thom

Yes and no... There is apparently a word for the wad of paper/card used to prop up a wobbly leg, but it seems it is referred to as a "ludlow". Shaun would be proud... I think Alex may possibly have been guilty of a bit of lazy jouralistic research (if you're going to web-trawl then at least do it properly). If you Google "wobbly table pimlico" (sans inverted commas) and look at the brief description of the seventh result down - headed "Culture: New Words" - it may, on quick skimming, lead one to confuse a pimlico with a ludlow. Click on the result though and it is apparent that a "pimlico" is a "small, odd-shaped piece of plastic or curious metal component found in the bottom of kitchen rummage-drawer when spring-cleaning or looking for Sellotape." No more journalism for you Mr James, it's back to Brit-rock and/or farming. Cheers Thom

Thanks Sunbeam. Is that in A Cook's Tour? I don't remember a Japanese bit but to be honest I am not sure I ever made it to the end. It didn't grip me like Kitchen Confidential did. In fact now I come to think of it I have shameful gallery of culinary books I have started but never finished - Heat by Bill Buford, Stuffed by Patricia Volk, The Perfectionist by Rudolph Chelminski... Considering that these are good books, and that I am a food/restaurant nerd and one of the most voracious and omnivorous readers I know I can't really explain my repeated failure to clean my literary plate. Any-hoo, I'll look back at A Cook's Tour, and I think Jay also has a Japanese bit in his latest tome (plug plug). Cheers Thom

Ohhh... Now how fascinating does this all sound!? Good stuff Culinista. Just as I "wouldn't want to join any club that would have me as a member" the converse is absolutely true - The more they pull up the drawbridge the more I want in! Though I have never been to Japan I have long been fascinated with it's culture - particularly story-telling, technology and design - mostly thanks to a nerd-boy videogame upbringing (worshiping the SNES, manga, insane games such as Legend of the Mystical Ninja and the god-like Shigeru Miyamoto). Having latterly applied by nerdishness to the world of gastronomy my interest in Japan has remained unabated. I remember Chandos Elletson did a fantastic piece on food in Japan for Restaurant magazine about six years ago but this is another level. Genuinely I think the whole idea of a shadowy clique of top-notch Japanese restaurants that even Michelin can't pierce is brilliant. There must be a non-fiction book in there somewhere? Or a Hollywood screenplay... If anyone has touched on this subject in literary form then point me in the right direction; I want to know more. Cheers Thom

Another week, another dinner at Red Chilli. Saturday night - me, my better half and my dad and his. We got there about 8pm, and as per normal it was packed. Only ten mins crammed in the little bar though and then we were seated, with menu's present and correct and mouth's watering. Some of the old favourites made their usual appearences, but we also tried a couple of new dishes (nothing too "extreme eating", but new to us none the less). We had the following: STARTERS Spring onion bread Everyone loves this. Two flat-breads, almost pan-fried like a roti or chappati, with spring onion chopped through them. Sliced into six pieces per bread we still ended up fighting over the last slices as they go sooo well with a Tsingtao beer. Beijing dumplings Another old stalwart - eight or nine plump little dumplings, seemingly filled with prawn, mixed meat and veg and chopped herbs. Served with a dark and vinegary dip which I could drink neat. Salt and pepper baby squid A new one for us, and well worth a go. Beautifully tender little squid, with the tastiest of tasty light coating, flecked with pepper and a hint of chilli. HUGELY moreish, but luckily we got quite a pile (even for a starter portion). MAINS Some slightly uninspiring chicken dish My partner had this so I blame her. It's diced chicken which appears to be in a light dusting of salt and pepper batter (lending a crispness to the flesh of the chicken rather encasing it in batter). It's served dry, along with chopped chilli's and spring onion. Tasty, don't get me wrong, but not inspiring. Shredded Pork with Garlic Shoots This was great actually. It's basically the shredded pork and grean beans dish someone refers to upthread, but with a change of greenery. The pork is tender fragments, and the sauce is intensely meaty (almost Bisto-ish, but in a good way). The revelation though was the garlic shoots. They didn't taper or look in the least bit like leaves or shoots. Instead they were perfect thin green cylinders, about 3mm across and chopped to match-stick length. They had a snap and a pop reminiscent of aspargus, and a wonderful garlicky taste that was almost floral. Gorgeous. Poached Lamb Chill Broth Described in amazing detail elsewhere up thread, this is the standout dish, and one of the top five things I have ever eaten. A huge bowl of broth (it would easily feed two with rice) it has slivers of thin tender lamb, wilted leeks and lettuce, all piled up in a thin stock that is stacked with chillis of all descriptions, garlic, fresh herbs and more chilli and Sichuan pepper. Incredible. Cod With Chilli This dish seems to vary depending on the chef. On occassion it has had a dusted coating (similar to the chicken) which I feel is not needed, on Saturday though it was unadored, and a beautifully fresh and perfectly cooked piece of fish. Broken up into chunks of fillet it is served with sliced chillis and this fantastic thin, dark brown fungus (which has a texture disturbingly like the ears of small rodents - took my back to childhood days owning gerbils etc). The sauce is almost more of an oil and is stained orangy-red by the chilli's (as is the fish itself). A lot of heat, but very, very tasty. With this we had boiled rice for four people. We ate till we were full (if not sick), and didn't finish everything off though we gave it a damn good go. Beers, the odd glass of wine and water added £24, but the cost of the food? Everything? Three starters, four mains (one of which could feed two) plus rice? All of it hearty portions? It was £12.50 a head. Incredible, and one of many reasons Red Chilli is still one of my favourite restaurants. All this and the excitement of knowing there is still half of the menu I have yet to explore (much or which I have not eaten anywhere else, or even heard of). The only fly in the ointment was the service. Normally it is friendly, sometimes it is clipped and efficient, but tonight it was sloppy. Despite double-checking the waiter got two of our mains completely wrong, and waiting for relacements spoilt the pace of the meal. All in all though, a joy. Cheers Thom

Oh, oh, another one - Heebie-Jeebies jazz club, in a brick-vaulted basement just around the corner from The Palace. Used to love that place. Dovadale Towers on Penny Lane? The Oxford and The Cambridge and the Augustus John on campus? I also had a soft spot for the pretty ropey El Macho, just on Hope St... So are we doing Fraiche and then hitting Liverpool? That could be a fantastic night out. Just give my liver and my wallet a little time to recover, it's been a heavy few weeks... And RE the Midland - Your friend can abolutely do what he wants as he bought the place and it can't be denied that it makes money but I just think if you are purposely chasing 4* conference trade it seems a pity to service that market by acquiring and refurbing the only hotel in Manchester with real potential, prestige, pedigree, history and a ex-Michelin star restaurant to that level. I just find it peronally a bit sad, but I guess if I was counting the takings after the International Conference of Social Executive Policy Unit Pericombobulators had been in town it might ease my pain! Actually The French is still pitched seriously high-end (in terms of expense, if not always execution) and surely even those tax-squandering public sector quango's can't be paying £20 - £30 a main course?! Cheers Thom

Oh there's that place out Styal/Wilmslow way. You know, the thingymabob hotel... Where that chap is the chef, Ernustus something... Cheers Thom

...and you and I both know that we will quickly revert to our crazily hedonistic student personas, albeit with slightly more money, an inferior BMI and less fashionable haircuts. Baa bar, Mello Mello, 051, Garlands, The Cavern, Cream, Nation, Wildlife at the Uni... Ah, halcyon days. Cheers Thom Edited to add - I know the delegates is The Midland's game, but it wasn't historically (Manchester Central has only been there about twenty years and the explosion in serious conferences has only happened in the last few years due to the building of the ICC) and the Radisson next door manages to tap the same market but at a higher price point with a better quality product. Not claiming the market for mid-price delegates isn't there, only that it is sad that it's fallen to the Midland - for the best part of a century Manchester's most presitgious hotel (and last owner of a city centre Michelin star) - of all hotels to service it. Plenty of mid-market chains do that, and I just wish the Midland had left them to it and gone toe to toe with the Lowry et al for the premium end of business visitors.

Not millions enough! They cut their investment plans after 9/11 and instead of upping it to five star they settled for four star and chasing the conference delegate market. I firmly believe it was a missed opportunity as there has been significant and continued growth in the market for top-end rooms in the city (see the financial success of The Lowry, The Radisson and The Hilton et al). I only used to go to The Adelphi for student balls and do's, and at that time my mind was on things other than the cotton count of the bedding or the exact brand of toiletries in ther bathroom. Nostalgia is one thing but when in Liverpool I recommend Hope St if the budget stretches to it and 62 Castle St, which is a fantastic boutique place for the budget, if not. A night out in Liverpool you say Gary? Just for old times sake? Reliving our student days? Hmmm... I feel a plan forming... Cheers Thom

I mentioned to RDB a couple of other places he, or indeed any other beer-nerd, should try. As I have a chink in my busy schedule now seemed as good a time as any to add them. Think of it as a teeny-tiny two-bar beer-crawl. It's based around Castlefield - a wonderful counterpoint to the chav-tastic WKD Blue trash of Deansgate Locks - and although it doesn't have the quantity or range of the Northern Quarter/Collyhurst/New Cross walk detailed above the quality is absolutely spot on. Firstly Cask on Liverpool Road. A tiny bar with a small outside area, it's unassuming looks hide a beer-lovers dream. More beers from all over the world than I have ever seen in one place before, all headed up by a barman/owner who absolutely knows his stuff and can talk you around the selection like the finest sommelier - "So you want something hoppy, Eastern European, not too strong? Well I reckon you've got fourteen choices or so... etc". No website, but a detailed review with pics here. Next up is Knott Bar, which is just around the corner on Deansgate . It used to be owned by the Marble Arch (as mentioned above) but it's now run independently, although they still carry some of their wonderful beers. Again it has a great selection of European lagers, some top local ales, hearty food and a relaxed and very mixed clientele which is just a joy compared to the other corporate chain bars in the vicinity. Again I couldn't find a website, but a fairly accurate review is here. Both well worth seeking out. If you want to add another place on to your Castlefield bar/pub-crawl then the only real standout within spitting (staggering) distance is the Briton's Protection just the other end of Deansgate Locks. A fair to middling old-fashioned pub it is worth a visit for it's selection of whiskys and whiskeys. Over a hundred, from Scotland, Ireland and further afield. A very nice way to while away an hour. Or you could go and play pool or table football in the Peveril of the Peak just over the road? Cheers Thom

Yep, that pretty much sums it up. It's a grand, domineering old building in a fantastic location and it's sad that it's been run down from it's time as the glamourous "last stop before the New World" (or vice versa - it gets a good mention in "Mr American" by George McDonald Frazer) to trying to wrest business from the budget hotels. A less extreme but comparable scenario can be seen in Manchester with the Midland hotel. Sad to see these places trading down from their historical ambitions. Cheers Thom

To be honest I actually spent the term time of my third year on the Isle of Man (Now if you thought Liverpool was a culinary desert). All part of the peril of doing a Marine Biology degree. I say again I really like the city. I know everyone has a soft spot for their Alma Mata but I just think it has a really good buzz and edge, and as an architecture nerd there is lots there to float my boat. I like the streetscapes, particularly around the Town Hall. Anyway, back to food: Aside from some excellent meals at Paul Askew's places I haven't eaten anything of note in Liverpool city centre for years. To be honest though, nor have I gone after new culinary experiences (though maybe the lack of anything to tempt me away from my regular haunts is telling). I did try the restaurant in Print, the super-chic new boutique hotel/members club, recently and found it over-hyped (it got a five out of five in the normally accurate Metro) and typical of a style-bar that thinks it's a restaurant and tries too hard. What about the Raquet Club? Menu is full of eatable standards (Caesar salad last time i popped in for lunch) and although the food doesn't wow (or at least didn't a couple of years ago) the setting is lovely. Wasn't Heathcote's Liverpool "Simply" restaurant actually meant to be pretty good? The Manchester one (now shut for refurb and relaunch) used to be all over the place but the Liverpool branch was meant to be the pick of the bunch. And what's Malmaison in Liverpool like? Manchester one isn't knock-out by any means but I have certainly had a couple of good meals there (last stand out dish was a smoked eel and beetroot salad off their "seasonal and local" menu). I also like the fact that in Manchester at least they now make an effort to recommend local beers with the local menu. Also ate at Room recently but as per Manchester and Leeds I just find the concept strange and the execution patchy. The Raddison? Don't rate their Manchester restaurant but it's positioning itself as one of Liverpool's top hotel's so maybe they're doing some good stuff over there? Uhmmm... (sound of barrel being scraped). There's a crazy Russian restaurant called St Petersberg that everyone seems to like? They've opened a Manchester version which I haven't yet been to, but I feel it could be comparable to the Armenian Taverna (which is both a good and a bad thing). To be honest if I were you I would take pot luck with a Chinese/curry (there's an interesting look Indian place if you head from the Town Hall past the Living Room et al along to St George's Hall) or settle into the comfortable familiarity of Piccolino or some such. OR, do The Carriageworks/Hope St. I'm suprised you had such bad meals there (though I found the service snooty and irritating on the last visit). As to staying in the Adelphi - Why!? For the love of God Why!!! It is part of the Brittania Hotels group, widely recognised and despised as one of the most appalling hotel operators in England. In Manchester they run a place in Didsbury, The Brittania on Portland St, and the excreable Saschas on Oldham St. In the latter two at least they are famed for having windowless rooms. A friend of mind stayed in Sachas and after being led to a pokey room in the bowels of the hotel he drew back the curtain to find a poor quality cityscape picture of... New York. Not even Manchester. They didn't even try to be relevent/post-modern with a local view. They just stuck some 80's Athena poster in there. They are also currently sitting on the site of the Old Fire Station in Manchester, which is one of the most magnificant terracotta Victorian buildings in the city and ripe for redevelopment. It's a landmark site at the side of Piccadilly Station (London Road/Whitworth St) and Brittania, after being refused a ludicrous planning application, and refusing any constructive dialogue with anyone and are letting it rot. Bastards basically (IMHO). Don't stay in their hotel. Rant over! Cheers Thom

I spent three years in Liverpool whilst at University there and regularly go back on business. I really like it as a city. Being a Mancunian, student, United supporter I found attending Alfie Lewis' kickboxing club in Toxteth character-building and it made me the man I am today... You are absolutely right about Scousers and Chinese though, it is without doubt the default takeaway over there and curry was (is?) eaten much less frequently. My Scouse mates who have made their home down this end of the East Lancs Road are now curry converts and won't eat anything else (at 3am, after a club). An interesting sociological discussion there - The culinary impact of Pakistani immigrants into the textile heartlands of Lancashire and West Yorkshire contrasted against the influence of the sea-faring Chinese immigrant communities of Liverpool (the oldest Chinatown in Europe no less). Being a nerd of Northern culture I'm currently reading Liverpool 800 - Character, Culture, History which I heartily recommend as it's a fascinating read. It is! Really. Cheers Thom

Sounds interesting, I await your recommendation. Other option is Sapporo Teppanyaki - I've been to the Manchester branch a couple of times and it's not bad. The teppanyaki is actually so-so but I thought the sushi pretty good (best I've had in Manchester/Liverpool). Unagi, flying fish roe etc all delicious. Bapi and I once went to the Manchester restaurant for a mid-week lunch. Having chosen to follow sushi with teppanyaki we ended up sitting at one of the huge hotplate tables, in an otherwise empty restaurant, whilst an impressively skilled Japanese chef went through his full repertoire of party tricks, up to and including setting fire to the table top and catching an egg in his hat. All very peculiar, though as mentioned the food was good. Cheers Thom

Really? Where?! I have always found the Chinatown pretty poor. More a street than a town, and certainly no restaurants of note. Been eating there on and off for fifteen years but I must admit my latter experiences have mainly been when a night out with my Scouse mates has ended with a 3am chow mein (never the best barometer of a restaurant's quality I admit) Cheers Thom

Twenty five views to this thread and not one reply (till now). Telling... Kike the other 24 viewees I'm struggling for options in Liverpool without rattling off the same old list of options. Beside The Carriageworks and Hope St, you have the standard mid-market places (Piccolino, Malmaison, the slightly mental Room) which do a job without inspiring and beyond that I'm not sure what else. Liverpool does have a clutch of rather slick bars though (many like Alma de Cuba are fantastic sceney spaces with good cocktail lists). Maybe play to the city's strengths - pick at token bar-food and get your real sustanence from some serious cocktails. Get ones with fruit in if it makes you feel better... Cheers Thom

Slip-on's? Loafers? Velcro? Cheers Thom

Sorry I missed the latter posts on this thread, I've been a bit exhibition-ed over the last week or two. Anyway, I have to say I concur, RDB's post is a fair and accurate summing up. The Modern was as described - not at the top of it's game, but we all know it can do better. The beer-crawl on the other hand was a peach (lambic). Sinclairs was maybe a safe start, but we hit the mother-lode therafter with Trof being a good post-prandial (Sierra Nevada etc) and The Marble offering both home-brewed ales and exotic lagers (I must stress the smoked beer was utterly horrific) and more exotic glasses than Elton John. I balanced a Marble IPA with a Timmermans peach lambic which was a tad camp but delish. After that Bar Fringe, where I caught my breath with a bog standard Kronenberg whilst Bapi and RDB ploughed on with some beer which RDB was stunned, delighted and mildly terrified to see served on draft ("My God, they can't serve that stuff in pints can they!?" he muttered). Possibly the Karmelite? Centro was another Belgian beer temple, and we kept the pace up with a couple of large bottles of something that involved about 9% alcohol and some mad monks. By this time we were alternating between shouting "bollocks" and "yer me best mate" at each other. The end game came with the safety of Odd, where we had a couple of pints of Staraprarhem (I think?) and a couple of kebabs around the corner at Hunters. Well I say "endgame", though Bapi and I did fit in one more pint at the classic "old blokes pub" on Shudehill called The Hare and Hounds. All in all a tremendous day/night, perhaps worthy of being christened "Fear and Loathing in Manchester" (except with real ale and trappist beers instead of ether and acid), and certainly something that needs repeating. Cheers Thom

I quite like Marina's stuff though I don't get to read it every week. Interestingly the Metro seem to have a commitment to high quality (and harsh but fair) restaurant reviewers right across the country. Emma Jean Sturgess (Manchester and Liverpool editions) is excellent and indeed chefs part time and did a sabbatical at the Ballymaloe (sp?) cookery school to sharpen her judgement. Also, I was with the Ops Director of Terry Laybourne's business last week and he said the Metro reviewer in the North East was the only one worth reading. Cheers Thom

So which did you go for? I think it would have to be Spongebob for me in a pathetic attempt to imply I was "down with the kids". I'm not sure anyone below the age of thirty would really get the Pink Panther and you'd spend the whole night trying to explain/justify yourself to your younger staff members (up to and including singing the theme tune - "rinky-dink panther" etc). Cheers Thom

I don't see how you can not let personal likes and dislikes creep in. The trick is to let your reader know them in advance and judge your comments on that basis. Take Halliwell for instance, as a film critic he clearly stated what he liked and disliked 'in general and was consistent enough for that to work to the readers advantage. A restaurant critic without personal likes, dislikes and prejudices is surely a very boring critic? S ← I understand an element of your point, but to be honest I was illustrating that I have learnt to love eggs, not merely tolerate them. Great scrambled eggs (with good free-range eggs, a slosh of milk, a dab of butter and plenty of seasoning, all served up glistening but not never wet) now make my heart sing. Two years ago they would have made me retch. I get cravings for them and everything. Everyone knows one's palate matures from being a kid (when you hate olives, pickles, beer and many of the best things in life) but personally I was suprised I could still have such a turnaround of tastes at the ripe old age of 30+. There's life in the old dog yet. I suppose it throws up the question of whether dislikes are actual physical reactions to taste/texture or whether it's mostly mental and shaped by childhood experiences which can be overwritten (was I bullied by an egg as a boy? Tormented by a tomato maybe?). Cheers Thom

RE - The idea of reviewing food you don't like. It reminds me of the article by Jeffrey Steingarten in his book, The Man Who Ate Everything (I think that's the title). He pointed out, as a restaurant reviewer, how ridiculous it was to not like certain ingredients or foods. He compared it to an art critique saying they simply didn't like orange and refusing to review it. So, his strategy was to gradually wean himself back on to the foods he didn't like (I forget what they were, seafood perhaps?) by only eating the very finest examples. Then, once his palate was accustomed to the taste, flavours and texture of the finest form of the food he could work his way down to lesser examples. I actually did the self same thing with my two gastronomic weak links - eggs of any preperation (though weirdly I loved them as a kid) and raw tomato (which lots of people are funny about). My breakthrough with eggs was eating really, really fantastic scrambled eggs at a friends house. Now that I actively enjoy good eggs I have built up my tolerance to the point that I could even manage them in a Mcdonalds breakfast, instead of frantically pushing them away from the hash-brown. I'd actually kind of enjoy them. Same with tomatos, I progressed from fishing every fragment (and tomatos do bloody fragment) out of shop bought sandwiches to leaving them in and enjoying the flavour as part of a mix. Then I actually had an epithany only this week at my local deli where I managed to eat a tomato salad which basically was just big chunks of tomato in a simple dressing. It tasted good. So I have overcome my food phobias and prejudices (chicken's feet or pig's intestines were never the issue) and can now officially be a food critic. If, of course, it wasn't for the fact that I have the palate of a stray dog and can barely string a sentence together. Cheers Thom

Bless you RDB, you've turned to the dark-side! I don't envy your general unhappiness with Manchester's food (it would be torture to be in a city where one didn't enjoy the eating) but I am genuinely glad that you rated The Modern and wrote it up on here. Your views chime withmany of my own and I think the Arbutus comparison is a good one. I do think it is a really good restaurant so one of the most suprising things in this specific instance is that the media reviews (MEN, Metro and Harden's) have been fair to middling whereas punter reviews (whether from serious foodies or not) are almost unanimously good to great. Funny old world. And, to clarify, my feisty passion for championing people or businesses in the North is down to simple regional pride (a trait I have latterly built my business on!) but Manchester gets the lion's share of shouts as I know it best. My recommendations are based purely on personal opinions though if I had a share of Red Chilli (or even a referral fee!) I would be a very rich man... I think Bapi is off the mark with organising the Manchester lunch so finger's crossed we can align all diaries. Cheers Thom

That sounds great Nikki, I'm glad you enjoyed your time in town. It sounds like both The Modern and Grado played out pretty much as per the threads on here. Shame on you for missing out on Red Chilli though! Ah well, consider it one for the "To Do" list next time. I'm planning to go there tomorrow night. I can hear the poached lamb broth and the pork and green bean thingy calling me. Whilst on the subject of Manchester lunches didn't someone, mentioning no names, go out of their way to say they would arrange an eGullet lunch? Someone with a lot of time of their hands? Someone who deingrated my own ability to organise a lunch... Cheers Thom

Red Chilli - Joy. A restaurant so good that it even got Gary to eat pig's maw. Kro Bar - Great for a beer or indeed a drink of any sort, but the food is shocking. Cheers Thom

Not sure if you have seen the posts on The Modern thread? A huge amount of ground gets covered, including a couple of missives on Grado. To sum up simply it's a neat concept, lovely space, great winelist and decent menu but... after a very good start the consistency has gone out of the window. And, it's not cheap. I had two great meals there in the early days, and the Guardian Guide and MEN (and I think Metro) also gave it excellent reviews. I then went with Jay Rayner (Angel of Restaurant Death and general Banshee of Culinary Mediocrity) and it was all over the place. Some really good dishes, some really poor. Machine cut and chilled Iberico ham moved us almost to tears. Not of joy. Subsequent meals have been similarly up and down (though generally of a better standard) and most of the local movers and shakers seem to agree it's patchy. That said, I still kind of like it. You can eat tapas and excellent hand-cut (if you're lucky) ham at a nice bar and drink good wine and/or sherry. I just like the feel of the place. It's become a bit of a pre-football haunt for me and a colleague (well it was that or Wetherspoons). So I say give it a go. Maybe. If this hasn't put you off. Cheers Thom