Gavin Jones

January 28, 2003

New Tayyab: 83 Fieldgate St. 020 7247 9543

Nearest Tube: Whitechapel

According to Time Out

January 24, 2003

Then lock me up and throw away the key

Jason, you have chosen this place that we call eGullet.

There is no escape.

January 24, 2003

There is no current use of the word complex in food or wine where it means bad.

This helps me enormously. I now know that everytime I see complex written I should really just read good. (And for simplicity less good).

This makes the argument transparent - vacuously trivial, maybe - but comprehensible.

January 24, 2003

If I have a choice between buying close to direct where I can select a peach with limited transport for the peach I think I'm likely to get a better peach than one that has passed along a longer delivery system to get to the restaurant and then been selected for me.

Not impossible, of course, to get a great peach in a restaurant, but the brief nature of the maturity of the peach before descending into bruised senility means it's tricky to do well in a restaurant.

I recall Alistair Little explaining something similar about pears.

Edit: And of course Toby is completely to the point.

I should just have left my stupidity out as it doesn't clarify anything.

The point was more that the economic value of the peach is likely larger for me (An hour's drive & so on) than that of the restaurant dessert, no matter how complex.

January 24, 2003

Alcohol related - as far as I can recall. 5 of us only struggled out of the Player at close to 9:30. And Le Pigalle was a lurch away.

This turned out to be an inadequate reason to visit.

January 24, 2003

The comparison was between different scientific accounts of the same phenomenon.

But what is the argument:

We've offered

1. Examples where certain additional complexity clearly reduces desirability/value &c. Peach with asafoetida sorbet.

2. Examples where any additional complexity reduces desirability/value:

Perfect fruit, cheese, Pata negra ham are 3 possibles.

The fact that restaurants might/might not sell these shows what?

I would be stupid to go to a restaurant for a great peach. I have however driven across Southern Illinois looking for a great peach. Which is a greater economic cost than I would consider paying in a restaurant for dessert.

January 24, 2003

Simmer hunk of gammon (preferably a big bit on bone) in water for close to 3 hours.

Flavour cooking liquid to taste - I generally stick a chopped up onion, a few peppercorns and cloves in.

(I think the recent peppery discussions should exempt peppercorns in a bouillon - but not sure).

Remove gammon - let it relax.

Cook pre-soaked split peas in cooking liquor (enough to cover) - they're cooked in about 40 minutes but if you cook for an hour plus they break up and the gammony flavour from the reduced liquor intensifies. Basically you have porky dal.

To turn it into pease pudding let it cool a bit and solidify then one can boil in pudding cloth, bake in oven, or probably let it cool and treat like polenta.

Obviously one can stick in some butter for richness, or spike it up with some pepper or a bit of lemon zest.

But basically I'm looking for an unctuously porky heaven - aren't we all.

January 24, 2003

I can't think of a single instance where something being less complex has more value or is considered better then something more complex.

The history of science is littered with a range of complicated theories. I'm so glad that these have triumphed for their explanatory power over such simplistic and valueless accounts as gravitation or evolution.

January 24, 2003

A nice lump of boiled gammon & pease pudding, for me.

January 24, 2003

Fish soup was OK, coq au vin was not.

The coq au vin looked actively disgusting with a few dried out pieces of what had once been fowl sitting on a bowl of nouilles - never a good sign in a French restaurant.

And they seemed to have forgotten the pommes frites which was a key selling point.

And to think I could have had my end burnt and my pork pulled. Hmmph.

January 23, 2003

Donato’s
"happiest hours were spent in Paris, eating and thinking and talking. His favorite subject was French food, and his favorite theory was that 'French cooking' was foreign to France, not something that had percolated up from the old pot-au-feu but something that had been invented by fanatics at the top, as a series of powerful 'metaphors' -- ideas about France and Frenchness – that had then moved downward to organize the menus and, retrospectively, colonize the past."
Donato claims that this 'colonisation' started as late as 1855

The Restaurant & Farming chapters of Bouvard & Pecuchet ironise the French myth of cuisine fairly comprehensively.

When's that, 1880?

In fact the unifying account of French society (cuisine binds France together) skips lightly over the huge fault lines in society which necessitated such unifying steps as guillotining 20,000 or so, repeated failure in war, complicity with a Nazi regime and a limited facility in dealing with the legacy of empire. The myth of French cuisine lies at the heart of France - as pernicious and deluded as 'Merrie England'.

January 23, 2003

I thought the whole reason we disposed of OTC was to put an end to this argument. I give you Rimbaud vs Verlaine, The Sex Pistols against all comers & so on.

January 23, 2003

Decent drinks from the Player. I think pretty much everyone sampled a Gully - saving cocktail queens Simon & Vanessa.

It sounds to me like a Flaming Orange thingy almost certainly has a natural terroir of Belfast or Glasgow.

People then split into the whisky based and the vodka martini drinkers. (Except for my friend Jo who ordered 5 different cocktails by colour until the handsome young waiter hid).

Round the corner to Le Pigalle which was slightly disappointing.

I notice that my interaction with eGulletarians is the same in life as on the board. I stop by, listen briefly to the conversation, either produce camp one-liner or incomprehensible rant and then start on another group.

January 21, 2003

I'll be dropping by - probably around 6:30 as I'd made a vague arrangement to meet there anyway. Don't let that dissuade you though, Macrosan.

January 20, 2003

cooking for aristo. Catholic families.

Offal with their heads.

January 20, 2003

I mentioned this to somebody. My memory is that the Player isn't packed early on (even on Fridays) so I'm guessing one more drinker's unlikely to be a problem.

January 20, 2003

Adam - I'm not sure about the cultural revolution argument. That only lasted ten years and my gut reaction is that it could not have wiped out all the people who did the cooking you refer to and/or their records.

How about a comparison with the Republic in Britain?

Was Oliver Cromwell responsible for the dire reputation of British cuisine.

January 19, 2003

I know nothing about the fitba player

Gordon Ramsay invented Chicken Tikka Masala? Boy does he deserve those Michelin stars.

January 19, 2003

I'm happy if somebody has noticed my choices and makes suggestions to enhance them.

Examples of this include suggesting a wine (with reasons) at a comparable price point to the one I might have indicated (How about X? Oh with the dishes you are ordering Y will match much better as is less tannic, say).

Or when asked about their views being positive about something (I tasted some of X today - it was fantastic).

The worst sort (prevalent in poor upscale restaurants in the UK certainly) is open disdain for the customers choices.

Often water is a bad culprit:

Can I have a jug of water, please?

Still or sparkling?

Just a jug, from the tap please?

Are you sure? (and I've heard - "I wouldn't dream of drinking the tap water").

Yes. (trying to avoid swearing - I live in London the standard of tap water is pretty reliable and it tastes better than many bottled waters with a lot less systematic risk. Badoit on the list maybe I'll switch, but that will be my decision thankyou).

Next up Sommeliers: maybe I need a lesson from Steve P., but so often one has:

I'm thinking of X (indicating style & price point)

How about Y (different style 30% more expensive).

How will that work with dish Z? (Sommelier appears unaware of what choices of dish we have made).

Of course lots of it is in the consequences: If somebody upsells me something & it is great, I'm happy.

If it's not great I blame the person who 'sold' it, rather than myself for choosing it.

This is one area where really good restaurants at whatever level deliver. They're interested in finding out about you & what you enjoy & helping enhance that experience. This can happen from your local takeaway to top of the range places.

January 19, 2003

Welcome to eGullet, Dave. I had a decent meal at Little Georgia a while ago. And as you say handy for the Dove.

January 17, 2003

There was a story - presented as investigative journalism - in Time Out London (in the summer I think) which looked into obtaining bushmeat. (Meat typically imported from Africa - ranging from Antelope to monkey).

I think in that case a justifiable story.

Did Wilfrid write? If only to sign off as 'Disgusted, eGullet'.

January 17, 2003

Gavin - any instances in particular which have led you to your opinion?

Andy my own misjudgements involved a sorry saga of chops, overcooking, underseasoning and cream sherry. More years ago than I care to reflect upon.

I personally would tend to avoid a cow butter (or cream based) approach to Lamb on the basis that lamb comes with enough tasty fat of its own. (the garlic/rosemary thing I'd tend to the evoo option if I had to use some extra lubricant).

I now bore myself with char-grilling those culinary go-faster stripes onto my middle-aged delusion of simplicity.

I expect I will find 'A year in Provence' acceptable reading matter in the near future. A stairlift beckons.

January 17, 2003

Dr. B probably referring to my comments here.

In no way intended to reflect on your way with a lamb.

January 17, 2003

Edited: obvious facetiousness.

Stick me down in the less is more camp.

When I first started cooking I had a huge respect for difficult or unfamiliar preparations with which I would murder dishes.

I no longer try and cook lamb with a cream based sauce for example - I know that was just bad taste not complexity.

I also underestimated the pleasure in a dish that was just down to the raw materials. I shop a lot more & cook a lot less these days.

But there's the conceptual aspect too, Jinmyo for example describes her cooking with an admirable directness and exposing the underlying simplicity in really good food.

January 15, 2003

I'll try and be there. Not quite sure exactly when.

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