I'm fairly well brought up. If I wasn't I would have taken a picture of my dinner yesterday and shared it with you all.
I was at table ("at table" I must have read that in a book somewhere)with dear friends. Years ago, I remember being on the strand in front of their house with family members. We raved about this strand. It was exactly like one in West Cork in its rock formations, cliffs and overall layout. I remember looking up at the houses, then all unknown to me, and thinking - wouldn't it be lovely to have dinner overlooking all of this beauty?
Swear to gawd, at times my manifestations frighten even me. For here I am having dinner overlooking this beach.
The dinner. They asked if I liked partridge. Well I didn't know did I? So I said I was game(clever pun) to try it.
Oh, oops. The gourmet method of eating partridge is: it is stuffed with its own head and organs. Seriously. And you eat everything including the head. With this information I still held my own, so to speak.
Well, then I looked at my plate. I took a piece of the breast and it was a huge, huge feat on my part not to throw a projectiled barforama across their wonderful lace-dressed table overlooking the strand.
I waxed green I'm sure as mein hosts looked at me, laughed and said "We also roasted a back-up chicken". Oh bless you, bless you I thought as they whisked away my plate.
And fact: patridges get their odd mulberry coloured meat from their diet of partridge-berries. And I love partridge-berries. Unprocessed.
But I didn't look at anyone else as they devoured their delicacies (hunted by my host and his dog).
I was a vegetarian for years.
I may be revisiting that safe scene very soon.
It's a good thing you were so well brought up1 And that your hosts were perceptive and kind enough to notice your greenness! Uncanny to end up dining there after what you'd said long ago.....
ReplyDeleteI really wasn't waiting to pounce! Just happened on here moments after you posted!
Carry on pouncing, Molly, I love it.
ReplyDeleteThey are wonderful people and so kind to have cooked me a backup!
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There's nothing right or wrong about any food; the trick is in how you were raised. I was finicky because my parents were.
ReplyDeleteOne evening in Paris, my hostess served clams on the half shell.
I looked at my plate with revulsion, but I manfully managed to move the miserable morsel of mollusck into my mouth, and promptly started to gag.
My hostess laughed and took it away. I can't remembder the rest of the meal.
Yes, I am very well brought up too and I don't have to face these moments because all those who invite me to table know that I am a vegetarian! You don't of course have to do that just for that reason!
ReplyDeleteI love the phrase 'at table' and often use it, I have no idea where I discovered it either.
ReplyDeleteI never tasted partridges, but all it needs for me to turn green, is for someone to serve me a meal in a white sauce(made with milk).
Partridge, ugh!! Tried it once,the same with bear rabbit,beaver,goose and deer although I tried venison while out in Saskatchewan.The beast had fed in the wheat fields and had no gamy taste.It was close to beef.
ReplyDeleteMarc:
ReplyDeleteI love clams and all seafood.
We were meat and potatoes in my house but I am extremely adventurous in foods of other countries, etc.
But one thing I don't like is when the food is too obvious, like heads served along with other body bits.
Yeah. Denial. I know.
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Ramana:
ReplyDeleteI may just drift to piscetarianism interleaved with vegetarianism.
Life is simpler somehow. And there are the ethics.
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GM:
ReplyDeleteAnd milk is inserted a lot into recipes, do you avoid all dairy, like cheese and yogurt?
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Now GB I am partial to a good rabbit curry, about the only way I'll eat it. My friends want to serve me black duck - different to other ducks - next time. These ducks are salt water and eat fish. H'm.
ReplyDeleteI love moose by the way and cook it a lot. Very good organic meat.
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I have eaten partridge unstuffed, but then I’m a pleb, not used to gourmet dinners on the shore.
ReplyDeleteLOL Friko - oh the unsophisticated way?
ReplyDeleteDid you like it?
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Uh oh, I recently posted a dinner photo complete with the head. Somehow, I'm not troubled by fish heads, But then I don't eat meat or fowl, so it only would be fish or crustacean heads on my plate.
ReplyDeleteI saw that SAW (hee)
ReplyDeleteAnd so admired the fortitude of you and fam.
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I turned green just reading about that, WWW. I'm a squeamish eater! Reminded me of the time long, long ago in Rome when the first husband took me to a very swish restaurant and ordered their speciality fish soup for me. It arrived, a veritable oil painting of a dish, with various fishy eyes peering at me from the depths and edges. Couldn't touch a forkful, even after the waiter took it away and removed offending eyes and heads.
ReplyDelete:-O
T:
ReplyDeleteI can so relate. I am an extreme coward when it comes to food I don't want to be reminded of the pretty creature that gave it up for me.
Certainly no eyes.
I was far happier as a vegetarian but the body was not (Blood Type O Positive - the worst for a veggie).
I do hop your health is improving T!
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I don't think I've ever eaten partridge. Or used the phraes "at table", for that matter, though I've read it here and there.
ReplyDeleteStan:
ReplyDeleteNice phrase though, it covers all the meals..:)
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Yes, and it covers the whole ritual too, not just the eating, so it's broader than, say, "we were eating". You might be waiting patiently, or between courses, or having a cuppa, and so on. I like it.
ReplyDeleteI manage a minuscule quantity of hard cheese and found one yogurt, that I can use in cooking. I only eat them at home or in Elly's as we both know my limits.
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