Wilfrid

It's always a relief when someone seems to have had a good meal at a restaurant one has recommended. I have eaten all those dishes Cabrales - in the case of the dessert, several times - and I'm glad you found them acceptable.

Andy, if you have the opportunity to describe your grandmother's approach to a cabbage, I'm sure we'd be interested.

Basildog, you should ask her to explain Robin Byrd!

It made me reflect on something completely different: my regret that chefs either want to, or feel pressurised to, devise menus of new and innovative dishes rather than perfect the preparation of the established repertoire. By the way, I managed okay with the columns. I am old enough to remember newspapers.

I like sauerkraut. Are you making it from scratch? I cheat. The way I cheat is to buy commercial sauerkraut, drain it, rinse it very thoroughly to get rid of that rank vinegar, then heat it gently in wine - something like a riesling - with a few juniper berries. Then, of course, you can pile all the ham and foie gras on top!

Hmmm. I'll give the wet and dry hand thing a go, but I am having trouble visualising it. I mean, when i attempt to bread the eggy thing with my dry hand, my dry hand will immediately become wet, no? OK, I'll have to try it and see. And I'll remember Jinmyo's excellent advice about plunging my hand into a bowl of acid (that was it, wasn't it?).

I sympathize. The only thing which worked for me - and it did so only occasionally - was to rack my brains for some dish or even snack which she had really enjoyed in the past and which would bring back happy memories, then try to conjure it up. You have to remember it yourself, there's no point asking. And even if you get it right once, a repetition may not be acceptable. I got high markes one day for reproducing the kind of ham sandwich she had loved in Spain - jamon serrano on a thin, crisp baguette spread rubbed with fresh tomato. Phew. Towards the end I gave up trying to cater and just let her gobble whatever came across her path! Good luck.

Yeah, I've been telling people for years that she wrote a pretty decent restaurant column in The Spectator, even before the public had noticed her chest. Good to see her writing recognized.

I wish. I was bemoaning my lack of experience of anything resembling authentic chili on another thread recently. There is a lot of interesting reading about chili and what makes a good one on this thread here.

I thought we might have a new thread on tipping. Is there any way we can send this one back to Rosie?

Matthew, I'm prone to that too. And it's always a really heavy cast-iron or Le Creuset pan, so I grasp it very firmly indeed. Yaroo! (as the fat owl of the Remove, would say...)

I used to buy the spreadable sobrasada in the Lina Stores on Brewer Street in Soho, and delicious it was. I am going back several years, but since Lina is in a Soho timewarp, I expect they still have it.

I can guarantee it's in the old Hujo's premises - they've scarcely refurbished it. On the right as you head north between the RevueBar and the Blue Posts. Hope they haven't shut down already!

An extension of the same problem - which I share - is that after I've dipped a few egg covered things into the breadcrumbs, breadcrumbs themselves start to get eggy and difficult to work with. Sometimes I have to fetch a fresh batch. I'm sure Emeril never has this issue. What's going wrong?

I will. I have usually been served a fairly moist vegetable curry as an accompaniment - does that strike you as correct, Suvir?

I adore chicken biryiani. But I've never made it. As for getting a good one in New York, there's a restaurant called Biryiani which serves a bad one. I hope we get some more responses on this thread, because it's making me hungry! Rachel, I may have misinterpreted you, but I don't think of biryiani as a side dish. But perhaps it's not the best dish for sharing, if other diners have ordered rice to accompany their meat/fish. If I was going to take a shot at making it, I would marinate chunks of lean, boneless chicken in plain yoghurt with garam masala. I would then cook it with the rice as I would a pilaff - in the oven, with a little chicken stock. I would add turmeric to the rice for colour, as well as a few cloves and cardomom pods. Seasoned of course. A little minced onion perhaps? Most of the flavor and spiciness would come from a separately cooked, quite liquid vegetable curry - onions, carrots, okra, tomatoes, etc. Well, that's probably completely inauthentic, but maybe I should make it tomorrow!

Racine? Why not Corneille? They should have just translated their first idea and called it The 100 Club. All confusion solved.

Ah, happy memories. When I was younger, I ate dinner in Rules on the strength of a returned favorite ridden by Lester Piggott. Couple opposite me were enjoying a lavish feast, which the gentleman continued right through to digestifs and a selection from the cigar humidor. He then announced he was dumping her. What a strange, almost sadistic way to do it! My goodness, were there tears before bed-time, or what?

I love the historical stuff, ahr, thanks for taking the trouble. I assume the Second Avenue deli is the joint owned by the late Abe Lebewohl, which is still going strong. Indeed, I recognize a lot of those places. The Foccacceria remains the place for pig spleen sandwiches!

Confession: when I was younger and less kitchen-savvy, I did throw water on a burning grill to put the fire out. I think I realised as the water was sort of in mid-air that I had heard this was not a good idea. The effect was spectacular. Sheet of flame right across the kitchen. Somehow it went out - I think I threw a lot of water.

No, fair enough Blind Lemon. I am sure I was brought up not to eavesdrop, and I think it is often wrong to do so. I have overheard plenty of things I wasn't meant to. But I do. You have the moral high ground!

Yes, I think it's just you, Blind Lemon. In Manhattan restaurants, you'd need to wear earplugs to avoid it. But, yes, yes we do listen, and many of my own dinner table conversations are actually about conversations we have just overheard.

F**k you!

I see you managed to fit some drinking in last night, Tommy. While I think Jaybee was just remarkably unlucky to have been overheard by that particular person, I ultimately agree with Tony Finch. It may be that people have a right to hold any views they please (there are counter-arguments, but let's stipulate that) - I don't believe they have the "right" to express those views in any manner they wish and in any place they wish. It's a long way from Jaybee's innocent anecdote, but I think most people here - in practice - would draw a line somewhere about what they were prepared to tolerate in a public place. By the way, I sort of mislaid my father's ashes. I know roughly where they are, but other members of the family have always seemed to feel that I should know with more, er, specificity.

If you want my point, I think the issues about the tipping culture in general, the size of tips expected, and how the tips get distributed, are all interesting questions. What I thought we had beaten to death was the issue of the tip being left open on a credit card slip even though it was already included - a practice so widespread that it really shouldn't mislead anyone - and the related issue of where items are printed on the bill. Yawn, indeed. Since this really isn't a New Jersey issue, why doesn't someone open up the topic on the General board? It maybe because I was raised in Europe, where tipping culture was different, but I am pretty unhappy being expected to tip a fifth or more of my bill, especially when a large proportion of that simply reflects the price of the wine. You all seem to be happy with that - including Tommy. What would make you unhappy: 30%? 40%?