The cure

Corned beef was boiled and eaten yesterday - for those who don't know Irish/american corned beef is a world apart from the cheap Argentine mush we get over here. Tom is right when he says that this beautiful and thrifty dish is sublime, and I'm looking forward to his corned beef hash recipe.

In filmic news, I have eschewed the lure of mainstream twice this week, taking in Pieces of April (music by the god-like Stephin Merritt) and the achingly-long but visually stunning Il Gattopardo . Both recommended,
but for god's sake watch Il Gattopardo on a lazy sunday afternoon, and not at night when your wife is liable to fall asleep or complain all the way through the last half an hour.

Also, I have a new website.

Bellow!

In light of the previous post's comment, I shy away from mentioning the folk in this blog, for fear of rousing the anger of that notorious Chicago hitman, the "Filleter"; the nexus of fiddles and offal being his niche.

However, today's events must not pass without comment. I promise not to mention graphic novels or the pope.

My evening's amusements (I downloaded the demo of Half-life 2, which is frankly scary in both technical aspects and atmosphere) were interrupted by a red haired lass whose aquaintance I had never made. She introduced herself as the manager of Bellowhead, and announced that since she only lived at No. 1 on my street, she thought she'd pop the Bellowhead E.P. I'd ordered around herself and refund me the £1.50 postage I'd paid.

Now *that's* customer service.

Adventures in the culinary arts

I'd say I don't want this to turn into a culinary blog, but I'd be lying. Especially if every day is as crazy and good as today...

So, ok, my breakfast wasn't crazy (although it was toast made from bread from
Hobbs House Bakery). And my lunch
was from Cafe Nero (they do the best readily-available italian sandwiches I am aware of in the UK. Parma ham and marscapone. mmmmm).

so, to the evening. My vegetable box arrived this morning, with my long awaited purple sprouting broccoli. Steamed and eaten with butter the moment I got home.

Better yet, I am currently corning my brisket and (in an unplanned double induction to curing) baconing my first pork belly (they were on offer, as they often are, at Waitrose). It'll be a good five days until I know if it's a success.

But my biggest surprise yet today - a tray of squid that Mary bought while I was at work - heads and guts and all. Pan-fried for all of a minute with olive oil, parsley and lime (a la Nigel Slater). Gosh

The easter bunny

Lately, I've been exploring the wonders of Bath farmers' market. The week before easter I bought a fantastic leg of organic lamb (at a fantastic price), and from it we ate roast lamb and some wonderful shepherd's pie.

For easter, since we had already explored the lamb angle, we decided to buy a rabbit. The cooking of the rabbit stew was a slight mishap (rabbit *does*, as people warn you, have a tendency to be dry, although it was very tasty), but the prize of the deal was that the rabbit came with heart, liver and kidneys attached. Eaten this evening pan-fried with a leafy salad. Delicious!

Die Aussparung auf Deutschland, Kapitel 1: Aussparung ist unheimlich Dummkopf

So, I am in Dresden, on a workshop whose aim is to banish bureacracy in proof theory.

This has largely been an excercise in me humiliating myself with poorly remembered german, until mid-morning, when the actual academic stuff began.

So far Dresden is not the hole I was led to believe it was (it is, for example, infinitely preferable from an architectural point of view to Turku, Finland), but my experience food-wise has been variable. I did find a shop selling organic bratwurst(also blutwurst), so only best before dates and prudence can limit how much of that I bring back. Canteen food is, naturally, dreadful.

But one of my hosts handed me a tourist leaflet containing the only thing you'll ever need to know, gastronomically, about Saxony.

I give you Pfund's Molkerei, *the world's largest cheese shop*.

www.pfunds.de/sprachen/eng/eng_index.html

Bis Bald,

Aussparung (Omission)