Suzi Edwards

So I spent some of yesterday evening eating anything left in the house with sugar, wheat or dairy in it. January is detox month. No red meat, no sugar, no caffeine, no dairy, no wheat, no alcohol, no cigarettes (not that I eat these) and no preservatives. Yesterday I ate one half of an anchovy fougasse, a camenbert baguette, a piece of rhubarb and creme patisserie tart (all from Paul the bakery in Covent Garden) a lamb madras, bombay aloo and a garlic naan, some pidmontese chocolate biscuits from Carluccios and a couple of vodka tonics. I feel prepared treat my body like a temple for the month of January excepting the meals out I already have planned. There are only three and I figure I can try to detox at two of them. Is anyone else detoxing? Let's share our tips and experiences on this thread.

Will I get stoned to death if I start this post with "g'day"? I guess I'll find out ;-) I'm in the very, very early stages of planning a trip to Australia in March/April. I know nothing at all about the Australian dining scene and would really appreciate your help and advice. Left to my own devices this would be a three/four week food tour but as I'm going with my brother he'll want to think of it as a tour of Australia with some food highlights thrown in. However, as we're just at the planning stage I can cunning weight the itinerary to make sure we're spending time in the places I can get seriously good food. And my brother will never know! So, what are the five restaurants I can't miss out on? Best food city? What's the single best restaurant in Australia? What dishes characterise Australian food? Which things, if I miss out on them, will you all laugh at me for? Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions. I already know we'll be in Sydney for a while and I can't not go to Tetsuya's and Rockpool. I've read the Bourdain piece about Oz and have some ideas from there. A friend really recommends The Grange. If you could plan three weeks in Australia what would you eat?

I just posted this on the Uk board, from The Guardian 2004 in food.

Welcome to the eGullet forums. Don't apologise for ranting. I'd never post anything if we weren't allowed to rant! Here's a link to oven thermometers on the Divertimenti website. I searched John Lewis as well but they didn't seem to have them online. I often find their website can be a bit out of date though. You might try the "Special Selection" part of Satanburies for the flour. I am fairly sure they stock it. Matthew's right, it's more likely to be the time of year that's the problem but I'm also not sure La Fromagerie is the first place I would think of to buy flour ;-) I've used Dove's Farm organic rye flour in the past Here's a link to places that stock their products.

I just read the article. I think it's great that these chefs are being recognised, but I felt the article was trying just a teensy bit too hard to create a movement (the ABC of Chicago dining anyone?) The discussion that goes on here is more passionate and enticing about these chefs. I could be totally wrong here, but I didn't get a sense that the author had eaten much of the food, even less that they were really doing anything other than churning out copy. I've made my thoughts about Avenues clear before, I would have prefered the article to be about Achatz and Cantu. But there's no ABC without Bowles and three chefs is more of a movement. The more I read about Bowles' food, the more I am at risk of becoming completely paranoid as to why I wasn't served anything remotely innovative. I can only comment on what I was served and it didn't match what he talks about doing. *Ducks to avoid incoming flack* However, I'm glad that the article was written. Only next time I want to read something in the Sunday Times because then I'll know that Chicago is getting the respect it deserves as a serious, global food town.

If it helps with future Scrabble games I could pretend I'd considered making "squidesque" a word. But of course the usage of Gollumesque precluded it.

It's a slim week for the Media Round Up, only Jay Rayner has kept fighting the good fight with this review of Amaya in Knightsbridge from The Observer

Thanks to Sandra for pointing us to this review of The Chinese Experience from Time Out There's also Tracy MacLeod's review from The Independent

Had sworn before I went to sleep on Christmas day that I was never eating again. I was surprised to find myself hungry by about lunchtime on the 26th. Some would put this down to plain old gluttony, I prefer the idea that my stomach has been forced to stretch beyond its normal capacity, much like my waistband. So feeling like a goose waiting to be forcefed again I waddled down to the Chinese Experience on the edge of Chinatown. I can see where the Yau comparisons come from, it's modern and bright inside with red painted walls and good looking chairs. I was less sure about the sushi style plastic food items in the window, however given the limited English of the staff working that day and the positive reviews it's getting I can see how they would come in handy. Dim sum with a sort of vegetarian is never the easiest thing in the world but it did mean I could come over all Gollumesque with my Char Sui pork buns which were my favourite ones ever. I was less sure about the Shanghai Soup Buns as I felt the wrapper was a little too thick and pasta like compared to those I've enjoyed at Hakkasan and Joe's Shanghai in New York. However, few enough places serve these so I shan't complain too much. Best dish by far was the salt and pepper squid, which was piping hot, garlicky, squidy and chilliy all at the same time. The Chef clearly has a deft hand with the deep fat fryer and the tempura batter. Honourable mentions must go to the bean curd pockets in portuguese sauce, a dish I wouldn't have ordered without my meatless companion but that was a pleasant surprise. Vegetables and prawns (if these contain meat please do not post that on this thread) encased in a beancurd envelope and enveloped in a bright yellow very mildly curried sauce. The flavour was rich, soothing and very, very moorish all at the same time. Less sucessful were some vegetarian dumplings and king prawn dumplings that needed a huge amount of the very delicious table condiments to give it any flavour, however the prawns were huge. Dim sum on steroids perhaps? I think that The Chinese Experience could become a Chinatown staple. It felt fresh and new and although the service needs a look. More Wong Kei than Hakkasan at the moment but I'm willing to ignore that and just chow down on the squid for the time being. The Chinese Experience 118 Shaftesbury Avenue (020) 7437 0377

So what food related stuff did Santa bring you this year? I got four copies of Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany in 2005 so I was hoping not to have such a glut this year. The one thing I really wanted was a mandoline but the box I was sure it in contained a facial sauna. Did get some interesting books though, the reissued "Nose to Tail Eating", "The Wider Shores of Gastronomy" and "Food; A Culinary History". Did anyone else anything exciting? Any huge misses?

Can anyone tell me anything about the wine at L'Enclume? Would you recommend the pairings? Are they very interesting? Anything about the Sommelier Stephen Wilcox?

If it's really exciting please don't share it until Wednesday when I will be offline :-) Alternativly you could do what movie reviewers do. So maybe if you post about "chocolate mayhem, no more voices" you could put SPOILER at the start of the post? Cheers hon.

I think I've realised too late what I really want for Christmas.

Christmas 2004 will forever be the year of Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany. I received four copies. This year I've had a copy of Nose to Tail eating, bottle of vodka, box of biscuits from Marks and Spencer and some cashews. My mum doesn't wrap presents and my cats opened the bag they were in. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Thanks for that YKL, I recall that review from the Weekly Roundup. That review mentions Yau, but doesn't say he was involved at all.

I didn't realise China Experience was the new Yau place. Don't think that has been mentioned in any of the reviews of it. How strange. Did you enjoy it? I've been meaning to go for a couple of weeks now.

Am completely sure it is. Funny how easy I find it to cast aside my ethics when faced with choice between "lemon and herb" and "medium".

Well despite being past its best the Buche Plenitude was one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. I had it as my birthday cake yesterday and I'm currently more popular than I have ever been in the office.

Thanks for the report Airwaves and welcome to the eGullet forums!

Yep, Carluccios is totally a chain. I work just round the corner from their branch in Covent Garden and they seem have widened their range. They had half lobsters with lemon mayonnaise earlier! I quite like them but the service in the deli section on Upper Street is terrible. It once took them so long to slice me some pancetta I had started seriously considering rearing, slaughtering and curing my own pig as a viable alternative.

I think the food in Upper Class on Virgin isn't too bad as far as airplane food goes. In my limited experience (United, BA, Gulf Air, BA and Virgin) I would put them at the top although I do still hold a candle for the warm nuts that United serve either shortly before or after takeoff. I once really activly enjoyed a 45 delay from O'Hare as I just pigged out on nuts. Anyway, my theory of eating on planes goes as follows: 1. Order a vegan meal. No, really, they are much, much better 2. Never order the beef on United 3. Choose the simplest possible thing so that it's less hard for them to screw up Toad in the hole is not a easy dish to get right. It's definitly not a dish that I would expect to see served at 35,000. In fact, I'd no more expect to see Toad in the Hole served than I'd expect to see the Fat Duck's nitro green tea palate cleanser after the hot nuts.

Blimey - you win. ← Where's his stick for not writing reports about this places Mr Moby? Patrick- as always Moby got there first, but your list has made me green with envy :-)

Surely some mishtake, Shuzi - I can't find your review ANYWHERE! Speaking of which... i must go over to the New York board to read that Ducasse thing of yours.... ← Easy Tiger. I only went to Chez Bruce on Sunday and I'm having a week from hell (check the date...) Still haven't written the Ducasse thing. Too busy eating chicken from Nandos ;-p

Just saw this thread on the California board and have stolen it! They do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... This time of year is a strange one to do this because I'm sure we're all eating well (obviously Gary eats in the style of Michelin inspector all year but I think he might be the exception...) So, the last three places I have eaten are: 1. Nando's on Upper Street 2. Abeno (Japanese omakase place on Museum Street) 3. Chez Bruce What about you?

Hummm. Well, it's now 5 days old so looks like that was rather a waste of cash and effort to transport it from Paris to London! Thanks for the advice all!