ChrisTaylor

Fair. And probably the most sensible way of handling it. Altho' about that last point, I'd argue that if they're not buying and cooking the food, they can live with whatever's on the table. In addition to your roast potatoes, pumpkins, etc you could do a ratatouille or something. Perhaps even a steadying soup.

Leckerli. More Larousse, of course.

Images of said duck

Nothing but the best.

Roast duck and ratatoullie. And, of course, Chimay Grand Reserve. A meal for kings.

I just reach into the neck hole and pull it out with my fingers. It's easy to find by feel. Snap it if you have to: just ensure you take out both pieces. For breaking down a chicken, I dislocate the legs from the main part of the carcass and simply slice through the gap between the bones. I tend not to divide the legs into thighs and drumsticks.

Basically, yeah. The kids demolished it.

Poule au pot. My favourite Larousse Gastronomique dish so far. http://cookingthroughlarousse.blogspot.com/2010/12/peasant-food.html

#56 from Larousse Gastronomique: mole pablano from the convent of Santa Rosa, mostly for the sake of using up the leftover roast turkey. Tomorrow: poulet au pot.

Roast turkey a la Larousse Gastronomique

Having a bit of shiraz recently. For my graduation my girlfriend and I opened a $60 bottle of Dalwhinnie '08. It was nice. $60 worth of nice? No. I've never paid that much for wine before and I can't see myself doing it any time soon. I don't think the jump from my usual $20-25 was anywhere near as huge as the jump from $10-15 to $20-25. Then again, I mean, I'm much less of a wine drinker than I am a beer/cider/spirits drinker. I've thrown down $100 on a cognac and felt I got my money's worth. I'd probably spend $60 on a couple of very nice Belgian beers. Have done so before, even, with the French 3 Monts. Wine, though? I feel like a bit of a sauvage Anglais, but no. Last night's Tahbilk '05 was okay. Nowhere near as nice as their '08. Realising, tho', I should probably shift away from shiraz and move back to merlot and pinot noir, both of which I enjoy more--altho' yet to find a truly good merlot in my price range.

Now that's class.

Never roasted a whole turkey before but tomorrow I'm giving it a go using the Larousse recipe. Now the recipe says to bard the breast with bacon. Sensible. Thing is, tho', I can't get streaky bacon in my area. Won't have a chance to get it today or tomorrow, when I actually cook. The only stuff I have access to is crappy lean bacon, which defeats the whole point of barding, or really expensive alternatives like prosciutto and pancetta. Will I get the same effect as barding if I was to rub a metric (as opposed to imperial) shit ton of butter (which I could flavour with whatever--sage and garlic or something) under the skin of the breast and thigh? I mean, part of me is thinking it'd be better, the fatty substance under the skin as opposed to sitting on top, where I'm sure most of the grease would drip off (and make for a nice gravy but not much else).

The gingerbread.

That looks good. A nice curry is one of life's greatest pleasures.

This evening I'm making gingerbread for my students. Their request: altho' I suspect they're imagining gingerbread houses and men, not so much the loaf that is in Larousse Gastronomique.

We don't tip by default. People tip more now than they used to, I'd imagine, but even then, never that much and only if the service and/or food was exceptional. It's not expected. What's fairly common, I'd say, is rounding up to the next $10. For example, if they spend $65 on food, a lot of people would leave $70 behind. More, of course, if it's a very big group. I'll round up if I've had a good meal but if I've had a crap experience I'll take my change, unless I'm in a group, in which case it's really petty to be messing around with a dollar for me, five dollars for her, two dollars fifty for someone else. I don't remember seeing anywhere that mentioned they included an opt-out service charge. Even Melbourne's best-rated fine dining restaurant (we actually don't have that many truly fine dining places--a lot walk the line between casual and fine dining, maybe even most), Vue de Monde, doesn't do that. The only thing that comes close is charging some tiny amount per head to open a bottle of wine in a place that allows you to bring your own. I would suspect the lack of a service charge is because the award wage for the profession here isn't terrible.

Recipes 47-49 from Larousse Gastronomique: Fried entrecote. Pont-neuf potatoes. Clafoutis.

My first Larousse Gastronomique dessert: clafoutis

Larousse Gastronomique has a few curry recipes like that. You know, with ham and apples and such. But most of their 'foreign' recipes are total bastardisations--the work of some French guy who liked the idea and then made it his own, using familiar techniques and ingredients to appease the local palate. I'm not really bothered by that.

Tariquet VSOP

Yeah, saw that in the guide. Altho' the dinner which is being organised by The Press Club (which I'm going to on New Year's Eve anyway) probably costs as much as actually eating in her restaurant, which I'll hopefully get the chance to do in '12.

Who is planning on going to any of the events next year? For me, it'll be the first year I've been able to go and I'm really looking forward to it. Hoping to get to the suckling pig banquet at La Luna and the armagnac night at Monsieur Truffe at the very least. The cider night may be worth a look in too. Housemate brought home a couple of copies of the full programme so I assume it's widely avaliable and being distributed somewhere.

Larousse Gastronomique recipe #46 Loin of lamb a la bonne femme.

Not so much, Anna. Mostly they sell brands of products you don't find anywhere else. Not the mainstream stuff you'd get in the more popular supermarkets and bottle shops. My housemate bought some of their peach schnapps. Even after a couple of hours of mixing together ungodly cocktails involving Black Sambucca, Bailey's, Butterscotch Schnapps and cheap Irish whiskey could we stomach this stuff.