britcook

The best is. The rest is..... stew.

To enjoy this you have to like root beer. To enjoy root beer you have to like the taste of wintergreen. To enjoy wintergreen you have to have been brought up on it. To be brought up on it you're probably American. To the rest of the world it smells like disinfectant and therefore not something you would readily drink. Nothing wrong with that though, most Americans have the same view of Marmite & Vegemite.

Haute cuisine? My $0.02. Regardless of national origin it has the following characteristics: 1) Multiple layers of flavour within each component which work together to make a dish which is greater than the sum of its parts. 2) A combination of flavours, textures and colours which have not only immediate impact but length - they all linger 3) Cuisine which, although not isolated from first class ingredients, will allow technique to triumph over minor shortcomings in its constituent parts. 4) Said techniques will extract the essence of the components to allow them to commingle as set out in point 1. Is that un peu pretentious? Well we are talking haute cuisine

Genever is made from malted grain mash, like whisky, rather than straight grain so it gives a fuller body and more pungent taste. Similar to German Schnapps and Scandinavian Aquavit, best served chilled by itself (hence mine in the freezer), not really suitable for cocktails. All gins (and genevers) have juniper as their principal flavouring, so you're never going to escape that but American gins, like Seagrams, tend to be softer than British gins so may have less of that biting quality.

I have to confess I keep my genever in the freezer, certainly well chilled! And for those of you that don't speak any Flemish "oude" is old or aged, which is also how I like my Gouda.

A couple of years back I was lucky enough to be given a hunk of Parma ham and try as I might, see-through slices were impossible. If Adam can do it to this precision then he's a better man than most of us. I tried a whole battery of knives (including electric), a Boerner V-slicer and a mandoline and nothing came close. The best results came if I chilled the meat almost to freezing, but even then they weren't deli thin. Like you I contemplated the spinning blade but decided the space and cash requirements for such occasional use weren't worth it. If there is a solution out there I'd be up for it too.

I've read that wines were originally fortified with brandy to survive long ocean voyages through wide ranging climates without deteriorating. Wouldn't this mean wines like port, sherry and madeira last longer when opened than non-fortified wines? I would think that sugar would also tend to act as a preservative. Fortified wines will last considerably longer than non-fortified, but will eventually go off. The period will vary according to the style and alcohol content, for instance a delicate fino sherry will lose its freshness within a few weeks once opened but will remain "drinkable" for months. A sweeter Madeira will probably last years and remain tolerable, but ultimately it will turn.

Mmmm. Might I suggest a lesson in internet search techniques? Bols do, of course, make gin - Silver top, and they also make Genever, the Dutch forerunner of what we now know as Gin. Hint. Go to Google and search for Bols gin. You may be surprised at the number of results.

There you have the advantage of me sir, living in Britain I do not appear to be able to obtain this spirit, so it is probably export only. But at least it has the decency to be 45% abv.

I certainly hope I didn't imply this, as they say s**t happens and in a restaurant it can happen to anybody. I know that several people swear by NYC but I have yet to have what I would call a great meal there (well maybe the odd breakfast exception), and I'm still not sure whether it's through poor choice or I just "don't get" New York dining, but it doesn't make me an idiot.

Try harder, you giving the impression of being a parochial, ignorant snob. After reading peoples comments on their experiences in Italy it is the hight of arrogance to assume that they 'don't get it' or they "just don't like Italian food". Well maybe I wouldn't have put it quite in Peter's words but I tend to think he's not far from the truth here. Italian food may not be to everybody's taste, and there's no shame in that, but from the reported reactions I suspect that maybe Italian cuisine is not high on somebody's list of favourites. I've eaten several times in Rome from the trattoria with no English to the "tourist trap" - on a bus tour fercryinoutloud - and have never been disappointed. But there again there is more heat than light being generated here, as in the following: So what is there? Fake Italian food? Artificial Italian food? Do they all cook entirely different things? Sheesh!

In the end it all boils down to the patience of the child and the attitude of the parent(s). If your child of whatever age has been shown to behave well for the length of the meal in these circumstances, and you are prepared to remove said child if misbehaviour starts then go for it, ring/fax/e-mail the restaurant and ask for their policy. I have to admit that whenever I see a small child in a top restaurant (or in business class on an aircraft) I always do a mental, "Oh no!" because I have seen some dreadful behaviour on the part of child and parent, but in truth these instances have been isolated and when the child behaves well (perfectly would be too much to expect) I am always pleased that another one of the next generation is learning of the finer things in life. And who says they can't appreciate these things? Many moons ago we took our son, aged4, to the local "silver service" restaurant which he thoroughly enjoyed, so much so that when the owner came round to enquire how things had been my son piped up, "I like this cafe, it's better than McDonalds!". Praise indeed from a four year old, the owner was delighted and pointed out that he liked to see kids because that was his next generation of diners. Of course said son went on to other many gastronomic experiences and in his first year at University took his girlfriend for a romantic meal at the Merchant House and apparently had a great time talking to Shaun Hill, when most of his fellow undergrads would have gone to the local steak house. On the practical front do take (quiet) amusements and diversions to keep the child occupied, and ensure they always have something to eat - the bread usually suffices so make sure there is always some available. It's the waiting that usually causes impatience.

Errrr, have I missed something? The original post started to talk about classification and then the thread seemed to develop into lists of favorite wines. I mean, that's fine and a great marketing tool (voted the best wine of 2***! or whatever) but it isn't classification. Classification speaks to terroir, climate, growing methods, density of planting, vinification, hygiene, maturation, grape clones and blends, quality control, ageing etc. etc. The purpose is, I believe, to set objective standards which give the buyer some assurance that the wine from that classification will have passed certain quality gates. After that then it's a matter of personal taste, so if you buy an AC St. Emilion say, then you know roughly what it is going to taste like, what standards it has met and the likely price range. After that your palate and wallet will have to take over as some are clearly "better" than others and the desirability factor comes in.

In Gin & Tonic the tonic is nearly as important as the gin (as is the ice and slice that make the perfect drink) and I've found nothing to beat Schweppes. London or Plymouth gin is fine so long as the alcoholic strength is adequate. The ideal seems to be about 43% abv (Portsmouth is around this, as is Tanqueray I think), 40% makes a reasonable job, 47% is a bit much but acceptable occasionally but 37.5% is not fit to clean the toilet with. The drink's success depends of the combination of aromatics, the bitterness of the tonic (from the quinine), the chill of the ice, the zest of the citrus and the "hit" of the alcohol. Below 40% the balance goes astray and adding more gin to make up for under strength liquor doesn't make it any better.

Friends whose expertise in wine is greater than mine claim that fine wine does not respond well to travel and needs a day or two to settle down after agitation to be at its best. I have noticed that a car journey does tend to affect wine slightly, difficult to describe but it tastes "undbalanced". Now on a large cruise ship the motion is usually much more gentle so if the vibrations are well damped then the effect on the wine should be minimal. If it were a cross-channel ferry that might be different.

A little over-defensive perhaps, but the original post did tend towards the condescending, especially as it wasn't true.

First point is correct, London broil is unknown in London, apart from anything else the term "broil" is not used in the UK. Your second point is laughable "British beef was not so tender as ours". I think you'll find that Angus is a shortening of the name "Aberdeen Angus", British beef at it's best. And at its best British beef is the equal of anything in the world (with the possible exception of Japanese kobe beef and one or two interesting things out of Argentina). And it certainly isn't pumped full of hormones and chemicals like some beef we could name.

Never mind with picky eaters, I AM a picky eater, don't care much for seafood particularly shellfish, think pasta is dull and only fit as a transport medium for occasionally interesting sauces, don't like "soured" cheeses like ricotta and mascarpone, the list goes on. But what I do like I adore, so it may be restricted but I have a passion for it. And if I'm presented with a tasting/gourmand/set menu I'll usually try everything except raw-type shellfish like winkles, cockles or oysters. But the cold steak thing is weird. I'd eat it but I still think it's odd.

To verify my previous view I made calves liver and onions tonight and the liver took just over 2 minutes in total. Delicious.

yes.... sushi for me I thought raw fish was sashimi, sushi does not have to contain fish at all.

If you're asking about a wine that is new to me, whether it be a new producer from a known area, a new area or a new grape/blend then price is a key factor. Because the mark-up on restaurant wines varies from almost reasonable to totally outrageous I tend not to experiment there, especially if it tends to the outrageous end. In the lower mark-up arena then I might be tempted if it looks comparable to something I know at around my usual price point, but temptation drops as the price rises. Maybe it ought to be a different discussion but I find that for wine to accompany food there is a limit to how much the pairing will improve with "better" wine, the interaction of the food may well mask the finer points of a "quality" wine. Who wants to spend two or three times (or more) retail on a wine you might not fully appreciate. There are usually plenty of decent wines admirably suited to food at the lower to middle end of the list, so why waste money?

EV Olive Oil

Onions are fine, but I'm not sure about cooking times for the liver. It may be different in the US but calves liver here usually comes sliced fairly thin, kinda escalope thickness, about a quarter inch. On medium high that gives 1-2 minutes per side, usually less than 3 minutes in total, to give a nice pink inside. Usually let it rest for a minute or two in a warm (but not hot) place while I finish the sauce/sides/whatever.

A bunch of us "internet gourmets" are going to try Mr Smith's cuisine next month at a Seattle meet, early conversations sound promising, we will see how well he delivers. Reports of interesting events should follow.

Probably not the best idea, at a tasting a few months ago we tried a chardonnay of similar vintage which we decanted in advance of the tasting. When opened it was brilliant, after two hours it was only fit for throwing away.