Gavin Jones

In honour of a forthcoming biography of Maclaren-Ross, 'Fear & Loathing in Fitzrovia', really.

Am now holding copy of 'Closing Times'. Sourced via a connection of Anna Davin. Apparently people who knew Maclaren-Ross refer to him only by a smile. I will be imbibing Fitzrovia shortly. I need to identify the 'Scala' in Charlotte St. as was...

Does salt count? It is notoriously heavily used in French cuisine to render unbalanced the taste. The logical conclusion of that abuse is of course the little pool of marmite that accompanies one's underspiced vulgar lump of protein. And sugar. David's 'Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen' takes the point of view that classic English cold-cuts should be viewed as anexpression of a sicing regimen. The revipe for 'Qoorma'she gives from Col Kenney-Herbert's books interestingly suggests a line to the pre-reformation prevalence of almonds in meat cooking.

Bloody Mary?

Congratulations, Mr & Mrs J.

These cuisines are just poor reflections of the high point of the Persian empire.

Took my mum & dad to Pied-a-Terre last night. Observations: Sombre chocolatey room at front - the back is a bit lighter. Small but not unpleasantly squashed. Intimate to overhear other diners conversation without being able to catch a social disease. Excellent amuses: Ginger & pumpkin mousse, foie gras mousse between filo crepes, smoked salmon & horseradish, Boeuf Bourguignonne in pastry cup (sadly not mini-yorkshire pud.) Having established we were taking the menu degustation w. paired wines a fairly smooth serving operation swung into place. 1. Spaetzli w. trompettes de mort, quail's egg hazlenut foam. - Riesling 2. Roast scallop, parsnip puree/foam, asparagus - Menetou Salou 3. Seared & poached foie gras in a sauternes consomme - Gewurztraminer 4. Sea bass, oyster, watercress vichyssoise - Chablis 5. Rump of lamb, aubergune puree, cumin - Lalande de Pomerol 6. Cheese: S. France Blue, Vacherin, Goat's cheese in close to Vacherin state. To this point close to exemplary, small starter size portions applied french techniques to bring out the best of the excellent ingredients. Only false note was one over-seasoned portion of sea-bass. It's difficult to achieve the same success with the wine pairings which have less of a tight division than the courses - so the chablis was beaten around the head by the very sweet gewurztraminer/sauternes combination. At this point there followed the slight mis--judgement (to my mind) of the menu. First a pre-dessert of pine sorbet with an apple jelly. Great if you didn't inhale - if you did the aroma of Pine loo cleaner came through. Now don't get me wrong, I've got a lot of room for toilet duck in the right place. Was just disconcerted it was at this point. 7. Orange Mousse w. mandarin sorbet. Well that's what it said. As the dark pinky-tan curve of the mousse rose to meet the blob of sorbet it looked to me like Cynthia Plastercaster had modelled Judith Chalmers' breast for dessert. It was also rather one note (well two). Moussey orangeness against mandarine sorbetness. Good Dom de Durban dessert wine tho. 8. Bittersweet choc. tart w. stout icecream. - Old PX sherry. This was outstanding - the chocolate oscillated on the bittersweet equator and was elevated by what tasted like the head of a pint of guinness. Great Sherry too. Then espresso's, petit-fours were late, so more espresso's, then more petit-fours. The final third brought out the strategic problem with the menu. 2 courses early on had significant sweet notes - the foie gras in sauternes w. gewurztraminer, and the parsnip puree with the scallop. What with the pre-dessert & the two desserts I headed for an insulin high/low by the time the (excellent) petit-fours arrived. The other thing that struck me was that the tasting menu approach reminds me of 'italian shack' dining. No menu, no significant choice, somebody just keeps bringing you courses in manageable sizes - probably featuring the specialities of the place.

Interesting description of Ludlow as one of few British towns where bourgoisie has stayed in the town rather than surrounding villages. No idea if this is true. Suggests counterpoint to the failure of British cuisine is not the aridity of 'international fine dining' but revaluation or archaeology of autocthonic traditions: we should all be eating tripe & Simon's udders.

I'd need a vast network of spies, of course. Though Simon is better placed to carry out this project. Surely our discussions of food reviewers would be much enhanced by an insight into their on-the-job performance. Though a pity we have to rely on reportage for those who've retired such as Jonathan Meades.

Two new projects: Food, Drink & Health: Cholera is the obvious one, with a review of public drinking fountains, a wander round Broadwick St. and then a drink in the John Snow if it's still there. Did London have TB Sanatoria (would have been to mid-20thC, what sort of diet was served?). Reviewing the Reviewers: or Stalking Michael Winner, Review meals in retaurants where Reviewers are dining - in particular review the dining habits & performance of teh Reviewer. e.g. Demanding Michael Winner's Table

I will try and investigate what happens when I wander up and down Old Compton Street asking young men if 'they are the next Tommy Steele'.

War's a good period: Though the obvious exploration of this by living on powdered egg & a quarter oz. of cheese, going out to drink oneself senseless is less than tempting. Edit: Deleted reference to wartime sexual habits

Food Manufacture: There are still extant smokeries in London. This one should be fairly easy,a spot of history, a trek round the mile end road, who they supply, a kipper for breakfast. In the mid-19thC there were apparently around 800 slaughterhouses in (&under) the City of London. I'm not feeling that abbatoir-ready yet - but that's a possible angle. In an attempt to re-experience the early 1970's I will, at a date to be decided, perform the Peter Langan Memorial Lunch. This will I hope avoid self-immolation but should include passing a Cork St gallery, pointing at an academic nude, then walking in to demand 'The Fuck pic'. There is apparently a book by Julian Maclaren-Ross's publisher, Dan Davin, called 'Closing Time'. That should do me for some hints on austerity drinking. Will probably do for my liver too - Lunch like Louis Macneice, Dine like Maclaren Ross, Die like Dylan Thomas. Inter-war years are trickier. There's Veeraswamy of course. What are the vestiges of the Lyon's corner houses - there used to be a Chinese restaurant on Wardour St. called 'Ley-ons' which was the metamorphosis of one. Nye Bevan used to drink at the Cafe Royal - and some of the great hotels must have had a refurb at that time. Hitler's favourite building in London was 'Whiteleys' (followed by the Senate house).

Thanks for your ongoing suggestions. I believe G&G ('We like Gordon's, it makes us drunk') now dine in Stoke Newington at a Turkish Grill place. I shall shortly organise some of your excellent ideas into more definite itineraries (though the Peter Langan memorial thread is sorely tempting). I will have to do some background reading too.

The Julian Maclaren-Ross themed afternoon beckons. And my first foray to an Angus Steak House - I believe William Burroughs ate daily at the one in Charing Cross road when in London. Bloody Hell I'm going to have a lot of reading.

Wilfrid, thankyou. I knew I could rely on you for some helpful clarity in thinking. I will be a quantum gastrophysicist, collapsing history's multiply liminal states to the single bite of a dead cat kebab. Martin: (feels strange not referrign to you as Macrosan). Kettner's is still around, now owned by Pizza Express. Gay Hussar & Langan's - would be excellent locations to try and eat the ambience of 70's London. Though without Tom Driberg in the one - and I have been honing my Peter Langan impersonation at eGullet meals (Excellent biog of Langan by Brian Sewell). "The George" is indeed in Southwark. Pubs are going to be very difficult - so many aspects to explore. Periodisation may be the way: e.g. The Crimean war and the late 19th C building boom - an excuse to drink in anything called teh Lord CLyde or the Alma. Edit: Kikujiro: Right you are on Alistair Little. Food Manufacturing is interesting - M&S prepared food a must. I am slightly nervous at the prospect of prawn cocktail sandwiches followed by chicken kiev. Pie & Mash definites - It'll be Manze's on Deptford High Street for me. Gastropub: Definite. Green Huts still exist (e.g. by Warwick Avenue).

I remember. Rules definitely gets in as old-style heritage restaurant. Alastair Little would have been my choice for his work at Kensington Place, development of rustic Italian chic & as exemplar of the generation of British cooks who started in the 70's/80's. However he is apparently no longer cooking at his eponymous places - as a consequence of divorce. Poo. For some unidentifiable reason I would try to avoid dining at an AWT establishment, though he has shown a certain entrepeneurial invention. I argued for Veeraswamy but I think from the social history point of view it may not be a defensible example of the social impact of food from the Indian sub-continent. Sketch obviously wouldn't get in as it has had zero impact.

The product will be food-related eGullet content. Plus some sort of purposeful activity for me, possibly including paunch reduction. I am not sure I want this to be quite as Jonathan Meades meets Iain Sinclair as it sounds. re: the Granita comments. I should also point out that this is not a pursuit of delicious food, if there are arguments for the social/historical significance of the food then cram it down my cakehole I shall. So I will have to eat the first 'Big Mac' of my life, I fear.

In an attempt to use eGullet constructively I would like to explore the 'gastrogeography' of London: To eat the social history of the city. I plan to explore noteworthy foods, places (& drinks) of London and report here - I'd like some help in deciding what appropriate subjects are. Some possibilities would be: Haute cuisine in London, centres on the Roux family and their culinary offspring so to examine this I plan to eat at Le Gavroche. More complex: Fast-food, London's history and streets are informed by fast-food of various sorts. The first Mcdonald's in London landed in Woolwich in the 1970's - I plan to hop on a bus and eat a french fry there. But where was the first Wimpy? Which Fish & Chip shop has a historical claim to my attention? Food has been carried by various immigrant groups. It is probably too late to find a persistence of Roman dining habits in London - and I'm guessing there's no longer a Huguenot snack bar off Fournier street. But there's a huge and edible impact of migration from Bangladesh, the Caribbean, Vietnam and many other places. I'd like to find out more about these foods and its place in London. TV: An undeniable part of the social impact of food in the last 20 years has been via TV - should I pay a pilgrimage to Fifteen (Jamie Oliver's restaurant), or try and get in the studio audience of 'Ready Steady Cook'? Commodity: Foodstuffs are tradable assets, and the markets and exchanges where food was sold have shaped this city. I probably need to explore the past (The Fish Harvest Festival, say, or old Billingsgate) and the present - a food based investment portfolio, say, if eGullet is anything to go by, principally composed of Pork Belly futures. Politics: Where have the epochal political decisions of London's history been taken - and what is their food connection. I'm not constraining myself to dining at Granita for this one. Anyhow thoughts & advice would be most welcome.

If the Vestry's still open it's worth look. Had a decent lunch there 18 months ago, eccentric wine list. In principal decent operation, practice may be otherwise. Hope still open.

Sorry to interject my somewhat banal intercourse. The situation I most often find myself in which is relevant is in Chinese restaurants where menus in a language I am way off grappling with describe the delights available to the vips (sinophones/logues?/philes??). And the same when I go to a shack in Italy with no name where the front of house guy/gal recites what they do & my language skills are inadequate (and my local knowledge less so). This is so not to do with high-end dining and completely about establishing the relationship. Of course there are the bistros du coin in French cities where there are 4 old blokes in berets (apologies Wilfrid) smoking Gitanes Mais and dining on the off-menu cassoulet/bourride at the table in the back which you know you could get if you spent the next 20 years becoming a regular but there are some pleasures that aren't worth it. On reflection most aren't.

My experience has also been better with the tasting/composed menu they offer than trying to construct a menu of 5 courses from the many possible permutations. It is an interesting restaurant & by its nature likely to be slightly hit & miss (even if all the dishes are great the juxtapositions might not be).

Thankyou very much for that helpful cheese information, madrileno, and welcome to eGullet.

What actually happens at this point. Dishes which bear no relation to the various menus? There are a plurality of readings of your interesting request.

Are you saying Menus aren't just for tourists?