On Fri, 09 May 2008 12:50:50 +1000, Herodotus
wrote:

I also find myself often fascinated by the making which can be more
memorable than the eating. Your beautiful description of gyros or
jeeros slicing reminded me of watching the making of Ramadan bread in
Turkey, Roti Chanai in Malaysia and all the other skills that make for
interesting food. I once tried making what is termed in Malaysia and
Singapore as "tea arik" or "pulled" tea whereby the tea with added
milk is poured from a pot into a cup at both outstretched arms'
length in an arc and back again several times. All I managed was wet
trousers.

Well, though some techniques add to the flavor, others are meant for
entertainment and overdone.
Japanese chop-chop stuff and so on. Boring. Maybe because my wife is
a professional cook and I see close to the best daily.
I'm afraid she's getting carpal tunnel problems though, so that may
have to end.
I do like table flamed goat cheese at Greek restaurants - because I
*know* I'm going to like eating that cheese, so my drooling instincts
kick in.

I suppose it's a bit like cruising in a small boat - it's all about
the getting there and the anticipation of arriving whereas so often
the actual arrival is an anti-climax and sometimes disappointing.

I've noticed a small letdown when arriving by air, but never when
driving. When in the Navy the longer at sea the more exciting the
arrival in port. My destroyer was once at sea for 31 days (circling
Cyprus in 1964) and we practically jumped the rails upon arrival in
Bari, IT.
You may be too well traveled and have jaded yourself.

I was eagerly anticipating an "anti-American" bite about the 'apropos'
and the "American coffe" comment but obviously need to try harder.

Get serious. You expect me to defend weak coffee because I'm an
American? Peter, Peter.

--Vic

In article ,
Vic Smith wrote:

On Fri, 09 May 2008 12:50:50 +1000, Herodotus
wrote:

I also find myself often fascinated by the making which can be more
memorable than the eating.

1960's Singapore had magic carparks which filled every evening with food
carts, illuminated with Tilley lamps and woks, heated by charcoal
burners.

Nasi- and Mee-gorengs were thrown, chopped and mixed by master showmen
done for the audience of eager, hungry customers, who received their
completed meal wrapped in a banana leaf and tied with a strip of liana
(by an eight year old) to complete the 'take-away'!

Delicious too.

--
Molesworth

On Fri, 09 May 2008 12:40:34 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:


I suppose it's a bit like cruising in a small boat - it's all about
the getting there and the anticipation of arriving whereas so often
the actual arrival is an anti-climax and sometimes disappointing.

I've noticed a small letdown when arriving by air, but never when
driving. When in the Navy the longer at sea the more exciting the
arrival in port. My destroyer was once at sea for 31 days (circling
Cyprus in 1964) and we practically jumped the rails upon arrival in
Bari, IT.
You may be too well traveled and have jaded yourself.
Hi Vic,

Quite possibly, but there always remains the excitement of a new place
and a need to land and explore, to eat food you don't have to cook and
to meet new people. I suppose that there is the dawning recognition
that no new port will have quite the same exoticness and magic of your
first foreign landfall or even the arrival at your first ever
destination when you first launched the boat and took up cruising. I
find now that many of the more memorable times were of the getting
there such as when you turn off everything and DR by chart and compass
and your senses and the expected landfall rises in the early morning
gloom (and of course when it doesn't and you have to figure out the
error).

I was eagerly anticipating an "anti-American" bite about the 'apropos'
and the "American coffe" comment but obviously need to try harder.

Get serious. You expect me to defend weak coffee because I'm an
American? Peter, Peter.

There goes another stereotype - that Americans have no subtlety in
their humour.

cheers
Peter

--Vic