Gavin Jones

Another salute to the Rodney's head. Truly sad about the Pride of Spitalfields. I seem to remember walking in close to midnight to have my fortune told. There are of course others, for example round the back-end of Bethnal Green. They are very varied. But Tony's comments are sadly true. Drank in the last year at 'The Hare' because Defoe mentioned it. But Tony's comments are to the point.

It's unclear what is being tested. Certain legally proscribed drugs? Legal drugs Alcohol, Caffeine, Nicotine? Performance enhancing drugs? (Top chefs take nandrolone?) Drugs as part of a medical regime?

I think it would be hard to stay at the Souvlaki bar longer than it takes you to drink whatever you're drinking (in my case around 45 minutes for a bottle of ok Tselepos cab/merlot). A couple of pre-kebab snacks (liked the rough prosciutto) followed by a kebab is about it. unless you like spending time surrounded by drunk 20 somethings with hard surfaces and uncomfortable seats.

I thought that any effluent was carefully catheterised in order to avoid flow problems.

Something in Whitstable.

We're in Whitby? Heartbeat country...

No I obviously understood the intent, just that the line jarred when I read it roughly as '...those who have the misfortune to appear to be of middle eastern descent...'. And I wouldn't have posted but for the wider audience you were looking for on the piece.

eGullet staff may wish to reconsider the line "people of Moslem or Middle Eastern descent -- or by those who had the misfortune to appear that way --".

Is it the contents of Peter Pumkino?

I went. it was ok. Decent food, small portions, bemused service.

I don't know now. 10 years ago the locals knew that bouillabaise was for tourists. Have a look for authentic North African food - not just restaurants but patisseries &c. The Cour Julien had become hip by then, god knows what it's like now. Your local contacts will be right. Enjoy the calanques.

Quite. the argument is between a centralising (quasi-)political system (French/EU/Haute-Cuisine) and a regionalised expression of terroir. Regional French Food (Provencal, Perigourdine) is really Italian (bad and good respectively). Reflecting the historico-political reality underlying the existence of these cuisines, and certainly anti-modern. By contrast 'Italian' and French cuisines are post-enlightenment systems of food & thought, with all the baggage that entails, but at the least transportable.

Surely because Italian food truly expresses 'terroir' in a way that French doesn't. This is why 'French' is French, but 'Italian' is hardly ever Italian.

I like my underwear like my napkins

And that would be French.

So we make a distinction between 'flavour' what we taste in the food, and 'taste' a property of the structure of the foodstuff. Still this doesn't help us as there is no clear relationship between the 'taste' and the 'flavour'? As I understand it the 'taste' is some sort of distribution to which we apply our 'flavour' operator i.e. eat the food - to generate our experience of the taste. Some of us claim our flavour operator is a small perturbation of the identity. There is a long way to go before this (which I understand the Plotnickitistic assertion to be) is remotely plausible.

Except of course when 'taking in' an ortolan.

I used to disapprove on the erroneous grounds that I was not in the habit of showering myself with food. The much bigger question is does one place the napkin on one's lap or tuck it into the shirt? Again I used to be very much a lap-napkin user. But on reflection the logical place is tucked into the shirt, protecting the tie. And it pleasingly irritates other diners as they look askance at my poor manners.

So taste is independent of tasting. Something which is uneaten has a taste. This is what I thought (neo-)Plotnickitism was about. There is a taste attached to a food substance irrespective of what it might 'taste' like. In future I will be taking all of my meals in enema format. I am pleased that the taste will be unaffected.

I wouldn't strongly recommend anywhere in Greenwich. I like the Blue Print Cafe - though it won't give you that much of a walk. How long do you want lunch & the walk to be? Even at a leisurely & liquid pace I'd imagine it would be hard for lunch to still be going strong past five o'clock. That gives you quite a bit of London to walk from. Edit: Tony's right on the absence of culinary fireworks. Inside is decent at the modern european end, and it is possible to enjoy oneself at the bar du musee. The Spread Eagle will do you vigorously old-fashioned French too. Plus there is the pleasure of a walk up through Deptford and Rotherhithe afterwards.

Till the wine runs out?

Don't put him back in hospital.

The pigeon seemed a lot closer to a squab than a wood-pigeon, but it was the tenderest bird I've had the pleasure of. A uniform purple flesh, its innards in a small filo bag. I was happy with the spiced pear/read wine saucing but the disc of creamy cabbage & mushroom (?) didn't add much. Edit: Actually this was a very interesting contrast to the dead squirrel I'd enjoyed on the monday. The cheese course was slightly disappointing - but due more to it being one of the only moments where the communication fell below the outstanding level, than because the underlying cheese was at fault.

That sounds excellent. I'm already thinking of an excuse to dine at 10pm there. I'm missing the Langoustines with morels in madeira sauce followed by the Bresse pigeon with spiced pears already.

Dined at Le Gav with two other eGulletarians last night. Some observations: 1. It is uber-naff - no-one does comfortable bad taste like the French bourgeoisie. 2. Service is fantastic - which you would certainly get at lunch. 3. The food appears unaffected by anything since 1967 when it was opened - and a good thing too. (A mango had infiltrated itself into the dessert menu, but that was about it). 4. They do synchronised cloche-lifting. Hurray. 5. It is expensive. 6. Have a digestif. I asked for a calvados - I got a small bucketful in a football sized glass. 7. Service is fantastic - we left what must have been 20 minutes after everyone else - but no indication from the staff that we had outstayed our welcome. 8. It is expensive, but there are plenty of wines around £30. Edit: Oh, and I really enjoyed it. It was a total dining experience. Note: Pork with aligote not on menu.