MobyP

Gary - that's brilliant. Thanks for being so thorough. I had a friend who used to put on his haughtiest Yorkshire voice, and say: "don't talk to me about culture - I've been to Leeds!" Now the bugger's right - for food, at any rate!

John, I think you get serious points just for courage. I passed by the fish counters of both Tesco and Sainsbury today. Makes me shiver just thinking about it.

Starbucks all up and down Tottenham Court Road - 5 mins walk. Plus you're near the biggest Waterstones in the UK (a Barnes and Nobel a-like) and I think they have a coffee bar. Not to mention RADA (Royal Academy for Dramatic Art) if you want to reserve place early for your kid!

If you want to spend hundreds of pounds, and still get more for your quid, go to the Fat Duck. I just had a dish, the salmon with liquorice and vanilla mayonnaise, and the waiter comes up and sprinkles some 'per mio figlio' on it, as he would for white truffles. It was good. And I'd been waiting to try this oil for a couple of years, so believe me, I was paying attention. It gave an earthiness. That sense of grass, and soil, that you get off really young oils. But 150 for 100ml? No, it wasn't that good. At least I got another 17 courses and six wines for my 150.

Welcome to eGullet! Hope you'll hang around. The Manni - is this the 150 dollars per 100 ml stuff?

That's a miracle, for 24.50. Were you on your own? How did they treat you?

Wine in the UK Press A three-day conference devoted to New Zealand Pinot Noir demonstrates how far the wine has come in 20 years. Anthony Rose The anatomy of a wine scandal. Cellar notes #22: Tasting a modern classic. 2003 Bodega Lurton Pinot Gris; 2003 Jackson Estate Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc; 2000 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe, Châteauneuf- du-Pape. Tim Atkin remembers the days when Alsace wines were still recognisably dry. Joanna Simon ABC: anything but chardonnay.

Please note : some of these links may require free or paid registration to view. This week's selection comes from: The Times The Independent The Guardian The Observer The Telegraph This is London Restaurants Tracey MacLeod - Destino, London Jan Moir - Pappagano Matthew Fort - Le Champignon Sauvage. Giles Coren - Bonds Jay Rayner - The Anchor and Hope. AA Gill: mung of the pipple: Anchor & Hope. Features Catriona Howatson rounds up the latest cookery books. A Provençal cookery school seduces Casilda Grigg Food Nigel Slater at the root of it all... Mark Hix likes it on the bone. Heston Blumenthal - perfect fennel? the microwave! Gordon Ramsay's Seventies classics. Wine and Spirits A three-day conference devoted to New Zealand Pinot Noir demonstrates how far the wine has come in 20 years. Anthony Rose The anatomy of a wine scandal. 2003 Bodega Lurton Pinot Gris; 2003 Jackson Estate Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc; 2000 Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe, Châteauneuf- du-Pape. Tim Atkin remembers the days when Alsace wines were still recognisably dry. Cellar notes #22: Tasting a modern classic. Joanna Simon ABC: anything but chardonnay.

Some Gordon Ramsey ideas, ... buttery savoy cabbage with pancetta individual chicory / endive tarte tatins with balsamic caramel small roesti to balance the meat on orange braised fennel or baby fennel All of the above....

I read a story about a cook on a submarine who got into making stocks... when on dry land, he would make fifty gallons at a time, and reduce it down to a few cups of glace. Easily transportable, and good for storage and quick use, even in a submarine. You can freeze it, and use it all over the place - pastas, stews, ragus, chilli, braises, risotto, jus for roasts - and it will improve anything you make exponentially. Perhaps the community as a whole can put aside the chicken and turkey bones for a general 'chicken stock' (roasted or unroasted, it doesn't matter - a couple of trotters too, for the gelatin), and the beef bones (plus calves hoof or trotters) for the beef stock. As a community, it would be an invaluable resource, giving you a much better - and theoretically cheaper - product than the high sodium cans of yuck broth from the supermarket. And of course, spare veg can make a veg stock - though I don't know how that reduces. Between you, buy a 30 litre stock pot, and set aside some space in a freezer for keeping the bones. Have a class, then set up a rota on stock making. Once they taste the difference, no one will want to make do without it.

I had the smoked bacon and egg, as well as the sardines on buttery toast ice cream at The Fat Duck yesterday (not to mention the beautiful pommery grain mustard ice cream which is served with a red-cabbage gazpacho) - and they were fantastic. Especially the first - which is served as a desert alongside a piece of french toast, and a quenelle of salty caramel. In the second you could really taste the buttery toast, and sardines - a classic English dish of the 60's/70's. Psychologically very interesting to suddenly have these flavours coming through ice cream.

Tell me that wasn't a trojan joke, pleeeease?

Truly an exceptional lunch at the Fat Duck yesterday (Sunday), thanks to that Olympic gold medal-winning reservationist Tarka. Two things surprised me. Although we had the tasting degustation, this is a menu you would want to explore like a beautiful building; corridors leading off in all directions. Unfortunately you have to commit to a direction; and if you decide on one path, then by necessity it's too big to return and take the others as well. As it was the temptation was too great, and we ordered a couple of courses in addition to the 18 provided; two portions of the lasagne of langoustine and pig's trotter in the middle, and a tarte tatin for the table to share at the very end. The second thing was how approachable the meal was. Everyone around our table had a dish they were anticipating would be an ordeal - for me, the Oyster and passion fruit jelly; for Jack the Snail Porridge, for Tarka, the foie gras. For all of us, perhaps, the sardine on toast sorbet. But as Heston has said, at the end of the day it has to taste good - and most of this food tasted but seriously good. The presentations - as is the style these days - were beautiful and (I think) French Laundry inspired. Plenty of futurist and cubist sculptures supported or mounted with perfect quenelles. The style of the meal was a multitude of half and one-bite dishes The courses were understandably small. Everyone, I think, had a point in the meal where they stopped, and said: I could have that 17 more times. And everyone's choice was different. I'm going to skip through this meal, as most of it has been described before, and stop on the highlights. Fortunately, there were a stupid number of them. The Pre-Amuse: Nitro green tea and Lime Mousse with vodka - this is exactly as good as you expect it to be - unless you don't know it's coming, in which case it's much better. A frozen shell on the outside, which turns into a creamy vapor in the mouth. (On a side note, on several occasions a man walked through the restaurant carrying a bucket of liquid nitrogen - minus 192 degrees Centigrade. If he tripped and the bucket went flying, what would happen? The man at table 14 loses his nose?) Oyster and Passion Fruit Jelly: I can't stand oysters; I can't even stand to hear about oysters; if you once knew an oyster when you were a child, kept it in your pocket, let it sleep on your pillow at night, and told it stories around the camp fire - I'm not interested. Really. The only good oyster is one several thousand miles away, underneath a bulldozer that's gone out of control, fallen off a pier, and killed it's entire oyster family. Still, this dish was pretty good. The texture of the jelly and Oyster were exactly the same, or close enough. The sweetness repressed the ocean salinity. For the Oyster fans - there was much applause, and closed eyes, and groaning. Pommery Grain Mustard Ice Cream, Red Cabbage Gazpacho. This sounds very odd - and was my first aesthetic hurdle (mustard ice cream?) to handle, but was delicious in all respects. A tiny quenelle of ice cream, balanced on a small pool of beautifully purple soup. Quail Jelly, Pea puree, Cream of Langoustine, with a quenelle of foie gras parfait on top. I loved this; the different textures and levels of flavour revealing themselves on the tongue. BLH thought it was musty - but I found the tastes to be very clean. Snail Porridge, Jabugo ham: this was a surprise - a beautiful savoury texture, resembling a perfect risotto (as someone noted) - but deeply garlicky, and notes of parsley. Every now and then a tender morsel of snail - not big rubbery lumps. And the jabugo ham adding a texture and saltiness. Roast Foie Gras with almond puree, cherry, chamomile - this was a let down for me, though not for others. It wasn't bad, but I didn't think it was exceptional. The texture of the foie was the same all the way through, and it was luke warm. The puree was a little sweet. Sardine on Toast Sorbet, Ballotine of Mackeral - We thought this was going to be a test, but the ice cream was v. nice. You could just get a hint of the buttery toast flavour - which was very odd, but fun. The mackeral was a little strong for my tastes. Salmon poached in Liquorice, vanilla mayonnaise, and 'Manni' olive oil - a definite highlight. The texture of the flesh was beautiful, the vanilla mayonnaise really vivid, the liquorice (almost a gelatin layer) restrained. And the olive oil (at 150 dollars for about 100ml) gave it a nice earthiness. Sweetbread cooked in Salt Crust with Hay crusted with pollen, cockles, and Parsnip Puree. The best sweetbreads I've ever had. From the description, I expected them to be soft, but they were perfectly crunchy on the outside, and immensely creamy within. The puree had at least 13 kilos of butter in it. A lovely dish. Lasagne of langoustine with Pig's trotter, black truffle. This was nice, with plenty of langoustine, but I didn't get the earthy taste of "caramelized" trotter I was expecting. The pasta was silky. (This was an extra course). The deserts were a mix of bizarre and fun. High point for me was definitely the smoked bacon and egg ice cream, french toast, and salted caramel ("put all the flavours in your mouth at the same time" said our waiter). It was like having all your 'treat' foods in your mouth at the same time. It was fantastic. And the tea jelly - marvelous. What they should really do is figure out something to do with sausage and baked beans, and make it a full caff breakfast dessert. Low point for ex-smokers at the table (myself included) was tobacco chocolate - which left you with that 5 cigarette taste in your mouth, without the buzz of nicotine or satisfaction of a lung-full of smoke. Also, in addition, we ordered a tarte tatin. This was a bit protestant for my tastes - a bit restrained. However as Suzi is completing a life-long study of tarte tatins, we felt it a matter of conscience. Overall the meal took, roughly, four and a half hours. But at no point did we feel we were hanging around. And after all of that food, including the two extra courses, none of us were uncomfortably full. It would be silly to say this was a surprise, but it really was. I was expecting a 'difficult' or 'challenging' meal - and what I found instead was exceptional cooking and innovative taste pairings. Once you've read about or tasted the 'surprises' - the nitro-foam, the beetroot jelly - you're left with food that has real soul to it. I'm looking forward to his reinterpreting of the classics as apparently he is considering. Even as it is, there are many different meals to be had at the Fat Duck, not just the tasting menu. And I'm looking forward to returning.

Hi Sued - welcome to eGullet! You'll be around the corner from Hakkasan, which some people consider to be the best Chinese restaurant in London - certainly the best Dim Sum. It might be a bit loud for a four month old (lots of hard surfaces). Also, there's a place - a bit touristy, but I loved it when I was a kid, called 'My Old Dutch Pancake House' where you get crepes the size of a New York pizza (a zilion different fillings). Classier than IHoP. Haven't been there in years, but maybe your daughter would enjoy it.

Preach it, baby! Preach it!

The cheeses in this country, I think, can stand up against almost anywhere. I was driving through Cornwall with my wife, and we stopped at a small village shop. Inside, they had several unfamiliar looking cheeses. I asked where they were from, and he said a local dairy with a very small distribution. How small, I asked? Just a few places around here, really, he replied. There's never enough to send up to London... He gave me a taster of a semi-soft blue goat's cheese, and I almost fainted. It had all the depth of flavour of a Roquefort, and yet not quite as obnoxious, but with the texture of a gentle chevre. This was just another small dairy that had been making cheese - probably raw-milk - for as long as anyone could remember, and never enough to send out the region. This xmas, I was at Borough, and Neil's Yard had a Stilton that was beyond belief. This wasn't the rough-edged brash Stilton I'd had before, but an artisinal product of incredible refinement and intelligence.

Chef - could you give us some examples of dishes using the different forms of soffrito?

Wine in the UK Press Richard Ehrlich on exploding the myths of wine storage. Anthony Rose "For the first time ever, Australia bundled the French into second place last year as the biggest supplier of take-home wine in this country." Cellar notes #21: Buy your Rhône. "The secret of buying Italian wine is to be adventurous," says Andrew Catchpole Tim Atkin New Zealand may be stuck in the 1970s, but its wines are way ahead.

Please note : some of these links may require free or paid registration to view. This week's selection comes from: The Times The Independent The Guardian The Observer The Telegraph This is London Restaurants Terry Durack the Drunken Monkey. Matthew Fort goes to the Wolseley, and refuses to leave! Giles Coren - "The Anchor and Hope is the most exciting new restaurant I have been to since I started writing this column." Jay Rayner on 1880. AA Gill: Man of the Poople: Salt Whisky Bar & Dining Room. Marina O'Loughlin, Number 10 Features Rick Stein venture could revive the fortunes of Newquay. Jan Moir the best places for dining alone. Food Mark Hix liberates the exotic cauliflower. Heston Blumenthal - The crunch factor. Nigel Slater on the love between a man and his pig. Gordon Ramsay's Pancakes. Wine and Spirits Richard Ehrlich on exploding the myths of wine storage. Anthony Rose "For the first time ever, Australia bundled the French into second place last year as the biggest supplier of take-home wine in this country." Cellar notes #21: Buy your Rhône. Adam Edwards visits Oxfordshire - King's Head Inn. "The secret of buying Italian wine is to be adventurous," says Andrew Catchpole Tim Atkin New Zealand may be stuck in the 1970s, but its wines are way ahead.

Peter Andre? Kerry? Lord Brocket?

I got busted. Couldn't go. I'm in deep mourning.

By jiminy, I think we've found our motto.

Marco Polo - thanks for the recommendations. Unquestionably. The notion that replacement and substitution must be a good thing seems to instill a panic in anyone with eyes on the competition. There was a phase coming out of the 80's of green curries, chips with everything ... "cajun chicken, nachos covered in cheezey gloop, deep fried squid with gunky sweet chili sauce out of bottle, etc." What we had come to expect - maybe a roast on the weekends (over-cooked), or a nice lump of local cheese and pickle (more often from the supermarket) - had already been replaced by imitations of itself. Publicans felt they should be providing more, but had no idea in which direction to look. For me, the wonder of all this is not some closely-kept-secret-powered-chef who apprenticed under blah blah blah who's cooking in a small closet surrounded by a rare breed of azaleas - it's the sheer range and scope of it all; the integrity of it (when we're lucky); the man or woman who looks at their surroundings, finds a wonderful breed of local chicken, or freshly caught fish, cooks it simply, and well enough, and agrees to sell it to you. Which is just to say: For me, it's actually - and I'm hesitant to say this because it sounds like the sort of sentimental tosh that knee-caps are broken for - to do with a simple cultural ideal; an ecumenical environment; the possibilities of a great or or simple or surprising meal without the cultural inhibitions of being 'in a restaurant.' The pub has all sorts of semiotic and cultural overtones that, to my knowledge, exist nowhere else on earth in the form that they have done here. That's not to say that all of them are good - but they allow an environment which - when it works - is unique. Gastro-pub's a horrible term. I once drove across America expecting to find the Steinbeck-ian ideal of a small family restaurant with a 6-generation old recipe for fried chicken. Turns out, no matter how small the town, where ever I went, they'd all been bull-dozed to the ground and covered with a row of franchises. So much of America has traded in its uniqueness for the homogeneity of consumption. But that's changing as well. Slowly. To a certain degree, the perfect ideal of a pub vanished for most of us half a generation ago. Finding a place unharried by the green monster of a Thai Curry, or a chips with everything lunch was almost impossible. Now - and this is almost a joke, surely - it's becoming a fad to find a local farmer who knows what they're doing, and buy produce direct! It's absurd, and wonderful, in equal measure. It's a storyline on 'The Archers' (allegedly) for goodness sake. It's also true. So, in one fell swoop (as all swoops should be fell), you have an age-old institution which is connecting to its surrounds and community in a way which hasn't been done - well - for an age. And what does it signify? To tell you the truth, I'm not sure. But I am enjoying it.

Both the French Laundry and Tom Colliccio's new book have whole lamb recipes. Of course, neither of them are quite up to Jack's standard....

Giles Coren on the Anchor and Hope. " If Michel Roux ran a pub, it would be the A&H." (Don't worry BLH - it's still half empty...)