gingerbeer

here is heston's full little chef menu... http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guar...porary_menu.pdf

Although service can be abrupt to the point of rudeness (particularly , it sometimes seems to me , to non Farsi speakers) and there's often a lengthy queue for a table as it's always packed with large Iranian family groups, Behesht (1084 Harrow Rd) delivers enormous portions of pretty decent Persian staples and bargain prices -starters around £2.95 , various khoresht from around £5.50 and grilled kebabs from £6 , all for vast portions. They dont serve alcohol or allow you to take your own , so I mostly use it for takeways - having the sabzi paneer as a starter always leaves me with enough fresh herbs to last at least a week. I've also enjoyed a couple of meals recently at a little Iranian cafe on Upper Street, directly opposite the fire station. gethin ← Oooh that is pretty inexpensive and sounds good! I must try it.

in addition to the blog, Scheib (along with Andrew Friedman) wrote White House Chef, a very, very interesting book about his time working for the Clinton and Bush families. ← i was just about to mention that book! it was really interesting. i wonder why they are getting rid of cristeta?

Does Asian include Indian?

Thank you so much for your really thoughtful answer! I think sex and food are definitely correlated... there are some obvious examples, like, from what I've put on the blog so far, Goblin Market and The Leopard, but I'm curious as to why food is so exciting in children's literature, too. Food is incredibly sensual. And that's good advice... definitely worth thinking about for me... thank you again.

While I've often given people the benefit of the doubt when I find out they haven't tried a particular cuisine because they didn't have anyone to help guide them through new tastes, I've actually come across several people who won't eat middle eastern cuisine because "that's where the terrorists come from". I wish I could use the smiley face icon to indicate that I'm joking. Unfortunately, I'm not. No amount of intelligent discourse would change their minds. ← Wow... I'm Muslim, and that's just tragic to me. Firstly because not everyone from the Middle East is Muslim, and if these people are eating at Pakistani, African or many other 'ethnic' cuisine restaurants they might be eating 'terrorist' food. Not to mention that that Middle Eastern cuisine is excellent, and so varied. They're the ones missing out, I guess.

Me too. He seems to be keeping his head down, but he's pretty good.

What about Nandos? Nandos in South Africa and Australia is delicious, but for some reason it's disappointing in the UK. I am ashamed to say that I love KFC.

I love: - Nigella. I want her to feed me. I also always cook out of her books and it's always no fuss and it always works. I also love that she's genuinely greedy. - Lidia. I like watching her cook, I always learn a lot from her. Again, she's genuine and sincere about the food. - Madhur Jaffrey. To me, one of the classics. - Tom Colicchio, he's awesome. - Nigel Slater - Hugh F-W. I have a soft spot for: - Anthony Bourdain. Sometimes he makes me cringe, but he's great. - Jamie Oliver. Aw, bless. In his little heart I think he really does care about what people eat. - Gordon Ramsay. A lot of what he does (the million shows, etc) is completely unnecessary - but I've eaten at his restaurant a few times and the food was great. I think on Kitchen Nightmares - the British not the American version - you can see that he really does know what the hell he's doing. - Anthony Worral Thompson. Is he always drunk and slurring? I don't like - I actually love watching Ready Steady Cook... but Ainsley Harriot is the WORST. Why does everything he makes have to be in 'less than 10 minutes' or whatever? I swear to God once I saw him make a dessert in less than a minute and he glued two digestive biscuits together with honey. - Delia. She makes me feel unloved and depressed. - Rachel Ray. I've actually never seen her make anything that I wanted to eat. Also 'evoo' makes me want to stab myself in the head.

This is probably totally irrelevant, but I've only seen what I think are old episodes of this show, I only manage to catch it when I go home to stay with my parents for a bit.. so... did anyone see the Saudi Arabia episode? That was my favourite. I feel that A.B. experienced something really unusual, even for him, and had his views of another culture actually changed by engaging with it. I respect him a lot for that one episode. Also, the fried chicken looked delicious, as well as the family dinner at the end. Mmm.

I was so sad that Richard left. He seemed really cool, and also talented, I thought. By making the smores he was just trying to appeal to their frozen banana thing... I thought that Arianne (or Aryan, as Padma calls her) would go before watching this episode - I was really put off by her admission in the first episode that she hasn't eaten Middle Eastern food before... it's not exactly an obscure cuisine and you'd think that any chef would be curious about it, especially living somewhere cosmopolitan. Also she just doesn't seem that good. I guess the turkey saved her. I also really like Radhika, I think she has an interesting point of view. Was she the one who made the vegan stuffing? Who was that?

I was going to say Giaconda too, I haven't been but it seems to be the place to investigate. If you want some cakes and tea, though, Maison Bertaux in Greek Street, in Soho, about a 5 minute walk from Tottenham Crt Rd has amazing pastries; the Foyles bookshop cafe (just behind Tottenham Crt Rd) has a nice relaxed atmosphere and good coffee, though the cakes are a bit wrong; and the Konditor & Cook cafe in the Soho Curzon cinema are all good bets. Oh, and Flat White in Berwick Street has great coffee too! And of course Fernandez & Wells in Beak Street. For food, some places that I always find reliable and pretty delicious are Chinese Experience (great dim sum) on Shaftesbury Avenue; and Barrafina in Frith Street. There is also Abeno for okonomiyaki in Museum Street, just near the British Museum. One of the most curious places you can go to is Gay Hussar in Greek Street, for Hungarian food. For snacks, go upstairs to the Brazilian cafe on Oxford Street just next to TCR tube station, the one called Brasil by Kilo that is above a phone shop (yes really, don't be scared) and buy some hot pão de queijo (Brazilian cheese rolls) and a can of guarana. Also, cream puffs from Beard Papa on the corner of Wardour Street and Oxford Street are a guilty pleasure. You can also always do way worse than get some very decent and cheap falafel at Maoz in Old Compton Street. Piada in Frith Street is also really lovely, it serves piadine (sandwiches made with Italian flatbread), which are all delicious and full of top quality ingredients, the hot chocolate is great, and the guy who works there is so nice - he'll always bring over a plate of brownies or macaroni or another treat for you for free. It's surprisingly inexpensive too. You can sit there for ages and read or talk and no one bothers you. Ok, I'll stop now OH!! And, with my excellent comprehension skills, I just realised you'd already been!! Well, next time

I've lived in London for 7 years and in that time have eaten a lot of Iranian food.. but I can never figure out which one I prefer. Does anyone have any thoughts? The ones I'm thinking of (which in my opinion are the best ones I've been to) are: Mohsen (Warwick Road) Yas (Olympia) Alounak (Russell Gardens) Alounak has the best atmosphere (and the best bread), but I think the food is better and fresher at Mohsen - for example the baghali polo with the lamb shank there was far more tender, light and addictive than Alounak's), though the menu is smaller and group dining is more difficult. Yas can go either way in terms of food, and is quite expensive, but the food is strangely comforting, and it's open until 3am.

Oh dear.. I've been longing to go here. Just as everyone else and their mother has. Incidentally, a not bad but overlooked place hidden in Soho is Prix Fixe - has anyone been there? It's quite reliable, and always provides a pretty good hot lunch. It's also almost always empty.

Hello everyone. It's really nice to meet you all, I've been meaning to join eG for a long time and am so glad I've finally done so. Part of this is that I also just started a new blog - devoted to food porn, but with a slight difference. It's a daily posting of (deliciously pornographic) descriptions of food from literature - novels, poetry, etc (the link is in my signature). It's only a few days old, but I'd be very grateful if anyone has any suggestions regarding it. There is another thread devoted to this in another section, but I also wanted to ask this: 1. Have you ever cooked something inspired by fictional food, that you read about? 2. Do you think posting recipes for some of the items in the blog would be worthwhile, and something that people would be interested in? 3. Do you think that textual food porn needs to be posted with visual food porn? I was thinking of, for example, posting pictures of items (if they can be found) that are mentioned in the text... although this might ruin it - where for example could I find a picture of a macaroni pie with burnished crusts, exuding cinnamon and sugar - as in The Leopard's dinner party scene? Suggestions?

Wow! I actually came here (I'm brand new) to ask this exact question! I just started a blog devoted to this very thing (daily descriptions of food or 'food scenes' from novels, etc) and was wondering if anyone had any good examples... this post is wonderful.