A Balic

Helena, I forgot to tell you how profoundly impressed I was with your information about "opohmelit'sya". It speaks volumes about the Russian race that they have developed this verb. I have email all my friends with this vital information! It has been busy week for me and I have been opohmelit'syaing for the last five days, no plans of giving up in the near future.

I rarely eat candy bars or icecream so the only thing I can contribute is that yes, they do deep fry Mars Bars here in Scotland. I don't know who eats them, as every body I know is revolted by the idea, as they use the same oil that has been used to fry fish. Deep fried, fish flavoured chocolate bars are only one of many Scottish crimes against food, for example they also deep fry pizza (with or without battering first).

Oops. I will stick to animals in the future. Seriously, what are peoples views on ceramic "steel" type honing devices. I rushed in to buy a global version about five years ago and was advised by the sales person not to buy them because they were ineffective and libel to shatter if knocked about. I have stuck to my old metal type and that works fine for every day use. Although, once a year I take my knives to be sharped by a pro. I see all this talk about angles and such and it reminds me that I feel ashamed of my sharpening in general. Is there a correct way or most correct angle to work for?

Honing device? What's wrong with "Steel". Is a mug a Ceramic Hot Beverage Receptacle now too?

I also have the non-bendy Globaloid knives and I agree with Wilfrid, tey have speeded up my cooking time a great deal. The only problems I have with them is the smallest knife is of little use and they a bit light for my taste. However my wife loves them for this reason.

Wifrid - this may be less than useful to you requirements, as you most likely know this information already, but here goes. I can't suggest specific restaurants, as it is seven years since I was in Barcelona, but here are several regional dishes that stood out in my memory. Sepia con albondigas (cuttlefish with meatballs) much more interesting then the Arroz negro, Pato con peras (Duck with pears), rice with those little white snails that climb up thistles in the Autumn and razor clams as tapas. I'm sure you already know about these, but a reminder can be good! Maybe you could tell us about the offal dishes that you have had in Spain?

Earlier this year I went on a trip to Champagne with my wife. We stayed in Epernay, for several days and at one of the local restaurants there was a extensive list of champagnes, most of them from small producers. After making our way thought this list, we came to the conclusion that many of these were average quality, compared to other sparkling wine, but quite a few were very good. I am interested why these wines are never seen out side of Champagne. Obviously, many of these wines will be to small in production to be exported, but is it more of a case that there is a perception that champagne has to be an expensive wine?

I was having dinner with a US friend on the weekend and we were discussing food-wine matching. This reminded me of a Australian wine that would go very well with a Thanksgiving/Christmas type meal. Australian Sparkling Shiraz (et al.). Lovely wines, unpretentious, but serious wines, excellent with turkey and plum pudding. As other postings on this thread have brought up the difficulty of finding some of these wines, you may like to try the following site for information about wine merchants and what they stock. http://www.mcnees.org/mainpages/wine/winepages/merchants.htm

There was an article on hangover cures a few years ago in "New Scientist" which can be veiwed at: http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/alcohol/alcohol.jsp?id=22144600 They suggest N-acetyl-cysteine may help. Has anybody tried this? I found the perfect cure two weekends ago. I had a cocktail party that involved drinking heavily until about 5 am. I then went to sleep at 9:30 am I was woken by a phone call. After politely discussing the nature of never speaking to me on a Sunday before 1:00 pm, I went to the fridge as I had a very bad hangover. In the fridge I spied a half bottle of coke, which I drank all of. Two seconds later I realised that it was half vodka, half coke. Felt great in about ten minute, I then drank Martini's and Champagne for the rest of the day. Never felt better.

To true I'm afraid. In Australia it was very difficult to get an US wine, unless you wanted Mondavi that is. One wine merchant did have a good range, if a little top heavy, but all from California. On a trip to the USA a few years ago, I took some time out to try some Zinfandel and Petite Syrah. Maybe I should had tried Cab. Sav. or Pinot Noir instead, as I found a lot of the Zins a little coarse, except for a Ravenswood example (and that may have impressed me due to the label). There was also a lack of South American wines available in Australia. Living in the UK has been great, in terms of the ready supply of these wines. On the subject of Australian fortified desert wine in the USA, Park Ave Wine (NY) sells Chambers muscat at ๖ per half bottle!!!

I would agree with the cordon cut riesling, if I am drinking unfortified Australian dersert wine I tend to stick to more heavily botrytised wines, which have a bit more complexity to them then late harvest, cordon cut or no. On the other hand fortified Australian desert wines are, as you say, world class. The are also very, very inexpensive considering the effort and expense that goes into making them. Rutherglen can be a very hot area, the last place you would expect great wine from. But, the modified solera system they use seems to produce fantastic wine in this area. Seppelt is a great producer of Muscat and Tokay , but there are some even better wines about. Chambers produces amazing older versions and Campbells produces a good, younger style of muscat and tokay, but I would have to give my vote (as would most people I think) to Morris's. Especially, their older Muscats. There is one fortified Australian wine that is a truely great wine, and is rather different as well. Hardy's Liqueur Sauvignon Blanc. Sounds strange, but then it is a strange wine. Very old base wine, indicated by the green colour, very viscous and very, very complex. It may not be imported into the US but if you ever see it you should definately get it.

I should mention that I am in no way conected with the wine industry, just an interested punter. My first post looks a little like market research. Interesting that you use Lindemans Sav. Blanc for cooking. I use cheap French Sav. Blancs for the same purpose (cheaper then the Australian version in the UK). I have never drank any Georgian wine, but have been interested from the point of view that it is a very old wine producing area. I have drunk some old Moldavian wine (it came in these really cool bottles, covered in wax and cryrilic script), do know if the two are similar in any way?

Quote: from Wilfrid on 5:37 pm on Nov. 20, 2001 Unfortunately, life not being perfect, the Significant Other was caught introducing soapy water to the pan within minutes of it appearing in the apartment. She was trying to be helpful. Naturally, I swept her abruptly aside with a foul curse, reclaimed my purchase, and got into a silly argument. But some damage might have been done at that stage Weird Wilfred, I had the same experience with my cast iron skillet and wife. I wonder how many marriages breakdowns Le Creuset is resonsible for? Next you will have to go through the "well if you want it to be scrubbed with salt, then you clean it" stage. As friendly advise, buy a non-stick skillet for the spouse. Oh yes, scrubbing with salt etc as suggested works a treat.

Pre-1995 was a good time to enjoy Australian wine. In Australia. Then Penfold's 1990 "Grange Hermitage" was voted Wine Spectator wine of the year. I had tasted this wine a couple of times and didn't get any as I thought that at USโ there were better options for me to drink. There was a lot of wine to choose from that was โ and under. One year later it was selling for US趚 and most other Australian wines had increased in price to match. Large amounts of premium wine (mostly reds, Shiraz in particular) are now going to the US and being sold at prices which would have seemed insane several years ago. One winery, Wild Duck Creek, was given 99 points by Robert Parker and what had been a "nice red" was now a 踰 a bottle legend. Sometimes I think I may have missed something. This is very good for the local wine industry and is a terrific indication of the quality of Australian wine in general. But, although some people obviously pay large amounts for Australian wine in the US, what is the views of people that actually drink wine? Would you automatically consider an Australian red wine when at a top end restaurant? Would you even consider an Australian white as fit to drink. What type of food do you tend to drink it with? I am curious about these questions, because as the USA is one of the largest importers of wine and also has its own domestic production, in general people in the US should be the most informed on the subject.

I bought a very large terra cotta Tagine in Fez and after many adventures got it back to Edinburgh intact. In Morocco, they used them by placing them directly on top of a heat source. This means that the steam generated, condenses at the top of the cone and dribbles back down into them stew. This method of cooking means you can stew/braise in very little liquid at a low temperature and get a very concentrated flavour. Unfortunately, my heat source is a little to intense for terra cotta, even at its minimum setting and I have not got around to buying a heat diffusor yet. So I have used in the oven only so far, using more liquid. Which defeats the purpose of the Tagine in the first place. The Le Creuset model is enameled cast iron, so it would not have the problems that the terra cotta versions have. I am still glad I have the Tagine though, as it looks great coming to the table.

Quote: from Wilfrid on 5:10 pm on Nov. 15, 2001 Not big on cake, but do like the kind of heavy but deeply flavoured traditional British fruit cake I grew up with. Dense, lots of dried fruit, sultanas, raisins, etc, and usually some nuts. You can eat it, unconventionally, with a slice of mature cheddar. I have always loved fruit cake ("Boiled" fruit cake for preference), but I have only recently been introduced to this British idea of having it with Cheddar. Its rather nice like that (or was it the liqueur muscat I had with it?). I also love paneforte. When I got married, my wife and I got her sister to buy two 5 kilo panfortes in Sienna (Italy) and bring them back to Australia to have as our wedding cake. They were excellent.

Quote: from Fat Guy on 6:49 am on Nov. 15, 2001. I don't even like Alsatian wine served in those green-stemmed glasses they use in Alsace. Who the heck decided those were a good idea? Which type of green-stemmed glasses? The short fat ones or the tall, unbalanced goblet types. The only good thing about them is how interesting they look en masse, when they leave all the empty glasses on the table if you are buying by the glass in a winstubb. Adds a touch of "My, haven't I had a good time". I hate those Anjou type glasses as well. To get back to the original point, I really hate wine served in a "now we are in the South-of-France" tumbler. There is nothing worse then trying to drink an aromatic white from one of those things. It is on of he main reasons why I will not go to some restaurants. Still, it fits in well with the "dumbing down" theme that is the current vogue.

Well, having lived here in Scotland for a year, after coming from Melbourne (Australia) the one food thing that I really crave is Vietnamese food. The freshness of it, the clean flavours and the cold beers that go with it. I am trying to grow some Vietnamese mint so that I can make some of our favourite recipes, but the plants are not happy in Scotland damit. I also miss decent sausages and fried fish. I think that I have the sausage problem sorted finally, but have yet to have decent Fish 'n' Chips here. The locals bang on about how good it all is, but as most of the fish is pre-cooked and wrapped in plastic for due to local health rules, it's really not very good. They also sell deep fried pizza, haggis, black pudding, white pudding and Mars bars here, so what is considered edible and a health risk here by the locals is questionable.

Thanks for that information. I am in the middle of moving house, so I have yet to get around to getting the liver. Maybe next weekend when we are having a party I will get it and offer it to the unsuspecting. Next time I am in London I will have to look in to this fishmonger, it sounds like it might have a bit more to offer than haddock, salmon and crab. Regards Adam.

The favorite "sauce" of the moment is more of a dressing. Cook pasta, while that is going on we gently heat good olive oil with garlic and dried chillies. In the last five minutes we add some stale bread crumbs and brown these slightly. Add to the pasta thats it. The bread crumbs are "poor mans parmesan", but we add parmesan as well in an effort to embrace our middle-classness.

Better late then never.... Since moving to Scotland I have been doing the whisky thing a fair bit, so here are my gleanings on the subject. There is always a ceramic jug(s) of water on the bar full of water to add to the whisky. If you add it or not is a matter of personal preference and depends on the whisky in question. With cheap whisky, well anything goes, except ice, as ice with whisky is only drunk by the vulgar apparently. Decent whisky is tasted without water then water (at room temperature, not chillled) added if wanted. Adding water, even a little bit changes the character of the whisky, even just a few drops. Sometimes for the better sometimes not. At the Scotch Single Malt Society, tasting notes are given both with and without water. Some of the single malts you can get here are very high in alcohol (65%!!!), so diluting with water stops the alcohol from fixing your mouth, tongue etc. Adding significant amounts of water to cheap whisky only extends the time you have to taste cheap whisky.

No, I turned the offer of green dyed salmon down ( the poor man thought I was an American and had heard rumours of green dyed rivers), and bought nice five pound salmon-trout instead. Salmon-trout is now my firm favorite fish, thankfully they are very cheap when they are in season. We have tried side by side comparisons between wild caught salmon-trout and salmon and felt that the flavour and more especially the texture was better in the former. Next year when they are in season I will have to pursue this comparison further, I would like to a Sushimi of the two, but having extracted Anaskis nematodes out of every wild fish I have bought this may not be an option. Maybe I will serve it with side of bean thread noodles, so that nobody will notice the odd worm or two.

Thank you for all this information, I am now even more determined to cook with this ingredient. However, after going to my local fishmonger, who is offen quite helpful (he even offered to get me green dyed salmon for St. Pat's day), and down to the wholesale fish market, I have found that in Scotland the Monkfish is landed without the liver. Yep, it all ends up in D.J's. locker. So a slight hitch in the plan. There may be some hope though, as after I describing it has a sought after product in Japan (and the U.S.), my fishmongers eyes light up and he have agreed to try to save me an liver or two. As he sells to the local restuarants he thought he may be able to sell it to them as well. Once again I have been defeated by living in the U.K., impossible to get thrushes tongues, flamingo's brains or dolphin hearts as well......

In the new Nobu cookbook there is a recipe using monkfish liver that looks fantastic. Has anybody tried this item? Can you get this liver from any type of monkfish (Angler). We have a great deal of monkfish in Scotland, I assume they just throw the liver away, I'm interested in trying. However, before I comit to the very tedious effort of trying to convince my fishmonger to keep the livers for me I thought I would find out if it is worth the bother. Best Regards to all.

Sorry, I'm still getting to grips with effective communication in the medium (so apologies if I came across as being rude). What I was trying to say is that even if it was mildly unpleasant or even non-descript, I would have though that these veiws would have been shared. Anyway this is proberly very boring reading for everybody so I will say no more on the topic, other than thanks for your time and information. Best regards Adam