Wilfrid

Yes, I was echoing bpearis's reference to potato chips. I do speak fluent American now, as you can see. That bread yesterday was unforgivably dried out, and someone had furiously shaken salt and pepper over the sandwich. I have quality control concerns. Never had that in a UK outlet.

Toby - the pig's stomachs. Would that be in New York's Chinatown, or a different one, and can you possibly give me some more directions if it is New York? Thanks. Offal, I would say, covers all the odds and ends of the animal which are typically discarded, so head, tail, ears, nose are all included. This is one reason why the American term "organ meats" which one so often hears is inadequate as well as euphemistic.

I was in the Savoy Grill last week - not my idea and I wasn't paying. Forget about it. If you want to check out the Savoy, have a cocktail in the American Bar.

A thick skin helps. Ya know, you can take it but you sure can't dish it out. er Of course, of course.

Entree is certainly a starter in Australia, but in the UK? I don't recall that. Sorry, Soba, you were saying...

At this point, Steven Shaw, if he wasn't on the road, would conduct a lengthy interrogation concerning your whole experience of knives and knife use. Can I be impertinent enough to ask one question, about your slicing technique? The reason I ask is that even fairly hopeless knives should cut any bread if the technique is right - namely, full back and forth sawing motion with minimal downward pressure. If you press down too much, you will have trouble. Please slap my wrist if your technique is just fine - but if you slice that way, I should have thought any robust, sharp, serrated-blade bread knife would do.

And you have just got out of bed, right?

Lucky Bux. I wonder if you are in one of the internet cafes from which I accessed eGullet. I doubt if you are in the one in the murky sidestreet in the Barri Xines. Perhaps you are in the one just by the old Sant Pi church? Well, wherever, I wish I was there too.

Here he comes, Mr Huevos Rancheros with his negative attitude. We were doing fine without you this morning, Tom.

Erudition time. Antipasti - plural - have nothing whatsoever to do with "pasta". It doesn't mean, as some people think (not eGulleters, of course, of course) the dishes served before the pasta. Italian for meal is pasto. An antipasto - singular - is a dish served before the main meal. More than one antipasto gives you antipasti. Pasta is the doughy stuff you like to pour red sauce over.

...in me khaki suit an' t'ing, See me in me 'alter back, Give ya real 'eart attack. That's it, isn't it? (Joking aside, I expect the soda, being Jamaican, indeed got it's name that way.)

I was advised by my cellarman that the young single vineyard Riesling I brought to the Union Pacific dinner would benefit from decanting. However, I felt in my bones that Plotnicki would contradict me outright, so I didn't raise the subject. Any views?

About the same size as a duck's liver, I would say, and similar in taste and texture. Less bitter than chicken livers. Sounds like you are going to have a lot of fun. When you've done the standard recipes, let us know and we can come up with all the weird stuff. Rabbit sorbet, and so on

I am sampling lunch from one outlet right now. Those chips certainly are thick. My impression from one visit: the concept, themes and approach are the same as the UK chain. The sandwiches are the same, except for the filling and the bread. :confused: A couple of the fillings may be common with the UK stores - BLT, certainly; coronation chicken, perhaps - but most have been devised for a New York market. "New York Brunch", "Pastrami on Rye", "Turkey Club" - well, maybe they showed up in the UK after I left, but they are far from typical Pret a Manger offerings. The destination PaM sandwich in the UK was, for me, always the fresh poached salmon; here, I only see smoked salmon and spinach. I also perceive that the typical fillings here are layered and less moist than the UK norm - where the ingredients are often mixed rather than laid on separately. And the bread. Rye, rye, everywhere. Okay, there do seem to be some multi-grain options too - more like the UK - but the UK chain actually had some intersting breads, cut from real loaves - I mean, the slices weren't square! I am not particularly enjoying the BLT I am eating right now. The bread is a little dried out. But a sandwich chain deserves more than one sampling ($7.49 for sandwich, chips and soda, which seems about average for Midtown).

I might well have tried the heart, but I suspect it would be an extremely tough little morsel, and hardly worth long stewing unless you've got a bunch of them. It's the bowel, I am afraid, which hasty butchers occasionally overlook.

If you want a traditional British meal and cost is really no object, consider Wilton's on Jermyn Street. It is old-fashioned, stuffy, formal (jackets and ties), but the menu is something which would have been recognizable to an Edwardian gentleman, and the dishes are prepared with fine ingredients and absolute correctness. Excellent game in the winter, but in July the emphasis will be very much on fish. Which prompts another thought: if you would like a menu of British seafood dishes, executed extremely well, but with some modern touches, I strongly recommend J Sheekey, just off the Charing Cross road. Book well in advance, because it attracts celebrities and those who like to spot them, but the food is first rate.

I envy you. Can't get wild rabbit in New York. Definitely brine them if you freeze them, or you will have toughness problems. If you make a stew or casserole, you have the option of freezing portions for later use - I'd probably go that way. Spread it with mustard before roasting. Sprinkle some chopped green herbs. Joint it up and make a simple mustard sauce - equal parts mustard and butter cooked gently together, then add warm white wine slowly until you like the consistency. That is a la moutarde; introduce some cream to the sauce and you can call it a la Cauchoise. If you've brined it, which helps tenderize, joint it up and dip in season flour and fry it. Serve with a garlic mayonnaise. By the way, do check that the rabbits have been thoroughly cleaned before hanging them. I have found bits and pieces you don't really want overlooked by hasty butchers sometimes. Oh, if you have the liver, fry it and eat it! Enjoy.

Friends, New Yorkers, countrymen, look at this fish. I come to bury Mario, not to praise him.

What does she mean, no wetter than other pickles? Hasn't she tried Branston's? Oh, I get it. They mean gherkins (the big kind).

Indeed, I think Cabrales has sampled the dish more than once and had the same reaction, right? If that's what they're trying to do, I think it's a badly conceived dish, making its way on the tails of Mario's reputation and all the kitsch about authenticity and Italian fishermen. I look forward to David Pasternak's column on salt cod.

I have never been served a Reuben that has not been ludicrously over-stuffed. I like Jaymes's idea. I have already confessed elsewhere that, with Katz's corned beef sandwiches, I extract some of the filling and cook it up with some eggs for breakfast the next day.

Jinmyo - mustard seed and turmeric - do you suppose they mean mustard pickle? The yellow stuff?

Just so long as everyone knows that canning was invented in France and that it revolutionized food distribution in the United States in particular. Guy called Heinz springs to mind. But I am definitely in the wrong forum for this.

There you go. "Tins", or "cans" if you will. What's so "British heritage" about that?

Don't mention it. And thanks too to Mamster for that intriguing link. I had always thought milk was basic - apparently not. If only I could remember what the issue was. Oh well, re-read entire thread again, I suppose.