lesliec

Kent, Spanish buses are pretty good. Alsa is their big company, or at least one of the biggies.

Amazon Canada's still showing 14 April for me (ordered October). Can my stress levels survive this? I'm sure it's worse than the approach of Christmas for a six-year-old.

Great report, Tazerowe - thanks. In Santiago a few years back (10, in fact!) I found the most magnificent steak in a restaurant in c/Fonseca, just down from the cathedral. I remember several restaurants along there had both sample monster steaks and huge, ugly monkfish in the windows. Wifey and I will be in San Sebastian later this year. Sounds like the sidreria might be worth a look for something different. Thanks again for telling us about your trip.

A baby petrol-powered generator? Although they've probably been in high demand ...

Interesting topic, Chris. I think my short answer is 'probably not'. I can confidently state I've never had a home-made wine that came close in quality to a 'real' one. However, the longer answer involves all the things you've mentioned in your original post; years of tradition (and practice), the particular minerals and/or flavours in the local water, the varieties of fruit you use. I wonder also whether scale doesn't contribute (positively) to quality. Once you have a recipe you're happy with, I suspect it's easier to replicate it reliably with several hundred litres of product than it is with ten or twenty (I confess ignorance of the quantities commonly produced by home brewers, but you understand what I'm saying). I imagine somebody at home can often produce something very good, and occasionally exceptional. 'Consistently exceptional' is probably a full-time job.

Aember, you're a genius! Inspired by your last few posts, I grated some cold butter into a half-quantity basic recipe, left it to sit while we went shopping then shaped/baked when we got home. It's brilliant - I wouldn't describe it as 'fluffy' but it's a little lighter than the straight recipe and the crust is delicious. Next time (and there'll be a next time) I'll make smaller loaves rather than the single 'normal' size one to change the crust/crumb ratio in favour of crust. Thanks for the idea.

[font="Trebuchet MS"]Similar to Beebs for me, I think. Although I can't say I've never bought anything I've sampled in a supermarket, I'm much more likely to go with something sampled at one of my favourite suppliers (those who visited my foodblog on eG last month may remember me waxing lyrical in particular about samples at Ontrays). And farmers' markets and the like often have samples of things I'm likely to buy.

Nice! If I understood the article, the chef's favourite knives went to France to be fitted into the case while 'months passed'. How did he manage without them? Or - horror! - could it be his special knives aren't that special?

Sounds like they have some issues with each other, but I'm not sure why the rest of us should care. Sous vide a shortcut? Ya think??

A recent find has been to substitute 50% vodka/50% limoncello when a recipe calls for citrus vodka. We tried this first on a White Orchid, one of the recipes that came with some Domain de Canton ginger liqueur. I don't have the proportions to hand, but I think they're something like two parts citrus vodka/one part Domain de Canton/one part cranberry juice. I confess we've never actually had citrus vodka, but the limoncello version is wonderfully rich. Sit down before consuming!

Thanks for the inspiration, Chris. I have some beef cheeks in the freezer waiting for me to get them ready for a good sous videing (30 hours/70°C). A wodge of Marmite would be an interesting addition to the bag. Edited becaue Internet Explorer 9 is doing odd things with formatting tags in eG!

Here's mine. It's used daily for my morning mix of apple, orange, melon and ginger. I'd echo Nick's comments above about masticating (this sort) vs. centrifugal juicers. Oscar (it's good to have names for one's kitchen equipment!) quietly chews his way through pretty well anything I feed him, and the result is the best juice I've ever had. Centrifugals are much higher speed (Oscar turns at something like 70-80 rpm) and part-cook the juice through friction. I used Oscar as a sausage stuffer once. Better than trying to do it by hand, but not much ...

There's a suggestion for the next printing - edible paper which takes on the flavours of what's spilled on it! Or at least scratch 'n' sniff for some of the photos ...

Teo, you beat me to it! I have the good fortune to see and chat with Martin most Sundays at our City Market, and manage to get to the restaurant at least a couple of times a year. I published a review on eGullet last year, and another (with photos, this time) in my eG foodblog a month ago. The book is stunning. Photography is by Jane Ussher, known particularly in New Zealand for her portraits. Based on this, though, she's proved she can handle food photography with the best of them. Like Teo, I enjoyed seeing the 'back office' restaurant personnel featuring on their own pages. MArtin's a very down-to-earth man and will be delighted when I tell him tomorrow he's famous in Venice! I think I mentioned on the blog that, while the finished dishes are complex, the individual steps to create them are quite doable. There's the odd mention of Pacojets, but that shouldn't put anybody off - you might not get your sauces quite as smooth as Martin's without one, but they'll still look and taste great. I'll post photos next time I produce something from the book.

Espresso cups?

Wifey, whose chicken liver pate is without equal, also skips the eggs. She also finds a powerful blender (we don't have a commercial one, but what we do have is a step up from the stick blender she used to use) makes a big difference to the smoothness of the end result.

I'm with Diana. After years of being gas bigots (faster, more controllable - the usual reasons) we were finding the gas hob we put in with the new kitchen a few years ago just wasn't doing the job. Since the hob was the only gas-consuming thing in the house it wasn't worth getting connected to mains gas, so we used 9kg barbecue-type bottles. This was probably the problem - the pressure, perhaps, just wasn't sufficient to make the burners roar, and pretty much any time after the first week of connecting a full bottle, running more than two burners (sometimes one) at a time was very tedious. Our lovely new induction hob was installed a couple of days before Christmas and we're totally sold. It's fast, it's powerful, it's gentle, it's even, it slows down when you tell it to and speeds up likewise, and it's easy to clean on the odd occasion I do forget myself and let something boil over. The one we got even fits in the same size hole the old gas one came out of, and almost all our cookware was induction ready (not deliberately - it just worked out that way). It doesn't matter whether you think you're a gas person or an electric one (no robot jokes intended) - if you're looking at replacing a cooktop, look very closely at induction.

When I bought my first cast iron pan the guy in the shop gave me good instructions about seasoning, etc. The first step he recommended was to put a good layer of table salt in the pan and heat it on the stove; the theory was this would 'suck out' any contaminants in the iron. I have no idea if there's any science behind this, but I figured it wasn't likely to harm anything. No reason you couldn't do the same for a simple steel plate.

Big Mike - show her a couple of the photos. That's all it took with mine.

Hi Helen. Yeah, Welly's close to lots of good places. What particular musical things happen in Nelson? You may be ahead of me there.

Blue_dolphin - thanks for your kind words. Hmm ... does glossy food magazine = I get paid? That's attractive! Stilton was named before he was even born, I think. It's just such an obvious name for a British Blue. Yep, a bay tree or two is highly recommended. It's a lovely flavour, and I've never got it from dried leaves.

[font="Trebuchet MS"]Hi Helen. OK, maybe not wind specifically, but Exhibit A contains aspersions regarding weather. Which is beautiful again today, by the way. We were in Manurewa between 85 and 89, so most of the development had already happened, but Southmall and environs have continued to look worse every time we pass through. Which isn't often, these days. Clendon still had some empty land heading out towards Weymouth when we were there, but Google Earth indicates there's not much there now. The good old Auckland spread! Good luck working out where to export son to. If it's here and Mother decides to visit, get in touch.

Thanks Heidi. Maybe you can help with my savoury pavlova project. Sshhh about the oils being easy - you'll spoil the mystique.

Thanks Erin. Careful; if you feed hubby too many pavs HIS proportions will change. I might try oil on vanilla ice cream; hadn't come across that before. I had a very nice honey and ginger ice cream at the City Market this morning that got me thinking, too.

Hi, haresfur. Thank you. Yep, your bay tree will definitely grow - we have a 5-6 metre one next door to prove it (that's what went into the ice cream). And you only need 10 or so leaves at a time.