Suzi Edwards

thanks for the recs. are either of these condusive to having a girly gossip?

i'd love to get your recommendations on where the best indian food in chicago is! hema's really hit the spot for me, so i'd love to know about more places.

is there a bar near here that anyone would recommend by any chance?

i had a really, really good meal here last night. it was amazing to see how things have grown in the last couple of months. i'll post more later, but if you are thinking about making a reservation here at the moment, pick up the phone and call them. report to follow.

i like mela but it's very, very different to zaika or the cinnamon club (the latter i haven't been to) were you keen to compare and contrast high-end/modern indian food with more traditional stuff? i thought that mela was great in terms of producing proper home style cooking, but it's not hugely innovative in my eyes. that said, you might not want innovative and if you simply want really good indian food, i think you've picked a winner.

I believe you have to call RHR exactly a calendar month before you want a table. So on the 15th for the following 15th. If that's the correct meaning of calendar month.

Why thank you. Am much looking forward to it, I ate here back in February/March so I can't wait to see how it has changed. It's just struck me, I ate here because of your review Yellow Truffle.

Some experiences are characterised by an absence of thought, others by an overactivity of it. You can be so in the moment you just experience and can't think through it to make connections. Other times it all just drops into place. Trio was like the former for me. So many things happening, tangents running all over the place. It took me two visits to work out why I loved it.

marshall fields?

I feel bad. I have been neglecting my diary. This is because I went back to London for the weekend. My top tip of the day is that five 'ritas (no matter how high quality) is not a good idea after an 8 hour flight, a Barry Manilow concert and lunch at a 2* restaurant. And I am going to Moto tonight. *makes nest under desk to have nap*

i think you've hit on something here. and it's encapsulated in a book by kate fox called "watching the english". she's an anthropologist who has decided to look inwards at her own culture, rather than outwards like most do. she's just written a really accessible book that probes the british obsession with things as diverse as the weather and the class system. she has an entire chapter about the english and food. my favourite point was about how the english actually view an interest in food as somehow pornographic and wrong. many of my colleagues sat around laughing when i was trying to organise my weekly organic delivery. they thought it completely insane that i would be telling a supplier that their cabbage was not of a high enough calibre. they find my boycott of supermarkets completely insane and call me a hippie to my face. they cannot work out why i walk to eat to get my soup for lunch when a local cafe of death type place is closer. so, maybe we should all read "watching the english" next to try and explore why people are willing to accept such poor produce.

i went once and never would have gone back. it was in an odd location, they can't have got much passing trade.

Hey there, welcome to Egullet! We're a bit thin on Ireland advice at the moment. Here's a link to the last significant thread about Ireland that contains some other web resources Maybe when you get back you can tell us where was good? I always tell people about the Chili Club, a tiny Thai place, but it is YEARS since i ate there...

mmmmmm a factory farmed chicken cooked by a spotty teenager, only £2.99, and think of all the drugs and growth hormones you get free with it! i cant believe anyone serious enough about food to visit egullet would eat crap like that. easy tiger. while i agree that 2.99 is a frightening price for a chicken, let's not insult each other.

See the thread. Rock and Sole Plaice, or Upper St Fish Shop is this the one at the highbury and islington end of upper street?

i think we should have a pie manifesto. this will evolve, but number one has to be... 1. no pie pretenders btw, i am very annoyed with you stigand. i am sitting in heathrow airport about to go back to chicago for nigh on four weeks and you have just mentioned pork pies. i'm currently experiencing pie envy.

i graduated in '96. i have a softspot for browns. being a good working class coventry girl i'd never been to a restaurant until i got to cambridge (i know. insane) this was my first taste. oh the waitresses with their long aprons and black ties. oh the specials on the blackboard. i really did think it was the most glamourous place i had ever been. to be honest, it was the most glamourous place i had ever been. i thought that browns was the height of chic. see, out of acorns and all that...

Scott's query about pies has made me think. I love pies, but rarely have them in restaurants. In fact, the last good pie I had in a restaurant was when I was an undergraduate at Browns in Cambridge. I am slightly ashamed to admit this as I feel quite sure I went back the pie would probably not be that delicious. So, where can you get a good pie in the UK? I'm most interested in fish or steak and kidney. Because I am a purist about these things.

that'd be me then. i wrote a long eulogy about trio, fat duck and made some mention of el bulli here i've eaten much, much more at trio than at the fat duck - perhaps because chicago is the centre of the culinary universe ;-). i think the fat duck is more fun. people were getting really, really drunk and there was a real sense of theatre about the place. trio is a much more intimate and, goes all wibbly for a moment, more erotic. the fat duck is definitly in the french tradition, the food at trio feels fresher, more disconnected from any classical cuisine. i'm obviously already losing sleep over alinea, grant's new restaurant... to answer your other questions; 1. i think st john might do some good steamed pudding. they certainly do an eccles cake that will put hairs on your chest. have it with some of mrs kirkhams lancashire cheese. this really is a british classic for me. and very northern. thus proving once again that london isn't the culinary capital....(have i made my point yet?) 2. i love a pie but do think it's hard to get a good one. i have started a thread about pies. I'd avoid jellied eels, but that's a personal preference. there is a very traditional pie and mash shop in exmouth market in islington. it's worth a trip as this is whene medcalf, moro and brindisa are based. medcalf i mentioned before, moro is a completely fab north african/mediterrean place and brindisa is a wonderful spansih deli that always has lots of samples out. try some of the riserva ham cut off the bone. 3. there's a thread here about fish and chips. 4. You can't miss Neal Yard Dairy, either in Covent Garden or just by Borough market. I'd probably go to the latter on a Friday or a Saturday to see the market in full swing. I'm not sure where you're from Scott, but I have not see a US market that beats Borough in terms of quality or variety of produce. The US ones all win on price, sadly. If you get out to Islington you could also go to La Fromagerie which is up past Highbury and Islington station. They have another branch in Marylebone, on the high street, if you are in the West End though. 5. You can buy good bread to take away from St John. Avoid anywhere called Greggs or Braggs though. 6. I have no idea where you'd get a good breakfast. I'm assuming you want a full english?

rotfl

I know This' nationality thanks, but I point out the relationship with Adria (which goes back to the early nineties and produced the now notorious foams), i don't think i had a foam when i ate at the fat duck. moby, can you remind me? i might be wrong.

opson is, of course, completely right apart from the fact that the fat duck is not spanish in any way shape or form and sheeky is a tourist trap. hakkasan is great for high end chinese food, yauatcha is the new offshoot dim sum bar that might be worth a visit. i still think that st john bread and wine is better than the original st john...there's a place called medcalf in exmouth market in islington if you fancy something less "full on" than the original. rules is supposed to be good for traditional british game. for great indian food you could do worse than go to tooting for some mighty fine south indian style vegetarian and then try zaika or the cinnamon club for high end stuff. if you're near regent's park, you could quite easily get to maida vale, a very lovely part of london that has a great tapas bar called meson bilbao.

the salusbury in queens park was great when i last went there..but that was about three years ago. best gastropub was one of the categories in the recent time out eating and drinking awards. i've left my copy in the office...it's not on their website. or can anyone else remember who the nominees are?

hey there! thank you for posting...you realise you'll be innudated with egulleteers banging on the door and demanding stuff. just ask basildog.

lol. in this day and age you'd think people would be able to accomodate anything. i'm in chicago at the moment and two strange food related thigns happened yesterday; i was served an atkins pizza (no bread, just sausage meat, mentioned elsewhere on this board) and i was offered a vegan menu in a high-end-ish chinese restaurant. a whole menu *just* for the vegans. offered every night. there was a vegan desert and everything.