Chips

... and i'm not talking about two cheesy smiling highway patrolemen on bikes...
I'm talking about crisps actually, not chips.
In English english, the picture above is one of a crisp. A chip is a french fry in US english, or a frite in french. [But just to confuse us beyond the point of reason, they call a crisp a chip.] ...
confused ?
don't be, because chips are also chips/crisps in England... whatever...
Having grown up in London, i have been used to a whole variety of flavoured crisps... [my favorite being cheese and onion], so you can imagine my amazement when I came to France [just a few miles acress the Channel] an saw that only had saltd crisps...
that was years ago...
since then they have managed a few boring flavours... but they have also manages to import all sorts of crisps to liven up the all too dull crisp shelve in the supermarket...
Bref, the one above is a sweet chili crips made by TYRRELL ...
Brilliant, light, very crisp, thin, tasty... whhat else does one want from a piece of deep fried potato ?

not for the squeamish

The andouillette ...
The french answer to haggis.
Pure pork, sometimes veal.
There are two ways to prepare these sausages. The whole difference lies in the fact that the sausage retains it's skin without splitting.
1. On the grill. you have to be careful as the skin tends to split easily when it's too cooked, so best grill on a low heat.
2. Lison's recipe. Melt up alarge chunck of butter in a shallow pan. Throw in the andouillettes with an egg cup's worth of white wine, and let them simmer gently. Once the white wine has evaporated, add hallf an egg cup of calvados, and let the whole thing to simmer for another 15/20 minutes.
Simple no?
Obvioulsly, they must be accompanied with forked mashed potatoes.

easy scallion pancakes

i spent the week end running through as many foodie blogs as possible.
it's amazing how many there are and the amount of time people have to nourrish their blogs. I must be in the wrong business...
anyway, one of the most common recipie when it comes to chinese food,is the scallion pancake.
piss easy to make, and yet so hard to get right.
mix 2 cups of flower and 1 cup of warm water.
Knead and let rest for a quater of an hour.
chop up a bunch of scallion as thinly as possible.
... 15 minutes later...
devide the pastry into 5 or 6 balls.
Flatten them out, then spread out some sesame oil & soya sauce over the surface.
sprinkle the scallion generously.
roll the pancake up.
once you have your long 'sausage', roll that up into a spiral, and flatten the whole thing out again.
fry on both sides for a couple of minutes...
yum
the next step would be to use the pancakes as a burrito and stff it with a stir fry of some sort.

a true surprise

OK, it doesn't look like much, but it's amazing.

A salmon tartar with some shredded veg & passion fruit.

What was the most amazing thing was the fact that the food was served

at a place called LE RESERVOIR , a small concert venue very similar to Dingwalls/Break for the Border with the velvety atmosphere of Ronnie Scott's,

the difference being that the food is of extremly high standards.

It isn't a cheap eatery (50/70 euros per head with the wine) but it's worth it.

Main courses are very elegant, and the meats are tender, lean, and of great quality.

Deserts were great... a farandole of caramel presented in different forms : ice cream, madeleine, flan...

(And dear reader, you must know that i do not have a sweet tooth. So for future reference, if i do indulge in desert commenting it's because it was either really good or a pile of shite.)

... and for those about to rock...

EAT SHIT

So for the third year running El Bulli has won the obsequious prize of the 'Best restaurant in the World'. The Fat Duck & Gagnaire being yet again runners up.

It's amazing how gastronomy has  managed to force itself into the world of bling bling and gliteratti... 

Restaurants being more and more the place to be seen at. It's the 'pseudo intellectual bubble'.  A few decades ago, it was art collecting, as Picasso's and Pllock's were harder to come by, and therfore more expensive, and therefore a sublte way to vomit your ostentatious personality. Now it's the BIG restaurants. El Bulli being the most exclusive, as he closes for 6 months, and has to refuse dozens of thousands (yes thousands) of demands...

I mean it's easy, how the fuck can you compare restaurants ?

What makes the food you taste at El Bulli better than your secret little eatery that you discovered on a street corner ? What is the the criteria of making one restaurant edge another to take the master spot ? How can something as personnal as eating/tasting be but into competition ? One can compare, yes, feelings, impressions, but not evaluate them. 

After all nobody has ever dared say that Guernica is better than the Mona Lisa, that is better than the sunflowers...

How is it possible to compare a deconstructed raviloi to a delicate green curry or to a simply grilled fish, or even a boiled farm egg, and to say that one dish will have 10 points because it involves several different way of cooking using steam, pressure, heat, cold, and another dish gets just one point because just about everybody, just about everywhere can stick an egg in  boiling water for a few minutes ?

Yes I've been to El Bulli. Yes, i was baffled, and yes i thought it was the most amazing experience my palet would ever live. Yes, we talked about it. Yes people talk to you as though you have been to Mars. Yes, the picture above was taken there, and it represents a light parmesan raviloli that when it comes in contact with the warm basil froth/bouillon, expands like a baloon. And yes, it tastes good. And yes, simple spag al dente, with a dash of pure olive oil, a squeeze of garlic, a load of shredded basil, some ground pepper, tastes just as good.

Have a laugh 

my new best friend

my new favorite poison si Saké.

the more i drink it the more i love it.

i prefer it warm than cold or even chilled which is how i tasted it last night.

when it's warm, it's so smoothe

you can feel it stroke your throat so gently

it's subtle tastes and different flavours come to life as it glides across your palet.

i have to drink more to get more acquainted with what it has to offer.

the rituals are worth getting into...

when i'lll know more, i'll the you,

but for now the philistine that i am will humbly take pleasure

in drinking and tasting as much of this nectar as it is possible

at ZEN, last night, they had this oversized expresso machine that automatically warms the saké

brilliant

i want one too

simple is best

Quite honestly, 

is there anything simpler and better than an egg?

from a simple boiled egg to a vanilla flan, or fresh pasta, 

eggs can be used so diversly.

ma favourite is probrably a soft boiled egg

with a generous quantity of coarsely ground BLACK pepper 

accompanied by salted buttered mouillettes.

another favourite is creamy and buttery scrambled eggs

into which you have added a few dops of light soya sauce.

having said that, scambled eggs with jelapeno peppers

have suddenly popped into mind, 

and memories of breakfast in Oaxaca under a blazing sun 

after a night out with Mascaline dance in my head...

a soft boiled egg would certainly feature in my top ten meals.

'nuff said 

right ?