How do you like your lamb?

[MANICHAEAN]

I must be cracking up as I've started having dreams about roast lamb.

Mind you, after 16 months in Vietnam, with all the dips & dunks & diarrhea, (the latter being nick named "Ho Chi Minh's Revenge,") the exotic has now turned into the mundane.

Oh for a slow roasted leg joint of salt marsh Welsh Lamb from Anglesey, embedded with chunks of garlic and threaded through with rosemary; the juices dripping down onto a tray bed of haricot beans, plum tomatoes & celery.

Does this eventually become a wet dream?

I got into a FB conversation last night with a Texan about the size of their steaks. Well you can imagine how that went.

Anyway Lit Netters lets get away for a respite from all the bad tempered attacks currently in vogue and discuss "lamb."

How do you like it?

Vegetarians and all other non believers, (peace and blessings be upon their countenances) fight it out on the Religion Thread.

I suppose that another influence, even more formative, if not conclusive is the history of lamb in literature. You may regard this as a meretricious line of thought, but believe you me, there are individuals on this forum, so highly read who will add some substantive gem of knowledge.

Best regards
M.

[Iain Sparrow]

Coming from a Scottish background, I can honestly tell you that nobody on Earth does lamb worse than the Scots.

The Greeks on the other hand, now they know how to prepare lamb!
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2...-with-tzatziki

[Pompey Bum]

I am currently a non-believer in beneficent meat drippings (let alone Texas longhorns). But when I was growing up my family used to buck the anti-Jewish Christian tradition of eating ham at Easter; instead we'd gorge ourselves on yummy roasted lamb (Gospel of John and all that) with embedded garlic and olives. This was tied up with a string--you don't want a roasted lamb getting away from you--and served with a queer mint jelly. I think some people's roasted lamb had a strange sort of paper underwear on it, but we were never so kinky. Still, I must admit that tying a baby sheep up and eating its flesh holds a certain nostalgic charm for me. But dear dead days must pass.

Later, while I was traveling in the Middle East as a young man, I had plenty of tough, gamy sheep and goat in ancient villages that aren't there anymore. The pink, fly-laden carcasses would hang under awnings from old meat hooks just beside four or five outdoor tables. You ordered by pointing at the cadaver, whereupon the proprietor (who was also the cook and waiter) would produce a large knife, hack off a piece, and disappear into a nearby hovel to fire it up for you. Dead goat. It's what's for dinner.

A few years later I was working in the Peace Corps in a remote part of Central Africa. The standard fare at the marche was monkey, porcupine, pangolin (look it up), palm rat, and various snakes (viper, python, cobra/mamba). They were all tough and vile tasting except for the snakes. Snake meat has the consistency of fish (sort of) and no real taste to it. It was my favorite.

One Thanksgiving the six or seven Peace Corpses from the province were invited to the country director's house in the distant capital for a family-ish dinner. This proved to be roasted mutton served with--God love them for ever and ever hallelujah amen--baked potatoes. But it could have been cheesecake. There were tears in our eyes. Saltwater tears.

And once in Istanbul I ate a sheep's brain--squiggles and all. It was served at room temperature and meant to be spread over bread with a butter knife. I didn't care for it at all.

I don't eat much meat these days. My reasons are personal--it makes me feel bad to think how the animal whose flesh I'm eating must have suffered. But I'm not Levitical about it. I still have meat at restaurants sometimes. I'm fond of an Indian dish called lamb korma (or lamb coma as I like to say). And I guess I had Mongolian lamb in Mongolia. But these days I'm mostly happy to let the little guys gambol about in their softest clothing wooly bright. Not that I begrudge you your meat. Where dietary choices are concerned, I find mind your own business to be the golden rule.

As far as literature goes, lambs and sheep are important images in the Gospel of John. That is what Blake was riffing in his innocent counterpoint to The Tyger:

The Lamb
by William Blake

Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee

Little Lamb I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb I'll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
Little Lamb God bless thee.

[MANICHAEAN]

Iain

1. Disagree. I've had some supurb Scotch lamb up in Sterling.
2. That Greek recipe is something else. Got my juices going again at the thought of it on a plate in front of me.

Best regards
M.

[MANICHAEAN]

Dear Pompey

I knew you would come up with something. I was not familiar with Blake's "The Lamb," but was always inspired by "Tiger Tiger." Once you get those lines in your head, they never leave, especially;

Did He smile His work to see,
Did He who made the Lamb make thee.

Back to the main course. I've eaten; snake and fried summer flies in Nigeria, swallowed chick embryos ( called balut ) in the Philippines, reluctantly accepted sheep's eyeballs in Saudi and of course here in Vietnam it's standard fare to have on the menu; dog, porcupine and blood curds. Luckily being half Irish, offal has never been a problem. Pigs head soup, tripe, gizzards, liver, kidney, sweetbreads. Never had brains though. Perhaps I should rephrase the last sentence!

Take care
M.

[prendrelemick]

Coming from a Scottish background, I can honestly tell you that nobody on Earth does lamb worse than the Scots.

The Greeks on the other hand, now they know how to prepare lamb!
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2...-with-tzatziki

From Boswell: Life of Samuel Johnson

At the inn where we stopped he was exceedingly dissatisfied with some roast mutton we had for dinner. ... He scolded the waiter, saying, "It is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-drest."

[Pompey Bum]

Dear PompeyBack to the main course. I've eaten; snake and fried summer flies in Nigeria, swallowed chick embryos ( called balut ) in the Philippines, reluctantly accepted sheep's eyeballs in Saudi and of course here in Vietnam it's standard fare to have on the menu; dog, porcupine and blood curds.

Oh yes, insects! Used to eat scorched grubs like bar nuts in Gabon. Then there were deep-fried locusts and tarantulas in Cambodia. And caterpillar poop tea in Taiwan. The world is an ugly place, M., but you may as well drink it to the dregs.

[MANICHAEAN]

As long as it has a good shot of gin in it I will endeavor to do so.

[OrphanPip]

I don't bother ordering lamb or beef in Malaysia because it's always old and tough. The lamb satay (it's most definitely mutton even if they translate it as lamb) is somewhat ok and not bad with the peanut sauce.

[MANICHAEAN]

Its sounds Orphan Pip that you are going a tad through the same culinary withdrawal symptoms east of Suez that I am.

I note you hail from Canada. Lamb may not be top of the pops there, but I have fond memories in Fort McMurry of; BBQ'ed thick steaks, sometimes elk, deer or moose.

Dear Lord the beer was also good down the Padollen Hotel.

[Pompey Bum]

I don't bother ordering lamb or beef in Malaysia because it's always old and tough. The lamb satay (it's most definitely mutton even if they translate it as lamb) is somewhat ok and not bad with the peanut sauce.

Do you get kopi luwak (also known as civet cat feces coffee/tea) in Malaysia? I've never gone near the stuff myself, but it's the kind of thing they pay a lot of money for in Taipei.

[OrphanPip]

Do you get kopi luwak (also known as civet cat feces coffee/tea) in Malaysia? I've never gone near the stuff myself, but it's the kind of thing they pay a lot of money for in Taipei.

You can get it in KL (I haven't tried it) but most restaurants serve nescafe out of a giant bin dumped into boiled water. The local coffee is unfiltered and served with condensed milk, I find it quite hard to stomach usually. They also have a variety called "white coffee" which uses a lot more milk and is much too sweet for my taste. They also like to mix coffee with milky tea. You have to go to American style coffee shops like Starbucks to get a decent coffee usually.

Its sounds Orphan Pip that you are going a tad through the same culinary withdrawal symptoms east of Suez that I am.

I note you hail from Canada. Lamb may not be top of the pops there, but I have fond memories in Fort McMurry of; BBQ'ed thick steaks, sometimes elk, deer or moose.

Dear Lord the beer was also good down the Padollen Hotel.

I often try to cook for myself these days. The British colonial legacy is quite strong here and you can get Western food all over the place but it's usually terrible (bad fish and chips or overcooked pasta). In a lot of ways it's nice cause it makes me cook things I'd normally never cook out of laziness back in Canada.

[roelmartens]

Do you get kopi luwak (also known as civet cat feces coffee/tea) in Malaysia? I've never gone near the stuff myself, but it's the kind of thing they pay a lot of money for in Taipei.

Too bad the civet cat is being abused for the sake of more luwak coffee and money... I always avoid it.

[Pompey Bum]

Too bad the civet cat is being abused for the sake of more luwak coffee and money... I always avoid it.

Take it to the religion forum, pal!

Just kidding. We've had some ugly squabbles lately, and we're all trying to regain our good vibes just now. But you're right. The civets are force fed (cherries--yum yum) so I take it for granted that whatever's going on is pretty cruel. And yes, it's too bad. In all fairness, though, I used to eat civets back in the day. Nowadays I stick to caterpillar poop tea. One mellows.

Welcome to the site, by the way. I wish you further success in avoiding cat crap coffee

[MANICHAEAN]

It will be Sukkot next month if I'm not mistaken, one of the most joyous holidays in the Jewish calendar.

My dreams and yearning then turn to brisket cooked low and slow with onions, (lots) and garlic.

This cut of meat from the lower chest of the cow is oft overlooked for its toughness, (the result of it comprising muscle supporting 60% of the body weight above it.)

Hence it has to be cooked correctly to tenderize the connective tissue.

You may wonder what I, a good Catholic boy, is doing raving about Jewish food. Well, it went back to my first real job in construction, when I shared every morning a train ride from Victoria to a site in East Croydon with Peter Bernstein. He was sick of his mums' salt beef on rye, and I likewise on cheddar cheese sandwiches with Branston pickle. So, not only did we swap and appreciate, but it further extended to our visiting each others houses to taste more comprehensively, the fare on offer.

Talk about " the Cohen's and the Kelly's."