Shanks

On my first visit to the butcher in Manor Green Road after the recent festivities, two events of interest. First, new floor mounted screens had been installed for our greater protection. Second, he had a couple of lamb shanks in the window, something we have eaten out occasionally - including, I think, the Oak Room in the hotel at Birling Gap, a hotel allowed to fall over the cliff and so close by the National Trust - but never bought. 

So bought these two shanks, and I insisted, against BH's better judgement, on their being roasted rather than pot-roasted, roasted on the grounds that leg of lamb was entirely roast-worthy, no need to render it down with pot-roasting. So roasted for an hour at 180°C and served as shown above, with a bottle of  the 'Mademoiselle' which has been noticed before, lurking at the top of the snap. 

The debris. Not for the crows on this occasion

Looked good and tasted well enough, but a little too savoury and chewy for my taste. When served as part of a gigot it does better by being cut with meat from further up the leg - so next time we will try pot-roast. Plus a spot of the entry-level Calvados from Majestic, which did not, on this occasion, have the cidery taste I have noticed and liked on a previous occasion. But it went down well enough for all that.

The dessert

For dessert, a confection involving cooking apples from Sainsbury's and blackberries from some hedge. Rather good it was too. Plus, for BH, a pot of the cold yellow custard which our elder granddaughter used to be fond of, in the days before the plague when she sometimes used to take lunch with us. A lunch which would always involve cottage pie, sometimes glossed as cotton pie.

Towards the end of these proceedings, a bill arrived from Thames Water, just visible in the snap above, announcing an upwards lurch in our direct debit. Were we into the swings back and forth which used to plague our gas bills for so many years? But this is a story which has already been told at reference 2.

From water to the Mishnah, last noticed at reference 3, on this occasion concentrating on the introduction. Which left me with the impression that it was more Muslim in tone than Christian. Which fits with what happened in the first millennium - but not so well with what we have got now. I also learned about the word 'homoioteleuton', a sort of rhyming known to Aristotle, with 'Heinz Beanz' being a modern example of sorts. Here for the common copyists' error of skipping everything between two words of similar appearance, a meaning for which I had to turn to the OED, where I was confused by its variant spelling 'homœoteleuton'. Copyists' errors which it seems are helpful in tracing the provenance of important texts. Something which I believe Muslims do not go in for in their sacred texts, despite the example set by both Christians and Jews.

From there, for some reason, to the navy and the likely goings on on-shore of BH's naval grandfather during his time on a gunboat on the Yangtze. From there to Union Street, which for some minutes I had placed in Portsmouth, rather than in Plymouth where it belongs. Last time we visited, a shadow of its former torrid self, rather like Rose Street in Edinburgh as far as that goes. While I remember the days when a long wheel-base, white Land Rover packed with Shore Patrol, booted if not suited, would be parked at one end, just in case anything kicked off.

PS 1: the pot-roast story from the BBC. With pot-roast appearing to rule the waves, as according to Bing all the celebrity chefs are at it.

PS 2: another case of National Trust greed being their takeover at the café at the Devil's Punchbowl, noticed at reference 1. While the snap far above was taken well before we knew the hotel, by which time it was getting rather close to the cliff edge. Time we paid another visit to the place, once a popular place of resort.

Reference 1: http://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-labour-profligacy.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/01/a-lesson-in-water.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/01/boiled-beef.html.