Best Of

On a more amusing and fruitful note, I have just made a perfectly amazing Salad Nicoise

This is not self praise, merely admiration of the dude who ever invented Salad Nicoise. There is a misconception that it is a summer salad for hot places, but that is so woing. It is ideal as consolation in winter (the umami, the spuds, the anchovies), as a light zzzzip of energy in summer, and it is great as a memory of summer in autumn, It is also extremely healthy and yet tastes as more-ish as the best fish and chips, it has a fast food gastro-vibe

The key is ingredients. You want the best of everything. Ortiz tuna in oil, Ortiz anchovies, Burford's eggs, the finest new potatoes (Jersey?), excellent bread to mop up, kalamata olives, really good capers, fine beans, just make sure everything is good. That means it is not cheap but it is still a world class culinary experience for about £15-20 a salad

Putting potatoes in whilst they are still hot, warm beans and soft boiled eggs at the last minute make sure it’s a perfectly non-summer meal.

I was weirdly going to cook that for some of my family tonight but they pooh-pooed it. Their loss.

Yes exactly! It's weirdly adapted to all seasons. The only difference is that in summer you probably reduce the spuds, a bit

It's also a fascinating example of a classic high quality dish where the "tinned" version of the main ingredient is better than the "real" version

I've had multiple nicoise salads where the chef boasts he uses fresh tuna, not tinned. But no matter how good it is (never that good), tinned is way better. Fresh tuna ruins the dish, weirdly. It dominates and the texture is wrong

Is there any other significant dish where that can be said? Tinned or canned is superior?

Bean on toast?

Nice one. Yes

Probably also a classic cheeseburger. You don't actually want a large slice of exellent Black Bomber cheddar over that meat patty, you want a disgusting cheap processed Kraft single, it works and melts better, and doesn't obtrude

Jesus. Who liked this shit?

I mean, I agree you don'y want the "Black Bomber" (not that I have any idea what that is), but the idea that Kraft processed slices enhance anything other than my chance of dementia is insane.

I liked it because a burger, a cheeseburger, has to be cheap disgusting greasy food that hits a certain need. It has to dirty. If you ponce it up then it’s a beef mince gourmet sandwich. I totally agree with the Fiennes character in “the menu” that sometimes you just need unadulterated happiness from food. It has to be terrible plastic cheese or it’s not a cheeseburger.

On the subject of lower quality things being better than their 'high quality' versions, I always buy fattier minced beef.

Isn't that actually quite obvious and well known? This is not meant to insult but don't most people realise the fattier the meat, the tastier it will be?

Hence the adoration of well-marbled ribye, or super fatty Kobe Wagyu

There are few meats more disappointing that an entirely fat-less fillet steak. Sure, the texture is butter-soft, but there is almost no flavour

One would think so, but the leaner version is more expensive.

There is an issue if you're eating poor quality meat, as the fat in mammals is the repository of our toxins, but yes, if the meat is healthy, fat is absolutely an advantage.

The best steak I've ever had (and I take this seriously, I actually have a top 10 lifetime steaks, if not top 20) was a very fatty sirloin cooked by a famous Argentinian chef, Francois Mallman, at his restaurant in Uruguay (a nation which, otherwise, has some of the very worst food in the world)

https://youshouldgohere.com/2024/09/francis-mallmann-garzon-uruguay/

It needed the fat, and they cooked it magnificently

I was on a business trip to Buenos Aires. I was with a group of three others. We went for a walk. Saw a nice looking restaurant. Went in. Table for 4 - no problem.

The baby lomo steak was the best I have ever eaten. Turns out it was the best restaurant in BA - there was a months long waiting list to get in.

They really do cook great steaks. The trouble is, that’s it

South America has the worst food in the world

Two veggie colleagues got posted to BA. They were both eating meat within the month.

From the header:

“It has also decided, after an increase in anti-Semitic incidents over recent years, the attack on a synagogue leading to the murder of 2 Jews, 3 Muslim men convicted of a plot to carry out a massacre of Manchester Jews using AK47 machine guns, the arrest of people as part of an investigation into Iranian targeting of Jewish individuals and the Walney Report into Iranian infiltration of the UK charity sector that its priority right now should be having an anti-Muslim hatred Tsar.”

Why should the sins of a few individuals mean that Muslims in the UK are not deserving of protection against a rising tide of violence? If some Jewish men were found guilty of violent crimes, would we abolish laws against anti-Semitism? Of course not.

The need for an anti-Muslim hatred tsar is presumably motivated by the big rises in anti-Muslim violence in the UK in recent years: “anti-Muslim hate crime rose from 2,690 offences to 3,199 in the 12 months to March 2025.” https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/oct/09/muslim-charity-worried-hate-crimes-rise And note that maybe 80% of incidents aren’t even reported.

And speaking of International Women’s Day, we know Islamophobic violence is particularly targeted at women: https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/138836/pdf/

I’d agree if there was also an antisemitism Tsar being created too. (And I’ll probably find that there already is one, now)

There is, he’s held the job since 2019.

https://antisemitism.org.uk/lord-mann/

I see it's corned beef and trans as we descend into World War 3.

DYK that Iran provides government subsidies for sex reassignment surgery and let’s post-operative transwomen compete in women’s sports.

The reason they do this is because they are so ashamed and loathing of homosexuality


Many religious Iranian families would rather have a transsexual child than a simple lesbian or gay offspring (which is statistically far more likely to be the case). So they oblige their gay kids to go through awful mutilating surgery rather than just admit “my kid is gay”

The fault is in Islam and in Iran’s particularly harsh interpretation of Islam. It is nothing to boast about

Amazing mid 90s mix on Greatest Hits radio at the moment.

It's had the song I kissed my first girlfriend to, and has essentially the soundtrack to my A-Levels.

Ah, memories. So long ago, and yet so vivid.

That is the real magic of music. It captures a moment in time and allows all the joy, the angst, the pain and the context to come flooding back in a way that nothing else does. This is a weird one but roughly 30 years ago now I had a really bad RTA which I was lucky to survive. When it happened I was listening to Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto in the car and whilst I recovered in hospital I became obsessed. Even now it moves me to tears every time it reaches the crescendo where the two themes finally clash. I remember the pain, the fear and the sheer joy of still being alive. Its a kind of magic.

When people were talking about "The Special Relationship" and it's one-sidedness earlier, it brought to mind what was probably the love of my life. A girl I was completely obsessed with for about a decade who was only mildly interested in me. It's crazy how some people can have such an effect. There are so many songs that remind of the way I felt, but Hard-Fi, not a band I am particularly into, did one called "Hard to Beat" which really encapsulates the feeling of being so breathlessly excited to be with someone. It makes me feel again how I used to on a summer night in South London, striding down the South Bank so eager to meet her

Most are the others are by The Smiths mind you, and AM by Arctic Monkeys

@Cyclefree always writes a good header.

I hope you'll forgive me though, but I think it's just too busy-body being involved with everyone's everything.

We should just step back (many paces!) and just let everyone get on with life. Sex doesn't matter, Religion doesn't matter, and who knows what does.

Denying the truth of other peoples religion can be very offensive to them.

Should it be banned?

What is this 'denying the truth' crap? (I appreciate you're just projecting)

Do you know any truths?

Well, very religious people often see their religion as an Essential Truth.

I don't think it is. But they find that very offensive.

What should we do?

Gnostics Gnow.
Religions are just control mechanisms. Faith sets you free (imo), but its all a personal journey

I.e. its 'organised religion' thats the poison, not faith or belief

To an extent - but individuals are just as capable of inventing sociopathic religious beliefs as groups.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is utterly buggered with this new revelation.

Andrew leaked inside intel on £3billion Lloyds branch sell-off to banker friend - just hours after ex-Prince held official Buckingham Palace meeting with boss of bailed-out high street banking giant

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor secretly passed 'highly sensitive' information about the sell-off of hundreds of Lloyds branches after the bank was bailed out using £20billion of taxpayers' money.

Emails obtained by The Mail on Sunday reveal how the disgraced former prince held an official meeting with the bank's new chief executive at Buckingham Palace where he gleaned crucial details about the £3billion sell-off of the bank's assets.

Astonishingly, hours after the meeting, Andrew passed on crucial intelligence to a banker friend he has been accused of repeatedly helping while working as the UK's taxpayer-funded trade envoy.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15624503/Andrew-leaked-inside-intel-3billion-Lloyds-branch-sell-banker-friend-just-hours-ex-Prince-held-official-Buckingham-Palace-meeting-boss-bailed-high-street-banking-giant.html

Why was the CEO of Lloyds sharing market sensitive info with Andrew Mandelson?

Well he was Trade Envoy….

Doesn’t matter - you of all people in your role would know you don’t share that sort of info outside of those in the company or key people. Was the CEO of Lloyds trying to impress AMW and crowd? I think that’s more of a problem for the chap who talked out of turn than gobshite Andrew.