We were driving across the English countryside without a care in the world - except for settling on where we would pull in for a pint and a meal.
I was struck by how many sheep there are in the country - and indeed even on the grassy boulevards around Heathrow airport. Surely no one would ever starve in England with all these sheep around.Well after several hours and days of sheep-spotting, I realized that I no longer noticed their woolly coats, the colour of their legs and faces or where they were grazing - instead I saw them with dotted lines superimposed, revealing the different cuts you can get from a sheep. Racks, shoulder chops, shanks (Oooh! I do love the shanks braised in Guinness!).
In a world where we are quite separated from the source of our food by cello wrap, styrofoam trays and fluorescent lighting, I felt rather pleased that the real animal (in fact the still jumping and kicking animal) made me hungry.
Yes, I eat meat.
Many years and many meals have past since then. I have remained as enthusiastic an eater as ever. Some have called me an omnivore (one who eats almost bloody anything and everything). I always seek out at least one great meal in every place I go to - and I am not talking about elite food in elite restaurants. I like streetfood, home cooking, the local place, the diamond-in-the-ruff, the place that is open at 3:45am when you just gotta fill that need for some grease, the place you have to drive 4 hours out of your way in a twisty-turny road, risking that your children will barf in the backseat before you get there (a post on that one to come in the near future).
Most of all I like to tell and swap stories with friends about food experiences. Others seem to get some entertainment value from them. So this is the first of hopefully many posts about food and related topics. Hopefully someone will find some use in the information - I will try my best to label the post with keywords that include the location, the name of the establishment, the food item, and the theme of the story. That way you can search out stories about a place you might be travelling to soon.
