Carlovski

Quick update, My Mum was down to visit earlier this week and got confused looks whenever she tried to tip in pubs, she on the other hand had paid for the trip down, and spending money out of her tips from the club (10p a time).

Very interesting I thought, nice to here about some good kitchen management at Arbutus - that's the sort of cost cutting you can deal with, making the best use of ingredients, tailoring the menu to what is available at the best price while still maintaining quality (Though I guess they must trust their supplier "Want to buy a dozen cheap black leg chickens?") Wonder how long before Pollack becomes the new Monkfish?

If it is a salad to go with a meal - rather than the focus I stay fairly simple. I usually have just a green salad (Often out of a pillow pack, unless I have been to the farmers market recently). Occasionaly throw in a handful of cherry tomatoes but I'm funny about sliced tomatoes in a mixed salad - I'd much rather have a separate tomato salad. If I'm having anything spicy I also like to throw in raw onion, if I'm organised it will have been soaked in cod water to mellow it (and make it cold - I love cold onion) but often it hasn't. Dressing is a basic mustardy vinaigrette, normally made with sherry vinegar but occasionally just oil and lemon. My other salad is cos leaves (Or little gem) with a egg yolk thickened dressing with parmesan - a poor mans caesar salad in effect.

Don't get me started on 'Health' food stores and their rows and rows of pills and potions... I did have a housemate who basically ate very little other than pasta and a whole concoction of pills - he said it was cheaper than fruit and vegetables.....

I'm sure most of us have seen this before, but for a comparison try having a look at this collection of airline meals

I emailed the clam vendor's ask the chef and promptly got this reply: Fresh steamer clams can be placed in a bowl of salted water (sea water) with a tablespoon of cornmeal. The clams take in the cornmeal and spit out sand. This method takes about 2 to 3 hours. So pleased was I more Q's were sent: Where did my steamer clams come from? Local aquaculture? Our clams come from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. What about those black siphons - do people usually eat them? You may eat the siphons. If you are not accustomed to eating them...try them....they kind of taste like chewy scallops. Does the cornmeal trick work on your mussels too? Mussels should not contain grit as they are suspended by strings as they grow. ← Wow, I wish I could get vendors like that here. That Mackerel looked good too btw.

Indian food and curry in particular has definitely become part of British culture an cusine. For an interesting history try reading this book. It's a very similar situation here with Indian restaurants (and takeaways) as with chinese in the USA - a large number of fairly identical, usually uninspiring but keenly priced places, mainly offering the same dishes prepared in the same way along with a handful of more distinctive 'authentic' offerings. And we now have more style led 'Modern' indian restaurants, both at the high end , and low/mid range chain type places (though many of these quickly find they have to offer the standard range of dishes to stay afloat). But even the most standard local curry house will do some dishes better than others - as a rule vegetable side dishes are usually quite good as they tend to be made from scratch (preprepared and just warmed up, but a lot of dishes stand up to this quite well - dal for isntance) rather than made from the generic sauce. Most places have a few 'specials' too - most of them are basically the same as the rest of the dishes but with extra ingredients but you do get some more interesting dishes. And if you are a regular they will make dishes to your liking or mention if they have something you might want to try. The best dishes I have ever had though have been at what are in effect Indian cafe's/diners in city centres - Manchester has a selection. they usually offer 3 vegetable and three meat dishes (though some are all vegetarian) rice and breads and usually have one special dish that revolves on a daily basis i.e Friday will always be lamb chops. They are very cheap and the special dish is usually excellent (if you get there before it sells out).

Well it's better than refusing to feed them I guess. Not sure if that is the most nutritionally balanced of meals - but I guess the other 'popular' options aren't either.

I agree with Fat Guy - it's all economics. I'm sure if Alain Ducasse opened a restaurant in Berlin (for example), with a smaller population and a culture of later dining it would be financial suicide to have 2 sittings (Plus I am sure the ground rent is much lower so) The financial situation is that at the top end of dining, if they didn't turn tables they would have to increase prices accordingly. I would rather have the chance to eat at such restaurants twice, maybe in a slightly more compressed time than I would choose, than only be able to afford to go once.

Normandy is another of those regions that has become forgotten due to it's embrace of dairy unlike the trendier olive oil led cuisine of the south of France. Also, do not forget the excellent (and again less fashionable than it Mediterranean counterparts ) seafood from the channel, the cider and the world class cheeses. And yes, as an Englishman I do find these things hard to say (Although it did used to be ours...)

I use a 'fake' santoku, similar blade shape but a lot more resilient steel. Also fairly hefty towards the handle so I do use it on chicken bones. And it has a moulded and comfy handle. No idea on the make, I bought it unboxed in a sale, but I love it.

Olive oil, yes indeed. It has always been expensive to extract, and today it's very high tech. For an idea of state-of-the-art oil making, see Armando Manni's site: www.manni.biz. ← Thinking about it though, not a great example - olive oil production is probably still a lot more possible in a farmhouse than rapeseed extraction. An interesting thing to find out would be what a great barista drinks at home....

Interesting, as a enthusiastic but inexperienced wine drinker with a limited budget I have always steered clear of most French whites, new world being a lot cheaper and consistent. I'll have to try some of these recommendations - if I can find them. I do enjoy Alsace Pinot Blanc and riesling though. But this summer I think I will be mainly drinking Albarino....

Eww, Eww nasty. Just found my cupboard (I live in a shared house) infested with odd looking bugs. Traced them down to a bag of (quite expensive) italian imported risotto rice. They don't appear to have infested anything else - most things are sealed and all my basmati is in another cupboard, and they completely ignored all my dried pulses. The rice was completely blown out though, grains had turned powdery, and it was a mass of bugs. I did cook with some of it before they 'appeared' though (Couple of months), and it looked fine, did I eat a load of bug eggs? Not really bothered, but I like to know how things work! I'm just glad I didn't make that risotto I was thinking about when I got in drunk the other night.....

All artisanal products require an investment to produce, sometimes financial, always time and in most cases both. As discussed already, no one makes espresso, dried pasta or gelato (although I guess semi-freddo maybe?) at home. You missed a few out too, olive oil and a lot of breads which cant be made by hand. The difference in Italy is that businesses and craftsmen survive by making things that are impractical or impossible to make at home. In the US and the UK you can survive by making things that people can probably make better at home, they just can't be bothered.

A few of the replies have mentioned if they did it they would leave a good tip - which is great, for the staff. Not too good for the owner....

There are regional variations too, In Manchester, at least in traditional pubs there is a tradition of tipping (even more so in working mens and social clubs). As a rule the tip taken is small - used to be 5p, but now more likely to be 10/20p - not a lot but when everyone tips it mounts up. Saying 'And your own' when handing the money over is the accepted practise. If you say 'and one for yourself' you are offering them a drink that they may actually take, or take the cash equivalent. Some places pool tips but mostly it's individual. When I worked behind the bar of my Parent's pub it always seemed unfair, as the girls alway made about 10 times as much as me! In the south the practise is a lot less widespread - when i first moved down here I got bemused stares whenever I tried to tip - so I don't bother any more, occasionally buy them a drink, especially if I'm stood at the bar though. Whenether I'm back in Manchester I always tip. Anywhere in the country chain pubs are likely to have policies which forbid the staff from taking tips or drinks, although sometimes there is a collection box around christmas for the staff party (Which is quite cheeky as traditionally the landlord or the brewery always pays for it...) Anywhere 'Fancy' (and even not so fancy in london) in a city centre may return your change on a tray with the intention that you leave a tip on it - these is closer to the American practise. Confusing isn't it!

I'm a fan. But I'm even more of a fan of the fruit cup made by Plymouth Gin (Also my Gin of choice...) A more sensible 30% abv as well. But no cucumber please. Mint is essential though.

Could this phenomenon have anything to do with the fact that light toasting can cover up low quality or slightly stale bread?

It's the same in the UK. I swear I have seen completely unrelated restaurants in different parts of the country with identical menus, even down to spelling mistakes (Same with most indian restaurants too) I can see why restaurants want to offer dishes that they know will sell, but I don't understand why they cannot offer the more authentic dishes, especially if they are actually preparing them for the Chinese clientèle anyway. The only thing I can think of is that the westernised stuff is more profitable, they would have to raise the prices of the authentic stuff to keep the same profit margins and would then lose the Chinese customers. If you have a search in the UK forum you will see quite a few mentions of a Manchester (And Leeds) restaurant called Red Chilli where they have a single menu which everyone gets, it has all the western staples but also plenty of no hold barred Szechuan dishes. I just hope it's a trend that continues,

Whoever stacked the avocado and tomatoes must be really good at Jenga!

It's interesting, the same thing happens with Chinese restaurants, the food served in most British (And American, and no doubt in the rest of the world outside China) Chinese restaurants bares little resemblance to real Chinese food, at least the food on the menu shown to westerners anyway, but most Chinese restaurants have a completely different menu for Chinese customers. I've never seen this in Indian restaurants, something to do with restaurants not being part of Indian/Bangladeshi culture, unlike China?

You are probably right, most indian restaurants in the UK wouldn't be deserving of more than 4/5 out of 10 on a subjective score, but that is probably a lot better than the alternatives available in the same town! And at least they are cooking the food to order unlike most pubs and chain restaurants . And before anyone points out a lot of the food is precooked and just reheated with extra spices/vegetables then how do you think a large proportion of dishes in all restaurants, up to the michelin starred level are prepared? There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the curry 'method' any more than there is anything wrong with the mother sauces of french gastronomy. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see a greater range of authentic regional dishes on the menus, there is a good south indian place near me (can't vouch for authenticity , but it is at least different and tastes good) but even they have to provide all the curry house staples to stay in business.

You may like to read one of Alan Davidson's books on seafood - most relevant to you is probably North Atlantic Seafood - I'm guessing you are from the states, but don't know which seaboard!

I was flicking through 'Pork and Sons' at the weekend, perfect for those of us who love all things porky, See here for details Amusingly Amazon have paired it with a vegetable cookbook in their 'better together' section!