06.28.07
Bread
Tesco’s Finest Bakery Products should actually be relabelled “Tescos Most Crunchy Crusty Products: WARNING WARNING: May cut the roof of your mouth when eatting”.
Certianly this applies to their Tescos Finest Baggettes
previously known as [cold][wet][durham], [dirty][grimy][london],[busy][shiny][toon],[frantic][crowded][south]
Tesco’s Finest Bakery Products should actually be relabelled “Tescos Most Crunchy Crusty Products: WARNING WARNING: May cut the roof of your mouth when eatting”.
Certianly this applies to their Tescos Finest Baggettes
I very much doubt that it is energy efficient, as microwaves eat electricity, but if solar or wind power could be used to drive this device which turns plastics back into lliquid hydrocarbon mixes (aka. oil, petrol, fuels) then maybe we can avoid the situation which was detailed in Alien where oil was being trucked onto the planet from other planets for the production of plastics and pharmasuticals.
Our relience on oil is terrorfying.
After all my late night rantings about food I’ve spent a little time looking up briskets. I think my problems included not cooking for long enough and not brining before hand. Also - not using big enough pieces of brisket. Take a look at this tastey Instructable
Robert Wyatt singing “shipbuilding” written by elvis costello.
Giant Penguins Once Roamed Peru Desert is almost as good as FBI Fight Zombie Hoards of last week.
There’s agreat article in the Boston.com food section about the film Waitress and the pie’s it features. I lvoe some of the names from “I Don’t Want Earl’s Baby Pie (a quiche with brie and smoked ham)” to “I Hate My Husband Pie (”bittersweet chocolate and don’t sweeten it”)” they are brilliant.
There’s agreat article in the Boston.com food section about the film Waitress and the pie’s it features. I lvoe some of the names from “I Don’t Want Earl’s Baby Pie (a quiche with brie and smoked ham)” to “I Hate My Husband Pie (”bittersweet chocolate and don’t sweeten it”)” they are brilliant.
When I can’t sleep, such as tonight, I lie awake andmy thoughts turn to food. I’ve no idea why, but I seem to drift towards imagined dishes when I can’t get my brain to slow down.
I think of little parcels of white fish, steamed with pickled sushi ginger and garlic, or short beef ribs in a sweet and sticky red wine glaze. I dream about piles of fluffy white rice topped with crunchy black peper and lime peel and of piles of finely sliced melon served super cold with flakes of pecorino and parmesan. Of mashed potato baked in whirls with hearts of blue-cheese melting in their centres and of crusty rounds of bread rubbed with garlic butter and eatten guiltily in the kitchen.
I wander over the idea of mixing garlic powder and chilli in with blackpepper popcorn for night in front of the tv, and slow cooking a side of beef in rich dark Belgiun beer, the mustard glaze on the outside becoming solid enough to require using a breadknife to break away hunks which are melt-in-th-mouthinside, served with broken white rolls and fresh steamed cabbage with red onion. I ponder the idea of steaming pork over cider, and flashing it under the grill to caremalise the outside, and or plain bean dishes from Mexico offset with sourcream and grated radishes. Of strong flavours like fennel in unexpected places such as finely sliced and served with honey on a rich vanilla icecream, and wheat noodles which come through the hot and meaty tastes of phu broth despite its beef bone origin.
I wonder what starfish would be like, and if small squid can be made into calimari without making them so damned rubbery, and why don’t people serve thin sharp lemony sauces with crispy seafood instead of tartar and garlic butters? Of coffees brewed twice and sweatened with treacle and of Boston baked bean with thick cut fatty bacon slowly rendered to form their base.
I’m not a desert fan normally, but I can’t help thinking about what would happen if you froze blobs of jam and then mixed them into a sponge mix before baking, so that they melted once it was cooked but held their shape in the cake, or whether or not chilli powder would make for brilliant chocolate cake. Does tinned custard and single cream make for a quick and easy icecream, or does it taste as fake as I imagine?
Can hotdogs from tins be improved upon, or are they at their whitetrash-finest when microwaved and stuffing into slightly burnt pitta’s with grazed cheese and chilli tomato sauce like Sparky and I used to eat on the top floor of house8? Would fat green olives make an interesting addition to plain English scones, and could those dried shrimp I bought in the Asian supermarket be ground with rocksalt and sprinkled over fingers of cucumber? Could vegetable juices be sweatened and frozen into granatas or would neither earthy flavours be good in cocktails with thick and oily gins and vodkas served ice cold in chapagne flutes?
Can lagers be used better in cooking instead of their brothers the bitter and the stout? Surely the light and hoppy flavours of some lagers would go well with fish, or maybe even rabbit. Could fruit woods be used with tea to smoke chicken in my wok, and how do Chipotle places in the States embedd the smokey flavours into the meats? Marinading for days doesn’t seem to work, and basing whilst they are cooking leaves the sause burnt to the outside.
Can butter’s rich and salty flavour be put to different uses floating on miso? Can mushrooms be liquidized and added to stews to give it body? Does slow cooking chicken for hours on end do as much good as it goes for pork and beef, or does it end up tasteless? Is it best cooked for an hour with half a bottle of white wine and onions in the pan, served with the meat pulled from the bone and resting in the cooking liquour?
Is it possible to cook in clay in a household gas oven, or is the bonfire essencial? What does rook taste like? Would pigs knuckles suit a sticky sweet and sour sause, thickened with cornflour to leave it semi-transapent and gelatonous be finger lickin good or sickly? How else can elderflower be used apart form as cordial? Would it make a good icecream flavour?
How do the Texan’s keep their brisket so moist yet have it so delightfully crunchy around the outside? Could I start a texan BBQ pit in this country, and wouild people love being served meat by wieght on a grease proof paper, sitting at long tressel tables with people they don’t know as much as I did? How do they make that creamed corn which wasn’t cheesy or in a white sauce but was so moreish?
I think of glazed red plums in a flan base, gazed with a reduction of their own juice and morello cherry liquour, apricot jam used to sweaten and lift the flavours, served with frozen lemoncello and dark coffee. I wonder about the joys of comfort food and why it always seem to be able to be eaten with a spoon, be it mashed potato, macaroni cheese, baked beans with cheese and Branston pickle, or roasted vegetable soups? What can we do with that butternut squash in the fridge which I want to roast with bacon and punkin, finishing it with adrop of single cream and a liberal shaken of salt.
Why is beetroot such an ignored root vegtable? with it viberant colour and crisp tecture is is always picked and the vinagar wasted down the drain, taking with it the rounded earthy flavours of its former occupant, now sadly squishy and inedable. Why don’t people reuse it to pickle eggs so they take on the ruby red hue and look like something other worldly. The beetroot would be far better off sliced very thinly and dressed with a light oil and a white wine vinagar, or best yet baked with garlic and balsamic in tin foil packages that sigh steam when you open them at the table, the dark glossy juice like blood in the bottom, a perfect accoumptiment to a piece of roasten venson or some pork chops done in the frying pan, their rinds crisped and still bubbling on your plate. Cold the next day the beetroot are wonderful in sandwiches, or pinched from the fridge leaving only your red fingertips as evidence.
When I can’t sleep I think of food, and it’s quite clear I don’t sleep enough.
I remember my first ventures into the wonderful world of coffee, almost 20 years ago. My dad has a caffieter (a “coffee press” if you will) and from it’s heavy jug-like glass body would come dark black poison which I quickly became accustomed to. He has a set of very elegant dark green hexagonal coffee cups (known as café cups because they stack together) which must have held approximately 150ml of coffee and a splash of milk.
Sadly today people seem to have forgotten the joy of coffee, with its dark luster and caffeine rush. They’ve forgotten the ceremony of coffee, and why it is so special. How? Because people have stopped drinking coffee once or twice a day and no longer feel whole unless they have virtually a pint of warm milk with a “shot” of something in it, preferably with a flavored sugar syrup and some method of distinguishing it from every other person in the queue at their Seattle branded coffee shop.
I was in Vancouver a few years ago and in the space of two minutes saw as many key moments in the evolution of coffee in society. Firstly, a café with a name something along the lines of “Mrs Miggin’s Tea Shoppe” was being torn to pieces, it’s little tables and picture frames hurled into a skip. Waiting to be installed were the ubiquitous dark green of a Starbucks. This would not be too heart breaking, except that across the road was another Starbucks, with it’s chessboard topped tables and chunky muffins on sale. Gutting.
I have nothing against Starbucks personally, they are a familiar feature around the world when I’m standing on a street and tired, staring at things in a language I understand. What I object to is how coffee has stopped being about the coffee, and started being about what goes in it, around it, and what temperature is it being served at.
Firstly, lattes. A coffee is a measure of hot water, squeezed through coffee grounds, and out the other side whereby it has taken on some nof the complex flavours and subtle hints of the beans. Filter coffee has more water and lower intensities, espresso has less water than has taken longer to go through the grounds at a higher temperature. There is no such thing as a “shot” of coffee. Latte’s on the other hand seem to be taken as the staple of the Starbucks Generation and involve a huge quantity of warm milk (often with frothing involved), to which “shots” of coffee are added. These shots are in fact small measures of crapply made espresso. A latte is not a coffee, it is virtually a pint of coffee infused milkshake, and should be through of as such.
Next onto the chopping block - Americanos. When I buy coffee at a coffee shop I normally end up drinking these as there are the closest thing to a “real coffee” (a filter coffee). It involves hot water and espresso being mixed, resulting in a coffee mixture not unlike filter coffee. I’ll leave by rage there, as at least this stuff is drinkable.
Mochachinos/Frappochinos and all the other abominations that masquerade as coffee seem to be bastard children of a sick in the head marketer. Whizzing ice and coffee together with fruit and sugar is a cocktail at best, a cake at worst, and to have it pretending to be a coffee is just sick.
The day I heard somebody specifying the temperature of the milk as well as the type, I knew we were onto a loosing battle. One of my friends was actually fired from a coffee shop because she had the good sense to ask a customer why he bothered ordering a “tall skinny latte with a half shot decaffe, soy milk, and mint sugar syrup”. Personally, I’d give the girl an MBE
After reading one of Jeromy Clarkson’s rants about Daily Mail readers refusing to admit where their food comes from, I ran across “from day old to dinner” over at twwly.com which is a great short photoset that documents a frist “season” of chickens.
I also like their tag-line - “Food for thought: If you couldn’t kill it, you shouldn’t eat it” which I regard as a truism.
after starting my second Jeromy Clarkson book it occurs to me that his newspaper column and books are basically just the rants he has in his head written down. I need to write more clearly. I might even start a new catagory called Rants just incase I feel the need to get some down on paper.
Having watched Grand Designs (thanks to lovefilm - my first batch arrived today) - I ran across Emmaus which seems to be doing some wonderful work. I love the photos too - they are master pieces.
This is great to see - the Tate’s website for the How We Are exebihion, using Flickr to backend it’s photos - meaning you can see the EXIF data on how the photo was taken fro some of them. Fabouls use of technology (and some shiny photos too).
i love my librarything.com account, but the unSuggester really did make me laugh out looud this morning. It came up with…
I’ve just signed up for lovefilm.couk (3 months free! rockin).
Now - what should I watch? Please elave your recommendations…
Always refreshing to hear an American with the exact oposite views to most - the freakonomics blog points out that the low prices for fuel in the US are responcible for many bad things.
Whilst I was in NYC there was outrage that fuel had hit $3 a gallon (£1.50 for 5 litres) and people were furious. The girl and I were laughing at the poor deluded fools, paying nearly £ a litre. There was also a brilliant advert for an SUV (fat bastard 4×4) that proud claimed “Nearly 25 miles per gallon”. Fuck me kids - 25! I think lawnmovers get that in the uk.
Little bit of time to kill, and was reading About Tom Reynolds, noticing how many things we seem to agree on. As a result I’m lifting it wholesale, and rewording it for me.
>I’ve lived in London my whole life, mainly in the North and East.
# I briefly lived in London and didn’t like it. I enjoy visiting.
I use to live in Dagenham, then I lived in Enfield, now I’m living in Barking.
# I once lived in Tooting, but moved back up North where the world is clean and green and the air isn’t dirty.
Currently I live in a terrible block of flats.
#I currently live in quite a nice block of flats
But it is cheap and the flat itself is quite nice, once the door is shut.
#Once you shut the door, ours is a little pokey.
I live on my own, have no pets and no plants. (unless you count the silverfish in the bathroom).
#I live with somebody I work with.
I have a mum (1) and a brother (1).
#Ditto, though I also have dad(1) and grans(2)
I have no idea where my father is, or even if he is still alive.
#This is very sad. My dad is my best friend.
I was born in 1971, and am a Sagittarius and a cockney.
#I was born in 1981, a cancer and a Northerner
I don’t believe in astrology.
#Neither do I, its all shit designed to confuse and excite morons.
But I do believe in dowsing.
#Seen it work - was very surprised. The scientist in me wants to know why.
After school I trained to be a Primary school teacher, but left just before I qualified when I realised that I loathed children.
# I have great respect for educators, but a quiet hatered of teachers whinging. Yes, you work hard, but…surprise surpise, lots of people do and they don’t get 13 weeks holiday.
My brother however ignored my advice, became a teacher and now earns much more than I do.
#My bro is ace.
I have a diploma, he has a degree. But I’m not jealous - I have more hair than him.
#We both have degrees. I imagine he has more hair is you weighed it.
I taught myself Z80 machine code when I was 13, now I have trouble installing Linux or getting Windows to work.
#I started out on a ZX81, and currenly run Windows, two flavours of Linux, OS X and Solaris.
I did Maths, Electronics, Computing and Physics ‘A’ Levels - A good grounding for a career in the health service.
#I did physics, chemist and maths. They stand me well.
I’ve worked for the N.H.S. since I was 23.
#I’ve never worked for the NHS, but I have been employed for ever year since I was 14.
First I was a nurse, specialising in A&E. I’ve worked in four hospitals, but my favourite had “zero stars” for two years running.
# Initally as a kitchien porter, then a barman, a graphic layout monkey, a market stall trader and now an IT consultant.
…And a Sister who just got sent to prison for stealing opioid drugs.
#Nowhere I have worked has yet closed, or been busted for drugs.
I lived in Enfield for several years at four different addresses - each time sharing a house with other nurses.
# I lived in 15 different place sint eh last 8 years.
I left A&E because all I wanted to do was torture the patients - this is not healthy.
#I’m an IT consultant by default. Eventaully I’ve do something else, maybe.
I then joined the London Ambulance Service. Now I have stopped torturing all but the congenitally obnoxious and drunks. (and drug addicts… and rude people)
# I have functional It people (those concerned with the functionality of the software with no appreciation of the technical strucure or back end).
No-one knows I blog at work, and they likely won’t find out.
#Most people know I blog, very few know where, and I try to keep it this way.
Reasons why I love my job? Fresh air, you are your own boss, you get to drive on the wrong side of the road and you only have to look after patients for 20 minutes.
# Money, technical exposure, working with some amazingly talented people.
Amongst other jobs I’ve cleaned for Sainsbury’s, gutted fish (for one day), and walked the streets sticking those annoying leaflets through letterboxes.
# I’ve done a lot of things. Listing them here would make me highly identifiable.
I love London, and can’t ever see myself leaving.
#I like visiting, but I lvoe several other cities.
When younger I represented my country in swimming competitions.
#I wish I could claim this.
I’m now incredibly unfit - and am quite happy at this state.
#I am extreamly unhappy about my shape, but not motivated to change it.
I used to be able to drink a bottle of vodka in a night.
#I doubt I ever could. I am a ilghtweight.
Now I get drunk after two strong beers - something I try to avoid.
#I think I might make three, but it would be pushing it.
…I’m a very cheap date.
#As am I, but then, i tend to pick up the bill.
I don’t “do” drugs, the last time I tried cannabis I was rather ill.
#I can’t be bothered, though I miss the ceremony and frippery.
I don’t smoke, have unprotected sex or drink to excess - I’ll be dead before I’m 50.
#I occationally drink to excess, but as noted about, thats not that much.
If I’m not wearing a medical uniform I’m actually very shy.
#I used to be very shy, but I have grown bolder as I got older.
I blog because I find it amusing. And I get to meet new and interesting people from across the world.
#I started a blog because I loved Zannah’s. Now its habit and sort of comforting.
I never used to have a pension because I was convinced I would be dead before I reached 50. Now I’m not so sure. Given my current pension plans it might be better if I do.
#I have a pension, but I naturally dont trust my money to some shit in an office trying to earn his commision.
I like most forms of music, except R’n'B, Pop pap, Drum ‘n’ Bass and Improvisational Jazz.
#I hate modern R’n'B crack-smoking gun toting gansta-wannabe’s. If they met a real hardman, they’d shit it.
Favourite music includes Alabama 3, Moby, any “Happy Hardcore”, Sisters of Mercy, most female singer/songwriters and Marillion (Fish era).
#I love Moby with a passion.I also love Nick Drake. You can see from my lastfm feed on your right.
I don’t think you can beat live music as a form of entertainment.
#I would agree completely.
I have a habit of loving a band mere months before they hit the big time - I never feel “cheated” by their success.
#Only once or twice, through I did pay 50p to see maximo park years before they were famous.
If I’m still breathing then I realise that things can’t be that bad.
#Things can be totally shit, but, on balance, my life kicks arse compared to starving to death in Africa with AIDS.
I find the idea of vampires interesting - but I don’t think they are real.
#I like the idea, but it’s mostly the attraction of goth girls. There are people who thing they are really vampires, and they scare me a little, but only becaus ethey are dillusional.
…especially those who claim to be “psychic vampires”.
#Fruitcakes.
I read comics - but only the ones I enjoy.
# I read many graphic novels, because I’m not organised enough, or patient enough, to buys comics each week. I like Preacher. Lots. And Batman.
I also read books, when I have the time.
#I read what I consider to be huge amounts. Certainly more than a book a week, and normally have 3 on the go at once.
I can juggle three balls, and I used to be able to solve a Rubiks cube.
#I can happily juggle three balls, but was quickly annoyed by Rubiks cubes. I did have a crazy math teacher who wrote abook about how to always solve the rubiks cube however.
I have a very poor memory
#Mine is not great.
I can juggle three balls, and I used to be able to solve a Rubiks cube.
#very funny.
I’m also a bit hard of hearing.
# I went stone deaf in highschool due to an ear infection, and was completely deaf for a good 2 weeks. I have tititus in my left ear, but I only reallly hear it when i changes note.
I can’t touch my toes, I can’t touch my nose with my tongue, I can’t see without glasses/contacts.
#No. Yes. No. None of the above affect me, though the toes thing annoys me.
I can still stand on my head - but it makes me dizzy.
#I could before I had a back operation. I imagine I can now, but I’m not about to try.
The thing that I hate the most is that humanity has so much potential for good, but so often disappoints.
#I hate people who are just useless. People who are all the physical ability but who “can’t be arse”. I can’t be arsed to talk to them.
Why “Random Acts Of Reality”? Because life can change dramatically because of them.
#Why [frantic][busy][south]? It was oroginally [cold][wet][durham], which was an accurate description of where I was. the brackets cane form geeky layouts at the time.
I prefer being awake at night, and asleep during the day - this is nothing to do with my interest in vampires.
#I’m very bad at going to sleep and worse at getting up int he morning.
I automatically admire anyone who can speak another language or play a musical instrument - two things I have tried many times before and have failed miserably in.
# I agree completely.
I can swear in Tagalong, Afrikaans and Mandarin.
#I can swear in French, and in English extreamly well.
I’ve had the same email address for 12 years. It gets a lot of spam.
# I think I’ve had this one for about 7 years now. It’s as long as I’ve had a blog.
I’ve never been engaged, rarely think having children would be a good idea and do not chase after lurve.
# I’m not engaged, and consider children to be small, pink, wiggly and scary. I don’t chase love, but I do try to maintain a healthy relationship.
I’m single, and quite happy being so.
#I’m highly adapt at being single, but get lonely. Currently I’m not.
I can’t stand watching football - but I am heterosexual.
#Football is gash, and I get no enjoyment form watching it. Im not gay either. I think this is a highly unfair assuption relating to gay men who like football.
I don’t have political leanings - I think all politicians are by nature crooked liars and as bad as one another.
# I’ve a soft spot for the conversatives because labour were so rude to them when I was a child and listening to radio4. It was nice when labour got in and fucked a lot of people off. Last time i voted LibDem, but it was a matter of the local conservative and labour boys standing being twerps.
I think “Anarchists” and “Socialists” need to grow up and realise just how stupid most of humanity is.
# It takes one good capitalist to ruin a socialist society. It takes a society of socalists to ruin a good capitalist society.
I think “Capitalists” know how stupid most of humanity is.
# And the thrive from it.
I plan on giving the Lib Dems a chance come the next election - it’s about time they had a chance to disappoint me as well.
# I’ve no idea who I will vote for. I suspect it will be an under educated, ill-informend, spontanious decision based on their faces on posters.
I still play Role-playing games occasionally - it’s good for stress relief. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it).
# I don’t and never have (making the destinction between role-play and table-top gaming)
I could sleep 14 hours a day if I was allowed.
#I doubt I could, but I’ll give it a good go.
Happiness is a comfy bed, and no alarm clock.
#Happyness is tea.
I wonder how people can do 100 of these things.
#Bored people.
I’ll never be as insightful as Cory Doctorow, as handsome as Brad Pitt, as famous as a Big Brother contestant, as successful as Bill Gates, or as well hung as John Holmes. It isn’t something that bothers me much.
#Niether am I, but it bothers me a little.
I used to drink 2 ½ litres of Diet Coke a night. I ended up in hospital when I went “cold turkey”. Now I manage something a little more sensible.
# I’m not a huge fan of coke to be honest. I’ve tkae the ginger beer.
I know my grammar skills are appalling, I use hyphens and commas too much and have trouble constructing a sentence.
# Bah and humbug - you can read this can’t you?
I will never carry a National ID card.
# If they come in, I probably will, just in the same way I carry my driving licence even when not in the car. I hope they don’t come in though.
I’ve walked ten miles through North London barefoot in the rain.
# I once walked 7 miles home with a raging hangover and only a tshirt. It was crap.
I used to want to be a hippy - this is not connected with the previous point.
# I like the idea, but am too scared by pensions and houses and children and all the other things that require serious money.
I only own socks that are coloured black.
# I mostly own socks that are black, though there are two pairs (one with penguins on!)
I think rats, pigeons, foxes and cockroaches are the coolest animals around because they show humanity that despite our best efforts we can’t make everything we want extinct.
# I don’t mind rats. I’m not keen on cockroaches. I rather like foxes, but I’m not against hunting, just the tossers who they always interview on TV.
I hate doing laundry, and loathe ironing.
#I hate laundry but find ironing quite theraputic.
No matter how carefully I shave, I always look like I have a five o’clock shadow.
#No matter how carefully I shave I always miss the same patch under my right jaw joint.
I have an avatar in There - imaginatively called “Reynolds”.
#I don’t and don’t have any 3d persona online.
If someone tried mugging me, I wouldn’t be heartbroken if I accidentally killed them.
#I think would actually quite enjoy hurting them. I’m not sure if this is a good thing. At least mugging is an “honest” crime (threattening behavior to get money), unlike things that some people get away with (like willfull neglegence).
I can’t sing, I can’t dance and I can’t flirt - I have never “picked up” a woman in a nightclub.
#I used to be able to sing. I was bullied about being in a choir until I quit. I thought I could dance, but I probably couldn’t. I think I’m probably not a bad flirt, but I suspect I’m a little sleazy.
I think Anton LaVey had the right idea.
# I have no idea who he is (scuttles off to wikipedia).
I drop into Dr Drippen’s blog ever once in a while, and along with the fabulously readable Random Reality, its always another interesting view on the Health Service. Now I’m no speller (I’m virtually illiterate and I never spell check the blog because I frankly cannot be fussed), but the commenting on here is decending to handnags at dawn!
I get very little fun from youtube. Nothing compared to streaming radio, msn, plain old html and css, and email. As has been noted numerous times in the last few weeks, the bandwidth available is being chewed up very quickly by the new breed of applications that are media intensive. I propose people stop wasitng their lives looking at short clips of people arsing about on skateboards and replays of TV they didn’t set their PVR for, and stop breaking the net, you flashy-web chavs.