heavy but good

so since food is the great japanese pastime, and since british cuisine is held with such low regard here, it was nice to try and eat some good food while I was in scotland.

on my first day there I visited the ship inn in irvine (pron. irvin) and had, along with my pint of eighty shilling, lamb shank and vegetables. the food there is unpretentious and wholesome - a bit like the food in general. on my second day I had a lamb curry (the lamb theme tailed off a bit after this) in portobello whilst visiting my sister and it was good to try some dry basmati rice for a change. as well as curry with some heat in it.

coming from turkey farming stock, christmas dinner has always been something to look forward to and this year we carved up a 22lb bird with pints and pints of juices which made a rich gravy (spooning off the fat first took a while). as the family has gotten smaller we hardly dented one breast, but within the week of festivities the cliched daily variation on turkey had been tried as is the annual tradition. turkey is a tasty bird alright, with a much richer flavour than chicken. a shame it's difficult to find in japan. roast potatoes was the other heavenly dish which may just be too heavy and oily for the japanese palette, but is none-the-less a master class in textures.

the week between christmas and new year had lots of sun (in the short time it was up) and with it many gatherings of old friends. my mum had bought wonderful things like quince jelly, cheese and dried figs to have with oatcakes. the turkey and other meats kept going as well. a great departure from what I usually eat but often lying a bit heavy. in fact I started feeling a bit strange and then I woke up shivering badly and vomitting. it turned out to be the bug that would make the headlines by early in the new year. not so much fun. less fun if you have two kids to look after as was the case for my sister - not helped by the eldest's inability to hit the bowl. the scenes were beggining to look like something out of apocolypse now and the thoughts of having children I'd experienced the week earlier were suddenly being shattered in front of me.

new years day was brought in with a beautiful cut of beef made with all the trimmings. using a large oven again was a treat and extremely versatile. the beef, though looking dry, had retained it's juices and was delicious - a welcome extravagance after 3 days of fasting.

Post a comment