Serendipity

-

 


I would have written about tonight's jazz cuisine: Jane was at work today, and I had, as would be usual on a Sunday, a kind of Ready, Steady, Cook hour, where I just go with whatever produce and spicing is in front of me and invent a meal out of it. Tonight's turned out pretty well, considering I only had four spuds and a couple of lamb steaks to go on: the veg was a microwave mixed bag from M&S this afternoon, and so was kind of peripheral. I'll relate the recipe maybe tomorrow, but I have to give a shout out to the pizza pictured above from yesterday evening. After our glass of Bass at The Black Boy [see yesterday's post] we called at Morrison's in Caernarfon for a few bits and pieces. Jane already had something to eat at home, so I just thought "...pizza for me, then..."

I found the above in the frozen foods aisle, stuck it in the basket on the basis that I love 'Nduja sausage anyway, and we drove home. Come around seven PM, I put the thing in the oven with the usual low expectations, and a few minutes later was delivered of one of the best pizzas I've ever tasted; and I've eaten some very fine ones in restaurants both here and in Italy. Quite extraordinary: not only was the 'Nduja of the finest quality; hot, spicy and almost citrusy, but the tomato sauce was first rate. The base was nice and thin, the crust chunky enough to handle, and the mozzarella absolutely pukka. In short, a corking pizza. Frozen. From Morrisons. In Caernarfon. There you go: you never know what you'll find until you find it...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Feedback & Wobbles

-
Image
Many years ago I came up with an analogy for poorly damped feedback loops. The feedback loop that prompted this frankly tart analogy was indeed a horror. Anyone who remembers shame-faced their first attempts at clutch control resulting in the good old kangaroo launch across the lights only to stall in the middle of the crossroads will have some idea of the kind of data transfer lag involved in said system. The analogy I made was that of a large blancmange. Untouched, a model of stasis and eminently stable and predictable; but prod the bugger and the resultant chaotic behaviour needs a very complex physical model and some very decent computing horsepower to predict its outputs, if at all. The system in question was a large and complex audio-visual display at what eventually became 'The Electric Mountain' in Llanberis. We were ultimately contracted to maintain the thing having been witness to and peripherally involved in its installation. Certainly not involved in its des...
Read more

A Time of Connection

-
Image
I was just reflecting on the vacuum of continuity that's left behind when someone dies: that sudden sense of disjoint, of fracture, in one's personal history that takes one completely by surprise at the oddest moments. These pinch-points in memory can often yield some surprising revelations of fact about periods in one's past. One such occurred to me tonight, tending my rather lazy meal of pizza in its journey from shrink-wrap to mouth via the oven. Al's recent demise still catches me out from time to time: the space he left bounded by forty plus years of friendship. But the thing that struck me tonight was just how much change was happening on a personal and social level in the very early years of our acquaintance. Between moving here from Birmingham in September 1980 and our buying our first proper house eighteen months later, all manner of things occurred that would chart the course of our lives to the present day. At around the time of our meeting Alan & Irene [...
Read more

Sister Ray

-
Image
Ray Keats - aka Ann Key - local artist & family friend, died this morning. She'd been ill for some years, but never let it get in the way of her work or of tending to the massive network of friends, colleagues and fans she had accumulated over the decades. Her house on the High Street of Rachub, just below where we live - a former cockle factory(!) - bought many years ago when she and her late husband Ronald moved here from Manchester to set up home in Yr Achub, is currently still home to her paintings and drawings, and the front window displays her work, including the last drawing she made in hospital, just days before she died. Her good friend Colin has been a diamond in her latter years, looking out for her and just being there when she needed him. She will be much missed by this tiny community of ageing bohemians up here in the hills, but suffice it to say, George, her cat, will be well looked after now she's gone.
Read more