jayrayner

THe back room at Wheelers is a serious must do. 12 seats and big, bold fish cookery from a whitstable boy who went to london, did the marco thing (i think) and then came home because he couldn't be doing with it. It's byo. the other wonder is just outside whitstable at Seasalter. The sportsman pub is a real joy. THis one also has a bib gourmand and is far more deserving of it than the oyster stores which, increasingly, I think of as a busted flush.

rest assured, my observer email box is stuffed full of messages form irate brighton residents telling me I have no taste or judgement. So that's one town the Observer doesn't have to trouble itself distributing to any more. ALl i can say is that I wrote as I - and Henry Harris - found on the day. j

No Zaika isn't like Cinnamon Club. I too didn't think much of CC. But I did like Zaika.

Just build an alter to me in your kitchen and everything will be fine. Candles and incense optional.

the chef from tamarind is atul kochar and his new place will be called benares.

Well... clears throat... this was laid on for us. but they do tasting menus. Five and eight courses as I recall.

The sweet lobster on a lobster jus with a puff of bitter, earthy cocoa powder; the spice encrusted scallops; the chunk of smoked tandoori salmon; the duck samosa; the butter chicken; the naan with wild mushrooms and truffle oil or spices and saffron; the saffron lassi shooter; the pistachio and fresh coriander ice cream; the sweet and salty Indian creme caramel; the white chocolate samosa... What can I tell you? Courtesy of chef Vineet Bhatia we had a tasting menu and - not being on duty - I didn't make a full list. But it was some of the most distinctive food I have eaten in a very long time. THe day after I could still recall these curious and exqusit flavours. Wow! I hope those of you who try it have as good an experience as I did. .

No contest. Zaika. The chef who won tamarind its star has gone and though he is about to open a new place, he will take some time to bed in there. Ate at Zaika on monday night and it was extra-ordinarily good. Light, balanced and within a remarkable udnerstanding of the way spices work. Possibly the bestr meal I've eaten this yera (though not for reveiw)

For the record not in Britain. Save for Fay Maschler's column in the London Evening Standard the British nationals don't sell ad space to restaurants. We're too expensive. Re Aitkens/Turner - as turner opens Monday I'm pretty sure he gets in ahead of aitkens. But what do I know. i'm just a fat bloke who eats out a lot, and writes a bit.

Don't take me as representative of the herd but for what it's worth. THere was nothing special about Fino PR wise. A big company, yes, but a lot of them use big companies. I did get a press release but nobody did a number on me because they know there's no point doing so. Or you can try, but I'll only be polite if I'm not too busy. In a restaurant market dominated by surprisingly similar openings: modern French, say, or gastro pub etc Fino was a different enough proposition to get my attention. Smart tapas? Hadn't seen that before in London. Plus, for various reasons Iberia has been reasonably hip for the past couple of years. So Fino looks like good copy. And off we all go... Two things, though. As far as I'm aware none of us just do new openings. The number of multiple reviews like Fino is actually pretty small. It was the only one of my last ten to get that sort of treatement. the rest were one-offs of my choosing for a whole bunch of reasons. (For the record of the previous ten there were two - Chez Max and Sketch - which got big coverage). THen again, as Tony says why should we be any different to film reviewers? A quick tip: the next one to recieve a lot of attetnion is likely to be Brian Turner's new place in Mayfair.

I'm glad there's approval. I knew we had given the award to the right place, but I can not deny taking a deep breath on Monday night when it was announced, what with the combined might of London's hip, fashionable restaurant-atti at our backs, most of whom - I suspected - weren't even aware of the place. In the end that category came down to a choice between Oslo Court and one other. The clincher was when one of the my colleagues said of the competititon: 'Can you imagine them dealing with a room stuffed full of 100 kevtching elderly jews?' The day was won for Oslo Court and rightly so.

I'd still go Le Gavroche. Dinner there a few weeks back for my wife's 40th was just sublime.

One great reccomendation - with which rjs1 will doutbless concurr - is Rodos round the back of centre point. V good. Robert - you do the explaining.

Thanks jhlurie for articulating a concern I was having. I thought it would sound peevish to say 'enough with the central market already' but certainly, in this story all four helicopters are going to be used. However it's already looking good. i've got one heading off to the Flordia Panhandle to pick up stocks from Sandor's and the scallops from Destin's. Clearly there's another going to the French Quarter Wine Merchant in New Orleans (thankyou panslammer) and a third heading for the central market in Houston (what's become of its website? can't get it to load.) As for the fourth - I still hunger for a beef supplier, outside of Houston - nearer Dallas say who can bring bakc the meat. Any offers?

yeah. The kolossi grill. A place where many a guardian staff putsch (never followed through on) has been plotted. It's always struck me as servicable rather than anything else.

Does that mean you'll be buying the book? Oh - and the title is Eating Crow. (At leats it will be on the edition to be published by SImon and Schuster in the US)

no no the food mustn't be pre-prepared. I'm just after the ebst ingredients. which brings us swinging back to the beef question. there must be a texan out there somewhere with a view on the very best supplier in the east of the state.

Your wish etc... http://www.observer.co.uk/magazine/story/0...,873042,00.html

Just checked - the apache can manage about 1100 miles with external tanks. Ergo - mine have external tanks. So - thinking Houston: anybody willing to name serious top end restaurants in the city from which we can get a good chunk of fresh foie gras that they, themselves had flown in the day before?

Briallnt. I can do without the coral. So - Destins for the scallops. Martins in New Orleans might have the bottles. But where, to quote Wendy's, is the beef?

THis is all facsinating not to say educative and important for the verisimilitude (should I really make it a V22 osprey rather than an apache?) But, more imprtantly, who'll sell me my bloody scallops?

Very good Steven. A little too good, infact. Whaddya after? A cut of the royalties. Wil indeed look at pushing the envelope. A little. Anyway - more please.

Hello all. In the interests of literature - or, at least, my next novel which is probably not the same thing - I need to pick the brains of you thoroughly informed people. Your reward will be meagre: my undying gratitude, and a mention for egullet in the acknowledgments when the meister work is published in the spring of 2004. Here's the thing: at one point in this book my character, sitting in a great plantation house up at St Francisville, Louisiana ( about 25 miles north west of baton rouge) is required at short notice to cook a spectacular - if quite classical - meal requiring the very best ingredients possible. Naturally he also needs a few legendary wines to accompany the dishes. And he must do this in a matter of hours. His reputation depends upon it. Happily, we have the use of - four apache helicopters working out of Fort Polk another 125 miles further west of St Francisville. The choppers are taking off from Fort Polk but must collect the ingredients and deliver them to St Francsiville in no more than three hours. The wine can take a little longer. I suspect that gives us a range of about 300 miles from Fort Polk - so we can definately go to eastern Texas. Below is a list of the things we need. Can anybody suggest really good suppliers; indeed the very best suppliers one could find in these circumstances. Sure, I could make it up - but given how much of the above is made up already it would be fun to namecheck real places. SO: A dozen fresh, coral on King Scallops. Fresh foie gras Tournedos of beef. (We want properly hung and butchered beef here) A bucket of crawfish A pucker restaurant within range that can lay on, say, six pints of beef stock and six pints of fish stock. A really good general gourmet store for basics: the best free rnage eggs, almonds, sugar, marzipan, vanilla etc. Wines A bottle of Petrus 1947 (or 1945 - one doesn't want to be unreasonable here) Ditto Montrachet, domaine de la Romanee Conti 1990 Chateau d'Yquem 1900 (a half will do) Any thoughts...?

I know you weren't talking about me, but can I use that for my signature line anyway? Sorry, Fat Guy. It was my girth and I am thoroughly territorial about it. Re the player, drank my first proper Martinis last night there, courtesy of Mr M. My spine tingles still...

The problem is that the ones who have no objection stay silent. But there is a significant element of the readership who object strenously everytime the bill reaches a certain point (god knows what they'll make of next week's review of Sketch). Like the Guardian, the Observer has a left-liberal tradition whcih has always had to it a puritanical edge. recently i described a terrific three course meal in edinburgh, incl wine, that cost £55 for two, as very good value. The next day a letter arrived describing that as obsene because a family of four could live on it for a week. The paper ran it on the letters page. THat is an extreme example but I do get endless flack for it - the sort of flack, to answer an earlier point, that I suspect my colleagues on the Times/Sunday times/ telegraph do not receive. A signifiancant element of these observer readers can not even compute the idea that expensive may also be good value. And therefore it is worth me making reference to the price point in my pieces if only to spike their guns. Re Plotnicki's post: you congratulate me on my honesty. Is there something shameful about having a British readership which doesn't know much about the New York scene, which requires honesty? I was just being accurate.