Tuesday 14 February 2012

Domestic Goddess Gourmet



The Bag Lady & The Tramp


I excelled myself and cooked my husband a three-course meal tonight. It kind of evolved from the contents of my shopping trolley:  Warsaw Pact cabbage soup; hill-farmed lamb chops from the Ginger Pig butchers with new potatoes and erm some rather beautiful dark crinkly cabbage from the deli; post-war austerity baked apples and cream.  There were a couple of hitches: after a fight to hide the mint sauce bottle, it was found to have a sell-by date of March 2008 and I forgot to buy the cream.  But we did have candles. Valentine's Night comes but once a year, oh.  All rather lovely and funny as it turned out.  


Where I live is a compelling mixture of rackety East London life and Cool Central.   Since I have a phobia of supermarket carparks (ran out of petrol in one when I was nine months pregnant  and on another occasion, caught my bumper on the crash barrier whilst trying to overtake) I find I can cover all my bases on foot (hence the eco-friendly but none too chic shopping trolley).   






So, one way there are shops of every nationality and the wondrous cheapo LIDL with six different types of single-estate chocolate and a themed promotion every week to up the thrill factor. It could be DIY, pet care,  motorbiking, gardening or my absolute favourite,  equestrianism. There's not a horse in miles and the stable buckets, numnahs, riding crops and curry combs linger in the remaindered bin until someone like me sheepishly gives them a home in case I make a painting about them one day.   


In the opposite direction, is the sequestered 'village'  lately colonised by an award-winning deli, old-fashioned greengrocers, fishmonger and the kindly but costly rustic butcher. I have also noticed a wine shop with blackboards outside offering tasting and loving advice which is where I popped this afternoon.  OK, I know nothing much about wine and find LIDL's  shiraz cabernet sauvignon has  cheeky topnotes and a smooth enough finish for me at £4.29.   On entering, I had the sense of being received as a bit of an old bag lady with me trolley and I confirmed it by suggesting a price point of a tenner.  Could I try something red? Could I hell.
In fact it was grudgingly dispensed from a high-tech temperature controlled apparatus into
an interesting stemless glass, swilled round and handed to me.  I tasted it without any sniffing , swishing  and slurping, polished it off and announced I didn't like it. That, it seemed, was my second or who knows which mistake but it was pretty evident I wasn't getting another crack at the  tasting.  Without managing to restore my dignity, I  chose something because I liked the label and was out of there before you could say mise en bouteille dans ma salle de bain.   Horrible. 




image courtesty http://retrorack.blogspot.com

12 comments:

  1. Not so much a cheeky little wine, more a mendacious little paint stripper - I seem to remember from the Evening Standard sometime in the 70s. Good to see you back and I'm very conscious I owe you a letter.

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  2. "I tasted it without sniffing, swishing and slurping, polished it off and announced I didn't like it"...you've made my morning!

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  3. Blue and Columnist, it's so nice to come back to people like you. Thank you!

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  4. hahahha - stick to the lidl cabernet - it's actually rather good! x

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  5. My wife swears by Venus du Pinchinat in a box. Rosé or red. Be sure and pry the box open after the spigot stops working: there's nearly a glass left in there.

    Hilarious, Rose.

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  6. Welcome back, Ms. Sélavy.
    It was worth waiting 2 full months and a day for this one!

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  7. Polskey, you and I have shared enough Lidl red to know what's what.

    rurritable, I certainly know that thing of getting the last drop out of the tinfoil bag. Easier than getting any genuine courtesy out of my local wine merchant.

    Mr Worthington, thank you darling! One would obviously wait till Valentine's Day to make one's come-back, no?

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  8. Horrible-lovely...thanks for the LOL!

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  9. Hey,Rose!!! - Are you OK? Good thinking, it's been a long time \o/. You can count on me. Thanks for your kindness. I liked!!! Sílvia.

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  10. So glad you were killed by too much Christmas! Loved your VD story. To help sponsor my early retirement almost 15 years ago, I gave up my car. One day I needed a curtain rod for a project and a few things for dinner. I walked the mile to fetch the curtain rod and stopped by the grocery on the way home. I was carrying my sturdy LL Bean bag, with the rod sticking out of it. On the way back to my house I passed a woman who lives outdoors. She winked at me smiled in a most sisterly we are one kind of way. I suppose we really are. Hope your hubby enjoyed your lovely dinner. So nice to have you back!

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  11. Home! Lovely to hear from you and thank you for a delightful comment. A little, perhaps, concerned about my 'VD story'. Not aware of an venereal disease issues at the moment... !

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