This little piggy went to market… because he’s a Western piggy.
This little piggy stayed at home… because he’s Eastern.
And it’s not until you get pitched into the ‘other’ culture that you start to realise what a hold ‘the flesh of the pig’ has on us.
It’s the same with vegetarians. When Paul McCartney was asked what he missed most since turning veggie he said; ‘bacon sandwiches.’
It was his good fortune then to meet Linda Eastman who made a mean veggie bacon sandwich.
Now, don’t get me wrong, Middle Eastern food has in many ways much more variety than Western dishes.
As I experienced in a Middle Eastern restaurant that used to be a mosque in Amsterdam… Pictures of Amsterdam.
And George Clooney and Amal’s Amsterdam hotel.
But when it comes to sausages our Eastern cousins have to adapt with chicken sausages.
As I found out in Jordan, although they do know how to rustle up a carnivore’s dream with lamb and chicken in the desert…
Still on chicken… Desert Chicken is good, Chicken Fillets, Lemon Chicken.
Even Chicken Kiev.
But Chicken Sausages?
Still, if we in the West have the better sausages our Eastern neighbours have the better, kofta meatballs.
As I discovered in Istanbul, where East really does meet West… Wham bam, thank you Hamam.
Best of all though is Sunday Sadie… the bacon, sausage, scrambled (or poached), beans and toasts.
That the Scary One serves every Sabbath.
I’d send her back to the kitchen if she came in with this!!!
And, of course, to stop her resting on her laurels, I do mention that the Sunday grill could do with some mushrooms.
Which brings me round to my fave veg… which I’ll get around to talking about soon.
MEET YOU ON THE PLATE
