Thursday, November 09, 2006
Choice Cuts
November 10th. 2 am.
Of the following six, which is the odd one out, Glen Ample, Ben Lomond, Tulameen, Glen Moy, Ashmead's Kernel or Autumn Bliss?
I haven't published a blog for a long time and cannot really explain the reasons. I suppose it is partly due to the fact that I haven't come across an eating detective ( or lawyer ) recently. In an attempt to be fair to women, which of course I always am, I am struggling through the first of a long series of the Sue Grafton 'novels' featuring private detective Kinsey Millhone. She eats a lot of meals in diners, scrambled eggs with rye bread and endless cups of coffee and also quite a lot of bottled beer, so I have a low expectation of a quick solution to the crime she is investigating. It also made me have one of those endless dreams that keep coming back uninvited where you know you're dreaming but just cannot re-set the scene and get into a different dream. I can't see me reading many more of them.
I also struggled with Lucarelli's 'Almost Blue' which was not an easy read. You never really get to know any of the characters and can't build up any sympathy with any of them. The female detective is too young and is obviously distracted by sex rather than alcohol so she almost fouls up the case in an almost fatal way. She should stick to food in future.
I hinted at a lawyer earlier beacause the hero of Gianrico Carofiglio's 'Involuntary Witness ' is a lawyer and its a really good read. I'm looking forward to 'A Walk in the Dark' which I have ready and waiting as soon as Kinsey Millhone has finished drinking her way round California. The lawyer, Guido Guerrieri, does have a few meals but no great detail is given and unlike some of the other detectives from Italy I mentioned before, you don't feel you want to try various dishes as you read the book. I also have another Padura waiting from the last Amazon delivery but someone told me recently that Cuban food was nothing to write home about.
I mention Choice Cuts because this week I have been mostly eating cold roast beef and I have decided that although its nice once, it becomes too monotonous after three days. The problem arises because drunken guests turned down the offer of hot roast beef followed by the best rice pudding in the world in favour of fish and chips in order to demonstrate to an american friend what typical Brits often eat. I don't think he was impressed any more than I was and would have been far better served by my cooking. Furthermore, the return of the beer and fish and chip diet is not really part of my plans. Of course I then had to struggle on my own with a large joint and had to use the already purchased cream in a large rice pudding which I managed to eat in one sitting. For those of you who have tasted this dish at my house, you will like to know that it was one of my best. Now I come to think of it, I made another rice pudding last week which was so good that I almost missed Frank Lampard's goal against Barcelona!
I don't expect many will recognise 'Choice Cuts' but it is the title of a thriller by Boileau and Narcejac written in 1965. On the cover, the blurb says this book has a 'fiendish climax of surpassing horror'! They were also responsible for several others including ' Celle Qui N'Etait Plus' which was made into a brilliant, probably black and white film, which might have been called 'The Devils' ( Les Diaboliques ) but I'm sure someone can correct me. It was an era of great films such as'Jules and Jim' and 'Last Days of Marienbad' which of course spawned a generation of nim players. I think I shall re-read the Boileau and Narcejac books and being French they should have some decent detectives who eat proper meals. I am also planning to re-visit Freeling's Castang. I have absolutely no memory of those books or what he ate except that I enjoyed them.
So it will come as no surprise that there has been no change in the weight during the past few weeks. With only about eight weeks to go before the end of the first half year of this diet. I feel that I would like to achieve a bit more so I feel that more intensive allotment digging is called for. My sleeping partner appeared very briefly about a week ago but I feel that he has now gone into hibernation. We have done possibly a third of the plot so far. There are two plants that have mysteriously appeared which I think are probably vines rather than thornless blackberry as I had thought earlier. They are not necessarily what I want but one doesn't want to upset the Sicilian/Italian community. I have actually planted something myself; Japanese Onions. Perhaps I'll be glad but I'm not sure if I even know what they're like.
The original question was a trick question. Ashmead's Kernel is a variety of apple and Ben Lomond is a blackcurrant; the others are all raspberries. They will soon be arriving. The apple will probably stay at the house because there are other suitable pollinators there but the rest are for the allotment. When my sleeping partner awakes in the spring it will look quite different- and so will I!
Of the following six, which is the odd one out, Glen Ample, Ben Lomond, Tulameen, Glen Moy, Ashmead's Kernel or Autumn Bliss?
I haven't published a blog for a long time and cannot really explain the reasons. I suppose it is partly due to the fact that I haven't come across an eating detective ( or lawyer ) recently. In an attempt to be fair to women, which of course I always am, I am struggling through the first of a long series of the Sue Grafton 'novels' featuring private detective Kinsey Millhone. She eats a lot of meals in diners, scrambled eggs with rye bread and endless cups of coffee and also quite a lot of bottled beer, so I have a low expectation of a quick solution to the crime she is investigating. It also made me have one of those endless dreams that keep coming back uninvited where you know you're dreaming but just cannot re-set the scene and get into a different dream. I can't see me reading many more of them.
I also struggled with Lucarelli's 'Almost Blue' which was not an easy read. You never really get to know any of the characters and can't build up any sympathy with any of them. The female detective is too young and is obviously distracted by sex rather than alcohol so she almost fouls up the case in an almost fatal way. She should stick to food in future.
I hinted at a lawyer earlier beacause the hero of Gianrico Carofiglio's 'Involuntary Witness ' is a lawyer and its a really good read. I'm looking forward to 'A Walk in the Dark' which I have ready and waiting as soon as Kinsey Millhone has finished drinking her way round California. The lawyer, Guido Guerrieri, does have a few meals but no great detail is given and unlike some of the other detectives from Italy I mentioned before, you don't feel you want to try various dishes as you read the book. I also have another Padura waiting from the last Amazon delivery but someone told me recently that Cuban food was nothing to write home about.
I mention Choice Cuts because this week I have been mostly eating cold roast beef and I have decided that although its nice once, it becomes too monotonous after three days. The problem arises because drunken guests turned down the offer of hot roast beef followed by the best rice pudding in the world in favour of fish and chips in order to demonstrate to an american friend what typical Brits often eat. I don't think he was impressed any more than I was and would have been far better served by my cooking. Furthermore, the return of the beer and fish and chip diet is not really part of my plans. Of course I then had to struggle on my own with a large joint and had to use the already purchased cream in a large rice pudding which I managed to eat in one sitting. For those of you who have tasted this dish at my house, you will like to know that it was one of my best. Now I come to think of it, I made another rice pudding last week which was so good that I almost missed Frank Lampard's goal against Barcelona!
I don't expect many will recognise 'Choice Cuts' but it is the title of a thriller by Boileau and Narcejac written in 1965. On the cover, the blurb says this book has a 'fiendish climax of surpassing horror'! They were also responsible for several others including ' Celle Qui N'Etait Plus' which was made into a brilliant, probably black and white film, which might have been called 'The Devils' ( Les Diaboliques ) but I'm sure someone can correct me. It was an era of great films such as'Jules and Jim' and 'Last Days of Marienbad' which of course spawned a generation of nim players. I think I shall re-read the Boileau and Narcejac books and being French they should have some decent detectives who eat proper meals. I am also planning to re-visit Freeling's Castang. I have absolutely no memory of those books or what he ate except that I enjoyed them.
So it will come as no surprise that there has been no change in the weight during the past few weeks. With only about eight weeks to go before the end of the first half year of this diet. I feel that I would like to achieve a bit more so I feel that more intensive allotment digging is called for. My sleeping partner appeared very briefly about a week ago but I feel that he has now gone into hibernation. We have done possibly a third of the plot so far. There are two plants that have mysteriously appeared which I think are probably vines rather than thornless blackberry as I had thought earlier. They are not necessarily what I want but one doesn't want to upset the Sicilian/Italian community. I have actually planted something myself; Japanese Onions. Perhaps I'll be glad but I'm not sure if I even know what they're like.
The original question was a trick question. Ashmead's Kernel is a variety of apple and Ben Lomond is a blackcurrant; the others are all raspberries. They will soon be arriving. The apple will probably stay at the house because there are other suitable pollinators there but the rest are for the allotment. When my sleeping partner awakes in the spring it will look quite different- and so will I!
# posted by Bob @ 5:32 pm 
