balex

I was going to post on thiis thread, and then I thought "But I have got this problem beaten so ...", and then this evening it happened again. Spaghettii cacio e pepe --- pasta with pecorino romano and black pepper. My problem is that the cheese clumps together instead of forming a smooth sauce. I did some experiments (literally) to figure out how to beat this, and it seemed to work, and this evening I followed my recipe and that damn cheese clumped up into a single inedible ball. And then I slightly overcooked the steaks . At least the wine was good. I am so blue.

Yes, but that doesn't have much in common with what we call sushi today. That was invented by Hanaya Yohei in 1824 (according to one book I have).

Traditionally in England, Brussel sprouts are considered to be better after a frost. So maybe there is something in it.

Godwin's law applies even here

I agree with you about them sometimes being too salty; in the past I have soaked them first for 24 hours in cold water, changed a couple of times. That get rids of a lot of the salt. I am a huge fan of baked ham with that lovely caramelized coating and cloves. A caveat -- I have only done this with smaller joints say 5-6lbs. It might not work with a whole ham. I thought that York ham still has salt in the cure; and it is normally eaten cold, in my experience. But I am not a ham expert.

But york ham is already cooked, isn't it? And coated with breadcrumbs. If you wanted to bake something, I think that isn't the right choice.

Bistro 21 sounded quite interesting, so I am going to go there. Thanks for the help Bapi.

Can anyone recommend a restaurant or pub in Durham? It can be anything, fish and chips, kebabs, haute cuisine. I am going next week and I am starting to get nervous.

The reality about table manners is that they are codes of behaviour that indicate (among other things) social class. If you are lucky enough to live in a classless society (e.g. on Mars), or have political objections to socially stratified societies, or are just lazy -- fine, don't teach your children these codes. Table manners are one such code; dress, accent etc. are others. Table manners derive from rather abstract and scientifically inaccurate principles of food hygiene in much the same way that ties are for keeping your neck warm.

It doesn't happen all the time -- but maybe half the time in 2/3 stars in France, in my experience, the wine gets tasted before you try it.

Swede is rutabaga. One of the non-obvious British/American translations.

When you say "soy wrappers" is that "fu"? I have never had that in sushi, but it sounds good.

Traditionally the French say that Paris would be fine except for the Parisians: Parisien: tete de chien, Parigo: tete de veau But I think there are three things wrong with Paris: cigarette smoke, dog shit and third, Parisians. Actually I don't mind Parisians that much; none of my best friends are Parisian.

shinko I guess, shiso leaf + ume, err ... you already said egg, avocado, and I guess you could do inside out rolls, but the wrapper is a problem.

I had dim sum at the Royal China on queensway yesterday and it was excellent. I felt that it had slipped badly the last time I was there but it seems back on form. One of the specials was very good -- deep fried prawns in a crunchy almond coating. Everything else was spot on -- especially good cheung fen. I just got back from San Francisco and was rather underwhelmed by the dim sum at Yank Sing which is meant to be the best in the city. Royal China was distinctly better -- and Hakkasan is a good two notches above that, but at a different price point of course.

In British English, "dinner" is ambiguous between a meal served around 12-2 and the one served 6-9. But "repas de midi" is clearly a noon-time meal.

That is a Wine GEEK: a completly different creature. A wine snob is someone who is more concerned with the reputation of the wine, and what its scores are in WA and WS and how fashionable it is, than with how good it is. And you are right -- ignore them!

I second Defune. Another good one is Ikeda opposite Claridges. Not a very wide selection (in the UK this is a good sign IMHO). There is a place in Acton that a Japanese friend of mine who just wrote a book on sushi recommends very highly but I have never been. That still counts as London, right?

Most of the great Enlglish cheeses are hard, so you should be ok with customs. In fact Jeffrey Steingarten had an amusing anecdote about this in his Q&A (I can't find the link just now.) I would specifically suggest something like Double Gloucester, Stilton and then a more sour crumbly cheese of the Cheshire or Wensleydale type. There are more exotic variants of each of these types that might be interestiing.

The word 'fragolino' just means little strawberries -- so what used to be called in England alpine strawberries but are now called wild strawberries though of course most of them aren't wild at all but farmed. So any drink with these strawberries will probably have fragolino in the name. (You probably know this already in which case sorry for being patronising). I love Lago di Nemi! (the one near Rome) that was thought to have an entrance to the underworld. It is quite an eery place. When we lived in Rome, we would drive to Arricia and buy enormous panini filled with porchetta -- whole roast pig stuffed with fennel and rosemary and sage and pepper, and some of the local wine which they would sell in reused plastic water bottles and drive down to the side of the lake and feast. Happy times.

I thought this was made from "uve fragole" which are dessert grapes that (naturally) taste of strawberry. Fragolino is indeed a native American grape that was planted in Italy during the phylloxera period and stuck in a few places. In Italy it produces the same sickly, cloying sweet wine native grapes produce in the USA. It is illegal to export or re-plant in all, but a few narrowly defined areas. The high points of this variety in Italy is a nasty, and very cheap frizzante (sparkling) wine or a grappa which can be quite good, but potentially dangerous spirit very high in methanol in the hands of less careful distillers. When I drank it, with a journalist for the Rai, he said it was illegal. It was rather horrible. On the other hand, perhaps the single most delicious ice cream I have ever had is San Crispino's uve fragola gelato.

I thought this was made from "uve fragole" which are dessert grapes that (naturally) taste of strawberry.

I don't want to carp about all these bad puns, but ...

This is probably 'Passatelli" which are not really pasta but a sort of breadcrumb based mixture and quite thick. Marcella Hazan has a recipe for them -- or there are some on the web. You can find what looks like a good recipe here: Passatelli Recipe

Just saw Angela Gheorghiu in Simone Boccanegra. We are talking a high aggregate score here. Now I have to talk about ferrets to make this on topic ?