nemuchan

In Japan (in the countryside around my wife's home town, anyway) it's quite common to dry kaki by hanging them on strings outside your house. The result is (predictably) a kind of chewy crystallised fruit, dark brown in colour, that my parents-in-law often send to us and I like.

To paraphrase Adam: Never dine in an Edinburgh Restaurant . An eternal optimist, however, I ventured out to The Apartment earlier this week. Much lauded, much trendy (if you believe what you read), much sought after (packed on a Wednesday and when we booked we were told we could have our table only for 90 minutes). I've eaten far worse but I would describe the fare as 'cafe food'. Nearly everything I saw being eaten comprised brown meat, eg burger, kebab, sausage. Even scallops are coated in breadcrumbs (and cheese?) and grilled well brown. Perhaps I was looking for the wrong thing and perhaps I'm veering off the 'good dining' topic. I would second another poster's recommendation of the Peat Inn. At my wife's birthday last year we had the tasting menu there and I felt that every dish reflected thought, care and skill. I seem to remember the wine list being strong on the Rhone - which suits me. Unfortunately in that respect I was driving and had the opportunity only to taste a little of a Paul Jaboulet Aine (sp?) Cornas. Some of the best food I've had in the UK, in a very welcoming atmosphere. I think The Peat Inn was a strong influence on Nick Nairn's Braeval near Aberfoyle where I had excellent meals on two occasions. It's now closed, however, and I was relatively, only relatively mind, disappointed the one time I ate at Nairns in Glasgow. My wife has eaten/stayed at One Devonshire Gardens (or is it Place?) on business and was impressed.

Thank you. Yes.

I can agree. In my experience, nearly all Japanese households use rice cookers (okay, I haven't visited nearly all Japanese households ) Several posters have already mentioned that an important aspect is convenience. Put the rice on in the morning and serve whenever. Better half and I had an old Sanyo, the type with the spring-loaded on-off switch and aluminium bowl. Could get burnt bits at the bottom if you left rice in it for over twelve hours or so. Still used it almost every day for years, though. Two years ago got a Panasonic with the then-latest Induction Heating technology. I think this is an even more recent trend than neuro-fuzzy and might be worth searching for. Results are flawless. Although ... Got the Panasonic in Japan. Due to the fact that a suitably heavy duty voltage transformer (I'm in the UK) seemed rather pricey in Japan and because such a device was bulky and heavy, I thought I was being clever by getting a cheap building site type transformer back here (the type used for power tool safety). After much gnashing of teeth, bizarre behaviour by rice cooker, emails to Panasonic and experiments by me it transpired that the cooker did not _quite_ like the 110V from the transformer and really, really needed almost exactly 100V. Now using big old scrounged variac.