Jenni

I used to work in a pub, first as a pot washer and then as a waitress. We shared our tips out so that everyone got a share, although I'm not share if that includes the two chefs as I think they were on salaries rather than wages and probably earned a heck of a lot more than the rest of us! Bar staff got a share too. We were all paid our wages by BACs as usual and also once a month the tip jar was split up and we would receive our share of the tips in cash. I thought it was a pretty fair system as it made us care about all the customers experiences, not just that customers that we served. It also meant that the poor old pot washers got a bit of gratitude for scraping the crap off people's plates!

I was under the impression, rightly or wrongly, that the main problem with plastics was to do with having them in contact with hot food e.g. plastic wrapped food being microwaved, etc. Since I don't eat ready meals and don't enjoy drinking out of plastic mugs (tastes funny!) I have never really found it to be a problem.

I've always wondered about this. Whilst I would not rely on such anecdotal evidence, my Mum can always tell if food has MSG in it because she gets irritated skin and will be scratching her arms for hours afterwards! Not sure that this is an actual allergic reaction or just an irritation, but it certainly seems to be some kind of reaction.

I never deep fry the potato or cauliflower when I make it home - too much grease and effort! I usually par-boil the potato first. Then I heat some ghee in a good pan (a wok works well) and add mustard, cumin and fenugreek (in that order). When the mustard pops and the fenugreek browns, in goes some asafetida (the whole stuff, pounded to a powder, not the rubbish pre-ground kind). Sometimes I add a few curry leaves at this point too. Then in goes some minced fresh ginger, minced green chillies and the cauliflower florets and parboiled potatoes. Stir and fry until slightly golden on the outside. Then add turmeric, chilli powder, ground coriander and salt. Stir and fry until well coated. At this stage you can add a little chopped tomato if you like, or a few tablespoons of yoghurt. Otherwise keep it simple and pure! Cook until tender, adding a few splashes of water every now and then to prevent sticking. Turn off the heat, stir in some chopped fresh coriander and serve. A squeeze of lemon over the top makes it extra delicious!

This year I have made a number of edible Christmas gifts. For my Gran and Nanny I have made candied watermelon rind flavoured with vanilla. I have made some general Christmas gifts (for everyone to enjoy over Christmas) of spiced gooseberry jam and nan khatai (a ghee-rich, spiced biscuit). For my immediate family I am taking a very personal approach: *For my Dad I have made mooli and cauliflower pickle (made last Sunday). This is a quick pickled that will be ready in about 1-2 weeks. He really loves mooli and cauliflower, especially as a pickle and I know he will really enjoy this. *For my brother I am making a rice-podi-ghee kit (to be made next Monday). Podi is a South Indian condiment made from spices, there are various different kinds. It is traditionally mixed with ghee and eaten with rice or idlis, dosa, etc. The reason I am making this is that my brother likes to cook, but sometimes when I give him recipes he does not have the ingredients. Therefore I thought I would bag up some rice, make ghee and give him all the spices ready in the podi so that he can make the recipe! I will also write him a little instruction sheet for preparing it all. *For my Mum I am making peanut pakoda (to be made next Tuesday). My Mum loves to munch on interesting snacks so I know she will really like this. I am really in a Christmas-y mood now!

A word of warning: There's an Indian sweet called peda which is traditionally made from khoa - milk that is cooked down in a pan until it becomes solid. Many modern recipes try to give a short cut by calling for powdered milk. However, they just don't taste right, and in fact to me they taste down right disgusting. So I would say that if the milk makes up a large proportion of the recipe, then the very different taste of powdered milk may not be suitable. The sweet may end up tasting cheap and not very home-made.

Ok, so you don't mind if people ask nicely, that's cool. And I get the whole not wanting random drunk/out-of-it/crazy people off the street to come in and mess things up. One stupidly simple suggestion, but do you have a sign up? Just something simple like "Bathrooms are for customers only". Put it in a prominent place, and that may actually put off some of those who don't ask, just because they'll be too embarassed to be stopped and caught. And if someone does ask, because they're really desparate and just have to, even though they can read the sign, you use discretion and let them use the bathroom or not, as you choose. Or perhaps you need a sign that says "Non-customers: Please ask before just walking in and using our bathrooms - we'll be nice if you are!"

I really don't think you should do anything about it, especially since it doesn't seem to be many people. The thing is, whilst you don't want to be advertising your toilet facilities and ushering in people off the streets to use them, you also don't want to be an asshole who actually won't let someone nip in if they're desparate, even if they're a kid, or a pregnant lady, or someone elderly. Think of it this way: Imagine you are out and about in town one day. For whatever reason, you get caught short (maybe guys should be imagining they are female...less easy to pee behind a bush!). There are no public toilets about (pay or otherwise) and you'll never make it home, so you pop in to a nearby cafe or restaurant. Ok, so I personally would ask, but maybe you're too embarassed. Anyway, one of the staff comes up to you as you are on your way to the bathrooms and says "Sorry mate, customers only." You ask nicely, beg even, and apologise profusely for using their facilities. They still won't let you, and ask you to leave the restaurant. Now, are you ever likely to think of that restaurant fondly in the future, let alone think about going there?! If a restaurant forced me to wet myself, I'd be pretty pissed (!) off with them!

I actually quite like it on rice! (Don't shoot me)

Couple of recent meals: Another fabulous dinner at Oz, on the Triangle. Seriously, I could eat at this place forever! We went there for my Mum's birthday and had a complete feast. Everything was divine, except strangely enough for the baklava. Usually this is one of the highlights of the meal, but for some reason it was rather hard and a little painful on the mouth to eat. My Mum wanted to keep her birthday quiet, but my Dad couldn't resist telling the waitress at the start of the meal, which resulted in a surprise bottle of something pink and bubbly (I don't drink, so I couldn't tell you if it was any good!) being brought out at the end for Mum to take home. Brilliant evening, I can overlook the pudding this once and it really was an unecessary addition to our already enormous meal anyway! Today I had lunch at La Grotta, which is on Union Street. Basically it's in Broadmead right next to the Galleries. It's quite a cosy place (i.e. small) and even though it was 2pm when I got there, it was absolutely heaving! I was told that a table would be free in a few minutes, and sure enough it was. It was my first visit, as I had been tempted in by the luscious sounding pizzas on the menu. I chose "Mediterraneo" which had tomato, courgette, goats cheese, red onion and olives. Being rather cheeky, I asked if it would be possible to sub the onion and olives for artichoke as I had a real craving for some. Don't get me wrong, I love red onion and olives, but I was trying to find a way to add artichokes without necessarily ramping up the price and overcrowding my pizza. They were quite happy to do this for me. The pizza came very quickly, and it was HUGE and very thin - just how I like it! The toppings were all thinly sliced and it was a dream to look at, and even better to eat. Absolutely delicious, definitely the best pizza I have had in Bristol, if not in the whole of the UK. Based on this pizza alone, I would say to get your butt down to this place right now. The price is very reasonable too, - my huge pizza (which was one of their "speciality pizzas", and thus one of the more expensive) clocked in at just £8.75, and there were plenty of other pizzas around that price or a little cheaper. There were also various appetisers, pastas, etc. I watched a few other patrons being served fabulous looking plates of pasta, and concluded that I would definitely have to try some next time. Everything looks very freshly cooked and delicious. Best of all, there were some actual Italians in there enjoying pizza, so you know it must be a good place! I'm pretty sure it's a family run place, and the staff were all very friendly. Highly recommended, and a lot better than all of the extremely tedious Italian/pizza chains that crowd the rest of bristol (ASK, Zizzi, Bella Italia, Pizza Express, Pizza Hut...)

Kit, if you know the ingredients, could you mix up a batch tasting as you go along to get the right proportions?

All I know is that this is the way chai is made. It's got a lot more caffeine in it apparently. Remember though that there tends to be more milk (and sugar) in chai than in Western tea, so it's strong but not over-powering.

There's certainly plenty of Chinese in Trinidad, so it could be a proper Sino-Trinidadian dish.

I often find that I can cook a recipe quicker than the book says....

I have nothing really that interesting to add....except that I love your pictures! May I ask what camera you have?

ChrisZ, the literal category is hilarious! These are cakes that have been ordered from professional cake-makers right? How do these people ever get paid?!

Damn you, this thread made me buy nutella today! Luckily, it sounds tricky to make so at least I won't be making huge batches of it at home. The coconut oil sounds good in theory, if you can get a flavourless one...but then you'd be going against everything I usually try to do!

Thank you percyn! I can barely call it a recipe, it is simplicity itself. Please note (just for the sake of clarifying terminology), I have always called it basundi when the milk has been reduced by half, and when it is reduced to just a quarter it is rabri. The texture is much thicker, words sometimes used to describe it once cool are "semi-solid" and "set". I took a litre of whole milk (good local farm stuff, rich and creamy and also unhomogenised) but you could start with more. This was merely my effort to make it so we didn't have loads of sweet, tempting leftovers! Put it in a good heavy bottomed pan with a few cardamom pods. Bring to a boil, stirring all the time, then turn the heat down so that it just gently simmering. Cook slowly, stirring frequently to prevent sticking and also to stir the creamy skin on the top back into the milk, until reduced to a quarter of the original amount. Add about 100g of sugar (this is for 1 litre of milk), or to your taste, towards the end of the cooking time when the milk is nearly fully reduced. The milk will have taken on a pinkish hue and become lovely and thick. Pour/spoon into individual katori or a serving bowl and cool. Serve, garnished with nuts (especially pistachio), if desired. You can add other spices such as saffron and nuts to the milk whilst it cooks, but I like it pure and simple. You will notice that I didn't even garnish my serving with nuts.

All I can say is pictures please!!

Happy Diwali everyone! Off to play cards and set off rockets (yeah, I know, nothing particularly Diwali-ish about the meal, but it's special occasion because I made rabri and stuffed aubergines, dammit!)

This is a separate issue. You can choose to smoke and that's your choice, but when you smoke in a public place then other people are forced to smoke with you. Quite frankly, people need to some responsibility for themselves.

Can't they tell by how stuffed they feel? I know people are unaware of the nutritional content of food, but if you're eating a WHOLE large pizza (surely that's meant for more than one person?) then you must feel bloody full during and afterwards! Frankly, people need to take a bit of initiative themselves.

Wow, that's really crappy. I've seen similar horrible things involving people searching on google images and assuming that anything that comes up can be used anywhere they like. We're talking on blogs, on websites, in newspaper articles, and I believe I've even heard of such images being used in books… I mention it because there was a thread about it on another forum I go on and some of the people on the forum had actually personally experienced it. One described opening a newspaper one day and seeing the photograph she took staring her in the face. And this was in a very prominent national newspaper in India.

Wow, there seem to be a lot of people overreacting here. Anyone heard of free speech? The OP's review seems perfectly in-line with this, and come on guys it's not that harsh! Also, although it is true that some blogs can have a huge impact on the world and thus could potentially inflate or damage a restaurant's reputation, you should remember that everybody and their friend has a blog now, and not all of them make such waves. And as evidenced from this thread, not all the people who read the blog will agree with it anyway, so I think it's a tad over the top to suggest that it's going to ruin the restaurant! Oh, and whether or not the OP is just shilling their blog by posting here, it doesn’t really change the fact that Marcus Wareing made a poor judgement here.

^^^ I know what you mean, but as I said I have heard that he has had problems before. To me, this indicates that he is perhaps not quite so good at managing his cash flow.