Consuming Interest

Ronay Rushes In

By LESLIE ADRIAN

WHERE Michelin fears to tread, Mr. Egon Ronay has rushed in, awarding stars left and right. to his personal choice of eateries in • Egon Ronay -Recommends (Hutchin- son, 7s. 6d.). So arbitrary is his selection that he has even included the Saddle Room in Himilton Place although it has 'No band, no bar, no food (at least 1 did not see so much as a breadcrumb).' Mercifully he gives it no stars, and no encircled S's (to indicate service). Why it is there at all in a list of 402 Eating Places round Britain and 'in London is not crystal clear.

Although, as in Raymond Postgate's Good Food Guide, the inspection was a team effort, Mr. Ronay himself did the writing, and subjec- tive Standards seem to prevail. Therefore criti- cism is bound to be subjective, too. My surprises include the absence of Otello Scipione's Trattoria da (Hello in Soho, while Otello's dis- carded first love, the Trattoria Toscana, is included, in spite of its being more expensive and giving less value. Mr. ,,Ronay, as a Hungarian, is probably blase about his native cooking. This may explain why the Csarda has been left out, though it gets a big hand from the Postgate crowd. Where else in London can you eat roast sucking-pig? .

One point in favour of the Ronay approach: his remarks are more standardised (ignoring some fearful printer's errors), so that the user can tell at a glance whether a restaurant is open for lunch on Sundays. This can also be done in the British Travel and Holidays Association's Hotels and Restaurants of Britain, which lists a small number of recommended eating places and a much larger number of hotels (the very word 'hotel' strikes terror to the stomach). But com- paratively • this is a timid, bureaucratic list, doubtless invaluable for the foreign visitor who has been led to expect little but meat and two veg. all on one plate—and might be heart- broken to get anything else.

Now that the enterprising Good. Food scouts have been enrolled into the Consumers' Associa- tion (Mr. Postgate assures us that this does not mean that members of the club—that is anyone who buys the book—will have to join CA) it is to be hoped that a little more uniformity of presentation (though not of opinion!) will pre- vail. The 50,000 users of this best of all guide- books to the gastronomic heights of the fish-and-

'Stand up when his Lordship is talking

to you. . . chip islands have certainly vindicated the faith of their founder (who. may now relinquish the unwanted title of Public Stomach No: 1). The 1963 GFG would be a Christmas present I would value, if it came out early enough.

Last year I reported here my own miserable experience at the hands of a dishonest car dealer and it is with some feeling that I welcome the news that the Motor Agents' Association is planning to protect the public from the minority of swindlers who undoubtedly exist. The motor agents, with good reason, are worried about the public image of their trade. Unlike the television men who hire public-relations experts' to change the image when all they need to do is to change the programmes and let the image look after itself, the motor agents are doing something. about it.

They plan to invite their 20,000' members to place themselves on a register. When a com- plaint is made to the Association by a customer who feels he has not got a satisfactory deal either in buying a car or in repairs or servicing. there will be an investigation by an independent engineer and a qualified arbitrator. If the garage is found to be to blame, it will be asked '10 compensate the motorist. If it refuses, it will be struck off the register and the motorist will be compensated for his loss from a fund financed by subscriptions from registered dealers.

The Agents' Association has been working on this plan for two years and it will be put to the Asiociation's council for approval later this year. For the trade's sake—and mine—I wish it could move a lot faster, but, if it can't, it should have time to make sure that the engineer who investi- gates complaints really is independent and is seen to be independent by the customer. It will be a great pity if this scheme, like so many others of its kind, were to turn out to be a public-relations effort on behalf of the agents rather than a genuine offer 'of protection for the consumer.

Tradesmen, it used to be said, loved do-it- yourself; so often they were called in to take over a job expensively messed up by an amateur.

I think they must be less happy now; more and more do-it-yourselfers are getting better and better at the game. The cause is obvious; people on fixed incomes do not earn with their leisure, but they can certainly save on inflated labour costs with it by being their own mech- anic, plumber or decorator.

You can further save money by hiring the gear needed to do the job. The Hire Service Cdmpany (London) Limited of 182/4 Horn Lane, Acton (branches at 15/17 Baions Court Road, 588 Fulham Road, 346 King Street, Hammersmith, and Mackenzie Street, Slough), offer you 300 items, anything from a 24 in• handsaw at 2s. a day to a 32-foot-high mobile working platform at £6 a day. (They even think of reminding you to include your own height when deciding how high a platform you need), Their stock includes all the standard decorators needs—trestles, blowlamps buckets, brushes, sanders, ladders—as well as bricklayers' and plasterers' gear, electric tools and plumbers' kit, Charges are quoted for one and two days, and one to three and more than three weeks. Charges generally undercut the competition; no deposits (except for electrical plant), telephone orders accepted, free delivery and collection in the London W3 and Slough districts, reason- able charges elsewhere, up to forty miles from any one of their branches.

Also in the business is the Home Decorating Hire Shop in Walton Street, SW3. Their stock is less extensive; extending ladders, brushes, paper-hanging kit, trestles, buckets, blowlamps, etc. Prices a little higher, and deposits of £1 or £2 on most items--no charge for delivery in the metropolitan area, though.

Harrison Gibsons of Ilford have a Do-It- Yourself Department that hires ladders, steps, boards, trestles, dust sheets and paper-hanging gear. Deposits of 10s., £1 or £2 are exacted, and minimum hire is one week. Hire charges are several shillings more than the others, is general.

So many commentators, including me, have been grumbling about the overwhelming amount of information squeezed into Choice, that I thought it might be appropriate to produce at least one paragraph describing just one product. The one I have in mind is a pair of socks. No ordinary pair this, in spite of being grey. It is ten Years old, has been worn constantly and has never worn into a single hole: darned good, in fact. The wearer, who is still wearing this pair, tells me he paid Its. for them in 1952, but for years could not find another pair like them. In 1958 Shopper's Guide did some research into men's socks, without mentioning this kind, which are knitted from spun nylon. They reviewed spun Terylene, stretch nylon, wool/cotton and wool/rayon mixtures, wool/nylon with nylon re- inforcement and pure wool with nylon heels and toes. In their conclusions the researchers wrote: 'Stretch nylon did very well; in fact if its warmth could be kept in proportion to its thickness, a thick nylon sock would be very warm--but we could not find a thick nylon sock to test.'

Strange, that, because Essinay socks (Simpson, Wright and Lowe Ltd., Sutton-in-Ashlield, Notts) have been on the market about ten years. They now cost 8s. I Id. a pair, much less, taking infla- tion into account, than when they first appeared. Because the nylon is spun (the filament is chopped into 11-inch lengths, then spun like wool) the absorption factor is higher than is usual with man-made fibres. This sock is the house- wife's dream, in fact, being comfortable, easy to wash (it can tolerate washing-machine treatment without felting) and well-nigh indestructible. My informant has subjected his incredible pair to a test that could be reproduced only on a laboratory abrasion tester—ten years' walking. The socks are discoloured on the sole and pilled on the surface, but otherwise perfect. I can't think why any other kind has a market. Worn alongside this pair spun Tet)lene wore into holes in about four months. Essinay are guaran- teed for six months by the makers; but do make sure that the retailer has filled in the guarantee forfn with his name and address before you leave the shop.