macrosan

Rosie, do you mean Triplets ? SteveP told me yesterday that one of the triplets committed suicide.

Unborn eggs ? So when the egg pops out of the hen, that must be a born egg. Right ? Well when the chick breaks out of the egg, is that a born-again chick ? LOL

Oh yeah, I forgot about the lead pencil ...and Scott, I dodn't get the sequence of events wrong, I just deliberately wrote them in reverse sequence That's called literary style, I do believe ed: speeling orfel twoday

Racine is Henry Harris's new restaurant, opened in June 2002, at 239 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge. I had dinner there yesterday in the company of SteveP and Scott and Samantha F, a booking made at a couple of days notice because of Steve's late change of travel plans. My wife (in the style of Groucho Marx) always says that you shouldn't book at a restaurant that has tables available because there must be a (bad) reason for that. In this case, my wife was right. The dining room is plain and bright, with a row of tables along each side wall and a row along the centre. The tables are tiny and cramped together. I arrived first and it required two waiters to shift the table so that I could barely squeeze into the bench seat on the wall. When Steve arrived, and wanted to sit beside me, the staff seemed totally nonplussed as to how to move the tables in such a way that he could get into his seat without also moving the people at the adjacent table. It wasn't easy. Throughout the course of the meal, the staff had to continuously reshuffle items on the table to make way for a bottle of water, wine, fresh glasses and so on. A waiter had huge problems pouring wine for our neighbours due to lack of space, and they fared no better at our table. They do, fortunately, employ waiters with very long arms and relatively steady hands. The standard of service was amateurish. Cutlery was wrongly placed after ordering, dishes were wrongly allocated. Dishes were inaccurately or inadequately described. The waiter at one point excused a misunderstanding by explaining that he was French. When I ordered coffee, I asked if they had a cafetiere, which the (French) waiter had never heard of. I then asked if the coffee was filter, to which he replied yes. I was served with espresso. In fact he didn't seem to understand much of the French spoken to him either. There was much audible clattering and breaking at the station beside the kitchen. The menu is small but varied. I ordered Smoked Duck as a starter, later to be told it was unavailable, so I switched to Baked Tomato in Basil with Brioche. This proved to be an excellent choice, a good quality tomato, not over-cooked, with a light and well-balanced sauce. The main course was a huge problem in three parts. Both Steve and I ordered Dover Sole. Steve carefully asked the waiter if the sole was grilled, explaining that he has a wheat allergy and so didn't want it sauteed in flour. The wiater confirmed that it was grilled, and reconfirmed it twice when pressed by Steve. When it appeared, it had obviously been sauteed in flour and had to be returned and a new one cooked. This followed a prior fiasco, when a waiter came to our table and informed us that there had been a "problem cooking one of the soles" so they had thrown it away and were starting again. At least the waiter apologised for the delay. I recall that the other three at the table opined that they had overcooked it, while I expressed the opinion that they discovered the fish was off. When my fish arrived and I tasted it, I was inclined to confirm my theory. Dover sole has a very distinctive taste, and I love it. My fish was flavourless bordering on off; it had that slightly wet texture that fish acquires when it is less than fresh; it certainly did not have the distinctive dover sole flavour. The menu described the sauce as Beurre Montpellier (sic with two Ls) which the waiter had described as a butter sauce with herbs. In fact it was tartare sauce, which was mild and pleasant. Just for once, I wished it was one of those ugly, strong and sour tartare sauces that you often get, because that would have flavoured the fish. I ordered an extra side of Roast Vegetables. These were awful, consisting of beetroot, parsnip (I think) and maybe another unidentified vegetable, all blackened, undercooked, hard and tasteless. My dessert was Liquorice Ice Cream. Dreadful. There are many styles of ice cream which may validly claim the name, but this was none of them. It was an icy mess, so cold that my mouth was numb after three mouthfuls, almost entirely flavourless, with the texture of crushed ice, swimming in a sea of what looked and tasted like skimmed milk. The espresso coffe was good. We started with a white wine (Montrachet M Collin 98) which was superb at £38. Then a Pauillac Lynch Bages 78 (I think) at £95 which was pleasant, but which SteveP pronounced not great. The food came to £35 per person including tip. I was surprised and disappointed that after the two fiascos with the dover sole, there was no particularly pointed apology, no gesture such as perhaps free coffee or liqueur. I was not surprised to be told that Henry Harris was not present that evening (Sunday). Racine has been open only a few months, the waiting staff are raw and poorly trained, there are obviously big problems in the kitchen, yet Harris feels he can have the night off. Based on this experience, he's wrong, and I can't help but believe that this place will fail unless he gets his act together very soon.

I think that last post of Steve's is a concise and accurate overview of the subject, with one exception. Of course it is clear that there is an objective good and bad in most areas relating to quality (like my disgusting peaches). And it's clear that some people don't recognize that because they simply don't have the education or the knowledge. And it's right that those people don't have a view on that subject which will command respect. However, I think the point that Steve is missing is that those people are entitled to hold the view that it doesn't matter. They may be quite happy to eat my rotten peaches, and they might even enjoy them, and they might even be aware that they're not good but they don't care. There is no justification for looking down on them for that; they just have different values in life, and those values are entitled to respect. Although I love classical music, I happen to dislike ballet. I know people who consider me a Philistine and who deplore my attitude towards ballet. They tell me that if only I learned about it, and got to understand it, how much I would love it. They think my life is lesser for "missing out" on the joys of this inestimable art form. They think less of me for my ignorance of their chosen love. They are snobs. But I like my life the way it is. I don't lack for aesthetic pleasures, I don't need another, I plain don't want to bring ballet into my life. And it's not for "them" to consider me a lesser person than them, nor to impose upon me their own anachronistic judgements of what represents good and bad in the world. After all, I don't deplore their lack of interest in, and understanding of, good food ! edit disclosure: Brain not working Monday morning. Teacher Jinnysan put a big red ring round "ascetic" and suggested I might mean something else. Jinnysan is right. Nearly changed it to "prosthetic". Finally plumped for "aesthetic"

OK, Anthony, I'll take your second post at face value. But let's be clear what you've done. Your first post was intended to make a serious point. You made sweeping statements, all astonishingly ill-informed, about the British attitude towards success, and Simon's views on Ramsay and White. Your second post is designed to suggest that you were kiddinbg all the time, just jesting. But you weren't, were you ?

So you claim "putting your country on the map" as an aspiration so lofty as to require the clouding of your honest judgement ? If maligning British cuisine is an honest and truthful activity, few Britons would want it otherwise. At risk of being battered for the generalisation of nationals traits, I guess that it is indeed in the British nature to be able to indluge in honest self-assessment and self-mockery. That is , perhaps, a facility that would travel well to other countries. I have read enough on this board, and in particular Simon's and Robin's posts, to accept their judgement on Ramsay's @ Claridges. Interestingly, you have never posted otherwise on their thread on the subject, and you don't deny here that they are right. So presumably you just believe thay should keep quiet about it because you happen to admire Ramsay. Strange attitude !

Nope, I don't have a problem. I don't care what those ignorant plebs eat, so long as they don't do it when I'm watching.

I think you mean consomme or piroshke, surely. Surely !

This is definitely an American problem. Portion sizes in many restaurants seem to be deliberately made too large to eat so that the diner can be given a doggy bag. It seems to be a given, and some restaurants don't even ask before they pack up the leftovers. In Britain, hardly any restaurants have containers to put food in, and if you asked to take home the leftovers, multiple eyebrows would shatter the ceiling. It is said that America is a society of inbuilt obsolescence and deliberate wastefulness. Maybe there is truth in that.

Yeah, I read that too ...

I'll have a take-out. Lamb chops from Babbo and I'll get Plotters to send me a bottle of his choice from his cellar

How do you pronounce that, Scottie ? A couple of weeks ago, my wife made a chicken stir-fry dish that she does regularly (and it's terrific). On this occasion, it tasted kinda funny, almost "off", so I asked what she'd done. She told me she couldn't find any of the "usual" white wine in the cupboard (that's a nice, cheap Soave at £4 a bottle) so she had to open a bottle of Premier Cru Chablis that someone gave me a couple of months ago The wine she left over was excellent, but the stir-fry tasted awful.

Glyn, I think your observation is accurate. Service charge added to the bill is very rare now, except at "business" restaurants where it's probably a convenience. Back to the main topic, one of my pet peeves is a awiter who won't get "out of my face" throughout a meal. He asks for the order before I'm ready, keeps interrupting to ask if I want my wine poured instead of just pouring it (or not), insists on asking questions when I'm in the middle of converstaion,....and then when I need him to bring the bill, he's nowhere to be seen

If it was anyone else posting, I would not have believed those numbers, BasDog Out of the three examples, the one I respect least is the one with the £5 tip !!!!! At least the others were willing to acknowledge their own position, but to pretend that you're tipping, then to leave £5, well that's just an insult to you and to themselves. I wish I could explain away the zeroes by suggesting that they think of you as "the proprietor" who makes his profit out of the charge for the meal, but then that would be just my way of being embarrassed at the low-or-no-tip culture of the English. I sometimes even wish I was an American

Nahh, mine was Miyabi Kyoto. OK, next year I'll try to talk the guys into Yamato (assuming you're saying it's good).

I loved the series. I thought that the casting of Lenny Henry was a bold move on both sides (the producer's and Lenny's), and while I have no idea whether Lenny made a convincing "chef type" I think he made the part his own, and there was an air of (caricatured) authenticity about the atmosphere in the kitchen. The script was very good in the first series, excellent in the second, but then rather ran out of inventive ideas for the third. I got the impression that the original writers stayed with all three series, rather than doing what other comedy series have traditionally done, which is to bring in new writers to add variety and inventiveness. I think the opportunity they missed was to get the show out of the kitchen and into the front of house. That only happened once as far as I remember (the episode where Gareth was fired) and then only briefly.

Don't know Maggie, but my guess is they'll stay till 6pm if they don't sell out If next Saturday is the 21st, there is a sort of Antiques Roadshow on inside the Glades, so beware. It'll probably be packed !

Well what a coincidence. I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant..... but did yours have this separate sushi bar like mine, TMTM ? Do you know the name of the one you went to ? Might ring a bell. I've always been there at the end of February when we have our golf trip.

Miss J, I'll have to take advice and let you know. FatGuy would definitely know (in the American tradition, of course) but I'm not sure. If I were you, I'd risk it. Those taters absolutely will taste better in goose schmaltz Tyke, I thought they'd closed down all the greengrocers in Soho

As a complete side it's just so satisfying to eat They used to spread it, an inch thick, on a chunk of coarse bread and eat it as a snack. Of course, that was in the days before they invented cholesterol

That's it, Scott. Spikey sheath with a stalk. If you buy some, buy plenty because they're terribly morish of they're just at the right point of crunchy/sweet. Adam, I'll look up that recipe. My wife the pastrycook is in a creative mood right now, so she might just be persuaded .... If I ever get that cabbage, we'll have to forego the pork I have a feeling that my grandmother used to put schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) with the minced beef.

Yes, it's an "early" hazelnut with the sheath around it (whatever that's called). They're soft but crunchy, and slightly sweet, not at all like the "ripe" hazelnuts. I don't think I've had them for 15 years !!! Incidentally Adam, I failed in my pickled cabbage quest on Tuesday. I'll have to find a different place !

I happened to be in Bromley High Street today (the pedestrianised part outside the Glades Mall) and found they have a farmers' market there on Fridays and Saturdays. What a nostalgic and exciting shopping experience. I hadn't gone to buy any food, but I just couldn't resist it. I bought a kilo of Worcester apples. They gave me a taste first - wow, who does that any more ? What was amazing was the variety of sizes of the bag of apples I got. You know, like they grow on the tree, large, medium, small, tiny ! Not all size-selected by a machine. They also had Gala and Cox's. Then I got some plums. Remarkably, they are all soft and juicy, but they're all different colours, ranging from purple to green. You'd never get them like that in a supermarket. I bought strawberries, raspberries and (something I haven't seen for years ) cob-nuts. Also a bag of small new potatoes (which look superb) and yellow and red peppers. The whole lot came to £8 which seemed pretty cheap to me. Am I just being wistfully nostalgic in being excited by the experience ? Do these products actually taste just the same as supermarket stuff ? Am I kidding myself ? There were other stalls selling meat, fish, eggs and cheese, and I was told they normally have a couple of bread stalls which weren't there today. I'm going back next week.

Some years ago I went to Benihana in NYC (mid-50s?) with two friends from the City. We were sat at a table with a family of about 6 from NJ (parents, two pairs of married kids) and as we sat down they welcomed us, invited us to share the wine they'd already been served with, and introduced themselves in an entirely unforced way. We introduced ourselves and declined the wine. Then the father of the family said something like "Please feel free to ignore us if you prefer, but otherwise please be part of out family party for the evening." Well, we chose the latter and had an amazing, sociable evening. The food was good, no better, and I recall that it seemed like very good value for money. Then I went to Benihana in London, England (almost empty, awful steak, awful service and very expensive). For the last four years I've been with a golf crowd to a Japanese steak house in Myrtle Beach SC, usually about 6 or 7 of us. I keep saying I won't go again. They have an excellent sushi bar, and we usually have some sushi and sake when we arrive, becasue the place is always packed and we have to wait. Typically, we'll then share a hibachi with one or two other couples. I think they're generally "swamped" by our style, and the social aspect always seems strained. The food has been very mixed. The part of the meal I've always enjoyed most has been the rice, which is tasty and well cooked. The steak is pretty tasteless, and the theory of getting it cooked exactly as you want doesn't seem to work. I somehow feel obliged to eat the meat very quickly, because otherwise it's overcooking. I've also tried chicken, but that always seems tough. Altogether, I don't eating that way, and I guess that the "show" by the chef is concentrated on more than the quality of the ingredients. If I want to have a cook-it-yourself meal, I prefer a Swiss fondue.