A Balic

My favorite drink (Gin and Indian Tonic) after so many years. I can't abide those Vodka and Tonic people. I have never drank it with Indian food though.

Sorry Survir, I was teasing Simon. Gin and It, is most definately Gin with Italian vermouth (which is sweet, mostly), the "It" part is to differentiate it from Gin and French (Vermouth, which is mostly dry). Although, I have seen Indian people drinking Jonny Walker at with India food, I can't bring myself to do that and stick to beer or sometimes wine. Maybe Mango Lassi and Vodka?

Michael (may I call you Michael?), wine at the level we are discussing is a little more easy to store/prepare/source (sauce too) then either pig's cheek or foie gras. Have you calculated the cost of taking cork out of a bottle, compared to preparing pig's cheek? Happy to pay twenty quid for braised pig's cheek, angry to pay twenty quid for crappy Australian Colombard-Chardonnay blends. It would be interesting to know how much variation between different restaurants there is in how they mark up wine. Basildog, any idea on this?

Only in Simon world: http://www.barfliers.com/drinks/VIEW/852/Gin%20And%20It/ damn, must have been infected with LML virus, sorry.

Right, I use free range eggs that are very fresh (both types of egg white differentiated), the yolks are deeply coloured, the raw dough is bright yellow, the cooked pasta is a pasty white. Scientist that I am, this weekend I will make different batches of pasta, using different recipes and I will report on my findings.

I must admit that one of the first things that sent me into a rage, upon moving to the UK from Australia, was the make up in wine at restuarants. From what you have said, it seems to be unfair on both sides of the fence. This being the case, why aren't more restuarants in the UK BYO (or is it BYOB here?), this would certainly encourage me to go out more often, as I would love to find a Bistro that prepared good food in which I could bring decent wine. I am an Post-Doc. so I often end up going out for work related meals with post-grad. students, the net result of this is that I end up drinking rubbish Chenin Blanc, for about twelve quid a bottle, as this is often the cheapest wine.

It's no big deal to prepare rodents for the table and from what I have seen on the subject the GP's were a traditional food of the rural poor, but have now considered a luxury item by some of the metropolitan population. Animal protein has always been a luxury item for agrarian people, whatever its form.

Gin & IT? Isn't the "IT" short for Italian, as in Italian Vermouth?

I think that it is because they are extremely fecund and they are not to fussy about their food. So they are a cheap source of protein.

Cabrales - sorry, I have just haven't had time to write a well thought out statement on the subject. At the moment I am reading Clifford Wright's excellent book "A Mediterranean Feast". He also has a very good website: http://www.cliffordawright.com I have also been reading some online material by Charles Perry: http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieva....nts.htm And books by Claudia Roden and Philippa Pullar's "Consuming Passions". This new book sounds very interesting, I wonder if Simon publishes it?

i was actually asking if he tried them after you, to make sure you weren't completely out of your tree. i don't think it's general practice in the US to have the sommelier taste the wine before the customer. however, i have had many verify my suspicions with either a whiff or a sip. i figured that after the second bottle yours would have started to confirm as well, and he quite possibly did with the boss-man. Oh, I see what you were asking now. Yeh, he tasted them all and agreed (not with very much grace though), the entire thing was very painful. In France the customer isn't always right. I suspect that the all there bottles of that wine were contaminated with something. Smelt like cork taint, but four for four is a bit of a high strike rate for that.

No, the wine was brought to the table, opened in front of me, then poured for me to taste. After, I indicated that it was corked the sommelier then tasted and hurried away to consult with the boss. I have never had a sommelier taste wine before me. Do they do this in the US?

Nope, pasta maker is fine. If I take some of the dough and boil it, it turns the same pasty white colour. Can only assume that commercial pasta is dyed.

Helena - I have a "Marcato" manual pasta maker. It is fantastic and very easy to use. Infact we often give guests an apron when they come for dinner and get them to make the pasta. Dead simple.

If the wine is corked or otherwise "off" (including large amounts of cork bits and losing 20% of the wine) then by all means ask for another bottle. If the wine is fine, but not to your taste then tough (unless it was grossly mis-represented by the sommelier, then demand a different bottle). It's all rather ambarrassing though. I sent a corked bottle of Monbazillac back in a good restuarant in Cluny, the second bottle came out, also corked, so I sent that back. The third bottle was corked as well, back it went. The fourth bottle was corked, but I was to ambarrassed to send it back. I still hate Monbazillac today.

Well you've heard of 'Dirty Rice' right? And I have a recipe for 'Shitty Lasagne' (a real Sicilian recipe), so why not "Balic's-Grey-Sodding-Pasta"?

Fusion cuisine is popular at the moment, so maybe you could have a medley of guinea pig, guinea fowl and foul pig (not sure about this, pig's bung maybe?). Sorry, very sorry.

Mark, Lisa thanks for the information. I have no problems at all with texture (except when making sodding buckwheat pasta, I wonder if cake or hard flour would help here), colour is my bane. Steven - oh, golly is that what I have been doing wrong? Actually, I have made Haggis Raviolo (yes, singular). I liked them.

Wilfrid - do they have an IKEA in NY (this could possibly be the most stupid thing I have ever posted)? If so they sell these very large chopping boards (something like 50 cm2) that are very useful, as they have a lip so they hook over the side of the bench and they have a moat to catch and blood, fluids etc before it hits the floor.

Italian Baker? In Scotland??!!!

An Australians heart is as great as Australia itself. Unfortunately, the heart of Australia is a desert.

Simon - back in the old country I had a recipe for a flourless orange cake. It involved boiling and orange (or two), blending it, mixing this with almond meal and egg/sugar/butter. Problem, is I haven't got the recipe here, I wonder if this concept rings a bell with any body? Sorry, I have been of so little help, but here I am tucking into my second rich, buttery croissant and I feeling your pain of pastry deprivation. This makes me very sad so I will have a third croissant. Mmmm. Better now.

markabauman - thanks for the comments. I (actually, more and more my wife) use Italian "00" flour. I will try to track down some of the hard wheat flour. Do you have to source it from speciality shops and what does using durum ehaet flour add to th texture of the pasta?

On my birthday I was trying to kill the pain as fast as possible, to this end I conceived a desire to have an Absinthe Martini. I made it up on the spot (two measures gin, one measure Absinthe, marschino cherry garnish), when I ordered it the bar staff said "its illegal to mix absinthe and gin", I complained and explained that their absinthe was unlikely to do anything to me that several gins wouldn't. They stuck to the line, but said I could by the two alcohols seperately and mix them myself. Which I did, numerous times. Ended up quite drunk, not stoned though darn it.

Cabrales, I will give the topic some thought (and get my references in order) and post a new thread on the topic after the weekend.