When i was a child, I loved to read comic books. I have fond memories of visits to my grandmother, who kept huge piles of them in her house, just for when her tribes of grandchildren would visit. She also made wonderful bread and ginger and walnut cake, and at her house we always felt welcome and at peace. We'd normally chat for a while and then we'd grab some cake and a pile of comics and go outside to lie in the grass under the blue skies and read for hours.
I mention this because, I want to talk about Curry.
It is odd how images that puzzle, often stick in the mind, and for years, the image of Desperate Dan, the hardest of men, struggling to eat curry and needing to drink barrels of water to cool off haunted my imagination. What could this CURRY thing be if it gave Dan such a hard time. I mean, this guy would eat Cow Pies, and each one contained a whole cow!
It wasn't until i was 18 yrs old that I tried my first curry, and I have to admit that it was with some trepidation that I took the plunge. How pleasant was the surprise, and how proud i must have been to manage, and relish what Desperate dan had struggled with. Since then of course, I have eaten Curry at least once a week and there have been weeks when it has been more frequent. I love the taste of food from the subcontinent and love to experiment with new spice combinations.
Anyhow, my local restaurant is run by a Bangladeshi, who is a devout Muslim as are all of his staff. They have no alcohol license and so they allow customers to bring their own drinks. This is great as it keeps the price of the meal down. The menu is extensive and reasonably priced, though they do charge more in Cowes Week (regular customers excepted).
The Waiter in charge is called Mir, I think that is how it is spelled, and he is a charmer. Mir is about four feet 6 inches high, stocky and about 60 yrs old. He has a habit of calling everyone, well men anyway, Young Man, and is utterly charming to all of the women. He is proud of his eleven children and one gets the impression that he is still trying for more. I don't know where his family live but I suspect that it is not locally. Mir has energy and enthusiasm for his job and for his customers and I often wonder how he supports his family on a waiter's income. I also wonder how at his age he can still keep having children.
Well I went through the macho bit of eating the hottest curry on the menu in my early twenties. I experienced the pain of the consumption and the follow up the following day, and realised that I was much tougher than Desperate Dan. Now i settle for flavour rather than explosive value, and my digestive system is probably grateful.
I wonder where i can find a recipe for Cow Pie?
3 comments:
Hmmm....I always thought a Cow Pie was the same thing as a Cow Pattie. Which is something to avoid stepping in, and certainly to avoid eating! Maybe I am confused. I am not familiar with Desperate Dan, but I must look him up. If he is eating Cow Pies/Cow Patties, a little curry should be nothing to consume!
Oh dear reader, Cow pats as we call them are indeed similar in appearance to some Curries but there the similarity ends. Cow Pie is literally a whole cow in a pastry case complete with horns that stick up through the crust. Such a tantalising dish to a kid on the edges of malnutrition! Oh How i loved the comic strips. They were a great escape for a troubled little boy.
lol
I too decided to look up 'cow pie' on the 'net with the intentions of finding you a recipe.
I too found references only to the other less appetising kind of 'cow pie'....
I did, however, find a recipe for cow pie cookies! Not the same thing, I agree, but they sounded for more suited to my tastes!
Anything containing chocolate just HAS to be good!
(I always wondered what Dan did with the bones! lol )
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