Latest news on the fabled restaurant – I haven’t made it there yet! Been to Paul Bucuse’s place in Lyon and that was great.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article7003649.ece

Well, the best  blended malt whisky in the world was judged to be Japanese a few years ago.

The full list was http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article7000931.ece 

Now, apparently, Taiwan is catching up!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article7000931.ece

Eddie

January 2010

Address: 128 West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BP. ( Its on the edge of Marlow, on the Henley side)

Telephone number: 01628 482277

Website: www.thehandandflowers.co.uk

Date of visit:  26 January 2010

Approximate cost per head: From £10, a la carte £30

Comments on wine list/beer: Its Green King IPA on tap. Wine list very comprehensive but mostly “youngish wines” – massive mark up.

Summary:
This is a “pub/restaurant” with one Michelin star.

On entry, you are in several connecting rooms with exposed beam and stone floor. However, all the tables are laid and there are no bar stools so it is really a restaurant that served draft beer.

All the tables were bare (no table cloth) but proper napkins were provided. A few years ago, if you do not have a table cloth, you will not get a Michelin star, but those days are long gone!

They offer a set lunch during week days. On offer today was parsnip soup or pork pie followed by confit of ling with puy lentils or lasagne. Desert was the usual crème brulee etc £10 for 2 courses or £13.50 for three courses.

On checking out the a la carte, which has the usual combination of slow cooked meat, fish and steak, I arrived at the last page which had only one item on it – award winning fish and chips at £13.50! I had to go for it.

Additional sides which included their famous chips, swede with black pepper, brussels sprouts tops etc… all priced at £4.

When it arrived, the fish and chips were two pieces of medium size fillets deep fried in batter – it tasted and looked like hake. Then you had a copper sauce pot filled with chips, a ramekin of home made tartar sauce and a ramekin of pea puree.

Lets talk about the chips – they were cylindrical in shape and is a cross between triple cooked chips and pommes soufflé. I really don’t know how they do it. It was truly amazing! A guess is that they treat it like triple cooked chips – par boil, then deep fry at 130C and then  finally deep fry at 190C, allowing it to cool and dry  in-between – then blow air into it after the 130C treatment before deep frying again at 190C. The chips were only slightly seasoned. The pea puree had sugar added.

I had a carafe of house red (rioja crianza) which was around 350ml at £12. At this rate, its £24 for a bottle of house red which was probably around £3.50 a bottle – very steep! It was just drinkable.

The freebies on offer were 2 kinds of bread (warm) and some deep fried whitebaits. The bread was very good, the brown had a chilli kick to it. The whitebait were as good as they come – moist and crispy.

On the whole a very good experience even though they – like most Michelin starred restaurants – put in a massive mark up on wine.

Car park is by the side of the pub and the loos have individual towels.

Eddie

A meal for a King (Louis XIV) which took a year to prepare.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/7037298/A-banquet-for-Louis-XIV-recreated-at-the-Palace-of-Versailles.html

BUT…….

You could have ordered an imperial banquet fit for the emperor of Ching Dynasty (China).

Yes, apparently in 1996, Chris Pattern and Chancellor Helmut Kohl ate 40 courses between them at Yung Kee Restaurant which was voted as the best chinese restaurant in the World 30 years ago.

I wanted to try it when I was in Hong Kong some 20 years ago but was told that it takes a minimum of 3 days notice – I was in town for 48 hours. I am not sure that they still do it but here is the latest menu.

http://www.yungkee.com.hk/menu/menu_awardset-e.html

Eddie

January 2010

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/real_food/article5524488.ece

I am going to a few of them. Please let me have your views if you are going to one!

Eddie

January 2010

Sorry, still no answers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/jan/25/neeps-swede-or-turnip

Eddie

January 2010

Address: 395 Edgeware Rd, London NW2 6LN. This is on the A5 just south of A406 (North Circular). If you are coming in from the north, do a U turn by the Murco garage and then first left.

Telephone number: 0208 450 0422 (store)/ 0208 452 2333 (restaurant)

Website: http://www.wingyip.com/

Date of visit:  20 January 2010

Summary:
Wing Yip started in Birmingham’s China Town and have over the past decade expanded into London (Crickwood  & Croydon) and Manchester.

The Crickwood store was re-built in 2009 replacing a slightly smaller one on the same site. This is probably the largest Chinese Supermarket in the UK.

It now occupies a huge trading area: fish counter and various cold room for vegetables and meat. You can also get bottled sauces, rice, oriental beers,wines etc…….

With the vegetable sections – there are 2 – display and cold room, you can get anything from the usual pak choy to fresh turmeric, fresh banana leaves and fresh pandanus leaves (essential in Malaysian cooking). Banana leaves are great as a wrap for BBQing fish.

The fish counter is amongst one of the best around. You can have diver’s scallops, fresh lobsters, sole, brills, turbots etc and it’s nowhere near the price Harrods or Selfridges charge.

The store have a huge frozen section and contains most dim sums, 20 varieties of prawns, pigs maws, trotters etc including a range of SE Asia snacks that are hard to come by. At one end of the store, they have a section of kitchen equipment/utensils. So, if you want to marinate half a dozen ducks, you will get a pot to fit but these pots are at the cheap end of the market and the metal is quite thin.

On the otherside  of the store are new businesses that the old store did not have – a professional or restaurant catering equipment department, a café which offer bakery and Chinese cooked meats – ducks, char sui…..

There is also a restaurant on site which can take 200 covers. Its called Wing Tai (tel: 0208 452 2333). It serves the normal cantonese fare – dim sum at lunch and a more substantial menu in the evening. The dim sum menu have all the old favourites there. I ordered the prawn spring roll and was surprised to see that its made on site – not the frozed ones in the supermarket. I can tell because the shapes were irregular. I also had chow kwai tew which is essentially mee goreng using flat rice noodles. Both were pretty good. The dim sum starts at £2.80 and goes up to £3.80. My meal including 2 bottles of tiger beer and a salt and pepper squid (dim sum size) came to £21 including service. Yes, they do have table clothes but its a serviette not a proper napkin.

Best of all, there are now 2 free car parks – an underground and an above ground that can take 200 cars.

So you can shop and have a meal. This is one of the few authentic chinese restaurants that will allow you to park on site. The other one is in Croydon. From a food perespective. The Cricklewood restaurant is better. I ate at the Croydon branch a year ago – they may have improved.

The Croydon branch is similar and there is also a huge car park on site. There are also restaurants, shops and a bakery in the complex. 550 Purley Way, Croydon, London CR0 4RF.  Tel: 0208 688 880

Birmingham branch is at 375 Nechells Park Road, Nachells, Birmingham B7 5NT. Tel: 0121 327 6618

Manchester Branch is at Oldham Rd, Ancoats, Manchester, M4 5HU. Tel: 0161 832 3215

Eddie

January 2010

Singapore

http://ieatishootipost.sg/

This is the best website that I have come across for food in Singapore.

Char Kway Teow – I like No 18 Zion Road, Riverside Food Centre – Always a cue and I live right next door.

Nasi Lemak/ Fish Head Curry – Grandmas which is in Orchard Parade Hotel, 1 Tanglin Road or the recently opened Paragon branch, 290 Orchard Road.

 They have this book called Makan Sutra which lists all the Hawker food stalls that are good for their respective foods.

Nasi Lemak – good place is Grandmas at Paragon.

Hong Kong

Oysters – near Tin Hau MTR station / Great for Oysters flown in from abroad and steaks

Macau

Alocha – Great Portuguese food where the Formula One teams used to eat when they were in town.

Robouchon e Galera – in the Hotel Lisboa. If you like French you cant really beat this one. Its now a 3 michelin star restaurant with a wine list to match. Joel Robouchons other restaurants around the region ie. L’Atelier in Landmark and in Roppongi Hills in Tokyo don’t seem to be as good.

Michael Hsia

January 2010

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8467045.stm

The recipe I use is nearly identical but without the milk. I did come across this milk business before but thought that its an English fad – the reason is to reduce the acidity from the tomatoes.

Eddie

January 20

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/18/guide-jamon-iberico-spanish-ham

Great article on Jamon. Once you tried it, you will only use prosciutto (parma ham) for cooking in recipes.

According to certain legands, eating Jamon Iberico de Bellota will actually reduce your cholestrol level. This is due to the acorns which we can’t digest normally. The nearest that I have as a confirmation is in Sam and Eddie Hart’s Modern Spanish Cooking. (ISBN 978-1-84400-454-6].

Dukeshill (0845 3700 129, www.dukeshillham.co.uk) will sell you a whole leg for £325. You can normally expect to pay £15 per dish with about 5 or 6 thin slices in a restaurant. Or arrange to go to Spain for a holiday and buy at a Jamoneria or El Court Ingleis.

Address: 4 West Smithfield, London EC1A 9JX

Telephone number: 0207 489 7033

Website: www.saki-food.com

Date of visit:  15 January 2010

Approximate cost per head: From £10 but it is more likely £30

Comments on wine list/beer: Extensive saki list. Pricy wine list. A small bottle of Kirin was £4.30 and cokes at £1.90 per glass.

Summary:

The ground floor is an emporium. There is a display of nail clippers and knives. The nail clippers were around £180 and the knives £300. There is also a cold cabinet full of saki and there were also a few packs of biscuits on another counter. I don’t know what to make of it!

Downstairs – steep staircase! – is a restaurant and a bar.

The restaurant is square shaped with an open kitchen at one end and the usual sushi counter. The tables were arranged in a U shape around the other 3 walls. In the centre was a huge table or rather 4 sushi bars lined in a square shape with bar stools and a Japanese sand pit in the middle. It was very elegantly designed but no table clothes.

We were there for lunch and by 1pm, it was nearly full with a party taking over the centre table.

There is a lunch menu with dishes starting at £10 but the bulk of it were combinations at around £20.

The a la carte menu have sushi and sashimi as well as a few interesting dishes. What captured my eyes were the two omakase menu. The first had the usual combination of meat, fish and sushi/tempura. The top version (all the courses) was priced at £65.50. To pair glasses of wine with the dishes were another £25.50 and to pair saki another £32.50.  There was also a vegetarian version (totally vegetarian) at £65.50. However when paired with premium saki was another £45. 24 hour notice is required for the vegetarian version. So take note! I am going to give it a go when I win the lotto (jackpot).

We had the rib eye set lunch  (£17.50) and the tuna and salmon mixed sushi set (£20.50) and a side order of eel nigiri at £8.90 for 3 pieces. The rib eye was sensational. It was char grilled and full of flavour. The sushi set was fine. For the set lunch, you get a freebie starter which was some sort of crab in bread crumbs – not fried. The place is Ok but its not cheap.

Most of the diners were the new exec type – suits, shirts and no ties. Probably New Media agency directors.

Eddie