Friday, September 18, 2009
Foodie blogs on the big screen
Yesterday was the day of the film for the lady. We had intended that this should take the form of a viewing of 'The Duchess', but due to a misconception about the time of the viewing, wound up at 'Julia and Julie' instead. Which turned out to be a film about foodies and a blog. It rapidly became apparent that the film was two stories, from differant decades, interleaved; something which I do not usually care for. I like my films to go steadily forward without too many changes of scene. So, for example, the latest incarnation of 'Miss Marple' does indeed go mostly forward but there are far too many changes of scene. Not very restful viewing at all. However, in this case, it did not seem to matter too much, perhaps because each scene was of reasonable length, almost an episode. A good bit of feel-good froth. But I was slightly puzzled by one of the recipes which appeared to involve boning a duck, wrapping the duck around some sort of stuffing, then encasing the whole in a pastry shell. Baked, the thing looked fine, much the same as a pork pie. But what about the duck? At Epsom, our ducks are normally brown and crispy, but inside a pie they are going to be white and soggy, albeit cooked. Plus, all the fat that usually falls out and is poured warm onto the compost heap, is captured inside the pie. Doesn't sound like my thing at all. But they did say at the beginning that the whole secret was butter, more butter, never enough butter. So perhaps this maxim is sometimes translated into grease of duck.
Tried to investigate further in 'La cuisine familiale', a cook book from Julia's time, with a grand total of 8 duck recipes, but none of them involving baking in a pie. Perhaps duck in pie counts as blue ribbon and is so excluded from family ribbon.
A further French puzzle is that while the RSPB has a million or more members, the equivalent French organisation, according to a reviewer in the TLS, has just 50,000 members. Perhaps the million or more reflects first the fact that we are a much more crowded country and a much more suburban country and second the rule that membership of outfits like the RSPB is very much a suburban phenomenon. Such few country people as there are don't need to bother.
Nearer home a few minor foodie events. I was prompted to search out goats' milk cheddar from our local Waitrose. Very good it was to. Sour without being either damp or sharp, faults which supermarket cheddar often exhibits. While there took in a couple of Craster kippers. Very reliable these kippers from Waitrose. Simmered, appropriately enough in our fish kettle from the Kingston John Lewis, for about 7 minutes and just the job. The white flesh firm and dry, separating cleanly from the brown gear running down the sides. Followed up with another double cow chop. I think it was much fresher than the last one and I managed to cook it slightly less. So a quite differant texture and flavour, but just as good. New to us carving knife from John Turton got a really competitive edge on it now and cutting really thin; just the thing for slightly rare beef. And the whole rounded off with a visit to our local chocalate shop in Ewell where we had tea and 100 grams of chocolates - this being something we had not done before. Tea and cake yes, tea and chocolate cake occasionally, but never tea and chocolates. My tea was something called Sench and said to be very popular in Japan. Tasted very good when freshly brewed but turned a little sharp by the end of the pot, which was only a couple of cups.
I think the shop was called Ginoche Tea Rooms or something like that, with Mr G suggesting that ginoche is something that you pour on chocolate. I did not delve deep enough to be sure. Rather unlikely chap manning the shop but he had one in Coulsdon as well as the one in Ewell so he must have known what he was at.
# posted by Jim @ 2:57 AM 
