THE RETAILER'S END GAME

Why do head office administrators of shops to which I give my custom feel they have the freedom  to use my custom to bombard me with services I do not want.  Where I live choices are very limited and you have to operate with what is available.  We have three chain stores. None ‘super’ by today’s supermarket standards elsewhere.  Bar this limitation, I would demonstrate my displeasure with this chain by voting with my feet.

I can live with getting information on special offers in store. I can live with finding non food items in a small general food store, such as small electrical goods, socks for kids and  men. There are ladies tights, oh, and refrigerators.  When in need, it is surprising how useful these things  can be, especially when other little local shops are closed.   As a matter of fact, I do not mind receiving emails of whatever the week’s offers might be in the shop.  However, I do balk at getting emails by the retailer asking me to allow the retailer to make my last will and testament!

 






 


Two services for which we do have a sufficiency of choice are, solicitors and funeral directors.

FOOD FOR FUEL - FOOD FOR THOUGHT-SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE...TO BE OR NOT TO BE

We do have Public Holidays in Scotland but the recent late August Bank Holiday is an English one. Scotland fixes a late Summer holiday weekend at the beginning of August.  Public holidays in Scotland tend to tie in with local culture, norms and traditions.

Earlier this week I found myself in a bar/restaurant in Inverness, the Capital City of The Highlands Of Scotland. It was one of a major chain networked throughout the United Kingdom.  

Although we arrived in time for the weekday meal offer,  customers were told that there was no special meal deal (two meals for £10) because it was a Bank Holiday.  A Bank Holiday - whose Bank Holiday!?

The Barman, through whom I placed my food order, thought that over time the  late August holiday had crept in, in some places as an addition and in others, as a replacement for the earlier one Scotland traditionally has. 

"What" says I, "do you think will happen to the Bank Holidays in the event of a 'yes' vote for Scottish Independence?"

Him- quick as a flash  " There probably won't be any!".........

The  barman then talked about his view of the impending referendum and told me how he would be voting.

The Independence Vote has engaged all age groups of the population in Scotland and born Scots, who, for whatever reason are out of the country and who are gnashing their teeth because they are not allowed to participate in the vote. (You have to have been living in Scotland for six months prior and be registered to take part). 

Even people waiting at bus stops in Edinburgh got chatting to each other,  bouncing off thoughts and ideas about the referendum.  All of them were keen to know and to get to hear for themselves, what populations in other parts of Scotland might vote for.  One woman was surprised to hear there were no regular political meetings where I live 'on the periphery of civilisation'.  One Member Of The Scottish Parliament (MSP) had put himself out to visit when I happened to be elsewhere, I explained.  He deserves a lot of Brownie points for making the effort that no-one else in the Scottish Parliament has considered emulating.

THAT IS FISHY

A charitable interpretation would be, that I reckon the sales assistant had wrapped the small packet of fish so efficiently, s/he could not see what it was when the job was done. 

The customer that came and bought the well-packaged fish, some time ago, was yours truly, me.  I bought it because I saw a label stating the contents were undyed natural smoked haddock.  When home, I put the packed fish as was, in a clear freezer bag and placed it in the freezer.  Today, rummaging around in the freezer, I saw the label ....just the thing, we'll have Kedgeree tonight.  Maybe, I'll prepare rice now, I thought, then I decided to do it later.  I left the bagged contents to defrost while went out to town pay some bills.

Salivating at the thought of the flavours of the meal to come, I got the rice out, but then, first, checked to see if the fish was ready for cooking.  Just as well I did.  As I took one bag off, then another, and yet another, the colour of the contents did not quite gel with the description on the label--natural-- undyed--this was looking decidedly orange-ish through a white plastic food bag.

Our evening meal became flash fried sweet chili - coated slices of salmon.

ANACHRONISMS AND CONUNDRUMS...THE LAST SUPPER

The painting of the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci (1470-1516), a Renaissance artist, and polymath has undergone a major restoration during the 1990's. The painting was executed between 1495-98. It covers an end wall of what became the refectory at the Monastery of Santa Delle Grazie, Milan. 

In certain academic art, religious and possibly culinary circles, there has been great curiosity about what was shown on the plates of the Passover meal that Christ is depicted as attending. With the masterpiece now to be seen almost in its original glorious colours, there is greater clarity about the food on the table.

The lead restorer, Singora Brambilla, is definite that there is fish on the plates. Also oranges are on the table. There appear to be some anomalies with the repast. Some people who have closely viewed the work are sure that it is eel that is being eaten, decorated with citrus fruit. These are considered to be two artistic anachronisms. 

1.How much, I wonder, did Leonardo Da Vinci know of Kashrut, the Jewish dietary laws? Eel is not Kosher. It should not have been eaten Might the artist have been playing a joke on the Church and Ludovico Sforza, who commissioned the painting? 

2.Oranges are said not to have arrived in Europe till the fifteenth century, brought in by Dutch sailors from the Indian Subcontinent. Leonardo, therefore, would have seen oranges in his time. The Last Supper occurred centuries before oranges were seen in Italy. 

3.However, a further dilemma arises about this artistic anachronism. This fruit may have been introduced to the Roman Empire around the 1st century B.C. so, could have been a legitimate item of food on the Passover meal table, although it might not have been the sweet variety of orange that we eat today.

There are some practical considerations about the food that is presented in the painting, if you accept that there is eel and that there are oranges. In Da Vinci's time, bringing fish overland for a journey of many days was not viable, whereas, eel could live about five days and could be transported for a 'fish supper'. The oranges remain a point of conjecture, as it is possible, if not for the right reasons, that Leonardo Da Vinci was correct in his depiction of this citrus fruit. It could have been available as a sour fruit at the time the meal took place.

If the artist, who was a bit of a joker, was not exercising his humour in the painting of eel, there are three other possible explanations for the type of food there is, being present. 

a).First, the picture is describing the kind of food that monks at a particular monastery would eat It was not uncommon to do so;

b).The other explanation is a religious one. It could have been a determined attempt to distance Christ from his Judaic heritage and Judaism, which the church was actively doing for centuries. 

c).The third explanation is that both of the above apply. 

The painting should be thought about at the time it was painted, its cultural time. That said, it still raises conundrums. Is that what Leonardo Da Vinci wanted to do; he was certainly capable of it!

THAT WILL DO FOR ANOTHER YEAR!

Pre-theatre eating is fraught with timing difficulties, as well as where's best to go in an unfamiliar town. We half-heartedly toured the main streets and surveyed what was around by peering at menus, looking through windows, and at the end of it remaining undecided.

Trying to sit quietly and rest from our epicurean search, we found ourselves sipping excellent coffee in an independent coffee house, together with a liquor besotted Scotsman trying to sober up on real coffee. He tried to converse,very loudly. When the chat stuttered to a natural halt with us, we were engrossed in some truly great reading materials, he 'pestered' the shop owner. His slurring words cycled through life and death manipulations, attempts at offensiveness - the guy was too drunk to manage it - to eventually attempting fond farewells at the open shop door, right by us. Although fine and dry, it was pretty cold outside and our coffees did not stand sipping intermittently with that low temperature exposure.

Having been relieved of his disturbing customer, the shopkeeper took a charitable line about him and others in the same position, kind of apologetically, then spent the next 10 minutes sharing his personal love of religion with us.

We paid our dues, and set off for more ambling, this time towards a river side area. So he could speak on the cell phone with reduced noise interference from traffic flow, hubby stood in a doorway. As luck would have it, it was the entrance to a restaurant serving early evening meals at an economic price for two courses. We went in and enjoyed a pre-theatre munch.

Widow Twanky, the pantomime dame. In the interval of the show, which was very entertaining, (nothing to do with pantomimes) I could not link the character with the panto, neither could hubby. S/he ran a laundry in old Peking. But then in came India. I got fed up with the muddled cogitations and gave them a rest. The confusion of modern day productions that seem to put three pantomime stories into one, together with any other odd vignettes which fly around at the time like dust, was reflected in my thinking. Anyway, we are now out of our 'misery'.........Aladdin. That will do for another year!

CHEESE-eee SENSES

I do not think that I am a connoisseur of cheeses, however, I do know what I like and when it comes to Cheddar type cheese, I like a really good strong one. Probably, what I like is off the scale (based on a scale of 1 - 5). The most glorious farm Cheddar cheese I have bought in recent times, is made in England and I can only obtain it about 90 miles from where I live.

My local store was offering the customers a taste of dainty squares of cheese on a cocktail stick. The cheese was called a Strong Canadian Cheddar. How did it impact on my senses;

1)Smell - a cheese smell of the type I recognise, not a 'soft' nondescript one.
2)There was a slight crumbliness. This could have been due to drying out a bit in the air. As it turned out, quite likely.
3) In its favour, it was a yellow cheese, not coloured orange.
4) The initial impact on the taste buds, very powerful.
5)Texture - not what I expected, the core of the piece was rather rubbery.
6)After-taste. suffused the mouth with acid, so much so, I resorted to a piece of peppermint chewing gum to get rid of the 'coating' and flavour, and to cleanse my palate.

Verdict:

This cheese was a factory processed cheese, which arrived in large refrigerated vacuum packed blocks. The product was an acidic assault on the taste buds and my system.

From me, it gets a definite thumbs down.  

There are superior processed and farm cheeses made here in the UK. If I can get them, I would far rather have an excellent, well reputed British farm produced product. There's nothing like it.

 DUNKING BREAKFAST....

I left half my breakfast in the toaster this morning. Discovered it much later on. But, all's well that ends well. It made great dunking material for the lunch time stew.

What else can I constructively forget?