Posts by: dust123y

Hello people,

I was at a loose end and was about to switch to UK TV Food and see how MK was getting on, having not tuned in for a while.

But having just scanned the boards, I've now lost the inclination to tune into the channel at all, let alone MK. My loss I know!

Two things strike me.

1. How much anti MK comment there still is. It appears to be on various levels:

a) (Sometimes new) viewers who just don't like it and are venting (often in shouty caps!) about the show especially as, for some, it replaces a show they loved.

b) Those who are new or are sticking with it and are constructively critical

c) The diehard GFL/JB fans. The position of the latter seems to have evolved from Bring Back Jenny! to Please Can We Maybe Have Some Re-Runs, Maybe?

2. There's a small but obvious set of posters who seem, intentionally or not, to be set on ridiculing and driving away the middle group above (posters who are watching and critical of this programme) - however well meant and constructive their criticisms are. This surprises me as a couple are posters whose contributions I have respected and enjoyed reading in the past.

Healthy talkboards thrive on the cut and thrust of argument for and against.

One of my friends works at in marketing for a food company. Their customer service department is briefed to welcome critical comment of their products and solicit as much detail as possible, even if of the "I don't like the taste" variety, as in a commercial market they need to be offering a product which is as appealing to their market as possible.

Her company is as interested in receiving customer criticism as plaudits, as the fact someone bothered to buy and then write in at all, shows that they care about the product on some level and these are customers the company does not want to lose.

I hope both sides will allow the other side to air their views with more tolerance. Sometimes those who are most thoughtful and critical are those who care most.

The show itself is fair game. But, to echo the sentiment of an earlier poster and MK fan, neither 'side' should be bullying members of the other 'side' purely because they express a different viewpoint, not least as they come across as poor ambassadors for their causes, whichever 'side' they're on.

For the record, I initially liked the idea of the show, was like many disappointed by the execution, was interested in what people were liking and disliking about the show to see whether I agreed and might change my mind, and as a fan of food progs wanted to see the show improve.

Good on those who are enjoying the prog and expressing this without the need to turn on or mute those who express criticism.

Here endeth the sermon from my front room.

I'm still trying to work out why this programme isn't really working for me.

Watching a bit of tonight's show, Tom PB was just standing up talking to MF as MF was about to make his Sicilian fish dish and then in the blink of an eye Tom was sitting down at a table in the audience as they continued their chat. Obviously an edit and intended to look natural, but it is unusual for this to be so obvious that it jars.

There are many of these breaks in continuity, (chef starts chopping veg, cut for a moment to audience, suddenly there's a mound of cut veg).

I understand that they're editing down material to make the show feel live, but other programmes do this more skilfully.

Still liking Angela H but feel the prog is punching below its weight given the calibre of the contributors.

I said that I thought your being called stupid (and the rest) was nasty. Your response to my post is a bit OTT. You certainly hadn't lost any credibility to me in your other post, quite the opposite.

Angela Hartnett is coming across very well - warm, genuine, impassioned, yet laid back.

Scottson, thanks a lot for posting as it helps me understand the strong reactions on this and other threads about negative responses to MK.

I think it's nasty that you were called stupid for simply liking a TV show. It's happened to me on another board and I didn't take it seriously as the poster had nothing to back up his point. In my case I had a picture of a cider-swigging 12 year old at his 'puter randomly seeking people to wind up.

To respond to your post if that's ok, this is only my personal point of view, but it seems to me on the UKTVFood boards that these other posters to which you refer are letting you say you enjoy MK. They are just expressing a contrary (and not necessarily very articulate or polite in the case you've experienced - I don't recall the exchange so I'm going on what you say!) response.

I don't agree at all with posts in which other posters are called stupid or become the victim of over-reaction, misquotation or general high handedness or small mindedness simply because they express a liking for or a disliking of a TV show. It's obvious when it happens and posters who do so, general talkboard high spirits and teasing aside, lose credibility for me each time they do it.

Having stuck with MK on and off as a food show groupie, I still don't find MK a very good watch (I've talked on the boards about what I dislike and what I like about it), but if I say so, it truly isn't a statement against anyone who happens to be enjoying it more than I am.

Since when has people criticising a programme (in this case Market Kitchen) become people criticising people who advocate or enjoy the programme?

I have the sense to differentiate between a programme I dislike, and people who enjoy the programme I dislike.

Personally, I have respect for people who like the programme I dislike and I am also interested in what they are getting out of the programme. This is especially true of my favourite genre, food TV, where I have a vested interest in watching the flagship show - I want it to be good and I want to enjoy it and be given pointers about improvement or things I've missed.

TV chatboards thrive on a robust debate between the "pros" and the "antis" about shows from EastEnders to Andrew Marr's History of Britain. Comments along the lines of "you're mad if you like this"/ "you're mad if you dislike this" with nothing to back it up tend just to be background noise to the actual discussions in hand.

I don't understand why on this particular board the pros are sometimes appearing to take negative comment about Market Kitchen - a TV show - as an attack on them.

I really don't think it is. It certainly isn't from me.

GFL - as I've just noted on another thread, one change I've noted today is that on my TV at least, everything's gone all orangey and suffused, lighting-wise. The pro is that it looks all glowy and flattering. The con is that it all looks rather distracting and fake, like everyone's been ready brekked.

It could well just be my TV!

One positively interesting thing I note as I flick in and out of today's repeat of MK.

They seem to have changed the lighting, so that everything's all suffused and orange-toned - a bit like the UKTV Food website!

It reminds me a bit of the "shooting through a stocking" thing that movies used to do to make ageing stars look more radiant.

The blurry orangeness is quite striking on my tv. I'd love to know what it's about. It gives a warm glow though it's quite distracting at the same time, like someone who's been on the alcopops and used far too much fake tan.

Ooh, maybe it's an orange Waitrose/UKTV Food branding thing?



Or maybe my TV's just knackered.

Glad to see a show has made it into the charts...

I am trying to watch MK this minute though, and even though an hour or so of studio food tv with top chefs should be my absolute nirvana, there's just something about it which makes my attention slip away so that I end up checking emails, making phone calls, doing paperwork, flicking channels, reading the paper...

Hang on - maybe that's not such a bad thing!

Oh and I mean I am really trying to watch it. I still think I should be enjoying it and am trying to work out why it seems to have such a teflon coating for my attention.

This is from the UKTV food website....

Tom Yam Soup

by Ross Burden
from Good Food Live

Quick and simple to make, Ross Burden's fragrant Thai soup is a wonderful mixture of flavours and textures.

Servings: 4
Level of difficulty: Intermediate
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
Tom Yam Soup
1 tbsp vegetable oil
4 Thai shallots, finely sliced
1 tbsp grated galangal/ginger root
1 tbsp chilli flakes
1 litre chicken stock
175g Pork fillet, frozen
20 canned straw mushrooms, drained and halved
100ml fresh lime juice
8 lime leaves, shredded
15g fresh coriander leaves
50ml Fish Sauce
10ml light soy sauce
Method
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Fry the shallot and galangal for 2-3 minutes until fragrant.

2. Add chilli flakes and fry until the chilli colours the oil. Pour in the chicken stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

3. Once simmering, shave in the frozen pork fillet and add the straw mushrooms, lime juice, lime leaves and coriander.

4. Stir in the fish sauce and soy sauce. Simmer until the pork has cooked through and serve.

No prob HD. It was a recipe that I'd particularly noted at the time as one I might attempt to cook!

And Refchef - wow, it's always great to hear from someone who's actually tested a recipe that caught my eye. Sorry to hear it fell apart - suspect you may be right about the chilling. Maybe the sour cream is meant to glue it together? Thanks for the reminder about the lime zest - it was really bugging me! You've also reminded me that the other ingredient in the sauce might have been sweet chilli sauce of some kind?

Off to experiment!

Ooh, I saw this too. My memory may be playing tricks but I think it was Ainsley Harriott making the Tuna Triangles....

I can't find a recipe for you anywhere, but as I recall it was something like:

Boil some potatoes and then mash in the pan.

Empty in a drained tin of tuna and some chopped green onions plus some chopped red onion for colour if you wish.

Season and add a dollop of creme fraiche or sour cream (optional).

Mix quite coarsley so the texture isn't too homogenous.

Flour a surface lightly and shape the mixture on the surface with a palette knife into triangle shapes.

Then shallow fry in a pan.

I'm sure there was more on the herb and seasonings front but I can't remember what! And unfortunately I also missed what went into the red sauce.

He then served it on a bed of salad (?) with a gloop of the red chilli-tomato-y sauce on one side of the tuna triangle and a gloop of tomato ketchup on the other.

Well it was something like that, anyway!

Just seen this thread and was going to suggest black and white but I can see Rosti has got there first! Great suggestions.

I thought of it because I once went to a dinner where both clothes and food were black and white themed. Everyone looked very chic and everyone drank lots of Guinness.

I also recall a Paddy Burt column from the Telegraph; she went somewhere where the host served a black and white (? or maybe just white??) themed meal where the soup was a leek and potato one (or something else white - sorry, my memory's really letting me down here!) and the host insisted once you had your bowl you had to cover the surface in ground black pepper!

Hi Posset - one marginal improvement (which I might be imagining) is the odd more steady and sustained close-up of the food being prepared, but I feel there's still a long long long long long way to go, not least in terms of creating a natural flow to the show, doing something with the zombie-like studio audience and showing more inspiring recipes.

Pocket - maybe it's an advertising site for tv show turkeys...

Indeed Conch and Scaly!

John Grumpy Face, we call him in our more immature moments...

Very interesting point about the scheduling, Conch.

Soup kitchen!

It's a funny old thing, MK.

I have never watched a show with so many "Absolutely"s in it.

It's like everyone in it is trying to stretch out "Yes" into something that fills up gaping tundras of time.

I'm finding it a real curate's egg of a show.

The repeats are indeed now becoming rather - er - repetitive.

I can now chant along to entire episodes of Keith Floyd...

Well I've just made my first ever recipe from MK!

It was Galton's mashed potatoes with rosemary and thyme infused milk, and I can thoroughly recommend it. The only thing I fiddled with was to make it a little drier than on the show - I like my mash to stand up for itself ruggedly rather than pool cheffily and elegantly on the plate - but the recipe itself was delish.

Conch, I had the Fun to Cook Book with the cat and dog too, when I was about 7!!! It really caught my imagination and may well go someway to explaining why I'm on these boards...

On boring car journeys my siblings and I used to rate the dishes out of 10.

We loved the green, red and yellow marzipan shamrock and weren't so keen on the cheese straws or the devils on horseback. The recipe we drooled over most of all (in fact we worshipped it as a minor deity) was the great Chocolate Yule Log...

My first (and pretty much only) school cookery experiences were tooth-shatteringly solid flapjacks and a concave chocolate cake.

Just noticed that Market Kitchen doesn't appear to feature in the UKTV Food ratings Top 10 for the week ending 6th May at all.

Hey, just belatedly watching a tape of tonight's Great British Menu on BBC2 and lo and behold, unless I'm much mistaken, Mutton Man (who Grisinni and I liked on MK) is on as Mark Broadbent's lamb supplier!

I guess the two shows, made by the same company, would obviously feed off each other to some extent in terms of discovering (hopefully!) TV friendly food heroes.

Oh yes Grisinni, I agree, Mutton Man was good value.

"I like it twitching"!

Thanks Rosti.

I'm liking Arthur, the new on-location chap. For me he's exactly what this show should be about. He has a distinct passion for food and a positive energy about him which I find a welcome contrast to the sense of groundhog day jet lag one sometimes picks up (personal opinion only and not intended to be snippy - I'm sympathising with them here) from the regular presenters in the studio.

Arthur's recipe for pork chops with morels is one of the first I've seen on MK that made me want to jump up and cook it.

I'm making myself hungry now... Off to raid the store cupboard...

Ah Rosti - Marguerite Patten brings back memories of my mum's cookery bookshelf! That and a very splattered Elizabeth David.

Talking about nests, I remember a boyfriend who'd very sweetly cooked me a surprise dinner of angel hair pasta (the sort that comes dried in nest shapes) - being furious that it had unravelled from the nest shape during cooking!

He'd wanted to put the filling in the middle gap and couldn't understand why there wasn't one...