MobyP

Sooo - anyone on this thread developing any new allergies? For that matter, anyone on this thread not American?

Does anyone have the phone number/contact details for La Regalade?

Please note : some of these links may require free or paid registration to view. RESTAURANTS Matthew Fort's at Ramsey's old caf, Aubergine ( "This is just about the best thing that I've ever eaten," says mate...) Giles Coren on America, Fatitude, SUV-iness, and the petite joys of obese-less-ness at Morgan M Unless you're feeling Bloated... A A Gill - misanthrope, pedaphobically windy, mood hasn't improved significantly in 30 years, Seeks Similar. Marina O'Loughlin's cat knows more about fayn dayning than that Conran fella! Mathew Norman's Neighbourhood: Lemonia. Beware the Pigeon! Aura, London. Petrus - The final boot. Our Man Jay steps forward to have a go. Maschler on... what??? ITALIAN SUSHI??? FOOD Fowl play - Nigel Slater plays with plucking pigeons. Caroline Stacey and an ostentation of Critics spend the night cooking dinner for a pinch of chefs. Heston Blumenthal on the joys of venison. Richard Ehrlich - The Perfect Partridge. Gordon Ramsay -Autumn. Christine Manfield (From Australia) has a thing or two to show you. Tom Conran - Comfort Gratins. Marcus Wareing - perfect Roast Pork. Don't Stew! Sear! The New New Indian Approach. New Cookery Boooks. Mark Hix - Pumpkin Madness. WINE Superplonk. Tim Atkin - going bonkers over the 2000 Bordeaux. Jane MacQuitty - Cognac. Joanna Simon - Madeira. Wine of the Week. Cellar notes #4: Storage.

Isidore - have you been to Borough yet? It's just about as good as life gets in this country. Though it can be a bit pricey.

mas - welcome! Isidore - you can definitely find rabbits around - usually by the bushel/hoard/cavalcade/clutch at Borough, and I have the feeling I might have seen them at the Sainsbury's in Kensington. I'm sure your local butchers could probably order them. I've yet to actually buy one cos (a) it's a bunny, and was probably called flopsy even if it does taste great with mustard between two slices of bread and a great slab of bacon, and (b) how do you tell what's good? Smell? Prod it? Geography? Are Cornish hoppers more tender? Are the Welsh ones longer in the thigh? (Hmm, I sense an almost enitirely train-spotterish type of thread coming on...) Where, oh where do I find my Bresse Bunny?

Thanks for posting that. I reckon you would save money on dinner by getting yourself a reservation in Paris, and have Gagnaire in the kitchen to boot. It's still expensive, but the experience was spectacular.

I have to give my nod to Banners - half-soul food/Thai joint - half shrine to Motorbike speed racing. Think 'The Italian Job' meets Bob Marley and the Wailers. Also a great bar. Apart from the having the single greatest English Breakfast since the thing first grew legs, crawled out of the swamp, got killed and stuffed into a sausage skin, then ended up on my plate, it also has a great selection of other extremely tasty 'othernesses'. Interesting and bizarre curries. Spoon bread. Jerk Chicken. Exactly the sort of place I'd usually avoid like the plague, but somehow they make it work. The only problem - it's in Crouch End - which is the Nose Bleed section of North London. Still, if you find yourself within five miles on a Sunday Morning, it's the breakfast of champions. Great for kids.

Please note : some of these links may require free or paid registration to view. Restaurants Matthew Fort at The Mirabelle (No, the one in Sussex). Chinese torture - Marina O'Loughlin finds out how it's done. Patterson's Tracey MacLeod - Balham Bar & Kitchen. Tsunami by Lisa Jardine Jan Moir at Le Mont Jay Rayner considers the rockiness of nipples at Edera. Petrus The Saga. Matthew Norman Nibbles. A A Gill: Man of the People, slathers. Food The Great Sunday Roast by Whatsisface - you know - Wareing. By Jimminy, you can't throw a stick without hitting him... Gordon Ramsay does Autumn Pies. Heston Blumenthal messes with Microwaves. Richard Ehrlich - The perfect Beetroot. Core Blimey - Mark Hix celebrates the great British apple. Five young English chefs are whisked to Italy. Wine A quest for the soul of French winemaking. Something for the Weekend? A whole New World. Superplonk. Fiona Beckett - Frangelico. Andrew Catchpole - Vermouth.

Just to let you know which butler did it... At the end of the show, Jamie places one of those kids into a stage at the French Laundry, and another in Chez Panisse. A few more go to Australia. Quite an achievement.

And now in the Guardian / Simon Hoggart at the bottom...

No no - the white truffle's still a perfectly reasonable 2500 quid a kilo. It's the taglierini that's 5000 quid a kilo! The parmegiano is entirely complimentary, however.

The River Cafe are doing taglierini w/ w. truffles at £38 for 5 grams and a whopping £75 for 10 grams. Blimey, and then some.

What is gastro cuisine? Is it cooking for the people who really deserve it?

Please note : some of these links may require free or paid registration to view. By 'eck, chaps, this week we've got a biggun (any Brighton-esque prurience is entirely necessary). Pop! The new Observer Food Monthly. Restaurants Five Writers go mad at French Laundry, El Bulli, GR-RHR, ADMonaco, and Vongrichten. Jan Moir opines over Latium. Matthew Fort Does a double. Marina O'Loughlin finds the rich and famous - well, a bit rich and famous. Marina O'Loughlin - Partial yet Pertinent Pub in Palatable Pimlico. Fay Maschler masticates measurably over La Fromagerie Cafe. Richard Johnson swings beneath the Yew Tree. Diana Henry finds rural Gastro Pubs. Propa Sunday Roasts. Giles Coren has fun putting on The Ritz. A A Gill: Man of the people, has lunch. Food Sister of Fascist, Nazi, Socialist Revolutionary, and Novelist (aka: the last Mitford) decides to get someone else to raise a chicken, and then takes all the credit - but ooh, she's terribly well bred herself. The great Diana Kennedy In Mexico. Belinda Richardson dredges deep. Antonio Carluccio does yet more things with mushrooms. Gordon Ramsay's TV Dinners. Tamasin Day-Lewis does the Aga - watootsie. Crème du Carême - The man, the lover, the turnip, the cook. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall slaps you around with a dead fish (the way it's supposed to be done, of course) Nigel Slater goes in for a little rib-tickling. Heston Blumenthal sprinkles Pixie Dust where other chefs can't reach. Richard Ehrlich Probes the perfect black pudding. Indian Food with a difference. Wine Tim Atkins gives what for over oak. Super Plonk. The winners and losers in the 2003 vintage stakes. Three for the weekend. How long to age, how soon to drink? Jane MacQuitty looks at New Zealand.

JD - do you remember what the equivalent price was this time last year?

Please note : some of these links may require free or paid registration to view. Restaurants Why hell hath no fury like the celebrity chef who scores a two-star rating By Terri Judd. Jay Rayner casts his eye upon the Summer Isles, and decides - Yea, that it was a bit good. Mathew Fort living it large in France - Le Moulin de Lourmarin Tracey MacLeod finds Adria cutalike in Cumbria. Giles Coren - gets bolshy with silly buggers from Bolton. A A Gill impressively avoids assassination for yet another week to wax mystical over St John Bread and Wine. "Sheer artistry on a plate" mumbles Maschler. Toby Young - Simply Simpsons. Food Observer Food Monthly can be found... Ere, that Nigel Slater does loverly things with tomatoes. 30 Cloves of Garlic? Richard Ehrlich laughs at you! Turning his breath to eleven - he pushes the limit! Devastation! Ramsey's Final Trade Secrets! Urm - except for these... Chicken tikka v foie gras - the final battle! Tamasin Day Lewis'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes! Wine Malcolom Gluck - Super Plonk! Fiona Beckett - For heaven's sake! Age of enlightenment. Tim Atkin thinks some wine mark-ups are super!

Louisa - modesty aside, any news?

I love egullet.

I've been experimenting increasingly with duck fat for potatoes - and boy are they evil. I find they need a lightly lower temp - 375-400F or 180-200 C for a bit longer than with other oils - that I run hotter and shorter. And on a side note - what is it with duck fat? I spent a month or so collecting enough to confit a mess of duck legs... and now I can't get rid of it quick enough. Seems like I'm filling up container after container of the stuff. I'm gonna end up confit'ing my cat.

If they're following their previous drug-dealing marketing ploy from the US, usually they ask you if you've ever had one before (not too difficult a question in this case), and then when you - Bambi like - blink your eyes and shake your head, they hand you one hot, sticky, straight from the oven or fryer or devil's arm-pit and you bite down, and the hot sugar runs runs runs down your throat and you wonder you wonder if you'll ever make it home/see your family/make it to the bank in time to withdraw all of your money and give it give it give it to these BASTARDS who for just a single doughnut have made you sign your soul away yes there it goes out of the window wave 'bye bye' - or - erm - maybe they'll give it to you in a box....

Having only returned back here in the last year, I'm interested if anyone has any good contacts - other than restaurant wholesale and Harvey Nichols - for white truffles this winter; bad season and weather aside. Maybe I'll be able to scrape one together for a meal... All help appreciated!

Please note : some of these links may require free or paid registration to view. Restaurant reviews Jan Moir tastes less of Marcus Waring than she'd hoped for. Matthew Fort Finds Former Fat Fowl Down The Wells! Jay Rayner thinks Gordon Ramsey is filthy, dirty, sexy, and gosh, good enough for kids. Giles Coren finds absolutely nothing funny about N20. AA Gill avoids being hit once again by a large truck, then decides he might as well review the Berkley Square Cafe. Richard Johnson goes looking for his soul at Ashbells, turns up empty-handed. Maschler munches (mashes?) Wareing Latest Observer Food Monthly is now on line - includes an extract from Nigel Slater's autobiography "Toast". Food Heston Blumenthal wants you to play with fire. Tamasin Day-Lewis searches out the heroes of Ireland Wanna be filthy sexy dirty like Gordon Ramsay? More Trade Secrets! Jackie Hunter discovers a cavalcade of real black puddings. Nigel Slater's Last Supper. Yvonne Thomas roams about Buffalos Mark Hix does a Lancky tart, and Liverpudlian lobscouse. Drink Jane McQuitty is bothered by zinfandel. Superplonk! Tim Atkin learns the finer points of getting stonkered.

I've had two meals at Tra Vigne - and both were among the best med/Italian cooking I've ever come across. The last time, there was this pasta: home made gargenelli with duck confit in a braised duck sauce, with a brunoise of caramelised butter-nut squash. Ah, was so good, it haunts me to this day.

Shall we type our fingers together for our KCRW star? Well done Louisa.

I made the potato cake with bacon and gruyere, and it was a disaster. There was an inch of rendered bacon fat at the bottom of the dish by the end of baking. Inedible. When he says you have to understand the nature of the recipe before you can make changes, what he means is: you need to be a good enough cook not to need these recipes to begin with.