The Night Mail

[Tony_S]

12 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

given how popular pork is in China.

I am sure in a few other countries it is considered to be a vegetable. Bacon bits always seemed to be in salads when we travelled in Canada a few years ago. 

[iL Dottore]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Bear rather likes Smokey Bacon Crisps too......

If you meant

 

“Potatoes, Sunflower Oil Rapeseed Oil, Dried Milk Lactose, Salt, Sugar, Bacon Flavouring, Hydrolysed Soya Protein, Citric Acid, Malic Acid, Smoke Flavouring, Paprika Extract, Sulphite Ammonia Caramel.”

 

Why didn’t you say so?
 

You might have cnfused the unwary into believing that you were talking about real food!
 

Edited August 31 by iL Dottore
Missed wording.

[Hroth]

9 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

If you meant

 

“Potatoes, Sunflower Oil Rapeseed Oil, Dried Milk Lactose, Salt, Sugar, Bacon Flavouring, Hydrolysed Soya Protein, Citric Acid, Malic Acid, Smoke Flavouring, Paprika Extract, Sulphite Ammonia Caramel.”

...you were talking about real food!
 

 

Yum!!!

 

(theres nothing like quotes taken out of context to subvert the argument...)

 

[jjb1970]

45 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I am sure in a few other countries it is considered to be a vegetable. Bacon bits always seemed to be in salads when we travelled in Canada a few years ago. 

 

There's a very popular food in the sinosphere called floss, usually  (but not only) pork floss. It's basically dried meat flakes which they throw on just about anything, including tofu and green leaf stuff to give it a bit of porklicious goodness💪

[Tony_S]

5 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Yum!!!

 

(theres nothing like quotes taken out of context to subvert the argument...)

 

Poor Bear just mentions he likes smokey bacon crisps presumably as a snack not a major part of his food intake. I am not eating snacks at the moment but that is my choice, albeit influenced by a desire not to need more medication. My favourite crisps are the zero salt(naked)  variety, also good because no one else likes them. 

[Tony_S]

8 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

 

There's a very popular food in the sinosphere called floss, usually  (but not only) pork floss. It's basically dried meat flakes which they throw on just about anything, including tofu and green leaf stuff to give it a bit of porklicious goodness💪

Aditi’s relatives who live in Singapore are not vegetarian so probably wouldn’t mind. Our visitor from Singapore a few weeks ago is most definitely not vegetarian!

[jjb1970]

Fear not Bear, if you ever end up in Vietnam (perhaps following an invasion of blighty by mutant antipodean arachnids with a dislike of bears) you will be able to find the essentials necessary to support life.

 

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, rockershovel said:

Bangers and mash, with onion gravy. 

We in Switzerland have something similar. Bauernbratwurst mit Rösti und zwiebelsauce. The onion sauce starts with something called a Bratensauce in which a very generous amount of onions are cooked “low and slow” for a few hours. It’s one of the sauces you can never have enough of.

 

The sausage has a long and noble history, far nobler and far longer than that of the fancy concoctions created for the Kings of France.

 

The Romans ate sausages (both fresh and dried) and - let’s be honest here - you can’t subjugate most of the known world of antiquity, manage to keep stroppy woad-bedaubed Brits (more or less) in line and put down gladiator and slave rebellions on quinoa and avocado toast, now can you?

 

Tomacula rex es i would say

 

3 hours ago, rockershovel said:

Cabbage is not a delicacy in UK.

More fool them. One of my (fairly) quick late autumn/winter standbys is bacon with cabbage.

 

Into a pressure cooker I put two white cabbages that i have roughly chopped and mixed with 4 large roughly chopped onions and a handful of black peppercorns and about 4 juniper berries (you don’t need salt cos of the bacon). I add about 3/4 - 1 cup (250mL) liquid - usually water, but sometimes cider (if I’m going to turn the cooking liquid into a sauce) I then place a large slab of bacon (preferably smoked) on top of the cabbage, close the pressure cooker and bring up to pressure. I cook it for about 45 minutes. Once depressurised, the bacon is taken out, the onion and cabbage mixture drained (making a sauce with the cooking liquid perhaps). The bacon is cut into thick slices and served with the cabbage/onion mixture and potatoes of choice (mash if you’ve made a sauce). A mustard of choice, is - as they say - selbsvertändlich.

 

Done right you get tender bacon (even the rind - which become gelatinous, tender and very yummy) and soft cabbage with just enough of a bite to it.

 

It takes a couple of attempts to be able to estimate the cooking time fairly accurately. But if you keep to a minimum of 30 minutes under pressure whatever you end up with (even if slightly under- or overcooked) eill be yummy!

 

[monkeysarefun]

11 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Fear not Bear, if you ever end up in Vietnam (perhaps following an invasion of blighty by mutant antipodean arachnids with a dislike of bears) you will be able to find the essentials necessary to support life.

 

 

 

 

Why wouldnt he instead just nip over to Cambodia for some deep fried local favourites?

 

 

Edited August 31 by monkeysarefun

[Oldddudders]

Lays crisps - called chips here - are widely sold in French supermarkets, and are Sherry's favourite brand. Of course we know that at our age we shouldn't eat such things at all.... 

[Hroth]

11 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

 

Why wouldnt he instead just nip over to Cambodia for some deep fried local favourites?

 

 

 

Even the "cook" is holding it at arms length!

 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

If you meant

 

“Potatoes, Sunflower Oil Rapeseed Oil, Dried Milk Lactose, Salt, Sugar, Bacon Flavouring, Hydrolysed Soya Protein, Citric Acid, Malic Acid, Smoke Flavouring, Paprika Extract, Sulphite Ammonia Caramel.”

 

Why didn’t you say so?
 

You might have cnfused the unwary into believing that you were talking about real food!
 

 

Doc Baitin' is sooooooo easy......and just SUCH fun........  🤣

 

(And yes - the ones with ridges on are by far the best; sadly it's been "a while" since Bear has sampled such goodies - they're decidedly D**t unfriendly - I gazed longingly at some packets in the Co-op yesterday and when I saw how many C*lories were in a pack I thought "HOW MANY??" - and that was that.....😢)

[Tony_S]

I didn’t really like cabbage when I was a child. It always smelt unpleasant while cooking for ages and always seemed bitter and difficult to chew. My parents jokingly called it “gas-cape”. Perhaps there are more edible varieties of cabbage now but I am quite happy to eat it, either steamed or as an Indian dish where it is cooked in a sauté pan with other vegetables.  

[SM42]

46 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Lays crisps - called chips here - are widely sold in French supermarkets, and are Sherry's favourite brand. Of course we know that at our age we shouldn't eat such things at all.... 

 

Also available in Poland and I suspect the rest of Europe. 

 

Available in the UK  as Walkers. 

 

The cabbage recipe mentioned above by @iL Dottore is almost but not quite bigos.  

 

Bigos,  made in a saucepan. No pressure cooking involved. Throw in a bay leaf, maybe a couple of  roughly chopped prunes and leave to simmer. 

 

It tastes best at about the 3rd or 4th reheat, but is pretty good second time too. 

 

It's a  simple recipe  I would like Mrs SM42 to teach me it so I can do it myself with confidence. 

 

It is all to easy to get the vinegar from the sauerkraut overpower the flavours.

 

In terms of pork dishes, I recently had this kotlet schabowy in what is now my new favourite restaurant in Poznan

 

 

Somewhere under there are the fried potato chunks and the salad.

 

All washed down with a  beer. 

 

Not bad for  just over a tenner 

 

Andy

[rockershovel]

I think cabbage is one of those vegetables that grows almost anywhere and was probably "off ration", becoming a staple through thirty years of war and depression, creating a generation who never wanted to see it again. 

 

Certainly my parents would greet its appearance with derision. 

 

It's OK in small doses with Sunday roast (or you'd never get bubble and squeak on Monday)

[rockershovel]

57 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I didn’t really like cabbage when I was a child. It always smelt unpleasant while cooking for ages and always seemed bitter and difficult to chew. My parents jokingly called it “gas-cape”. Perhaps there are more edible varieties of cabbage now but I am quite happy to eat it, either steamed or as an Indian dish where it is cooked in a sauté pan with other vegetables.  

It's good shredded in a stir-fry

 

Red cabbage cooked in vinegar and water is a good accompaniment to roast beef or lamb

 

Edited August 31 by rockershovel

[rockershovel]

I once encountered this in my travels; 

 

LËNGU I RASOJIT. The juice made from fermented cabbage is a traditional drink from northeastern Albania, produced by fermenting white and red cabbages. It is a cloudy fluid that takes on the color of the raw material form which it's made, and is naturally effervescent thanks to fermentation process.

 

It was absolutely horrible. It was one of the few things even the Russians wouldn't drink. 

 

It sounded like a Terry Pratchett joke but wasn't remotely funny. 

Edited August 31 by rockershovel

[Craigw]

5 hours ago, rockershovel said:

Is that why dogs lick their nether regions, to get rid of the taste? 

 

I thought it was because they can?

[jjb1970]

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

 

Why wouldnt he instead just nip over to Cambodia for some deep fried local favourites?

 

 

 

The authentic taste of Asia, yum yum.

[PhilJ W]

When I visited Germany many years ago and stayed near the Black Forest a local dish was shredded red cabbage and apple baked together. Sometimes dried fruit was added.

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, rockershovel said:

I once encountered this in my travels; 

 

LËNGU I RASOJIT. The juice made from fermented cabbage is a traditional drink from northeastern Albania, produced by fermenting white and red cabbages. It is a cloudy fluid that takes on the color of the raw material form which it's made, and is naturally effervescent thanks to fermentation process.

 

It was absolutely horrible. It was one of the few things even the Russians wouldn't drink. 

 

It sounded like a Terry Pratchett joke but wasn't remotely funny. 

 

 

 

When I cut up vegetables I put the offcuts and skins etc into a plastic bag on the bench, intending to take it down stairs to the worm farm. If I forget/cant-be-arsed,  after a few days there is a grey looking fluid in the bottom of the bag. I assume it would be similar and  I've never thought of drinking it.

 

And don't bother posting jokes about Fosters, all incredibly  ha ha but unfortunately we dont drink it here,so the joke is actually on YOU -  its a thing that we just made up about Australia, like Dropbears.

 

Because actually, its the Drop Roos you need to be wary about.  Check this bu99er out, wouldn't wanna be under it when it landed!

 

 

Edited August 31 by monkeysarefun

[Happy Hippo]

I am not a snitch, but I thought this picture needs to be drawn to the attention of fellow members of TNM.

 

At first glance it may seen quite innocuous, but closer examination reveals Chris, aka coastalview, driving a pannier tank.

 

I do not think getting him a free cup of coffee and a Custard cream biscuit constitutes bribery.

 

 

 

[iL Dottore]

6 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Doc Baitin' is sooooooo easy......and just SUCH fun........  🤣

Doc Baiting?

 

Hardly.

 

Apart from it being an opportunity to gather more data on what gets fobbed off on the Great Unsuspecting British Public as "food" nowadays. It's also a salutary reminder of how low you can go in the pursuit of cheap UPF culinary thrills (although I suspect The Bear has yet to hit bottom).

 

I must confess to an enjoyable frisson of schadenfreude upon learning that yet another PB endorsed culinary delight is nothing more than a clever chemical stew...

[PhilJ W]

You've been warned.

 

[Happy Hippo]

4 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

You've been warned.

 

Don't blame the Hippo apparently he'd heard the bloke being referred to as a fruit cake.

 

Obviously the Hippo was deceived by the description.