h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If it was bad then complaining about it being bad would be perfectly reasonable, but that doesn't appear to be focus of the complaint in post 151. It's more subjective and esoteric than that.

If I go any further down this line then I'll start putting words into Storm's mouth, which wouldn't be fair. He can answer when he next appears.


Geggs

"The restaurant in question - The Sheraton Abuja Luigi's Restaurant, Nigeria on their advertising says: "Italian food at its best. Come and experience dinner at Luigi's.""

I find it interesting that a well-educated individual such as yourself seems to be completely unaware of the concept of 'marketing'.

B

In passing, I also think it's very poor form to put words into other people's mouths, particularly in a community of people renowned for their free-thinking capabilites.

B

Ideally we need to have Storm's disappointed Risotto eating colleague explain ... but as I said I don't want to make Mountains out of Molehills. I was really only commenting on it as a "Quote of the Day" generalised statement - and not as a very specific statement.

Mu Beta
1) Please explain to me the principals behind marketing (we are considering the Sheraton.
2) I did not put words into other peoples mouths.

#162 "I find it interesting that a well-educated individual such as yourself ..."

O' I missed this premise. Since I am not a well-educated individual I think I'll stop here.

I completed the desi challenge at Akbars in Leeds on Monday you've got a huge pile of desi-hot keema, lamb, chicken and veg and you've got to eat it in one go, unaided. I got a free dessert for my troubles and had some lovely chapattis with it.

I also earned the awe/undisguised disgust of my fellow Urdu students which made the whole endeavour worthwhile.

Akbars is probably my favourite of the local curry chains - they do more authentic/interesting stuff

http://www.akbars.co.uk/menu.php?id=18

"My point was the assumption that just because the Italian restaurant was in Africa we should think - well it's Africa - what would you expect anyway..."

It was this sentence that rankled particularly. You have indicated that there was an unfounded assumption when I saw no such thing. If that's not putting words into people's mouths, I'm not sure what is.

I'll ignore your facetious request about the principles of marketing. You're quite capable of looking it up for yourself. Unless of course, you did mean the PRINCIPALS, in which case I'd recommend Saatchi & Saatchi.

For what it's worth, I quite agree with Storm. I'm not saying that going to an Italian restaurant in Nigeria is a bad idea. But complaining because the Nigerian concept of Italian risotto is different to the English concept of Italian risotto strains credibility somewhat. It's a good bet that neither of them look or taste like the Italian concept of Italian risotto in any case (qf curry

Ate out today in the classy surroundings of Falkirk FC, as is my wont.

A pie and a Bovril are traditional fare at football matches - the pie being of the round "Scotch" variety filled with minced mutton, suet, floor sweepings and other tasty delights, floating in a sea of animal trans-fats and garnished with a fragrant dollop of broon sauce. Being something of an acquired taste, it's best not to exceed the three pie match limit if one doesn't want to wind up shaking like a shitting dog.

Bovril is a meat-based hot drink only ever consumed at football matches. I believe it's made by boiling cows and horses until they turn to a gloop of brown, beefy goodness. Delicious with a sprinkling of pepper.

Geggs has what I meant down rather well.

I was also thinking why go to this amazingly wonderful exciting place and complain it's not like home? Why would a Nigerian take on risotto be the same as English (especially when MIlan and Naples produce such different dishes)?

There did turn out to be an answer to this that makes me feel bad for posing the question. My colleague had flown in from Bangladesh and really wanted to be at home. His wife has been diagnosed with an untreatable cancer and he'd really prefer to be at home rather than travelling the world. He was grumpy about service, hotel rooms and the driver for the whole trip but I was much more patient once I knew why.

And left apologetic tips...

Just had dinner in Distrikt in Leeds. A sort of fusion between English food (heavy emphasis on local ingredients), tapas and mezes. Not the greatest selection but what there was was good and it had the communal dining experience I get a big kick from.

The cocktails selection on the other hand was incredible and they tasted very good (I sampled extensively ). Cheap too on 2-4-1 nights like tonight. Nice ambience to the place to boot. Probably going to take a mate there when we next see a film in Leeds as I suspect it'll be right up his street.

http://distrikt.co.uk/menu/

We had a yen for something international and some plastic tubs, so we drove into Atlanta and had dinner at Ikea.

Family get together at a Chinese restaurant. It was fab.

Mol

Had a curry in the Shenaz in Glasgow. Was good, but nothing remarkable. Also had work lunch in Operatta, also in Glasgow. Was crap, glorified canteen food, was really disappointed.

Went to the Sun at Halesowen - http://www.sunpubhalesowen.co.uk - for eldest son's fifth birthday today.

I had an Aussie burger, which I quite enjoyed, but I have no idea whether it was authentic.


Geggs

Do the yam fries I had just moments ago at Hudsons http://www.hudsonstaphouse.com qualify? Nice accompaniment(I might add)to my pint of their Beavertail ...an unexceptional ale really. It was however quite malty with a bit of a toffee quality that was quite with the yam, actually reasonably nice with the horseradish dijon dipping sauce as well.

I ate at The Victory Pub in Cheadle Manchester. My partner had kidnapped me from parental awfulness so I was predisposed to like it. It’s the worst place I’ve ever eaten. It had the atmosphere of a coach station, it was brightly light and full of fruit machines. I had the only vegetarian choices. Mushrooms on toast followed by a chickpea and butternut squash curry. The mushrooms were greasy, the toast soggy, the rice watery and the curry flavourless. I believe there was pudding but I couldn’t face it. At £15 per person it wasn’t even especially cheap.

http://www.village-hotels.co.uk/experience-more/victory/menu

I was coming back late after a works night out - and thought to hell with cooking and picked up a takeaway from the thai place a few doors down from my flat.

Eating out as in going somewhere, we help organise the Cinema Club at work (next Tuesday: The Artist) and that's usually book-ended by a meal and since we have to cater for a variety of nutritional diets (halal, veggie) - a safe bet so far has been bella italia.

I ate at Ljubljanski Dvor in Ljubljana. The restaurant was on the banks of the river and had big wooden tables and bare plaster walls. Holidaying with children can be rather hard work and this place did a pizza that was authentically like the one sold in a Birmingham takeaway that pleased my son and also interesting things for the adults. I had a white pizza with radicchio and fresh tomato. For dessert we had crepes and I asked for sugar and lemon on mine. The waiter looked incredulous…you want sugar…yes…. and lemon…yes…really?. We imagined him going out the back and calling his friends over…she wants sugar and lemon these crazy English people…

I ate at the Slascicarna (frustratingly this isn’t right I can’t find the correct letters on my keyboard) in Kranjska Gora. In an otherwise spectacularly cheap holiday we visited a fancy cake shop. I’m not a big fan of cake but as a vegetarian there are limited opportunities to try local cuisine. I had Gibanica the local speciality. It cost €2 and was nearly as big as my head. It was the lasagne of cakes being made of layers of pastry and other stuff (apple, pear, mince meat, cream and what seemed to be dark matter). It was really good but astonishingly dense; my son suggested that if they halved the size and kept the price the same it would still be a good deal. They wouldn’t however shift as much cake…we had this picture of a man setting up a cake shop to deal with the cake produced by well meaning family members…He gave us free liqueurs with the cake. The views of the mountains were amazing; as the clouds came down and the snow began to fall the mountains began to look like figments of our imagination.