pumpkinstrokemarrow

Retaliated yesterday with a couple of fore ribs. By way of an experiment cooked them at 190C instead of the usual 180C. Impressed with the result - which was served with the first savoy of the season, some of those miniature corn cobs - presumably air freighted from Thailand, thus warming up the globe even more - and white rice. All very splendid although it left me feeling rather full for the rest of the day.

Over the washing up it dawned on us why another dish we have - meat loaf made with lamb mince - works so well. As well as costing maybe a fifth of what fore rib costs. We read on the packet that the stuff is 20% fat. A good proportion of which is going to leach out during cooking leaving the loaf full of voids. Spongy even. We thought that this was what gave the loaf its pleasing lightness. And an explanation of why beef burgers made out of lean meat often have an unpleasing heaviness.

Moving on from the kitchen, later that day I came across a small paper carrier bag lying in the road. A sturdy white bag, the sort of bag you might get from a posh shop selling small items and which some ladies like to use to discretely advertise the shopping habits that they do not have. This one turned out to be from Carphone Warehouse and so not much use for that sort of purpose at all. But I did get to wondering how you made a flat packed bag from under the counter into a box shaped bag suitable for putting small items in. How do I reverse fold the thing back to flat pack? Took me 57 seconds to work it out.

Having sorted that one out, fell to wondering about the article about Peruvian asparagus in 'The Guardian' of the day. About how the Peruvians, at the behest of the World Bank, are growing hundreds of millions of pounds worth of asparagus to be air freighted to the UK. With the catch being that this involves sucking an awful lot of water out of the ground making life rather difficult for other people living in the desert where the asparagus is grown. Plus, of course, lots of global warming.

Poking around the net, I am now the proud owner of a whole sheaf of asparagus factlets. So the US promoted the asparagus industry in Peru so that the Peruvians would stop growing so much cocaine. That more than three quarters of the world's asparagus is grown in China but they do not care to export the stuff. They leave that to Peru, Mexico, the US and Spain, who grow much less but export much more. That the good people of the US consume about a pound English of the stuff each, every year. That some 1,500 English hectares are devoted to the growing of asparagus. Coded 171 by DEFRA. That, to quote: 'EUREP-GAP already certifies much of the vegetable sector, particularly in the EU. Even outside the EU some vegetable producers are realising the benefits of production according to EUREP-GAP standards. In Peru, for instance, asparagus is grown according to EUREP-GAP guidelines'. See http://www.globalgap.org. And now you know as much as I do.

PS: all of which prompts Mr G. to tell me where I can go to slim, of an outfit which will deliver well hung meat to my door, of another which will deliver pedigree Herefords (bulls, cows or heifers) to my door and lastly of one which can send me discount vouchers for the best restaurants in London.