Grossman Gigs Putney

I got to Stefan Grossman play in Putney tonight, so you get some teaser pics as I prep an article and blog on it.

Busy busy

Well, it's official. I'm busy. Been working until 6-7 each day and last weekend was a rap on call weekend with loads of rubbish so I am officially dead. Although having said that, I had a crap week on the wards, merely keeping things together I was pretty stoned and we were so overloaded with a shed load of patients.

Anyway, the weather's been acting real strange. My room boils during the day and freezes at night. Doesn't help that my external disks are on the verge of overheating because they're stacked up. I should really switch over to those excellent western digital my books. They stack upright and have great specs.

I've been listening to a lot of Coltrane recently, but came across a fantastic track from the Ghost in the shell OST called Lithium Flower with a cool guitar riff. Not as cool as Bindy by the Seatbelts which featured on the Cowboy Bepop OST though. That little bit of Middle Eastern influenced Jazz/Blues tinge kills.

Now, Cowboy B was more about style and feel, with cool storylines, but GITS is very much more cerebral with characters actually discussing what makes us human in contrast to AIs.

Both are must see animes.

Picture update: Guitar art

I've been trying to improve my photography of guitars and here are the results. Not quite professional yet, but passable, I think:

My latest project....

Considering the time I have to spend at my new job, I've managed to scrape together a few hours here and there to get an aquarium set up in my room. Here's a sneak peek of the inhabitants...

New job

well, well it's been done. I've moved and started a new job in cardiology. Now life officially sucks- I have to work well overtime for less pay than ever and I have the pleasure of having been rotered on for essentially being on call every other day.

Wow. I had to miss my long planned trip to Newport, Rhode Island for the biannual guitar festival, which really hasn't helped my mood at all. Hence my zero output for the past few weeks.

Anyway, I am working on a few more articles for magazines, so expect my blog to swell with more pics and randomness as I work towards. Guitar stuff on goodacoustic.blogspot.com and other stuff here.

Promise.

Food: Four Seasons London

Duck.

That's what Four Season's is all about. Duck. To not order duck, would be a henious crime to humanity and poultry. To devotees of Roast Duck, Four Seasons is a temple worthy of worship. I am a big fan. So big, I berated a poster over on this Chow Hound thread for leaving Chinese off his list of places to eat in London.

Maybe I went a little far in stating that 'of the capital crimes punishable by death by Celine Dion, surely missing out on the Roast Duck at the Four Seasons in Bayswater must top the list.' but hey, I'm a fanatic.

I've had roast duck just about everywhere I can- even braving bird flu in Indonesia and Vietnam, yet I can say that the Four Seasons' duck is still the best. Sure, Duck King in Jakarta is pretty good, and the guitar Duck next to *snicker* Gay World Tanjong Pagar in Singapore is crispy with a capital K, but Roast Duck is Four Seasons. Period.

The Four Seasons dinner ritual starts off by getting a group of people together. Usually 1 line SMSs along the terse lines of '4 seasons tomorrow dinner 8?' is enough to garner equally efficient, but no less enthusiastic replies of 'on' or 'baby'.

Then you place a reservation on the day for a time and size.

Then you arrive about 5-10 minutes ahead of the scheduled meeting and booking to get your name checked off whilst staunchly adamant that your party will be there within 2 minutes. You then meet up with the gang, discuss the merits of on the bone/off the bone duck for 20 minutes whilst joustling the hordes of devotees awaiting your name to be called out.

Then you get to your meal. Duck aside, I recommend the braised Tofu, garlic Kai Lan and the Mince Pork with Mui Choy to go, along with for a group of 4.

But onto the duck.

Duck is meant to be roasted skin on, and then left to dry. The longer it dries, the crispier the skin, and the more aromatic the meat, which reabsorbs the goody-goody juices trapped within the skin.

At Four Seasons, that's exactly what they do. The marinate is a wonderful mixture of barbeque flavor and Soya Sauce with hints of Seasame and Sweet Vinegary notes. The meat to fat ratio is important and most of the time, it's a superb 80:20 mix, although I have heard disturbing reports that it's skewed in favor of fat since the management change- more on that later.

The crispy skin is full of the marinade's flavor and provides a great compliment to the gamey but tender flesh. This is not a dish to go with Fried Rice, but plain steamed fragarant grains which soak up the sauce and gives a fluffy, subtle-starch-sweet counterpoint to the duck.

The Tofu and Kai Lan are pretty much standard fare, but the Minced Pork with Miu Choy is a great dish- stir fried to perfection, the Diced Miu choy, a sweet preserved mustard leaf is crunchy to the bite and compliments the Soya Sauce flavored pork.

Now back to the bad news. In 2004, management changed and quite a number of folks feel the ducks have not been left to dry for long enough and the meat to fat ratio has fallen. On the occasions I have dined there since 2004, I haven't had this experience, probably because I look the waiter in the eye and tell him to leave the meat on the bone- which is regarded as the purest form of Duck consumption.

However, I do hear that the original chef is now at Magic Wok, down the road, so I will head down there and have a Roast Duck eat off with other devotees and report back with lurid details, exposing photos and an expanded waistline. Stay tuned.

Four Seasons
84 Queensway
Bayswater
London W2

I got chicken pox. No doubt from some kid whom I saw on call. It sucks because I'm an adult and it's bad-ass now. I am sure you don't appreciate pics and frankly neither would I. So we'll this episode at that, until I gather enough spare, non scratching time to write it up.

So, I got the Crayfish Coctail from Forman and Field which they claim is: 'A spectacular gourmet fish starter, prepared with crayfish tails, wild smoked salmon julienne and keta caviar.' That's basically, Crayfish tails, wild smoked salmon, keta caviar, basil, parsley, chives, mayonnaisse, lemon juice and black pepper.

It's a good looking dish, with the oranges of the crayfish, smoked salmon, keta and greens of the herbs. But man, with the first bite, it was 'zing!' my ears were ringing and it felt like my head nearly came clean off. I mean the salt, the salt! The Smoked Salman has salt in it, the Keta is definitely salty, the mayo probably has some but it looks like they boiled the crayfish in brine for good measure then tossed a whole load more just for fun.

I revived the salt marsh by giving the whole thing a quick rinse in milk and then adding some single cream. Much better. The crayfish is well shelled with no hint of crunchy unspeakables and has been cooked to just past done- which is probably wisest considering the dish is served cold and not fresh from the kitchen.

The Smoked Salmon is nicely sliced into portions which provide counterpoint to the texture of the crayfish and the Keta Caviar provides wonderful surprises in between the 2.

All in all, a very good dish once you're past the salt.

Pics to follow.