Vue

My View of the Vue cinema is not good... Along with slamming the door on Lili's face, spilling her popcorn all over the floor, not even considering offering her a replacement tub, they sell the most inedible food, (Obviously not counting Quorn chicken pieces) Nachos with cheese and salsa... I would usually have a hotdog on a Saturday morning if in this situation (the situation being that I had missed breakfast due to it being 10am and a Saturday) but not for the next 12 months. Now my choice is between popcorn or these strange shaped tortillas smothered in this luke warm orange goo which totally kills what ever flavour the tortillas ever had...

Oh and a quick heads up for the strict vegetarian, the cheese rolls sold in the Living Coasts sealife centre in Torquay are just ham and cheese rolls with the ham removed...

Steamed fish...

After a weekend of raclettes (I told you we eat a lot of them) we had some Mediterranean veg leftovers so instead of the lovely meaty pasta and sauce Rod and Lili chowed down on, I opted for a vegetable packed tomatoey sauce and finally got to try out one of my Christmas presents, a steamer.
I steamed a lovely salmon steak spritzed lightly with lemon juice and seasoned, simple and perfect. I steamed it for about 8 minutes until it was cooked through but still moist. Perfect.

Oh and this weekend after... and this has only just occurred to me... nearly ordering a hot dog from the movies... My god... Mine you, how much actual meat is in one of those things?  I had lunch with my dear friend and as Subway is the closest thing to the movies and the least "junkie" we opted for that for lunch with our girls. So scouring the menu I discovered the only two things I could have in my sandwich was the tuna mayo or something called a veggie patty... Dubiously I plumped for the latter... After it arrived I tentatively nibbled on the corner of the sandwich watched eagerly by Laura who was as intrigued as I as to what exactly a veggie patty was and wow... it was truly, without a word of a lie, it was truly passable... Definitely not horrible but  really, really OK.

The worm turns... I am not loving it...

Wednesday - Chinese takeaway
After a long day of work, tax returns, school, after school clubs and before the arrival of a friend we just couldn't be arsed to cook so plumped for a Chinese take away... I was dreading this day, every Chinese take away I love involves meat of some kind or another... Crispy chili beef, roast duck, spring rolls (The meat ones) and various dumplings and won tons... Indian food is easy to eat without meat... It's natural but Chinese, no, that does need meat.... Or so i thought.
I ordered a hearty mushroom curry, egg fried rice and a lovely crispy vegetable spring roll that went down beautifully, even if I did have to watch my husband munch his way through duck in plumb sauce and kung-po chicken. The mushrooms were sweet and moist and complemented the spicy chinese curry sauce well and the vegetable spring roll was  packed with beansprouts and al dente Chinese cabbage, bamboo shoots and various Julienne vegetables encased in a golden crispy pastry. Dip this baby in some plumb sauce and vava vooooooooooooooom. Sweet!

Thursday - Monk fish taggine
Fantastic... One of my favourite things to cook and to eat is taggine, usually lamb, sometimes chicken but always packed with chickpeas, tomatoes, wine, onions, balsamic vinegar, all spice and various other spices literally thrown into a taggine pot and shoved into a medium hot oven for a couple of hours. Served with spiced cous cous, pittas and humous. YES... And it bloody well works with monk fish too... Although not for 2 hours...

Tonight - Something truly, truly horrible
 Tonight Rod thought he would treat me with a Thai green curry, add chicken or monk fish, even prawn to this and you have one of my favourite meals of all time, but not ever, ever, EVER with chicken piece style Quorn ... Not ever, ever EVER, EVER AGAIN will I sully the good name of Thai green curry with this evil, evil, what can only be described as, a substance... Which, ironically had no substance. The tasteless morsels of blah flaked between my teeth in the most unappetising way. I cannot express how majorly I loathed it... Oh god it was truly awful... I have never eaten anything as vile as this stuff... And I've eaten ants! (Green ants... Australia... you have too...)
Jesus... shudder... This tastless, evil food will never pass my lips again... Never...

Quorn-verted... Sort of...

On Sunday night, after a lovely day at the beach taking photos (http://www.fenchurchadams.com/) and easily avoiding any meat temptation by taking a packed lunch, I got home with a devilish hunger that could not be quashed with just vegetables. I needed meat or at least something that tasted and had the consistency of meat... So I opted for a spot of Quorn...

Rod, the other half and strict carnivore, made a quorn chili and it was lovely... Different... Not exactly like meat... Not exactly better than meat... definitely not better than meat... but lovely none the less.

It lacked grease and gristle, two things that I really didn't think I would miss about not eating meat.

The night before we had a raclette (we have these quite often) with two friends who ever so sweetly came laden with fish and spiced cheeses. This was the first meal I've eaten that I can say, without uncertainty, that I really didn't miss meat. Together with a huge bowl of salad, plates were piled high with tuna steak, fresh salmon, peppers, mushrooms, courgette slices (Or green discs of hell as Rod calls them) aubergine, halloumi, humus, rice and enough bread to make me bloated for life. I stuffed my face and felt very happy.

Last night, we had an early dinner, Lili, my daughter who actually sang a song expressing her reluctance to turn vegetarian, loved the veggie chili and asked for more.

I fried off the leftover raclette veg and made a respectable ratatouille to go with our chili and added a cheesy jacket potato (even at home!) to bulk out the meal.
It was still a delicious chili, tomatoey, beany, packed with flavour... But this time it felt like a balloon was slowly deflating inside me... I really missed the chewiness of minced beef, those little chunks of meat that hadn't been separated properly in the pan, when you're lucky enough to get find and its like a tiny secret meatball, beefy and delicious, I missed the grease that you shouldn't love but you do, swimming about on the plate waiting to be moped it up with a hunk of bread, the flecks of OXO cube that haven't quite melted into the sauce bursting in your mouth like little beefy popping candy. I missed the meat...

But the Quorn chili was nice...

I love animals

I want to be a vet

But I wouldn't give up meat

Even for a bet!

Spag Bol and me

On top of spaghetti,
All covered with cheese,
I lost my poor meatball,
When somebody sneezed.

It rolled off the table,
And on to the floor,
And then my poor meatball,
Rolled out of the door.

I love my husbands Spaghetti Bolognese, it's rich, it's meaty, it's packed with flavour. He made it last night and all I could do was watch as he and our daughter shoved it down their rotten throats... I nearly cracked, very, very nearly cracked.

But I stayed strong, strong enough to choke back the prawns that sat before me... Prawns, once a luxury have become a staple, something to add in place of real flesh.
I did an online shop last night, ordered mackerel and salmon, mussels and yet more prawns before heading for the virtual meat counter and remembering exactly what I am missing with my year of madness.
Lamb terrines... Koftas... Beef or Chicken Tortillas... Burgers... Bloody steaks and of course my husbands lovely, lovely Spaghetti Bolognese.
But this is what I must go through. This is a personal crusade. I have no one to letdown but myself.
I will eat nowt but fish...

Pizza hut is great...

I usually go for a farmhouse with extra olives and red onions but today went for a simple mushroom and peppers deep pan and it was fantastic!
Yes, Pizza hut is great.

An incident in Debenhams cafe

I wasn't intending on writing in this blog two days in a row but after the incident in Debenhams this afternoon just felt I had to...

After a nose around the sale items I felt a bit peckish so decided to have lunch in the café.

As I approached the cafe and noticed the vacant look of the 17 year old girls behind the counter, dread poured into my very soul and these girls did not disappoint... Enquiring as to what vegetarian options where on offer (I didn't dare use the p word) I was greeted with a pained grimace and an offer of a jacket potato... I switched my attention to the sandwich bar and again made my enquieree... As the girl looked equally, if not a little more, vacant than the last, I again omitted asking for the pescaterian option and asked what was vegetarian... After a pause and a scan of her ingredients she answered "Ummm.... is cheese vegetarian?" I stifled my laughter and said yes, I did believe that cheese is meat free...  So it seemed apart from the potato this would be my only option.

"OK then, I will have a cheese, salad baguette then please"

"Oh..." She answered "We only have parmesan or that stuff" indicating the buffalo mozzarella. 

"No, Cheddar?" I asked solemnly

"No..."

"Could you check?" I pleaded

"I 'spose I could ask in the kitchen" She replied staring at me with a blank smile.

"Will you then?" 

I got no verbal reply to this just a shrug as she turned a left the counter...

This is when it all got a little weird...

I noticed that she hadn't completely left my view... She appeared to be... She was... She was shiftily hiding round the corner, checking her mobile...

After about 30seconds she put her phone back in her pocket and reappeared back behind the counter to announce that, no... She had checked with the kitchen and they had no Cheddar left... Sorry... 

What she hadn't realised that while she was preoccupied with her phone her colleague had actually been to the kitchen and returned holding a sample meal... A jacket potato with... yes, you guessed it, Cheddar cheese! Which was now sitting in the display cabinet... 

"What kind of cheese is on that potato then?" I enquired, indicating the potato

"Wha?" 

"The cheese, on that potato? That's Cheddar isn't it? Could I have some of that or is it reserved for jackets only"

"I think that's parmesan... Or that stuff..." She answered, indicating the mozzarella again.

"Nope, I think it's Cheddar" I insisted, getting quite agitated...

"I don't think it is" she replied

So, without a word, I worked my way down the line and asked the girl behind the hot food counter "Excuse me, what type of cheese is this?"

"Cheddar" came the unsurprising answer.

"Well can I have some in a sandwich then?" I asked with a sarcastic lilt... "Of course" Came the rather surprised answer and I immediately felt guilty as it wasn't actually her that had annoyed me so I made sure that my glare didn't leave the previous girls eyes while the sandwich was being made...

I do feel that if I'd only just chosen the lasagne life would have been a great deal easier...

My year of living as a pescaterian

Every year I try something new... Last year it was to live tee totally for a year, it was hard but not too hard... I cannot tell you how good that first drink tasted as the clock struck midnight on the first... But this year I have set myself a real challenge... Pescaterianism... I did play with the idea of vegetarianism but that just seems to hard for a carnivore such as myself so as a happy compromise I settled for keeping the fish... after all it's not for any moral or emotional reasons that I'm giving up meat... it is for myself... To prove to myself that I can do it... I can live without meat... Without juicy... Juicy meat...
I love meat.... I am proud to say it... I eat my steaks blue... I love black pudding... offal... game... I am a committed carnivore... I will eat anything with a face... or a pulse... but for one year I will abstain... I may go mad... This experiment could even backfire and I might start eating other things... people... mmm.... soilent green... But hell, it can't hurt... I may also loose a little weight...

The first two days of this experiment where nothing to shout about... Apart from a slight panic when I had to grab a quick snack for my daughter and myself (At my in-laws... Good, ageing Welsh people for whom meat is a necessity) and all I found was some bread, cold sliced beef and some cucumber... I quickly put together a beef and cucumber sandwich for my daughter then briefly played with the idea of grating cheese or boiling an egg but as we were already late it was an impractical solution to my problem... So I cut some slices of cucumber and buttered some bread... and viola... A cucumber sandwich... Boring... tasteless but no animals died to make it (Blah blah).
We went out to dinner with a friend in the evening, but to a nice place with a good classic menu and plenty of delicious sounding vegetarian and pescarian options... I chose the luxury fish pie, packed with prawns and salmon... tasty but to be honest a choice I might have made even without my vow...
But today, on our journey home we stopped at a service station just outside Bristol for lunch... This was the first time (and I suspect not the last) that I started to empathise and understand the impracticality of those who choose to be vegetarian for moral reasons... Whilst my husband and daughter could decide between sausages, meat pies (chicken and beef), a creamy topped thing that we suspect was lasagne and burgers... I had the choice of fish and chips or a jacket potato, two things I think I'm going to have to get used to this year. I plumped for a jacket and cheese... It was... unsatisfying... Even the soup was pea and ham... There were some cold options... egg sandwiches... a boxed cheese salad... all very, very dull and very unappetising...
So to make up for it my husband and I had a cold beer and a raclette with prawns and halloumi and salad... I can't count how many times I picked up a slice of chirizzo sausage absent mindedly put them to my lips before realising what I was doing... I suspect this might be a problem in the coming months...
First day back at work tomorrow... Lets see what the day brings...