Stigand

Looks like an interesting book. Here's an eGullet friendly Amazon link for anyone who wants to buy it and send some money to eGullet at the same time (hope it works).

Absolutely. I can understand that local restaurateurs might be afraid to challenge a powerful food reviewer. But what really disturbs me is that there weren't more complaints from readers (which the article seems to imply). Is restaurant reviewing regarded by readers as so inconsequential or so subjective that ten years of dodgy reporting spark hardly a single letter?

Inspired by Jonathan's post, I picked up some spelt in Sainsbury's (!) and made myself spelt risotto this evening. Found a recipe online but now can't seem to relocate it, but it basically involved soaking the spelt in cold water (20 mins), straining, boiling it in water and a little olive oil (20 mins), straining again, adding it to soffrito of onion/garlic/celery/parsley and cooking as usual with some good chicken stock and wine (20 minutes), adding thinly sliced fennel and seasoning. It was fab - very savoury, even without cheese (I left the cheese out in an attempt to be healthy, but it would have been even better with), and very spring-like because of the fennel. Despite the long cooking, the spelt kept its bite and didn't become pudding-y.

The River Cottage Cookbook, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, is a joy to read. If you haven't read it (or any of its many derivatives, or the TV show...) it's sort of like Nigel Slater meets Henry Thoreau. Eccentric chap lives in cottage in English countryside, keeps pigs and chickens, goes fishing, gathers mushrooms, then cooks them all. It manages to convey an awesome respect for animals, nature and ingredients but comes across as indulgent and fun rather than preachy or tiresome. A cynic would say this book is bucolic lifestyle porn, but I like it anyway (and don't most cookbooks on one level or another include a good dose of lifestyle porn? - Elizabeth David's Book of Mediterranean Food is a case in point, but is still wonderful).

Mags: your post made me wonder what the difference between American 'light' and 'heavy' cream and British 'single' and 'double' cream is. A bit of Googling dug this up: From a random website: Saint Delia (US translation: Delia Smith, the Mister Rogers of UK TV cookery) has this to say: The little bottles of 'Double Devon Cream' I see advertised on the web all seem to have a little sticker on them saying '48% MF', which I assume is the fat content. But as noted above this stuff seems to have gone through some kind of mysterious vacuum treatment, so may not taste the same as fresh double cream. I must say, I didn't even know that double cream had to made from special cows; I assumed it just came from whatever dairy breed is normally used in the UK.

Marco, great post: the Quicke's clotted cream sounds fab by the way - do you know if they mail order it? Their website only mentioned cheese. Agree that there's not a significant difference between Cornish and Devon clotted cream, although the industrial stuff from either county can be grim. I think there are two products that have been discussed on this thread: clotted cream (which as you rightly say can be from Devon or Cornwall) and the bizarre 'Double Devon Cream', which I've only ever seen in America, and which seems to be a totally different creature. The website that Steve Martin posted made it sound totally unlike any kind of clotted cream: Ah, the joys of British cuisine in the era of rationing...

One other thing while we're on the subject. Clotted cream isn't just for tea! It also makes a nutritious breakfast. Cut a thick slice of soft white farmhouse bread, spread with strawberry jam and then clotted cream. Forms part of a complete breakfast (along with a starter of bacon, sausages, mushrooms, black pudding, fried bread and Daddies Sauce, and at least a pint of tea).

Absolutely right, Stigand, though, in Plymouth, it could well have been Cornish cream. This could well be true, but try convincing my grandmother No offence meant to Cornwall - we're just bitter because you get all the glory for pasties

The first time I saw the expression 'Devon cream' used to describe a style of cream was in California. I assumed it was marketing-speke intended to reassure those found the word 'clotted' a little too close to arteriosclerosis, but reading Steve Martin's post I realise it's a totally different product - not really clotted cream at all. For what it's worth, both Devon and Cornwall produce clotted cream. My Devon grandmother, who has always loved clotted cream but has no truck with anything Cornish, used to buy (Devon) clotted cream from a farmer at Plymouth market. The product was, as far as I could tell, exactly the same as Cornish clotted cream.

This is probably not much help, but my first thought on seeing borage water was that it would be just the thing for a Pimm's .

Isn't there an argument that agriculture was invented (or at least popularised) largely because people wanted grains to brew into beer? I can't remember where I read this but I like the idea that civilisation is based on booze.

Hakarl - the Greenland shark, somniosus microcephalus, is toxic unless you let it ferment for a few weeks (after which it's merely unpleasant ). From Greenland shark info.

Last summer I made some damson gin, and I'm finding it very useful for making summery slings. Damson gin, lemon juice, soda water, sugar. I'm afraid I don't know the proportions except with reference to the glass I use to make it in (which isn't very helpful to anyone else), but it doesn't need to be very accurate. I think this drink may be called a hedgerow sling, but I'm not sure.

Their rather cool website seems to be working again. I don't speak enough Italian to understand much of it, but I like the pretty bubbles. There are more eGullet Chino fans on this page.

D'oh - just used Google to search the Horton site and found Norton sitting there after all, right under my nose. Does anyone have any experience of this wine? Worthwhile? Is the claret (Bordeaux) comparison fair?

Last week this article by Roger Scruton appeared in the UK's New Statesman magazine. Roger Scruton (a claret fan) is very fond of 'Horton Norton', which he says is made by Horton from a native Virginian varietal, the Norton. Looking at Horton's website, I can see all sorts of grapes, but nothing called Norton. Can anyone explain?

I did once track down borage for my Pimms. I can't remember where, but I think I might have got it in Waitrose, the posh UK supermarket. I remember being pretty disappointed: it tasted of cucumber, but came in the form of a strange hairy plant. Cue guests: "There's weeds in the Pimms." "Shall I get a trowel?"

sorry, Stigand, I don't agree! the contrast between the sharpness of the cherries and the mellifluous chocolate is too strident for me. their Maya Gold, on the other hand... Oh no - I'm thrown into confusion: looks like I'll have to try the Cherry alongside the Maya Gold. Aw shucks...

I recently discovered what seems to be a new flavour from Green & Black's (the Fairtrade, organic chocolate company whose wares seem recently to have become totally ubiquitous, at least in London). It's Cherry: basically it's dark chocolate with dried cherries in it. I suppose it's a posh Fruit & Nut (without the nuts). I bought it for the first time expecting it to be pretty awful, but it's absolutely incredible: the balance between the two ingredients works perferctly, and I say this as someone who doesn't generally like orange chocolate, mint chocolate and other such gross chocolate indecency. But then there was an added bonus. My first bar had a tiny bit of cherry stone in it (they do mention on the package that this is possible). You'd think this would be a bad thing (and admittedly it was a bit crunchy) but it tasted fantastic: it had that kind of Amaretto fruit-stone fragrance that totally matched the bitterness of the chocolate. Which got me thinking - could you grind up cherry stones and mix them with chocolate? Are they safe to eat in quantity? Hmm...

God, yes. That and 'slather'. 'Toothsome' sounds like it might have broken bits of teeth in it. Crunch. And to slather something sounds like covering it in lather: mmm, soapy. But having said that, I like his books a lot.

A while back, Jackal10 posted a recipe for cheat's Pimms for those that want to make their own.

Following the subject of wonderful typos being discussed earlier, Stigand, I guess you meant to type "Tataki". Tatami is the straw matting floor covering used in Japanese buildings. D'oh I suppose tatami would be seriously overcooked tuna...

I kind of half agree with this. I love raw tuna. Sashimi, tartare and tatami - all great. What I don't like is the way they seem to have made restaurants think that all tuna has to be cooked bleu. A thin steak of fatty tuna, cooked quickly in olive oil with salt and a little garlic, until it's no longer red (but not desiccated either - we all agree that shoe-leather is bad) is a thing of joy. The fat - or so it seems - melts, and the tuna takes on a meaty flavour that I don't get from most sashimi, delightful though it is. I find it really hard to get non-bleu tuna now unless I cook it myself: I'll either be served a thick piece of what is basically tatami, seared on the outside and cold inside, or it'll be assumed that I'm a total barbarian and I'll get the aforementioned shoe-leather.

I think the (warped) logic is that the Lazarus-goats work fine unless their bones are broken, in which case they come to life again with a broken leg. Who writes these things? At least with the classical stuff you can blame Homer or Ovid... The other thing I like about this thread is the Google ads its brings up - my ads are all for medical sites providing info about bone marrow, aneamia etc - if only they knew...

The Chinese expatriates I've asked all swear by the Phoenix Palace, saying it's much better than the nearby (Baker Street) Royal China, and cheaper. I know absolutely nothing about Chinese food apart from knowing that I'm not very fond of really bad Chinese take-aways, but I went there the other day for a quick dinner and I found it a real eye-opener. I had an octopus, walnut, mushroom and celery dish with some jasmine rice. It was wonderful - the texture was fascinating, and the flavours of the walnuts, little mushrooms (no idea of the name - little acorn-like ones) and octopus went together wonderfully. Managed to taste spring-like and yet very umami at the same time. Also had some lettuce wraps stuffed with, I think, rice noodles, mushrooms and pine nuts which were very good as well. But as I said, I speak as a real Chinese-food ignoramus. Phoenix Palace; 3-5 Glentworth Street, NW1 5PG; Tel 020 7486 3515