Jon Tseng

I've done the whole live shrimp thing in sichuan. They're little critter so you eat 'em whole. The secret is to chomp down before they start wriggling in your mouth. Having said that they're heavily soused in chillis and rice wine, so I suspect they're fair insensate by the time it comes round to supper... Taste like shrimp, chilli and vodka, unsurprisingly. Good beer snacks. J PS Is it the being alive which shocks people or the still moving? Suspect the latter, hence the social acceptability of oysters

To be fair, if I was in a job and someone offered me the chance to double my earnings working the same number of hours I doubt I'd turn it down. From a business point of view the question is whether this would damage my business? Fortunately (or unfortunately from our perspective) there are people queuing up for reservations, so he can afford to run a "take it or leave it" policy. So should we be blaming Mr Ramsay for taking the chance to double his profits or blaming the other people in the queue which mean he is able to get away with it? J

Oooh... JFKs gonna get there before her Cabby's going to be sooo jealous... ;-)

if you're going a l'anglaise remember to butter the toast - makes all the difference or margarine it if you're going for that authentic butlins holiday camp experience the bread must be white. the beanz must be heinz. J ps other variations - chuck in mascarpone for creaminess; add a slick of brown sauce or ketchup. use one of those all-day breakfast / london grill jobs with the added bits and bobs (or chuck in you're own bits). add some chopped tinned tomatos (not the juice - unless its reduced down - is it dilutes the tomato sauce) but never fresh tomatos - not the same.

- Shurley a food snob is someone who thinks things are good because of what they are rather than how they taste. - If you don't eat a cheap bottled dressing/frozen sausage/battery chicken because you think it is "inferior" you are a snob. - If, however, you eat it because you think it doesn't taste good you are not a snob. So there is nothing snobbish about skipping the canned goods for the right reasons. J

I thought Chef! was splendid - but only the first series, which was all about Lenny Henry launching marvellous tirades left right and centre at a world which couldn't understand his obsession with being the best. unfortunately for the second (was there a third?) series they decided to make it more "character-driven" (ie dull), and they are best avoided. cheerio J

Took the opportunity of a business trip to paris to i) nick as many free papers as I could from the Eurostar magazine rack ii) finally do the whole paris three-star-worshipful-food-groupie-thing. Armed with a credit card, a map and a booking helpfully secured by magnolia at a week's notice, I pitched up at Lucas Carton a shade past nine just in time for a slice of history and a slight disappointment. The room's actually quite nice - mirrors, pale wood and all that. Relaxing and well lit and uncacophanous in the way that Gordon Ramsays in not. But ouch! do they charge for it. Now I know it's not the done thing to bitch about prices in three star joints (if you have to worry about the price you shouldn't be there blah blah) but even for someone well anaesthetised by the menu at RHR, the carte was a shock. Most irritatingly, the lobster a la vanille which I was chasing down was the most expensive thing bar the caviar (120 euros the crustacean). The whole bill was 217 (ish) for three courses and mineral water - which is all I shall say about the money. Tasters were a creamy seafood nage with bits of clam - exceedingly savoury - and a panfried prawn matched with a prawn and pork wonton. Which was all very nice but after all, it was a prawn wonton. Starter was panfried foie gras with liquorice figs, liquorice and figs. Fairly jolly - the powdered liquorice had an evocative sweet-bitter note. Unfortunately I seemed to have drawn the short straw and was dished up two stubby end-lobes, whose uneven shape left them overdone with none of the melting gooeyness you get inside a nice thick tranche. Also happened to noticed the French bloke who ordered the same dish got a nice thick slice which looked decided larger than mine. Poo. The lobster came perched on a bed of raw spinach and a pile of glassy oriental noodles, bathed in a frothy vanilla sauce. The lobster was slightly overdone but aside it did exactly what it said on the tin. The vanilla sauce was either a heavily reduced cream sauce or a beurre-blanc-esque emulsion. Although did have a really vanilla kick from a generous lacing of seeds, with a cream rather than a stock base it seemed to lacked body. Overall, though, I wasn't quite convinced by the whole vanilla-lobster thing (which has since entered culinary folklore). Personally I blame Walls. After years of eating radioactive-yellow vanilla ice-cream, the main associations of the vanilla were custard and sweets. Which generally don't go with Brittany lobster, so chalk another one up to the famed Brain-Palate connection. Having said that the sauce infused the glassy noodles with a really strong flavour - they could actually have done quite well without the lobster to get in the way. Which is when it occured to me I was in the slightly bizarre positiion if sitting in a three-star restaurant eating a slightly tarted up version of hong kong lobster noodle with custard. Basically, Spag Lob. Anyhow, pudding was a perfectly competant chocolate sorbet with cinnanon biscuits, orange cream and confit orange peel (which was tough). Service was solicitous and a the maitre d was very nice about asking me to put my jacket back on when I took it off. Other than that what can I say? Reinventing lobster noodle and serving won tons in a three star situation may have been daring and innovative in the 70's during Mr. Senderens' heyday, but nowadays it just comes across as an attempt to persuade overpaid businessmen to part with their cash in pursuit of past glories. That'll be me then ;-) cheerio J PS For those interested in a slightly different perspective read the following link, although I personally fail to see the "True genius" in selling slightly overlooked lobster noodle, unless it be the genius in making money... A slightly different perspective

surely more the reason to go then! cheerio j ps i hear drabble gets very good notices. you should be in safe hands.

Second Chewton Glen Old Manor House in Romsey also pretty pleasant, though not a patch on CG for grandeur (well for a start, no helipad in the car park...) J

smetana is eastern european/russian sour cream (i think). italian oo flour would be "strong flour" or pasta flour. iceberg should do on the lettuce front. am not aware of any other particularly english lettuce, but note than as a rule of thumb i tend to avoid healthy food cheerio j

anyone know when the time out food guide's out? tis normally this time of year... j

lychee wine at a chinese around 20% - tastes like a sweet sherry J ps i guess sake counts as rice wine, right?

my ha pen'oth worth (better late than never) - according to heston b the magic temperature for fish is 45c (think he does red mullet this way) - best way to get this on an oven top is to stick the pan on a heat diffuser (or baking tray) over the lowest gas. sugar thermometer good for checking. - don't do it when the oil is "simmering" as that's too hot - the outside of the fish goes opaque and it flakes. when doing confit with duck legs, yes, the oil can simmer but for fish its too high (qv£© - cos of the lower temperature you can cook it for much longer than if poaching a normal fish (eg 20 mins +) - the alternative low temperature method is to zap it in a very low (gas mark 1/2 or lower) oven, well basted with oil. this is the recipe tetsuya uses for his slow-roast sea trout thing. have done it with salmon, olive oil and dill many times and its a very good - takes about half an hour - just keep poking around until the inside is just translucent cheerio J

A little late in the day, but I'd also second the Patricia Wells/Joel Robuchon "Simply French" (also published - in english - as "cuisine actuelle" i) the recipes work! (viz larousse) ii) a good mix of the homely and the haute... yes there's recipes for foie gras with whatnot, but there's also recipes for a simply green salad and the (famous) mashed potato... iii) most importantly it is one of the best interpretations of three-star standards to the practicalities of the home kitchen I've seen. The introduction is particularly enlightening, with a batch of simple rules (eg taste, taste taste!) which are as applicable at the aga as at arpege (howzat for alliteration!) cheerio J

cheers byatch i shall definitely try sometime j

the mangal does sweetbreads?

dunno about blancs tomato water particularly, but generally tomato water is obtained by crushing and/or salting some tomatos, hanging them up in some muslin overnight and catching the drips. trick is not to squeeze the fruit flesh through - you just want the liquid which drips out naturally you get a clear liquid with a strong tomato flavour; obviously quality of the fruit affects the quality of the flavour. a very useful and versatile ingredient for a variety of light summer recipes. charlie trotter uses it in lots of his stuff. cheerio j

puff pastry never has any puff and when i try to braise big chunks of flesh it always ends up tasting like water j

classic bistro salad... frisee, vinaigrette, lardons (have to be thick cut), croutons (fried or baked in oil - none of this toasted malarky) and a poached egg... has to be a poached egg... and for the "loaded" version (read sunday morning hung over) add chorizo, chunks of fried black pudding, shreds of mozarella (raw) and a honey-mustard vinaigrette. the principle is to make such the greenery is outnumbered the other bits at least three to one. come to think of it, maple syrup might be quite nice in the vinaigrette instead of honey there! who said salads had to be healthy! cheerio j

How loud is RSJ? Will we be able to hear ourselves speak or will we be drowned out by the hoi polloi?

Have been tasked by the boss for finding a place near Waterloo for a (fairly highly powered) client lunch. Thinking RSJ or Baltic, but don't know about ambience (don't want something too buzzy - quiet and plush will do down well) anyone have any comments to offer or alternate options around the area? (alas Chez Bruce probably just that bit too far). cheerio J

marigold vegetable bouillon (powder) which i discovered, may i add, years before delia smith found out and touted it to the hoi polloi an excellent substitute if a light/vegetable stock is called for, although a little on the salty side cheerio j

on the riverside pub spot, there is also the perch in botley (west across port meadow, though driveable too) so what happened to the gousse d'ail? sound like another place joining the wannabe-one-stars-opening-at-the-wrong-time club (charter members, high holborn, conrad gallagher et al) j

at crimbo we always used vegetable suet (is this like crisco?) in the mincemeat for mince pies instead of real suet... works a treat... cheerio j

"recall", cabrales you're getting slack ;-)