Man

I went yesterday. The (Borders) grouse was good and deep flavoured in Kitchin's style, but I was disappointed by two things. First, if you advertise lingonberries in a dish, you've got to put in a meaningful quantity. Second, a place that makes so much of its 'from nature to plate' philosphy is the last one I woud have expected not to include offals in the dish. When we pointed this out to the waiter, he said that Kitchin does it the way Koffmann does. An extremely unfortunate lie, given that we are Koffmann's devotees and have very vivid memories of the crusty bread with the lovely offal on which his grouse was resting. He also said that Kitchin finds the taste of offals too strong. Mmmmmm.... Apart from these niggles the meal was good to very good as always. The service was underwheming however - it was one of the (rare) occasions when Kitchin was absent and there was a general air of not-on-the-ballness.

Thanks, good to know, the Kitchin is relatively near my neck of the woods, and one of my favourites. There is something Koffmannesque in his style. Looking forward to my next Edinburgh trip...(though right now, writing from Southern Spain, grouse seems a very distant concept indeed!).

Arbutus is beginning to sound like a serious contender for best value for money!

I had that on my to-try list...he does it with cherries like the pigeon, right?

Have you had your first grouse already? Do you have a favourite place? (home qualifies ). For me it's hard to beat Koffmann's (we had their first two grouses of the season on the 15th)! Where else can I satisfy my endless hunger for this unique bird?

Today I read with amusement Andy Hayler's blog, where he says that he 'went crazy with the wine' at Briciole, ending up spending a small fortune. I so understand him - top wine prices there are so friendly that the temptation is just too strong.

That's an achievement well deserving of some good meals! Many congrats! (for me, still 21 years to go...)

Semplice has folded, at least in its present from. The website has vague talk of closure till mid-September to reopen with a new menu. What it really means is that chef Marco Torri won't be there any longer. Baldino the manager had already left a while ago (rumour is that he'll appear at Novikov at some point).

Not yet but it looks extremely enticing to me! I must say, for these opportunities and novelties London is the greatest city on earth.

Yes, an extreme example of non-fine dining which is still good dining!

Woman (the pasta making expert in the Man-Woman family) suggests an Imperia, e.g. here; http://www.amazon.co...OI&linkCode=asm

Ha ha I also have had horrible experiences in Cyprus (also in Italy to be honest) with cuttlefish, and in fact with fish in general. Near where I was i settled on one humble Taverna (Laddas, on the coastal road between Limassol and Larnaca) and he grilled cuttlefish to perfection (some pics here).

You're right it's very high protein, in fact its the highest I've ever come across for egg less dried pasta which I always look for as fairly reliable indicator of quality. It's sold as an own brand M&S product but in very small text it says on the packaging that it is "made and air dried in the Italian Alps by the Felicetti family, using select Italian wheat and bronze die..." Seems like it has decent heritage, it's not exactly the same pasta but you get the picture. http://www.dolceterr...ODUCT_ID=A00992 I do indeed get the picture and am mightily impressed! Felicetti is one of the best artisan pasta producers in Italy. (Italians interested in food endlessly discuss which are the best pasta makers, and Felicetti is always mentioned. Haven't tried it myself, will be in M&S very soon...).

Cuttlefish ragout sounds nice! And that pasta has quite a lot of proteins indeed, is it their own brand or some other?

Yes it wasn't one of my most arduous assignments That's the way restaurants should allocate freebies: not to silly bloggers, but to loyal returning customers!

I totally agree and share your hope, food boards are for discussion, food blogs are for self expression - I've never seen on a food blog a meaningful discussion of the type one can have here on eg, just sequences of more or less inane comments. You also mention earning money. I don't think anybody who's wealthy enough to go frequently to very good restaurants anyway will find it easy to make a serious change to his income through blogging. There are, it's true, some pathetic souls who move mountains to announce themselves to PR companies in search of a free meal, but they must be either desperately poor or have lacked affection as children. And it is doubly pathetic that restaurants waste food and money on them. 'Status building' may be as you say another possibility, but once again real status is obtained by a minuscule fraction of food bloggers, who most often, like the Dos Hermanos case mentioned by Harters, are professionally interested in food related careers. Apart from them, I guess well-adjusted people try to gain status with their peers in their own profession and don't consider fooblogging as a means to gain status.

Seconded! (as an Italian who got spoiled by fresh crab in Scotland, bought basically from the boat in my village harbour: there is just no comparison. But I strongly approve of pasta with it , and recommend tagliolini or linguine. )

Interesting. I still am not sure I agree with his theory of searching for 'freak' animals, but he's dead right on the utter irrelevance of bloggers.

I fail to see, and maybe it's just me, why something pulled out of a hedgerow or basted in liquid nitrogen is worthy of so much attention. I'm sure many excellent chefs too fail to see it...even if they don't say it publicly

If you look at the very very top there is this circus element, it's true, but if you look at 'fine dining' in its entirety I think there are still fantastic meals for all tastes to be had, prepared by great professionals to whom I'm very grateful for making this whole wretched world a better place to live in. Long live fine dining! PS Many thanks to David, as ever, for the news service!

So we went today for a 4 hour megalunch...and today, we must say, we WERE blown away, it was beyond lovely. One of the stars was a dish of fine green beans with white peach, raw almond and a 'snow' of foie gras (if I remember all ingredients - didn't take notes), an example out of many where vegetables play the dominant role. Another one was the pigeon with cherries, just a touch of foie, and lots of sweetness that we thought was very apt. A dessert of chocolate pave' with milk puree' and a lovage ice cream was bold and ravishing and a lesson in flavour extraction. And a brown sugar tart with poached grapes and ginger ice cream was one of the most elegant and balanced desserts I can remember. We also sampled some of the previously untried classics (heritage tomatoes, buffalo milk curd, etc.), which we found impressive. One of those rare quite perfect meals. It was a good idea to let him choose the dishes this time. He mentioned several times in conversation later on that 'he doesn't do molecular' and three times pointed to his palate or heart to describe his approach...We think now we finally get what he is about, and we're so happy to have persevered! A funny episode: before leaving (it was almost dinner service) we met an 'Italian waiter', had a brief chat and when he said he was from Turin we recommended he should try Enrico Crippa's restaurant Piazza Duomo in Alba, in our opinion one of the best examples of modern Italian cuisine (he has 2* and may get 3*). At which point he said: allow me to introduce myself: I'm Enrico Baronetto, I opened Piazza Duomo as maitre d' with Enrico a few years ago...Ehm. Small world....(he's also the brother of Matteo who's a very well known chef in Italy). Perhaps at some point we'll post something at our place from this meal or the other if the photos allow (i.e. they are acceptable), haven't checked yet. Anyway probably the world doesn't need further photos of BG's dishes so we may pass on this one.

Just to mention Nar Lokanta, in Sultanahmet, a moderately upscale restaurant run by a Turkish American with great culinary values. I didn't try their meat mains but had the best vegetable (and a couple of seafood) mezes in a week in Istanbul. Quite classy food, but rooted in tradition. Fantastic value for money.

You are not wrong. However, the attempt's success only depends on the integrity of bloggers. I've heard some of them flatly refuse to become pawns in any type of commercial campaign

Thanks, it's good to have some lesser known but good addresses instead of endlessy discussing the usual suspects! I decided to expore the Spanish scene in London (which I had ignored for all these years) and started today with Cambio de Tercio, Trangallian is now on my list.

We've had this discussion already in January and it was decreed then by a large majority that Jay is the best. Sorry guys, that verdict is not appealable before 2013, and it's the only sensible one anyway. Leave Jay alone, OK?