Hi,

Last night was the turn of the Wolseley to be honoured by the Hoares
frères.

The place is described as a Brasserie and is to be found next to the
Ritz in London's Piccadilly. It is in the same chain of London
eateries as The Ivy, so we went in the expectation of rubbing
shoulders with several celebrities. In the event we were reliably
informed that there were none there, "just socialites" :-))

The menu can be best described as upmarket eclectic.

Tony had one of his favourite starters, "eggs benedict" This should
consist of a half muffin (REAL one, neither an american muffin, nor an
american "english muffin" both of which are perfectly good, but not
what is wanted in the dish) topped by a slice of ham, topped by a
poached egg and coated with a slightly sharp sauce hollandaise - not
for those in fear of the food nazis. He described it as "perfect".

*** had one of _her_ favourites, half a grilled lobster, and was
equally delighted with it.

Jacquie had a salad of trevise leaves wrapped around mozzarella, and
grilled plus some bitsas, and declared herself delighted, I wasn't
over impressed with it, but then it's not my thing.

I had a "Risotto al Funghi". They only used an arborio rice, but with
that proviso, it was excellent. The funghi (reconsitituted dried
porcini) was nicely al dente, as was the rice itself, and the risotto
was perfectly creamy.

A good start. Impossible to find one wine to match all these dishes
perfectly, so (as is so often true in real life) we had to compromise.
Befre we'd ordered, Tony & I agreed that we'd get "A bottle of white
and a bottle of red" . We ordered a Soave Classico from Pieropan. Went
extremely well with my risotto.

When the mains came, we realised that we'd been a touch intemperate
with the red! We'd ordered as follows,

Tony - Wienerschnitzel (Not done perfectly, the breadcrumbing was just
a touch too light and the schnitzli were fried in too little fat, so
that they weren't evenly crispy golden.)

*** - Roasted sucking pig , mashed potatoes and pumpkin. Gorgeous and
tender.

Jacquie had Moules frites !! (Mussels cooked more or less a la
mariniere but with a little cream added, served with French fries)
Perfect, ad as she gave up on the juice, I drained the serving dish!
Yum.

I had Crab hash, and ordered a side of buttered brussel tops. My hash
was glorious, plenty of crab, perfectly seasoned. The veg was 2 mins
undercooked for perfection, but otherwise a delight. I wish the french
would wake up to the delights of "Spring greens".

Tony & I looked at each other. How would the Pinot Nero from Alto
Adige (sorry, forgot the producer, though " Franz Haas" may be the
name) go with a quartet of dishes made for a full bodied white? Well
fortunately the red, typical of Alto Adige wines was extremely soft,
with practically no tannins, so in fact it was excellent. Id give it 4
with my crab, as the food heightened the PN sharpness and gave the
wine a touch more character. There was, of course, no problem with
the pork and the veal, but we were dubious about the moules.
Astonishingly that went pretty well too. Lucky escape!

For puds, we had been delighted to see on the menu Kaiserschmarr'n
served with a plum compote. The schmarr'n were excellent, freshly
cooked (gave ma a chance to people watch one of the most agreeably
plunging necklines that has passed my way for many a long year) though
I have a slight preference for them to be dusted with caster sugar
rather than the icing sugar used. That gives a very agreeable slight
crunchiness to the cooked and torn up pancake batter. The plum
(quetsch/switzen/silvás - as it should be) compote was flavoured with
a touch too much cinnamon, we all agreed. We didn't even TRY to match
that with a wne, as the place didn't seem to have any stickies. But in
any case, 2 bottles for 4 was enough, really.

Overall, the service was friendly, relaxed and professional, the
amusingly chosen eclectic menu was exceedingly well executed, A most
superior Brasserie, and a fun place to go. The prices were not out of
proportion to the quality and the location, at an overall cost of
about £60 a head all in.
All the best
Ian
(To reply by email PLEASE don't use "Reply to" but
use my name at wanadoo.fr) Thanks.

Anthony Hoare > wrote:

> ... Wienerschnitzel ... Kaiserschmarr'n ...

And imagine the Hoares driving to London to have *that* - instead
of coming here ...

> ... plum (quetsch/switzen/silvás - as it should be) compote
^^^^^^^

Wozzat - Zwetschken? Anyhof, the classic side dish with
Kaiserschmarren is Zwetschkenröster.

M.

Hi Michael

I thought that would get a rapid reply!

On 23 Dec 2003 11:17:45 GMT, Michael Pronay > wrote:

>Anthony Hoare > wrote:
>
>> ... Wienerschnitzel ... Kaiserschmarr'n ...
>
>And imagine the Hoares driving to London to have *that* - instead
>of coming here ...

Well, when you're only 20 miles (30 km) from the restaurant, it's a
lot quicker and easier than to do the 2000km to Vienna!

What surprised us, in fact, was their presence at all. We were
discussing the menu again on our way to Wisley (Royal Horticultural
Society Gardens) today, and we agreed that the place was filling a
niche for good Burgerliche cooking. N pretensions to Haute Cuisine,
but homely dishes well done.

>> ... plum (quetsch/switzen/silvás - as it should be) compote
> ^^^^^^^
>Wozzat - Zwetschken?

Yup, sorry.

>Anyhow, the classic side dish with Kaiserschmarren is Zwetschkenröster.

Röster? Would that mean baked in some way? What I described as compôte
might well have been that in fact. Stewed plums, I suppose.

Woud they have a lot of cinnamon in, in Austria?
All the best
Ian
(To reply by email PLEASE don't use "Reply to" but
use my name at wanadoo.fr) Thanks.

Anthony Hoare > wrote:

>>> ... Wienerschnitzel ... Kaiserschmarr'n ...

>> And imagine the Hoares driving to London to have *that* -
>> instead of coming here ...

> Well, when you're only 20 miles (30 km) from the restaurant,
> it's a lot quicker and easier than to do the 2000km to Vienna!

Don't exaggerate, 19380 Forgès to 1180 Vienna is 1539.3 km,
according to <http://www.map24.de/>

>> Anyhow, the classic side dish with Kaiserschmarren is
>> Zwetschkenröster.

> Röster?

Yes.

> Would that mean baked in some way?

No. It's just the name. Austrian German cuisine terms are
extremely strange. What we call "Lungenbraten" (rôti of lung) is,
in fact the fillet of beef.

> What I described as compôte might well have been that in fact.
> Stewed plums, I suppose.

Yes.

> Woud they have a lot of cinnamon in, in Austria?

Well, cinnamon would be used: 1 piece on 1 kg Zwetschken (plus 2
cloves plus 250 ml water plus juice and parings of 1 lemon).

Röster is somewhere halfway between mousse (powidl) and compote (1
kg zwetschken, 125 ml water, 125 g sugar).

Data from "Das große Sacher-Kochbuch".

M.

In ,
Anthony Hoare > typed:

> Jacquie had a salad of trevise leaves wrapped around
mozzarella, and
> grilled plus some bitsas, and declared herself delighted,


Two words I don't know. "Trevise"--is that perhaps the same as
Radicchio di Treviso?

"Bitsas." I have no no idea what that is.

Can you help?

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

>bitsas,

Like Ken, I'm perplexed

..
>
>I had a "Risotto al Funghi". They only used an arborio rice, but with
>that proviso, it was excellent

I have to say, I realize it's all the rage to only use Vialone nano or
carnaroli these days, but a QUALITY arborio always does quite nicely in our
house.

Thanks for the notes. The Pieropan Soave is usually quite dependable - Soave
got a bad rep in US due to cheap cr#$py examples, but can be quite good.

Enjoy the rest of your stay!
Dale

Dale Williams
Drop "damnspam" to reply

"Dale Williams" in a total quizzical asked........

> >bitsas,
>
> Like Ken, I'm perplexed
>


Without wanting to put words in Ian's mouth (not sanitary in the least) let
me give the kiwi interpretation.

Bitsa = bits of ? (bits of this and bits of that!)

Actually, we (slangingly) call a mixed breed dog a "bitsa" (bits of
chihuahua, bits of great dane and a bit of a laugh!!!)

No doubt, if the original author has some other meaning, then even I will
delighted to hear his translation.

--

St.Helier

Hi Dale - (and Ken)

On 24 Dec 2003 02:31:45 GMT, amnspam (Dale Williams)
wrote:

>>bitsas,
>
>Like Ken, I'm perplexed

Oh, sorry. Lord St H was right. Bits of this & bits of that. So the
salad contained a number of other ingredients which I didn't remember,
and hoped to be able to conceal my bad memory by using the slang
expression.

>>I had a "Risotto al Funghi". They only used an arborio rice, but with
>>that proviso, it was excellent
>
>I have to say, I realize it's all the rage to only use Vialone nano or
>carnaroli these days, but a QUALITY arborio always does quite nicely in our
>house.

It was difficult for me to pitch that sentence correctly. I wasn't
intending to be damning the dish which was excellently executed and
better than most I used to have. That said, I prefer Carnaroli as I
find the balance of creaminess/al-dentitude to be better, and the
flavour deeper.

>Thanks for the notes. The Pieropan Soave is usually quite dependable - Soave
>got a bad rep in US due to cheap cr#$py examples, but can be quite good.

It was exactly what we required of it! Actually, we got a little
frisson there, as they had a Marcel Deiss wine called "Burg", of which
I'd not heard. I hoped against hope that they might have made a type
for Altenberg, but they hadn't. Sigh.

>Enjoy the rest of your stay!

Will do, Dale, thanks. Yesterday was roast venison fillets at home,
with a nice little Italian red that my brother picked up in Italy.
"Sell me a wine you're proud of." He got Tres Pigne 2000 made from (I
think) Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso Being incredibly ignorant about
Italian wines, I have been able to work out that it's from Friuli's
Grave area, but that's all. Bottled by tha Azienda Pradio Felettis di
Bicinicco, whatever that is. Nice soft wine, just like my SIL likes
them. Preceded by a mouthful of greasy foie from Brive, and finished
with home made chocolate velvet ice cream, a meal fit for a president.

All the best
Ian
(To reply by email PLEASE don't use "Reply to" but
use my name at wanadoo.fr) Thanks.

In ,
Anthony Hoare > typed:

> Hi Dale - (and Ken)
>
> On 24 Dec 2003 02:31:45 GMT, amnspam (Dale
Williams)
> wrote:
>
>>>bitsas,
>>
>>Like Ken, I'm perplexed
>
> Oh, sorry. Lord St H was right. Bits of this & bits of that. So
the
> salad contained a number of other ingredients which I didn't
remember,
> and hoped to be able to conceal my bad memory by using the
slang
> expression.


Sorry, I missed it. Slang is different in different places; I'd
never heard "bitsas" before.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup


>>>I had a "Risotto al Funghi". They only used an arborio rice,
but with
>>>that proviso, it was excellent
>>
>>I have to say, I realize it's all the rage to only use Vialone
nano or
>>carnaroli these days, but a QUALITY arborio always does quite
nicely
>>in our house.
>
> It was difficult for me to pitch that sentence correctly. I
wasn't
> intending to be damning the dish which was excellently executed
and
> better than most I used to have. That said, I prefer Carnaroli
as I
> find the balance of creaminess/al-dentitude to be better, and
the
> flavour deeper.
>
>>Thanks for the notes. The Pieropan Soave is usually quite
dependable
>>- Soave got a bad rep in US due to cheap cr#$py examples, but
can be
>>quite good.
>
> It was exactly what we required of it! Actually, we got a
little
> frisson there, as they had a Marcel Deiss wine called "Burg",
of which
> I'd not heard. I hoped against hope that they might have made a
type
> for Altenberg, but they hadn't. Sigh.
>
>>Enjoy the rest of your stay!
>
> Will do, Dale, thanks. Yesterday was roast venison fillets at
home,
> with a nice little Italian red that my brother picked up in
Italy.
> "Sell me a wine you're proud of." He got Tres Pigne 2000 made
from (I
> think) Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso Being incredibly ignorant
about
> Italian wines, I have been able to work out that it's from
Friuli's
> Grave area, but that's all. Bottled by tha Azienda Pradio
Felettis di
> Bicinicco, whatever that is. Nice soft wine, just like my SIL
likes
> them. Preceded by a mouthful of greasy foie from Brive, and
finished
> with home made chocolate velvet ice cream, a meal fit for a
president.
>
> All the best
> Ian
> (To reply by email PLEASE don't use "Reply to" but
> use my name at wanadoo.fr) Thanks.