Duncan

i'm surprised they (restaurant) didn't check that bottle. Especially with 20 eGulletters present. It does seem to be the case though that meals arranged for a large number of people where several bottles of the same wine are being served don't get the same attention from the staff as single bottles. I think the first time really had a good chance to compare the difference between corked and uncorked wines was at a dinner with wine writers Julie Arkell and Oz Clarke giving talks between courses. They poured wine for the ladies at the table first, so roughly every second person got the bad wine (including my wife and Julie Arkell). The subject for the next talk naturally became corked wines, and the affected glasses got passed round the other tables in the room. I seem to remember that for the rest of the meal the staff had a good sniff of every bottle before serving it.

I don't know what percentage of restaurant wines are bad, but I'd be willing to bet its a much higher percentage than actually gets rejected. I've had a few bad wines in restaurants recently. The good thing is I hope it has cured me of my natural reluctance to make a fuss. Sometimes I find it obvious that a wine is wrong, sometimes I'm not sure, and sometimes in the past I've tasted, said its alright and then had second thoughts later. I certainly wouldn't have any problems with the waiter or sommelier coming back to tell me the wine I had approved wasn't right, I'm always happy for another opinion. Back in May, there was an eGullet lunch at the Fat Duck, and I was one of those server from a corked bottle. Since the wine was being served by the glass to a large group nobody was asked to taste the wine, and I think the restaurants failure to notice that the wine was corked meant they had to open two replacement bottles (since two people had half a glass of corked wine and half a glass from a different bottle). In June, at the Inn on the Green, Cookham Dean, my wife and I had a half bottle of Chablis with our lunch. In this case I couldn't have said for sure that the wine was corked, and in fact I didn't reject it, I simply looked unsure and the waiter offered the information that they had had problems with some bottles and he could open another one. I'm still not sure if it was very slightly corked, or something else was wrong, but the replacement wine was very different (and very nice). July, we were at our local pub/restaurant (The Fish, Sutton Courtenay). The meal was preceded by a free wine tasting of Rioja laid on by one of the landlord's suppliers. By chance, one of the wines offered in the tasting was also one of the house wines, so we asked for another couple of glasses with our meal. Usually the landlord does check the bottles of house wine, but for some reason he didn't check this one, and it was corked. When I pointed this out he replaced our wine, and also the wine at another table which he had served from the same bottle. I think he would normally have just thrown away the bad bottle, but the supplier was there, and had spare bottles of the same wine, and insisted on replacing the bottle for him. August and September, I haven't had any bad wines in restaurants. We did have a corked wine from the local supermarket last Friday though. Usually I would just bin it, but this time I took it back the next day, and they gave me a refund and a replacement.

In the thread on Northern Provence, I said I would start new threads for the better restaurants we visited during our holiday, so that if other eGulletters visit the same restaurants they have somewhere to comment. Here is the first of those, La Prévôté in l'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. I hope I gave some impressions rather than just a description of how the food looked, but I'm not terribly good at flowery descriptions of wine/food; also I'm just getting the hang of noting meal details down during the meal, so I haven't yet worked out whether I should be hiding the notebook or trying to pass myself of as a food critic! Judy and I went to La Prévôté on the evening of 3rd September. The Michelin guide describes the restaurant as sitting on the banks of a tributary of the Sorgue. This is a bit misleading as it sits not just on the banks, but solidly on top of one of the channels of the Sorgue as it runs through Isle sur Sorgue. From the outside, a courtyard opens off a narrow backstreet in the centre of the town. Inside, the courtyard is on one side of the river, the dining room on the other, and the reception area with seats for those who, like ourselves, arrive too early looking over the river running underneath it. A punt lies moored on one side of the river, although there is barely enough clearance either upstream or down for the punt to get under the walls of the building. Downstream, a couple of tables overlook the river, however these tables also gave the impression of being in a broom cupboard, so we were very happy to be in the main dining room which is spacious with a high beamed ceiling and walls a mix of stonework and plaster. Aren't digital cameras handy when you want to record what was on the menu? For an aperitif we had a Cocktail Maison: Muscat, Crème de Mur, Champagne. This came with an amuse bouche of some fishy paste on croutons and some very garlicky olives. The bread offered was a choice of, a very nice olive bread (sort of a ‘fougasse’, I think, crispy with a layer of black olives), mini baguettes with pointy ends, and some rolls whose name I forget. About this point there was some confusion over water. A waiter filled our water glasses with some fizzy water which we hadn’t ordered (but some other table had). He realised his mistake before pouring us their wine, but it took a little while for us to make it clear that we didn’t mind because we’d have ordered the same water anyway. Once the water was sorted out we got a chance to order some wine for ourselves (as opposed to any other table). Since I had to be able to drive safely afterwards, we limited ourselves to a half bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape, 1998 Domaine de Vieux Télégraphe at €29. I don’t know how restaurant mathematics work, but the same wine was also listed under the full bottles at €84 per bottle. I know that champagne is supposed to suffer badly from being in non-standard bottle sizes, but surely the same can’t be true of other wines? Perhaps it’s the law of supply and demand, or maybe we simply got a bargain. It’s a fabulous wine though. Both the wine and the water were kept safely out of our reach on another table throughout the meal, but they were topped up regularly. With the wine order sorted, we moved on to an amuse bouche of pureed melon with aniseed and I think a little bit of chilli oil. At this point I evidently broke an elementary rule of fine dining: we were seated at a circular table, more than large enough for the two of us, and in the nature of good restaurants the places were set with a large steel plate onto which the dishes for each course were placed and removed. The place setting was sufficiently large however, that the side plates were about half way round the table. In order to get at my bread more easily, I had pulled my side plate round the table so it was within reach. The waiter who removed the amuse bouche carefully moved my side plate back round the table to its correct location. The foie gras was served on three slices of peach with a sweet peach puree and some brioche containing dried fruits and spices (I think allspice). The foie gras was nicely browned and crispy with a good balance from the sweet elements of the dish. It was served on a clear glass plate which gave quite an interesting effect with the stainless steel place setting under it. The langoustines (four tails and a claw) were served on cucumber with two sauces, one of cucumber and one of langoustine. I thought the cucumber sauce was perhaps too mildly flavoured compared with the langoustine one, but the overall combination was very nice. We decided that the claw must be for decoration only since there seemed no obvious way to break it open. The main course was half a pigeon served on polenta with some vegetables and segments of citrus fruit around it. Although very pink the breast was also very tender. I also noted that the leg still had a claw attached. The cheese course arrived with more bread. I do so like the French attitude to such things, whereas in British restaurants they whip away the side plate at the first opportunity here we had regular bread rations issued throughout the meal, and Judy deciding at one point that she didn’t want more bread just then didn’t stop them offering it again next time they came past. Judy would, however, like to point out how unfair it is that the practice of serving the lady first is applied also to the cheese course. It means I can sit back and relax while she has to guess which, and how many, cheeses she might like. Anyway, they had lots of interesting looking, and tasting cheeses. Dessert comprised a couple of wafer thin circles of chocolate sandwiched with a light praline mousse, balanced on some bitter ganache and garnished with gold leaf. The accompanying fromage blanc sorbet had a nice sharp cheese flavour, more so than I would have expected, which went well with the chocolate. As usual for an evening meal, we declined coffee, but they still gave us a plate of petit fours, which I thought was a nice touch. So far as I know there isn't any restriction on smoking at La Prévôté, but on the evening we were there, the only table that was smoking was also the only table outside in the courtyard, so for once we had a smoke free evening which was most pleasant. (Why can't the French realise what tobacco smoke does to good food and drink?) Total bill for a most enjoyable evening was €163.50 (Edited for spelling)

'The Fish', not 'The Fishes'. I don't know about The Elizabeth although a search turned up a link to a website that no longer exists (from a page that also listed Gousse d'Ail as 'new'!) I'm afraid I agree with most of the comments though, Oxford isn't overrun by great restaurants. Cherwell Boathouse is pretty nice, and Petit Blanc can be ok but I haven't been there since they became part of the Loch Fyne chain. Another restaurant not yet mentioned is Brookes Restaurant. I've only been once (christmas lunch), but it seemed ok. If anyone else has been there they can perhaps give an opinion. (It's part of the Brookes school of hotel & restaurant management, so not so much frequented by students and faculty as staffed by them!)

There was an article in New Scientist back in December on a related topic:

Thanks for all the suggestions folks (even if some didn't arrive until after we'd left). We're back now, so in the next few days I'm going to try to write up my experiences of the places Judy and I visited. Out of the eGullet suggestions, we made it to Bistro l'Industrie, les Florets, Prevote, and Christian Etienne. The last two or three of these I'll write up in separate threads, but I'll try to give a summary of some of the other places here. We were staying at Domain de Bélézy in Bedoin on the southern slope of Mount Ventoux. Its a 4 star campsite with some accomodation units, but I guess its unlikely that many eGulletters will stay there, so I'll just say that the onsite restaurant is pretty reasonable: Various menus, the main one being €19 for 4 courses with dishes such as Gateau of chicken livers + shrimp tails with a shrimp sauce followed by Gourmandise de Volailles avec Morilles. Very short wine list (all Cotes de Ventoux) with the best being Domain de Fondreche and Chateau Pesquie, although the house cuvee wasn't bad either. Bélézy have a scheme whereby many local restaurants, if booked by them, will give a free aperitif. I've no idea if this scheme is unique to them, or common to other places in the area. Mas de Safran In Bedoin itself, we went to the Mas de Safran, a yellow building just out of the centre of the village. As might be expected from the name of the establishment, saffron features fairly heavily in the dishes. We had (Judy's choices listed first where appropriate): The ravioli were very nice, they were an interesting triangular shape with long tails which were a bit chewy, and there was a good saffron flavour to the sauce. Judy said her pork was very nicely cooked and the sauce was good. My fish (I think Merlu is Hake?) came as 3 fillets each balanced on a shaped yellow potato, the sauce I think was basil although I forgot to note that down. The cheesboard was small enough not to get lost choosing (I had some nice chevre in oil amongst others), and the puddings were good also. Total bill was €60 (€23 for the basic menu). We ate in the courtyard (I'm not sure if they even have an inside), but its entirely enclosed so this was just about the only place we ate in the whole two weeks without any view. Le Mas des Vignes The other nearby small restaurant we tried was Le Mas des Vignes. This restaurant is part way along the road up Ventoux at about 560m altitude looking south and west. The view rivals the one from the terrace at Crillon le Brave: at Crillon you are looking east, so (with the right timing) you can watch the full moon rising over the Vaucluse plateau, at Mas des Vignes you get the sunset over the Dentelles, but you also get low sun in your eyes which detracts slightly from the view (take sunglasses if you go). The food was very nice, except that Judy felt her duck was a bit on the dry side. The service started off fine, but after they had served desert they abandoned us. Completely. We were on one of two tables for two on an extension of the terrace so not on the direct line from any other tables, and I suspect they had too few staff on for the number of people they got in that evening. The other table beside us were also abandoned, in their case after being served their main course, and eventually got out a crossword. After an hour of failing to get any attention we went and stood at the desk inside until we got the bill. We don't generally go for coffee in the evening, but they didn't even offer us any during that hour. The bill was €92.50, paid cash as they don't take credit cards. Chateau Pesquie Ok, so this one isn't a restaurant, but we spent a very nice morning at nearby Chateau Pesquie working our way through their selection of wines. This isn't your average Cotes de Ventoux: they do some very decent wines. We were the only people there when we went along about 10.30 on a Wednesday morning and must have been the first people that day because the guy in the cave opened a fresh bottle for each wine we tasted. We worked our way through two rosé, viognier (we skipped the other whites), and 4 reds, with decent samples of each and bread. If your in the region its definitely worth giving them a visit. Our car boot space not being infinite we limited ourselves to 18 bottles from Ch. Pesquie, 18 Rasteau and 6 from the local cave cooperative (in other words we've got a range to drink now, soon, and later). I'll pause here to let you all digest that lot before continuing.

Thanks folks, there are some very interesting suggestions there. Plus I can now spend some time searching the related websites. Mmm, that tomato menu looks nice. I haven't heard of this restaurant before, and we also haven't really gone in that direction very much. So far as I can tell from web searching there are masses of articles praising this place, but they don't have their own website. Are they too busy cooking? Yes, we've been there and it was very nice. BTW, the best view from any restaurant that I've found is on the other side of the Dentelles at the Hostellerie de Crillon le Brave which is on a hilltop looking out at Mt Ventoux and the Vaucluse plateau.

We're off to the Northern bit of Provence shortly for a couple of weeks, we've been there before, so I suspect we've found a lot of the decent places to eat near where we are staying, but do any eGulletters have suggestions? We are staying in Bedoin which is at the foot of Mount Ventoux. The nearest town is Carpentras; Avignon and Orange aren't too far, and obviously we'll make occasional forays further afield.

I'm not sure what the point of the blindfold was, because it looked like it tasted. It tasted like a berry-related fruit pastille and looked like one too. If it had looked like a slice of cucumber or a live mouse or something while tasting like a fruit pastille then there would have been a point to the blindfold. Heston claims that when you taste the beetroot pastille without seeing it, it tastes of beetroot. When you see it, you think it tastes of blackcurrant. I thought the two bites, with and without blindfold tasted different, but then I'm gullible. Judy thought they tasted the same, but claims that may be because she knew what it was going to taste like since we've had them before. I agree that the spoonfed potato, and the beetroot jellies &c. are toy food, but I don't mind that. I look at those as an interlude between the more serious courses. BTW, nobody has mentioned the liquid nitrogen yet, another bit of the fun and games that probably wouldn't work for everyone. Since lxt won't know what I'm talking about: the green tea & lime foam at the very start can also be served as a quenelle frozen in liquid nitrogen. The waiter suggested it was best eaten all in one bite but whoever it was at our table that was served first (sorry, can't remember who) looked at her plate and said 'but my mouth's not that big'.

I liked it and the spoonfeeding, it was kind of kinky, which you can't often say about a restaurant experience. There was also the bit with the blindfold that we got but lxt seems to have missed out on.

Sounds great Holly. What kind of price range? And does the waiter cook in front of you? Thanks. The Boullabaise Charter that they follow says they have to cut the fish up in front of you:

I'm not offended. We've only been there once, so it might vary wildly, and we haven't been to Rick Stein's at all, so I can't compare the two. They say the Bath restaurant has been refurbished recently, but I wouldn't know whether that includes food as well as decor. I thought the spider crab was very nice, but I haven't actually had spider crab before (I've looked at them in Oxford market and concluded we didn't have anything big enough to cook one). The bread was pretty reasonable, and was served with garlic mayonnaise and sauce vert for dipping, and they replenished both bread and sauces when our brandade arrived. Judy, I believe, liked her sea bass, but didn't think it was the best she had ever had.

We had a very nice lunch at Fishworks in Bath recently. It's basically either a restaurant with a fish shop attached, or possibly a fish shop with some tables depending how you look at it. You can choose from the menu or specials on a blackboard, or you can just pick something from the shop and ask them to cook it. We both had some brandade as a starter. I then had spider crab grilled with garlic butter, and Judy had sea bass with a side order of samphire (and a long wait while I worked systematically through the crab).

It shouldn't present any problems as the system will continue to use the magnetic stripe when there is no chip, or when using the chip is inappropriate. Of course, as with the French system, this will depend on proper staff training to work. I read an article recently that said that they would be able to mark cards with chips to automatically tell the assistant to use the magnetic stripe instead. This is necessary because (amongst other reasons) some people are unable to use a numeric pad to enter a PIN, and in those situations the assistant will ask for a signature. At no time is the assistant told WHY they need a signature. Given this, the assistants should at least all know how to handle a card requiring a signature. Most UK card issuers load the exchange rate by up to 2.75% on top of the wholesale rate charged by Visa/MC. There are apparently two issuers who don't put any loading onto the wholesale exchange rate (Nationwide & Lombard Direct).

It mostly seems to be the case. I think perhaps the supermarkets here have a price point for sherry because they sell most of it in 750ml or even 1litre bottles. The only half bottles I've seen in local supermarkets are for more expensive sherries, so the half bottles usually cost more than any of the full ones.

The Good Food Guide says that ladies are given menus without prices at the Waterside. I wonder if they can cope if Judy books there? Riverside Brasserie is already on our list of places that we really must go to, and from the sound of it we can add Inn on the Green as well. Thanks for the suggestions, I'll let you all know what we decide.

Another option would be an Irish bank account. They should be able to cope with speaking English. Watch out for this at weekends especially. A lot of filling stations which are manned during the week may require a card with a French chip on a Sunday. We've been impressed by the French restaurant credit card machines for some years. They have a mobile phone built in so they can authorise the transaction right at your table. Occasionally a foreign card can throw the staff: sometimes there is just one person in the restaurant who knows how to use the magnetic stripe reader, so we've had them take one look at the card then go rushing off to find the person who knows how to handle it. At least that's better than trying to put the card in the chip reader or refusing it outright, we've also had cases where they insisted that they had to try the card in the chip reader first and weren't allowed to use the magnetic stripe until the machine told them. I suppose that means fewer mistakes.

Now that the Fat Duck lunch is behind us, my thoughts are turning to my birthday next month. Judy will undoubtedly want to take me out for a meal somewhere, so I thought I would ask here for suggestions. It should be somewhere reasonably easy to get to from South Oxfordshire, and I guess we would most probably go for Saturday lunch, so it has to be open then. First thoughts are l'Ortolan at Shinfield, or maybe The Vineyard at Stockcross, we haven't been to either of these. Which would eGullgetters recommend? Also possible would be getting the train down to London, which means we could avoid driving, but I'm not sure I want to do that. More locally there's the Beetle & Wedge, but we went there for Judy's birthday last year (at short notice when the Gousse d'Ail in Oxford closed suddenly), and there's Le Manoir of course.

You have no idea how tempted I am to get a blow torch just for this purpose. Performance art and Sunday lunch, all in one glorious package. (I think the pinny-and-welder's-mask look is a winner.) I had a look at my tape of 'Kitchen Chemistry' and he was recommending blowtorching the joint before cooking, so your guests might have a bit of a wait. You'll be wanting a flamethrower then...

I have had good results following Heston Blumenthal's recipe which is online at Guardian Unlimited You do need a digital thermometer. The weight of the joint doesn't matter much: I find it takes about 5 hours rather than the 4 1/2 he suggests, but then I also go for about 1C higher temperature (to be sure I haven't missed any cooler bits). Also the time it takes will depend on how long before cooking you took the joint out of the fridge. I then put the joint back in the oven at a high temperature for a few minutes to brown: no way do I have a pan large enough for browning as he suggests. I believe you can also brown the meat with a blowtorch should you feel that way inclined. The result is a joint that is completely evenly pink throughout. I haven't done his accompanying sauce though. That looks a bit too much like work.