Jon Tseng

Teehee. What larks! You can have endless arguments about whether its worth it/is it any good/couldn't I get 5400 chinese stuffed buns for that price* . Three thoughts: - Let face it, by simply making a booking you're signing away the average GDP of a small, semi-industrialised sub-saharan shanty town. If you're looking for value-for-money, go for lunch. ** At Foliage. Or, even better, MaccyD's when they have their hamburger-for-49p promotion on ;-) *** - Don't go because someone else says its good/not as good it use to be/losing its touch but still does nice puddings. Go because you want to go. - Ultimately its quite simple. If you reckon you'll have fun, go. If you think you won't, don't. toodle-pip J * In Beijing a quid will get you roughly 36 baozi. If you figure three baozi for lunch/supper and two for breakfast this would last nearly two years, provided the scurvy doesn't get you first. ** the alternative is to marry a rich heiress and damn the cost, though I gather Simon hasn't had much success on this route... *** as with the Pizza Hut buffet, the three golden rules still apply: 1) arrive early so the food is fresh 2) pace yourself 3) avoid the sides, which just distract from the main event

One thing I have noticed about Chinese food vs Western is a greater appreciation of texture, particularly gelatinous textures. eg: - Prized products sharks fin, birds nest or abalone, which seems to be prized for texture as much as flavour - Sea slug, fish maw, bamboo pith! - Chicken feet! I wonder what your thoughts are on this one - is there more emphasis on texture that in the West (bearing in mind it /was/ the French who brought us pied de cochon)? How important is texture vis-a-vis taste? Why do the chinese seem to dig gelatinous so much? cheerio J

Yes they did know the details when he announced them - and I grilled him a bit more on the woodcock. Didn't mention prices though. As I said though, they were pushed the hare and woodcock mains quite aggressively - dunno if it because they wanted to get rid of them or because they weren't selling. Interesting, not a sight of a truffle the entire meal. Maybe we're a bit too early in the season? J

An enjoyable dinner Chez Koffmann last night in the company of Magnolia (just back from Paris) and others. A pleasant indulgence and certainly not as bad as had been led to believe; maybe Matthew's protestations have had an effect! Champagne cocktails in the bar, plus a vigorous debate over the menu. Too many good things to try, not helped by the temptation of specials of pot-au-feu of foie gras, lievre a la royale and woodcock (in the usual way - innards on brioche, split head on the side) announced once we got to the table. Would add that the waiter was pushing the specials quite hard - given all bourdain has writ about specials in Kitchen Confidential, not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. LTC menu After much debate we went for a variety of dishes; langoustines with veg, foie gras & hollandaise, cold foie gras in a millefeuille with smoked eel,lobster and foie gras pot au feu chosen among the starters. Pied de cochon, lievre a la royale, venison with chocolate sauce and an entrecote steak featured among the mains. Amuses was some fish mousse with concasse of fish and tomato in filo cases - somewhat desultory not helped by suspiciously albino filo pastry (undercooked?). Bread from the trolley was nice - fresh, but not warm, although they were a little tardy with the reloads. Had sesame and bacon & onion during the meal. Start of foie gras pot-au-feu had a decent-sized chunk of poached foie gras swimming in a dusky consomme alongside random veg (carrots, courgettes &tc). Very nice - first time I'd seen poached foie gras in a restaurant (although there is a recipe for it in the stefano cavellini book). The foie gras seemed smooth and less rich than when I've had it fried -firmer and less oily. Wuld add however the liver was ugly as f*ck - when poached it turns a nasty greyish colour. The consomme was a meaty broth done proper - not much more you can add except point out that it blended well with the fattiness of the fg. Foie gras - consumme, veg; an enjoyable dish which made a virtue of simplicity. Main course of pig foot (naturally) was also nice. I've had this in other incarnations at novelli and the oak room (during the brief Interlude de Reid). The original one seemed smaller than at novelli but the trotter skin was also more melting-tender; almost disintegrating. The filling, as advertising was a loosely-bound mix of sweetbreads, morals and bits of onion. Pretty rich, but I liked it; it had a certain depth of flavour. On the side a quenelle of mash garnished with a fried onion ring, and a pool of sauce. As Matthew pointed out, the spuds weren't as smooth/loaded with butter as is the fashion nowadays (viz gordon ramsay); hopefully this was deliberate. Overall a good dish - not necessarily the "WOW" dish it may have been in more innocent times, but simple and satisfying. Pre-desert was a shotglass of earl grey sorbet with mint cream. Shades of colgate, or after-eight, alas. Pudding was pistachio souffle; probably my favourite dish of the evening (and I'm not normally a pudding man) - notable for the thin, evenly browned crust on the outside (I think the inside of the dish was robed with chocolate/caramel) and sweetness, rather than the egginess which you sometimes get with souffles (although it was a bit eggy in the very middle). A ball of pistachio ice-cream was lobbed into the middle at the table, which didn't add than much apart from the obvious temperature shift. The souffle would still have been scrummy seul. Petit fours OK - nor particularly memorable apart from some brandy snaps, although mini tiramasus received praise from others. We managed to hijack the restaurants plate of chocolate truffles however, and gorged ourselves. Other food? Generally appreciative comments. Portion control on the other starters was a little severe - only three langoustines and a pretty stubby piece of cold foie gras (remember also padded out with smoked eel). Lobster with risotto received good notices, as did venison and chocolate (not too chocolatey). A notable vacherin and oozing reblochon on the cheeseboard. Service was probably a little slow - as mentioned they were a little tardy with the bread and in comparison to, say, GR the room seemed a little understaffed (does seem about twice as many covers as RHR). Thankfully we had Magnolia's beau to charm (barrack?) the sommelier into submission. Decor also a little on the chintzy side and a /very/ random selection of table ornaments - from papier-mache submarines to kettles which added little apart from a generaly puzzlement The damage was a hundred and fifty each, including three bottles of wine between the six of us (I'll let magnolia deal with those), aperitifs and some digestifs (port, banyuls, tokay). Overall a pleasant evening in good company. Is it worth the trip? personally I think it's still worth a punt before they shut down (the places was probably 3/4 full during the evening. As I said at the start maybe Matts missive has had the desired effect! cheerio J

Isn't there a Zaika/Zaika bazaar on the road up towards high st ken? J

>Don't the Shanghaiese do dimsam? They do have snacks/"little eats" both in shanghai and sichuan, but nowhere seems to be as religious about the whole "dim sum" thing as in hong kong >If I return, by the way, I will bring along a copy of James D. McCawley's >wonderful Eater's Guide to Chinese Characters, still in print and available from amazon.com. That sounds like a fascinating book - always have trouble ordering in china due to inability to read characters and end up with sweet and sour pork and toffee apple ;-) One thing I might add, however, is the chinese tendancy to use poetic names for dishes means that even a translation doesn't always help - dishes wiht names like "phonix in white bikini jumping over stream" or "pigs taking flight" or whatever can confound even the most avid of linguist (sort of like "sweetbread" and "variety meats" here, I guess...) cheerio J

JD, were there more shanghainese specialities on the main (english) menu than before? I remember hearing they were increasing the number of these they translated a while back, but haven't checked back for a while re the quiet lunchtime, still feel the lack of dim sum, if true to the shanghainese roots, is commercial suicide. given what the kitchen is capable, seems like they're leaving money on the table to me cheerio J

I've had excellent brunch/tapas at providores the french toast with bacon and banana is highly recommended. Also the only place I have every been able to track down a deep fried egg. Brunch on the w/e goes from midday to about threeish, when they switch to a tapas menu after an hour's break cheerio J

Cabrales - you have not yet made it to Maxims? I am shocked! For the record have made it to the Beijing branch - starters better than mains; home-made puff pastry (a rarity in china at the time) - fish nice even though it was frozen back on topic, I would have to add that Amsterdam Schipol is a fetid pit of hell which has been deliberately designed so that any conceivable transity will require a five mile hike J

Teehee very true!

also the out of town country house joints will probably have something on - although prices may be concurrently bloody (know the manoir is) - check the michelin guide or GFG - they often list opening/closing dates cheerio J

right, anyone know the lead times on booking?

clotted cream chocolate truffles?

cassoulet!

Come late to the conversation as ever At Sainsburys in the UK they have an own-label Bavarian butter. It is awesome - the only butter I have had which actually tastes of cream, and miles better than the AOC d'Isigny butter I used to use. Anyonw in the UK should look out for it - comes in gold wrappers as part of the Only the Best range. best way of contracting a coronary yet found cheerio J

Piece in today's Indy Click here dunno much about celebrity-baker-politics, but all this does make me feel like popping out to that posh deli on the Farringdon road (name escapes me) to try that sourdough one more time... J

BBC News

Slightly late to the day... Have bought monkfish liver from Borough market in London before (actually I picked up about a kilo cos it was cheap... slightly od'ed). The main ways of cooking it sem to be steaming it like a foie gras torchon (this is what the japs do) or pan-frying it slices, again much like FG. Did it both ways, though I'm sure there are other preparations which can be tried (errr, monkfish liver and bacon anyone???) The texture is creamy, gelatinous - actually yes remarkably similar to foie gras. However the taste is not nearly as rich; best described as vaguely fishy. There was also a slight bitterness; I dunno if this was related to the freshness of the liver or something missed out in preparation (soaking/marinading perhaps?) cheerio J

Is there a food mkt in spitalfields too? didn't know that - just looked like an enormous rag and bone market when I went thru on a sun once - what food stalls are there? re food not a great fan of the arkansas cafe, although i believe others have different opinions. pizza pomodoro does reliable, er, pizza j

For the non-Bruced-out La Trompette, or Putney Bridge appear to be the South-West London places du jour. Having said that, if you are prepared to venture across to yuppieville I can thoroughly recommend Thyme in Clapham - probably as "destination" as you're likely to find in the wasteland that is South London J

I haven't tried those two, but during my chocolate-groupie stage I had a fairly decent collection of artisanal 70%+ bars and the Lindt stacked up pretty well. Certainly better than such illustrious names as Hediard - and I preferred it to the Valhrona too. For a product which is far more mass-produced than the others I think the quality is excellent. I suspect if it did so well again artisanal bars it would give the Nestle and Bakers a good run for their money. J PS FYI the ones which I liked better than the Lindt were Bonnat, Bernachon and a fantastic bar I found in Geneva called Rohr. PPS Although sometimes for cooking - especially recipes such as truffles where I don't add sugar - I blend the Lindt half/half with a "normal" dark chocolate to temper the bitterness

There's also (what I presume to be) a pretty authentic recipe in Rose Levy Berenbaum's book about the Bernachons Off the top of my head it's half and half milk and heavy cream. Can't remember the chocolate quantities but I suspect you can do chocolate and sugar to taste the chocolate would be you're standard posh 70% jobbie (Lindt Excellence is a good compromise between cost and quality) J

Well Stephan Hawking started at Univ, before being tempted away by the promise of filthy lucre and a house in a swamp... Buy I agree with Kikujiro. This is soooo immature (which partly explains why it is so amusing) J

>Much as it pains me to say it I would reckon Midsummer House True, but le manoir is but a short bus ride from Carfax >That's because we spend more time winning Nobel prizes than eating. Exactly my point... all work... no sense of refinement or enjoyment... no wonder they stuck it in a swamp... >Smug Public School Bastard And surely that should read "Smug Colourblind Public School Bastard", especially for those using the default skin... Effortless superiority (an' all that) ;-) tootle-pip Jon

I believe "Tab" is the appropriate term of abuse. Bear in mind that the most notable dining place at the Poly of East Anglia is... Sticky Fingers (although even that may have closed by now) ;-) J