MobyP

Yeah!!! Welcome to eGullet! Have a great meal.

This is bloody terrible news! Why would they switch to a private club? Is anyone else outraged? String 'em up, I say! Damn, obviously I'll have to return and make my feelings known by ordering an extra portion of everything.

Table for 2. 12.30. I'll be wearing a large book on my nose. Feel free to join me.

Does not compute. Gave a large portion of my brain to delivery man when he asked for a tip. the Bombay Bicycle Club. Hmmm....

I went to Cafe Boulud in New York, where they have a lunch deal that charges the dollar amount of the post-messianic century you attend - so in my case it was $20.04 - which for the amazing lunch I had was a stunning bargain.

I've never had Grouse before - so I'm going tomorrow for lunch. Anyone up for it?

I think there's a prohibition on importing them into the states (and Canada). And if there wasn't, it would set you back about 50 bucks a pop. In the UK, they're in the 20-30 quid range. The breast meat is tremendously delicate, rich. The thigh meat is probably far gamier than you would expect. The feed is milk and corn - and you can taste it. The problem with most store bought (free range or otherwise) birds in the US is that they've been bread to be mostly neutral and tasteless - relative to the European birds - with larger breasts to satisfy the market. It's difficult to qualify this as a statement without you tasting some local French birds. As French birds go, the PdBresse is still relatively mild. I picked up a corn fed (Non Bresse) chicken at a local French market, and was blown away at how powerful the taste was. It made me realise that most of the chickens I've eaten in the states or the UK were really tasteless factory-bred shit. Unfortunately, even through somewhere like WholeFoods, there just isn't the market in the US for slow raised, flavour-developed birds, as they take for granted in France. You need to get Adam Balic in on this - what he doesn't know about chickens...

Whole Foods in Santa Fe used to have them canned - and out of desperation, I'd even take that. Otherwise - any way they come. I'd say four pounds would be a healthy maximum, wouldn't you (fresh or frozen that is)? As a refresher, anyway. You're in Albuquerque? I still dream of the tortillas and green chile stew at Frontier restaurant opposite the campus. I usesd to smuggle that stuff in half-gallon buckets. I once tried to bribe a cop with it, but I realised too late I was in Arizona - and what did he know about NM chiles?

Okay - here's the problem: I live in England. Hatch chiles grow 6500 miles away. I need some, and bad. Now, I've found a couple of places that will send me 40 pounds at a time, fresh or frozen, but being a modest sort of fellow, not approaching 300 pounds, I'd rather divide that by ten, and freeze some. Does anyone know of a delivery service that will send International for small orders of that good green stuff?

What you need is a Bombay Bicycle - I recently opened an account with them. They bring me food and beer - I sign over 10% of my life earnings for the next 30 years. Having tasted their curries, I consider this entirely reasonable.

Islington is absolutely miserable to live in or near, unless you choose to never leave, in which case it's great. Trying to get into or out of Islington is an exercise in violent and masochistic futility. Lots of good nosh though. Funnily enough, I could've rented you a place there as well, up until last week. Marylebone also has the major la cornue showroom, not to mention Harley Street if you need a new liver or spleen. V. expensive though. I'd say West London is the best bet.

I remember the wine matching as a bit hit or miss. Sorry - I don't have details.

Alas no - cut off time 5pm, then I'll cancel.

There's something comforting about a really, really harsh review. Thanks for that. I now fear your tongue.

I have a reservation for 7.15 tonight which I can't make - would anyone like it?

Sorry - this too oft quoted statement has become inaccurate. To myself and Jonathan, Ferran Adria said what he really meant was that everyone copied, everyone stole from everyone else - but what was important was to be honest in your influences. Jaime, perhaps your contact with English workmates/friends has given you a different view of how we think of ourselves, but your continual racial sterotyping certainly hasn't been fed by the opinions that you've read on this board.

Lucy - please remember us for photos the next time you make that dish. I have some foie in the freezer, so I might give it a shot. I bought my first PdB yesterday and roasted it last night, Ducasse style. The breast meat was beautiful, fragrant, delicate. The thigh and leg meat though was slightly tougher than I expected. More fibrous. Of course, in the fancy places they usually only serve the breast - but what's the classical thing to do with these sorts of thighs? Throw them in the oven for another 10 minutes?

Origami - thanks. Sounds like you learnt a good deal. Do you have pics off the foie and ravioli?

Thanks for that, PM, and welcome to eGullet. (btw, everyone else should check out his posts on Catalonian restaurants (scroll down), they're well worth reading.) Has Gary "Our Fella in the North" and occasional correspondent been?

He sold it to a one armed man for ten thousand pounds - and was last seen heading to Heathrow airpoirt.

I hear that also about Argentinian beef - but how do we test it? Where's the place to go in London?

Origami - is that a pithivier up top in puff pastry? (I think it miight also be called a "gallette du Rois"). Could you describe the filling?

Here in the UK we hold a difficult and not all that impressive spot in the culinary publishing world - betweeen the homogonous and mostly worthless wealth of low-end American publishing on the one hand ("1001 diets with your tennis instructor!") - the high end is great btw - and the hard to get/find/translate European specialists on the other. Though in the latter case, every now and then one slips through - the newly translated Ducasse book, the Herme major pastry work, the El Bulli etc. When I was in France recently, there were many mid-range books that I would have killed to have - if only I could speak French. Recently I've been searching for Alain Chapel's book, but with no luck. Of those which are distinctly English - or rather of the England in which we now reside: 1. The very hard to find The Pudding Club Book by Kieth and Jean Turner (and also their more available but less interesting Summer pudding version). I had to wait several months before one became available - and it's absolutely superb - many mouth-watering and unusual traditional English puds that are more a myth these days than anything else. (Found one of their recipes online at the Saveur site here.) 2. The River Café books - a real wealth of Northern Italian cooking. Off-shoots from these include the Moro book, as well as Jamie Oliver. 3. Anything by Jane Grigson - her charcuterie book especially. 4. Gordon Ramsay - A Passion for Flavour, and A Chef for All Seasons. 5. Pierre Koffman's Memories of Gascony is a treasure. These are UK books that I've cooked from. I have the MPW White Heat, and the Raymond Blanc Manoir book - where the food looks wonderful, but for some reason unapproachable (and I've cooked a lot from the French Laundry book, so it's not the complexity of the preparations that daunts me. There's just nothing there I'd want to prepare.)

Origami - yer killin me. I'm surprised about the puff on the croute - I would've thought they'd use a brioche sort of dough. Looks stunning though. So... when's dinner at your house? We should run a competition - you cook for the winner (plus date, of course). Maybe Scott can be the sommelier. I'd like to be the coat-check girl.

Biene - welcome to eGullet.