Jon Tseng

Look we don't have enough information to know whether this assertion is true or not. I would also add that splitting hairs about whether Sam was talking about knowing about food and the experience of dining is neither here nor there. These are not mutually independent events. I would say it is certainly a possibility. An analogous argument: I believe it is possibility that a leading wine critic or wine lover know more about wine than a leading wine producer. If this is so, why can't the same thing be a possibility wrt dining? J

to 2* rather than 3*? Note that how much you enjoy a meal has nothing to do with how good it is, but everything to do with how good it is versus your prior expectations. ie a mediocre *** meal in London would be far more dispiriting than finding a decent local with honest well-cooked food in the middle of an industrial wasteland (let us assume, for the sake of this discussion, Up North). The problem with applying this to ***'s is that you are basically already pricing in perfection (or pretty damn close). That doesn't leave much space for the joint to outperform expectations on the upside, but plenty of room for it to disappoint on the downside... Best place to go is always a ** gunning for ***. J

As mentioned (and pictured) glutinous rice siu mai are a bit bigger and are stuffed with a mix of rice, dried shrimp and wind-dried sausage, in my experience. Only really seen them in Shanghai where they are commonly sold on the streets. Haven't seen them in the North/Beijing Addictive, but filling J

55 quid for a 200g burger points to £275/kg or £92/kg assuming a typical 3x mark-up. Looks high-end but not outlandish vs. the retail price of wagyu (can someone remind how much selfridges charge? I think its about that). Would note however a) Zuma obviously paying significantly below retail rates and b) this assumes they are using prime cuts - presumably chuck etc. cheaper. l8tr J

why would you use fillet for burgers too dry, surely? J

What Gary said.

Sounds like a variant on contemporary slow-cooking methods cf, as has been cited, vogue for slow-cooked salmon As a rule of thumb for salmon you want to get it to 40c, lamb 60c in the centre. As note, 4-5 mins sounds too short. Given oil temp and target temp so similar you have a lot of latitude about leaving it in there a bit long. Yes, you do lose the brown crust this way. Try blowtorching it before/after Duck fat will be fine J

Dunno about Moldova, but Moldavia just across the way is famous for the botrytised desert wines from Cotnari. In the nineteenth century it rivalled Tokaji and Sauternes as one of the world's most sought-after wines. Unfortunately half a century of communism meant things have gone a bit downhill. It would still an interesting wine to try, virtually unobtainable in the west. regards Jonathan

Marylebone is probably your best bet Borough is nice on Sat but dead other days and other shops round there a bit dingy West London Notting Hill etc nice but things are a bit spread out food shops wise Dunno about North London J

Freezing should be fine Just make sure you put them on a tray and freeze the dumplings seperately (once they are frozen you can chuck them into a bag together) otherwise they will stick together when defrosting J

James Petersons recent(ish) French Cooking tome is a good affirmative answer J

also lard

You should use your connections to organise a Sat lunch expedition there sometime Prixe fixe is, what, forty squids including tips (and evian is free, right?) maybe you could persuade them to throw in some homard au porto for free ;-) J

Gordon Ramsay in the UK recommends Carnaroli in the UK in his first book. I wonder perhaps that maybe the quality of the grain is more important than the speciae - would an artisan hand-fed carnaroli watered by pristine virgins beat a bog-standard supermarket arborio and vice-versa &tc? cheers J

Definitely deep-fry; steam first then deep-fry difference is between say fried bread in uk fry-up and deep-fried bread - much crunchier, crispier, overall browner you can either fry little ones or steam full-size ones, slice about half an inch thick and deep-fry the slices (very traditional northern chiense breakfast food... esp dipped in neat evaporated milk) dunno whats the recipe for properly tasty steamed ones... do notice they are normally a bit sweet. add sugar perhaps? J

lamb sweetbreads you can just pick of extraneous bits of membrane with knife and fry the bastards much less hassle... not poaching, weighting or waiting... J

Yes - if you have a look at James Peterson's Sauces book he talks about this Originally Jus was just that - juices from the meat. But as it was uneconomical making a stock with bones and reducing it was invented as a sort of workaround - not quite as good in terms of flavour but much more parismonious. As a whole the book is well worth getting. Even at the list price it is actually reasonable value for money when you think you are getting c750 detailed recipes (think... a usual cheffy book has, what, up to a 100 recipes if that? so its the equivalent of seven normal cookbooks at $30 a pop). Although admittedly half the recipes are a variation of protein + lots and lots of black truffle Also in terms of the content and technique, as Moby has pointed out, the recipes are by no means run of the mill. Lots of interesting detail about the cooking - notable is the large amount of pre-cooking/sous-viding of the meat cuts Shame there aren't any puddings... Cheers J

Dunno about Val Michel Cluizel have had a dinky little 99% bar for a while Practically inedible - curiosity value only J

Complexity of recipes definitely good - gives me more confidence have the full recipe and it will work rather some cut down untested home version very good passage about whacking bunnies J

A fair reputable political commentator. Certainly not some callow youth out to make a quick buck, although certainly out to make a splash. http://www.stephenpollard.net/biography.html J

James Petersons Soup book is very good (very much after his Sauces book) Not exclusively French but theres a lot of French in it J

Thats OK moby... Next time you bring them back just pass them over to me and I'll make very sure you don't have to face eating them J

ADNY gets a fairly lengthy kicking from the Times in London today Excess on a plate: my $890 Ducasse disaster (unfortunately, viewers in foreign climes may need to subscribe to see this) J

Dropped in on the way back from work... last chance had to catch the discount before it blew up. Thoughts in no apparent order: Decor - yes, uber-Hakkasan, down to the dark wood pattern panels in the dining room and the need to have a halogen flashlight to navgiate your way round the loos. Actually I swear the slate sinks are identical to Hakkasan. Can Alan Yau sue for copyright? Nibbles - picked cucumber and roast peanuts. Peanuts had a slight ducky flavour Xiaolongbao (the porky one). Good flavour but not enough soup. A bit lumpy - filling ball too big. Honey roast eel. A bit rubbery and honey paste didn't add enough flavour, although I would add always get this slight rubberiness when order eel in Chinese joints - only the Japanese seem to be able to pull melting soft bbq eel off properly (cf the ambrosial Eel Nigiri at Sushi-Hiro) Emperor stir fry - a claypot of various goodies - abalone, sharks fin (minuscule threads), mushroom, fish maw, sea cucumber. Nice taste - though much down to the ingredients I guess. Pipa duck - served with nice steamed finger things to wrap the duck in and topped with hoisin sauce. Basically a cross between peking duck and braised duck. Nice enough - seemed to be all leg meat which is both a) cheaper for the kichen and b) moister and more tasty for the diner. Salt belly pork stir fried with garlic shoots. Poor choice by me - basically bog standard stir-fried pork, but with garlic shoots. Thankfully I like garlic shoots a lot. Overall slightly superior, but not outstanding Chinese food. Certainly not worth the prices they are charging without the 40% discount. In their defence I would say I probably didn't order that well (should have gone for more seafood; wasted one bullet on the pork) and it is early doors. I shall definitely figure out how to go back for dim sum at some point. The dim sum menu looked interesting. Services was good. l8tr J

wiv that budget ur soooo dead... cafe du marche perhaps? J