I never can get around to noticing anyone's teeth.

Earnestly, try the cockaleekie pie, RM you fortunate local you. Most delicious, and 2 courses for 12 pounds or thereabouts.

"And those fake teeth can be seen from space."

The teeth aren't fake. It's called good dental care, not as common in SOME areas.

"And there is such an outbreak of American Hair"

Yes, here we actually wash and style our hair. *gasp*

Corli, there's a difference between good hygeine, treatment of cavities etc versus purely cosmetic dentistry. Use of veneers is very prevalent in the US and it is for the most part an entirely cosmetic procedure - it's rarely got anything to do with essential dental care, unless the enamel is damaged, or teeth are badly chipped. It's used extensively across the pond to give the appearance of very evenly sized and spaced white teeth, and to cover small gaps between front teeth. Whitening is also a cosmetic procedure, rather than good healthcare. It actually increases the porosity and sensitivity of teeth. Claiming you are more health conscious/cleaner when many of the procedures conducted are purely for aesthetics is disingenous.

"leak pie"

Thanks, but none for me today.

The foam of my latte at Patisserie Valerie was strewn with cinnamon. Most tasty. Can we switch to a more appetizing debate regarding the value of the spice as it relates to coffee? I don't understand the prejudice against it.

Coffee is for wrong'uns even before you start putting curry powder and jam in it(why)?

Real men drink tea and attack anyone who mentions Earl Grey with the nearest heavy object to hand.

ps Cockaleekie's a soup. How do you make a pie out of a soup?

Must be messy to eat.

ummm. I don't know. I'm from out of town.

PS: I think you just pop some pastry over the top and bake until browned.

You know, I don't know how you would make a pie out of soup... maybe quantum mechanics... Donna I would suggest using like an online reservations thing, so I did a bit of searching and found this url that offers online reservations, quite nice. http://www.opentable.com/start.aspx?m=72&n=143 I hope you have an enjoyable time over in London.

Our family (including 3 children) spent a month in London last year. For meals, we did a lot of Sainsbury visits- the supermarket has mini locations everywhere and you can pick up hummus and tabouleh, pitas, fruit, bread, nutella, fresh veges, etc. Wagamama was also great. There is a chain restaurant with a French name (doesn't come to mind right now, though) that has quick sandwiches and soup...also 20 p. soup bread...which our kids loved. There is also a great fish and chips place (hole in the wall type) right across from King's Cross.

This one has certainly strayed from inexpensive restos but here's another opinion--99% of those teeth have had work!

That said, there apparently are regional differences here in quality of teeth--my New England dentist told me the first time I saw him that he knew I was from the Midwest because I had so few cavities. Unfortunately, the Midwest upbringing didn't provide whiter-than-white or 100% straight teeth.

You really think that all of the young women depicted (at least the ones whose teeth we can see) have had veneers? Braces, yes, and whitening almost certainly (though these photos all look a bit air-brushed, so some of that may have been added as well), but veneers would surprise me.

I've done a little poll at work today among several of the young women who work with me. All of them are pretty professional sorts who take pains with their appearance, and have sufficient disposable income to do whatever they'd like in the way of enhancing their looks. All but one of them had had braces as a child (and that one has nice teeth, but not as perfectly aligned as the others'), none of them has had veneers (hmm, maybe they're lying...), and none of them has any long-time friends acquaintances who has had them. We assumed that one couldn't know if a new friend had gotten them at some point in the past.

I also asked a friend who is a dentist, and her first answer was "Oh, yes, they're very common." And then I asked her if she personally knew anybody who'd gotten them, and she admitted that she didn't, and that in fact she didn't see them all that frequently in her practice.

Doggedly ignoring everyone's dental health, I present a recipe similar to what Brown's calls Chicken and Leek Pie. From the Scottish Arms, a pubbish sort of a place near us:

http://www.saucemagazine.com/a/1020

It was good at the S. Arms and also when whipped I up at home, at least for those among us who are ignorant of true cockaleekie.

I know I should care about the world's teeth, but what with worrying about the final results of Britain's Got Talent and all I just can't seem to make the time.

Ah! chicken and leek pie is nothing to do with cockaleekie. What with one being a pie and the other being soup.

"Pubbish"? What fresh yankee madness is this?

here's cockaleekie soup that my old Scottish Nana would have recognised (but she put pearl barley - not rice - in it)

http://www.scottishrecipes.co.uk/cock_a_leekie_soup.htm

Now back to discussing why yanks look like they've had their mouths tiled...

All right, all right:

A. You have to be patient with us. We just throw out terms at random, hoping some of them will be correct.

B. "Vaguely reminiscent of a pub except the servers wear kilts."

I'll try the real thing with barley when the weather gets more Scottish. Thanks, Cholms.

B. "Vaguely reminiscent of a pub except the servers wear kilts." >>>>

*faints*

That pie sounds very tasty. I admire a recipe that has nine cups of heavy cream in it.

Seems unlikely, doesn't it? The sheer saturatedness of it, for people who laugh in the face of cardiac effects. Either that or unfortunate misprint. I slashed the amts of butter and cheese in my version, and it still tasted very fine.