Jon Tseng

Yes, was flicking thru it got to the end and remember thinking "is that it???" a bit of a random selection J

I do find it irritating though that when you google a restaurant name in the UK a) the first thing you get is toptable/londoneating/square meal and b) you NEVER seem to find the restaurants own site e.g. Tom Aikens The Square Hakkasan Chez Bruce None of these gets the offical website into the first ten responses. Plus, as noted above, the bookings sites NEVER give the restaurant link. Don't understand that - what are they afraid of? Its not as if I can get their content (reviews, comment, third party opinion) off of the bookings site. And its not as if the booking site carries all of the information (up to date menus, wine lists, background guff) which is available on the restaurant site. All it does is frustrate the user and make the bookings site look mean-spirited. I have the same problem when I try to get to the websites of hotels through google. Note sure if I blame the bookings sites for being too good at getting ranked or the google folk for not having a search engine which does the job properly... J

I think a blind taste test would be an excellent idea and make a really good article Actually I think something similar was done a while back... may be in caterer or one of the early copies of Restaurant magazine. I seem to remember Alain Roux Jr was involved. A related idea I've been thinking about for a while is to do a dish with three or four different chicken preparations using different types of chicken from supermkt battery to posh anglais, with each preparation matching the bird (e.g. something quite assertive with the bland, flabby battery... the label anglais done simpler so the flavour comes thru etc. cheerio J

have the paperback one (its the non-bistro one). Think it was E80-ish Well worth getting Staggering not only the quality of the recipes and detail, but also the sheer volume of recipes (calculated there were about 10x the no. of fully composed dishes compared to ur avg celeb-chef-coffee-table-book), and also the brilliant photography which shows exactly how each dish is plated - remarkably useful compared to the usual soft-focus gastro-porn shots you get. cheerio J

grill (broil?) til crispy eat J ps never found the blanching thing necesary for lamb ones. or maybe i'm just too lazy. my suspicion is this is more relevant to veal sweetbreads (supposed to make them less rubbery/bloody or something)

burgers... i guess add egg as a binder... if they're then getting too sloppy try throwing in some breadcrumbs to soak it up (that last bit may be a bit heretical the other side of the pond... but thats almost certainly what they packet ones have) the gourmet solution would be to buy some caul fat (lacy fat lining pigs stomach and use that to wrap the burgers... J

Traditional way to add gelatin to make the stock Short-cut (and probably tastier) option is to chuck in some lard too which should melt and add flavour to the broth J

Patara Thai? went to the Singapore branch over new year and it was pretty nice. funnily enough the london incarnation always seems to slip beneath the radar screen... other than that do go to sushi-hiro. it'll put you off cheapo central london kaitan for life J

sounds good J

... and arguably before his arrival too!

Popped into Sushi-Hiro for lunch yesterday (interestingly, its three doors down from Ealing Strings where I used to get, er, violin strings) Minimal (zero) external decor - from the outside it could be an estate agents. Or shut down. Thankfully it wasn't. Sushi really good, staggeringly good in fact. Had the 12 pc deluxe set (good stuff - no cheapy-cheapy egg or cucumber in there. Included toro tuna and salmon roe too. Also had singles of uni, crab, geoduck, abalone, toro, eel, scallop, egg and inari, chilli cod roe. Highlights were eel (really nice, sweet-savoury, melting), scallop (thick slices, lovely texture), abalone (at three quid a pop surely the cheapest abalone in the uk!), uni (tastes of the sea! had two of them) and salmon roe (really overflowing with eggs). Only downer the geoduck (tough and tasteless, but probably due to the product rather than the chef). Only other comment is perhaps a touch too much wasabi for my taste. Bill thirty five quid so twice as much as dim sum or the same as hakkasan Eating factory/packaged sushi you forget how good the realy thing is til you try it - just warm rice, hand-moulded (rice doesn't fall apart when you pick them up!) - in fact a reminder sushi is as much (more?) about the rice done proper as the fish done fresh. J

Puff pastry or shortcrust? I believe shortcrust is more authentic, although puff more de rigeur J

apparently its been seen at Applebys just off the side of Borough Mkt, though I've always thought the quality of their produce can be a bit variable cheers J

Sheekeys?

I prefer the cantonese variety - with every-but-the-kitchen-sink, including chestnuts best homemade though - the supermarket ones always tend to skimp a bit I notice dim sum places often have little pillow shaped ones on the menu - given how rib sticking these are, they often make an excellent budget lunch on their own! cheerio J

yangrouchuanryangrouchuanryangrouchuanr... get withdrawal symptoms even thinking about it! J

Yes Although if I was being picky I could say when it first started off it was trying to be bourgeois french ;-) J

Was that the Goubouli Baozi joint in Tianjin? Does TJ food count as Shandong? J

That's very interesting Mum sometimes used to make fish jiaozi (she is originally from Beijing) - I think she may have mentioned it was a Shandong recipe. Definitely not a HK thing as jiaozi are primarily northern. From what I can remember the filling is white and quite soft. These are very unusual - I have never seen them mentioned in restaurants or cookbooks. Jiaozi places in Beijing don't normally have them either. J

kiralyudvars a hungarian tokay. did some one have a glass with the foie gras? nice report J

Great minds think alike?

Discounty type place try majestic wine warehouses perhaps? J

Think I saw them at BM last sat J

Also think about reading Swallowing Clouds by A Zee. Not as useful in a practical senses but a useful culinary/cultural exploration of China via the characters cheerio J

Which is the place at Wing Yip? I can't find an address for it... I think I've seen the supermarket, but I thought I saw it off the South Circular... And where is the Golden Palace? Oh actually may be getting confused. Think its the Loon Fung supermarket on the North Circular. Not Wing Yip. There are three along the N Circular, heading north from Hanger Lane. I think Loon Fung is the middle one. There is one very near Hanger Lane which it isn't, and another older one further away (Wing Yip) which it isn't either Its upstairs; there's an entrance on the outside or you can get in via the spiral stairs in the supermarket lobby. Very authentic dim sum (ie full of pork fatty bits) confused? moi? J ps Golden Palace is in Harrow, about ten minutes walk from Harrow on the Hill station. Featured in all the usual food guides. If you're driving park in the Tescos up the road