food

Not So Pleased to Meat You

Well, this is day three of vegetarianism.

Let me make this clear — my change in diet is purely for selfish reasons. I still enjoy the taste of meat; the slaughter of animals to make meat does not irk me so much and the price difference between meat and non-meat is not so great (it might even cost more). It does benefit me, however.

The motivation is digestion. I can gain protein, iron, selenium and other vital nutrients in other ways that more friendly to my digestive system, which is a mere gibbering wreck at the moment. But it does other good: for nature, the environment and all that. All the better, but I’m not going to be militant about it. If someone serves me bacon and eggs for breakfast, I won’t be rude…!

So far I’ve had tofu chow mein, which was interesting. I had to use far more soy sauce than I would have done, but tofu does have the property that it absorbs flavour, I’m told. I’m going to try making mushroom soup tomorrow.

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What’s Going On?

I haven’t updated this in a while. It’s like a “no news is good news” kind of thing really. Matt came up to stay, which I looked forward to for a long time and really enjoyed it (except Sunday morning… and Sunday afternoon, but that wasn’t his fault!). Newcastle United got relegated, which was perhaps a blessing in disguise. It really does feel like after the disappointment and sorrow that set in had waned, it’s become a weight off the shoulders of the city’s people.

So… I took Matt to Shearer’s Bar. I thought I would try to enjoy the last night in the Premiership, enjoy the atmosphere (and pray). We also went around the Quayside, pretending to be cultural in the Baltic art gallery… I think Matt understood more of the exhibits than me, though I thought the pieces on the Yorkshire Ripper were clever, albeit rather dark and oppressive.

We went to Chinatown, had a nice all-you-can-eat buffet, which I had remembered is one of Matt’s favourite phrases! That was nice… no deep fried prawns from what I could see… but nonetheless really good!

I haven’t been up to too much else besides, really.

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Roast Potatoes and Honey

I’ve taken it upon myself to make the Christmas Dinner today. I assumed this role quite underhandedly, though not quite intentionally. I decided I wanted my Christmas Dinner to taste the way I wanted it to taste, and as such, I’m cooking it.

We had a Sainsbury’s turkey crown to play with. Sainsbury’s had this "wonderful" idea to insert this marker that popped out when the turkey was sufficiently hot in the middle. The package suggested it would take one hour and 35 minutes to cook at 190°C (in fact it should have been less since the oven is fan-assisted); yet this incredibly novel device refused to pop out. It was only after two hours and ten minutes of cooking that the turkey was sufficiently hot to be rendered "ready". Even after frantic basting throughout the cooking process, the turkey ended up rather unsurprisingly dry. Thanks Sainsbury’s. It was cooked after an hour and 35 minutes, so that’s the last time I’ll use your pathetic "time-savers".

Anyhow, the vegetables should be lovely, using my own personal method of "hope-it-works". And I hope you all have a great Christmas, just like everyone else does. In fact, to be different, I hope you all get Nintendo Wiis this Christmas, which amounts to the same thing!

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