Wilfrid

A hazardous presumption. Is Lancashire hotpot not called that in Lancashire?

The existing burger allegedly incorporates truffles, but has no shavings. The picture on the Today show this morning, which made Katie concerned for her health, indicated liberal shavings. Since a small black truffle can set you back sixty bucks, the price doesn't seem unfair. I could be persuaded that creating the dish in the first place is decadent, but it'd be harder to sell it much cheaper.

Robert, not wishing to repeat myself too much, but are you confident of being able to point to the art work when it comes to literature - drama especially?

Just wanted us all running around, right?

Correct. I am surprised at Mr Liza's aversion to broth, though. All the Irish Stews I've had have been quite liquid.

They are getting national publicity with these stunts/dishes. NBC Today covered the Old Homestead burger yesterday and the dB burger this morning. I can't tell you what the verdict was. Katie Couric made a comment of such banal idiocy about her arteries that I was forced to switch back to Despierta America, where at least the inanity is intentional.

I am totally with Andy on this one. The key fact I don't see on the thread is that traditional Irish stew is a white stew, not a brown stew. You'll see it described as such in standard works. You don't want to be browning and caramelising things. It's much more like a blanquette. The cream is not, I am pretty sure, traditional, but it's a evolution consistent with the logic of the dish. That's not to say Simon's dish wouldn't be tastier. Many find blanquettes bland. But they are what they are.

Steve Jenkins to moderate eGullet Cheese Board. That would be a cheerful piece of news. Gavin, if I have time I will. If I have time...

Without agreeing with everything Oraklet says - and I think that hierarchy is somewhat idiosyncratic - I think that's not a bad stab at identifying some of the qualities which are common to these very different art forms. They have the potential to move us, to stir our memories, to reflect our identities as individuals and as a culture, and to remind us of the dialectic of mortality and immortality. I would want to broaden the concept os being "moved" by art, because I always feel that key genres like comedy, farce and the picaresque are too easily overlooked. Can't find the right words just now. I do think some of these potentialities are plainly shared by gastronomy. Perhaps the important disanalogy is that gastronomy cannot in any real sense be curated.

Just to flesh things out a little, in addition to cheeses, they tell you where to get tonka beans, mangosteen, puffer fish, hemp (although the latter seem to be legal, just potentially dangerous) and absinthe. They also discuss illegally shot wild game, but don't tell you where to get it. The article identifies by name two chefs and a supermarket apparently involved in breaking the law. I admit I'm surprised at the tonka bean use. There are some real health questions there. Here's Steve Jenkins's very apposite quote: "I'm not saying a damn thing to you. You're doing the city a disservice with this piece. The government knows who the usual suspects are, and after this they're going to do surgical strikes. All the people in the city who like artisanal food products are going to lose out." The journalist responsible for the disservice is Reed Tucker. I'm surprised you lot aren't more angry about this.

I thought we'd discussed this problem a long time ago, but I can't find the thread. There is a danger of it melting, but if you want to insert it into a dish, why not a Tournedos Rossini? Or just put slices of it on top of a sizzling steak? Also, consider the famous Huitres Foch of Antoine's in New Orleans. I expect their recipe is a closely guarded secret, but if you toast bread, spread it thickly with your foie gras, top that with some fried oysters, then bathe the whole in red wine sauce, you'll be on the right lines.

Of course, of course.

I am sure there are many people who love Paris who don't have any particular interest in the food. I feel more strongly about Barcelona in that respect, but I can see it with Paris too. I'd live in Barcelona even if the food were consistently poor. And I don't suppose I'll find much disagreement here if I suggest that people visit London for reasons other than food.

Fundamental questions, Robert. Assuming for a moment that cooking is indeed an art form, my inclination is to say that the recipe isn't the art work, just as the score isn't the art work in the case of music. Maybe you mean something different when you refer to the chef's "conception". I should have thought that if anything was the art work, it was the final dish. However, I observed earlier that it's much harder than people to think to identify "the art work" when it comes to established forms like drama, and even painting. Is a reproduction an art work, and if not why not?

Something to which I've alluded several times; sameness of texture in several dishes puts me off. In upscale New York restaurants, the tendency is toward soft and melting. A piece of foie gras, followed by some slow-poached fish, followed by a filet of meat, with smooth sauces and foams and purees as garnishes - I end up wanting to bite something. Similarity in saucing is another downfall. Food writers caution against this, but good restaurants still commit the fault. A series of rich red wine/demi glace reductions is about the worst in this category. Personally, I don't like more than one sauce the same color either. I have had more than one green sauce in menus at Union Pacific and Blue Hill. In fact, I sometimes feel that one green sauce is too many. As for the order of dishes, I've tried Susur Lee's notion of working from heaviest to lightest in his eponymous Toronto restaurant, and this reassured me that the traditional direction, light to heavy, is best. And to the extent possible, the selection of dishes should mesh with an intelligent progression in the wines sampled. Of course, there are going to be exceptions, like a sweet wine with a foie gras appetizer, but champagne to white wine to red wine makes sense to me. A tasting menu I ate at March in 2001, with wine pairing, had me jumping from white wine to sherry to sake, and it all got a little confusing.

It is a lousy mag at the editorial level. Same as Zagat, it's a very handy phone book. Also, unlike Zagat, calendar.

I think you put it better than me, yes. I can only accept what people here say if they tell me the laws won't be enforced. Fair enough. if I was a lawyer, which I'm not, and a client asked me if they should make those kinds of statements to a reporter, I'd tell them not to be crazy (I suppose I'd also advise them to stop breaking the law). I think in addition I'm annoyed with Time Out for putting these people in the (potential) firing line for the sake of a lame, wiseass article.

Oh yes, Lillipilli on King hits the spot. Possum!!! I am thinking of e-mailing them and enquiring about a tasting menu.

This is one I've posted before; my paraphrase of some cooking described by Manuel Vasquez Montalban in his thriller The Angst-Ridden Executive. I was thinking of putting it on the reputation maker thread. i think it would work well with an unfatty duck, and the liver and heart can be chopped up and included in the slurry. If you have the neck, treat it like the rest of the duck. "Roast your duck lightly until it is just done. Meantime, fry chopped onions and mushrooms (by all means add truffles). When the roast has cooled, take off the breast, legs (wings if worth eating) and reserve. Scrape any other meat off the carcass and chop any innards; add these to the onion/mushroom mixture together with juices from the bird, stoned, chopped olives and chopped, good quality bacon (good ham would do, or pancetta - but look out for saltiness) and a few breadcrumbs. The aim of this mixture is to make a kind of slurry to coat the reserved pieces of meat - not a wet sauce to pour over, or a dry paste - you want to moisten the meat and have the tasty bits of mushroom, olive and meat debris evenly scattered. If you were cooking a duck, you would have plenty of juice; with game birds, you may want to add a little white wine to moisten the slurry (too wet, of course add more breadcrumbs). Arrange the reserve meat in a baking dish and cover it with the slurry. Bake in a medium oven until the meat is perfectly tender and infused with all those flavors."

Just to clarify, I was concerned about the possible harm to the careers of the chefs quoted. Let's just hope they knew they were speaking on the record. As I said, a serious expose for the benefit of the public health might have made sense, although I largely agree with Ellen about such laws. But this just seems irresponsible. The cover gives you some idea of the tone of the piece:

I PMed you enough already today. MWAH!

I'm sending it to my boy in the army.

Apparently I should calm down and forget about it. Edit: Ah, it just occurred to me that people might want to read the story before offering an opinion. Unconventional round here, but makes a kind of sense.

My Italian's more Italian than your Italian.

They all use the same word for "eight", though, right?