The Night Mail

[J. S. Bach]

Hmmm, the Hippo's protected cakes look very delicious! I hope that they survive his "protection"!

 

Edited July 6 by J. S. Bach
To correct a typo

[Northmoor]

32 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

When we stayed in France last year a diner was making quite a long request trying to alter a menu item. Eventually he stopped and the waiter said “No”. The diner said why not and was told “because we don’t do that”. 

I remember having completely the opposite experience in a village cafe not far South of Sorrento.  We sat and asked for the menu to be told there wasn't one, what would we like?  He offered - in much better English than my Italian - to make up some typical three-ingredient pasta dish; ISTR when it arrived about ten minutes later with bread of course, while it wasn't Michelin standard it was at least as good as anything else we ate on that holiday and cost buttons.

[Happy Hippo]

Whoops!

 

Well I did try.....

[polybear]

45 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

Hmmm, the Hippo's protected cakes look very delicious!

 

 

I very much suspect they may put iD's UPF Alarm into terminal meltdown though..... 

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

When we stayed in France last year a diner was making quite a long request trying to alter a menu item. Eventually he stopped and the waiter said “No”. The diner said why not and was told “because we don’t do that”. 

Well done that man!

 

I don’t see the point of going to a restaurant and then telling them they MUST change this and that (often on dishes that take considerable preparation and careful cooking). It’s akin to visiting the Isle of Man for the TT Races and insisting that the MUST enter some bicycles.
 

This messing about with the menu seems to be very much an anglo-saxon thing. In many countries in the world (such as Japan and much of Italy) you get the food as the cook/chef intended. Full Stop.

To be blunt: if you don’t like seafood, don’t go to a fish restaurant.

34 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

I remember having completely the opposite experience in a village cafe not far South of Sorrento.  We sat and asked for the menu to be told there wasn't one, what would we like?  He offered - in much better English than my Italian - to make up some typical three-ingredient pasta dish; ISTR when it arrived about ten minutes later with bread of course, while it wasn't Michelin standard it was at least as good as anything else we ate on that holiday and cost buttons.

That’s not atypical. Many small places won’t have a menu and will ask you what you’d like. Restaurant-savvy locals, used to this sort of thing, will ask them “what have you got”. The waiter may say “we have some nice sardines and the cook grows his own garlic (and may refer to a few other ingredients as well), we can do you spaghetti olio, aglio e peperoncino and then some grilled sardines and a green salad”.

 

The other thing you often see in small, popular, trattoria is a blackboard with a list of dishes chalked up on it. Every so often, one of the staff will walk over to the blackboard and erase an entry - which means they’ve sold out of that dish.

 

In both cases you’ll eat very well.

[PupCam]

On 05/07/2024 at 10:23, Happy Hippo said:

I have it on good authority, that with the forthcoming re-nationalisation of the British rail network, all locos and passenger stock will be painted red.

 

What!   That must be a mistake.  Surely you meant to say Apple Green?

 

18 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

The fries (or to be pedantic triple-cooked chips) will be served at a different meal

 

No, no, no.  That's not part of the deal I would have thought 🤔

 

9 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

1. Just because YOU don’t like it, doesn’t mean it’s crap.
2. Just because YOU think a combo works, doesn’t mean everyone else has to share that opinion.

 

Those are almost contradictory statements.     You can't have your cake (or pizza) and eat it too you know.

 

9 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

1. Just because I don’t like it, doesn’t mean it’s crap.
2. Just because I think a combo works, doesn’t mean everyone else has to share that opinion.

 

Amended rather than corrected ......

 

7 hours ago, Tony_S said:

We are off to Southampton next weekend.  A chunk of the M25 we would normally use will be closed for the whole weekend. There is a diversion but a suggestion that going round the  northern half might be quicker seems attractive.  

 

Good luck!     You must be referring to the humongous up-cock that is Junction 10.  On our regular but not frequent excursions around the north west segment to get on the A3 we've taken to bailing out early (Junction 11) and going cross country through Woking to Guildford.  That particular diversion also has the benefit of providing essential services which are strangely absent on that section of the Road to Hell.

 

6 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Use a cardboard former and lots of silver foil for an impromptu bread tin

 

Nah, just tell the Bear to splash out for once and buy a proper tin.   After all he'll be turning them out regularly soon* and he'll be needing the proper kit.

 

*   Puppers could make himself available for consumer testing / quality control purposes if required.

 

38 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

I remember having completely the opposite experience in a village cafe not far South of Sorrento.  We sat and asked for the menu to be told there wasn't one, what would we like?  He offered - in much better English than my Italian - to make up some typical three-ingredient pasta dish; ISTR when it arrived about ten minutes later with bread of course, while it wasn't Michelin standard it was at least as good as anything else we ate on that holiday and cost buttons.

 

I'm reminded of the time I was working at an establishment in deepest Wales (near to a beach where they used to drive cars very, very quickly and some poor chap literally lost his head).   The hotel we were staying at only had an à la carte menu and we'd had a week of eating very rich food.    We were working through the weekend  and one  Sunday, when the restaurant was normally closed, posed something of a dilemma  for the establishment as we needed feeding.    After discussions with the proprietor as to the art of the possible with limited resources and skills available plus a request from us for "simpler food" we settled on Fish Fingers, Chips and Beans (Baked, out of a tin).     Absolutely wonderful as was the King Prawn whatever it was on the following Monday evening when we got back to "normal".

 

 

 

 

 

[PupCam]

5 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I don’t see the point of going to a restaurant and then telling them they MUST change this and that (often on dishes that take considerable preparation and careful cooking). It’s akin to visiting the Isle of Man for the TT Races and insisting that the MUST enter some bicycles.
 

This messing about with the menu seems to be very much an anglo-saxon thing. In many countries in the world (such as Japan and much of Italy) you get the food as the cook/chef intended. Full Stop.

 

I have to disagree slightly there.      When out on the bikes (OK it's not exactly the TT)  we normally indulge in a Full English at a suitable venue.   A "Full English" has many interpretations and it is not unreasonable IMVHO to suggest that, for example, placing a lump of black pudding on Puppers plate would be completely pointless.    So, requests to "fine tune" can in some situations benefit both the customer (always right remember) and the provider.    On the same example Puppers will always choose to have more bacon and forgo the sausage if possible (mainly because you've usual got no idea of whats gone into the sausage!)

 

Each to their own.

 

 

 

[Tony_S]

9 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

don’t see the point of going to a restaurant and then telling them they MUST change this and that (often on dishes that take considerable preparation and careful cooking).

The attraction of that hotel was the attached restaurant. When we booked the holiday we knew exactly what to expect. There was quite a lot on my “I don’t normally choose to eat” list but Aditi was very keen so,I said I would eat what was offered. We had opted for the half board evening menu where there was a choice but limited. But we knew this. If we return we would not bother with half board and just use the main menu which was actually price capped for 2 or 3 courses. After I fell over and couldn’t go out we just ate lunches at the hotel so got to try a range of dishes on their full menu. 
I wonder if the diners at the  French (very French) hotel had  previously been in cruise ships. The staff there really do try to provide exactly what was asked for (or at least listen very attentively). On a cruise out of New York I saw one man arrive at breakfast on a couple of occasions with his own frying pan for the kitchen to cook his egg in. 

[TheQ]

Removals / additions from food are acceptable I think, if they are separately cooked items, but not if it's a constituent of an assembly cooked together..

 

Even my local chippy has a board for specials that may be removed at any time, sometimes that happens on the main board as well.

 

May I suggest grandpa adds a lip of 2 or 3 inches high around the layout to save him having to bend over to pick up the pieces so often.

Edited July 6 by TheQ

[Tony_S]

21 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

Each to their own.

When we stayed in the pub in Yorkshire, the full Yorkshire breakfast was fairly complete but the black pudding was “on request’. They said this stopped it being wasted by people who didn’t like it. 

[Tony_S]

3 minutes ago, TheQ said:

May I suggest grandpa adds a lip of 2 or 3 inches high around the layout to save him having to bend over to pick up the pieces so often.

When my nieces played with my slot cars they managed to get a few airborne and clear the protective lip. I had given them a couple of fairly robust Bugatti Veyrons to launch though. 

[iL Dottore]

25 minutes ago, PupCam said:

No, no, no.  That's not part of the deal I would have thought 🤔

Nope, it isn’t. If PB won’t make a cream (not buttercream), filling I can consider CF to be optional.

28 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Those are almost contradictory statements.     You can't have your cake (or pizza) and eat it too you know

 

Amended rather than corrected ......

Are you being deliberately disingenuous Puppers? There are certain foods that aren’t to my taste, but I dislike those chemical laden UPF - creations of the food chemist - that masquerade as food. Take baked beans, I love proper Boston baked beans, but those highly processed things in tins - no thanks

37 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

Nah, just tell the Bear to splash out for once and buy a proper tin.   After all he'll be turning them out regularly soon* and he'll be needing the proper kit.

We’ll see….

[polybear]

22 minutes ago, PupCam said:

No, no, no.  That's not part of the deal I would have thought 🤔

 

 

Bear's sayin' nuffink.....I'm in enough trubble already.......

 

22 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Those are almost contradictory statements.     You can't have your cake (or pizza) and eat it too you know.

 

Bear had Pizza for din dins (the last remaining Crusty & Mollocky jobbie - one of the smaller two-in-a-box variants).

CF's?  Nope - Freddie the Freezer was bare....😢

Though I did have at least three of the following choices available:

Chips?  Nope.

Smiley Faces?  Nope

Hash Brownies?  Nope

Wedges?  Nope

Roast Spuds?  Nope.

......so......

It was cauliflower, carrot and peas - all being fresh "real deal" jobbies too (though the peas were frozen).

Not quite sure if this is "the done thing" or not (I could hazard a pretty good guess) but it:

(a) Tasted OK

(b) provided a hungry Bear with din dins, and

(c) was three of Bear's five-a-day.

 

I reckon that's ok.

 

22 minutes ago, PupCam said:

Nah, just tell the Bear to splash out for once and buy a proper tin.   After all he'll be turning them out regularly soon* and he'll be needing the proper kit.

 

Bear will do that very thing - just as soon as I know what size tin to get in order that the mix fits in just nice.....

This LDC bakin' lark is quite technical.

 

22 minutes ago, PupCam said:

*   Puppers could make himself available for consumer testing / quality control purposes if required.

 

 

You might want a Bear to practice a bit first......

 

A Technical Question for iD:

 

If a Bear were to employ Choccy Fingers in his creation (Cadbury's etc.) would that mean a Fail?  I have a plan......

[iL Dottore]

9 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Removals / additions from food are acceptable I think, if they are separately cooked items, but not if it's a constituent of an assembly cooked together..

Definitely, that makes perfect sense - and on many levels.

[polybear]

12 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Removals / additions from food are acceptable I think, if they are separately cooked items, but not if it's a constituent of an assembly cooked together..

 

 

Absolutely - I'm all for subtractions/swaps/additions where practical and straightforward; there's no point (for example) serving Bear a F/E Brekkies with mushrooms as they'd just get wasted - and after working in India one of the things that I really do try to avoid is food waste.

 

4 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Nope, it isn’t. If PB won’t make a cream (not buttercream), filling I can consider CF to be optional.

Are you being deliberately disingenuous Puppers? There are certain foods that aren’t to my taste, but I dislike those chemical laden UPF - creations of the food chemist - that masquerade as food. Take baked beans, I love proper Boston baked beans, but those highly processed things in tins - no thanks

We’ll see….

 

The reason I won't do a cream filling is simple - I don't like cream.

I'm all for iD avoiding UPF's as a choice (hence no Tesco CF's etc.) but I was rather hoping to see iD's own "take" on home-prepared, UPF-free maybe spiced up a bit CF's as a side-order with the Pizza.....

 

I must admit I really don't understand (as a general "rule" - and not directed at iD in particular) that "you don't have chips, CF's etc. etc. with Pizza" (or any other combination of food, for that matter**).  If the consumer likes both then why not?

 

**Would Sir like Custard on his Baked Beans?  Sure, why not......

 

Actually I might just try that one - it doesn't sound half bad.

[iL Dottore]

2 minutes ago, polybear said:

It was cauliflower, carrot and peas - all being fresh "real deal" jobbies too (though the peas were frozen).

 

Not quite sure if this is "the done thing" or not (I could hazard a pretty good guess) but it:

(a) Tasted OK

(b) provided a hungry Bear with din dins, and

(c) was three of Bear's five-a-day.

 

I reckon that's ok.

Definitely an interesting take on a “side salad”. And as it’s not “carbohydrates with carbohydrates” definitely get the iD Seal of Nutritional Approval 👍🏻

6 minutes ago, polybear said:

A Technical Question for iD:

 

If a Bear were to employ Choccy Fingers in his creation (Cadbury's etc.) would that mean a Fail?  I have a plan......

Hmm, I think you’d be disqualified on a technicality, as it wouldn’t be a Lemond Drizzle Cake but a Chocolate and Lemon Drizzle Cake.

 

I strongly recommend you get the basic LDC correct first, then experiment. It’s what the pros do - learn to do the classics, then branch out/experiment. Besides you have a readily available Guinea pig….

 

Having said that chocolate and lemon are good pairings - though it tends to be dark chocolate rather than milk chocolate. I’m not sure that chocolate fingers would work as the biscuit in the chocolate fingers would perhaps too much of a textural contrast to the rest of the cake. We’ll see once you’ve mastered the basic LDC

 

TBH I can see a very rosy future for The Bear once you have mastered the basics of cake baking. Mucho kudos at your volunteer job await when you take in homemade cake!

[Tony_S]

2 minutes ago, polybear said:

The reason I won't do a cream filling is simple - I don't like cream.

The original lemon drizzle didn’t have a cream layer . We used to eat this one most weekends about 40 years ago. 

https://www.thejc.com/lets-eat/recipe/recipe-luscious-lemon-cake-toedv16g

 Over the years if we make a cake for tea it is more likely to be a plain Madeira or cherry cake. However at the moment we aren’t eating cake at teatime anyway. 
 

[Hroth]

 

There's too much food-pushing at the moment...

 

[iL Dottore]

4 minutes ago, polybear said:

The reason I won't do a cream filling is simple - I don't like cream.

I'm all for iD avoiding UPF's as a choice (hence no Tesco CF's etc.) but I was rather hoping to see iD's own "take" on home-prepared, UPF-free maybe spiced up a bit CF's as a side-order with the Pizza.....

I understand about the cream, I’m cool with that.

I will be making curly fries, but not with pizza.

6 minutes ago, polybear said:

I must admit I really don't understand (as a general "rule" - and not directed at iD in particular) that "you don't have chips, CF's etc. etc. with Pizza" (or any other combination of food, for that matter**).  If the consumer likes both then why not?

Basically it’s all about nutritional balance: a carbohydrate heavy (or in some cases only carbohydrate) meal isn’t really good for you, if indulged in on a constant basis. We have evolved as omnivores, so fixating on one particular part of the carbohydrate-protein-fat nutritional trio is NOT a good idea (eat a very high protein diet and see what that does to your kidneys…)

[iL Dottore]

3 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

There's too much food-pushing at the moment...

 

Not had your tea?

[Hroth]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Not had your tea?

 

No, not yet. Might make a ham salad butty...

 

I did!

 

 

Edited July 6 by Hroth
update

[Tony_S]

5 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

There's too much food-pushing at the moment...

 

I can cope with it even though I am having to be somewhat careful at the moment. 
Back in the 1980s I was really unwell and reacted to almost anything I ate or drank. There was a very restricted range of items I could tolerate. Having married into a family that were somewhat obsessed with food it did get difficult. Fortunately a medical solution arrived. However it was so good I went from very underweight to being somewhat heavy now I can eat almost anything and it is only things I don’t like rather than can’t eat now. Apart from figs, figs or fig products don’t like me. 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Definitely an interesting take on a “side salad”. And as it’s not “carbohydrates with carbohydrates” definitely get the iD Seal of Nutritional Approval 👍🏻

 

PUPPEEEEERZ......quick, get the smelling salts......Bear feels faint.....

 

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Hmm, I think you’d be disqualified on a technicality, as it wouldn’t be a Lemon Drizzle Cake but a Chocolate and Lemon Drizzle Cake.

 

Hmmm.....maybe "before & after" variants are called for....

 

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

 

No, not yet. Might make a ham salad butty...

 

 

Some CF'S would set that off REAL nice.......

[New Haven Neil]

2 hours ago, PupCam said:

When out on the bikes (OK it's not exactly the TT)  we normally indulge in a Full English at a suitable venue. 

 

Even those who are very close to the TT, and in one case have had some success in it, fully approve in the Full Manx Breakfast of a Friday morning.  Indeed, here are some of those Fraggles only yesterday:-

 

[J. S. Bach]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Whoops!

 

Well I did try.....

Each one by the look of it!