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Everything posted by Jon Tseng
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Also sold in Waitrose... probably for less J
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- Take some cooking chorizo out of skins and sautee in its own fat til browned. - Mix the hash with with cubes of bread, olive oil, freshly chopped parsley, maybe a touch of garlic (might want to sautee/blanch the garlic first). - Stuff into baby squids. Pin with a cocktail stick. Grill or sautee til just browned on the outside. Serve as an hors-de'oeuvre J
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My father-in-law is very particular about his pork pies (he likes Pork Farms best): ← Pork Farms Pork and Apple Pie (don't know if they still do them anymore...) are the best! l8tr J
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For a straightforward reference the book Deliah Smith's Winter Collection should be pretty reliable cheers J
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Moby - soudns like a good meal you had If I was being hyper-critical... serving lobster both as amuse and a course sounds like a bit of a snafu at this level l8tr J
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Yes a good idea. I think quail comes up confited fairly often in posh restaurants (at least in UK) as a posh/dinky alternative to confit duck (proof, as ever, that there are no new ideas in cookery...) It is especially useful for the legs, which can tend to be a bit tough if cooked their own if you are not careful. Confiting allows you to ensure they go melting tender. I suppose in theory all of this logic applies to game too (or, at least, wild duck) but I don't think I've seen it yet cheers J
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I wouldn't either, given the choice But if you want to stuff it / bulk it out at this time of year chestnuts and wild mushrooms are the obvious choice... J
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Beans are important to add some moisture to the mix. Think - most of the other ingredients are panfried/dry/greasy. Beans and runny egg-yolk (preferably the latter running into the former) are essential to stop the rest of the dry stuff sticking in your craw. NB also beans do not necessarily need to mean the toast goes soggy - well not if it has been deep-fried to a crisp as is traditional. As to why have them from an institutional can - well that's what people are used to. The same argument could be made as to why have ketchup of your burger rather than artisanal home-product fresh tomato coulis - because thats the flavour people are used to. Similarly why put icky plastify processed cheese-food-slice on the burger rather than freshly crumbled wensleydale from the fromagerie... because that "just processed" taste is exactly what you're after... cheers J
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New to London - truly great London institution?
Jon Tseng replied to a topic in United Kingdom & Ireland: Dining
Sunday at an institution? Surely Claridges is your best option J -
Cheers for that Shaun! PS given this is a public forum and potential buyers are out there you might want to edit the comments about the valuation... All I can say is thats a lot more than you get for the money in London! J
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Was going to say - 1834 Malmsey must surely be the way to go! J
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theres a good discussion on diff rare breed beef vs normal beef in the HFW meat book J
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Lychee as well, if its a muscat... Blue cheese a classic combo, though I find the wine seems to go too quickly if having it with cheese - need a decent size sip for each bite of blue... Le Gavroche in London does a tokaj-flavoured bavarois mousse ("delice de tokaj") with a glass of 5-putt served on the side Otherwise... I guess something fruity, especially if its one of the modern, reductive ones (the Oremus certainly is)... a classic tarte tatin given its autumn... or maybe some poached peaches if you can just catch the arse end of the stone fruit season? cheers J PS thats the other great thing about tokay - you can drink it young or you can age it years... good either way... none of this bloody faffing having to let it sit there for twenty years you get with sauternes (whats the point of getting a dirt cheap 99 yquem if you can't drink the bloody thing for another five years???) downside of this is, of course, to tempting to drink it all up now!
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Hehe. Yes, I think I did the same tasting as you at Oremus. They also had a great 6 putts "estate selection" 99 with 20% muscat (and it showed!) which I nabbed a bottle of. The essenzia was great stuff. Tasted the Oremus 95 and the 99, which hasn't been released yet but was in a propah bottle and everything. The 99 definitely better - much less overwhelmingly sweet/gloopy than the 95, though I wouldn't turn either of them down! The one thing to bear in mind when considered essenzia is simply ITS NOT WINE. With that much sugar and that little alcohol think of it as as a slightly boozy sugar rush (in a nice way!), but not as a wine in the strictest sense of the word. And gratifyingly there is a really good (and reasonably priced) selection of top class Tokaj at the Budapest Ferengy Duty Free (if anyone's ever passing through), including the Oremus 99, Disznoko 5 putts 93 (though I guess that will run out at some point) and the equivalent 99 Damn, now you've got me wanting more! J
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Sushi - does it actually exist in London?
Jon Tseng replied to a topic in United Kingdom & Ireland: Dining
Now if only they could be persuaded to relocate to Canary Wharf... -
Yes, had the same dish at Disznoko too. Thought the portion was generous but the aszu sauce too cloyingly sweet - like someone had dribbled a couple of tablespoons of honey all over the damn thing. Then again, for those prices who's going to argue - thats the great thing about Tokay; fantastic sweet wines and cut-price foie gras. How can you go wrong??? The 99 Oremus 5 putts is a beautiful wine. Just about my favourite in the region - a great balance of fruitiness, sweetness and (relative) unpricyness! The late harvest Degenfeld is the sort of wine I mentioned earlier in the thread, inexpensive, reasonably sweet and incredibly drinkable. The late harvest wines actually seem to be almost identical to sweet szamarodni in terms of the production method - the only different being they don't have to be aged in barrels for a couple of years... (so can be sold for HARD CASH that much earlier) cheers J
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Sushi - does it actually exist in London?
Jon Tseng replied to a topic in United Kingdom & Ireland: Dining
Afraid I'm in the noes on this one Dropped in last night. Sweet shrimp and the prawns in the prawn tempura notably lacking in taste. Tuna had a mushy texture. Chicken kara-age lukewarm (although the potato croquettes were hot, crunchy, pillow-soft inside). Scallop nigiri was nice, service was good and the supermarket downstairs was engaging (excellent selection of kimchee. also some interesting ready-marinated ready-to-braise pork ribs) I suspect I was spoiled, having been to sushi-hiro on sat but this wasn't even close J -
I spent a week in Tokaj this summer One trend I noticed different from last year was the profusion of "late harvest" or "cuvee" -style wines. Basically everyone's trying to cash in on the harvest early rather than leaving these things lying around in the cellers for a couple of years. General style was 50-100g residual sugar, fruity, young, drinkable, some varietal wines also and very reasonably priced vs. traditional Tokaj wines. Given the explosion of wines available I'm pretty sure these will be hitting the US/int'l market at some point in the near future... Look out for them J
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tra vigne in st helena for braised smoked short ribs...
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Theres a rubbery goat/cows milk cheese you get in yunnan. Get thick slices of it fried Rubing is the chinese word for it, I think But generally yes, what the other folks said about no dairy products - hence frequency of lactose intolerance amongst chinese too cheers J
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As an aside, I find going cheap and ordering tap water is an excellent test of service in post restaurants. The best places handle it with grace and charm e.g. Capital plenty of ice and lemon and constantly kept topped up. cheerio J
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To be fair I think Conor trying to make a genuine point which was that food so-so vs. expectations of nine-course gastronomic extravaganza. As is often the case this comes down to semantics. If the offer was for half price on the normal menu crit is unjustified as food should be as good as normal. anything otherwise reflects badly on professionalism of outfit. If the offer was for a special cut price menu a la all those bloody ft lunch for a fiver deals Conor has a geniune point about expectations perhaps being set a little to high by the diner. Personally I always thought those cheapo special menus are designed to be as horrific as possible in order to force bargain-hunting diners onto the a la carte (they ALWAYS have salmon and ALWAYS have goats cheese!) ;-) J PS have dined at 1880 on half price lastminute offer in past and been very happy with the food and service (thought professionalism was commendable as we were blatantly cheapskates and weren't ordering any wine) - had the Chef Turner Surprise Menu that time
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supposed to be very romantic J
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What happens to the original thyme? it still seemed to be open a couple of weeks back. J
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In my experience room service miserly and slow - too many layers of bureaucracy getting from RS to the restaurant to the kitchen to the customer Deliverance far better. Good pizza, but limited delivery area See if there's a pizza hut what delivers maybe... we do this a fair amount... and even better its impossible for them to find our house in time so every other pizza is free! ;-) J