over it and spread and cover with the remaining Kobeba mixture. Cut longitudinal parallel lines with the knife (only cut through the top layer), rotate the mold and cut again to form diamond shapes finally run your knife around the edge of the pan. Spread some butter or ghee or oil lightly on top and bake in moderate oven until done reddish brown color (approx 45mn @ 375F) and serve. I should point out that this is a translation and adaptation of the recipe posted and by all means not the recommended recipe for Kibbe which can be found on any Lebanon food site or Syrian one. The difference is the Lebanese recipe is light, thin and crunchy while the Syrian one is heavier, more moist and thicker. Horses for courses.

WoW. I never realized that it needed a culinary investigation of three people plus another one writing in the LA Times to uncover and cover the famous Aleppo Karabeej (which incidentally not only comes with Aleppo Pistachios but Aleppo Walnuts as well) and the Natef which uses Eirk el Halawah in its ingredients. I thought a simple chat with any cook or housewife in Aleppo would have revealed the ingredients and preparation process of the Natef. I assume a culinary expedition is being planned for the Halawa el Tehiniah use of Eirk el Halawa. Alternatively, I could simply pass on the mobile number of Mrs S.N. the Mrktg Mngr of Halwani Bros in Cairo, but that would be taking the fun out of the investigation. I dread to think about the Kenafa bil Jibn code and I would cautiously point towards Ehden and hope to live to read the tale! P.S. You might stretch your investigation to include Cuba and more specifically the El Floridita restaurant in La Habana Vieja where they use a variant of Natef on their special Ice Cream. Now that would be an investigation! but of course will never make it in the LA Times for obvious reasons.

In order to cut through all the guesses on this thread. Please note the following. Fattah is a dish available in two countries namely Egypt and Syria. The Egyptian version is stock based around tomatoes and flat Arabic bread while the Syrian is Yoghurt and bread based. If your recipe is called Fattah Shamy. Then this has nothing to do with the word Sham=Smell or Shams=Sun but Shamy=Levant=Damascus. The Fattah Shamy or Shamyah i.e. coming from Bilad al Sham, is a very famous local dish and is referred to in Damascuss as Tess'eeyeh. In case your recipe is yoghurt based then it is referring to the Syrian Shami version. Now stating that the Egyptians eat this dish as a Sham-el-Nessim speciality is risible and the author must have went on a great leap of faith to come up with this explanation. The Sham-el-Nessim celebration is to eat Fessikh + Green onions. It is also important to correct a fallacy that Sham-el-Nessim is a "pagan holiday" as it is in fact a Coptic holiday linked to the Coptic Easter and derived from the Pharaonic times. In order to avoid politico-religious connotations, it is referred to as an Egyptian celebration of Spring. I would be curious to know who is the author of the recipe and it would be helpful if you can post the recipe here.

I would like to register a very strong protest on behalf of the "Friends of toilets in a French caravan sites" as they would not like to be associated or compared in any form or manner to the two muppets. "Friends of toilets in a French caravan sites" reserve their right to defend their image in the relevant courts of law.

Let me put it this way. The idea of cheese and wine is not to glorify the wine but to enhance the cheese degustation. I will gladly have some Bucheron /Camembert or Tete de Moine with a Beaujolais nouveau. But it would be heresy to have anything with a Cheval Blanc except une fine main blanche!

Sweet Pepper. You guessed right. It is a spice mixture a la allspice as you say. Carvi is Caraway (non pungent) or Cumin (pungent). Give it a sniff and see.

Mandarine segments or Navel Orange segments dipped in salt.

WoW, you make me go hungry. Very nice blog.

In case you are refering to the Mediterranean Swiss Chard which is used for two well known dishes across the ME such as Lentil soup or a variant of Dolmades then the Arabic name is: Selek or Selk Maybe it is difficult to find in Edinburgh as even in Moscow Road it is on off/on basis. Fantastic winter soup though!

They have same in Uzbekistan???

A point of necessary clarification: Baqli is from the verb Baqala which means to grow, to sprout, to germinate. Al Baq'ala is the grocery Buqul are edible pulses such as Foul and Humus(chickpeas). Baqli is Purslane Baqli Hamqa'a(stubborn) is Pussley Baqli Mubaraka(blessed) is Endive/Chicory Baqli Barida(cold) is Hyacinth bean Hindibah is Endive/Chicory Hindibah Bariah(wild) is Dandelion/Taraxacum In this context and as reported by Wolfert: Baqli is indeed Purslane and Hindiba is indeed Dandelion.

Try this signature dessert: In a nice and small heart shaped mould like this one: Heart-shaped Moulds Layer in some quality Vanilla Ice Cream and flash freeze. Before serving, reverse the mould in a dessert dish and surround the heart island with Bayleys Irish Cream. Top the Ice cream heart with Mozart Chocolate Liqueur in a little hole you make with your finger in the middle of the heart. Grind around the Mozart Chocolate Liqueur some fresh nutmeg and serve. As a variation, you can flambee when serving or you can hide the Mozart Chocolate Liqueur with some creme Chantilly and a Cherry on top. You can vary the recipe with different Liqueurs or custard or panna cotta or mousse...etc N.B. The owner of this recipe cannot be held responsible for any increase in the population number or marital deviations.

The behavior of throwing food is inexcusable in any situation. Having said that, and as your meeting was a t 07:30. it is obvious that you failed to prepare for the meeting not only in being present well before the client but making sure that all elements related to the meeting are covered from booking the meeting room to the breakfast menu in detail. You have been wrong footed by the client. Your reaction should not have been to panic but to rectify and put the meeting on the correct track. 1- Take the blame and apologize 2- Take positive action and ask your "corporate cafeteria" to supply immediately what they can and make sure that what they will supply is up to standard. 3- Failure of the "corporate cafeteria" being able to supply, you should arrange your assistant or your assistant boss to immediately contact the nearest open hotel or restaurant and provide an acceptable breakfast. 4- Failing point 2 and 3, proceed with the meeting and extend an open invitation to the client to the top restaurant or hotel for a lavish breakfast at a later date. It is not your position or responsibility to educate your client with his hideous behavior. Whatever the case maybe, it is your personal mistake. I cannot believe that this can happen in a high-powered Wall Street law firm as heads will roll at the cafeteria, after your head of course.

Sage is Mariamiah and is a member of the mint plants family. Sage contains Thujone and Wormwood also contains Thujone and Wormwood is a constituent of the Absinthe liquor. With a big leap in faith, you could deduce that Mariamiah or Sage "could" produce a Hallucinogenic and Aphrodisiac effect. But you have to drink few gallons at one time. Alternatively, get some Sage and dry it and soak in Ethanol, distill the stuff and drink it or evaporate the stuff and smoke it. Or simply, buy a bottle of Absinthe and few cubes of sugar!

If you want to really eat: Olivo If you want to pose: Cecconi If you want to be insulted in an expensive way: Locanda Locatelli If you want to be insulted in an cheap way: Carluccio and if you want to be degustazione'd: Tentazioni

Yes you are right in a way as private or personal chefs are unfortunately bound by and to their employers. Most of the time, although the perks are good and the wages very respectable, but it is a death bed for the personal promotion and development of a chef. The whole experience is very much dependant on the employer requirements and to be honest a large percentage of such families get a chef for not so glamorous reasons. Take this example of a private jet flying to Japan for 10 days with all crew and personal Chef in the cabin. Upon arrival in Tokyo, the suite at the hotel had a small kitchen nevertheless the chef was allocated a special cooking post at the main hotel kitchens. The food was for the local taste of the employer with the usual medicinal constraints. Was it fun for the party: No Was it fun for the Chef: No The poor Chef was frustrated to the point of exhaustion and he rightly deserved each dollar of his package. The problem is that usually either the chef is more sophisticated than the employer or the employer more sophisticated than the chef.

Love the Ispahan.

It seems that the problem of "supermarkets" is now starting to surface as many people are moving back to the small vegy market/shop and meat/fish...etc. Not only you get better service and quality of food but even prices are lower which was the original selling point of the supermarket where you are supposed to find all your food requirements under one roof at a lower price than the shop next door. I hope the small shops make a come back as frankly the quality of food stuff at all Waitrose/Sainsbury/Tescos..etc is rather bland!

Well, I sample everything I make. But the truth is, I make way more than any one family could or should eat. So I freeze some and give the rest away. You'd flip if you saw how much stuff I accumulate. At one point last week, I had two kinds of ganache, chocolate pastry cream, caramel sauce, vanilla buttercream, 2 kinds of macarons, lemon cake, some tart tatin and a St. Honore in the fridge, and 2 tart doughs, cinnamon dough, pizza dough, lemon cream, and dacquois in the freezer. Its pretty ridiculous. I need someone to come over and help me clear out the fridge from time to time. ← What's the nearest bus stop???

Legal advise stated the following. 1- The establishment is entitled and is within it's rights to ban the possession and/or use of photographic equipment on the premises. 2- The ban on the possession and/or use of photographic equipment has to be clearly and legibly displayed at the entrance of the establishment and any relevant printed/AV material. However, what happens if a person does manage to take pictures on the premises, the establishment can ask for the surrender of all photographic evidence provided proof of the following can be established in a court of law: - Malicious use of the material in it's current or altered form. (not restricted to moral/personal/public domain) - Financial gain from the use of material. Now how the establishment would prove malicious use or financial gain by the culprit can only be made with few hundred thousand dollars legal cost. In other words and in this particular case, the restaurant has to show that the food pictures published or intented to be published on the web have or could negatively affect the restaurant reputation and financial position. There would be no point for any establishment to run such road as it would be extremely difficult to prove intent and effect. Should they win the case, they would still loose the business and the only gratification is putting the culprit behind bars for incapacity of settling the damages and legal costs. Summary: If there is no money in it then there is no point to it.

You are right as in certain old fashioned circles the roses are a dozen of thirteen and not twelve. So odd is the even number.

I feel much better now that this program is over. Now that we were introduced to all the famiglia including his mother, his sister, his wife, his four children the vicar and vicaress and the pectorals. Olle'h Plus Sharon Osbourne the self proclaimed Queen of Chocolate and the Giles clown and...etc There used to be a song like that: The Padre, la madre, les douzes chiquitinas, grandpadre, grandmadre et les bunch de cousinas, l'oncle et la tante et la tantina deux beaus gosses. Olle'h. So the restaurant consist of gR who can't do puddings and Jean Sebastien who can carry two plates on one arm and a souffre douleur de commis. I mean is there anybody else to take the wrath on? And the commis who are "uhmm" commis and not proper chefs are supposed to cook and plate and clean the blooming kitchen. So one general and all footsoldiers with no other ranks. Wierd! At least gR is making a special appearance on Boxing day on a quizz show of some kind. I wonder if he is gonna strip again? Ah, I forgot the food! The Food? What food? Apparently, a new fragrance "Eau de Vaisselle" signed by gR is in the making and there is also some men's unders fotoshoot and a range of lead pencils for left and right ears...hey we are rockin.

Yeahh. you are right and also Maison Blanc and the burger joint and the fish&chips. Richmond getting gastrospherical.