One of John Meyn's Favourite Hares
The Replies:
Astrid Bear
Charlezzzzz
Bob Saldeen
Marian Van Til
One of John Meyn's Favourite Hares
After dinner with a few new friends last night, I started one of my favourite hares. One of the suggestions given made me think of Charlezzzzz, so I thought I would share the whole thing with the Gunroom.
The rules are simple. You are cast away on a desert island with an unlimited supply of seven meals, one for each day of the week. The question is, which seven meals would you choose to eat forever?
These, I would guess, are probably the most popular choices, in rough order of popularity:
1 A 'Sunday dinner': roast beef or chicken, Yorkshire Pud, roast potatoes, (cooked with the meat) veg, gravy, followed by tinned fruit and custard.
2 A 'fry up': egg, bacon, sausage, fried bread, tomatoes, black pudding, bubble and squeak, chips (fries), baked beans, maybe with a meat pie upside down on top, a mugatea and none of that low fat malarkey.
3 Steak and kidney pudding\pie.
4 A 'bloody good curry': beef\chicken Madras or vindaloo, Bombay potatoes, stuffed parathas, onion baghias and lager, lots of lager.
5 Sausage 'n' mash: fry the sausages and sliced onions, make a roux in the pan, add stock to make gravy, a spoonful of fresh peas. 'Luvlytellyermuvva'
6 Fish 'n' chips. (Seeing as it's Friday.)
7 Cold meats, salad and pickles.
The two new contenders I remember from last night were - a Barbados breakfast dish, king prawns and eggs scrambled together and spiced up with hot chilli pepper sauce. Served with beer. And finally (sorry, Charlezzzzz), chargrilled croc.
A useful hare this, because it leads on to: desert islands, the sea in general, ships and then, inevitably, to ... guess what?
A little gem from last night. "You should always try to have a balanced diet. Whatever you have on one side of the plate; meat, vegetables, that sort of stuff, should always be balanced by an equal amount of mashed potatoes on the other."
The Replies
Astrid Bear
A good curry dinner with lots of condiments.
A big mixed greens salad with some broiled shrimp on top
An antipasto plate: grilled garlicked eggplant, grilled red peppers, salami, a couple of tangy cheeses, some marinated mushrooms, crusty bread, melon and proscuitto
Japanese bento box meal: teriyaki salmon, pickles, rice, a little sashimi, miso soup, seaweed salad
Classic Thanksgiving Day fare: Roast turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green beans, and of course Mama Stamburg's cranberry relish
A good brothy soup: I make a great not-quite-minestrone with Italian Chicken sausage. Or boullabaise.
Broiled lamb chops, roast potatoes with rosemary and garlic, steamed broccoli and asparagus.
Charlezzzzz
Very interesting thought, Homer. Your selections average (oh, I don't know) a couple of thousand calories too many every time you sit down to eat. But if your guests were, after each meal, to fling themselves into the ocean and swim at high speed around and around the island, the exercise might let you survive such dinners for a while. But soon the island wd be surrounded by happy, slow swimming, overweight, chubby sharks.
No. What you should do on that desert island is live mainly on cactus thorns, coconut husks, grubs, worms, locusts and rattle snake livers. Never eat alligators--their flesh is deadly poison. Stay out of the water. And build a powerful radio out of mandrake roots.
Bob Saldeen
1. Prime rib, twice-baked potato, french onion soup, salad. Port and Stilton blue for dessert
2. Cheeseburger, french fries, chocolate shake
3. Southern Fried Chicken, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob (Illini Super Sweet--none better)
4. Cassoulet, french bread with Kerry Gold Butter (the world's best). Smoked salmon/dill mayo/toast points for appetizer.
5. Pizza (can we alternate between Chicago and NY style?)
6. Shepherd's pie. Chicken -- easy on the carrots.
7. Pad Thai, Lard Nar, Beef Salad, Satay with peanut sauce
With an extra couple of days I'd pick something Chinese and Mexican...Italian would be nice to work in there too!
Marian Van Til
Such a week of preferred "desert island dinners," is, of course, going to be very different from culture to culture. While there's virtually nothing on John's list that I as an American wouldn't or don't eat (though the only time I've had black pudding was last year in England), and some of these foods I like a lot (though I'd definitely substitute a cup of very robust coffee, with cream, for the mugatea), much of it is certainly not the kind of thing I'd choose under the circumstances John delineates.
I'd probably choose meals for each day of different ethnic origins:
definitely Italian (that at least twice, in different incarnations; with some good red wines); and certainly Mexican. I'd keep the Indian food, and would throw in Greek and German (sauerbraten, spaetzle, etc.). I'd definitely keep the roast beef meal and the breakfast food; that last is comfort food -- can be eaten day or night; I'd add hot oatmeal or Red River cereal to it; and whole-grain bread/toast with marmalade or good berry jam of some sort. And more coffee. Lots more coffee. "Killick, there....
Which it's the Patrick O'Brian list of the world!