pumpkinstrokemarrow

Nearer home, I had a pop at French theorising on 1 April, and we have now had a sample of same. BH alleged, over crumpets, that frozen food went off much faster if the container in which it was in was too big and contained too much air. Nonsense, sezzaye. If the stuff is frozen it will last forever, barring the steady growth of ice crystals inside the food which may damage the texture. Bugs do not grow on frozen food. So my theoretical position was that the amount of air in the freezer was irrelevant. Now BH had presumably read her wisdom in the cookery pages of the DT or some such. Wisdom no doubt derived from observation of going off by some domestic scientist. Written down so no less than the revealed truth. All this neatly illustrating dialectical materialism at work. Out of the dialectic between the observation of matter and the theorisation about matter, comes the correct dialectical materialist answer. Or put another way, we adjust the observation, the theorisation or both in such a way as the conflict between them disappears. Maybe the new to me book by G. V. Plekanov will throw some more light on the matter, although first impressions not too encouraging. Looks to be fighting very old battles.

On a less elevated plane, I alleged over bread and butter, that Welsh Rarebit was a variant of scrambled eggs. Nonsense, sezzshe. Welsh Rarebit is made by stirring a little beer into melted cheese, the mixture then being spread on toast. Nonsense, sezzaye. But at least I had the good manners to check and it turns out that she was more right than I was. According to the Radiation cookbook, Welsh Rarebit is a flavoured combination of melted cheese and cream, Variants included using a little flour or adding an egg. Some more modern cookbook suggested some beer. Perhaps the childhood friend with whom I occasionally had the dish went in for the egg variant, leaving the brain box hard wired to scrambled eggs rather than cheese on toast.

I wonder how much difference that it makes that with cheese on toast one toasts one side of the bread, adds the cheese and then toasts that, while with Welsh Rarebit one toasts both sides of the bread then spreads the cheese concoction on one side of the toast? Then sprog 2 has variants involving tomato ketchup or tomato puree under the cheese.

On Tuesday, being a brisk, bright day, to Brighton to take in a bit of sea and sand. Pleasant hour snoozing on the shingle bank. Then off to the pier, as one does, where we were interested to discover that one of the valued corporate customers of the Tarot consultant was the Deutsche Bank. The Tarot consultant impressed by having a very proper gypsy barrel to consult from, but failed to impress by the fact that the barrel was propped up on blocks, someone having removed the shafts and wheels. By then well past lunch so thought that fish and chips ought to be OK, given the high proportion of eateries which sold them. Went for the place at the entrance to the pier which was doing a brisk trade, the 'BIG FISH TRADING CO.'. Service brisk and efficient, with cod and chips twice with one mushy peas turning up in good order in two natty cardboard boxes. All looked clean and fresh. But chips a bit taste free, clearly designed to be dowsed in vinegar and ketchup. Mushy peas not very warm. Cods a bit odd: small, pale batter, no fish skin, watery and not very warm. Rather fishy sort of taste that white fish is not supposed to have. We suspected that, despite the turnover of the place, the cods were delivered to the shop ready battered, cooked and frozen and were just warmed up at the point of sale. Which, I assume, is what most pubs that do fish and chips do, but many of them pull the trick off, unlike the 'BIG FISH TRADING CO'. Have to try one of the many other places next time.