meemalee

"Till drowsy eyelids seem to see A-flower 'neath her golden htee The Shwe-Dagon flare easterly From Burmah to Kamakura " The tragic and frightening events unfolding in Japan will be familiar to you all, so I won't recount them here, except to urge you to view this piece by ABC News showing in stark detail the extent of the devastation so far. What I do want to tell you is that Japan has asked for outside help , and for a country as proud as that to do so (they were forced to accept foreign assistance after the Kobe earthquake in 1995 which virtually destroyed that city and killed 6,500 people), they must be in severe need right now - faced as they are by earthquake, tsunami, nuclear emergency and an erupting volcano . I have a vested interest - I love the country; I have family and friends who live there (they're all okay if scared); and I have been to Japan three times out of the last four years - and am meant to be going again in three weeks' time. But ev...

The way we were ... I have to admit, I've been feeling like I've lost my blog mojo for the past couple of weeks - that's what a surfeit of festivity can do to you. But a thoughtful article by Taccuino Spuntino (aka Russell Norman of Polpo and Polpetto) about how complaints should be dealt with prompted me to get back into the saddle. Do read it. It's reproduced from the latest Fire and Knives food quarterly. I was particularly intrigued by what he said about Heston Blumenthal - specifically Russell had attended an industry Q&A where Blumenthal was asked whether he thought food or service was more important in a restaurant. 'Without missing a beat, he replied, “Service. Every time.” He explained that you can mess up the food in a restaurant but still turn the situation around with gracious service, by compensating the customer, offering alternatives, bringing treats and bending over backwards to make them happy. But no matter how brilliant the food is, if you ...