Wilfrid

Don't mind me, carry on.

Great. Chicken or tuna. How I love American gastronomy.

My goodness, there's an awful lot left in the BM anyway. I have long advocated that it charge an admission fee, along with the National Gallery and other similar institutions. It's normal practice in the States. Although the Met, and perhaps other museums, call it a 'voluntary contribution', and indeed you don't have to pay, I suspect almost everyone does.

My understanding has always been that 'Beijing' is now considered a more accurate transliteration of the Chinese name for their capital city than 'Peking'. However, we don't always update names to keep abreast of etymological, historical or political changes. Siamese cats are not now known as Thai cats, for example. Rhodesian ridgebacks are not, I believe, preferably called Zimbabwean ridgebacks. Not precise analogies I know, but it indicates that one needs to decide whether 'Peking duck' is the proper name of the dish, or whether it is a phrase which refers to the dish and includes the proper name of the Chinese capital. If the latter, there might be a case for updating to 'Beijing'. I doubt if there's a right answer.

I admit it didn't cross my mind, I think because I assumed it was meant to be that way. I would send something back if it had not been cooked or made properly. I mean, it's not like I wanted them to do something to it and then give it back to me; and it put me off the other desserts on the menu, perhaps unfairly.

The BM has moved beyond yellowing card indexes. But Blind Lemon can address that better than me.

Fair enough. At least I can pronounce it without one.

Time does not permit - right now, anyway - the lengthy reply JAZ's post deserves. In short, I think it is common for philosophical works of aesthetics to address art works and our experience of them rather than the artist's process of creation. No doubt there are worthy exceptions. I am sure the main reason is that few professional philosophers are artists, so they find it more convenient to address aesthetic experience, to which they are privy, than the creative experience, to which they are not. Still at the disadvantage of not having read Dr Korsmeyer's book, if she takes a "symbolic" function to be essential to the art work, many will disagree. Certainly in painting and sculpture, many artists will insist that the work, in its plasticity, is what it is, and that it doesn't "stand for" or provide a "symbol" for something else. You will find the same argument presented by some poets, to say nothing of the performing arts.

This being New York, I'll bet whoever answers the phone drops an inappropriate glottlestop on the double 't'.

Yes, or your telephone number. Even when you're paying cash. When making non-essential purchases, I sometimes simply refuse to give any information. They get really upset. Also, one isn't plagued by cold-calling telephone marketers in the UK. You can get two or three calls an evening here (I screen calls). I hope the UK hasn't changed in that respect?

The US obsession with "ID" is indeed irksome. People are always asking to see my driving license, which give me the opportunity of entertaining them by explaining I've never had one. I still get asked for ID in some bars, and I can assure you I don't look under 21. And as I said earlier, some stores ask to see ID when you are returning a purchase. That one bewilders me.

This very quickly gets silly, because the inference from Dodger's position is that everything sold in a bottle calling itself wine is of equal merit, and people happen to prefer some wines to others. While it's possible to disagree about particular wines, it's impossible to have a sensible conversation on the basis that no wine is better or worse than any other.

Didn't it! I looked at the menu last time I was over, and the prices have soared. I think you can pay eight quid or more for an entree now. I always said I could identify anything cooked in Jimmy's kitchen in a blind tasting - all the food there had a very distinctive taste. Meat, chips and salad. I wonder if the same waiters still work there. And the wine... No, I'd go back out of nostalgia, but I'm not disagreeing with Simon's evaluation. Right, carry on...

No, no. Restaurants, cuisine and travel - emphasis added. We're fine. You should know about MOMA - is it just that only a limited part of their collection was ever on display? The Tate Modern is vast in comparison (to the old MOMA, anyway).

Pretty much what I said in the post. Had my server invited comment, I would have enjoyed telling them. IHowever, I wouldn't have told them what the sauce reminded me of. I can't even post that here (well, I could, but...).

Or stay at home and use dried beans, because they taste better.

I remember him now. He is a "funny" "inventor". I shall report Simon for derailing the topic.

Never darken my door again.

Roast guinea fowl with apple and cheese "plaques". I ate a dish like this in Normandy years ago, and have always wanted to re-create. Never saw a recipe, and couldn't figure out how the cheesy apple slices could be made to adhere to the breast of the bird. Looking at guinea fowl in Union Square market, I had the genius insight that if I halved the guinea fowl, and roasted it skin side up, the plaques wouldn't fall off. I roasted the half bird until almost done, then covered it with paper-thin interleaved slices of apple and Brie. under the broiler to finish it. I dunno, but it wasn't right. Those French people know something, don't they? And I was reminded that the quality of birds at the Quattro stand is unreliable. Never mind, it kept me busy.

How does Foyle's still exist? Okay, the TONY web-site is not to be relied on. There are 66 OB and OOB productions currently running according to this week's issue (that's the one with the corkscrew on the cover, for all you fact checkers out there). Cabaret, since I was asked, I would define very roughly as song and patter, either solo or in a small revue format. What's key is that it is listed separately from jazz and comedy, despite the overlap of content. Edit; Who is Wilf Lunn?

Especially towards the end. (oops) Now I'll go and annoy Barnes & Noble by reading a copy of Time Out. They deserve it. They asked me to produce ID last week when I was exchanging a cheap book for a more expensive one. Arses.

Can you bring some sandwiches too?

Since I did do a little research yesterday, I thought I'd share the findings. I happened to have recent Time Out's for the same week in London and New York. While the listings aren't comprehensive, I think they represent a reasonable thumbnail guide to what's happening. I don't think anyone queried my earlier assertion about the vitality of New York's art scene, and indeed New York turns out to have about twice as many exhibition spaces, outside the museums and large institutions, as London. I wasn't so sure how theater would compare, but when I added up the off and off-off Broadway spaces and compared the analogous London categories, I discovered New York did have a greater quantity of activity - about sixty active venues compared with forty-five. Comparing the quality would be a difficult exercize - I'm sure there are good shows in both cities. Incidentally, this didn't include cabaret venues, which are separately listed. Here New York must outstrip London about ten to one. There are no London cabaret listings in Time Out.

Finally made it to Ouest. I liked my appetizer, described as a "souffleed omelette". It looked like a yellow sponge cake, except that the sponge was two slices of fairly firm egg (reminiscent of tamago, the egg slice served over sushi rice), sitting on a pool of Hollandaise, and the filling was a black truffle sauce. Imaginative and tasty. I wanted to try one of the braised dishes. Reading the list of entrees didn't excite me; very much a meat and veg place with few frills. So, I ended up ordering the tripe. Maybe a mistake; I eat a lot of tripe, and that makes me fussy. This was stewed with tomatoes, and helped out with little chunks of smoked pork loin. The texture was adequately, but not inordinately, tender. Best tripe dish in town is still Le Cirque's Tripes a l'Armagnac, which admittedly is at least twice the price. With a side of mash, it was certainly filling. Watch out for the martinis. I ordered a French martini (a dash of Lillet in there) while perusing the menu, and I was served at least half a pint. Generous, but it meant I didn't drink much wine with the meal. Dessert. For once we enter the category of "really nasty" - the faint of heart should move on. Described as a pumpkin cheesecake, a glob of densely textured, bready pumpkin turned up under some sort of cloying white sauce. Whatever liquid surrounded it had a very distinctive kind of viscosity which has its place in life, but not at the table. Quite disgusting. Sadly, since I had mentally composed a few remarks about it, no-one asked why I didn't eat it. Like Aix down the road, the prices are attractive: $85 for three courses and drinks. My server seemed exceptionally impressed with himself; why, I couldn't say.

In fact, there is no wine available by the glass. Not one - which, given the fact Otto bills itself as an enoteca as well as pizzeria, is kind of annoying. The 25cl measure is the smallest they will pour. Despite being a lush, I didn't really want a third of a bottle with my early Saturday lunch, and I felt sorry for the barman who had to refuse a glass of wine to a series of solo eaters. The bar area certainly looks nice, and they'll be able to pack a crowd around those high marbles counters, but on Saturday morning it was thankfully tranquil. The food? Yes, I've eaten pizza in Italy within recent memory, and the style is authentic, except that I found the dough very under-seasoned. Get ready for some serious chewing as well; it is thin, tough, and I'm not sure it's very "pliable". It does have the kind of char I would expect on an Italia pie; sort of black blisters here and there. I don't get the division of pizza list into "Otto" pizzas and "classical" pizzas. Quattro formaggi strikes me as fairly classical, and that was on the Otto list. I ordered it, deliberately looking for a fairly straightforward pie rather than one of the more imaginative efforts. Cabrales asked a very pertinent question earlier about whether toppings could be mixed on the same pie; since the answer seems to be no, this - along with the wine policy - makes the deal a little unattractive to singles. Maybe it's just me and pizza, but I was bored with the sameness of the pie after the first couple of slices. One of the cheeses was enjoyably assertive (I didn't note the names), but the others were fairly bland. Also, pizza is a dish which lends itself pre-eminently to being served on a pan or hot metal plate. These are served on regular dinner plates (that was the size; the pizzas certainly didn't strike me as "very small"), and guess what - it was stone cold by the time I'd eaten half. I did enjoy a beet, horseradish and walnut salad, which seemed to have a little splash of orange juice in the dressing. Refreshing. I'd be interested to go back and try the salumi and some side dishes.