Carlovski

I've cut myself most having to use other peoples horrible, blunt and badly shaped/sized knives (Mother - I'm accusing you here!) but the nastiest one, from which I was lucky to keep my finger was with my own brand new razor sharp santoku. Doubly nasty as I was chopping szome quit fiery chilles at the time!

I think I have more of an issue with your theory that 'Wine is like organic element. It can speak for itself and can feel.' But I think that the 'Glass affects the taste of the wine' theory almost as unlikely.

Deconstructed normally sets alarm bells ringing. Or even worse 'reimagined' - yes, I have seen that on a menu...

Silver spoon - the oft quoted Italian cookbook has similar issues.

I like my carbs so for me it's usually half a pack. I always serve up 1/2 -2/3rds of it, thinking it's too much, and then end up coming back for seconds. I sometimes use a bit over half a packet, leaving myself with a dilemma for next time!

I recently read that caviar did actually have that status, and was referred to as 'fish jam'. Can't dig out the reference though, and it may well be that the product was somewhat different to what we would call caviar these days. Oysters are the other famous example - used to be the food of the poor.

I sometimes make a spiced butternut squash soup where I roast the squash with crushed whole spices. That benefits from straining after blending as the spices get rather bitty, although I haven't tried with my new more powerful blender, it may well pulverise those too!

I'm attempting to put together a small bar myself - had a few people round for pre party drinks on NYE as a dry run. Put together at short notice, so some of the brands probably wouldn't have been my first choice! Those in the US in states with state controlled stores may be surprised to here that this was all from a fairly low end supermarket in the Uk (was like hell on earth with people buying cheep booze and party snacks!). Was based around popular drinks, with some campari for me! Vodka (can't remember the brand, it was half decent and on offer) Tanqueray Gin Bacardi Rum (would have preferred something more interesting) Martini Rosso Martini Bianco Angostura Bitters Campari Courvoisier Cognac Cointreau Chambord And we had some Scotch knocking around. And champagne of course! Plus the usual mixers, made some sugar syrup etc Will need to refill some of the 'stock' booze and I also want to add Tequila (Of some description) Bourbon/Rye (I am not educated in these ways so I'll be reading for recommendations) Applejack/Calvados Some more interesting bitters Maraschino (I like Aviations) That should do me for a while, then I can really start branching out! Carl

How much of an issue is it really, how many are you getting a day? What would your reaction be if someone came in, but asked first? And is it really affecting your business? Because your suggested measures probably will.

Strange, because I had always thought the opposite - that using them would stop a decent head from forming. Been quite a few years since I pulled a pint (Parents used to be pub landlords) but I'm sure I was told to only ever use a perfectly dry glass.

Had a couple of bottles of this again last night, and forgot how good it is. It would be a perfect 'gateway' beer to introduce a commercial lager drinker into the wider world of beer, it's best served cold and has quite a bit of sweetness. Is anyone else a fan?

Can't say I find bigger beers a problem! The 'Stubby' is popular in Australia - makes sense as it can be drunk before it gets to warm. In the UK you get a lot of supermarket onw label beers available in this format, but it's fairly industrial stuff as a rule. The only 'good' beers generally available in small bottles tend to be packaged that way because they are very strong - which ay defeat the purpose.

You see it quite a lot in the UK as a general substitute for whatever berry liqueur - it's a lot easier to source (Even supermarkets sell it). The diffords guide 'Cocktails Made Easy Book' makes that suggestion too (The book is based around having a selection of 14 bottles, it's not a bad book, although the fact that none of the bottles is Campari takes it down a notch for me!) Out of interest, why the hate for the French Martini? Is it the 'It's not a Martini' angle, or is it the sweetness? I'll admit, I wouldn't want one every day, but it's not that bad a drink is it? Oh, and Rodi - Yikes!

There is also a flipside to this - people who make their own who think it's better than they can buy, and it really isn't. Fine if you enjoy the process, or it makes sense economically, but there are people who are using no better ingredients and inferior domestic equipment who kid theselves that their product is 'better than anything you can buy in the shops'. Bread is the usual suspect - using normal white flour, easy blend yeast and a breadmaker with minimal proving times might be a bit better than an average supermarket loaf, but isn't going to match anything made by even an average baker with a real hearth. I'd like to make more myself (Although I will still keep clear of puff pastry!) but sharing a fairly small kitchen with housemates who want to be able to come in and whack something in the oven makes it tricky.

A supermarket in the UK sells (Or at least used to) a jar of ready mixed olives, anchovy and capers, for the making of puttanesca (Or whetever else you fancy). The olives were to finely sliced, and hence dried out, and weren't great to begin with, but I quite like the idea, it would allow the flavours to mingle. Good for people who wouldn' necessarly use a jar full of capers for anything else (I go through them pretty quickly myself!). I ended up doing my own version a while back, mainly to reduve the number of 1/4 full jars of things hanging around in my fridge. Got used over the next few days, but I wonder how long you could keep it for? Is the 'mingling' a good thing? Or should the flavours be separate?

I like to chop some of the capers and olives and add to the initial oil with the garlic chilli and anchovies (And I like to use a healthy glug of oil here too). I add whole/halved olives and either roughly chopped big, or whole baby capers at the end (I've played with some lemon zest at this point too). In terms of alternative uses, I like it with grilled fish as well as pasta (An extra glug of oil and some lemon juice is good here to make it almost a dressing and to split slightly). I also recently made the happy discovery that it goes tremendously well with cauliflower, both as dish in it's own right, or by adding cauliflower with the pasta (Let some blanched, or even previously cooked cauliflower cook with the sauce for the last few minutes).

I've just started getting into cocktail making at home - slowly putting together a starter set of bottles (with a slant towards gin, and things that complement it!). I was in my local wine shop picking up a couple of bottles when I noticed they had a small bath of Fee's bitters on sale, I asked if they had the orange one, as I've seen a number of recipes that call for it (And fancied experimenting with it in a Negroni), but they only had the aromatic bitters, and a lemon one. I bought a bottle of the lemon, but am a bit stumped as to what to do with it - I can't seem to find anyone recommending it for anything. I'll have a play with adding it to a G&T, although I am usually a purist about such things, but has anyone got any suggestions?

Completely out of order in my opinion. I presume he wasn't concerned by the glowing report you gave him in the first 2 reviews on your site? If he had rang to offer any reasons why your visit wasn't up to scratch, or wanted to ask you to publish his response on the manner, then that would be fine, although you wouldn't have been obliged to do so. To behave in that manner is unprofessional and childish.

Those professional photographers who take pictures completely out of context of the meal, with the food artfully tweezered around, made to a recipe that may well have been altered to look more attractive or behave better under lights than taste good? I think I'd rather have take the odd grainy snap taken by a real customer. And as for other people taking photographs, it's just like people complaining about people using mobile phones on trains - unless they are shouting/using a flash, it shouldn't affect other people in the slightest. On saying that, the current obsession of having to photgraph/blog about everything that goes on in your life confuses me - I just don't get it. But it doesn't really bother me when other people want to.

The usual complaints people have about okra don't actually bother me - a lot of 'luxury' ingedients are praised for their gelatinous qualities, so why not okra? It was the sauce in this case that wasn't very good - it only bothered me because it looked like it could be good. and I wanted something to go with the quite tasty mushroom rice! I can see how a falafel could be ok as a textural component to some good salads, sauces and bread. My usual late night indulgence is a hummus kebab from the local kebab shop, quite good, and more about the bread and salad than the hummus itself, but it is a bit squidgy! I'm not vegetarian any more, but I don't eat a lot of meat, which is why I tend to gravitate to middle eastern and indian food. Carl

I really cannot believe how a few seconds blanching can make much difference in cooking - the heat penetration on the two methods is going to be about the same, and any more gentle cooking involved in the initial blanching on the outer layers will be negated by the sauteing. It's also not long enough to cook the insides to mean you can reduce the saute time (Which I could see making a difference). But- I can see where he is coming from, you can't just treat a big bowl full of assorted 'wild mushrooms' as the same product, and expect optimum results by treating them all the same any more than you would with a bowl full of assorted seafood. My perfect mushroom is one that has been fried to remove a certain amount of it's moisture (don't as for a percentage!) to concentrate it's taste, and with a bronzed, burnished exterior (butter is essential). Now not every mushroom wil achieve that perfect state in the same time - hence they may need a different amount of time in the pan, but blanching to me sounds like a culinary anachronism. Carl

Well I'm western but I tend to at least double the amount of paste recommended, and throw in a healthy handful of chillies as well, but that's just me! I don't think the anaemic nature is that much of a problem - in my experience it's only the extremely inauthentic ones that are that green anyway. What I would say is that a lot of people expect there to be copious amounts of fresh coriander leaf in there - despite the fact it's not authentic. The other thing is, what a general western audiences (I'm from the uk where Thai, or at least an approximation is incredibly popular) expect is to eat a large amount of the dish, probably in isolation, with a bit of rice, and for it to contain plenty of meat/fish/vegetable. Not in the traditional way of being a single dish served with other hotter, milder, saltier etc dishes as an accompaniment to the rice. So it has to be a bit more restrained to be eaten in this fashion. Side note - I don't know why no restauranteurs haven't tied to push the traditional Thai 'complete meal' - with a variety of curries, salads, relishes, vegetables etc served together. People do a similar thing with a Greek/Turkish meze, and that is popular. Even high end Thai restaurants seem to try and squeeze the food into a traditional french style 3/4 course menu. Carl

Alexandra, don't often venture onto the french forums, but I was a little confused by your comment in the original post Cantonese fat/calorie bomb - fattiness and calorific are not terms I really associate with cantonese, typically one of the lighter and more delicate Chinese regional styles. Indeed your counter point of delicate and dainty, the ingredients barely messed with sounds more like Cantonese to me (Dare I say it than most french cuisine?), although I am the first to admit I am no expert!

The way a lot of chicken is raised these days the bone is still porous when they are slaughtered, allowing marrows to seep through the bone and colour the meat - especially if the chicken has been frozen, or even just chilled enough for ice crystals to form, so you can thoroughly cook it, and it still look undercooked near the bone. P.S This thread reminds me to get the book back from a colleague I lent it too - I bought it when it first came out, but haven't cooked anything from it for a while, although I think I can probably do a few of the recipes from memory!

Jenni - well it tasted good to me, but based on your blog it's something you know a lot more about than me! Although maybe that means you are a bit more critical than most? The Moroccan food did look appealing though, I was even debating trying some, after the curry! I have never realy got into falafel, despite my liking of most other things chickpea, not even in my brief vegetarian phase. Maybe I have never had a good one? I did try Arabesque in Bath too - you were right, the roasted cauliflower is fab, as is the courgette dish.I even managed to help them coax in a couple of older ladies who seemed quite baffled by all the dishes, but were willing to give it a go! I didn't like the falafel though, if they are good ones, then no, I definitely don't like falafel! The vegetable 'stew' (sure there is probably a lebabnese name for it) was poor as well, slightly sloppy okra and some other veg in a nondescript tomato sauce that managed to be watery and gloopy at the same time - an impressive feat. But on the whole, a thumbs up from me, most of the dishes were good, and it's excellent value.