balex

No, I don't think this is the case. It's not just semantics. Or, to put it another way, the food item is what creates the semantics, not the other way around. It's really inconceivable to my mom, as I talked to her further, to think of won ton mein as soup even though it contains a broth. She was thinking of won ton mein as a dish and it's *always* noodles and won tons in a broth. That's like saying "hamburger" to someone and not assuming that they know it's ground beef in a bun. To her, won ton mein is always the same and it's never thought of as soup. You're absolutely right to point out that with man-made things like soup the relationship between object and language is a little more convoluted, because when people invent things they slot them into pre-existing categories. But (I am assuming your mother is a native speaker of dialect of Chinese?) your mother's intuitions about what 'soup' aren't going to help us, since they are just intuitions about what "tang" is. And though the normal translation of "tang" may be "soup" they are different words with different meanings.

Had dinner there last night. It was much much worse than it was on my previous visits. The meat didn't taste barbecued at all, it was dry and chewy. It was latish, about 10 pm, I don't know if that had anything to do with it. Very disappointing.

Hey, I deleted a line in my post saying that some Italians consider all pastas to be soup at some level of abstraction. Were you reading over my shoulder? I even read once (shudder) that you shouldn't drink wine with pasta because of this reason. I think Bugialli mentions this horrible and justly neglected rule in one of his books.

There are a number of features/dimensions here associated with soupiness (soupitudity? soupiosity?): Linguistically: does it have the word soup (or foreign language equivalent) in the name for the dish? Substance: is it mostly liquid? Is it savoury? How is it served: Is it served in a bowl, and/or with a spoon to eat it with? Rather than knife and fork, or chopsticks? When is it served: is it served at the culturally appropriate moment for soup? At the beginning of the meal (European), end of the meal (Chinese...) So there are a lot of clear cases: consomme etc. which score on all these features, and some difficult penumbral ones: Hungarian cherry soup (Yes) versus rhubarb fool (No). It is important to realise that different cultures may place the soup/non-soup divide in different places. There is no fact of the matter about it, no right answer; and the only time it really matters is when you are translating. You can have the same argument about lots of other areas: e.g. is a kilt a skirt? Is this low prayer table a table or a stool? etc. etc.

Most of us scientific types don't really believe in "vitality". We think that what we derive from the food is nutrients -- and that these can de divided into various macronutrients, micronutrients etc. There is a lot of evidence though that caffeine and alcohol affect fertitility. However there is some evidence that caffeine improves male fertility, so you might want to allow yourself to cheat on this (at the appropriate times ). Good luck though Moby and my suggestions are cheese soufflee fish 'n' chips cassoulet (maybe in a few months) as well as any of the other family of pork + beans/pulses dishes like cotechino and lentils. grilled vegetables and mozzarella You can also cook pretty much all of Thai food with those restrictions; except for getting some of the organic vegetables.

I had quite a success with carnitas last night. A few days ago I cooked a 5 kg piece of pork shoulder in the Italian style (porchetta), so stuffed with lots of sage, rosemary garlic fennel seeds etc. I cooked it slowly for about 24 hours. It was good, very tender , maybe a little greasy when hot. I had about a kilo left, and I cut in cubes, dipped them in diluted maple syrup and browned them in a hot oven for about 20 minutes. They were really delicious. We had them with a salsa cruda in tortillas with slices of avocado. My 10 year old son and I ate the lot between the two of us. Thanks for the idea.

There is a brilliant description of pasta con le sarde by Elizabeth David which is "discordant but exhilarating" which sums up this aspect of Sicilian cooking quite well.

Yes and it is exactly like red putty. It was described to me at the market as been made from sun-dried tomatos, does that sound correct? That is roughly right. But to be really pedantic, traditionally it is made from fresh tomato puree, passata, which is spread out in the sun and then dried over a few days. So it's sun-dried but not really made from sun-dried tomatoes if you follow. I don't know if the stuff you get in the markets is made like that as they might well have some more industrial process. I like the sound of your pasta with swordfish and green apples. Were there any capers in it?

I love Sicilian food. Another great dish with ricotta salata is involtini of swordfish. SO you get thin slices of swordfish and you fill them with (IIRC) some of the ricotta, pine nuts, raisins, parsley, probably breadcrumbs, and then you roll them up and skewer them with a bay leave and a slice of onion between each roll and grill them. Really good. Did you get any of that 'strattu -- the very concentrated tomato paste with the consistency of putty? That is great stuff -- I still have some in my fridge.

There is an interesting and perceptive article about menu language on a linguistics blog I read: read it here.

I also am not an expert but 1990 was (apparently) a very good year for Amarone as well as almost everywhere else in Europe. The traditional pairings are meat, game, strong cheeses etc.

winesearcher says that La Reserve has it (which is a nice wine shop on Walton Street). Also Berry Bros and Oddbins. But they might be lying.

In England you have to buy at least a case from some wine merchants, Majestic wines is a well-known example. It can be a mixed case. They sometimes have some interesting deals.

How much do you want to buy? If you want to buy at least a case, you have a wider choice.

My thoughts exactly -- but I think Yauatcha might be more friendly to walk-ins than Hakkasan. No bouncers at the door anyway... By the way, welcome to eGullet Ai Leen!

Just had lunch there. Rather disappointing. The same sort of clueless service that you know and love from Hakkasan, but without the food being on the same plain. High point: asparagus cheung fun, Low point some pork and onion thing that was heavy and boring. Undercooked quail, slightly unfresh scallop shu mai . To be fair this is early days and it might settle down-- the kitchen is clearly capable of good things. About £35 with a couple of glasses of wine, so a bit under twice as expensive as the non-Lau places.

I think they are different things: certainly the Notting Hill farmers market is very much a farmers market -- the advantage of this is as far as I am concerned freshness, quality, and the lack of middlemen means it is cheap, though more inconvenient. The disadvantages are those that John mentions above -- England isn't very good for growing Mediterranean products (duh); I go to a separate shop for my tomatos, aubergine, zucchini and so on. But since you will inevitably have a middleman in those circumstances, there is no disadvantage to going to a shop. And the same goes for Spanish ham, Italian cheeses and so on. I also like chatting to the stall holders; they are often interesting wierdos (a category I aspire to myself...I am halfway there.. )

The poulet de Bresse en vessie avec sa sauce legere de foie gras is a good example of a very classic dish, but done with a slight twist that really elevated it to greatness. The sign of a great cook -- you can close your eyes and nearly twenty years later you can remember the taste of the dish and the room like yesterday, no like 5 minutes ago.

I had the good fortune to eat several times at Mionnay, the last time only two weeks before he died, and perhaps there is an element of sentimentality in saying this, but I still regard the meals I had there as among the greatest I have ever had. One of the things that struck me was that his food was both thoroughly traditional in one sense, and yet quite innovative. And with a few exceptions the innovations were extremely succesful. A particular dish I still rememeber was a salad of lobster, truffle (so far traditional) with little strips of meat from pigeon necks! These little strips of meat were such a perfect complement in flavour, texture and colour. Yet still the aesthetic was rooted in the traditions of Lyonnais cooking or gourmandise. One topic we discuss frequently here is the relation between innovation and tradition -- two extremes one could represent by Adria and perhaps Pacaud. What are your personal views? How central is creativity to your idea of being a chef? Can one be a great chef while innovating only in a narrow range?

Trattoria St. Teodoro Via dei Fienili, Phone 06 6780933 This is not a very well known restaurant but should be famous. It is located down by Bocca della verita behind the Campidoglio. They have some very good pasta -- I particularly recommend the spaghetti with fillets of red mullet and bottarga; I have also had very good abbachio there. Really good food; occasional errors -- I had some spaghetti with anchovies that was way too salty and I like a lot of salt. But in general a refined cooking which has not lost touch with its roots. Nice modern room, good wine list with lots of interesting wines at reasonable prices. Unusually good service by Roman standards which are very low.

I just ordered a case of the Pieropan basic Soave 2002 which was £65 IB.

I have been a O'Brian fan for quite a while, and I liked the film quite a lot. I think it was the most faithful adaptation that you could possibly want to make while still being sufficiently commercial to get it made (faiiling some Mel Gibson type, and though Maturiin et al. inspire passion and devotion they aren't quite in the same league as the subject of Mel's magnum opus). So what was wrong with the food? The toasted cheese looked good, both times.

I eat my peas with honey, I've done it all my life, It makes them taste quite funny But it keeps them on the knife.

Interesting. I know that butter helps anything to brown, but I hadn't given it a lot of thought. I bet it has something to do with the fact that the butter solids brown and undergo Maillard reactions. One interesting thing about Maillard reactions is that, if there are other already "Maillardized" molecules around, it makes the Maillardization of whatever you're cooking go that much faster. This is why, when you're browning off a bunch of steaks (etc.), the subsequent steaks take color much more quickly than the first steak. Does this mean that clarified butter wouldn't work? I guess with clarified butter you can go a lot hotter and get a nice brown colour that way.

don't gloat Hokay, 'splain for us non-French speakers what a Lyonnais Bouchon is, s'vous plait. Soba A bouchon is a sort of informal restaurant that serves Lyonnais specialities that are often offal based. Good hearty food, great fun.