Merry Christmas, Ho, Ho and er...oh yeah : Ho

[Ally]

Please tell me that's just the British for "Gummi worms" (a product revolting enough all by itself). Yes, I know you eat spotted dick, kidney pie, and spinal fluid pudding, not to mention French fry sandwiches, but eels are scary. Granted, maybe you're not talking about those nightmare-inducing Morays; still.

I'm with you. I read that post by Dave and threw up a little. Blech.

[Robert]

http://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/09/23/tubby-isaacs-jellied-eel-stall-aldgate/

[Cogidubnus]

Thanks for that link Robert...god the mention of winkles had my tastebuds going...my mother used to take my brother and I down to Black Rock (now sadly under the marina in Brighton) where we used to go winkling in the rock pools in anticipation of a feast later on...they were beautiful...

So many old dishes have sadly gone...I loved sweetbreads floured and then fried - virtually disappeared in the last twenty years...(I used to have a friendly butcher who stocked them specially for me, but supermarkets have all but killed off the old fashioned butchers and indeed old fashioned butchery); now if someone set up a gourmet restaurant for that sort of dish, I bet they'd make a bomb!

I really don't understand the modern prejudice against offal...liver and bacon's a beautiful dish...similarly steak and kidney...and stuffed heart is to to die for! I do usually draw the line at lights, but even those I'll eat in haggis...I can see I've not so elegantly diverted the thread off-topic so I'll reiterate my earlier Christmas greetings to everyone on casebook!

Every good wish

Dave

PS the other two tubs have now succumbed and I am replete!

[Robert]

Hi Dave

The main thing is, enjoy your food and who cares if it's fashionable. My favourite is sausages. People sometimes say to me "if you only knew what goes into sausages..." But I don't want to know. I like sausages. I've always liked sausages. And I will continue to eat sausages.

I remember every Christmas Eve my mother or grandmother used to boil up the giblets. I've no idea why, but it ponged a bit.

[RivkahChaya]

Sorry. I guess it was the combination of "jellied" and "eel." I still haven't worked up the courage to Google it. I'm a vegetarian, so anything meaty doesn't make my top 10, but I'm guessing that if this is something like "a type of fish in aspic," it wouldn't sound so strange.

Of course, I was raised with gefilte fish, and I still think it looks like tumors.

Everyone have good holidays. My husband will be working, probably, and then we'll get Chinese carry-out, because we like it that they're opened.

[Cogidubnus]

Christmas Gruel

The main thing is, enjoy your food and who cares if it's fashionable. My favourite is sausages. People sometimes say to me "if you only knew what goes into sausages..." But I don't want to know. I like sausages. I've always liked sausages. And I will continue to eat sausages.

I remember every Christmas Eve my mother or grandmother used to boil up the giblets. I've no idea why, but it ponged a bit.

Hi Robert

As regards sausages you and me both mate...especially seeing as I live so close to O'Hagans...oh god THE Sausage Mecca is down the Witterings...the only other place that ever came near (in my experience anyway) was a little butchers (who's name I sadly can't recall) in Upper Beeding, West Sussex...

Tell me...have you ever tried Hogs Pudding? (aka White pudding) ... a wonderful west country dish...If you like sausages, then fried slices of hogs pudding will genuinely send you frantic with desire for more...

The giblets were generally boiled up with the bones and skin to make either stock or soup...I still do this routinely with any bird, usually to make soup ... my wife (very vocally) disapproves, but I notice she never turns down an offer of a bowl of soup or whatever...

Every good wish

Dave

[Cogidubnus]

Sorry. I guess it was the combination of "jellied" and "eel." I still haven't worked up the courage to Google it. I'm a vegetarian, so anything meaty doesn't make my top 10, but I'm guessing that if this is something like "a type of fish in aspic," it wouldn't sound so strange.

Hi Rivkah

Quite right...and fish in aspic is just about right too...the eels (unboned) are cut into short lengths and boiled in a little water, usually with vinegar and other (sometimes secret) ingredients added...the eels are naturally gelatinous, so as the mixture cools, a jelly forms and sets...

One of my stepdaughters briefly dated a seafood seller...for a while we enjoyed the leftover proceeds of his failures...I can recall once eating a whole bowl full of jellied eels...something like a bucket (or gallon) of same...
Oh glory...(oh greed too - no wonder I now have angina!).

And the prawns...Despite loving them, we tired of them fast...we've always had lots of cats...I'd guess we had about six at the time, but they too actually got sick and tired of eating prawns and started turning them down...cockles and mussels we had aplenty...There are times you wish you could channel your childrens desires...this was one of them...

Happy Christmas somehow doesn't seem appropriate but Shalom Rivkah...

All the very best

Dave

[Robert]

Hi Dave

No, never had that, but I think I'll steer clear of the garlic anyway.

I wish they still sold Kunzel cakes (also known, I think, as boaters or floaters?) They were gorgeous, but then the buggers found out I liked them and stopped making them.

[Cogidubnus]

Hi Robert

http://www.doyouremember.co.uk/memory.php?memID=4728

Was that your recollection of Kunzel Cakes? I'm afraid my Sussex upbringing didn't include this delicacy. Hogs Pudding...garlic? que? I don't think garlic was a particularly prominent ingredient...Either way don't disregard it mate...if you get the chance go for it!

In our neck of the wood, floaters are the dumpling-like accessories that float on top of certain casseroles...boaters are unknown and bloaters are fish...which do you mean?

Merry Christmas

Dave

[Magpie]

I would sell my grandmother into slavery for an honest-to-goodness savaloy *sigh*

[Damaso Marte]

Erm no...these are regular eels...jellied...as consumed by generations of Londoners...and delicious too...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellied_eels

All the best

Dave

I've never dared to try jellied eels, but a man operating a "Tubby Isaac's Jellied Eels" stand helped me find the site of the GSG when I was in London, so I'll always have a soft spot for the food.

[j.r-ahde]

Hello you all!

These talks remind me of some having with my friends.

I lived in a small farm til I was 19 and found the pig to be the most fun domestic animal. I face many times the following question: "Then, how you could eat the pig?"

Well, it was just a part of life and circulation...

All the best
Jukka

[Robert]

Thanks for the link, Dave. I see they were called showboats and, as the comments prove, fondly remembered.

[RivkahChaya]

Happy Christmas somehow doesn't seem appropriate but Shalom Rivkah...

All the very best

Dave

For a while I worked for an agency that did respite care, and ran group homes, and the year before I got promoted to management, I volunteered to work sub hours for everyone who didn't want to work on Christmas eve or Christmas. Since we could sleep for the overnight hours, as long as the clients were sleeping, we could work 24-hours, so I worked all the way through from 4pm Christmas eve, to 8am the day after Christmas. 6pm Christmas eve to 6pm Christmas day was double time, and the rest was overtime, because I put in a regular week. That was a very happy Christmas.

FWIW, even after I was management, I always worked Christmas hours for people, I just didn't get extra money for it.

In our neck of the wood, floaters are the dumpling-like accessories that float on top of certain casseroles...boaters are unknown and bloaters are fish...which do you mean?

In the US, "floaters" has two meanings, depending on context, and neither of them you want to eat. Whew. Gave me a laugh, though.

[Cogidubnus]

Hi Rivkah

Yes we have THAT kind of floater too...but I was for once being (most unusually for me!) tasteful...

Have a good one!

Dave