Wednesday 30 April 2008

The Capital

The second meal over my birthday weekend was at the Capital, a hotel restaurant in Knightsbridge that has 2 Michelin stars. That's not unusual - Gordon Ramsay at Claridges and the Savoy Grill had stars at some point - but the Capital is a boutique hotel. It's only got 49 rooms, but given the location, they are probably all luxuriously appointed. They have to be, to match the standard of the food. The chef at the Capital is Eric Chavot, and he's been there since 1999.

The Capital Hotel
22 Basil Street
London SW3 1AT
020 7589 5171

This was the first time I had ever been to the Capital, and only my second time to a 2 star Michelin restaurant (the first was Gidleigh Park). The decor is bright, fresh, functional and comfortable. The staff were very helpful, and the sommelier was kind enough to introduce our sole glass of wine (the Pretty Lady had decided that she had had enough for the weekend) with the same enthusiasm as if we had ordered a full bottle. It was Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir by the way, which I would buy bottles of if they were but a little cheaper...

It's now about 3 weeks after the event, so I don't remember in great detail what we ate, so I'll just summarise the food quickly and dwell on the impressions I've taken away. To start I had a dish of smoked haddock, flaked and topped with a poached egg, that was absolutely delicious. I don't usually go for fish starters, unless they are strongly flavoured, and my intuition was certainly right here. I then had breast of duck, which came presented a little strangely, sliced into three thick blocks, but was roasted perfectly - basted with honey, crispy skin, and just a little pink. It too was delicious. For dessert I had guarani (a type of chocolate) jelly and I think caramel ice cream. The combination worked very well, although the bittersweet rich guarani needed no accompaniment. I also had a cheese plate, an amuse bouche and petit fours, but I can't really remember what they were, nor what the Pretty Lady ate.

The Capital is such a relaxing place to visit. Mingling with lunchers like the Pretty Lady and myself were hotel guests, who more often than not were alone, and reading the newspaper. The Pretty Lady and I found it an extremely quiet lunch, just chatting and relaxing on the morning after a long night out. Since the place had only 12 tables, it's cosy and intimate, and at times we felt as if we were in our own sitting room. It might have been the mythical Starbucks of the TV ad not so long ago: a home away from home, except that the food was of superlative quality and (instead of coffee) the wine was so good I would have ordered a bottle and swigged it all by myself if I wasn't still slightly hung over.

I have to go back. And soon.

Scores:

30 April 2008: TFQ = 28, CS = 27, S = 17, AD = 9, VfM = 9. Total = 90 points.

What does this mean?

Sunday 27 April 2008

Antinoo Casale del Giglio 2005

The Yogababe chose this wine at Latium at my birthday dinner. It must have gone down well - we polished off 3 bottles. It's very easy drinking, and goes well with Italian food, especially the light, slightly rustic style that Latium serves. It's the type of food that creeps up on you - it feels as though it's a light meal, until the sheer quantity overwhelms. The food needs a wine that washes it down. It went particularly well with my crab tagliolini starter, as that was quite smoky, imposing itself on my palate.

Antinoo Casale del Giglio 2005
White wine
Italy (Lazio)
Chardonnay (66%), Viognier (34%)

Nose: Lychees, cream, oak, tart lemons, pear.
Mouthfeel: Smooth and gluggable. Drink in gulps.
Tasting: Sweet, floral (violets?), lychees, strawberry, clotted cream.

Casale del Giglio is the vineyard. It's owned by the Santarelli family, winemakers since 1914. The Casale del Giglio property is drained marshland in the Agro Pontine, south of Rome. The Santarelli family started growing wine grapes there in the mid-80s. They make about 10 types of wine here, as well as 2 varieties of grappa.

The Antinoo 2000 is supposed to be award winning (whatever that means - there are probably too many awards - but at least they point the way to the vineyard's better produce). In addition, I think I'm going to try to hunt down the Madreselva - a red wine, blended from Petit Verdot, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Sounds really full bodied, fruity and just a little gamey, a combination I really like.

Thursday 24 April 2008

Latium

I had a good birthday. The Pretty Lady, Yogababe and I started out at Albannach for cocktails (for them) and drams (for me). We then moved on to Latium (adjacent image from restaurantguides.co.uk) where I'd invited some friends for dinner.

I'd been there before with the Pretty Lady, for their Valentine's Day lunch, but wasn't planning to come back here so soon. However, they had a chef's table - which turned out to be too small for my party. However, the staff were extremely kind and were willing to take a large booking, something that many otherwise good restaurants aren't. Bonus points for that.

Latium
21 Berners Street
London W1T 3LP
020 7323 9123

I let Yogababe choose the wine, as I'd come a cropper here the last time I tried. She chose well, better than I did, a white that was fairly neutral food wise and seemed to go with most of my meal (as well as the bits I cadged off others too). As usual, I'll blog about that separately. Latium has a very good selection though, and I reckon it would be possible to drink my way through a selection of Italy's fine and decent wines should I visit often enough. The wine list focuses on Italian grape varieties, although the ubiquitous Pinots, Sauvignon Blancs and Chardonnays make their own appearance.

At Latium, you can choose a starter and / or a pasta, a main course, and a dessert. On both visits I eschewed the four course option, preferring instead to enjoy a dessert and a digestif (there are several ports and dessert wines on the menu). I think it's been the right decision both times.

This time, I had a tagliolini with crab meat and sauteed shredded aubergine to kick off. It was great. Sweet shredded crab meat in cream sauce, tender tagliolini, and the little strands of smoky, sweet aubergine to impart little bursts of flavour here and there. Little sprinkles of chilli and parsley gave it a kick. The Pretty Lady had pappardelle in a wild boar ragu, the twist being that there was no tomato in it - just sage, butter and broth. I found it gamey, almost wild in taste, and while I prefer the sweet tomato paste to offset the game, it was pretty tasty.

The most popular starter round the table seemed to be the fish ravioli. Latium makes ravioli something of a specialty - I had the oyster ravioli the last time, each piece of pasta enclosing a whole oyster, gently poached in fish broth. It wasn't in evidence on this visit, but there were 4 types of fish ravioli, each in a differently flavoured pasta parcel. I particularly recall the spinach ravioli, with firm white fish inside, paired with mild ricotta.

For the main course, I had seared fillet of beef with mashed potato and bok choy in barolo jus. Simple dish - I enjoyed the beef and the potato (which tasted like it had gruyere in it; just a guess, maybe it was a lot of butter and salt), but I felt that the bok choy was a little bitter, with a sour aftertaste that didn't suit the wine-flavoured sauce. The Pretty Lady had the seabass I think, but memory fails me (it would have been rude for me to have whipped out my Blackberry and started taking food notes in detail).

Dessert was a revelation! There were three types of sweet ravioli on the menu. I had the apple and raisin ravioli which came in a cream sauce flavoured with vanilla and sea salt, and sprinkled with cinnamon. It was delicious, the flavours offsetting each other nicely. Think apple pie in a salty crust. Although the chef had dropped a large grain of salt on the edge of the plate, which gave me a surprise with my large spoonful. But never mind.

Latium has great petit fours - biscotti, hazelnut cookies, cinnamon chocolate truffles, all served with very good coffee. It's a great end to the meal, a chance to catch up and chat. And that's exactly what we did. I also had my digestif of course (the Vin Santo), but we had so much fun we moved on to the East Room courtesy of Yogababe.

I'm definitely going back to Latium. Their ravioli selection changes very often, and the chef is a past master. With such variety on the menu, it's a rewarding place to visit - several times over.

Scores:

24 April 2008: TFQ = 27, CS = 26, S = 16, AD = 7, VfM = 7. Total = 83 points.

What does this mean?

Wednesday 23 April 2008

Hawkstone Chardonnay 2006

FM brought this bottle over for lunch. We had roast chicken (marinated in yoghurt and harissa paste) and saffron rice. The wine was remarkably spicy for a white, and had an sweet, overtly alcoholic flavour that I couldn't describe - until I saw my bottle of mead. Very tasty indeed.

Hawkstone Chardonnay 2006 Special Release
White wine
USA (Central Valley, California)
Chardonnay

Nose: Mead, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, heather honey.
Mouthfeel: Smooth, quite thick for a white. The kind of wine you roll around your mouth.
Tasting: Sweet. Kiwi fruit, honeydew melon, vanilla, more mead. Very unusual for a white, almost has red wine flavours.

Not much available on the web about this maker. It's got a one page website, which seems to be a little out of date - the last award winning wine is a 2003, and received the award in 2006. Most of the wines seem to be from the Napa Valley, unlike this one. The Central Valley is a separate region altogether.

Tuesday 15 April 2008

La Porte des Indes

It's not widely remembered that once upon a time, the French had a colonial interest in India too. They established a colony at Pondicherry (now Puducherry), a city in the south of India, on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. With the French colonial administration came French schools, French people, and of course, French food. French culinary influences are evident in Pondicherrian food, creating a sort of rich, spicy Indian cuisine that feels and tastes very decadent. And there's a place in London where it's available.

La Porte des Indes
32 Bryanston Street
London W1H 7EG
020 7224 0055

The Pretty Lady and I pitched up with CY, CL and CL's husband YY. YY had been here before, and had the discount voucher to prove it. The restaurant's entrance is quite unassuming, looking like a normal curry house. Once inside however, the kitschy decor creates a feel and ambience unlike any curry house I've ever been to. Think French colonial opulence with shabby Indian chic and you'll get the picture. The restaurant is also much larger inside than it appears on the outside, with a downstairs bar and space for about 50 tables.

I was quite interested in the list of whiskies - there were three Auchentoshans, a Glen Grant, and some Taliskers among the usual Macallans, Glenmorangies and blends. However, I decided to get a cocktail instead, specifically, a chilli and mango mojito. I don't normally drink mojitos, but this was great - spicy, sweet and refreshing, with both chilli and mango flavours distinct and complementary. Great aperitif.

CL ordered a selection of starters to begin with. As usual I didn't take notes - it's rude unless I'm among other food bloggers - so this list is incomplete. But I do remember demoiselles a Pondicherry (grilled scallops with saffron sauce), beignets d'aubergine (fried aubergine patties filled with paneer), crab Malabar (shredded crab meat with corn, mustard and curry leaves, in the shell), rasoul (lamb and pea pastries) and salad du metis (lettuce, chicken, banana flower and mushrooms dressed with tamarind). The scallops were delicious - I feel that I've always underappreciated saffron, and the sauce here was heavily infused with its flavour. The scallops were a tad underdone but I don't mind that. I also liked the rasoul, with its soft buttery flaky pastry. It was a great riff on a samosa.

We also shared our mains. They came on 2 large round plates, and we were thankful we had chosen a larger table that seated 7. There was magret de canard Pulivaar (duck breast served slightly rare with tamarind sauce and fresh pepper berries), roast black cod (marinated with fennel seed, chilli and tamarind and wrapped in a banana leaf), Xacuti de Galinha (I'm pretty certain this is Goan - chicken curry made with roasted coconut), lamb meatballs and sauteed okra. All this was accompanied by pilau rice, naan and le pain Creole (otherwise known to me as appam, rice pancakes).

The curries were less spicy than I thought they would be, and were sweeter and richer than usual, reflecting the French influence. I particularly liked the duck, with the fresh pepper berries to provide a kick of spice to complement the sour tamarind sauce. The cod was also very good, very different from the usual way of cooking black cod (miso marinated, popularised by Nobu).

We were nearly replete by this time, but I was greedy, so we had dessert. I had an Alphonse mango rice pudding, which was perfect in texture, but overwhelmed by the Mango. The Pretty Lady had lychee sorbet, and CL and YY shared a tandoori mango (yes, it's exactly as it sounds). La Porte des Indes also does desserts matched to wine, the highlight of which (for me) would be the red rice creme brulee. I'm having this on my next visit.

I enjoyed the meal. It was a different take on Indian food, providing variety and amusement among the many Indian restaurants that just do regular North Indian stuff. I'll be going back - at least several times.

Scores:

15 April 2008: TFQ = 25, CS = 24, S = 14, AD = 8, VfM = 6. Total = 77 points.

What does this mean?

Saturday 12 April 2008

The Monty Hall problem, behavioural economics and the painful truth

Occasionally, the obvious eludes everyone until some bright spark looks at it with fresh eyes, concludes everyone else was wrong all along, and tells it to the world. Everyone then slinks away looking a bit sheepish. This seems to have happened when Keith Chen, a behavioural economist, pointed out that classic demonstrations of cognitive dissonance were an experimental artefact, generated by researchers' misunderstanding of the Monty Hall problem. More here.

The Monty Hall problem is named after a gameshow hosted by someone called Monty Hall. It runs like this:
  • There are three doors, one of which hides a car, the other two hide goats.
  • Monty Hall lets you choose a door. If you choose the one which hides the car, you win the car.
  • Before revealing your choice, Monty Hall opens one of the other two doors, revealing a goat.
  • Do you stick with your original choice of door, or do you switch?
  • The answer is that you switch to maximise your chances of winning the car.
  • The Wikipedia link has the Bayesian analysis, which is quite clear, but in words, you only win the car 1/3 times but select the goat 2/3 times, therefore you should switch, because odds are that you selected the goat the first time.
I then began to wonder if I'd unknowingly been caught by the Monty Hall problem. Have I faced situations where I've not actually recognised it? A painful thought then struck me - I have a habit of "sticking" when investing. That is, I don't change my investments even if other investments in the universe have underperformed by more than my choice, showing that I made the right decision in not picking them.

This is not cognitive dissonance - I am aware that I have that bias and I try to correct for it. It's a conscious recognition that changing my decision has costs - trading costs, opportunity cost, and stress - so I try to minimise portfolio churn. However, Monty Hall logic suggests that expected payoffs on switching are twice as large as expected payoffs from not switching. So have I been fooled by the Monty Hall problem after all?

Here's an example. There are 3 mining stocks which I could buy - BHP Biliton, Anglo American and Xstrata. I choose BHP. Anglo American underperforms, but BHP and Xstrata stay in line with the index. I stick with BHP, as is my wont. The thing is, if Anglo American was a goat, and my research is no better than the average analyst (as is quite likely most of the time), I should switch if I want to go for the car.

If the car was definitely going to be there, I should of course switch. But is it? Probably not. Maybe I should invest in tobacco instead, or defence, if mining stocks are all going to be duds (or goats, according to the analogy). However, working through the combinations gives much the same solution, only this time the probability of picking the outperforming stock if there is a possibility all three stocks are duds is 1/3 when switching, 1/6 when not. Same goes when I increase the number of stocks - it's always better to switch.

Ouch. This is embarrassing - I have been caught out by the Monty Hall problem after all. At least I've realised it though. Another weapon for the investing arsenal.

Tuesday 8 April 2008

Gerhard Pittnauer Fuchsenfeld Pinot Noir 2005 (sommelier's recommendation)

I've rarely been disappointed with sommeliers' recommendations at restaurants. Occasionally, I do dispense with asking the sommelier about the wine, as I feel that sommeliers are under pressure to sell wine, and depending on the restaurant, I would end up paying more than I would want. When I do consult the sommelier, it's because I feel that the food is pretty good and it would be a waste of money to pair the food with less good a wine than it deserves.

With that in mind, I asked the sommelier at Gidleigh Park to recommend a red wine to go with our meal. He was Eastern European, Czech, I believe, and he asked if we would like to try a Pinot Noir. I agreed, and he narrowed down the choice to a New Zealand Pinot and an Austrian Pinot. Intrigued by the idea of Austrian red wine, I chose it. The adjacent image (from weinwerk-burgenland.at) shows a wine from the same winery, but not the wine itself. The bottle looked a lot like this one though, and the label is exactly the same save for the name of the wine.

Gerhard Pittnauer Fuchsenfeld Pinot Noir 2005
Red wine
Austria (Neusiedlersee, Burgenland)
Pinot Noir

Nose: Clotted cream, grape spirit, strawberry, oak.
Mouthfeel: Syrupy and smooth
Tasting: Tannic, faint kiwi, oak, sweet cedar wood, astringent. After heavy aerating, the kiwi becomes strawberry and cherries, and the oak becomes much more prominent. Needs to be decanted about half an hour before drinking.

No, the sommelier did not decant it. Which was a shame, because on first impression the wine was a bit too oaky, and tasted almost corky. Corked wine usually doesn't taste of cork (it smells like my socks after a long workout), so I thought twice about sending it back. Thankfully it woke up.

Gerhard and Brigitte Pittnauer (adjacent image shows Gerhard, from wineanorak.com) run a winery in the Austrian region of Burgenland, on the Hungarian border, on the shores of the Neusiedlersee. Reds (made from St Laurent, Blaufrankisch and Pinot Noir), aren't their only product, as they make Austrian whites with the local Gruner Veltliner varietal, as well as Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. They have 16 hectares under cultivation, with an annual production of 60,000 bottles.

The Pittnauers are members of a society called Pannobile, based in Neusiedlersee. Members each make a wine called Pannobile, using a lot of St Laurent and Blaufrankisch, with the exact recipe varying from member to member. Now that would be an interesting tasting...

Anyway, this wine was a reminder that not all sommeliers are created equal. This wine should really have been decanted prior to drinking - something that is difficult to sell in a restaurant, but in a place with 2 Michelin stars, I would happily have waited.

Monday 7 April 2008

Gidleigh Park

Yumchia, the Pretty Lady and I did something crazy for Easter. We drove 250 miles from London to Devon for lunch, and then drove back again. The reason was Gidleigh Park, the hotel in the middle of Dartmoor, with a 2 Michelin star restaurant attached. The executive chef is Michael Caines, who grew up in nearby Exeter. He's a remarkable person who lost his right arm in a car accident, yet went on to gain his stars at Gidleigh Park as head chef. He's now branched out, as the Gidleigh Park group has expanded, planning and cooking for other hotels in the chain, now called ABode.

Gidleigh Park is located in Dartmoor, near the North Teign river, and between the villages of Gidleigh and Chagford. It's a small country house hotel, with 24 rooms (costing a fair amount of dosh, but after we saw the surroundings, and after discovering that the rack rate includes dinner, I decided it was worthwhile). It also has a 2 star Michelin restaurant, which allows diners to eat in the dining room and relax in the drawing room after that, for coffee and petit fours. The dining experience was great fun, and is extremely relaxing.

Gidleigh Park Hotel
Chagford
Devon TQ13 8HH
01647 432 367

We pitched up at about half past twelve, nearly half an hour early. No problem at all - we were shown into the drawing room, where we relaxed after the long drive with some drinks and some hor d'oeuvres. We were served a little spoon of stewed venison (I think with soy), as well as fried "chips" of cod with home made tartare sauce. Very attractive, and certainly a good start to the meal, as the cod was perfectly moist and the tartare sauce delicious, a funny food pun on fish and chips.

After a little while, we moved to the dining room, where we chose our food. The sommelier recommended an Austrian pinot noir, something which piqued my curiosity enough to order it. I'll blog about that separately as usual. The wait for the food wasn't over-long, but our amuse bouche had whetted our appetites. It was white haricot bean soup, creamy, and bursting with truffle (slivers! not oil) and what tasted like celery salt. The Pretty Lady thought it tasted like durian, and Yumchia agreed. We were pretty hungry, so we attacked the bread basket with gusto. The highlight was a sun-dried tomato bread, which had large chunks of sweet and succulent tomatoes, and wasn't overly oily either. Nevertheless eating so much bread proved to be a mistake.

I had ordered a ballotine of foie gras with poached rhubarb. It was delicious - in addition to the poached, compote-like rhubarb, there were little chunks of rhubarb and lemongrass jelly and girolle mushrooms dotted around the plate. They offset wonderfully against the sweet foie gras, both in terms of texture and flavour. The Pretty Lady had langoustine cannelloni with braised fennel, sauce vierge and shellfish sauce. She made me a Perfect Bite which seemed to produce a flavour explosion in my mouth - sweet, lobstery, slight zing from the fennel. Yumchia had quail egg, onion confit and smoked bacon tartlet with roast quail and truffle. Hers was the best of all - sweet and savoury, with the fragrance of the truffle infusing the meat and the egg. Reminded me of a Talisker 18 yo, perhaps without the orange.

For mains I had a slow-cooked sliced venison dish. The venison came arranged on a slice of braised pork belly, with figs and chestnut puree. It was surprising - there was braised red sauerkraut tucked away between the pork belly and the venison. The flavours went very well together, the gamey grilled meat blending perfectly with the sour cabbage and the sweet smoky pork belly. The Pretty Lady had roast duckling with savoy cabbage, turnips and roast garlic. Very sweet due to the honey sauce, and I think it didn't meet the Perfect Bite test, as the sweet sauce fought with the garlic flavours, and the duckling lost. The Pretty Lady and Yumchia disagreed though. Yumchia had roast lamb with fondant potato, and what I believe was a herb puree, although it didn't seem to taste like thyme as stated on the restaurant's website. It was more rosemary, and I think it went better with the lamb than the thyme would have. My main course was my favourite of the three.

We then moved on to the cheese course. By this time the ladies were groaning, but they love cheese, and we hadn't reached dessert yet, so we soldiered on. The waiter, who gave us wonderful service all afternoon, wheeled out the cheese trolley, with was laden with about thirty different types of cheese. I lost count of the number of cheeses we tried, but I think we agreed that the best was an orange Mimolette, which was nutty and hard, and provided a real flavour and texture change from what we had been eating all afternoon.

For dessert, I had a creme brulee with pear sorbet and stewed pear. It was beautiful - the creme brulee came in two discs, one on top of the other, with a nougatine disc on top and in between. There was a perfect fragile spiral of sugar that looked like a spring, nestled on top of the scoop of sorbet. The flavours went really well together, but what impressed me most was the skill it took to assemble the dish. The Pretty Lady had a pistachio souffle with pistachio coulis. It was wonderful - nutty, full of pistachio flavour, and slightly overdone and caramelised, which is exactly how I like my souffle. However, it's generally considered to be a flaw. Yumchia had the apple tart with vanilla ice cream and cider coulis. It wasn't particularly impressive to look at, but the cider coulis gave the caramelised apple a more rounded, fuller flavour. I thought that it was as good as the tarte tatin at the Savoy Grill, although the Pretty Lady disagreed.

After that mammoth meal, we retired to the drawing room for coffee and petit fours. Those were quite tasty too - a passionfruit Jaffa cake, mango foam with chocolate parfait, and a mini cinnamon puff. They tasted like they sound, not particularly impressive, but it was a small weakness to a magnificent experience.

After a while, we climbed back into the car for the long drive back to London, fully replete. It was entirely worth it. If this post sounds a little too much like a paean to gluttony, it's because it is - the food was that good, and we paid a very reasonable price for it.

Scores:

7 April 2008: TFQ = 28, CS = 28, S = 18, AD = 9, VfM = 8. Total = 91 points.

What does this mean?

Saturday 5 April 2008

10 rays I want to see while scuba diving

Rays are the other big attraction for me when scuba diving. They have been easier to see than sharks - I've already seen a few species. The big ones though, still elude me (and some interesting little ones as well). Rays are less endangered than sharks, although some are still hunted for food. I'm relatively alright with that, as most people eat all of the ray (although not all, as will be shown below). Overfishing is still decimating our oceans though, and if we can't farm rays properly, arguably we shouldn't be fishing for them.

1. Spotted eagle ray

The family of eagle rays is called Myliobatididae. There are between 6 and 8 genera in this family, depending whether or not one counts mantas and cownose rays as members. Spotted eagle rays are up to 2m long, not including the tail, and with a wingspan of up to 2.5m. They can be found all through the Atlantic and in the Indian Ocean. This species is fished heavily, and is endangered. As with most rays, spotted eagle rays dig crustaceans, molluscs and cephalopods out of the ocean floor for food. These rays do not lay eggs, instead giving birth to live young. Image from Sea Saba, a dive operator operating out of Saba in the Dutch Caribbean.

2. Manta ray

Manta birostris, from the family Mobulidae, are the second-best thing I'd ever hope to see on a dive (the first is the whale shark). Their most distinctive feature is the two "horns" around their mouth, which probably serve to direct plankton when feeding. Mantas can grow up to 9m in wingspan, and can weigh several tons. They are found in all oceans, being a true circumoceanic creature. The adjacent image is from National Geographic, and depicts a baby manta born in Japan last year.

3. Cownose ray

Cownose rays, from the family Rhinopteridae, are so named for the distinctive snout that they possess. They use their pectoral fins to dig up molluscs and crustaceans for food, crushing them in heavy dental plates. They are found all over the world, with different species inhabiting different oceans. The Atlantic cownose ray, shown in the image (from the Washington Post, in a story about how cownose rays have decimated an oyster farm) gives birth to live young in mangrove swamps rather than in salt water. They can be up to 1m in wingspan.

4. Shovelnose guitarfish

The shovelnose guitarfish is from the family Rhinobatidae, which contains about 10 genera. They are rays, although they swim as a shark would, and have a similar body plan. This particular species can be found around Australia, and there is one documented case of an attack on a diver. Luckily, guitarfishes have small, blunt teeth, which they use to eat small crustaceans. The shovelnose guitarfish gives birth to live young. Adjacent image from Elasmodiver.

5. Southern stingray

The southern stingray is one of about 70 species in seven genera in the family Dasyatidae. It is found in the Western Atlantic, and can be up to 2m in wingspan. They also give birth to live young. There's a dive site in Grand Cayman called Stingray City where southern stingrays gather. Fishermen used to moor there to sort their catch, and the stingrays were initially attracted by the food. Since then divers have discovered the stingrays, and now dive with and feed them. Adjacent image from Elasmodiver.

6. Brazilian numbfish

The Brazilian numbfish belongs to the family Narcinidae, of which there are about 9 genera. These rays are disc-shaped and have a large caudal fin. They are bottom dwelling, digging for prey with their pectoral fins, and are able to stun their prey by delivering an electric shock using organs in their head. The Brazilian numbfish is found in the Western Atlantic and can grow up to about 30cm in length. Adjacent image from Wikipedia.

7. Masked stingaree

The masked stingaree is a member of the family Urolophidae, which contains 3 genera. Some species are found in brackish water. They have many papillae below their mouth, a feature which is used to distinguish them by species. The masked stingaree is found in Australia, and can grow up to about 50cm in length. The adjacent image is from the very helpful Elasmodiver.


8. California butterfly ray

The California butterfly ray is one of the species hunted for food. It is from the family Gymnuridae, which contains about 14 species in 2 genera. It is found in the Pacific along the coastal regions of North, Central and South America, feeding off bivalves, molluscs and crustaceans. It can grow up to 1.7m in wingspan, and the large pectoral fins make it idea for fishing. The adjacent image shows a discarded California butterfly ray after fishermen have taken the saleable bits - fillets, from mexfish.org.

9. Thornback skate

Skates are defined as members of the family Rajidae. They are small rays, often a metre or less in wingspan. They feed on benthic animals, that is the molluscs and crustaceans that dwell on the ocean floor, like so many other members of the ray family. Thornback skates are found in the Atlantic and in the Mediterranean, including around Britain. They have the pointed thorns on the back and tail that give them their name. Adjacent image from Marlin, the Marine Life Information Network for Britain and Ireland.

10. Ornate sleeper ray

Ornate sleeper rays are of the family Narkidae, which has 4 genera and about 10 species. The scientific name for this ray is Electrolux addisoni - and yes, it's named after the company, because of its vigorous sucking action when feeding. It's endemic to South Africa. They are usually found in deep waters, so I'm unlikely to see one. This particular species probably represents my best chance. And it's best to be wary of it, because like the Narcinidae numbfish, it can generate a powerful enough electric shock to deter sharks. Adjacent image from the East Coast Fish Watch Project, with a description of how this species was collected and described.


I've seen an eagle ray, once, on a night dive in the Red Sea. I've also seen many blue-spotted stingrays, about 70cm in wingspan, of the family Dasyatidae, on dives in the Red Sea and in Sipadan. With some luck I'll see the rest, starting with Manta birostris.

And finally, this particular creature doesn't seem to fit with either sharks or rays, so I'd thought I'd squeeze it in at the end of this post. As you can see, it's very unusual.

11. Large toothed sawfish

Sawfishes are related to sharks and rays, but are neither. They belong to the family Pristidae, and are still thought of as elasmobranchs. Their most interesting feature is that saw-toothed snout, called a rostrum. Like the bill of the platypus, the rostrum is electro-sensitive, and enables the sawfish to detect the movements of its prey buried beneath the sand. The saw-teeth aid in digging the prey up. The large-toothed sawfish can be up to 6.5m long, and is found in the Pacific, from southern Africa to Indonesia and Vietnam. It can live in fresh and brackish water, and has been fished to endangered status. Adjacent image from BBC News.

Thursday 3 April 2008

Canteen

Most of the time, I'm not really interested in haute cuisine or fancy tricks by a chef. I do want big helpings, good quality ingredients, well defined flavours and quick attentive service. So Canteen is one of my favourite places, because it emphasises simple food, good produce, and no-fuss dining. It was even voted Observer Food Monthly's Best Restaurant of 2007. The food is British, with a simple wine list, with a number of old favourites that are hard to get anywhere else.

There are 2 Canteens, one at Spitalfields Market and the other at the Royal Festival Hall in South Bank. Both are equally good, although the original was the Spitalfields branch.

Canteen
2 Crispin Place
Spitalfields
London E1 6DW

or

Canteen
Royal Festival Hall
Belvedere Road
London SE1 8XX

Canteen does all day breakfast items and three course meals for lunch and dinner. There's a choice of pie (vegetarian and meat), which comes with greens, mashed potato and gravy, that changes daily. I've had steak and kidney; broccoli, leeks and blue cheese; chicken and mushroom; and duck and chestnut, among others. There's also a daily roast - roast pork with applesauce, roast beef with yorkshire pudding, roast lamb etc etc. I've always found the roast to be the best value for money - the helpings are huge, and for an average price of 12 pounds it can't be beaten. The last choice is the daily fish dish, which ranges from skate to haddock to cod. The regular menu items also change every few months, depending on what's in season I suppose.

My favourite starter, and one I've had on 90% of my visits to Canteen, is the devilled lamb kidneys on toast. On my last visit I even had a double helping as a mains. The dish is basically 5 or 6 lamb kidneys devilled with cayenne pepper, butter and roasting juices heaped on an inch-thick piece of nut bread, swimming in gravy. Very tasty, with the spice level ratcheted up at just below the pain threshold. The kidneys are always fresh and flavourful, which suits an offal lover like me. I usually have this with a bottle of O'Hanlon's Ruby Port Stout, whatever else I'm drinking.

There's also the potted duck and piccalilli with toast - one gets just as much piccalilli as duck, which is helpful when assembling the perfect open top sandwich. Other good starters are hot buttered Arbroath smoky, which also comes with bread, and Cashel blue, chicory, pear and hazelnut salad. All are as simple as they sound, and as tasty.

If the roast, fish and the pies aren't to one's taste, I recommend the following choices on the mains - slow roasted pork belly with apples (no mash - that comes with the roast choice), macaroni and cheese, battered cod with chips and rump steak with mushrooms (also comes with roast tomatoes). Don't have the gammon with potatoes and parsley sauce - the gammon seems to have been boiled rather than fried or grilled, and the parsley sauce is overpowering. But it's a rare miss in what is otherwise a great selection.

Desserts are a treat too. The Pretty Lady and I were very disappointed when they took the treacle tart and cream off the menu for several months. It's highly recommended, because it's clotted cream and the tart is perfectly moist and fresh, so don't delay - order it if it's on the menu! Other recommended choices include Eton mess; jelly, shortbread and ice-cream; and fruit crumbles with custard (try the apple!).

Scores:

3 April 2008: TFQ = 26, CS = 25, S = 14, AD = 6, VfM = 7. Total = 78 points.

What does this mean?

Wednesday 2 April 2008

Dragon Pearl (surely dragons don't smell this good?)

The Pretty Lady bought me several teas recently, from a shop that she can't remember the name of. This was one of them. I think I'll get her to bring me back there at some point, because the teas she got me were really very good. I enjoyed drinking them very much, this one perhaps the most.

Dragon pearl tea comes in individual round balls, about 5 to 7 mm in diameter. They are semi-oxidised, and have a strong jasmine fragrance. They smell absolutely delicious right out of the packet, and can actually make my mouth water.

Dragon Pearl
Oolong tea
China (Fujian province)
Pale golden yellow

Preparation:
6 or 7 pearls, with boiling water. First steeping is best, but still has flavour in up to 4 steepings.
Nose: Strong fragrant jasmine, pineapple jam.
Tasting: Sweet, floral, elusive fruit - sometimes pineapples, sometimes gooseberries. Slightly bitter at the dregs, but only after long steeping
When to drink: When hungry and with food - the strong flavours ease hunger and aren't overwhelmed by food.

Dragon pearls (龙珠) are green tea leaves dried together with jasmine blossom, then hand-rolled into pearls. Each pearl contains two leaves, sometimes with a bud, and some jasmine blossom, accounting for the strong jasmine scent. Upon steeping, each pearl expands and loses its shape as the leaves straighten out.

The tea comes from Fujian province in China. The drying process takes a long time, with unopened jasmine blossoms mixed with the tea as it dries. The blossoms open at night, and infuse the tea with jasmine fragrance. In the morning, the blossoms are changed for new unopened ones. With the best grades, the process can take up to 12 nights. Since the tea is dried for a fairly long time, it's not a green tea. Instead, it's really an oolong tea, albeit with a fairly light degree of oxidation.

I prefer a lower number of pearls than recommended - 6-7 instead of 8-10. This is because I don't use a teapot - the tea sits at the bottom of my large glass, allowing me to gulp rather than just sip. And I can refill quickly. It's an idiosyncratic way to drink, and the purists will hate it, but that's fine by me.

Tuesday 1 April 2008

Cafe Japan

Cafe Japan is a Golders Green institution. It's universally thought of as one of the best Japanese restaurants in London, and was the best in the late 1990s when the Japanese restaurant scene wasn't as varied as it is now. It serves a limited menu, with only certain warm dishes, and with the selection of sushi determined by the availability of produce, but what it serves, it does very well.

And they know it too. Cafe Japan has very short opening hours. They close on Monday and Tuesday, open only for dinner from 6.30pm to 9.45pm on Wednesday to Friday, and open for lunch (12.00pm to 2.00pm) as well as dinner on Saturday and Sunday. Covers are at a premium, and without a booking, the best time to go is lunch on weekends at 12.00 sharp.

Cafe Japan
626 Finchley Road
London NW11 7RR
020 8455 6854

The decor is spartan - as one enters, one is greeted by a chorus of "iraisemase" from behind the wooden sushi bar (image from trustedplaces.com). There is a table for 3 by the window, with seating for another 22 people in the back of the restaurant. Total seating capacity = 33 people including the seating at the sushi bar.

Lunch is cheaper than dinner, although with fewer things available. For lunch, there's a choice of various sushi rolls (makizushi) or the usual pressed sushi (nigirizushi). I like the inside-out rolls. There's a choice of fried salmon, fried tuna or yellow-tail (sometimes I have all three). Also recommended are the eel and cucumber rolls and the salmon roe with oba leaf roll. There's also some chirashizushi (sashimi over a bowl of rice) for those with a serious rice and fish craving.

I also usually order a uni nigiri. There aren't many Japanese restaurants who have reliable supplies of sufficient fresh sea urchin roe to be able to offer this nigiri on a regular basis, but Cafe Japan seems to be one of them. The uni has always been fresh and delicious, reminding me of the sea and scuba diving. There are other nigirizushi available of course - tamago (egg) has about 20 layers, far more than the usual Japanese restaurant in London, as well as the usual salmon, tuna and mackerel.

I also order a set meal occasionally. Choices range from roast unagi, salmon teriyaki and chicken karaage. The set comes with salad, rice, and an appetiser, which is either stewed salmon neck or fried age tofu.

Sashimi selections are available both at lunch and dinner. The types of sashimi vary with the availability of produce, but there's usually o-toro or chu-toro (prized cuts of tuna) and salmon. For dinner, there are also usually more elaborate dishes. There's grilled black cod with miso, a snip at 12 pounds. It's a fraction of the price that one pays at Nobu, and more tasty in my opinion. There's occasionally something special, like grilled spider crab. Grab these whenever possible - they aren't often repeated.

Cafe Japan accepts cards for dinner, but lunch is cash only! Normally I would complain about this, but the place is my local Japanese diner, and they are always so friendly that they've long since made up for the inconvenience. The staff are lovely, the service is great (even if they are sometimes a little rushed), and the food is delicious.

Scores:

1 April 2008: TFQ = 25, CS = 25, S = 15, AD = 6, VfM = 8. Total = 79 points.

What does this mean?