Wilfrid

That can also happen with drinking sessions, which can easily last for days -or, in the case of some of my friends, years.

Sauerbraten. Love it. Did you "pickle" the beef yourself?

Thanks for the tips. The Capital sounds like a must, and the Embassy also appeals. I am hesitant about the English Garden - Corrigan's other restaurant, the Lindsay House, used to be a favorite, but it seems to have dipped noticeably in quality. Of course, it could be that he's paying more attention to the English Garden.

I recently read a NY Observer review of Il Buco which was a few weeks old. It was a generous review, and I was attracted by some of the menu items, monkfish liver and baby eels in particular. But I am nervous that it might just be a bedlam full of Village trendies with no skill in the kitchen. Anyone been?

This is the eGullet thread which makes me hungry! Last night, took the reserved breast meat from a chicken cooked with many garlic cloves - already well flavored. Sauteed some thickly sliced portobello mushrooms with chopped shallots. Added red wine, boiled, and let it simmer until the mushrooms were tender. Stirred in the chicken meat. Seasoning, a little rosemary (dry unfortunately). Resulting ragout consumed with a green salad (some crusty bread or mashed potatoes would have helped mop up the sauce).

Maschler and Meades are the first names that spring to my mind when I try to think of good British restaurant writers. The interesting thing - as I said with respect to Fay Maschler a few pages back, and it's true of Meades too - is that they are instantly recognizable. Anonymity and Jonathan Meades strikes me as an oxymoron. But they maintain integrity, and to a large degree objectivity.

Savannah indeed. Bars serving vast buckets of crayfish, shrimp and crab. Simply low country boils of shrimp, corn and the local sausage. Mmm. Oh, right, he's not going there...

Be warned. The steak I ate, which was similarly packed with tendons and repulsively chewy was on the Top Floor.

A bit of a mixture of issues being raised here. Patenting an invention is different from seeking to copyright a piece of intellectual property. I am not aware that anyone has ever tried to patent a recipe. And dishes themselves cannot be copyrighted, let alone patented. If I eat a dish at a restaurant tonight and produce, through my wizardry, exactly the same dish and serve it at my (hypothetical) restaurant tomorrow, I am not infringing anything. If I take a recipe from the first restaurant's cookbook and publish it without permission, I am a bad boy.

I nearly got there on Sunday for the Kokoschka portraits but ran out of time. Probably next weekend, but it looks like I should put a cup of coffee on my itinerary too.

Just for the record, at the dinner enjoyed by a number of eGulleters last week, described here, the water question was handled with aplomb. I did pity the waitress. When she asked if we would like bottled water, she was greeted with shrieks of laughter, and told that it was a very complicated question. However, the entire table assertively ordered plain old tap water. How proud I was. I even noticed that several glasses went undrunk. Nevertheless, when the drought comes, you'll all know who to blame.

Not only did your link work, but I thought it was a very intelligent article. Thanks.

I was luckier. Sometimes it was tapioca, but sometimes it was semolina. Variety, you see.

Ah. Is a woodchuck, then, an animal? Come to think of it, I believe there's a picture of a "critter" on the label. I don't think we have woodchucks where I come from. If you ever want me to tell you about the heideschnuck, just let me know.

Mmm, my reaction was the same as LML's - Moby Dick. I am a hearty enough carnivore, but the sheer reeking gloopiness of Melville's descriptions might but you off eating any whale products for life.

Liza. Hunters and Collectors. And do you know that a whole fresh chicken will set you back all of $2.70 in my part of town? I jointed it for Sunday dinner, then used Poumiane's recipe for chicken with loads of garlic. His timing was inadequate, the whole cloves needed longer to soften, but I ended up with a nice stack of seasoned chicken pieces, scattered with garlic cloves to suck, surrounded by unidentified salad leaves. Cheese to follow of course (pont l'eveque and spanser roterli), and a medoc cru bourgeois.

Macrosan's right, I too was raised on "frog spawn". I have been converted, however, and only recently raved about a tapioca-based sweet soup at Vicala. I will look out for it at GT with pleasure.

In a regular (non-trendy) diner, I regret to say I wouldn't be too suprised by this behavior. I work in midtown Manhattan, and you do not have the chance to linger in a busy diner at lunchtime. When the check comes, you are expected to pay it and move. Since I don't much like these places, I am happy with the deal. Stella Bella's incident was not at lunchtime, but it seems there were people waiting for tables. It's not much fun waiting for a table when you can see that people have finsihed eating, paid the check, and are just taking their time about leaving. Sorry Stella had a bad time, but just thought I'd throw in an alternative view. (I think the situation in upscale restaurants is more complicated).

I just found Woodchuck in great big bottles (quarts?) in my corner store. I bought one out of greed, but of course it goes flat quicker than the small bottles.

I eat slowly enough, and I find it necessary to do so if I am to really enjoy the food. Also, I am an only child, and I agree that people from large families have different instincts. But some of the slow eaters described in this thread are in need of treatment. I used to dine occasionally with someone who confessed to having "issues" about food. He used to slice a pea and eat it in several bites. This is pathological stuff, and would drive anyone crazy. I find that the time I annoy people is when I order a cheese plate while others take dessert. Sweet desserts get scoffed in seconds, but I can spend a good half an hour working my way around a plate of cheese. On one occasion at Artisanal, my Beloved just couldn't sit still any more and waited for me outside the restaurant! Well, I'm sorry, but cheese is serious business.

It was a great evening, and no-one who was there will be too surprised that I was laid low by a bronchial infection afterwards. Just hope I didn't give it to anyone. I second the comment on the seared foie gras. They were generous slices, and the thing Renaud does to spike it up with rosewater is unique and delicious. I also thought the pompano was streets ahead of the seab bass with potato crust, and I loved the veal which was smothered with chunks of black truffle. It's a pity the sweetbread wasn't on the menu. I am increasingly convinced Renaud is a master at timing the cooking of delicate meats. His sweetbread, like the foie gras on this menu, manages to be almost caramelising on the outside, while just the correct side of rare in the center. A lot of chefs get this wrong. Charming restaurant, although I think I found the former maitre d' somewhat jollier.

This is an appetizing thread! I never would have thought the idea of a brussel sprout pasta dish would make me hungry, but Soba Addict did it!

Good one. I ate at the Capital when Britten cooked there, and ate Chavot's food way back at a couple of the places he was at for a while. Interlude de Chavot was one (I cringe still at the name), I can't remember the other. This is one for the list.

I have a number of dining opportunities coming up in London in early May, and I need to try some new places. By new, I mean, I suppose, opened within the last two years. I used to live in London, so if the restaurant is older than that, the chances are that I've either been, or didn't want to go, or know about it but just haven't got around to it. What new delights await me? Up market and formal are fine, and there must be meat on the menu. And as an aside, has L'Auberge de Provence in te St James's Hotel closed? That was one of the unsung excellent restaurants of London, but I don't see listings for it anywhere.

It certainly is, and has formed part of a number of installations and performance pieces already!