I was at two parties on Saturday at which food was on offer, but the two could not have been more different. The first was the birthday party of a colleague, and he and his friend had been cooking all day in preparation, making a selection of delicious North-African/middle-eastern dishes with unpronounceable names. There was an artichoke dip (loads of cream and garlic, and completely yummy), a lamb and almond stew and what looked a bit like falafel but were more like middle-eastern Scotch eggs, with beans and nuts on the outside and minced beef inside.
After I had gorged on those delicacies in a way that my conscience will only now permit me after several stiff G&Ts, two home-made cakes were produced, both of which required to be sampled: a chocolate and honey cake, decorated with hand-made marzipan bees; and a pineapple upside down cake, shaped like a pineapple and with fern fronds picked from the garden for leaves.
I reluctantly left the great food and company to head to the reception for the civil partnership ceremony of two friends. I was glad I had already eaten. A table in a rather fusty function room above a bar was laden with plates of curling sandwiches and almost flourescent chicken legs, most of which looked like they'd barely been touched. Apart from the newly-married couple, who were in demand from all their guests, the only person I knew was the Argentinian cousin of a friend, and I spent an hour or so talking to him until another friend picked me up in a taxi and I happily left the party and its horrid buffet.
Since Saturday, I've been good, despite that lapse threatening to topple all my good intentions. If someone has gone to a lot of trouble to cook delicious food, it is only polite to eat it, whereas Mr Tesco and Messrs Marks and Spencer could hardly care less.
3 comments:
Mmmmm. Think you need to blog some recipes from that party - for the avoidance of doubt, not the one with the fluorescent chicken legs.
The "Scotch eggs" turned out to be kibbeh, which, according to one recipe I found on Google, requires a pestle and mortar. That should gladden Fatfighter1's heart, the pestle and mortar being her favourite kitchen implements.
http://almashriq.hiof.no/general/600/640/641/khayat/meat/kibbeh.html
Ah no, you've got me wrong there - it is the kitchen implement I identify as being the least useful in the scheme of things and it was my entirely objective observation that people who have chaotic kitchens normally have at least four pestles and mortars, all unused, cluttering the surfaces.
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