Food

its good dooks... cheap as chips

sweet cos i'm broke.

and ravenous.

i ate a crayfish and crab ravioli starter there for £3.50

your recent lunchsploits were my inspiration balki old thing. i've lived practically next door to this place for years now and despite passing it several times a day haven't been in since the late 90s when i was student. for some reason i had it in my head that the food wasn't that great. i'm quite annoyed that i've been missing out for all these years.

pondered the lobster ravioli but went with the calamaris in the end. mrs dooks had poached pear, blue cheese and walnuts. both very good. my glass of cabernet sauvignon was lovely and not unreasonable too. can't comment on the pink wine as i don't like it. mains were a substantial and perfectly cooked duck breast for me and chicken for the lady, both totally delicious.

it was busy (looked fully booked) but the service and atmosphere were spot on as well i thought. with my back to the window i really felt like i was in paris for a moment there.

why aren't there more places like this in london? because we're obsessed with homgenous chain-restaurant mediocrity probably. can any one recommend some similar gems? i used to be a big fan of stringray in highbury barn and the little bay in st john's wood but i think le mercury beats both of them. i'm going to go back a lot to make up for the years of neglect.

le mecury is amazing for the money, only problem is that the menu is always the same so i got bored after going too much. deserves a visit soon i think

I have a cold.. I have no appetite.. I won't to die..

You probably want, though.

For something a little bit different, give this place a bash http://www.ffionas.com/. The eponymous Ffiona is formidable to say the least (I think she’s scouse), and she works like a Trojan. Her weblog on the site is well worth reading, and gives you a taste as to her character, and the restaurant; her sister works there too, so it’s a family affair.

Not exactly cheap, not a rip-off either, but the food is homely and tasty (not flash), and the atmosphere spot-on. It’s got a loyal, local following. If she likes you, you’ll get free drinks after your meal for the whole table, and she may well join you – we’ve been successful on both visits; I discovered Disaronno because of her generosity. It’s a gem.

You probably want, though.

Fuck.. I'm sick... I want to die...

For something a little bit different, give this place a bash http://www.ffionas.com/. The eponymous Ffiona is formidable to say the least (I think she’s scouse), and she works like a Trojan. Her weblog on the site is well worth reading, and gives you a taste as to her character, and the restaurant; her sister works there too, so it’s a family affair.

Not exactly cheap, not a rip-off either, but the food is homely and tasty (not flash), and the atmosphere spot-on. It’s got a loyal, local following. If she likes you, you’ll get free drinks after your meal for the whole table, and she may well join you – we’ve been successful on both visits; I discovered Disaronno because of her generosity. It’s a gem.

Tasty looking menu but not sold simply because I don't see how anyone, anywhere could charge 16 bob for a mackerel.

Surely it's one of the most plentiful fish in UK waters?

I had a shit load of cake at the weekend.

Went to that maison bertaux place off old compton street, quite nice macaroon and a good healthy serving of chocolate torte, then the cafe at the national theatre had some awesome lemon cake. Really moist and sweet but zingy. Then I went, for the first time, to Pauls and had a chocolate macaroon and a cup of tea.

I haven't had tea for about 5 years, just don't drink the stuff, but I'd had enough coffee that day and thought I'd try it. No milk, some sort of 'breakfast tea' apparently :S

Really nice, but the chocolate macaroon was exquisite. Beautiful not too stodgy/not too sweet chocolate fondant in the centre with nice crispy outside, chewy inside macaroon.

Bit pricey for tea and a biccy, but still.

I made french macaroons this afternoon, fourth attempt (others failed in all the classic ways that macaroons can). This is the first time they've worked, very happy I figured it out at last. Orange flavoured shell, with orange dark chocolate filling:

nom nom...

they look amazing!!!! what is your recipe? tried 2 different recipes, 2 different but equally rubbish results. tasted good though. i think i might become a little obsessed with getting them right......

It takes a long time to get any edible fruit of a fig tree. Make sure you restrict the roots or youll just end up with a monster the sixe of your house and not a single fruit to show for it.

i have a huge fig tree and this year has been it's best by far. have had it for years and in the last 5 it has produced millions of figs, but only ripened about 20 a year. this year i have had about 4 a day for the last month. just tailing off now.... i love them so much.... mmmmmmm

thanks for the tip theoryswine.

and i forgot to say "holy flip!" to kinijn's amazing looking precision-food.

very impressive.

Honestly. How?

Stunning.

konijn you make some awesome looking food!

They look lovely!

they look amazing!!!! what is your recipe? tried 2 different recipes, 2 different but equally rubbish results. tasted good though. i think i might become a little obsessed with getting them right......

Honestly. How? Stunning.

Thankyou. With french macaroons the exactl recipe itself doesn't seem to matter so much, its the method that makes the difference. That said I got nice results using a recipe I translated from my housemate's french cookbook (I can PM it you want?). I found that supermarket almond flour wasn't fine enough and made grainy/lumpy biscuit things rather than macaroons if I used it straight from the packet, so I started blitzing it in a food processor to get it down to like a powder consistency. Then the next nightmare is the mixing - once the egg whites have been whipped you have to sift in the dry ingredients in 3 or 4 small batches otherwise it clags straightaway, and you have to fold the mixture together using a certain stirring pattern otherwise the egg whites get knocked back and again you get grainy/lumpy biscuits that don't rise (there's videos on youtube that show the pattern). You have to be careful not to under-mix it either though. Then when you've got the mixture right you have to pipe it out in perfect circles, tap the air bubbles out of them, let the circles stand for 45 mins to air dry a bit (otherwise you don't get a bubbly base/feet when they bake), then when they finally go in the oven you have to alter the temperature up and down a few times to balance getting them to rise with getting the centres to set. Also I found that baking them on greaseproof paper over a baking tray worked best, the ones on the silicone sheet weren't as good for some reason.

a recipe I translated from my housemate's french cookbook (I can PM it you want?).

Would love it if it's typed already or perhaps a quick google would reveal the french version which I could then translate?

That said, reading the rest of your description sounds laborious as hell!

Tempted to just sack it off and buy them :)

I've no idea if its online, its from a french cook book devoted to 11 different recipes/types, I'll get it tonight anyway. Yeah it takes a good couple of hours to make them, and uses loads of bowls and sieves, the pile of things to wash up at the end is huge. I think I could only be bothered with again for special occassions/times of extreme boredness.

i came across a 1970s portugese cook book (in portugese) at the weekend. i found it perversely cheering that even portugese food featured depressingly overcooked grey-looking looking vegetables in the 1970s.

is that why you came over it?

Thankyou. With french macaroons the exactl recipe itself doesn't seem to matter so much, its the method that makes the difference. That said I got nice results using a recipe I translated from my housemate's french cookbook (I can PM it you want?). I found that supermarket almond flour wasn't fine enough and made grainy/lumpy biscuit things rather than macaroons if I used it straight from the packet, so I started blitzing it in a food processor to get it down to like a powder consistency. Then the next nightmare is the mixing - once the egg whites have been whipped you have to sift in the dry ingredients in 3 or 4 small batches otherwise it clags straightaway, and you have to fold the mixture together using a certain stirring pattern otherwise the egg whites get knocked back and again you get grainy/lumpy biscuits that don't rise (there's videos on youtube that show the pattern). You have to be careful not to under-mix it either though. Then when you've got the mixture right you have to pipe it out in perfect circles, tap the air bubbles out of them, let the circles stand for 45 mins to air dry a bit (otherwise you don't get a bubbly base/feet when they bake), then when they finally go in the oven you have to alter the temperature up and down a few times to balance getting them to rise with getting the centres to set. Also I found that baking them on greaseproof paper over a baking tray worked best, the ones on the silicone sheet weren't as good for some reason.

yes please with the recipe!!!! i have now got a slight obsession with getting them right.... the first lot i made were delicious but mixture was too thin - they didn't pipe properly or rise at all. second lot were grainy and the tops cracked.

Didn't get time to grab the recipe last night, but this is the book incase anyone can find it online (Sebastien Serveau's Macaron Faciles). It also has a photo guide to each step of the baking process which I found really useful, so well worth buying/borrowing a copy if you can find one.

is that why you came over it?

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/03/pie-verus-cake-scientific-approach.html

Im going to Roast tonight

:)