Deryn

Interesting. Sounds as though he is 'testing the waters' in Melbourne. He will try out both the Fat Duck and Dinner there in the same venue, one after the other, so presumably (unless the 'experiment' fails) it sounds as though all his equipment, etc. will remain there (so it won't be returning to Britain - guess he is re-outfitting the Duck completely) and eventually it will mean that he has at least one Australian restaurant presence under either Fat Duck or Dinner name (or at least in the genre of one or the other) unless they both flop.

I don't think it is you, AlaMoi .. I too think that recipe is written very badly. I gave up guessing exactly what that author meant too especially since she listed no expected yield so one can't tell if one is really only using 2 (out of 4) lemons (if one uses the lemons only) for the peel and the rest for juicing. It is pretty obvious (from the picture) that what she thinks we will produce is what I would term 'candied peel' (consisting, mind you, of both peel and pith) so why else would you essentially discard the PEEL from two of the 4 required fruit. The juice can come from the fruit used for peels since the interior of the fruit is not used in the actual final product. /boggle

I got no messages at all. Looked as though the segment was loading then just went black. I did just turn off my popup blocker (thanks for that note) and I got the preview to run (but it is very short) and another program (not Heston) seems to run also - but when I try the Heston 1st or 2nd segments I now see they show 0;00 as the time left to play once the loading whirligig thing in the middle of the screen has stopped spinning, and yet the 2nd at least should be viewable for the next 16 days. Frustrating. But thanks anyway.

rotuts - How do you get it to work? Do you have to use VPN or something similar? I signed up (which I hate to have to do just to find out something doesn't work, leaving my info exposed and me with no joy) but though it looks as though it will work, it just goes black. Seems as though too that, like PBS (and BBC I believe) they only leave the shows up for x amount of time and then they are gone so it wanted to start at Episode 2 for me - but even that doesn't work. Too bad because they have a whole pile of food shows available right now apparently. There are a lot of good food shows out of the UK and Australia. I would rather watch them than most from North America.

I am still really wondering if the 'lemon' was not a pomelo. The thickness of the pith certainly fits the description. And you said it was only the pith so I am not sure what colour other than what most piths might be than whiteish or perhaps yellowish. candied pomelo rind recipe with pics and wiki about pomelo What language were you and the person you talked to speaking? Were you both fluent native English speakers? I ask because there may have been something 'changed' in translation perhaps? Perhaps the word for pomelo (or some other citrus fruit) was incorrectly or non-specifically referred to as a 'lemon' maybe? And, in my experience, pith from a number of different citrus fruits tastes similar, especially after being boiled and candied. Your memory may indeed be very correct, and this was a lemon with a very thick skin, but perhaps there are other options too.

I hope Andiesenji will pipe in here since she is probably the forum expert on candied peels. I always use the pith (but still attached to the peel) when I do candied citrus of any kind - but yes you do have to boil them several times. You might try it with a pomelo or perhaps a thick skinned grapefruit and use just the pith (which, by the way, I believe is actually very good for you nutritionally) if you can't find thick skinned lemons. The Jacques Pepin video posted by IndyRob is the basic 'fast' procedure though. I roll mine in sugar too when the candying part is finished.

So sad that they are using mozzarella in Ontario instead of curds! I won't eat them here for that very reason .. shocked me the first time I saw that. But, speaking of poutine, I prefer it with a lighter (I.e. something resembling chicken) gravy I guess (maybe I had too much Swiss Chalet many years back). I always find the beef rendition to be sort of thick and gluey for some reason. Do they all just order from Sysco? (rhetorical - I am sure you don't know). At any rate, I am sorry the food was a disappointment for the most part because your first paragraph had me salivating.

Weird - or maybe not since I don't think I have ever pre-ordered something on Amazon - but I cannot 'bookmark' that pre-order page right now. I hope to order soon but I need to decide if I will be in the States or Canada when it comes out - since I need to be there to get the book when it arrives. My worry is that it won't actually be available in early Sept - delays can happen - so not sure where I should order right now. I too hope it shows up on the .ca site I think, just in case - easier to have the Post Office hold it here. p.s. You will need to come to Canso, Nova Scotia to autograph mine, gfron - so please put this haven on your tour schedule!

Black grout would also be my choice if I ever had to have tile floors again.

So sorry to hear you lost your sister. Can't really help other than to echo most of the ideas above, but, I can commiserate about the difficulties in trying to administer an estate like that long distance. Good luck.

I have never lived with (owned) travertine floors but in Texas my kitchen had porcelain tiles and I hated them because they were hard on the feet/back, cold (which some would say is a blessing in TX but the a/c was usually on too so that was not needed in my opinion) and worst of all, they were slippery if wet or I dropped something on them. And the grout ... ick .. was always filthy no matter what I did to clean it. I dropped a bottle of balsamic vinegar right in front of the stove and when I went to sell the house, I had to scrape a LOT of grout out and replace it because anything like that seeps right down and cannot be washed out/off. Travertine might be better I guess since I think the 'slabs' are usually larger than a standard tile might be (meaning fewer grout lines - and I think thinner ones as well) but what about the 'slippery' factor? In NC my kitchen floor was sheet linoleum (I picked it because of its great natural properties) and I loved it. Warm, easy to clean, water-resistant, environmentally sound, long lasting, colourful, and easy on the back/feet. It was not cheap but I think it was a good choice - and I think it could work even in a commercial kitchen (if that is allowable by the authorities?) p.s. I am drooling over that Big Chill stove! Looks as though that is a wonderful choice for you.

I don't think your posts are 'off topic' at all. I just think that if all we are talking about in this thread can (and probably should) go beyond that to why some do or don't think a particular product is outrageously priced ... no? I acknowledge that the people who have posted pictures of or mentioned products they have found in their area think those products are overpriced (they made that clear) but if it ends there, there is no conversation. I would bet that in every era (prior and future) there have been, and will be, items that have been priced higher than what the average person could either afford or would find palatable. But some will always buy no matter what the price is apparently. And yes that leads ultimately to 'normalization' if enough people buy at the inflated prices - and then the price for everything goes up over time. Price is determined by what the market will bear. Such is (unfortunately) 'life' and 'human nature'. We could implement total government price controls (has been done even in western societies before, for certain items) and keep all prices everywhere exactly the same - and stifle innovation as well in the process. Otherwise, I am not sure what the answer is (other than people refusing to buy at what they think is a price that is too high - which is the prerogative of every individual).

Yes. That does sound expensive, even in today's overly 'expensive' world. And it seems that is a price YOU would not pay. Some however obviously would for all the reasons they/we have discussed here. For some of us, some of the time, whether we like the price or not, it is justified. gfweb - Compare the price of these pre-cut vegetables to the cost of a Blue Apron package which comes with pre-cut vegetables, with even smaller quantities wrapped separately at a much higher price per ounce I reckon - and people still apparently buy those. So .. it is all relative and dependent on individual needs and preferences.

One small point I forgot to mention about pre-cut vegetables, particularly applicable I think to the mixed packs, is that one must be careful to check for 'freshness' (as much as one can when they are enrobed in plastic wrap). Of course too, cut vegetables aren't going to hang around in your kitchen as long as the whole ones would in most cases, so, for me, they are only bought for 'same day' use. At some stores, I just won't buy them at all because I think they deliberately use the vegetables they are about to dump and hope the consumer won't be able to tell. That concern is the same one I have about any meat or fish that has been 'pre-marinated'. It usually IS about stretching the 'best before' dates (not really customer 'convenience' or making something 'gourmet') and, to boot, they charge more than they would for the fresher unadulterated stuff.

TJ's ginger thins might work with that ice cream and rhubarb combo. Sorry .. they are not 'vanilla' by any means but they are good, crisp and 'plain' (though not in taste).

Tere .. I was in my early 20s (and definitely not a wine connoisseur) when I drank Mateus. Mateus was considered upscale (in my age group) and was much more expensive in the Yukon in those days than most others of the bubbly rotgut genre that one could find to drink back then. Believe me there are worse roses, but it could be we were conned by the price - since everyone knows that 'price = quality' - well perhaps that is what the young (female?) mind thought back then. That said though, maybe it was the romance of being in exotic lands but frankly I think the quality in Portugal was outstanding back then (IF one likes the stuff at all, of course) and it was on every wine list in every restaurant (and they were not 'tourist trap' restaurants we went to - just where the locals seemed to go). Interestingly I have a friend (who is almost 60 now, and lives in NC) who says that the ONLY wine she will ever drink, even today, is Mateus. However, she drinks very rarely so perhaps she too is as deluded as I was when I was young. Anyway .. off topic .. sorry. Back to knocking around the olive oil industry.

Sometimes I have found that purchasing the pre-cut items is a money saver (the time or effort is not really that much of a concern to me right now but can be for the ill, the elderly or even just for some in excessively busy households). If I have to buy a whole (insert favorite large vegetable or single package of vegetable of any kind - which is more than can be used in x # of days). I have too often found that, living alone, I have had to throw out half of whatever it may be, especially if it is only required/desired in a smallish amount and/or rarely. So, I have paid the higher price for pre-cut x, y or z or a mix of all on several occasions now and don't mind at all. If I could get that mix you pictured - which I have never seen - the price would have been at least what is on your package or higher - but a small bunch (and I mean really small) of parsley runs over $3 alone, and whole white button mushrooms are usually more than $4 for 8 oz. These days I buy dry shallots if I can get them rather than onions in bags because I find they keep longer (onions already keep reasonably well I know but I can't use a whole bag in the time it takes for them to begin to rot here it seems) so for me they justify a price close to what I would pay for a small bag of onions ($4 plus) because there is no waste. I can buy individual onions (and sometimes do) but if all I need is half an onion the rest also may be thrown away. My compost bin is full enough with expensive ingredients being returned to whence they came.

I drink a hot mixture of honey, lemon and rum if I have a really bad cough. I admit that concoction is a bit hard to carry in one's purse but then again, I don't often feel like travelling long distances if I have a cough bad enough to warrant the use of any kind of 'medication' so it has worked for me so far (and I get enough rum that I no longer much care about the cough! ). I admire your wanting to make your own drops but what is the purpose, in your opinion, of trying to add what would amount to a miniscule amount of real liquor (and as pastrygirl points out, little if anything but the flavour would remain)? Why not just use an 'extract' if the flavour is what you are going for?

rotuts, I understand you can't buy 'local' olive oil (as in you can see the olive grove from your house) but you can buy olive oil that is produced in the US. At least if US growers/producers begin messing with their oils, there is a possibility (especially with small 'local' producers) that some recourse from public outcry could directly influence their sales drastically. A little hard to be heard in Greece or Italy or Spain or Portugal from across the Atlantic - and have any real impact (especially when governments are, these days, often involved as much as producers). And Shel_B also makes a good point - just because the label says something doesn't mean that the bottle actually contains what is advertised. There is little real regulation or, more to the point, oversight in this arena. As a consumer, once burned, many times shy is my mantra. If I taste a particular olive oil from, for instance, at a major food show/venue - and it comes from a small US company, I will trust it for now. If I ever get an inkling that their oils have deteriorated or that they may be engaging in underhanded 'cutting' practices, they will never get my business again - and, if, as I suspect, I am not alone, that will supremely hurt their bottom line. I really read labels these days too. I often see 'packed for' or 'produced for' and it is often difficult or impossible to determine the country of origin on bottles, cans, boxes. I won't buy those any more if I cannot readily and quickly identify the source and I trust that source. Western governments are now making it difficult to tell where a product or ingredient in a product was sourced - usually because they signed trade deals that no longer allow them to demand those things. I think the only way we will 'know' what we are getting is to 'know the producer' so we can trust them - and buy mostly if possible from small companies that we are sure produce their own ingredients or buy them from local farmers, etc.

Many years ago (hard to believe but it was probably about 40 years now) when I went to Portugal I was sad and a bit shocked to find out that one really cannot buy the best Mateus outside of that country - it is all kept 'in house' so to speak. That was the beginning of my disillusionment. I haven't drunk Mateus since (but that's ok since my tastes have changed anyway). Sad but true, I think that happens in most countries that make goods that the locals like and have traditionally held dear as being indicative of their 'culture' - the exported version is of the lowest quality possible .. the dregs, so to speak. Add to that the eruption of corruption in every corner of commercial enterprises - and government - and one can have little trust in any label any more. If they can 'cut it', they will. Buy local - do the same as they do if possible. Wish I didn't have to say that but if you don't these days, you will spend more money than needed and be scammed as well. I no longer purchase oils from Europe, especially since, if I want GMO canola oil, I can buy that cheaper here in Canada.

I have a Sammic 310 but have never used the gas flush capability so I am sorry but I can't help assess that function for you. I didn't buy my Sammic for that but hearing the cost of the 'add-on' for other machines, I guess I am glad mine already has it so I won't have to reinvest down the line should I need it. However, the base machine is great - I love it. My only issue is that I probably don't use it often enough to justify the initial cost. I would say it is built like a 'brick ****house' if that kind of language were allowed here. Not much 'learning curve' for a novice either (so 'user controls' are pretty simple in my opinion). Mine is equipped to do retort bags (which was a priority for me when I purchased this unit). Sounds as though you got a great deal on your MiniPack though so you will probably be further ahead in the long run even buying the extra capability than I bought at full price.

I love your sense of humour, Liuzhou! I also love how you can see Cameron's dismembered beauty and honour it, treating her gently and with such reverence while converting her nether-parts into sustenance of the highest quality. And yes, I love that 'strip' photo too - very artistic!

Dehydrated butter (in #10 cans) is a very common thing to find in the pantries and storage rooms of 'preppers' (me included). It really is not useful for putting on toast (and honestly I wouldn't even try to 'rehydrate' it the way one might a peanut butter powder) but it works well for baking (and sauces too). Haven't tried the ones from the supplier you mentioned, ElsieD, but I have bought several cans in the US from Emergency Essentials and similar places. They do vary in quality however - so if you are in the market for some, I suggest you do some research first to see what 'preppers' say about a particular brand. I see HoosierHill's powdered butter only stores short term (in my opinion - about a year) but that is probably because of the packaging more than anything - and is GMO free which is good but those things are also reflected in the price which I think is fairly high compared to others on the market (which may not be identified as GMO-free mind you). For butter that will store fairly long term but will be great on toast, etc., go for Red Feathers canned butter (which is real butter, not dehydrated).

$100 plus sounds like a lot for a goose but that is a free-range, no antibiotics/no hormones 'happy' goose for less than $10 a pound. Hate to say it but that is a better price than I would pay here for a dour, caged, stringy goose with raging hormones (but no antibiotics, mind you).

I agree, Shelby - forgot to mention that that also is a concern for me. I feel 'watched' enough already in today's world but now the world may know exactly what I am eating every day (and when)?