Wilfrid

There must be a significant difference between duck and chicken, and I don't believe any of the answers on the thread so far. Any experts out there?

I am obsessive about this to the degree time allows. I grew up in a house where all the nice things, including the entire dining room, were saved up for special occasions. It's a common British trait, probably specific to a certain class which I hesitate to define. I resolved, as Peter said above, that life is too short for such inhibitions. I try to set a formal dinner table every night we eat at home. Often, only I show up to the meal (no, I don't set extra places anyway, I'm not quite that barmy). I am currently inhibited by a grasping toddler, and one concession I have made is to abandon table cloths for the time being. I used to lay an ordinary white linen cloth every evening. Instead, I am using some (mock-)tapestry covers. These are not table mats as such. You find them in lots of stores on Fifth and Broadway - knockoffs of pieces of French-style tapestry with pictures of cowherds or lords and ladies. Do you know what I mean? Anyway, there's a size about 12 inches by 12 inches which serves as the main place cover, and there's a smaller size which can be placed on the side for bottles and glasses. Wine bottle is always placed in a polished silver coaster. I use some sturdy French wine glasses for everyday use, and save the elegant fragile stuff for guests. Plain silver flatware from Bloomingdale's. Big, solid white dishes from Williams and Sonoma - their brasserie line. For guests, we initially set the table with some nice Spode plates - game bird designs - and then also use those for one of the courses. After trying various fancy options, we settled for pepper and salt in very traditional shakers with dimpled glass and silver tops. You understand, I am going for a very traditional, even stuffy look here. Napkins. I always use linen napkins, but my current selection is boring. I have been looking longingly at the varieties available in the Vintage wine store in Soho. I also came across a store in Soho last week which offered a range of tableware by a specific name designer - and dammit, the name is escaping me. Male - it's the name of the store, if you see what I mean. What do you all think about candles? Now the heat has eased, I am using harvest candles with grape designs from Illuminations. I have a dilemma there. I like to eat by candlelight, but if I'm alone I need electric light to read. Difficult one. A second-hand, six seater wooden table has served us well for a few years, but we plan to buy a new one next year. Pierre Deux on Madison had a cherrywood table I had to be dragged away from weeping, but it was round, and I do find that round tables cut into my embonpoint somewhat. Anyway, whatever we get will be wooden and sturdy. If I had an hour to spare, I'd probably dress for dinner too. Okay, I'll come quietly, officer.

The notion of Plotnicki and Whiting sitting in silent contemplation for a period of more than, oh, about two minutes, is amusing me.

That's going to happen at some point whether they shoot me or not.

I suspect my appetite would be spoilt, but I would try to force down a few oysters, a slice of pate with a fresh baguette, some boudin noir with fried apples, perhaps some grilled sole, a roast grouse, pommes allumettes, a nice offal entree - probably tripe - followed by cheddar, stilton and a piece of raw milk camembert. Burgundies, of course, and a bottle of Calvados to follow. I suppose it's a bit posh.

Well, I think you would have to let people know very clearly in advance. It is not sufficiently common practice in England for one to assume it will be accepted without demur. Basildog does not want phrases like "daylight robbery" bouncing off the walls.

I liked dessert last night. I tried just baked fresh green figs without mucking them about. No sugar, no pastry/cobbler/crumble topping, no cream. Then ate them plain. Ultra-sweet. And the great texture as the goo with the seeds oozes out. Oh, yes. A glass of Pedro Ximenez would have helped, had one been to hand.

This came thudding out of the mailbox yesterday, with a Mario Batali mugshot on the cover. Big fat thing - the magazine, I mean, of course. In a change from previous years, the best restaurant listing has become a pull out booklet - "Gourmet Guide to America's Best Restaurants". Since last year's issue is in the closed stacks of my library up in the Bronx, I can't make a direct comparison right now, but it seems a much less numerous collection of restaurants than usual. It is ordered by city, as ever, with one "business" restaurant, one "buzz", a "favorite" spot and a bunch of "neighborhood" places. No editorial information in the booklet (maybe it's hidden somewhere in the magazine) about selection procedures, but is there ever? New York is respresented by ADNY as a "favorite" and Babbo as the "buzz". Not unreasonable, although the comment that ADNY's kitchen is "uneven" is a heck of sideswipe considering the cost. The choice of "business" restaurant is truly creepy - the Four Seasons. What do these guys have going on? - a Wine Spectator cover last year, and now leading off the Gourmet selection of best New York restaurants. Hocus pocus. Cafe Boulud, Washington Park and Pearl Oyster Bar are neighborhood places, which says a lot about New York neighborhoods. Elsewhere, the trend I detect, which I think is authentic, is a downgrading of more traditional places, offering conservative versions of Franco-American haute cuisine (along with white tablecloths and formal service), in favor of brasher, simpler joints with modern design and a higher degree of casualness. Rover's in Seattle is out, as is Goodfellow's in Minneapolis. le Bec Fin survives, however. The city-based concept is bad news for any great restaurant which is the only one in town, as well as for any restaurants out of town altogether. Unless my reading is letting me down, which is possible, the French Laundry is nowhere to be found. Other oddities: I wouldn't say Norman's in Coral Gables was a neighborhood place - more a destination restaurant. And the New Orleans selection is off the wall - nowhere obvious (no Bayona, no Windsor Castle, no Commander's Palace, no Emeril outlets); indeed, nowhere I've ever heard of! And some might feel that certain cities shouldn't have been overlooked entirely - Dallas, Kansas City, for instance. Oh well, browse and enjoy. Is it online? I don't know, I am not here to spoonfeed you.

No. Oh, there may be in the minds of some writers, but in practice, in English kitchens, no. I should think shepherd's pie is far more frequently made with beef than with lamb, for a very good reason. Ready-minced beef is easier to buy.

That last bit made me hungry, Bux. Ketchup in shepherd's pie? Pfui. On the vinegary version, it's conceivable that someone stirred some HP-type sauce into the meat itself, thus making it vinegary. I have also known extremely bad restaurants try to freshen up stale meat by chucking some vinegar on. Certainly shouldn't be vinegary. Eat with peas, of course. Of course. Putting other veggies in the meat may deliver a dish more to your individual liking, but the more you do so (mushrooms, for example), the more I hesitate to call it shepherd's pie. Cottage pie, maybe.

Like Felonius, I was always scared off by the tacky look of the places. Zagat lists five New York locations, and is still calling them Dallas BBQ (dunno if Zagat;s update their web-site more than annually). I should give one a try.

If I was going to have just one dining experience in Rio, what should I go for? I did read Anil's reports. Anyone else been down there? If it came to it, I would be more interested in eating something which reflected Brazilian cuisine than just a good local version of the global cuisine you can eat anywhere (foie gras, salmon, beef). Thanks.

In Nina's absence, can I do the correcting? It's shepherd's pie. Hopefully a moderator (other than Andy Lynes, who spells it five different ways) might correct the thread title. Traditional shepherd's pie uses minced meat - usually beef, some argue for lamb - browned briefly in a pan, then braised in a casserole in just a little water (it sheds a lot of fat) or beef stock, with finely chopped onions. If you use water, add a beef stock cube. No other vegetables are necessary. Prepare mashed potatoes separately. When the meat is done - and drain the fat off if necessary - spread the potatoes about an inch thick over the top and slip under a grill until the potatoes are just slightly crisp and golden. There are many variants, but that's basically it. You can braise the meat in red wine, or you can top the potatoes with a little cheese (too rich for me). Bad versions often rely on extra-cheap caterer's mince, or in the worst cases reconstituted mash. Bleeeuch.

Indon't believe the creature designated "scampi" by the Italians is in fact shrimp. Perhaps someone can enlighten us. Even Dr Balic, whatever he thinks of Elvis Presley?

I have to "chip" in ( ) as this is one of my favorites. Since it takes dinner orders late (midnight?) I often eat there after a late arrival on the day flight from New York. I was last there about four or five weeks ago. Ate razor clams with chorizo, where they hadn't got the timing absolutely right - they were a little tough. Then excellent grilled plaice with the pommes allumettes. I usually order a savoury - roe on toast (easy on the capers) but this time I had something sweet and gooey called an Eton Mess. One disappointment; they seem to have stopped offering wine by the 50cl "pot". That was a decent supper measure, I thought. But what a very sound place it is.

Hyperbole But I am reading all this with great interest, not least because my need for a trip to either France or Spain is becoming desperate. I had to look it up, but I see 1 Euro is 1 dollar today (give or take some small change). So $30 for three courses is indeed cheap. I am interested in the notion that the chef might do better with a $50 set meal. I think that for my less extravagant meals on a Paris trip I would choose to eat at quite different places from Mr P. I would be looking for more traditional French bistro food rather than, necessarily, inventive cooking. *Would you all say that the traditional repertoire, at modest prices, has seen a significant decline too? *In fact, I was fantasizing last night about basing an eating tour around some of the places in this book, (although one or two I have been to before have been hugely disappointing).

I am thinking I need to go and see the Victorian Nudes at the BAM, despite poor reviews. And maybe a clam belly or too on the way home

If you pour cold wine into an already hot saucepan and slam the lid down, the whole thing explodes.

Bad luck, Martin. Steven, I am nowhere near as low as $3.99 a bottle for cooking wine. I have, in the past, tried those unspeakable wines sold in supermarkets at those kinds of prices, but they make unspeakable sauces too. Are you talking liquor store wines, but just very cheap. Think I can get them in Manhattan (K&D I don't know, but I guess it's UES)? And thanks for the freezing tip, which hadn't occurred to me.

My usual practice, but that's what started me fretting. I used too much cooking, and then got thirsty before I'd finished my cheese. Open two bottles?

Everything else I understood I could eat that kind of meal every night for the rest of my life.

Two bison strip steaks, as Beloved is on a diet. One got a southwestern rub (ready made, Dean & Deluca), the other got pebble-dashed with crushed black peppercorns. A nice side of pinto beans braised with onions and pieces of smoked slab bacon. And some green beans to ward of scurvy. The last of the cheddar to the follow with raisin-cinnamon bread from Tompkins Square greenmarket.

Fat Geezer mentioned this on the quick gravy thread, and it was already on my mind. I use a lot of wine in cooking (pan sauces, reductions, braising liquid), and was disgruntled recently at the quantity of perfectly drinkable Shiraz which got used up making a reduction. I know not to use ghastly, undrinkable wine in cooking - if the wine is sour and vinegary, it will make a sour and vinegary sauce - but on the other hand, to paraphrase John Arlott, one does feel mean about adding Lafite of a good year to the onion soup. How do you strike a balance between quality and thrift? Are there wines to avoid cooking with? How big a role does wine play in your kitchen?

The brioche toast came out warm and wrapped up. Since the regular bread was cold, my Beloved snaffled it to scoop up her foie gras. I read a French poem which mentioned foie gras yesterday, and it had been translated as "liver paste". Shudder. Next time I have a planned dinner at a table at Craft, I plan to ask for hot plates. How difficult can that be?