My turn to Cook

RYE

29.10.01

ALVIN AND BEV’S UPDATE

Its my turn to cook tonight. Bev is at lectures at Kings College University. I think she has only two more that she must attend before the end of her Midwifery Adaptation Course. When we were settling down to sleep last night, she mentioned that she had a craving for meat. I took this to mean the edible type and filed into my memory until I could do the shopping today. Since we have been in the UK, we both have avoided re meat (Mad Cow Syndrome), our basic meats have been chicken, turkey, along with a vast array of fish. It has not been hard to avoid red meat, at the local markets there is generally a hop or stall selling off cuts from sheep or cows. The condition in which is is sold is sometimes beyond belief.

About thirty years ago I worked at Andrews Brothers Butchery in Hokitika. I was taught basic butchery and my job as junior was keeping a clean work environment. The old white pine blocks that the meat was broken down into saleable chunks were often impacted with fat and blood. My job at the end of the day was to use an abrasive brush to remove all traces of the meat juice right back to pristine wood. You may remember the old butchers blocks were often worn away on one side due to the rasping of the junior. I don’t think they employ juniors over here. The butcher shops are often small outlets. The breaking down of meat is done in the back of an old van and the floors of the shops have sawdust to assist in the soaking up of the blood and fat. Often scrawny chickens are strung up by their heads and feet still intact. Pig trotters are to the fore, which must be a delicacy for the local African population. Poorly washed tripe is also on sale to add to the revolting scene. Legs of low quality lamb are advertised as New Zealand lamb. To me it looks more like goat meat, very lean and without the quality control identification stamp we are used to in NZ. The price is sometimes higher that English lamb, offered for sale alongside, as if to reinforce the genuineness of the false product.

Anyway back to my meal tonight I went to TESCOS a big supermarket chain. They are the retail outlets for a lot of New Zealand product. I bought a half leg of lamb for £3.69 which is about $11.00 NZ. I’ll roast some sweet potatoes (not the same as kumara) spuds and butternut and accompany that with some spinach and carrots. A lot of food is pre prepared here. Just slip it in the micro wave and wait. We tend to cook meals on our days off and resort to the quick options when we are on shifts. It is great to smell the leg of lamb cooking and Bev will be in for a shock when she gets home tonight.

Yesterday we were both off and decided to have some country therapy. I had detected a noise of emanating from the rear of the Volvo, which I though was coming from a faulty rear wheel bearing. I took this up to the local garage to have it diagnosed because I didn’t want to be left on the side of the M25 with a broken down vehicle. The mechanic thought the problem was a crook diff, which should continue to be crook, not terminal, for sometime, so we set off for Kent, and the South Coast. I have been driving and bullying my way around traffic here for about one month. My confidence growing as I clock up the miles. The main motorway between London and Dover is called the M20. Once on this, we kept up with the flow of traffic reaching speeds of 80 mph in some places.

Bev had a crash course on navigation to direct us to a South Coast Port town of Rye. On a recent visit to Hastings we had been told that Rye had maintained a medieval history with half timbered buildings, winding cobbled streets and old churches and fortifications. The town is popular with tourists and was up to our expectation. A number of the old shops have been converted into teashops to cater for the hungry visitors and the strict building codes maintains the old nature of the town.

Antique shops do a great trade. Given that it was raining we poked about in several of these. Organised day trip tours from the continent include Rye as a destination because of its character and antiques. Even on a bleak a rainy day it was charming and peaceful. We will return in the spring.

We hoozled along the South Coast to find a stylized image of a man holding two poles, one of several mysterious figures cut onto the chalk hillside. It was getting towards dark about 3.30 pm and a shower of rain had just passed so we didn’t bother climbing up to the site. I pointed the Volvo for home up the A23 to connect with the M25 then back home. This was a simple plan that soon came unstuck, rain, mist, darkness and speed and a lot of twists and turns stuffed up my navigator and myself. We arrived home much later that we intended.

I wonder what will happen next

Alvin