Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: It's In the Kete!

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  • Joe Wylie,

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    A few of this year's Oxhearts. Vegetarian offal?

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to merc,

    One of my nephews spent a year there as an AFS...I have his photos, and an annotated map of the place & his journeyings therein-

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • merc, in reply to Islander,

    Bear at the end of his NZ show pointed from the SW coast and said, next stop Argentina. I always wondered how the Bear show would handle NZ. Badly I thought.
    I have been to Argentina briefly. Crossing the border from Brazil we were greeted by these massive three metre? statues of soldiers (like huge toys) commemorating incursions into Brazil.
    In places the land there feels like here, the wairua totally different though.

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report Reply

  • Hilary Stace,

    One of my most vivid childhood food memories (and many of them are offal-related) was the jiggly brains sitting in a bowl in the fridge, waiting for my mother to cook them as a treat for my father. And then the cooking smell! Was another step on the road to life-long vegetarianism.

    Wgtn • Since Jun 2008 • 3229 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Danielle,

    I know how to make haggis (I have my Nanna’s recipe notebook – which is kinda cryptic unless you knew Nanna) including the semi-secret (= changeable) herbs that go into it. It’s not only liver but also lights (i.e. lungs) and that latter is too nasty a thought for me. You are, incidentally, supposed to eat the sheep-stomach it is steamed/boiled in (and I’ve always hated tripe…)

    I can eat anything piscine or molluscan or non-cetacean from the sea (why yes, I have tried seal-meat thank you) but I am not venturesome when it comes to other mammalian meats...

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Chris Waugh, in reply to Islander,

    why yes, I have tried seal-meat thank you

    Any good?

    I remember seeing in a fish seller's cart down near the waterfront of Trondheim a very ordinary-looking meat labelled 'hvalbiff', or something like that. I was kinda curious, but for some reason didn't check that it was in fact whale and didn't try any.

    Wellington • Since Jan 2007 • 2401 posts Report Reply

  • Hebe, in reply to Joe Wylie,

    A few of this year's Oxhearts.

    Hey your tomatoes have ripened! Our oxhearts and tigerellas are ripening slowly, an unknown orange one has produced a few, and the limonella(?) yellow has put out a couple,. Otherwise most of the tomatoes, and there are heaps on about half a dozen different heritage types, are still brilliant green. We need heat in that sun in the next few weeks.

    Christchurch • Since May 2011 • 2899 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Hebe,

    Our oxhearts and tigerellas are ripening slowly

    Fancy dat, that's exactly what I got.
    Got converted to tigerella after trying them for first time last year. Golf-ball sized with around 1.5 times the flavour intensity of top supermarket cherry toms, BIG plants with heavily-laden trusses.

    Oxhearts are all seed-descended from a single plant bought at English Park in 2005. Everyone loves them. I keep two paper towels in a kitchen drawer, folded in half, with oxheart & tigerella written in pencil. When I remember I sample a bit of DNA by whipping the occasional seed out on the tip of a knife and depositing it on said towel.

    Going on the number of bags of frozen puree, surplus is down about 30% on last year, but there's been no lack of fresh toms for the past 3+ weeks.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Hebe, in reply to Joe Wylie,

    Got converted to tigerella after trying them for first time last year. Golf-ball sized with around 1.5 times the flavour intensity of top supermarket cherry toms, BIG plants with heavily-laden trusses.

    Last year I bought organic tigerellas grown at the BHU by a second-year student, and I was smitten. Those ones were up to small tennis ball size though. They taste of proper tomato to me: full-bodied, intense and full of sun. I love the deep-red flesh colour and the orange tiger stripes too.

    They, the oxhearts and other plants were swaps this year with another BHU student. Lots of people were growing tomatoes at the BHU this summer, and I wonder how they have gone with the dreaded psyllid infestations.

    Christchurch • Since May 2011 • 2899 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Chris Waugh,

    Excellent red meat with sufficient fat/blubber
    -seared, then stewed (must admit I added kelp & garlic & onion-

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson,

    I tried sheep brains once, just to see - in a restaurant, and with an open mind. I'm not squeamish about weird food generally (although I've never tried sweetbreads yet, so maybe I am), but I can honestly say the thing that put me off brains was not the thought of what they are, but the horrible fatty slimy taste.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Chris Waugh, in reply to Islander,

    sufficient fat/blubber

    I seem to remember reading in the old National Geographics I collected in my early teens (oh how I wish I'd kept a hold of them - I had editions dating back to the late 19th century which were fascinating reads) that seal and whale blubber contains vitamins that are normally only found (at least in sufficient quantities) in fruit and veges, and that therefore marine mammals are an essential part of the Inuit diet, the only other option being to import fruit and veges from hundreds of kms to the south.

    Wellington • Since Jan 2007 • 2401 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    Sweetbreads are delicious, though. I am giving you an encouraging look through the computer, Ben.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • BenWilson, in reply to Danielle,

    I smell a trap.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report Reply

  • Islander, in reply to Danielle,

    My disreputable great-uncle* used to work at the Pukeuri freezing works and supplied the Oamaru part of the family with fresh sweetbreads ( sheep pancreatic glands) which, as a kid, I found okay when previously steamed and then cooked in a batter... didnt eat them past the age of 13 (which was when aforesaid g. unc died.)

    ^ He was the one whip-cracked by a sagacious old lady elephant when he teased her with a cabbage here in Oamaru, many years ago...

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Stowell,

    I had an entre of sweetbreads once (still not sure what they are- do I want to know?) baked into a brioche, with some sort of sauce. It was blimin’ lovely, made the main seem plain, as can happen. That was at the post Office Cafe, the old Sydenham Post Office, prior to “Blue Jeans” moving there- now an empty space.
    So if it’s a trap, it might be a good one to fall into :)
    edit: so know I now. Yum, pancreas! doesn't have quite the same ring.

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Islander,

    He was the one whip-cracked by a sagacious old lady elephant when he teased her with a cabbage here in Oamaru, many years ago...

    That sounds like a good story.
    It's very easy to underestimate an elephant's reach, as I once discovered during a private audience with the Ak zoo's late Kashin. When you're that big, two full timid human paces back from that investigating trunk that wants to snuffle you from head to foot* is easily countered by the slightest forward lean.

    *It was her enclosure, she was within her rights.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Jackie Clark, in reply to BenWilson,

    One of my fondest holiday memories is of eating sweetbreads at Noah's Hotel in Chch. I don't remember how old I was, and I haven't eaten them since, but they were very, very good.

    Mt Eden, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 3136 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    I have a general rule about eating the outside of animals and not the insides. Also cannot abide the smell and appearance of shell-fish. Once gagged down a raw oyster because people kept going about how sublime they were but it was horrible. Maybe it is something to do with my Jewish heritage,

    Completely off the topic (and because there is no current sport thread): great game by the Chiefs over the Crusaders last night.

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • JacksonP, in reply to Geoff Lealand,

    Also cannot abide the smell and appearance of shell-fish. Once gagged down a raw oyster because people kept going about how sublime they were but it was horrible.

    Think I've shared this with at least Islander before, but I've always loved slimy shell-fish.

    At a wedding in Te Kaha in 2009 the table was full of the standard sea food offerings like crayfish and oysters, but there was also a full bowl of fresh kina.

    At the end of the dinner there was still half of it left, so one other guest (a cameraman who'd been filming the wedding) and I sat around the bowl chatting, and polished off a fair few of the remainder.

    Living in Japan it would also be difficult, or at least unfortunate, if you didn't have a taste for such things. Fish roe, sea urchin and eel were among my favourite dishes, when I had the budget for them.

    Completely off the topic (and because there is no current sport thread): great game by the Chiefs over the Crusaders last night.

    They look the business, don't they? And SBW, dare I say it, is maturing?

    Auckland • Since Mar 2011 • 2450 posts Report Reply

  • Lilith __, in reply to Chris Waugh,

    seal and whale blubber contains vitamins that are normally only found (at least in sufficient quantities) in fruit and veges, and that therefore marine mammals are an essential part of the Inuit diet

    IIRC, isn’t it raw liver? (cooking de-natures Vitamin-C)

    I’m a life-long vegetarian (raised that way, back when it was super-unfashionable, and have chosen to continue), but I have a certain respect for people who eat offal; if you’re going to kill an animal, I think it’s a good thing to eat all the bits that are edible. And as I understand it, most offal is super-nutritious.

    One of the trickiest things about being vegetarian, for me, is trying to avoid gelatine*, which turns up in the strangest places. It’s not only in many sweets, but also some biscuits and other things like sour cream and yoghurt.

    *a lot of people believe it’s made of horses’ hoofs, I don’t know why. In fact its main ingredient is skin.

    Dunedin • Since Jul 2010 • 3895 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand, in reply to JacksonP,

    I know I would need to adapt to Japanese cuisine but so will my daughter Catherine Rose, who is setting off for 10 months in a Japanese school in a week or so, Her host family lives about 30min away from the site of dolphin slaughter, which features in The Cove, and her host father George is a fisheries official. So, I guess there are certain topics of conversation she will have to avoid.

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • nzlemming, in reply to Geoff Lealand,

    Also cannot abide the smell and appearance of shell-fish.

    Moi aussi, although that actually extends to any seafood. Don't know if it's psychological (e.g. growing up catholic) or allergy but I do get physically sick if I ingest any. Which is a bit of a bugger in an island nation surrounded by fish...

    Also, I can't eat mushrooms, which I appear to have inherited from my mum.

    Waikanae • Since Nov 2006 • 2937 posts Report Reply

  • Lilith __, in reply to nzlemming,

    I can’t eat mushrooms, which I appear to have inherited from my mum.

    Maybe throw them out and get some fresh ones?
    ;-)
    (sorry, couldn't resist!)

    Dunedin • Since Jul 2010 • 3895 posts Report Reply

  • nzlemming, in reply to Lilith __,

    ROFL

    Waikanae • Since Nov 2006 • 2937 posts Report Reply

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