Vanessa

How nice to read this. I am not confident in my opinion of wines due to lack of knowledge but recently had a couple of bottles of 2001 Bordeaux white from Berry Brothers which I thought some of the most delicious whites I had ever tasted. I thought I must be hallucinating at the time - previous dry white Bordeaux I have drunk has been awful stuff. I don't remember the exact wines, but they are available on bbr.com, relatively inexpensive and worth every penny. v

I second your recommendation of Armadillo where I had an excellent evening with friends some months ago. OK, it is not the most physically comfortable of environments, but the welcome is warm and the food and drink impressive and original. If it were nearer than a monster journey round the North London Silverlink, I'd be in there regularly. v

As mentioned, there have been plenty of references to David Thompson and his book on the UK boards but this one may be the most relevant, if you can wade through the transatlantic humour. v

Checking on the Internet (it's heavy going writing up construction board minutes of a Monday morning) I'm astonished to find there's a GBK a hop and a skip from my work on Putney Bridge Road. That sorts out my next fast food craving, bound to happen later this week. Great. v

Kiku - I just thought you were ignoring me I've had the same problem in the past with the top (small) lid of my older shaker. Learnt the lesson never to jam it on tight again. I also got it off in the end either with very hot or very cold water - can't remember which. v

OK, we'll agree to differ If you find yourself one day in Oaxaca and come across the chocolate grinding shop on a street corner somewhere down from the main square, you can get to choose what goes in your chocolate. I remember standing there transfixed a few years ago - we just came across the place by chance. The customers choose whatever proportion of chocolate, spices, nuts and whatever else to suit. It goes in a big metal bowl and then they queue for their turn to have the contents of their bowl ground. Being a bunch of gringas (well, not quite, the other two were residents of Argentina, both native and non-native - in Mexico that's almost worse!), we just went to the other end of the shop and bought ourselves mugs of hot chocolate. But I still remember hating it - I just can't stand how the thickener affects the taste and texture. v Correction: I don't think it was chocolate being ground, but rather cocoa beans, so that the end product was chocolate - a gooey mess coming out of the grinding machine - some more gooey than others depending upon the proportions of ingredients.

Dunno (But I think I'm right) v Actually, it's usually obvious from the 'mouthfeel' - at which point I refuse to drink it. Also I just checked a reference book which states that chocolate sold for drinking in Spain already has a starch in it to make it thicken. The same certainly applies to Mexico.

A small part of me is tending towards Tony's side on this. But so far just a part. As I mentioned to Tony at the Xmas do, I was relatively charmed on my one visit to Hunan. However, I could well imagine becoming rapidly uncharmed, and then positively irritated, by Mr Peng. My friend who was sitting facing towards the restaurant that evening did point out the surprising lack of variety of dishes coming out of the kitchen. Not having a menu and giving the customer the illusion of spontaneity is quite a clever way of having a very limited selection of dishes without letting on. Nevertheless, I would be happy to return. v

The reason why it's thick in Hispanic countries is because they thicken it with things like arrowroot or whatever - yuk! v

Lychee cocktail recipe - please I made a delicious lychee-papaya salsa a few weeks ago from an old Bon Appetit magazine, eaten with sauteed fillets of red snapper: 2 cups diced papaya about 8oz lychees (the recipe had an 11oz tin) 1/2 cup chopped coriander 1/2 cup choped red pepper 1/4 cup chopped red onion 1/4 cup lime juice Mix & season with salt & pepper v v

Where did you grow up?! v

For mail order esperya.com is the obvious one, although you'd need to buy more to make it worthwhile. If you look towards the bottom of the home page you'll find a button taking you to the English language site. I see Thom lurking at the bottom of the page - and, being a fellow northener, he's the one to help you with shops. v

Ian - it would be helpful to know where you arein the UK. v

Thanks for that! I looked at the web site yesterday and they have Black Sarawak corns and a picture of Long pepper, but no mention of long pepper. Will contact them to make sure that I get the correct item. A note of caution: I once went into that shop looking for some obscure kind of Indonesian leaves, the name of which I forget. They insisted that these were the same as curry leaves and persuaded me to buy them instead. On getting home and doing a bit of research I found that curry leaves were not at all the same thing. v

I think I'd prefer the beheading to the womb tumour (Please note that I never took history O-Level - hope that excuses the ignorance). So why was she called 'Bloody'? Malt Whisky Society goes on my list of things to spend money on one day. Maybe when I get round to enroling on the WSET course and I can have the excuse of ending up at their place afterwards. Otherwise, I have no reason at all to be in that part of the City. v

My nominations are 1. 13thC for Pre-Black Death serf-farmed spicebox luxuria and 2.16thC for the impact of civil war, hundreds of years of fighting the French and a decisive break from Rome. My nominations: Tonyfinch to play Henry VIII Simon M Cardinal Wolsey Adam Francis Bacon Vanessa Bloody Mary MissJ Elizabeth I Kikujiro Erasmus You mean I get my head chopped off By the way - did you bother to join the Scottish Malt Whisky Society (like Adam) - your post some time ago inspired me to look at their site - seemed a great outfit and I nearly bought a gift membership for my boss for Xmas but decided he wasn't quite worth the cost. I have a horror of belonging to clubs of any kind ( ) but that one appears worth it. v

Simon - I'm still hanging in there - just. I was away for a few days. Have some very good pictures (I think) but haven't got around to loading them onto the computer. Adam - I was interested to know what the spices were, rather than their availability. There is a company called Seasoned Pioneers (I'm sure you know about them) who sell some quite unusual stuff. Would also be interested in your narrative of using them - please keep us posted. I have Grains of Paradise that I bought somewhere in France ages ago. v

Has anyone been to Sarkhel's in Replingham Road (Southfields?) - it's easily accessible from my workplace and appears to have a good reputation so I'm thinking of trying it. v

Can't help you on finding Long Pepper Adam, other than suggesting you scour the Indian areas of large cities in the UK. But I am interested to know what other spices form part of this 'collection' of yours? v

Like Yorkshire you mean? v

Hey Stephen - just checked out your web-site. Then looked you up in the GFG. What can I say - except that you will be hearing from me whenever I need accommodation in the Huddersfield area. A not unlikely possibility. v edit: P.S. Apologies for off-topic interruption

Strangely enough I have found guanciale to be exceptional in Chinese dishes. Also, if you are able to slice it very thin, then it is good served simply on quality bread. And I would consider using it where you would normally use salt pork in American recipes. v

I think Tony Finch's new signature is on the mark - I'm not interested in pulling the damn things - I want to eat them! I suspect the absent Kikujiro will be the one with the answer as to where to find them. v

So it's a widespread rip-off then - those were exactly the ones we got and I refuse to believe they are genuine. I certainly associate them with the meaty, irregular ones you are talking about. As for which Aroma - I don't know. I wasn't aware of more than one Aroma - sorry. I couldn't say whether their hand-pulled noodles were very good (not being an expert on the subject ), but I certainly really liked them. But if anyone can tell me where to get those noodles I would be very happy. v

I get a craving for these periodically and used to have them at Aroma on Shaftesbury Avenue. The other day I walked in, tired, without looking at the menu outside, not having been there for a long while. When I sat down I realised the place had changed hands and there was nothing like it on the very boring menu. The only distinguishing characteristic was a small number of Malaysian dishes. I didn't have the energy to get up and go elsewhere so comforted myself with Hainanese Chicken which was OK - but the place annoyed me somehow and I won't be back. A few weeks ago a friend and I were ripped off in Hakkasan with a dish of 'hand-pulled noodles' that were nothing of the sort. So where can I get them now? Would it be Ecapital? v