Bye Bye cigs?

[alphaGT]

I love cabbage, or collards, pretty much any kind of greens, as long as they are cooked with a large piece of pork side meat! That is the trick to good greens.

Russell

[Pigmy Pony]

As with everything. If you start with crap ingredients, the meal is doomed, no matter how handy you are in the kitchen.

I've just got back from a carvery meal, and I'd say it's the best I've ever had. And all the ingredients seemed to be of a high quality, at least for an uneducated oik like me. There were so many different things to choose from, and I chose ALL of them. Honestly the plate was piled so high you could ski down it in the winter.

Now I'm back home, with the laptop resting comfortably on my greatly enlarged belly. Too full for a dessert, so I'll give it an hour then go seek out some ice cream.

[Stratmangler]

Did someone mention horse manure?

[Pigmy Pony]

Probably very tasty, but the presentation could be better.

[Marco]

As with everything. If you start with crap ingredients, the meal is doomed, no matter how handy you are in the kitchen.

Generally that's true, although good cooks can also make the best out of mediocre ingredients, simply by knowing how to 'cheer them up'/maximise the flavour

A good example is bog-standard (battery farmed) supermarket chicken, which on its own, tastes of cardboard, but cooked well, with a nice sauce/gravy, to lift the blandness, and/or the judicious use of herbs and spices, said 'chicken' is transformed into something that's approaching edible!

I've just got back from a carvery meal, and I'd say it's the best I've ever had. And all the ingredients seemed to be of a high quality, at least for an uneducated oik like me. There were so many different things to choose from, and I chose ALL of them. Honestly the plate was piled so high you could ski down it in the winter.

Lol... Now you see that's a personal bugbear of mine! Firstly, greedy-guts, I hope you ate it all, and didn't waste any because 'your eyes were bigger than your stomach' (as my mum used to say)

Secondly, I *really* hate plates piled up high with food, so that everything is all crammed together in one big 'homogenised mess'.

I just think it looks bad [as I'm someone who values nice presentation, otherwise I can find food distinctly unappetising], plus it makes you feel obliged to finish it all, which is the easiest way to eat more than you need, and end up a porker....

With a carvery, I prefer to start off with small amounts of food on my plate, which I know I'll eat, then go back for more, once that's finished, and repeat the process until I'm sated. After all, rationing isn't in place, and the next lot of grub will be both fresher and warmer than the food mountain that's growing cold on your plate!

Marco.

[Pigmy Pony]

Leaving some food uneaten on my plate? Really? We haven't met have we? I NEVER leave anything, and always know what I can and cannot manage. I come from a time when food wasn't wasted, and I never do. One of the worst sounds to me is the sound of food being scraped into a bin. Winds me up.

I certainly piled it high, but it didn't turn into a mass of crap, any more than the Sagrada Familia is a pile of rocks. And In any case I'm not too worried about how photogenic my meal is. It's only 24 hours from toilet, for God's sake (I could hear Gene Pitney singing that last bit). I have always had a good appetite, and don't need my food to look pretty to tempt me.

And if I cared what others thought of my "foodus operandi" I'd be more concerned about being "that greedy pig who's going back yet again for more - maybe he doesn't get fed at home"

So there! Now where's that ice cream?

[Marco]

Just shows how we're different! Glad you don't waste food, as it makes my blood boil, especially the fat bastards who pile their plates up high, then leave half of it, which often happens at carveries, with the desserts, (as they've usually stuffed themselves to the gunnels by then)!

I'd make the greedy fuckers pay for their wastage!!

Anyway, I bet when you have folks round for lunch or dinner, you bring out plates of food to the table, already filled with what you've 'guessed' is going to be enough for them, or what they'd have picked (say, veg-wise) from the selection offered, rather than supplying them with empty plates, and a some bowls filled with whatever food is being served, so that they can help themselves?

The former is a very British thing, and the latter is the continental way

I really hate folk trying to predict what I'm going to eat! Biggest bugbear? My plate piled up high with potatoes, as Brits are obsessed with them (I don't take many, preferring veg instead), and then feeling obliged to eat them all, so as not to offend.....!

Marco.

[Ian7633]

Being a chap blessed with an " ample physic " as Alan Shaw of Harbeth fame once called me I rather enjoy the extreme looks of panic on the faces of restaurant staff in the eat all you can style establishments when I walk in. In actual fact I have quite a small appetite and only eat modest meals just twice a day ( this down to my faulty metabolism ).

[Marco]

Being a chap blessed with an " ample physic " as Alan Shaw of Harbeth fame once called me I rather enjoy the extreme looks of panic on the faces of restaurant staff in the eat all you can style establishments when I walk in.

Ha - love it, Ian!

Btw, did you tell AS he was a cheeky bastard?

Marco.

[Ian7633]

Ha - love it, Ian!

Btw, did you tell AS he was a cheeky bastard?

Marco.

Alan comes across as a very thoughtful and considered type but I have seen his desk upended and the thick black lines from his expensive Mercedes tyres when he is feeling miffed. As I was just a humble employee I felt it best not to provoke him into a paddy.
He was very interested in my bass rig from my band days, that was until he lifted the twin 15" Electrovoice cab and put his back out, oh how we laughed.