Thursday, 31 January 2013

Whole Baked Snapper.

For those unaware of the identity of a Snapper, it is the name of a fish caught locally around NSW OZ and elsewhere, not the Navy term 'a troll who haunts public lavatories '.
Saw this recipe in my fave newspaper today for 'Whole baked snapper'.
For starters I shall presume whole is the fish including head guts shite and scales.
Now for health reasons I/We in my family eat fresh fish regularly once or twice per week. and we all have a strong preference that it should taste like fish or occasionally like beer batter with salt and vinegar the trad chish and fips,
The ingredients of the recipe for the fish to be baked in foil included two lemons, one clove of garlic, a three CM cube of ginger, one long red chili,, a cup of coriander leaves, two tbs of olive oil with salt and pepper. Well for me that means it should taste like a Chinese one hundred year old oyster or worse, who are these nutters who gorge on this weired nosh.
Choosing your fresh fish isn't easy especially if you rely on the truth of the chef  who can in some instances deliver to the table all manner of cheap fish varieties in lieu of more expensive types.such as Nile perch for barramundi and the worst horror of all those Basa fresh water fillets imported from Vietnam and caught in the Mekong river which is nothing more than a public sewer,- hardly fresh water. My advice is support your local fisheries or chuck out a line and get it fresh.
 
Makes one wonder how the term "Something Fishy about this" came about.
 
Vest. Back soon.
 
 
 

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

(Post 1064) Unwanted Porcine Pets.

Read recently that anything your pet pooch can do a pig can do better. What springs to mind is the memory of the former neighbour whose hound left scores of calling cards in his back yard and the subsequent pong was  a bit on the nose. However, the rise in popularity for pig pets is increasing due to the 'Babe' movie, the premise of the movie was the porkers supposed intelligence, some of his porcine plots showed more intelligence that could be gleaned from a naval wardroom.
Choosing a pet miniature pig in preference to a dog.  It can be said the pig does not bark jump fences or have fleas and can be hosed down daily to keep it fresh so to speak, doing that to a dog can become complicated.
Meeting people: Taking pinky or perky for walkies, I can't  think of a better way to meet nice people unless you are a celebrity. however similar rules apply to piggies when is comes little calls of nature accidents.
There could be pitfalls for the unwary when purchasing your pet porker. Babe for instance  was not a miniature pig but a 'Large White' which  can grow to a huge size if allowed . A farmer in my village years ago in Merry England was mucking out the pig pen (sty) which housed several large Saddle back pigs when he had a heart attack and died, his hungry porkers eventually ate him.
Dogs kittens and piggies given as pets at yuletide can become boring to some people, however, if you are not too squeamish you can avoid the pitfall of losing at your club's next Xmas pork and ham raffle by fattening up your piggy with leftovers, come Christmas there will be enough of him to get you and your neighbours some 'Pork on your forks.'
If you happen to be Taiwanese (Formosan) pork on yer fork applies too; as well as Mog & and Dog on yer chopsticks.
Bon Appetite. Back soon, Vest.

Monday, 28 January 2013

Dirty Stinking Asian Restaurants. Again.

This is the third time I have mentioned this problem, my previous post on this matter Google

daily gaggle.com: An old chestnut but worth reviewing.. Filthy Asian ...

www.dailygaggle.com/.../old-chestnut-but-worth-reviewing-filthy.ht...Cached
Sep 8, 2011 – Filthy Asian Restaurants again. Rarely out of contention for a good stir up, the eateries where people choose to dine either by choice or with ...
 
Vermin including Cockroaches, rats, and Miscellaneous rubbish  becoming involved with  diners meals. this is an ongoing situation where authorities will never win as inspections of these food outlets is too infrequent. but profits from these dodgy nosh dens can easily take care of the fines they incur. 
My first hand knowledge in a part time second job providing Muscle backup for health inspectors in Hong Kong many years ago  was another source of income but high in values such as entertainment in general, my knowledge gleaned from these H/K escapades have me convinced what  is going on in our Asian restaurants needs addressing soonest rather than later, mind you if you are able to turn a blind eye and more so when fuelled by alcohol when pretending to be a chop stick expert to  your friends, all more fool you.. here is a tip for the unwary , 'There are no such things as left overs, they return to feed another drunk and if he becomes full the left over come back again , nothing is thrown out except packaging.
Rats Cockroaches and food prepared on the floor have earned five councils the dishonour of being home to the state's dirtiest kitchens. Yass Valley, Kogarah, Ashfield and Willoughby have some of the states worst eateries, Strathfield being the worst. Few Asian restaurants have escaped fines for various breaches of the laws governing cleanliness, most are tarred with the same traditional brush and the uncertainty of what is on you plate will remain for those who wish to continue eating crap.
 
Bon appetite. Vest.
 

Sunday, 27 January 2013

Arrival of the Wet plus staring death in the face

After the Hot fest of the past weeks followed a failed rain forecast for most days over the past fortnight. It seems my unscheduled trip for a pee at 4AM this morning gave rise to a sudden rainstorm which has continued up until now in the early evening. Three weeks ago I was feeling proud of my crop of Veggies until the Sun killed most of them off,seems the hot weather affected other growers too, parsnips for example are selling for $14-00 per kilo; double in price, however, carrots around a dollar per kilo are still the staples with spuds and onions around a buck fifty.


It seems reaching for a cigarette does not relieve stress - but quitting can, British researchers measured anxiety in almost 500 smokers, with one in five saying they smoked when stressed. those who failed to give up smoking after exhaustive attempts were more stressed. Complaining of severe abdominal pain pre Xmas 1986, my doctor told me it was due to smoking and suggested I could die within three months should I continue. The doc's medical prescription cured the pain and his advice cured my smoking habit. A few weeks later he told me it was standard procedure and worked most of the time except for the stupid and those beyond help. Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. Vest. Back soon.

Wednesday, 23 January 2013

OZ Strayan Bumbling Mumblers will be trained to speak Properly.

Training Train Station Announcers to communicate correctly and be actually understood by the travelling public will cost NSW taxpayers a cool two million bucks. And about time. They are the garbled inaudible station announcements that infuriate train travellers across the state.

I am uncertain if this problem exists in other states or even in other countries but I would not be surprised if it was the case.

"The Trains from the domains are going to Emu plains.".....
" The Train from Uluru is bound for Woolloomooloo"

In the meantime catch a bus or drive..... Vest ...back soon.

Friday, 11 January 2013

Prodigal Son Saga continues, Plus Pussey Galore.

At 2-30 am  today Sweep male neut arrived and was placed into our shed with a tray - water and food.
 Rosemary and our son Chris had returned from a 140 Kay round trip to recover two moggies left at our serial prodigal sons late residence, only one cat was recovered, due to the other cat being on a neighbouring roof gone midnight - so a further trip is being planned for today for the recovery of  'Baby' the Fem neut puddy tat.
At 7am today, Minnie our resident fem mog neut was asleep in the laundry having returned in the small hours from a rendezvous with the randy ginger tom from No 2 down the road,Then after a feed of raw steak fell asleep stretched out on an upstairs table.
After brekky it was decided both mogs should meet. the pity is no one took a photo of the action, particularly my bloodied hand when I recovered Sweep from the Mexican standoff.
For the record , Minnie arrived at our residence thirteen months ago with kitten in tow, Kitten was found a new home and an already pregnant Minnie with Feral habits became part of our family , homes were found for her offspring and Minnie was chipped and neutered and we are pleased Minnie turned out to be clean and sociable, however, today she showed her true colours and was about to defend her territory.
Sweep the new arrival was no stranger to our home. On releasing Sweep from the shed this morning he made more fuss of me than I him, you see we were not unknown to each other , he was resident here with prodigal son for fifteen months, and I was surprised that after four years of absence  from the environs of our residence and my past sort of affection for the cat it would respond the way it did.
Whether the cat understood or not I explained to Minnie that 'Back up' for Sweep would be arriving soon  in the form of  'Baby'  mentioned earlier.

The root cause for this most recent of 5Th in line to the throne's spate of domestic altercations will probably not be the last, despite the' Old Bill'  being involved again, however, he is now holed up with Ben a former friend whose mother works at a major incarceration  establishment in NSW

I shall return with more info when or if it comes to hand.... Vest, Daily Gaggle.

"THE BEST IS YET TO BE".

Monday, 7 January 2013

A bit of History er My story- Plus tax and stuff.

On a Wednesday Jan 7 1942, LJB aka Vest; weighing in at 42kg, a 4ft eleven inch fifteen year and five month old piece of human cannon fodder was presented to the British Royal Navy by the Watts Naval School (Barnardo's). for a (Finder's Fee) of Twenty five pounds Sterling -.an unaccountable backhander. Chapter 13 My first career. From my memoirs WGTATF. Click on the pic top of page.

Read in today's Sydney Daily Telegraph (delivered daily to my door) that food prices in Australia had plummeted. over the past year., apart from fish with an increase of 0.9 % and eggs 3.3%. The main decrease in food prices are attributed to Vegetables falling in price by 9.9% , Lamb by 5.7% and Poultry by 4.3 % ...it seems we are now leading the western world in the lower food price game... However, from my own observations, buying veggies from the local greengrocer to the big veggie shops in large retail centres., I am being frequently asked the same question by the checkout person when having paid my bill, "Would you like a receipt sir"... That statement will conjure up the possibility that the transaction is not being recorded for purposes of Taxation. and obviously there must be others being asked the same question. One thing springs to mind that there is 'No sale" on items being sold and being written off illegally as spoilt and unsaleable. Or do you think I am being cynical... However, I believe it is far better to grow your own if you have time to spare and are not blessed with unlimited resources... Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap... but the seeds you plant... Vest... Back soon.

Vest Has Left the Building

To advise that Vest (Les Bowyer) passed away this morning. Regards, Chris (Son).