test please delete

[Mich the Tester]

I've confirmed that I don't need to waste money on Michelin starred restaurants. We've tried a 1 star and a 2 star and my wife didn't like either. She's a bit picky with food, and it seems that to get a Michelin star it's not enough to cook good food well, instead you have to do something a bit weird.

So next anniversary I guess it will be McD's instead!

There are worthwhile alternatives that fit in quite nicely between these extremes.

[NickFitz]

I must correct you Mr Fitz; they know how to stir powdered 'gravy' into a pan of hot water.

A sad national decline, then The older generation carefully gleaned every last drop of the juices lost from the meat during cooking and crafted gravy of rare beauty from them. As they'd all survived the famine of 1944-45, when the Nazi occupiers kept all the gravy (and everything else) to themselves, they knew the value of gravy.

[NickFitz]

There are worthwhile alternatives that fit in quite nicely between these extremes.

They're called pubs, and they do pie and chips

[Ticktock]

There are worthwhile alternatives that fit in quite nicely between these extremes.

Yeah, but this way is cheaper.

[Bunk]

Foxlow?

Is that some sort of code word like "the swallows fly backwards in Sweden, tovarich"?

Do you have a match?

[zeitghost]

Do you have a match?

[Bunk]

In other bird related news, the ducks have wandered up from the marina and are now quacking outside my window

[Mich the Tester]

A sad national decline, then The older generation carefully gleaned every last drop of the juices lost from the meat during cooking and crafted gravy of rare beauty from them. As they'd all survived the famine of 1944-45, when the Nazi occupiers kept all the gravy (and everything else) to themselves, they knew the value of gravy.

Well, for some, like norrahe I expect, gravy making is a fine art. Personally I take a fairly primitive approach, using drippings that I might have collected in the fridge in a little tub, from bacon, roasts, sausages and so on, plus stock made from whatever bones I have, some herbs from the garden and the all important ingredient; time, to make a gravy that might not be especially refined or elegant but certainly has lots of taste and then if I use some of the collected drippings to make roast spuds, well, the cloggies don't know roast spuds but they all want the recipe. But then, both norrahe and I are foreigners. What amazes me in Holland is how many people grow up on or around farms and only ever eat processed crap from the supermarket. Take Lady Tester; before we met she'd grown up on a farm but had never experienced ripened beef, fresh sun ripened tomatoes, poached eggs that were collected just before breakfast, and certainly hadn't eaten delights like hare, rabbit, wood pigeon or pheasant, which were quite normal at my family's house in England; shot in the field, of course. She is now an even fussier foody than me.

I think Holland's food has been very adversely affected by a culture of convenience brought on by the supermarkets, combined with the thrifty nature of the people. Thrift has produced some of the world's most delicious food when combined with time and a desire to get all the taste out of humble ingredients, but not when combined with convenience and plenty. I try to tell cloggies that some of their traditional dishes are actually fantastic if prepared with real care, but they seem a little too modest about their food culture to believe that a well made stamppot can be a real culinary delight.

Pork belly with pea soup, eel on toast, stewed brisket or a handmade smoked sausage (no not the plastic packaged 'rookworst'; all these can be delightful Dutch dishes. Now try selling them to cloggies.

[SimonMac]

Foxlow on Tuesday

[BrilloPad]

Has the race for the 250000 started yet?