pumpkinstrokemarrow

Only managed one lentil soup on the island. Must have been preoccupied with the crustaceans. But learned that Le Creuset saucepans - which I had thought were a bit of an expensive nonsense - do have one useful property. That is, that boiling red lentils do not boil over, which they almost invariably do at home, not having the patience to stand and watch them while they come to the boil. The lid of the Le C pan is, for a start, very heavy. Maybe there is a better seal than that achieved by Prestige with stainless steel. Then the interior of the slightly domed lid is covered with iron pimples, maybe 2mm high, maybe cast into the lid when it was first hatched. This will clearly have an effect on the way that steam will condense inside; that is to say that condensation will drip down over the whole surface of the boiling liquid, rather than just down around the edge. Are these drips enough to burst the bubble of rising lentil which causes the boiling over? In any event, no boiling over.

The first lentil back home was flavoured with the remains of some stewed celery (being discounted to 25p at Mr S), liquidised, instead of the usual sliced carrot, which was unavailable. The celery changed the texture and taste of the resultant lentil soup in some subtle way, very much for the better. Maybe it was the peanut oil added to help the original cooking of the celery along. Not that I would have known that the addition was celery, had I not added the celery myself.

The second lentil back home is now under construction for breakfast and has boiled over as I blog. The occasion being the loss of a tooth and the resultant temporary loss of crunching capacity. But, not having used dentists much for quite a long time, quite impressed at the lack of post-extraction pain. I remember feeling quite bad after having had wisdom teeth out (thirty years ago, in a place which is now a red hotel in Leicester Square, then a dental hospital), once the cocaine wore off. On the other hand, I did not get the cocaine high that I got on the occasion after that. Tooth out, go into shock. About an hour after that, on a high for about an hour. Prancing around Broomhill Park (near Palmers' Green) with the family. Then modest pain kicks in. Go to bed and all over in the morning.

Why is it that some people find having lentil soup (or stew for that matter) for breakfast odd? How long ago did we move to having particular foods at particular meals, or at particular times of day?

Woke this morning to a chippy dream. Having been on the beer for some days on the trot, something I can no longer manage in real life, we decided to go to the cinema. Get to the cinema and find that the waiting area is tricked out rather like a pub. Homely ladies behind the jump. They also serve food, which comes out of a little cupboardy kitchen behind the left had side of the bar. With all but one of our portions of fish we get chips, dumped liberally onto the plate. I go to get the chips for the last portion, by which time a small chef is esconced in the small kitchen. I grab a handful of what turn out to be white plastic forks. Drop those back in their bowl and grab a handful of chips. Chef looks very severely at me and I drop the chips back in their bowl. He does a stunt on hygeine. He then calms down and start to prepare me a proper portion of chips. That is to say, take a slice of white Mother's Pride. Sprinkle some white bread crumbs on it. Sprinkle on some other bits and peices which I can't remember. Sprinkle a few chips on top of that. Top up with another slice of Mother's Pride. Squish the whole thing down to the dimensions of a cucumber sandwich and present to customer. Take back to the others who are not impressed by the diminutive size of my portion of chips. Seeing the state of my hands, BH almost does a stunt on hygeine but decides not to. Beer on scene. Wake up.